An Internet Experiment Note (IEN) is a sequentially numbered document in a series of technical publications issued by the participants of the early development work groups that created the precursors of the modern
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
.
History
After
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...
began the Internet program in earnest in 1977, the project members were in need of communication and documentation of their work in order to realize the concepts laid out by
Bob Kahn
Robert Elliot Kahn (born December 23, 1938) is an American electrical engineer who, along with Vint Cerf, first proposed the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), the fundamental communication protocols at the hea ...
and
Vint Cerf
Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Robert Kahn.
He has received honorary degrees and awards that inclu ...
some years before. The
Request for Comments
A Request for Comments (RFC) is a publication in a series from the principal technical development and standards-setting bodies for the Internet, most prominently the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). An RFC is authored by individuals or ...
(RFC) series was considered the province of the
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the tec ...
project and the Network Working Group (NWG) which defined the
network protocols
A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics, and synchronization of ...
used on it. Thus, the members of the Internet project decided on publishing their own series of documents, ''Internet Experiment Notes'', which were modeled after the RFCs.
Jon Postel
Jonathan Bruce Postel (; August 6, 1943 – October 16, 1998) was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to Internet Standard, standards. He is known p ...
became the editor of the new series, in addition to his existing role of administering the long-standing RFC series. Between March, 1977, and September, 1982, 206 IENs were published. After that, with the plan to terminate support of the
Network Control Protocol (NCP) on the ARPANET and switch to
TCP/IP
The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...
, the production of IENs was discontinued, and all further publication was conducted within the existing RFC system.
The second, third and fourth versions of TCP, including the split into TCP/IP, were developed during the IEN work.
The "Final Report" of the "TCP Project", mentions some of the people involved, including groups from Stanford University, University College London, USC-ISI, MIT, BBN, NDRE, among others.
Key networking principles, such as the
robustness principle
In computing, the robustness principle is a design guideline for software that states: "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others". It is often reworded as: "be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you a ...
, were defined during the IEN work.
See also
*
International Network Working Group The International Network Working Group (INWG) was a group of prominent computer science researchers in the 1970s who studied and developed Standardization, standards and communication protocol, protocols for interconnection of computer networks. Se ...
*
List of Internet pioneers
Instead of having a single inventor, the Internet was developed by many people over many years. The following people are Internet pioneers who have been recognized for their contribution to its early and ongoing development. These contributions ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
IEN scan archive at the University of Minnesota History of the Internet
Internet Standards