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Note 18
In 1973, ARPA started “a theoretical and experimental” packet radio program. The initial objective was to develop a geographically distributed network consisting of an array of packet radios managed by one or more mini-computer based stations, and to experimentally evaluate the performance of the system. . The first packet radios were delivered to the San Francisco Bay area in mid-1975 for initial testing and a quasi-operational network capability was established for the first time in September 1976. The project was a multi-institution project led originally by Vint Cerf at ARPA and later by Barry Leiner. Rockwell International/Collins developed and manufactured the packet radios and contributed some ideas to the overall program. SRI did the initial system design and ran the program and the testing.
Jerry Burchfiel remembers:
* we started with a centralized hierarchical PR routing algorithm. Later, we changed to a fully distributed peer-to-peer link state algorithm like the McQuillan one devised for the ARPANET second round. That was more robust and adaptive.
* Network Analysis Corporation proposed a home-made protocol to run over the PR Net. Instead, we just used TCP-IP and it worked great, and integrated perfectly with the Internet.
* We (Ginny Strazisar / Travers) built the first Internet router (called gateway in those days) under Vint Cerf's DARPA oversight. It connected the ARPANET, the PR Net, and the Atlantic Satellite Net at a NDRE ground station in Norway in 1976. We initially considered an approach talking the two layer 2 protocols on the two sides, and doing any conversion needed in packet formats between them. [But] the original Kahn/Cerf protocol was a mishmash of TCP and IP. I convinced Vint to tease it apart into two separate layers, so that a transaction protocol could also be defined to ride over IP in place of TCP.
Jil Westcott remembers:
* Rockwell's radios were so expensive that ARPA recompeted this part of the program and Hazeltine won the low-cost bidding contest for the 10,000 low-cost radio contract and then proved unable to make the analog section of the radio work This prevented real field testing of the distributed hierarchical algorithms.
* The Packet Radio program created an early network management system for soldiers to run the network in the field. We tested in Fort Bragg and had much help from the human factors staff at BBN to make it easier to use. The system wound up in the BBN NOC for many years for our commercial networks
In the mid-1980’s BBN played a key role in the next phase of the ARPA packet radio thrust, the development of the Survivable Adaptive Radio Networks (SURAN) program which was the first comprehensive prototype system for battlefield networking of elements in an infrastructureless, hostile environment.
Under subcontract to GTE Government Systems, BBN designed and built a packet switched overlay network for the US Army’s Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE) tactical radio communications system using ruggedized versions of the BBN C/3 packet switch and the T/20 IP router.
Jerry Burchfiel remembers:
* we started with a centralized hierarchical PR routing algorithm. Later, we changed to a fully distributed peer-to-peer link state algorithm like the McQuillan one devised for the ARPANET second round. That was more robust and adaptive.
* Network Analysis Corporation proposed a home-made protocol to run over the PR Net. Instead, we just used TCP-IP and it worked great, and integrated perfectly with the Internet.
* We (Ginny Strazisar / Travers) built the first Internet router (called gateway in those days) under Vint Cerf's DARPA oversight. It connected the ARPANET, the PR Net, and the Atlantic Satellite Net at a NDRE ground station in Norway in 1976. We initially considered an approach talking the two layer 2 protocols on the two sides, and doing any conversion needed in packet formats between them. [But] the original Kahn/Cerf protocol was a mishmash of TCP and IP. I convinced Vint to tease it apart into two separate layers, so that a transaction protocol could also be defined to ride over IP in place of TCP.
Jil Westcott remembers:
* Rockwell's radios were so expensive that ARPA recompeted this part of the program and Hazeltine won the low-cost bidding contest for the 10,000 low-cost radio contract and then proved unable to make the analog section of the radio work This prevented real field testing of the distributed hierarchical algorithms.
* The Packet Radio program created an early network management system for soldiers to run the network in the field. We tested in Fort Bragg and had much help from the human factors staff at BBN to make it easier to use. The system wound up in the BBN NOC for many years for our commercial networks
In the mid-1980’s BBN played a key role in the next phase of the ARPA packet radio thrust, the development of the Survivable Adaptive Radio Networks (SURAN) program which was the first comprehensive prototype system for battlefield networking of elements in an infrastructureless, hostile environment.
Under subcontract to GTE Government Systems, BBN designed and built a packet switched overlay network for the US Army’s Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE) tactical radio communications system using ruggedized versions of the BBN C/3 packet switch and the T/20 IP router.
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