Sorry, the Cybergeography Research web pages are no longer being updated. The project ran from 1997-2004, but my research has moved away into other areas (see my blog for latest). If you have any questions or comments, please email me at: m.dodge (at) manchester.ac.uk. 

Cheers, Martin Dodge, February 2007.


| Introduction | Whats New | Conceptual | Artistic | Geographic | Cables & Satellites | Traceroutes |
| Census | Topology | Info Maps | Info Landscapes | Info Spaces | ISP Maps | Weather Maps |
| Wireless | Web Site Maps | Surf Maps | MUDs & Virtual Worlds | Historical |


Historical Maps of Computer Networks

A range of the historical maps of ARPANET, the Internet, Usenet, and other computer networks, tracing how these pioneering networks grew and developed.


Baran's network diagram - click for larger image The pioneering research of Paul Baran in the 1960s, who envisioned a communications network that would survive a major enemy attacked. The sketch shows three different network topologies described in his RAND Memorandum, "On Distributed Communications: 1. Introduction to Distributed Communications Network" (August 1964). The distributed network structure offered the best survivability.

A rough sketch map of the possible topology of ARPANET by Larry Roberts. The map was drawn in the late 1960s as part of the planning for the network.

(Scanned from Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet, by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, page 50.)

Larry Roberts sketch map of ARPANET - click for larger image

 

In the beginning ....

Sketch of the first ARPANET node at UCLA - click for larger version

The first node on ARPANET at University California Los Angeles (UCLA) on the 2nd of September 1969.
(Source : "Casting the Net", page 55)

 

A very simple ascii map of the first network link on ARPANET between UCLA and SRI taken from RFC-4 Network Timetable, by Elmer B. Shapiro, March 1969.



4 node sketch - click for larger version

By the end of the year there are four nodes on the "ARPA NETWORK", as shown in schematic above. These were University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), University of Utah and the Stanford Research Institute (SRI).
(Source : "Casting the Net", page 56. See also The Computer Museum's Timeline.)

Geographic map of ARPANET, Sept. 1971 - click for larger version

ARPANET grew rapidly as more sites are connected. The map above shows the situation in September 1971 and the one below is from October 1980, which includes a packet satellite link UCL in London.
(Sources : "Casting the Net", page 64; CCR, page 93)

 

ARPANET logical map August 1971 - click for larger version
ARPANET logical map August 1971 - click for larger version
Logical network maps charting the growing of sites connecting to ARPANET in the early 1970s.
   

 

RFC-432 Network Logical Map, has a similar map of ARPANET
as of December 1972.

 

al map March 1977 - click for larger version

The map above shows the topology of ARPANET in March 1977. It was scanned by Larry Press from the ARPANET Completion Report, Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Burlington, MA, January 4, 1978.


Geographic map of ARPANET, Oct. 1980 - click for larger version

[For more information on this map see the Map of the Month article "ARPANET, October 1980" in Mappa.Mundi Magazine.]

 

"Internet on a Chip" diagram - click for larger version

This interesting looking map shows the state of the core of the Internet in August 1987. It could be described as the "Internet on a chip". This coloured version was provided by Craig Partridge.

ARPANET in October 1989 - click for larger version

The state of ARPANET in October 1989, near the end of its life, with only a few nodes left. It was finally decommissioned in 1990 having been largely replaced by NSFNET. (Source: CCR, page 110)

MILNET in Europe - click for larger image
Maps of MILNET (Defense Data Network) in the US and Europe, from 1989. MILNET split from ARPANET in 1984. (Source: Directory of Computer Networks, edited by Tracey L. Laquey, Digital Press, 1990).
MILNET - click for larger image


USENET in 1981.

 
USENET map 1986 - click for larger image

A geographic map of USENET sites and routes from December 1986.

The map was one of the first produced by Brian Reid as part of a decade long USENET monitoring project. For details see the Map of the Month article "Flowing from site to site", Mappa.Mundi Magazine, May 2001.

The topology of the BITNET in 1981 (partial map)

BITNET map - click for full map

The NSFNET infrastructure and topology in 1991.

NSFNET topology 1991 - click for larger image

NSFNET geographic map - click for larger image NSFNET cloud - click for larger image

(Source : NSFNET postscript maps from ftp://ftp.uu.net/inet/maps/nsfnet/.)


UK map - click for larger image A sketch of the packet switching network in the United Kingdom proposed by Donald Davies, a pioneer in networking in the 1960s. (Source: National Archive for the History of Computing, scanned with permission from Janet Abbate's, "Inventing the Internet", 1999, page 31).

JANET 'Fat-Pipe' topology - click for larger image

These maps show the structure of JANET, the UK's academic and research network, in 1992. The one above shows international connections with 256 Kbps links to Europe and the "Fat-Pipe" transatlantic link to the USA running at 768 Kbps. Not surprisingly the capacity of these links have been increased massively since then.

JANET logical map 1992 - click for larger image

 

See the Internet History 1962-1992 from The Computer Museum History Center for more old maps of the Net.

Thanks to Peter H. Salus's book "Casting the Net : From ARPANET to Internet and beyond...", for providing many of the maps used. [Buy the book from Amazon.com and support Cyber-Geography Research]

ARPANET maps are also taken from an article in Computer Communications Review (CCR), entitled "Selected ARPANET Maps", Vol. 20, October 1990, pages 81-110.

Also, thanks to Jon Crowcroft, in UCL's department of computer science, for the JANET maps.

The First Maps of the Internet poster by Peacock Maps presents a range of maps and diagrams of ARPANET and other packet networks from the 1970s and 80s.


| Introduction | Whats New | Conceptual | Artistic | Geographic | Cables & Satellites | Traceroutes |
| Census | Topology | Info Maps | Info Landscapes | Info Spaces | ISP Maps | Weather Maps |
| Wireless | Web Site Maps | Surf Maps | MUDs & Virtual Worlds | Historical |
(© Copyright - Martin Dodge, 2007)

Sorry, the Cybergeography Research web pages are no longer being updated. The project ran from 1997-2004, but my research has moved away into other areas (see my blog for latest). If you have any questions or comments, please email me at: m.dodge (at) manchester.ac.uk. 

Cheers, Martin Dodge, February 2007.