ALOHAnet, first wireless packet network
ALOHAnet, primera red inalámbrica de paquetes
- Date
- junio de 1971 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
- Credited to
- Norman Abramson and colleagues at the University of Hawaii
- Field
- Communication
What it is
A radio network that linked computers on the Hawaiian islands to the central machine on Oʻahu, using random channel access (pure ALOHA) and retransmitting packets after a collision. It was the first system of its kind.
The pure ALOHA protocol was described in 1970 and the network began running in 1971; its slotted version doubled throughput. Ethernet took inspiration from it but adapted it to cable.
What it led to
- Metcalfe's Ethernet, which adopted the idea of random access
- multiple-access protocols in Wi-Fi and mobile telephony
- satellite and packet-radio networks