Networking

Internet Protocol History

Timeline of major internet protocols — TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, TLS, and the web stack.

Major milestones

YearMilestone
1969ARPANET first node at UCLA
1974Cerf & Kahn publish TCP paper
1981RFC 791: IPv4
1981RFC 793: TCP
1983ARPANET switches to TCP/IP; DNS defined (RFC 882/883)
1989Tim Berners-Lee proposes the Web at CERN
1991First web server goes online; HTTP/0.9
1993Mosaic browser
1995SSL 2.0
1996HTTP/1.0 (RFC 1945)
1997HTTP/1.1 (RFC 2068 → 2616 → 7230)
1998RFC 2460: IPv6
1999TLS 1.0 (RFC 2246)
2008TLS 1.2 (RFC 5246)
2012World IPv6 Launch Day (June 6)
2015HTTP/2 (RFC 7540) — multiplexed over single TCP conn
2018TLS 1.3 (RFC 8446) — 1-RTT handshake
2022HTTP/3 (RFC 9114) — over QUIC / UDP

Protocol stack (simplified)

LayerExamples
ApplicationHTTP, DNS, SMTP, IMAP, SSH, gRPC, WebSocket
TransportTCP, UDP, QUIC, SCTP
NetworkIPv4, IPv6, ICMP
Data linkEthernet, WiFi (802.11), PPP, 4G/5G
PhysicalCopper, fiber, radio

Notes

  • HTTP/3 is the first major HTTP revision to run over UDP (via QUIC), bypassing TCP head-of-line blocking.
  • DNS has accreted DNSSEC, DoT, DoH, and DoQ — encrypted variants for privacy.
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