NPL network

The NPL Network or NPL Data Communications Network was a local area computer network operated by a team from the National Physical Laboratory in London that pioneered the concept of packet switching.

NPL network schematic

Based on designs first proposed by Donald Davies in 1965, elements of the first version of the network, the Mark I, became operational during 1969 then fully operational in 1970, and the Mark II version operated from 1973 until 1986. The NPL network, followed by the wide area ARPANET in the United States, were the first two computer networks that implemented packet switching.

Origins

In 1965, Donald Davies, who was later appointed to head of the NPL Division of Computer Science, proposed a national data network based on packet switching in Proposal for the Development of a National Communications Service for On-line Data Processing. After the proposal was not taken up nationally, during 1966 he headed a team which produced a design for a local network to serve the needs of NPL and prove the feasibility of packet switching.[1] The design was the first to describe the concept of an "Interface computer", today known as a router.[2]

The next year (1967) a written version of the proposal entitled NPL Data Network was presented by Roger Scantlebury at the Symposium on Operating Systems Principles. It described how equipment (nodes) used to transmit signals (packets) would be connected by electrical links to re-transmit the signals between and to the nodes, and interface computers would be used to link node networks to so-called time-sharing computers and other users. The interface computers would transmit multiplex signals between networks, and nodes would switch transmissions while connected to electrical circuitry functioning at a rate of processing amounting to mega-bits.[3][4][5][6][7][8] In Scantlebury's report following the conference, he noted "It would appear that the ideas in the NPL paper at the moment are more advanced than any proposed in the USA".[9][10][11][12][13]

Larry Roberts incorporated these concepts into the design for the ARPANET.[14] The NPL network proposed a line speed of 768 kbit/s.[15] Influenced by this, the planned line speed for ARPANET was upgraded from 2.4 kbit/s to 50 kbit/s and a similar packet format adopted.[16][17]

Packet switching
NPL network packet

The first theoretical foundation of packet switching was the work of Paul Baran, in which data was transmitted in small chunks and routed independently by a method similar to store-and-forward techniques between intermediate networking nodes.[18] Davies independently arrived at the same model in 1965 and named it packet switching.[19] He chose the term "packet" after consulting with an NPL linguist because it was capable of being translated into languages other than English without compromise.[20] NPL under Davies was the earliest organisation that created a packet switching network.[3][21][9][22]

Network development

Davies gave the first public presentation of packet switching on 5 August 1968.[23] Packet switching was used to produce an experimental network using a Honeywell 516 node. Elements of the first version of the network, Mark I, became operational during 1969 then fully operational in 1970, and the Mark II version operated from 1973.[3][4][24] The NPL team also carried out simulation work on the performance of packet networks, including datagram networks.[25][26] The local area NPL network and the wide area ARPANET in the United States, were the first two computer networks that implemented packet switching.[27][28][29]

The NPL network was later interconnected with other networks, including the ARPANET via University College London in 1973 and CYCLADES via the European Informatics Network (EIN) in 1976.[3] In 1976, 12 computers and 75 terminal devices were attached,[30] and more were added. The network remained in operation until 1986, influencing other research in the UK and Europe.[31][32]

Alongside Donald Davies, the NPL team included Derek Barber, Roger Scantlebury, Peter Wilkinson, Keith Bartlett, and Brian Aldous.[33]

Protocol development
NPL network model

One of the first uses of the term 'protocol' in a data-commutation context occurs in a memorandum entitled A Protocol for Use in the NPL Data Communications Network written by Roger Scantlebury and Keith Bartlett in April 1967.[34][35]

NPL was also involved in internetworking research. Derek Barber was appointed director of the European COST 11 project which became the European Informatics Network (EIN) while Scantlebury led the UK technical contribution.[36][37][38]

Davies, Scantlebury and Barber were members of the International Networking Working Group (INWG) which developed a protocol for internetworking.[39][40][41] The EIN protocol helped to launch the proposed INWG standard.[42][43] Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn acknowledged Davies and Scantlebury in their 1974 paper "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication".[44]

