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Story URL: http://networks.silicon.com/lans/0,39024663,39268395,00.htm

Photos: The tech that holds up the net
Packet switching turns 40...

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Wednesday 06 August 2008

Packet switching is one of the crucial technologies that made the internet possible.

It's 40 years since the technique was invented by a team at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Bushy Park, Middlesex, led by professor Donald Davies (pictured in 1974).

Speaking to silicon.com, NPL chief scientist, professor John Pethica explained: "The whole idea of packet switching is what underlies the idea of a set of distributed nodes, which is now the internet. It's the hardware side of the internet."

Photo credit: NPL