Fields

Computer Networking

Also Known As Data Communications

Citation Formats

General Reference

Computing Atlas. "Computer Networking." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/fields/computer-networking.

APA Style

Computing Atlas. (n.d.). Computer Networking. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/fields/computer-networking

BibTeX

@misc{computingatlas-computer-networking,
  author = {Computing Atlas},
  title = {Computer Networking},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/fields/computer-networking},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Computer Networking studies how separate computers exchange information: the protocols, addressing schemes and physical media that let one machine's data reach another, and eventually let millions of machines reach each other as a single internetwork. The field grew directly out of ARPANET, the US Advanced Research Projects Agency's experimental packet switched network, and its central concept, packet switching itself, breaking a message into independently routed pieces, was developed in the early 1960s by Paul Baran in the United States and, independently, Donald Davies in the United Kingdom.

Facts

Origin Year

1969 1

The year ARPANET's first node went live at UCLA, commonly treated as the field's practical starting point, though the packet switching theory behind it dates to the early 1960s.

Core Concern

How separate computers exchange information reliably, and how many networks are joined into one internetwork. 2

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Vint Cerf

Vint Cerf co-designed the TCP/IP protocols with Robert Kahn, work recognized by the ACM Turing Award citation for pioneering internetworking, foundational to computer networking as a field.

Source Wikipedia: Vint Cerf