Jonathan Bruce Postel (; August 6, 1943 – October 16, 1998) was an American
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...
who made many significant contributions to the development of the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
, particularly with respect to
standards Standard may refer to:
Symbols
* Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs
* Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification
Norms, conventions or requirements
* Standard (metrology), an object t ...
. He is known principally for being the Editor of the
Request for Comment (RFC) document series, for
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and for administering the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Inte ...
(IANA) until his death. During his lifetime he was referred to as the "god of the Internet" for his comprehensive influence; Postel himself noted that this "compliment" came with a barb, the suggestion that he should be replaced by a "professional," and responded with typical self-effacing matter-of-factness: "Of course, there isn’t any 'God of the Internet.' The Internet works because a lot of people cooperate to do things together."
Career
Postel attended
Van Nuys High School,
and then
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
where he earned his B.S. (1966) as well as his M.S. (1968) in Engineering. He then went on to complete his Ph.D. there in Computer Science in 1974, with
Dave Farber
David J. Farber (born April 17, 1934) is a professor of computer science, noted for his major contributions to programming languages and computer networking. He is currently the Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of Cyber Civilization R ...
as his thesis advisor.
Postel started work at UCLA on 23 December 1969 as a Postgraduate Research Engineer (I) where he was involved in early work on 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 networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...
. He was involved in the development of the Internet domain system and, at his instigation,
Vint Cerf and
Bob Kahn developed a second set of protocols for handling data between networks, which is now known as
Internet protocol suite. Together with Cerf and
Steve Crocker
Stephen D. Crocker (born October 15, 1944) is the inventor of the Request for Comments series, authoring the first RFC and many more. He attended Van Nuys High School, as did Vint Cerf and Jon Postel. Crocker received his bachelor's degree (1 ...
, Postel worked on implementing most of the ARPANET protocols.
Cerf would later become one of the principal designers of the TCP/IP standard,
which works because of the sentence known as
Postel's Law.
Postel worked with ARPANET until 24 August 1973 when he left to join
MITRE Corporation. He assisted with
Network Information Center which was being set up at
SRI by
Elizabeth Feinler
Elizabeth Jocelyn "Jake" Feinler (born March 2, 1931) is an American information scientist. From 1972 until 1989 she was director of the Network Information Systems Center at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI International). Her group operate ...
. In March 1977, he joined the
Information Sciences Institute
The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications tech ...
at the
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8.1 ...
as a research scientist.
Postel was the
RFC Editor from 1969 until his death, and wrote and edited many important RFCs, including RFC 791, RFC 792 and RFC 793, which define the basic protocols of the
Internet protocol suite, and RFC 2223, ''Instructions to RFC Authors''. Between 1982 and 1984 Postel co-authored the RFCs which became the foundation of today's
DNS (RFC 819, RFC 881, RFC 882 and RFC 920) which were joined in 1995 by RFC 1591 which he also co-wrote. In total, he wrote or co-authored more than 200 RFCs.
Postel served on the
Internet Architecture Board and its predecessors for many years. He was the Director of the names and number assignment clearinghouse, the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Inte ...
(IANA), from its inception. He was the first member of the
Internet Society, and was on its Board of Trustees. He was the original and long-time
.us
.us is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States. It was established in early 1985. Registrants of .us domains must be U.S. citizens, residents, or organizations, or a foreign entity with a presence in the United ...
Top-Level Domain
A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...
administrator. He also managed the Los Nettos Network.
All of the above were part-time activities he assumed in conjunction with his primary position as Director of the Computer Networks Division, Division 7, of the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California.
DNS Root Authority test, U.S. response
On January 28, 1998, Postel, as a test, emailed eight of the twelve operators of Internet's regional
root nameservers on his own authority and instructed them to reconfigure their servers, changing the root zone server from then
SAIC subsidiary
Network Solutions
Network Solutions, LLC is an American-based technology company and a subsidiary of Web.com, the 4th largest .com domain name registrar with over 6.7 million registrations as of August 2018. In addition to being a domain name registrar, Network S ...
' A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET (198.41.0.4) to IANA's DNSROOT.IANA.ORG (198.32.1.98). The operators complied with Postel's instructions, thus dividing control of Internet naming between the non-government operators with IANA and the 4 remaining U.S. Government roots at
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...
,
DoD, and
BRL with NSI. Though usage of the Internet was not interrupted, he soon received orders from senior government officials to undo this change, which he did. Within a week, the US
NTIA issued ''A proposal to improve technical management of Internet names and addresses'', including changes to authority over the Internet
DNS root zone
The DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in the hierarchical namespace of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet.
Before October 1, 2016, the root zone had been overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICAN ...
, which ultimately, and controversially, increased U.S. control.
Death
On October 16, 1998, Postel died of complications from heart surgery in Los Angeles. He was recovering from a surgery to replace a leaking heart valve.
[Jon Postel, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 55 after Heart Surgery](_blank)
Washington Post, 1998-10-18. Accessed 2016-09-09.
Legacy
The significance of Jon Postel's contributions to building the Internet, both technical and personal, were such that a memorial recollection of his life and his work forms part of the core technical literature sequence of the Internet in the form o
RFC2468"I Remember IANA", written by Vint Cerf.
The Postel Center at
Information Sciences Institute
The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications tech ...
,
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8.1 ...
is named in his honor, as is the annual
Postel Award. In 2012, Postel was inducted into the
Internet Hall of Fame. The Channel Islands' Domain Registry building was named after him in early 2016.
Another tribute, "Working with Jon: Tribute delivered at UCLA, October 30, 1998"
RFC2441, was written by
Danny Cohen.
Postel's law
Perhaps his most famous legacy is fro
RFC760 which includes a
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 ...
often called ''Postel's law'': "an implementation should be conservative in its sending behavior, and liberal in its receiving behavior" (reworded in RFC 1122 as "Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send").
See also
*''
Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing'' (1972 documentary w/Postel cameo)
*
History of the Internet
*
Jonathan B. Postel Service Award
*
STD 8
Notes
External links
*
postel.orgResearch center at USC/ISI created in his honor.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Postel, Jon
1943 births
1998 deaths
Van Nuys High School alumni
American computer scientists
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Internet pioneers
Place of birth missing