Father of the Internet

Dr. Vinton Cerf is famoulsy known as the Father of the Internet.

In 1973, he invented the transmission-control protocol (TCP). The main idea was to enclose packets in "datagrams." These datagrams were to act something like envelopes containing letters. The content and format of the letter is not important for its delivery. The information on the envelope is standardized to facilitate delivery. TCP allowed networks to be joined into a network of networks, or what we now call the Internet.

In 1978, Dr Cerf and several of his colleagues made a major refinement. They split TCP into two parts. They took the part of TCP that is responsible for routing packages and formed a separate protocol called the Internet Protocol (IP). TCP would remain responsible for dividing messages into datagrams, reassembling messages, detecting errors, putting packets in the right order, and resending lost packets. The new protocol was called TCP/IP. It went on to become the standard for all Internet communication.

In 1997, President Clinton presented Cerf and his partner, Robert Kahn, with the U.S. National Medal of Technology for founding and developing the Internet.