From: Charles Reis (creis@cs.washington.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 06 2004 - 07:28:25 PDT
A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication
Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn, 1974
This paper proposes a detailed means by which independent processes can exchange messages across packet switching networks that may vary substantially in design. The technique uses gateways between networks to route, reformat, and possibly fragment packets that cross networks, and it describes transmission control programs on end hosts that can multiplex messages between local processes and can handle a wide range of retransmission, duplication, and congestion issues. The motivations for and interactions between these mechanisms, as well as the drawbacks of their alternatives, are explained well, and many of the ideas correspond closely to the current design of the Internet. However, little concern is given to message passing which does not require these reliability guarantees, indicating that the current TCP/IP distinction between reliability and internetwork communication has not yet been considered. As noted in the paper, the design still needed to be validated experimentally, but its use over the next several years allowed it to evolve into the current Internet protocols.
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