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BITNET (Because It’s Time Network)

- Access to the World -

 

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Intro

• An early world leader in network communications for the research and education communities

• One of the oldest and largest Wide Area Network (WAN) used by universities

• Helped lay the groundwork for the subsequent introduction of the Internet, especially outside the US

Some people say BITNET was not the Internet, because it didn't use IP. I think that is just being pedantic. BITNET had people in universities all over the world; it had world-wide email; it had real-time, interactive chat, one-to-one or in "Relay" chatrooms in places like CERN; it had world-wide remote file archives you could grab files from by issuing commands; it had world-wide "Listserv" email discussion lists; you could query if people were logged on across the world; it had disconnected "answering machines"; it had email to and from all other networks. The whole thing (BITNET plus connected networks) was the embryonic Internet. The protocol has simply migrated to IP since, that's all. If BITNET wasn't the Internet, then neither was Arpanet before it switched to IP in 1983.   - Mark Humphrys; The Internet in the 1980s

• A "store-and-forward" network similar to the Usenet

 

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BITNET is Born

• 1981
• Ira H. Fuchs and Greydon Freeman, of the City University of New York and Yale University, respectively, decided that IBM's (International Business Machines Corporation) Network Job Entry (NJE) communications protocol made computer-based communication practical between their universities
• The two universities began using a leased telephone circuit for communications between accounts on their mainframe computers
• BITNET was originally named for the phrase "Because It's There Net", later updated to "Because It's Time Net”

• 1982
• Reached across the US to California
• Joined by its European counterpart EARN (European Academic and Research Network

                                                                                            

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LISTSERV

• BITNET provides electronic mail
• Thanks to Eric Thomas, thousands of electronic mailing lists based on the LISTSERV software for managing such lists
• BITNET is also used for :
• Transfer of data and software files
• Rapid transmission of "interactive" messages and commands to software such as LISTSERV

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BITNET System

• BITNET users:
• Share information via electronic mail to individuals and shared-interest groups
• Transfer documents, programs, and data
• Access to BITNET server machines and associated data services

• Gateways allow the exchange of electronic mail between BITNET and the Internet

• Information originating at a given BITNET-connected computer (node) is received by intermediate nodes and forwarded to its destination

• Although BITNET uses IBM's NJE communications protocol, VAX/VMS (Virtual Address eXtension/Multiple Virtual Storage) systems actually constitute the majority of BITNET nodes

• Unix and other systems are also supported, in addition to IBM systems running VM (Virtual Machine) or MVS

 

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BITNIC

• 1984
• IBM granted BITNET with initial funding to centralized network support services
• BITNIC(BITNET Network Information Center) received the initial funding from IBM
• BITNET Executive Committee, which consist of representatives from US BITNET nodes, was formed to develop BITNET policies and to plan for it’s future

• 1987
• BITNIC is completely funded entirely by their membership from participating organization

 

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The Merge

• 1987
• BITNET Executive Committee formed a nonprofit corporation whose members were the organizations participating in the BITNET network

• 1989
• BITNET merged with the Computer Science Network (CSNET)
• Adopted the new corporate name, the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking (CREN)
• CREN is governed by a Board of Trustees elected by its member organizations

• 1991
• BITNET has approximately 1400 organization in  49 countries for the exchange of information in research and education worldwide

• 1993
• BITNET participant began to decrease dramatically due to academic organization connected to Internet outnumbered those participating in BITNET

• 1994
• CREN focus in supporting their members in BITNET to use internet and assisting in their members migration

• 1996
• CREN completely ended their support and BITNET’s network slowly fade away due to the Internet provide range of communication capabilities that fulfilled BITNET’s role

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References

• http://www.livinginternet.com/u/ui_bitnet.htm

• http://www.cren.net/cren/cren-hist-fut.html

• http://bit.net/

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