The Internet: Past, Present, and Future
Vinton Cerf and three other Internet luminaries share their thoughts and insights
By Erica Rex, JavaWorld
San Francisco (April 2, 1997) -- Four men whose careers have been germinal to the evolution of the Internet shared the stage Wednesday afternoon with Dr. Eric Schmidt, departing Sun Chief Technology Officer, to discuss how the Internet came to be, what it is now, and where it's going.
Vinton Cerf Senior Vice President of Internet Architecture & Engineering at MCI Communications Corp. |
Schmidt began the discussion with a brief overview of how the Internet as we know it came to be: "The Internet began with Paul Baran, who developed the transistor at ARPA [Advanced Research Products Agency] as a means of preserving communications networks in case of nuclear attack. Larry Roberts defined ARPANet in 1967. Originally, there were four nodes -- and no one anticipated needing any more [this comment met with guffaws from the audience]."
Schmidt then introduced Vinton Cerf, whose involvement with ARPANet began in 1967 at UCLA, where he was Principal Programmer at the Network Management Center. With Robert Kahn, he began to work on ARPANet performance . Together they participated in the Network Control Program Design, the ARPANet equivalent of TCP.
Said Schmidt: "People magazine included you along with O.J. Simpson and Princess Diana as one of the most 'intriguing persons' of 1994."
Cerf's response: "I decided then that recognition 29 years late was better than none. I decided then that when someone says something like that about you, if you're bearded, shave your beard; if you're shaven, grow a beard. Combine that with being 'intriguing' and it does wonders for your love life."
When they began the original Internet work, none of the participants expected that ARPANet would take over the world. "We didn't even envision that the technology could sustain itself. What we were looking for," said Cerf, " was a program that could be used to run ARPANet, and would allow us to make what was then the first Packet Radio and Packet Satellite system work with it." Cerf and Kahn defined the TCP/IP protocol on the key idea that the architecture would be open, and would run over a network.
Schmidt: "Were you thinking of other models then, other than a 56- kilobit telephone?"
Cerf: "Our model was to use existing phone lines. The problem was that there was not too much bandwidth. We began thinking in terms of higher-speed nets linked through minicomputers. Ring- crossed circuits would make decisions about routing."
Schmidt: "When you were doing the work, did you envision the result?"
Replied Kahn: "We would have had to envision the breakup of AT&T, the advent of networked workstations, the NSF."
Schmidt: "What about the invention of TCP?"
Kahn: "The ARPANet was the perfect device for sending information. With radio, there is interference from hills, from weather. With a network, you have global addressing space. The issues of networking were worked out during the spring and summer of 1973."
Schmidt: "When did you start thinking in terms of the modern notion of the Intranetwork?"
Wolff replied: "I was at NSF and we were the first ISP. Commercialization was always intended. Making money was the only way to afford what we had. Merit was the first statewide network. It helped us move from research to reality, to create commercial activity."
Schmidt: "How did you decide what to standardize on?"
Wolff: "It was a question of choosing between the proprietary association or the social one. We knew what community we wanted to associate with. Each other."
Schmidt: "How did you see the OSI threat?"
Cerf: "Our philosophy was: build it first, then standardize. That was a cumbersome process. Once governments signed up, it took ten years. There was no time. It was a matter of personal courage. We decided to standardize on something else."
Schmidt: "If there was a change you could make in the history of the last 25 years, what would it be?" [All panelists laughed at this].
Cerf: "Bigger address space."
Braun: "That ubiquity didn't happen sooner; that sophisticated applications weren't available sooner."
Cerf: "Bear in mind that the existing infrastructure was created for something else. It was created for reasons that you wish it hadn't been [military]. But without that impetus, the World Wide Web would never have happened. The fax machine would never have come about if it weren't for existing phone lines. Phone lines were a technology that created opportunity. Java sits on the WWW platform and creates opportunities in the same way. I don't think any of its real potential has even begun to be explored."
Schmidt: "What would you hope to see happen in the next twenty- five years?"
Braun: "What I hope to see are better service metrics and models, better productivity levels on networks."
Cerf: "What I envision -- hope for -- for Web TV is a Java-based
box that lets you record what you want when you want, and if the
power goes off, it not only still records, but since it's hooked up to
the Web, you do away with that blinking twelve. Then you could
have a bathroom scale that communicates with the lock on your
refrigerator. If you're too heavy, it won't let you open the fridge
door. We ain't seen nothing yet."
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| April 2, 1997 | Complete Contents |
