What does ARPANET Stand For?

ARPANET stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. ARPA of the United States Department of Defense developed ARPANET. It is recognized as being the precursor of the Internet. Its design was based on a form of packet switching devised by Larry Roberts, a scientist at the Lincoln Laboratory located in Massachusetts.

J.C.R. Licklider of Bolt, Beranek and Newman conceived the idea of the creation of a computer network that could allow communication between the users over a network. In 1963, Licklider became the head of the Behavioral Sciences and Command and Control programs at ARPA. During his tenure at ARPA, he managed to convince Ivan Sutherland and Bob Taylor that the creation of a computer network was important. By the middle of 1968, a plan for the development of ARPANET was prepared. After receiving an approval from ARPA, the contract for its development was given to BBN Technologies. BBN was to build a network composed of small computers called Interface Message Processors (IMP). IMPs are now known as routers. In a period of around nine months, a system including a packet switching software and hardware was set up. It was the first functional packet-switching network that was ever built.

Today, the Internet has reached far and wide. But it finds its roots in the ARPANET that was built decades ago.