Abstract
In this part, I describe how CSNET started in 1981 with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the US government and the formation of the Merit network and BIT-NET. Following this, I discuss the formation of the NSFnet in 1986 connecting the supercomputer centres set up by the NSF in the US and its expansion by connecting it to the ARPANET, CSNET, Merit, and regional networks. I then trace the steady improvement of the speed of the NSF net and its gradual privatization and the emergence of the worldwide Internet. I then describe the evolution of the Domain Name System and the consequences of the rapid expansion of the Internet. The article concludes with issues of governance of the Internet which has now become an essential infrastructure of our World.
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Acknowledgment
I thank Prof. P.C.P. Bhatt, Dr. N. Dayasindhu, and Dr. S. Ramani for reviewing this article and for their critical comments which improved it.
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V. Rajaraman is at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Several generations of scientists and engineers in India have learnt computer science using his lucidly written textbooks on programming and computer fundamentals. His current research interests are parallel computing and history of computing.
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Rajaraman, V. A Concise History of the Internet—II. Reson 27, 2045–2068 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-022-1505-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-022-1505-0