Advanced Research Projects Agency Network

Developed by the US Department of Defense during the cold war. ARPANET was designed to survive nuclear attacks: theauthority was distributed over a large number of geographically dispersed computers, so that - even if most servers were destroyed - the remaining servers would be able to continue on. This computer network concept was the basis of the Internet .

A pioneering longhaul network funded by ARPA (now DARPA). It served as the basis for early networking research, as well as a central backbone during the development of the Internet. The ARPANET consisted of individual packet switching computers interconnected by leased lines. See also: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. [Source: FYI4]