ITEMInformation Transmission Evolution MapA visual history of human information
Person

Robert Kahn

Robert Kahn is an American computer scientist who helped develop packet-network architecture and the protocols that allowed unlike networks to communicate.

Period
1938–present
Known for
Open-architecture internetworking and TCP
Historical contribution

What Kahn contributed

At ARPA, Kahn framed an open internetworking problem in which separate packet networks could remain autonomous. With Vint Cerf, he published the 1974 Transmission Control Program design that evolved into TCP and IP.

Why it mattered

The work supplied a common method for moving data across heterogeneous networks and became a foundation of the Internet.

Connected topics

Where this fits in ITEM

Internet and TCP/IP
Evidence

Sources and further reading

  1. A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication, IEEE Transactions on Communications, May 1974

    Vint Cerf, Robert Kahn · 1974

    Open source ↗

  2. ARPANET

    DARPA · Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

    Open source ↗

  3. TCP/IP

    DARPA · Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

    Open source ↗