BBN Technologies
Encyclopedia
BBN Technologies is a high-technology company which provides research and development services. BBN is based next to Fresh Pond
in Cambridge
, Massachusetts
, USA
. It is perhaps best known for its work in the development of packet switching
(including the ARPANET
and the Internet
) and for its 1978 acoustical analysis for the House Select Committee
on the assassination of John F. Kennedy
, but it is also a military contractor, primarily for DARPA.
and Richard Bolt
, professors at MIT
, with Bolt's former student Robert Newman, Bolt, Beranek and Newman started life as an acoustical
consulting company. Their first contract was consultation for the design of the acoustics of the United Nations Assembly Hall in New York. Subsequent commissions included MIT's Kresge Auditorium
(1954), Tanglewood
's Koussevitzky Music Shed (1959), Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall
(1962), the Cultural Center of the Philippines
(1969) and Baltimore's Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
(1978). They have examined the Richard Nixon
tape with the 18 minutes erased during the Watergate scandal
and the Dictabelt evidence
which was purportedly a recording of the JFK assassination.
The substantial calculations required for acoustics work led to an interest, and later business opportunities, in computing. BBN was a pioneer in developing computer models of roadway and aircraft noise
, and in designing noise barrier
s near highways. Some of this technology was used in landmark legal cases where BBN scientists were expert witnesses. BBN bought a number of computers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, notably the first production PDP-1
from Digital Equipment Corporation
.
In 1989, BBN's acoustical consulting business was spun off into a new corporation, Acentech Incorporated, also based in Cambridge.
BBN was acquired by GTE
in 1997 and BBN's ISP
division BBN Planet was joined with GTE's national fiber network to become GTE Internetworking, "powered by BBN". When GTE and Bell Atlantic merged to become Verizon in 2000, the ISP portion of BBN was included in assets spun off as Genuity
. In March 2004, Verizon sold BBN to a group of private investors. In September 2009, Raytheon
entered into an agreement to acquire BBN. The acquisition was completed on October 29, 2009.
A number of well-known computer luminaries have worked at BBN, including John Seely Brown
, Jerry Burchfiel, Richard Burton, Allan Collins
, William Crowther
, John Curran
, Wally Feurzeig
, Ed Fredkin, Bob Kahn
, J. C. R. Licklider
, John McCarthy
, Marvin Minsky
, Dan Murphy
, Severo Ornstein
, Seymour Papert
, Oliver Selfridge
, Bob Thomas
, Ray Tomlinson
, and Peiter "Mudge" Zatko.
Former board members include Jim Breyer
, Dr. Anita Jones and Gilman Louie
.
s are the implementation and operation of the ARPANET; the first person-to-person network email sent and the use of the @ sign in an email address; the first Internet protocol
router (then called an Interface Message Processor
); the Voice Funnel
, an early predecessor of voice over IP
; and work on the development of TCP
. Other well-known BBN computer-related innovations include the first time-sharing
system, the LOGO programming language, the TOPS-20
(TENEX) operating system, the Colossal Cave Adventure
game, the first link-state routing protocol
, and a series of mobile ad-hoc networks starting in the 1970s. BBN also is well known for its parallel computing
systems, including the Pluribus
, and the BBN Butterfly computers, which have been used for such tasks as warfare simulation for the U.S. Navy
.
BBN was the first networking organization to receive an Autonomous System Number (AS1) for network identification. ASNs are an essential identification element used for Internet Backbone Routing. Lower numbers generally indicate a longer established presence on the Internet. AS1 is now operated by Level 3 Communications
following their acquisition of Genuity.
Today, BBN leads a wide range of research and development projects, including the standardization effort for Internet security architecture (IPsec
), the networking technology in the Joint Tactical Radio System
, mobile ad hoc networks, advanced speech recognition
, the military's Boomerang
mobile shooter detection system, and quantum cryptography
. BBN is also the managing the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) project office for the National Science Foundation
.
Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Fresh Pond is a reservoir and park in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to the Pond's use exclusively as a reservoir, its ice had been harvested by Boston's "Ice King", Frederic Tudor, and others, for shipment to North American cities and to tropical areas around the world.Fresh Pond Reservation...
in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is perhaps best known for its work in the development of packet switching
Packet switching
Packet switching is a digital networking communications method that groups all transmitted data – regardless of content, type, or structure – into suitably sized blocks, called packets. Packet switching features delivery of variable-bit-rate data streams over a shared network...
