Seeding the Networks: The Federal Role

any federal agencies nave contributed to the development of networking, but the work of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation (NSF), stands out. The ARPANET established the feasibility of an efficient packet-switching network (a controversial idea in the 1960s), and provided a technology development testbed. When it became clear the network was a valuable asset for ARPA research contractors, NSF broadened participation with CSNET, a network connecting university and other computer scientists. CSNET was followed by NSFNET, which connected a much wider community of users. There has been a significant return to the organizations that participated in this work, and much greater return to the society. This column will look at these networks and their costs and benefits, but first let's look at some government-sponsored prehistory.

Before the ARPANET

Governments and the military have been interested in telecommunications since ancient times, but two optical networks were particularly influential. The French government built a network of semaphore towers designed by Claude Chappe in 1793, and, in 1794, the British Admiralty began a network using George Murray's towers on which shutters (bits) could be open or until 1853, and eventually reached Italy and Holland. One 1819 measurement showed transmission time over 224 stations from Lyon to Paris of 1,710 seconds, but that was very fast. Station logbooks typically recorded 2-3 symbols per minute [13].
The U.S. Congress was considering a petition to authorize a New York-New Orleans Chappe Line when Samuel F. B. Morse first argued for government support of his electromagnetic system. Morse patented his telegraph in 1837, demonstrated it to the government and others in 1838, received a $30,000 congressional appropriation in early 1843, and the 37-mile link from Washington to Baltimore was inaugurated in 1844 with the famous message "What hath God wrought?"

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