Department of Defense (DOD) into forming the Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The idea was to establish a leading United States presence in science and technology applicable directly to military applications (Zakon, 1996).
The first advance toward the idea of computer networking, came with the idea of using information packets as a means of data transference, rather then depending strictly on 'hard wired' circuits. The DOD had advanced the idea of finding another means of communicating, in case of atomic warfare. Supposing that there were survivors, classified information needed to be accessed in a manner that did not depend on fragile copper wiring (Net hype, 1996).
Packet switching is a method of fragmenting messages into smaller parts, termed packets, routing them to their destinations and reassembling them. This has several advantages over line of sight or hard wired transmission. Packet switching allows several users to share the same connection by breaking up the data into discrete units which can be routed separately. Because no transmission is 100% reliable, packet switching allows some if not all information to be transmitted, and not be dependent upon everything arriving simultaneously (Hardy, 1994). The idea, from a military point of view, was to establish a system of communication which could not be knocked out by one or several hard blows. As long as information was on line, so to speak, the complete message could and would be recovered (Net hype, 1996).
Leonard Kleinrock of MIT published the first paper on packet switching theory in July of 1961. The acceptance and application of this theory was a major step toward computer networking. In August of 1962, J.C.R. Licklider, also of MIT, discussed the idea of a globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any site (Leiner, 1997, 102).
The development of packet switched networks has s...