(including the ARPANET
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
and the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
) and for its 1978 acoustical analysis for the House Select Committee
United States House Select Committee on Assassinations
The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations ' was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the shooting of Governor George Wallace. The Committee investigated until 1978, and in 1979 issued its final...
on the assassination of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, but it is also a military contractor, primarily for DARPA.
History
Founded in 1948, by Leo BeranekLeo Beranek
Leo Leroy Beranek is an American acoustics expert, former MIT professor and a founder and former president of Bolt, Beranek and Newman ....
and Richard Bolt
Richard Bolt
Richard Henry Bolt Ph.D., better known as Richard Bolt or Dick Bolt, was a physics professor at MIT with an interest in acoustics...
, professors at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, with Bolt's former student Robert Newman, Bolt, Beranek and Newman started life as an acoustical
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
consulting company. Their first contract was consultation for the design of the acoustics of the United Nations Assembly Hall in New York. Subsequent commissions included MIT's Kresge Auditorium
Kresge Auditorium
Kresge Auditorium is an auditorium building for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located at 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was designed by the noted architect Eero Saarinen, with ground-breaking in 1953 and dedication in 1955...
(1954), Tanglewood
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
's Koussevitzky Music Shed (1959), Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall is a concert hall, in New York City and is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic, with a capacity of 2,738 seats.-History:...
(1962), the Cultural Center of the Philippines
Cultural Center of the Philippines
The Cultural Center of the Philippines is a government-owned and controlled corporation established to preserve, develop and promote arts and culture in the Philippines. The CCP was established through Executive Order No. 30 s. 1966 by President Ferdinand Marcos...
(1969) and Baltimore's Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
The Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, often referred to simply as the Meyerhoff, is a music venue that opened September 16, 1982 at 1212 Cathedral Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The main auditorium has a seating capacity of 2,443 people, and is home to the...
(1978). They have examined the Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
tape with the 18 minutes erased during the Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
and the Dictabelt evidence
Dictabelt evidence relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy
The Dictabelt evidence relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy comes from a Dictabelt recording from a microphone stuck in the open position on a motorcycle police officer's radio when John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963...
which was purportedly a recording of the JFK assassination.
The substantial calculations required for acoustics work led to an interest, and later business opportunities, in computing. BBN was a pioneer in developing computer models of roadway and aircraft noise
Aircraft noise
Aircraft noise is noise pollution produced by any aircraft or its components, during various phases of a flight: on the ground while parked such as auxiliary power units, while taxiing, on run-up from propeller and jet exhaust, during take off, underneath and lateral to departure and arrival paths,...
, and in designing noise barrier
Noise barrier
A noise barrier is an exterior structure designed to protect sensitive land uses from noise pollution...
s near highways. Some of this technology was used in landmark legal cases where BBN scientists were expert witnesses. BBN bought a number of computers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, notably the first production PDP-1
PDP-1
The PDP-1 was the first computer in Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP series and was first produced in 1960. It is famous for being the computer most important in the creation of hacker culture at MIT, BBN and elsewhere...
from Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
.
In 1989, BBN's acoustical consulting business was spun off into a new corporation, Acentech Incorporated, also based in Cambridge.
BBN was acquired by GTE
GTE
GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System....
in 1997 and BBN's ISP
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
division BBN Planet was joined with GTE's national fiber network to become GTE Internetworking, "powered by BBN". When GTE and Bell Atlantic merged to become Verizon in 2000, the ISP portion of BBN was included in assets spun off as Genuity
Genuity
Genuity is currently an umbrella brand from Monsanto to cover its genetically modified products. Previously, the name was used for a web hosting business owned by Bechtel, which was then sold to the ISP business under GTE in 1997 and spun off as an independent company in 2000...
. In March 2004, Verizon sold BBN to a group of private investors. In September 2009, Raytheon
Raytheon
Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
entered into an agreement to acquire BBN. The acquisition was completed on October 29, 2009.
A number of well-known computer luminaries have worked at BBN, including John Seely Brown
John Seely Brown
John Seely Brown is a researcher who specializes in organizational studies with a particular bent towards the organizational implications of computer-supported activities....
, Jerry Burchfiel, Richard Burton, Allan Collins
Allan M. Collins
Allan M. Collins is an American cognitive scientist and Professor Emeritus of Learning Sciences at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy...
, William Crowther
William Crowther
William Crowther is a computer programmer and caver. He is best known as the co-creator of Colossal Cave Adventure, a seminal computer game that influenced the first decade of game design and created a new game genre, text adventures.-Biography:During the early 1970s Crowther worked at defense...