NPL research investigated connecting existing networks, which creates a "basic dilemma" since a common host protocol would require restructuring the existing networks. NPL connected with the European Informatics Network by translating between two different host protocols while the NPL connection to the Post Office Experimental Packet Switched Service used a common host protocol in both networks. This work confirmed establishing a common host protocol would be more reliable and efficient.[45]

Modern recognition

NPL sponsors a gallery about "Technology of the Internet" at The National Museum of Computing.[33]

See also

References
  1. Pelkey, James (2007), "NPL Network and Donald Davies 1966 - 1971", Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Innovation: A History of Computer Communications 1968-1988, retrieved 13 April 2016
  2. Roberts, Dr. Lawrence G. (May 1995). "The ARPANET & Computer Networks". Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2016. 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.
  3. Hempstead, C.; Worthington, W., eds. (8 August 2005). Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Technology. Routledge. ISBN 9781135455514. Retrieved 2015-08-15.
  4. A Hey, G Pápay (8 December 2014). The Computing Universe: A Journey through a Revolution. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521766456. Retrieved 2015-08-16.(source: Roger Scantlebury - p.201)
  5. B. Steil, Council on Foreign Relations (1 January 2002). Technological Innovation and Economic Performance. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691090912. Retrieved 2015-08-15.
  6. Oxford Dictionaries - word definition - relay & word definition - node published by Oxford University Press [Retrieved 2015-08-16]
  7. J. Everard - STATES (p.14) published by Routledge 28 Feb 2013 (reprint), 176 pages, ISBN 1134692757 [Retrieved 2015-08-16]
  8. F.E. Froehlich, A. Kent (14 November 1990). The Froehlich/Kent Encyclopedia of Telecommunications: Volume 1 - Access Charges in the U.S.A. to Basics of Digital Communications. CRC Press. p. 344. ISBN 0824729005., Volume 1 of Encyclopedia of Telecommunications|accessdate=2015-08-16}}
  9. J. Gillies, R. Cailliau (2000). How the Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web. Oxford University Press. pp. 23–25. ISBN 0192862073.
  10. "Oral-History:Donald Davies & Derek Barber". Retrieved 13 April 2016. the ARPA network is being implemented using existing telegraphic techniques simply because the type of network we describe does not exist. It appears that the ideas in the NPL paper at this moment are more advanced than any proposed in the USA
  11. Naughton, John (2015). "8 Packet post". A Brief History of the Future: The origins of the Internet. Hachette UK. ISBN 978-1474602778. they lacked one vital ingredient. Since none of them had heard of Paul Baran they had no serious idea of how to make the system work. And it took an English outfit to tell them.
  12. Barber, Derek (Spring 1993). "The Origins of Packet Switching". The Bulletin of the Computer Conservation Society (5). ISSN 0958-7403. Retrieved 6 September 2017. Roger actually convinced Larry that what he was talking about was all wrong and that the way that NPL were proposing to do it was right. I've got some notes that say that first Larry was sceptical but several of the others there sided with Roger and eventually Larry was overwhelmed by the numbers.
  13. Abbate, Janet (2000). Inventing the Internet. MIT Press. p. 37. ISBN 0262261332. Although he was aware of the concept of packet switching, Roberts was not sure how to implement it in a large network.
  14. "Computer Pioneers - Donald W. Davies". IEEE Computer Society. Retrieved 2020-02-20. 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.; "A Flaw In The Design". The Washington Post. May 30, 2015. 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.
  15. Kaminow, Ivan; Li, Tingye (2002-05-22). Optical Fiber Telecommunications IV-B: Systems and Impairments. Elsevier. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-08-051319-5.
  16. Abbate, Janet (2000). Inventing the Internet. MIT Press. p. 38. ISBN 0262261332.
  17. Roberts, Dr. Lawrence G. (May 1995). "The ARPANET & Computer Networks". Archived from the original on 2019-02-14. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  18. Winston, Brian (2002). Media,Technology and Society: A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet. Routledge. p. 323–327. ISBN 1134766327.
