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Kahn recruited [[Vint Cerf]] of the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] to work with him on the problem. They soon worked out a fundamental reformulation, where the differences between network protocols were hidden by using a common [[internetwork protocol]], and instead of the network being responsible for reliability, as in the ARPANET, the hosts became responsible. Cerf credits [[Herbert Zimmerman]] and [[Louis Pouzin]] (designer of the [[CYCLADES]] network) with important influences on this design. Some accounts also credit the early networking work at [[Xerox]] [[PARC]] as an important technical influence.
With the role of the network reduced to the bare minimum, it became possible to join almost any networks together, no matter what their characteristics were, thereby solving Kahn's initial problem. (One popular saying has it that [[TCP/IP]], the eventual product of Cerf and Kahn's work, will run over "two tin cans and a string".) A computer called a ''gateway'' (later changed to ''[[router]]'' to avoid confusion with other types of ''gateway'') is provided with an interface to each network, and forwards [[packet]]s back and forth between them. Happily, this new concept was a perfect fit with the newly emerging local area networks, which were revolutionizing communication between computers within a single site.
==Early growth==
After ARPANET had been up and running for a decade, ARPA looked for another agency to hand off the network to. After all, ARPA's primary business was funding cutting-edge research and development, not running a communications utility. Eventually the network was turned over to the [[Defense Communications Agency]], also part of the Department of Defense.
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