Internet Protocol History
Timeline of major internet protocols — TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, TLS, and the web stack.
Reference
Major milestones
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1969 | ARPANET first node at UCLA |
| 1974 | Cerf & Kahn publish TCP paper |
| 1981 | RFC 791: IPv4 |
| 1981 | RFC 793: TCP |
| 1983 | ARPANET switches to TCP/IP; DNS defined (RFC 882/883) |
| 1989 | Tim Berners-Lee proposes the Web at CERN |
| 1991 | First web server goes online; HTTP/0.9 |
| 1993 | Mosaic browser |
| 1995 | SSL 2.0 |
| 1996 | HTTP/1.0 (RFC 1945) |
| 1997 | HTTP/1.1 (RFC 2068 → 2616 → 7230) |
| 1998 | RFC 2460: IPv6 |
| 1999 | TLS 1.0 (RFC 2246) |
| 2008 | TLS 1.2 (RFC 5246) |
| 2012 | World IPv6 Launch Day (June 6) |
| 2015 | HTTP/2 (RFC 7540) — multiplexed over single TCP conn |
| 2018 | TLS 1.3 (RFC 8446) — 1-RTT handshake |
| 2022 | HTTP/3 (RFC 9114) — over QUIC / UDP |
Protocol stack (simplified)
| Layer | Examples |
|---|---|
| Application | HTTP, DNS, SMTP, IMAP, SSH, gRPC, WebSocket |
| Transport | TCP, UDP, QUIC, SCTP |
| Network | IPv4, IPv6, ICMP |
| Data link | Ethernet, WiFi (802.11), PPP, 4G/5G |
| Physical | Copper, 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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