NPL network: Difference between revisions

 

=== Packet switching ===

 

Davies' original ideas influenced other research around the world.<ref name="C. Hempstead, W. Worthington" /><ref name=":22">{{cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=Dr. Lawrence G. |date=November 1978 |title=The Evolution of Packet Switching |url=http://www.ismlab.usf.edu/dcom/Ch10_Roberts_EvolutionPacketSwitching_IEEE_1978.pdf |journal=IEEE Invited Paper |access-date=September 10, 2017 |quote=In nearly all respects, Davies’ original proposal, developed in late 1965, was similar to the actual networks being built today.}}</ref><ref name="frs">{{Cite journal |last1=Needham |first1=R. M. |author-link=Roger Needham |year=2002 |title=Donald Watts Davies, C.B.E. 7 June 1924 – 28 May 2000 |journal=[[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] |volume=48 |pages=87–96 |doi=10.1098/rsbm.2002.0006 |s2cid=72835589 |quote=The 1967 Gatlinburg paper was influential on the development of ARPAnet, which might otherwise have been built with less extensible technology. ... Davies was invited to Japan to lecture on packet switching.}}</ref> [[Lawrence Roberts (scientist)|Larry Roberts]] incorporated these concepts into the design for the [[ARPANET]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Computer Pioneers - Donald W. Davies |url=https://history.computer.org/pioneers/davies.html |access-date=2020-02-20 |website=IEEE Computer Society |quote=In 1965, Davies pioneered new concepts for computer communications in a form to which he gave the name "packet switching." ... The design of the ARPA network (ArpaNet) was entirely changed to adopt this technique. |postscript=none}}; {{Cite news |date=May 30, 2015 |title=A Flaw In The Design |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2015/05/30/net-of-insecurity-part-1/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |quote=The Internet was born of a big idea: Messages could be chopped into chunks, sent through a network in a series of transmissions, then reassembled by destination computers quickly and efficiently. Historians credit seminal insights to Welsh scientist Donald W. Davies and American engineer Paul Baran. ... The most important institutional force ... was the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) ... as ARPA began work on a groundbreaking computer network, the agency recruited scientists affiliated with the nation’s top universities.}}</ref><ref name="J. Gillies, R. Cailliau">{{cite book |author=Gillies |first1=J. |url=https://archive.org/details/howwebwasbornsto00gill/page/23 |title=How the Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web |last2=Cailliau |first2=R. |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0192862073 |pages=23–26 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="F.E. Froehlich, A. Kent">{{cite book |author=F.E. Froehlich, A. Kent |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gaRBTHdUKmgC&pg=PA344 |title=The Froehlich/Kent Encyclopedia of Telecommunications: Volume 1 - Access Charges in the U.S.A. to Basics of Digital Communications |date=1990 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=0824729005 |page=344 |quote=Although there was considerable technical interchange between the NPL group and those who designed and implemented the ARPANET, the NPL Data Network effort appears to have had little fundamental impact on the design of ARPANET. Such major aspects of the NPL Data Network design as the standard network interface, the routing algorithm, and the software structure of the switching node were largely ignored by the ARPANET designers. There is no doubt, however, that in many less fundamental ways the NPL Data Network had and effect on the design and evolution of the ARPANET.}}</ref> The NPL network initially proposed a line speed of 768 [[kbit/s]].<ref name="K.G. Coffman & A.M. Odlyzco">{{cite book |last1=Kaminow |first1=Ivan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TXhWJcsO134C&pg=PA29 |title=Optical Fiber Telecommunications IV-B: Systems and Impairments |last2=Li |first2=Tingye |date=2002-05-22 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-051319-5 |page=29}}</ref> Influenced by this, the planned line speed for ARPANET was upgraded from 2.4&nbsp;kbit/s to 50&nbsp;kbit/s and a similar packet format adopted.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abbate |first1=Janet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9BfZxFZpElwC&pg=PA38 |title=Inventing the Internet |date=2000 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=0262261332 |page=38}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Roberts |first1=Dr. Lawrence G. |date=May 1995 |title=The ARPANET & Computer Networks |url=http://packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190214142244/http://packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html |archive-date=2019-02-14 |access-date=16 June 2019}}</ref> [[Louis Pouzin|Louis Pouzin's]] [[CYCLADES]] project in France was also influenced by Davies' work.<ref name="Pelkey8.3">{{cite book |last=Pelkey |first=James |title=Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Innovation: A History of Computer Communications 1968–1988 |chapter=8.3 CYCLADES Network and Louis Pouzin 1971–1972 |chapter-url=https://historyofcomputercommunications.info/section/8.3/CYCLADES-Network-and-Louis-Pouzin-1971-1972/}}</ref> These networks laid down the technical foundations of the modern [[Internet]].

 

Davies and Barber published ''Communication networks for computers'' in 1973 and ''Computer networks and their protocols'' in 1979.<ref name="Davies">{{cite web |title=Donald Davies |url=http://www.thocp.net/biographies/davies_donald.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201105075754/http://www.thocp.net/biographies/davies_donald.htm |archive-date=5 November 2020 |access-date=29 August 2012 |website=thocp.net |postscript=none}}; {{cite web |title=Donald Davies |url=http://www.internethalloffame.org/inductees/donald-davies |website=internethalloffame.org}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last1=Davies|first1=Donald Watts|title=Communication networks for computers|year=1973|series=Computing and Information Processing|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9780471198741|last2=Barber|first2=Derek L. A.}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Davies|first=Donald Watts|url=https://archive.org/details/computernetworks00davi|title=Computer networks and their protocols|date=1979|publisher=Chichester, [Eng.]; New York : Wiley|others=Internet Archive|pages=456–477|isbn=9780471997504 }}</ref> They spoke at the Data Communications Symposium in 1975 about the "battle for access standards" between [[datagram]]s and [[virtual circuit]]s, with Barber saying the "lack of standard access interfaces for emerging public packet-switched communication networks is creating 'some kind of monster' for users".<ref name=":11">{{Cite journal|last=Frank|first=Ronald A.|date=1975-10-22|title=Battle for Access Standards Has Two Sides|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wRo_E812FNcC&pg=PA17|journal=[[Computerworld]]|publisher=IDG Enterprise|pages=17–18}}</ref> For a long period of time, the network engineering community was polarized over the implementation of competing protocol suites, commonly known as the [[Protocol Wars]]. It was unclear which type of protocol would result in the best and most robust computer networks.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Davies|first1=Howard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DN-t8MpZ0-wC&q=%22protocol+wars%22&pg=PA106|title=A History of International Research Networking: The People who Made it Happen|last2=Bressan|first2=Beatrice|date=2010-04-26|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-3-527-32710-2|language=en}}</ref>

 

=== Network security ===