Scarce and historically significant publication: “A Protocol for Packet Network Communications” by Vinton G. Cerf and Robert E. Kahn in IEEE Transactions and Communications, Volume Com-22, Number 5, May 1974, pages 589–733. First edition, bound in original wrappers. In fine condition, with a small notation and tiny staple holes to the upper corner of the front cover. Accompanied by a custom-made leatherbound clamshell case. This is a superb example of this publication, which when found is typically rebound and ex-library.
Cerf and Kahn’s landmark computer science paper appears on pages 637–648 and presents the Transmission Control Program (TCP), which made the internet possible. The abstract begins: “A protocol that supports the sharing of resources that exist in different packet switching networks is presented. The protocol provides for variation in individual network packet sizes, transmission failures, sequencing, flow control, end-to-end error checking, and the creation and destruction of logical process-to-process connections.” The authors lay out a network architecture describing gateways that sit between networks which send and receive packets of information.
Cerf and Kahn presented their first paper on the new Transmission Control Program at an INWG meeting at the University of Sussex in England in September 1973, and it was first published in this May 1974 issue of IEEE Transactions and Communications. The Transmission Control Program outlined here was later divided into a modular architecture of two layers, the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol—commonly referred to as ‘TCP/IP,’ which remains the main communications protocol used for the internet today.
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