Computer communication network design

The ARPA Network (ARPANET) project brought together many individuals with diverse backgrounds, philosophies, and technical approaches from the fields of computer science, communication theory, operations research and others. The project was aimed at providing an efficient and reliable computer communications system (using message switching techniques) in which computer resources such as programs, data, storage, special purpose hardware etc., could be shared among computers and among many users. The variety of design methods, ranging from theoretical modeling to hardware development, were primarily employed independently, although cooperative efforts among designers occurred on occasion. As of November, 1971, the network has been an operational facility for many months, with about 20 participating sites, a network information center accessible via the net, and well over a hundred researchers, system programmers, computer center directors and other technical and administrative personnel involved in its operation.