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The history and development of TCP/IP

TCP/IP is the very heart of the Internet. It's a protocol that dictates how computers share information with each other. The great thing about TCP/IP is that it works regardless of computer platform. Macs, PCs, Unix boxes--TCP/IP connects them all.

This was not always the case. Enabling computers to communicate with each other at one stage was a difficult challenge. Each computer manufacturer developed their own systems using proprietary communication protocols. Novell, Macintosh, and Microsoft used their own set of protocols and the theory in the past was to purchase systems from the same vendor to accomplish compatibility between systems within the organization. This ended up being impractical and very expensive. Organizations needed a standardized protocol to allow computer systems to communicate with other platforms and various operating systems.

The solution to the networking problem was to standardize on one network protocol that each operating system supported. Though each network operating system has retained their proprietary protocols – Novell NetWare’s IPX/SPX, Microsoft’s NetBEUI and NetBIOS, and Macintosh’s AppleTalk. These operating systems now contain support for the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in addition to their proprietary protocol. The standardized protocol, TCP/IP, revolutionized computer networking giving birth to what is now known as the Internet.

A brief history of the evolution of the TCP/IP protocol reveals the accomplishments of this important computer networking development. The U.S. Department of Defense, who at the time had a need to connect many research organization computers in different geographic locations, spearheaded the development of the TCP/IP protocol.

In an effort to cut the costs of development, the Department of Defense (DOD) began coordinating the development of a vendor-independent network to tie major research sites together. Since each facility used different computers with proprietary networking technology, the need for a vendor-independent network was the first priority. In 1968, work began on a private packet-switched network.

At the same time the DoD were working on a wartime digital communications project. They had acknowledged a major problem with their dependence on switching stations that could be targeted during an attack, thus cutting off their lines of digital communications. They needed to design a network that could quickly reroute digital traffic around failed nodes.

In the early 1970's, authority of the project was transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

In 1981, having switched their focus to the TCP/IP protocol suite, DARPA placed it into the public domain for implementation by private vendors.

Shortly thereafter, TCP/IP was adopted by the certain American Universities, who began bundling it with their freely distributed version of UNIX, Free BSD.

In 1983, DARPA mandated that all new systems connecting to the network had to use TCP/IP, thus guaranteeing its long-term success.

During the same time period, other government agencies, like the National Science Foundation (NSF) were building their own networks, as were private regional network service providers. These other networks also used TCP/IP as the native protocols, since they were completely "open" as well as readily available on a number of different platforms.

When these various regional and government networks began connecting to each other, the term "Internet" came into use. The term "Internet" (with a capital "I") refers to the global network of TCP/IP-based systems, originally consisting of ARPA and some regional networks.