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From: bob@uhccux.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: lan history
Message-ID: <770@uhccux.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 30-Aug-87 14:52:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: uhccux.770
Posted: Sun Aug 30 14:52:39 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Aug-87 23:44:04 EDT
References: <220@tness1.UUCP>
Reply-To: bob@uhccux.UUCP (Bob Cunningham)
Organization: U. of Hawaii, Manoa (Honolulu)
Lines: 33
Keywords: lan history, Aloha System

The Aloha System project started in September 1968, the brainchild
of Norm Abramson here at the University of Hawaii.

The original idea was to test the idea of remote computer access
via satellite, using instead a much simpler to implement UHF radio
network.  The starting point in the design was the question: "Given
the availability of a fixed amount of communications capacity,
how does one employ this capacity to provide effective communication
from remote users to a central machine".

The project was primarily funded by DARPA, through NASA and the
U.S. Air Force Office of Aerospace Research.  By June 1971 the
central UHF station was in place and tested; around the summer
of 1972 the complete system was in operation.  DARPA funding
ceased fairly shortly thereafter, since the original concept
had been proven.  The Aloha System setup continued in operation
until the late 1970s when it essentially died from lack of
interest and lack of funding to maintain the thing.

It used two 24,000 baud channels in the UHF band (Norm has said
that in retrospect he should have used only one).  One channel
was used by the remote stations (usually terminals) talking
two the central MENEHUNE (a packet-switched multiplexor based
upon early ARPANET IMP designs); the other channel carried
traffic from the MENEHUNE.

A considerable amount of theoretical analysis was done before,
during, and after the system was operational...which lead to
some classic papers.

One of the visiting scientists went on to develop a variant
of the Aloha System using carrier sense on a cable, which
he then called Ethernet.