Editing History of the Internet (section)

===NPL network===
{{Main|NPL network}}
Following discussions with [[J. C. R. Licklider]] in 1965, [[Donald Davies]] became interested in [[data communications]] for computer networks.<ref name=Roberts1978>{{cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=L.G. |title=The evolution of packet switching |journal=Proceedings of the IEEE |date=1978 |volume=66 |issue=11 |pages=1307–1313 |doi=10.1109/PROC.1978.11141 |s2cid=26876676 }}</ref><ref name=Roberts1995>{{cite web|last1=Roberts|first1=Dr. Lawrence G.|title=The ARPANET & Computer Networks|url=http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|access-date=13 April 2016|date=May 1995|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324032800/http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|archive-date=March 24, 2016}}</ref> Later that year, at the [[National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)|National Physical Laboratory]] (NPL) in the United Kingdom, Davies designed and proposed a national commercial data network based on packet switching.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Edmondson-Yurkanan |first=Chris |date=2007 |title=SIGCOMM's archaeological journey into networking's past |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1230819.1230840 |journal=Communications of the ACM |language=en |volume=50 |issue=5 |pages=63–68 |doi=10.1145/1230819.1230840 |issn=0001-0782 |quote=In his first draft dated Nov. 10, 1965 [5], Davies forecast today’s “killer app” for his new communication service:  “The greatest traffic could only come if the public used this means for everyday purposes such as shopping... People sending enquiries and placing orders for goods of all kinds will make up a large section of the traffic... Business use of the telephone may be reduced by the growth of the kind of service we contemplate.”|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The following year, he described the use of "switching nodes" to act as [[router (computing)|routers]] in a digital communication network.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Davies |first=D. W. |date=1966 |title=Proposal for a Digital Communication Network |url=https://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~wpc/grcs/Davies05.pdf |quote=Computer developments in the distant future might result in one type of network being able to carry speech and digital messages efficiently.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Roberts|first1=Dr. Lawrence G.|title=The ARPANET & Computer Networks|url=http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|access-date=13 April 2016|date=May 1995|quote=Then in June 1966, Davies wrote a second internal paper, "Proposal for a Digital Communication Network" In which he coined the word packet,- a small sub part of the message the user wants to send, and also introduced the concept of an "Interface computer" to sit between the user equipment and the packet network.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324032800/http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|archive-date=March 24, 2016}}</ref> The proposal was not taken up nationally but he produced a design for a local network to serve the needs of the NPL and prove the feasibility of packet switching using high-speed data transmission.<ref name="K.G. Coffman & A.M. Odlyzco">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TXhWJcsO134C&q=ARPANET&pg=PA29|author=K.G. Coffman & A.M. Odlyzco|title=Optical Fiber Telecommunications IV-B: Systems and Impairments|publisher=[[Academic Press]]|pages=1022 pages|series=''Optics and Photonics'' (edited by I. Kaminow & T. Li) |access-date=2015-08-15|isbn=978-0-12-395173-1|date=2002-05-22}}</ref><ref name="B. Steil, Council on Foreign Relations">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ndiYguRu66oC&q=NPL+Network&pg=PA260|author=B. Steil, Council on Foreign Relations|title=Technological Innovation and Economic Performance|publisher=published by [[Princeton University Press]] 1 Jan 2002, 476 pages |access-date=2015-08-15|isbn=978-0-691-09091-7|year=2002}}</ref> To deal with packet permutations (due to dynamically updated route preferences) and to datagram losses (unavoidable when fast sources send to a slow destinations), he assumed that "all users of the network will provide themselves with some kind of error control",<ref>{{cite web|date=1967|title=A Digital Communication Network for Computers Giving Rapid Response at remote Terminals|url=https://people.mpi-sws.org/~gummadi/teaching/sp07/sys_seminar/how_did_erope_blow_this_vision.pdf|access-date=2020-09-15}}</ref> thus inventing what came to be known as the [[end-to-end principle]]. In 1967, he and his team were the first to use the term 'protocol' in a modern data-commutation context.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bbonCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT290|title=A Brief History of the Future|last=Naughton|first=John|date=2015-09-24|publisher=Orion|isbn=978-1-4746-0277-8|language=en}}</ref>

