Fuzzball router

Fuzzball routers were the first modern routers on the Internet.[1] They were DEC LSI-11 computers loaded with the Fuzzball software written by David L. Mills (of the University of Delaware).[2][3] The name "Fuzzball" was the colloquialism for Mills' routing software. Six provided the routing backbone of the first 56 kbit/s NSFnet,[4][5] allowing the testing of many of the Internet's first protocols.[6] It allowed the development of the first TCP/IP routing protocols,[7] and the Network Time Protocol.[8] They were the first routers to implement key refinements to TCP/IP like variable-length subnet masks.[9]

References

  1. ^ Carl Malamud (1992). Exploring the Internet: a technical travelogue. Prentice Hall. pp. 88. ISBN 0132968983. http://books.google.com/books?id=YDnbAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA88. 
  2. ^ Fuzzball: The Innovative Router
  3. ^ [1] Mills, D.L. The Fuzzball. Proc. ACM SIGCOMM 88 Symposium (Palo Alto CA, August 1988), 115-122.
  4. ^ [2] Mills, D.L., and H.-W. Braun. The NSFNET Backbone Network. Proc. ACM SIGCOMM 87 Symposium (Stoweflake VT, August 1987), 191-196
  5. ^ Presentation at the NSFNET Legacy event, 2007. [3] Particularly page 38-48. 'The NSFnet Phase-I Backbone and The Fuzzball Router'- David L. Mills. 29 November 2007.
  6. ^ Fuzzball: A page by David L. Mills, including links to some of his papers on the Fuzzball.
  7. ^ Charles M. Kozierok (2005). The TCP/IP guide: a comprehensive, illustrated Internet protocols reference. No Starch Press. pp. 679–681. ISBN 159327047X. http://books.google.com/books?id=Pm4RgYV2w4YC&pg=PA679. 
  8. ^ Technical History of NTP, http://www.crcnetbase.com/doi/abs/10.1201/b10282-20 
  9. ^ John T. Moy (1998). OSPF: anatomy of an Internet routing protocol. Addison-Wesley Professional. p. 20. ISBN 9780201634723. http://books.google.com/books?id=YXUWsqVhx60C&pg=PA20.