# Internet Experiment Note

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{{Short description|Technical publications related to development of precursors of the modern Internet}}
An '''Internet Experiment Note''' ('''IEN''') is a sequentially numbered document in a series of technical publications issued by the participants of the early development work groups that created the precursors of the modern [Internet](/source/Internet).

== History ==
After [DARPA](/source/DARPA) began the Internet program in earnest in 1977, the project members were in need of communication and documentation of their work in order to realize the concepts laid out by [Bob Kahn](/source/Bob_Kahn) and [Vint Cerf](/source/Vint_Cerf) some years before. The [Request for Comments](/source/Request_for_Comments) (RFC) series was considered the province of the [ARPANET](/source/ARPANET) project and the Network Working Group (NWG), which defined the [network protocols](/source/network_protocols) used on it. Thus, the members of the Internet project decided to publish their own series of documents, ''Internet Experiment Notes'', which were modeled after the RFCs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Internet & Related Networks |url=https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet-related-networks/ |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=Internet Society |language=en-US |quote=Throughout the development of the Internet, its protocols and other aspects of its operation have been documented first in a series of documents called Internet Experiment Notes and, later, in a series of documents called Requests for Comment (RFCs).}}</ref><ref name="RFC Editor">{{Cite web |title=History » RFC Editor |url=https://www.rfc-editor.org/history/ |access-date=2025-04-25}}</ref>

[Jon Postel](/source/Jon_Postel) became the editor of the new series, in addition to his existing role of administering the long-standing RFC series. Between March 1977 and September 1982, 206 IENs were published. After that, with the plan to terminate support of the [Network Control Protocol](/source/Network_Control_Protocol_(ARPANET)) (NCP) on the ARPANET and switch to [TCP/IP](/source/TCP%2FIP), the production of IENs was discontinued, and all further publication was conducted within the existing RFC system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scheible |first=Jeff |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Digital_Shift/SzB0DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA1995&printsec=frontcover |title=Digital Shift: The Cultural Logic of Punctuation |date=2015-03-15 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-1-4529-4437-1 |language=en |quote=IENs, or Internet Experiment Notes, were a shorter-running series of protocol documents modeled after RFCs that Postel edited from 1977 to 1982.}}</ref><ref name="RFC Editor" />

The second, third and fourth versions of TCP, including the split into TCP/IP, were developed during the IEN work.<ref name="Cerf-TCPv2">{{Cite web |last=Cerf |first=Vinton |date=March 1977 |title=Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program: TCP (Version 2) |url=https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien5.pdf |page=3, 92}}</ref><ref name="Postel-TCPv3">{{Cite web |last1=Cerf |first1=Vinton G. |last2=Postel |first2=Jon |date=January 1978 |title=Specification of Internetwork Transmission Program: TCP Version 3 |url=https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien21.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Postel-TCPv4">{{Cite web |last=Postel |first=Jon |date=September 1978 |title=Specification of Internetwork Transmission Control Protocol: TCP Version 4 |url=https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien55.pdf}}</ref> The "Final Report" of the "TCP Project", mentions some of the people involved, including groups from Stanford University, University College London, USC-ISI, MIT, BBN, NDRE, among others.<ref>{{Cite IETF|ien=151}}</ref>

Key networking principles, such as the [robustness principle](/source/robustness_principle), were defined during the IEN work.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Council |first=National Research |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Internet_s_Coming_of_Age/lm2C8PJY-NYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA39&printsec=frontcover |title=The Internet's Coming of Age |last2=Sciences |first2=Division on Engineering and Physical |last3=Applications |first3=Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and |last4=Board |first4=Computer Science and Telecommunications |last5=Infrastructure |first5=Committee on the Internet in the Evolving Information |date=2001 |publisher=National Academies Press |isbn=978-0-309-17205-9 |language=en}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [History of the Internet](/source/History_of_the_Internet)
* [International Conference on Computer Communications](/source/International_Conference_on_Computer_Communications)
* [International Network Working Group](/source/International_Network_Working_Group)
* [List of Internet pioneers](/source/List_of_Internet_pioneers)
* [Protocol Wars](/source/Protocol_Wars)
* [Symposium on Operating Systems Principles](/source/Symposium_on_Operating_Systems_Principles)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/49529 IEN scan archive at the University of Minnesota]
* [http://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien-index.html IEN index at rfc-editor.org]

Category:History of the Internet
Category:Internet Standards

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Internet Experiment Note](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Experiment_Note) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Experiment_Note?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.