On Distributed Communications

V. History, Alternative Approaches, and Comparisons

Paul Baran

ResearchPublished 1964

One in a series of eleven Memoranda detailing the Distributed Adaptive Message Block Network, a proposed digital data communications system based on a distributed network concept. It is primarily a background paper acknowledging the efforts of people in many fields working toward the development of large communications systems where reliability and survivability are mandatory. As these requirements become increasingly stringent, one is forced to consider new and more complicated systems than might otherwise be preferred. Because this is a new field of study, its terminology has been borrowed from different specialties and is inconsistent. This Memorandum connects the previous items in the series, concerned with the system concept and early modeling studies, with the remaining volumes, detailing the actual design and implementation of a network of the type proposed.

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Baran, Paul, On Distributed Communications: V. History, Alternative Approaches, and Comparisons. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1964. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_memoranda/RM3097.html.
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This research is sponsored by the United States Air Force under Project RAND-Contract No. AF 49(638)-700 monitored by the Directorate of Development Plans, Deputy Chief of Staff, Research and Development, Hq USAF.

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