BBN and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Citation: Schantz, RE. BBN and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Prepared as a Case Study for America's Basic Research: Prosperity Through Discovery, A Policy Statement by the Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development (CED), June 1998.

Formats: MS Word

Abstract. Maintaining the nation's economic well-being and preserving its security are two of the federal government's most important responsibilities. It has long been recognized-and often established as public policy-that innovation and technological preeminence contribute to both goals by creating new capabilities, and giving rise to new industries and jobs. Nowhere is this more evident than in the development of computer technology; and no office of government has been more effective in this arena than the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

For more than thirty years, BBN Technologies has been a vital member of the DARPA research community, and its long and productive relationship with the agency has led to a host of innovations; most notably the ARPANET, the forerunner to the Internet. This paper describes BBN's long relationship with DARPA, its role in the development of the Internet and its movement into middleware research.