!!! Overview
[{$pagename}] is a method of grouping [data] which is transmitted over a digital [network] into packets which are made of a [header] and a [payload]. 


[Data] in the header is used by [Network devices] to direct the [packet] to its destination where the [payload] is extracted and used by application software. 


[{$pagename}] is the primary basis for data [communications] in computer [networks] worldwide.


In the early [1960s], American computer scientist Paul Baran developed the concept Distributed Adaptive Message Block Switching with the goal to provide a fault-tolerant, efficient routing method for [telecommunication] [messages] as part of a research program at the [RAND Corporation], funded by the [United States Department of Defense]

The new concept found little resonance among [network] implementers until the independent work of [United Kingdom] computer scientist Donald Davies at the [National Physical Laboratory] ([United Kingdom]) in [1965|Year 1965]. Davies is credited with coining the modern term [{$pagename}] and inspiring numerous packet switching networks in the decade following, including the incorporation of the concept in the early [ARPANET] in the [United States].

[{$pagename}] was later used for the [NPL Data Communications Network] was a local area computer [network] operated by a team from the [National Physical Laboratory]. Following a pilot experiment during [1967|Year 1967], elements of the first version of the network, Mark I, became operational during [1969|Year 1969] then fully operational in [1970|Year 1970], and the Mark II version operated from [1973|Year 1973] until [1986|Year 1986].

!! More Information
There might be more information for this subject on one of the following:
[{ReferringPagesPlugin before='*' after='\n' }]