Network Control Protocol (ARPANET)

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Network Control Program (ARPANET)
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The Network Control Protocol (NCP) was a communication protocol for a computer network in the 1970s and early 1980s. It provided the transport layer of the protocol stack running on host computers of the ARPANET, the predecessor to the modern Internet.

NCP preceded the

simplex protocol that utilized two port numbers, establishing two connections, for two-way communications. An odd and an even port were reserved for each application layer application or protocol. The standardization of TCP and UDP reduced the need for the use of two simplex ports for each application down to one duplex port.[1]
: 15 

There is some confusion over the name, even among the engineers who worked with the ARPANET.

Network Control Program, the software which implemented this stack) was organically adopted for that use.[3][4] Eventually, it was realized that the original expansion of that acronym was inappropriate for its new meaning, so a new quasi-backronym was created, 'Network Control Protocol' - again, organically, not via a formal decision.[5][6]

History

NCP was first specified and described in the ARPANETs earliest

UCLA, University of Utah, and SRI. It was finalized in RFC 33 in early 1970,[7] and deployed to all nodes on the ARPANET in December 1970.[8][9]
It remained in use until the end of 1982; see Flag Day below.

NCP provided connections and flow control between processes running on different ARPANET host computers. Application services, such as

, would be built on top of NCP, using it to handle connections to other host computers.

On the ARPANET, the protocols in the

BBN Report 1822
.

Since lower protocol layers were provided by the IMP-host interface, NCP essentially provided a

FTP) accessed network services through an interface to the top layer of the NCP, a forerunner to the Berkeley sockets
interface.

Stephen D. Crocker, then a graduate student at UCLA, formed and led the Network Working Group (NWG) and specifically led the development of NCP. Other participants in the NWG developed application level protocols such as TELNET, FTP, and, in the 1980s, SMTP
, among others.

Network Control Program

Network Control Program (usually given as NCP) was the name for the software on hosts which implemented the Network Control Protocol of the ARPANET.[10][5]

It was almost universally referred to by the acronym, NCP. This was later taken over to refer to the protocol suite itself.[3][4]

NCP's were written for many operating systems, including Multics, TENEX, UNIX and TOPS-10, and many of those NCP's survive (although of course they are now only used by vintage computer enthusiasts).

Transition to TCP/IP

On January 1, 1983, in what is known as a

TCP/IP protocol suite, marking the start of the modern Internet.[11][12][13][14]

See also

References

  1. .
  2. ^ Crocker, Stephen (27 June 2022). "Separation of TCP and IP". elists.isoc.org. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Internetting or Beyond NCP" (PDF). Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  4. ^ a b Proposed Revisions to the TCP (PDF). IEN 18. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  5. ^ . Over the next few months we designed a symmetric host-host protocol, and we defined an abstract implementation of the protocol known as the Network Control Program. ("NCP" later came to be used as the name for the protocol, but it originally meant the program within the operating system that managed connections. The protocol itself was known blandly only as the host-host protocol.)
  6. . Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  7. . Processes within a HOST communicate with the network through a Network Control Program (NCP). - Earliest RFC reference to NCP acronym. Explicit definition of NCP as Network Control Program.
  8. ^ Crocker, Stephen. "NCP -- Network Control Program". Living Internet.com. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  9. ^ UGC -NET/JRF/SET PTP & Guide Teaching and Research Aptitude. High Definition Books. p. 319.
  10. . Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  11. . Retrieved February 1, 2011.
  12. .
  13. ^ "Marking the birth of the modern-day Internet". Google Official Blog. 1 January 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  14. ^ "Internet celebrates 40th birthday: but what date should we be marking?". The Telegraph. 2 September 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2015.

Further reading

  • BBN (May 1978). "BBN Report 1822: Interface Message Processor -- Specifications for the Interconnection of a Host and an IMP" (Document). Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc.
  • Postel, Jon; Feinler, E. (1978). ARPANET Protocol Handbook. Menlo Park, CA: Network Information Center, SRI International.
    • A. McKenzie; J. Postel (October 1977). "NIC #8246: Host-to-Host Protocol for the ARPANET" (Document). Network Information Center. (now offline, but a later version, which is almost identical to the original version, can be found here)
    • J. Postel (June 1971). "NIC #7101: Official Initial Connection Protocol" (Document). UCLA-NMC. (this does not seem to be online, but an early version, which is almost identical to the final version, can be found here)
  • .

External links