, John Curran
John Curran (businessman)
John Curran is an early Internet executive, and the President and CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers . He was a founder of ARIN and served as the Chairman from inception through 2009...
, Wally Feurzeig
Wally Feurzeig
Wally Feurzeig is an inventor of the LOGO programming language, and a well-known researcher in Artificial Intelligence.During the early 1960s, BBN had become a major center of computer science research and innovative applications...
, Ed Fredkin, Bob Kahn
Bob Kahn
Robert Elliot Kahn is an American Internet pioneer, engineer and computer scientist, who, along with Vinton G. Cerf, invented the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol , the fundamental communication protocols at the heart of the Internet.-Career:After receiving a B.E.E...
, J. C. R. Licklider
J. C. R. Licklider
Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider , known simply as J.C.R. or "Lick" was an American computer scientist, considered one of the most important figures in computer science and general computing history...
, John McCarthy
John McCarthy (computer scientist)
John McCarthy was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. He coined the term "artificial intelligence" , invented the Lisp programming language and was highly influential in the early development of AI.McCarthy also influenced other areas of computing such as time sharing systems...
, Marvin Minsky
Marvin Minsky
Marvin Lee Minsky is an American cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence , co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy.-Biography:...
, Dan Murphy
Daniel Murphy (computer scientist)
-Biography:Murphy attended MIT from 1961 and graduated in 1965.In 1962 he created of the text editor Text Editor and Corrector later implemented on most of the PDP computers....
, Severo Ornstein
Severo Ornstein
Severo M. Ornstein is a retired computer scientist and son of Russian-American composer Leo Ornstein. In 1955 he joined MIT's Lincoln Laboratory as a programmer and designer for the SAGE air-defense system. He later joined the TX-2 group and became a member of the team that designed the LINC. He...
, Seymour Papert
Seymour Papert
Seymour Papert is an MIT mathematician, computer scientist, and educator. He is one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, as well as an inventor of the Logo programming language....
, Oliver Selfridge
Oliver Selfridge
Oliver Gordon Selfridge , grandson of Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridges' department stores, was a pioneer of artificial intelligence. He has been called the "Father of Machine Perception."...
, Bob Thomas
Creeper virus
Creeper was an experimental self-replicating program written by Bob Thomas at BBN in 1971. It was designed not to damage but to demonstrate a mobile application. It is generally accepted to be the first computer worm, although the notion of a "computer virus" did not exist in the 1970s. Creeper...
, Ray Tomlinson
Ray Tomlinson
Raymond Samuel Tomlinson is a programmer who implemented an email system in 1971 on the ARPANET. Email had been previously sent on other networks such as AUTODIN and PLATO. It was the first system able to send mail between users on different hosts connected to the ARPAnet...
, and Peiter "Mudge" Zatko.
Former board members include Jim Breyer
Jim Breyer
James W. Breyer is a partner of Accel Partners, President of Accel Management Company, and founder/CEO of Breyer Capital . He has been a lead or co-lead investor in over thirty consumer internet, media, and technology companies that have completed public offerings or successful mergers...
, Dr. Anita Jones and Gilman Louie
Gilman Louie
Gilman Louie is technology venture capitalist who got his start as a video game designer and then ran the CIA venture capital fund. He graduated in 1983 from San Francisco State University. He attended the while at Harvard Business School in 1997....
.
Computer technologies
Some of BBN's notable developments in the field of computer networkComputer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
s are the implementation and operation of the ARPANET; the first person-to-person network email sent and the use of the @ sign in an email address; the first Internet protocol
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
router (then called an Interface Message Processor
Interface Message Processor
The Interface Message Processor was the packet-switching node used to interconnect participant networks to the ARPANET from the late 1960s to 1989. It was the first generation of gateways, which are known today as routers. An IMP was a ruggedized Honeywell DDP-516 minicomputer with...
); the Voice Funnel
Voice Funnel
The Voice Funnel was an experimental high-speed interface between digitized speech streams and a packet-switching communications network, in particular the ARPANET. It was built in the time frame from 1979 to 1981. It may be viewed as an early Voice over IP voice and video telephone.The Voice...
, an early predecessor of voice over IP
Voice over IP
Voice over Internet Protocol is a family of technologies, methodologies, communication protocols, and transmission techniques for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol networks, such as the Internet...
