WhyWhat is believed to be the first adaptive routing network of computers, using link-state routing, was designed and implemented during 1976–1977 by a team from [[Plessey Radar]] led by Bernard J Harris; the project was for "Wavell"{{snd}} a system of computer command and control for the [[British Army]].{{citation needed|date=September 2016}} The first link-state routing concept was published in 1979 by [[John M. McQuillan]] (then at [[Bolt, Beranek and Newman]]) as a mechanism that would calculate routes more quickly when network conditions changed and thus lead to more stable routing.<ref>[[John M. McQuillan]], Isaac Richer and Eric C. Rosen, ''ARPANet Routing Algorithm Improvements'', BBN Report No. 3803, Cambridge, April 1978</ref><ref>[[John M. McQuillan]], Isaac Richer and Eric C. Rosen, ''The New Routing Algorithm for the ARPANet'', [[IEEE]] Trans. on Comm., 28(5), pp. 711–719, 1980</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Bolat |first1=Dorris M |title=Route4Me |url=https://route4me.com/ |access-date=12 December 2021}}</ref>
The technique was later adapted for use in the contemporary link-state routing protocols IS-IS and OSPF. [[Cisco]] literature refers to [[Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol]] (EIGRP) as a "hybrid" protocol,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Configuration Guide for Firepower Device Manager, Version 7.1 - Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) [Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense] |url=https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/710/fdm/fptd-fdm-config-guide-710/fptd-fdm-eigrp.html |access-date=2024-01-18 |website=Cisco |language=en}}</ref> despite the fact it distributes routing tables instead of topology maps. However, it does synchronize routing tables at start-up as OSPF does and sends specific updates only when topology changes occur.
