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Paul Baran

Co-inventor of packet switching; designed survivable distributed networks.

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Paul Baran

via Wikipedia: Paul Baran · see source

Paul Baran was born in Grodno on April 29, 1926, and his family moved to the United States in 1928.[1][2] He is credited with inventing the first doorway gun detector and is recognized for independently inventing digital packet switching.[3][4]

Life and work

He then worked on UNIVAC models at the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company and later at Hughes Aircraft on radar data processing systems.[5] After joining the RAND Corporation in 1959, Baran designed a survivable communications system for the Cold War.[6][7] Baran's insight was that redundancy was the key, and his first work was published as a RAND report in 1960.[8] In 1968, Baran was a founder of the Institute for the Future.[9]

He founded Metricom in 1985, the first wireless Internet company.[10] UCLA awarded Baran a master's degree in engineering in 1959; his thesis work focused on character recognition.[11] A simulation suite was created by Baran and his group to examine how well an array of nodes remained connected when different numbers of links per node were used.[8] The simulations demonstrated that networks where each node had three or more links showed greatly improved robustness, even when half the nodes were lost.[8]

Com21, an early cable modem venture, was established by Baran in 1992.[12]

What the cited sources add

The Living Internet account states that Baran joined RAND from Hughes Aircraft in 1959.[7] It notes that Baran's results were first presented to the Air Force in summer 1961 as briefing B-265.[7] The same source describes Baran's architecture as designed to survive a nuclear conflict and help convince the US Military that wide area digital computer networks were promising.[7] It also states that Baran's 1964 papers influenced Roberts and Kleinrock to adopt packet switching for the ARPANET.[7]

The Living Internet account mentions that Baran later left RAND to become an entrepreneur and private investor in the early 1970s.[7]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Katie Hafner, "Paul Baran, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 84", The New York Times, March 27, 2011; Nathan Brewer, "Paul Baran", IEEE Global History Network, March 28, 2011; Georgi Dalakov, "Paul Baran", History of Computers web site (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: David Ira Snyder, "Morris "Moshe" Baran (1884–1979)", Genealogy of the Baran family, August 4, 2009 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Paul Baran - Franklin Laureate Database", The Franklin Institute Awards - Laureate Database, January 18, 2023; Jessica Guynn, "Paul Baran dies at 84; inventor helped lay foundation for Internet", Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Alex McKenzie, "Comments on Dr. Leonard Kleinrock's claim to be "the Father of Modern Data Networking"", 2009; Isaacson, "The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution", Simon & Schuster, 2014, p. 245; Harris, "Who is the Father of the Internet? The Case for Donald Davies", Variety in Mass Communication Research, 2009, p. 123–134; Haughney Dare-Bryan, "Computer Freaks", Inc. Magazine, June 22, 2023; "Birthing the Internet: Letters From the Delivery Room; Disputing a Claim", The New York Times, 22 en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Paul Baran - Franklin Laureate Database", The Franklin Institute Awards - Laureate Database, January 18, 2023 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Baran, "The beginnings of packet switching: some underlying concepts", IEEE Communications Magazine, 2002, p. 42–48; "Interview of Donald Davies by James L. Pelkey", Computer History Museum, p. 7 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Stewart, "Paul Baran Invents Packet Switching", Living Internet, 2000-01-07. facts only, no text reused. livinginternet.com
  8. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Paul Baran and the Origins of the Internet", RAND corporation; Paul Baran, "Reliable Digital Communications Systems Using Unreliable Network Repeater Nodes", RAND Corporation Papers, Document P-1995, 1960; Paul Baran, "On Distributed Communications Networks", RAND Corporation Papers, Document P-2626, 1962; Stewart, "Paul Baran Invents Packet Switching", Living Internet, 2000-01-07 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Baran's keynote on The Past, Present, and Future of Convergence", 1999-02-09; "DES (Data Encryption Standard) Review at Stanford University - Recording and Transcript", 1976 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nathan Brewer, "Paul Baran", IEEE Global History Network, March 28, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Katie Hafner, "Paul Baran, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 84", The New York Times, March 27, 2011; Hafner, "Where wizards stay up late : the origins of the Internet", Simon and Schuster, 1996, p. 54 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Paul Baran" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Paul Baran - Franklin Laureate Database", The Franklin Institute Awards - Laureate Database, January 18, 2023; "Management Team", goBackTV web site; "About Plaster Networks", Plaster Networks web site (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Paul Baran (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Named in this entry

Donald DaviesLeonard KleinrockStanford University

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Paul Baran · Computer Scientists And Programmers

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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