OSPF and IS-IS: Choosing an IGP for Large-Scale Networks

1.2. ARPANET

ARPA was created by the Eisenhower administration in 1958 in reaction to the Soviet Union’s orbiting of the Sputnik satellites—perceived in the United States as a clear sign that the Soviets were outpacing the United States in science and technology. The motivation was to fund and manage research and development projects—primarily through universities—in hopes of avoiding another such national embarrassment. Famously wary of the military-industrial complex and the sometimes-intense competition among the branches of the military, Eisenhower made ARPA an independent agency under a civilian director with liberal funding and with wide leeway in the projects they undertook.

J. C. R. Licklider’s successors as director of ARPA’s IPTO were ...