RFC 1000 (rfc1000) - Page 1 of 149

Request For Comments reference guide

Network Working Group                                        J. Reynolds
Request for Comments: 1000                                     J. Postel
                                                                     ISI
                                                             August 1987

Obsoletes: RFCs 084, 100, 160, 170, 200, 598, 699, 800, 899, 999


                THE REQUEST FOR COMMENTS REFERENCE GUIDE


STATUS OF THIS MEMO

   This RFC is a reference guide for the Internet community which
   summarizes of all the Request for Comments issued between April 1969
   and March 1987.  This guide also categorizes the RFCs by topic.

INTRODUCTION

   This RFC Reference Guide is intended to provide a historical account
   by categorizing and summarizing of the Request for Comments numbers 1
   through 999 issued between the years 1969-1987.  These documents have
   been crossed referenced to indicate which RFCs are current, obsolete,
   or revised.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

THE ORIGINS OF RFCS - by Stephen D. Crocker

   The DDN community now includes hundreds of nodes and thousands of
   users, but once it was all a gleam in Larry Roberts' eye.  While much
   of the development proceeded according to a grand plan, the design of
   the protocols and the creation of the RFCs was largely accidental.

   The procurement of the ARPANET was initiated in the summer of 1968 --
   Remember Vietnam, flower children, etc?  There had been prior
   experiments at various ARPA sites to link together computer systems,
   but this was the first version to explore packet-switching on a grand
   scale.  ("ARPA" didn't become "DARPA" until 1972.)  Unlike most of
   the ARPA/IPTO procurements of the day, this was a competitive
   procurement. The contract called for four IMPs to be delivered to
   UCLA, SRI, UCSB and The University of Utah.  These sites were running
   a Sigma 7 with the SEX operating system, an SDS 940 with the Genie
   operating system, an IBM 360/75 with OS/MVT (or perhaps OS/MFT), and
   a DEC PDP-10 with the Tenex operating system.  Options existed for
   additional nodes if the first experiments were successful.  BBN won
   the procurement in December 1968, but that gets ahead of this story.

   Part of the reason for selecting these four sites was these were
   existing ARPA computer science research contractors.  The precise
   usage of the ARPANET was not spelled out in advance, and the research
   community could be counted on to take some initiative.  To stimulate
   this process, a meeting was called during the summer with
   representatives from the selected sites, chaired by Elmer Shapiro


Reynolds & Postel