Blog 3: How Computers became interconnected: The story of ARPANET
Picking up from our last blog about the computer revolution, let's explore how these individual computers became interconnected, forming the vast web we know today. This journey started in 1969 with a project called ARPANET (ARPA what, you say?). It stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, funded by the US Department of Defense. Keep this fact in mind, the US Department of Defense plays a major role in funding major technological developments throughout our lives.. Ever wondered where the US tax dollars go 😀??
ARPANET's creation stemmed from a simple question by a guy called Robert Taylor. Imagine a clunky mainframe computer, like the one pictured below, in every house. Thankfully, Robert wasn't a fan of this inefficiency. He had three different computer terminals connected to three mainframe computers in his office, and he constantly needed to move between them. This led him to ask the obvious question: "Why can't one terminal be used for any computer?" Thankfully, Robert's curiosity not only fueled this project but changed everything.
Wikipedia image of a single-frame IBM mainframe
ARPANET, like a special walkie-talkie system for computers, was the first way for them to chat long-distance. Here's how it worked, in simpler terms of course!
Everyone on the network (the computers) needed a common language to understand each other. This "language" is what IT people call networking standards. Think of it like a set of rules that allows everyone to speak the same tech talk.
ARPANET also needed a central coordinator to keep things organized. We can call this the "network boss” aka Network Control Program (NCP) . To send messages faster, ARPANET broke them into pieces (packets) and reassembled them on the other side, just like how a large package might be broken down into smaller boxes for easier shipping.
Imagine a crowded party with walkie-talkies. You'd need translators to make sure messages get to the right person! ARPANET's Interface Message Processors (IMPs) acted like those translators, sending messages to the right computer. The final piece of the puzzle? Modems, the actual walkie-talkies, sent and received messages over phone lines.
Initially, just universities used ARPANET, but it rapidly grew in the 1970s, with international connections being added via satellite links. By 1975, it was operational and used to develop further communication technologies.
The 1980s brought TCP/IP, the foundation of the internet as we know it. Imagine TCP/IP like two friends using walkie-talkies. One friend breaks the message down into smaller parts, and the other friend ensures all the pieces arrive and are put back together correctly. This ensures clear communication over the walkie-talkie network (the internet). The mind boggles, doesn't it? In the next blog, we'll dive deeper into how TCP/IP works and how it scales globally. But this complex system wasn't the final piece. We still needed a way to navigate and access information easily. Stay tuned for how the World Wide Web emerged!