  19. Scantlebury, Roger (25 June 2013). "Internet pioneers airbrushed from history". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  20. Harris, Trevor, Who is the Father of the Internet? The case for Donald Watts Davies, p. 6, retrieved 10 July 2013
  21. T. Vickers (14 April 2005). Copeland, B. J. (ed.). Alan Turing's Automatic Computing Engine: The Master Codebreaker's Struggle to Build the Modern Computer. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0191625868. Retrieved 2015-08-15.
  22. R.H. Zakon (2004-05-11). Bidgoli, H. (ed.). The Internet Encyclopedia, G – O. published by John Wiley & Sons 2004, 840 pages. ISBN 0471689963. Retrieved 2015-08-16.
  23. "The accelerator of the modern age". BBC News. 5 August 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2009.
  24. "UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL) & Donald Davies". Living Internet. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  25. C. Hempstead; W. Worthington (2005). Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Technology. Routledge. ISBN 9781135455514.
  26. Pelkey, James. "6.3 CYCLADES Network and Louis Pouzin 1971-1972". Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Innovation: A History of Computer Communications 1968-1988.
  27. John S, Quarterman; Josiah C, Hoskins (1986). "Notable computer networks". Communications of the ACM. 29 (10): 932–971. doi:10.1145/6617.6618. 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.
  28. Roberts, Lawrence G. (November 1978). "The Evolution of Packet Switching". Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  29. "Donald Davies". thocp.net; "Donald Davies". internethalloffame.org.
  30. "The National Physical Laboratory Data Communications Netowrk". 1974. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  31. Packet Switching
  32. C. Hempstead; W. Worthington (2005). Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Technology. Routledge. ISBN 9781135455514.
  33. "Technology of the Internet". The National Museum of Computing. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  34. Naughton, John (2015). A Brief History of the Future. Orion. ISBN 978-1-4746-0277-8.
  35. Cambell-Kelly, Martin (1987). "Data Communications at the National Physical Laboratory (1965-1975)". Annals of the History of Computing. 9 (3/4): 221–247. doi:10.1109/MAHC.1987.10023.
  36. Barber, D L. (1975). "Cost project 11". ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review. 5 (3): 12–15. doi:10.1145/1015667.1015669.
  37. Scantlebury, Roger (1986). "X.25 - past, present and future". In Stokes, A. V. (ed.). Communications Standards: State of the Art Report. Pergamon. pp. 203–216. ISBN 978-1-4831-6093-1.
  38. "EIN (European Informatics Network)". Computer History Museum. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  39. McKenzie, Alexander (2011). "INWG and the Conception of the Internet: An Eyewitness Account". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 33 (1): 66–71. doi:10.1109/MAHC.2011.9. ISSN 1934-1547.
  40. Scantlebury, Roger (25 June 2013). "Internet pioneers airbrushed from history". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  41. Scantlebury, Roger (8 January 2010). "How we nearly invented the internet in the UK". New Scientist. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  42. Davies, Donald Watts (1979). Computer networks and their protocols. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 464.
  43. Hardy, Daniel; Malleus, Guy (2002). Networks: Internet, Telephony, Multimedia: Convergences and Complementarities. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 505. ISBN 978-3-540-00559-9.
  44. Cerf, V.; Kahn, R. (1974). "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication" (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Communications. 22 (5): 637–648. doi:10.1109/TCOM.1974.1092259. ISSN 1558-0857. The authors wish to thank a number of colleagues for helpful comments during early discussions of international network protocols, especially R. Metcalfe, R. Scantlebury, D. Walden, and H. Zimmerman; D. Davies and L. Pouzin who constructively commented on the fragmentation and accounting issues; and S. Crocker who commented on the creation and destruction of associations.
  45. Abbate, Janet (2000). Inventing the Internet. MIT Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-262-51115-5.

Further reading
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