Historical Maps of Computer Networks

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.)

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.

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.)

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)

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.

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

 

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.

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)

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).

The topology of the BITNET in 1981 (partial map)

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).

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.

| 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 |