ARPA

1. What the significance of the work of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and how is it linked to the origins of the Internet?

ARPA stands for the Advanced Research Projects Agency and was created in February 1958, due to the increasing competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It is often refereed to as DARPA, which is The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This was originally a project with in the United States Department of Defense.

ARPAnet was the first packet switching network in the entire world. Packet Switching refers to the process by which data is split into smaller units called packets, which are then sent over a shared network. The first message sent over ARPAnet was in October 1969.

ARPA is linked to the origins of the Internet because it developed the Internet Protocol Suite, which is a common network language that allows more than one network to be connected. (TCP/IP). ARPA was retired in 1990 and transfered to the National Science Foundation.

NSF then took ARPA and expanded it to other networks. These networks were mainly to universities in North America and later to research facilities in Europe.

By the mid 90's the government transfered management of the Internet to independent organizations such as, AOL/Time Warner.


 * This entire page was taken from class notes and discussion. Feel free to edit/add material that you believe has been left out or incorrect.


 * Return to New Media Mid-Term Study Guide
 * Go to Final Exam Review Questions
 * Visit this page