; and work on the development of TCP
Transmission Control Protocol
The Transmission Control Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is one of the two original components of the suite, complementing the Internet Protocol , and therefore the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP...
. Other well-known BBN computer-related innovations include the first time-sharing
Time-sharing
Time-sharing is the sharing of a computing resource among many users by means of multiprogramming and multi-tasking. Its introduction in the 1960s, and emergence as the prominent model of computing in the 1970s, represents a major technological shift in the history of computing.By allowing a large...
system, the LOGO programming language, the TOPS-20
TOPS-20
The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation was the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. TOPS-20 began in 1969 as the TENEX operating system of Bolt, Beranek and Newman...
(TENEX) operating system, the Colossal Cave Adventure
Colossal Cave Adventure
Colossal Cave Adventure gave its name to the computer adventure game genre . It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky...
game, the first link-state routing protocol
Link-state routing protocol
A link-state routing protocol is one of the two main classes of routing protocols used in packet switching networks for computer communications . Examples of link-state routing protocols include OSPF and IS-IS....
, and a series of mobile ad-hoc networks starting in the 1970s. BBN also is well known for its parallel computing
Parallel computing
Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently . There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level,...
systems, including the Pluribus
Pluribus
The Pluribus multiprocessor was an early multi-processor computer designed by BBN for use as a packet switch in the ARPANET. Its design later influenced the BBN Butterfly computer....
, and the BBN Butterfly computers, which have been used for such tasks as warfare simulation for the U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
.
BBN was the first networking organization to receive an Autonomous System Number (AS1) for network identification. ASNs are an essential identification element used for Internet Backbone Routing. Lower numbers generally indicate a longer established presence on the Internet. AS1 is now operated by Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications is a telecommunications and Internet service provider headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.It operates a Tier 1 network. The company provides core transport, IP, voice, video and content delivery for most of the medium to large Internet carriers in North America and Europe...
following their acquisition of Genuity.
Today, BBN leads a wide range of research and development projects, including the standardization effort for Internet security architecture (IPsec
IPsec
Internet Protocol Security is a protocol suite for securing Internet Protocol communications by authenticating and encrypting each IP packet of a communication session...
), the networking technology in the Joint Tactical Radio System
Joint Tactical Radio System
The Joint Tactical Radio System is planned to be the next-generation voice-and-data radio used by the U.S. military in field operations after 2010...
, mobile ad hoc networks, advanced speech recognition
Speech recognition
Speech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to recognition systems that must be trained to a particular speaker—as is the case for most desktop recognition software...
, the military's Boomerang
Boomerang (mobile shooter detection system)
Boomerang is a gunfire locator developed by DARPA and BBN Technologies primarily for use against snipers on mobile vehicles such as the Humvee, Stryker, and MRAP combat vehicles. There were future plans to integrate it into the Land Warrior system....
mobile shooter detection system, and quantum cryptography
Quantum cryptography
Quantum key distribution uses quantum mechanics to guarantee secure communication. It enables two parties to produce a shared random secret key known only to them, which can then be used to encrypt and decrypt messages...
. BBN is also the managing the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) project office for the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
.
See also
- DARWARSDARWARSDARWARS is a research program intended to accelerate the development and deployment of military training systems. These are envisioned as low-cost, mobile, web-centric, simulation-based, “lightweight” systems designed to take advantage of the ubiquitous presence of the PC and of new technology,...
, a military simulation gameMilitary exerciseA military exercise is the employment of military resources in training for military operations, either exploring the effects of warfare or testing strategies without actual combat...
developed with DARPA since 2003 - George G. RobertsonGeorge G. RobertsonGeorge G. Robertson is an American information visualization expert and Senior Researcher, Visualization and Interaction Research Group, Microsoft Research. With Stuart K. Card, Jock D...
- Richard E. HaydenRichard E. HaydenRichard E. Hayden is a specialist in acoustics. He earned a BS from Norwich University and an MS from Purdue University, after which he joined Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, where he embarked on a research program in the acoustics of flow/surface interactions...
External links
- Oral history interviews with various figures about BBN and the ARPANET, Charles Babbage InstituteCharles Babbage InstituteThe Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
, University of Minnesota. Figures include the following: Vinton G. Cerf; Frank Heart; Robert E. Kahn; Leonard Kleinrock; Alexander A. McKenzie; Severo Ornstein; David C. Walden; Charles A. Zraket; and others. - BBN Technologies
- quantum.bbn.com
- Acentech Inc.