In 1968,<ref>{{cite conference|last=Scantlebury|first=R. A.|author2=Wilkinson, P.T.|year=1974|title=The National Physical Laboratory Data Communications Network|url=http://www.rogerdmoore.ca/PS/NPLPh/NPL1974A.html|pages=223–228|book-title=Proceedings of the 2nd ICCC 74|access-date=September 5, 2017|archive-date=October 20, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020140205/http://rogerdmoore.ca/PS/NPLPh/NPL1974A.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Davies began building the Mark I packet-switched network to meet the needs of his multidisciplinary laboratory and prove the technology under operational conditions.<ref name="C. Hempstead, W. Worthington2">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/EncyclopediaOf20thCenturyTechnologyAZMalestrom/page/n621/mode/2up?q=packet+switching |title=Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Technology |date=2005 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-45551-4 |editor1-last=Hempstead |editor1-first=C. |pages=573–5 |access-date=2015-08-15 |editor2-last=Worthington |editor2-first=W.}}</ref><ref name="BBC Technology">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8331253.stm|title=Celebrating 40 years of the net|first=Mark|last=Ward|newspaper=BBC News|date=October 29, 2009}}</ref> The network's development was described at a 1968 conference.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Ed |last2=Miller |first2=Chris |last3=Norton |first3=Jim |title=Packet Switching: The first steps on the road to the information society |url=https://www.npl.co.uk/getattachment/about-us/History/Famous-faces/Donald-Davies/UK-role-in-Packet-Switching-(1).pdf.aspx |quote=Its development was described at a 1968 conference, two years before similar progress on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, was demonstrated}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=5 August 2008 |title=The accelerator of the modern age |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7541123.stm |access-date=19 May 2009 |work=BBC News}}</ref> Elements of the network became operational in early 1969,<ref name="C. Hempstead, W. Worthington2" /><ref name=":722">{{Cite conference |last1=Rayner |first1=David |last2=Barber |first2=Derek |last3=Scantlebury |first3=Roger |last4=Wilkinson |first4=Peter |date=2001 |title=NPL, Packet Switching and the Internet |url=http://www.topquark.co.uk/conf/IAP2001.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030807200346/http://www.topquark.co.uk/conf/IAP2001.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2003-08-07 |conference=Symposium of the Institution of Analysts & Programmers 2001 |access-date=2024-06-13 |quote=The system first went 'live' early in 1969 |website=}}</ref> the first implementation of packet switching,<ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |last1=John S |first1=Quarterman |last2=Josiah C |first2=Hoskins |date=1986 |title=Notable computer networks |journal=Communications of the ACM |language=EN |volume=29 |issue=10 |pages=932–971 |doi=10.1145/6617.6618 |s2cid=25341056 |quote=The first packet-switching network was implemented at the National Physical Laboratories in the United Kingdom. It was quickly followed by the ARPANET in 1969. |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.inc.com/computerfreaks |title=Computer Freaks |date=June 22, 2023 |last=Haughney Dare-Bryan |first=Christine |type=Podcast |publisher=Inc. Magazine |series=Chapter Two: In the Air |minutes=35:55 |quote=Leonard Kleinrock: Donald Davies ... did make a single node packet switch before ARPA did}}</ref> and the NPL network was the first to use high-speed links.<ref name=":32">{{Cite journal|last=Cambell-Kelly|first=Martin|date=1987|title=Data Communications at the National Physical Laboratory (1965–1975)|url=https://archive.org/details/DataCommunicationsAtTheNationalPhysicalLaboratory|journal=Annals of the History of Computing|language=en|volume=9|issue=3/4|pages=221–247|doi=10.1109/MAHC.1987.10023|s2cid=8172150}}</ref> Many other packet switching networks built in the 1970s were similar "in nearly all respects" to Davies' original 1965 design.<ref name=Roberts1978/> The Mark II version which operated from 1973 used a layered protocol architecture.<ref name=":32" /> In 1977, there were roughly 30 computers, 30 peripherals and 100 VDU terminals all able to interact through the NPL Network.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Copeland |first=B. Jack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YhQZnczOS7kC&pg=PA349 |title=Alan Turing's Electronic Brain: The Struggle to Build the ACE, the World's Fastest Computer |date=2012-05-24 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-960915-4 |page=275 |language=en}}</ref> The NPL team carried out [[simulation]] work on wide-area packet networks, including [[datagram|datagrams]] and [[Network congestion|congestion]]; and research into [[internetworking]] and [[secure communications]].<ref name="C. Hempstead, W. Worthington2" /><ref name=":82">{{Cite thesis |last=Clarke |first=Peter |title=Packet and circuit-switched data networks |date=1982 |degree=PhD |publisher=Department of Electrical Engineering, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London |url=https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/35864/2/Clarke-PN-1982-PhD-Thesis.pdf}} "As well as the packet switched network actually built at NPL for communication between their local computing facilities, some simulation experiments have been performed on larger networks. A summary of this work is reported in [69]. The work was carried out to investigate networks of a size capable of providing data communications facilities to most of the U.K. ... Experiments were then carried out using a method of flow control devised by Davies [70] called 'isarithmic' flow control. ... The simulation work carried out at NPL has, in many respects, been more realistic than most of the ARPA network theoretical studies."</ref><ref name="Pelkey">{{cite book|chapter-url=http://www.historyofcomputercommunications.info/Book/6/6.3-CYCLADESNetworkLouisPouzin1-72.html|title=Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Innovation: A History of Computer Communications 1968–1988|last=Pelkey|first=James|chapter=6.3 CYCLADES Network and Louis Pouzin 1971–1972|access-date=February 3, 2020|archive-date=June 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617093154/https://www.historyofcomputercommunications.info/Book/6/6.3-CYCLADESNetworkLouisPouzin1-72.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The network was replaced in 1986.<ref name=":32" />