CYCLADES
The CYCLADES computer network (French pronunciation: [siklad]) was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate internetworking.[1][2]
The CYCLADES network was the first to make the
The network was sponsored by the French government, through the Institut de Recherche en lnformatique et en Automatique (IRIA), the national research laboratory for computer science in France, now known as
Conception and deployment
Planning for the project began in 1971.
Pouzin coined the term
Deployment of the network continued in 1974, with three packet switches installed by February, although at that point the network was only operational for three hours each day. By June the network was up to seven switches, and was available throughout the day for experimental use.
A terminal concentrator was also developed that year, since
By 1976 the network was in full deployment, eventually numbering 20 nodes with connections to
Technical details
CYCLADES used a layered architecture, which was adopted in the Internet. The basic
“The inspiration for datagrams had two sources. One was Donald Davies' studies. He had done some simulation of datagram networks, although he had not built any, and it looked technically viable. The second inspiration was I like things simple. I didn't see any real technical motivation to overlay two levels of end-to-end protocols. I thought one was enough.”
— Louis Pouzin[4]
The CIGALE network featured a
The name CIGALE (French pronunciation: [siɡal]) – French for cicada – originates from the fact that the developers installed a speaker at each computer, so that "it went 'chirp chirp chirp' like cicadas" when a packet passed a computer.[14]
An end-to-end protocol built on top of that provided a reliable transport service, on top of which applications were built. It provided a reliable sequence of user-visible data units called letters, rather than the reliable byte stream of TCP. The transport protocol was able to deal with out-of-order and unreliable delivery of datagrams, using the now-standard mechanisms of end-end acknowledgments and timeouts; it also featured sliding windows and end-to-end flow control.
Demise
By 1976, the French
Data transmission was a state monopoly in France at the time, and IRIA needed a special dispensation to run the CYCLADES network. The PTT did not agree to funding by the government of a competitor to their Transpac network, and insisted that the permission and funding be rescinded. By 1981, Cyclades was forced to shut down.[citation needed]
Legacy
The most important legacy of CYCLADES was in showing that moving the responsibility for reliability into the hosts was workable, and produced a well-functioning service network. It also showed that it greatly reduced the complexity of the packet switches. The concept became a cornerstone in the design of the Internet.[3][4][5][15][16]
The network was a fertile ground for experimentation, and allowed a generation of French computer scientists to experiment with networking concepts..
Hubert Zimmermann used his experience in CYCLADES to influence the design of the OSI model, which is still a common pedagogical tool.
CYCLADES alumni and researchers at IRIA/INRIA were also influential in spreading adoption of the Internet in France, eventually witnessing the success of the datagram-based Internet, and the demise of the X.25 and ATM virtual circuit networks.
See also
- History of the Internet
- Internet in France § History
- NPL network
- CII Mitra-15 mini-computers, which ran the CYCLADES nodes
References
- Pouzin, Louis (1973). "Presentation and Major Design Aspects of the Cyclades Computer Network". Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Computer Communication Networks. Sussex, United Kingdom: Noordhoff International Publishing. pp. 415–434. Archived from the original on 2021-02-24.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - Pouzin, Louis (1974). "CIGALE, the packet switching machine of the CYCLADES computer network". Proc of IFIP. Stockholm, Sweden. pp. 155–159. Archived from the original on 2021-03-01.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - Pouzin, Louis (1975). "The CYCLADES network-present state and development trends". Symposium on Computer Networks. Gaithersburg, Maryland: IEEE Computer Society. pp. 8–13. Archived from the original on 2021-02-24.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-262-51115-5.
- ^ ISBN 1845426754.
- ^ a b Bennett, Richard (September 2009). "Designed for Change: End-to-End Arguments, Internet Innovation, and the Net Neutrality Debate" (PDF). Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. p. 11. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
- ^ a b c Pelkey, James. "6.3 CYCLADES Network and Louis Pouzin 1971-1972". Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Innovation: A History of Computer Communications 1968-1988. Archived from the original on 2021-06-17. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
- ^ a b Pelkey, James. "6.4 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) 1973-1976". Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Innovation: A History of Computer Communications 1968-1988. Archived from the original on 2018-03-06. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
- ^ "The internet's fifth man". Economist. 13 December 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
In the early 1970s Mr Pouzin created an innovative data network that linked locations in France, Italy and Britain. Its simplicity and efficiency pointed the way to a network that could connect not just dozens of machines, but millions of them. It captured the imagination of Dr Cerf and Dr Kahn, who included aspects of its design in the protocols that now power the internet.
- ^ "Say Bonjour to the Internet's Long-Lost French Uncle". Wired. 3 January 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
- ISSN 0040-165X.
- ^ Andrew L. Russell (30 July 2013). "OSI: The Internet That Wasn't". IEEE Spectrum. Vol. 50, no. 8.
- )
- S2CID 206443072.
- ^ A Proposal for Interconnecting Packet Switching Networks, L. Pouzin, Proceedings of EUROCOMP, Brunel University, May 1974, pp. 1023-36.
- ^ "A Technical History of CYCLADES" Archived 2013-09-01 at the Wayback Machine, Technical Histories of the Internet & other Network Protocols (THINK), University of Texas, 11 June 2002
- ISBN 978-0-19-286207-5.
- ISBN 978-1317607656.
- ISSN 1558-0857.
The authors wish to thank a number of colleagues for helpful comments during early discussions of international network protocols, especially R. Metcalfe, R. Scantlebury, D. Walden, and H. Zimmerman; D. Davies and L. Pouzin who constructively commented on the fragmentation and accounting issues; and S. Crocker who commented on the creation and destruction of associations.
- ISBN 978-0-262-51115-5.
Further reading
- Louis Pouzin (editor), The Cyclades Computer Network: Toward Layered Network Architectures (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1982)
- Russell, Andrew L.; Schafer, Valérie (2014). "In the Shadow of ARPANET and Internet: Louis Pouzin and the Cyclades Network in the 1970s". Technology and Culture. 55 (4): 880–907. S2CID 143582561.
- Paloque-Bergès, Camille; Schafer, Valérie (2019-01-02). "French memories about the ARPANET: a conversation with Michel Élie and Gérard Le Lann". Internet Histories. 3 (1): 81–97. S2CID 150309933.