---
tags: [ARPANET, computer-history, networks]
created: Wednesday, October 23, 2024
---

# 653c0b1d_host_protocols_of_ARPANET

The responsibility for enabling communication between nodes fell to the hosts,
not the [IMPs](e470bf3d_IMPs_in_the_ARPANET.md). At the lowest level (equivalent
to the [link layer](Link_Layer_of_Internet_Protocol.md) in the subsequent
internet?), this consisted in moving raw bits between hosts regardless of what
specific type of data they encoded.

In the book (_Where Wizards Stay Up Late_), there is a great description by
analogy:

> Some water out of the tap is used for making coffee, some for washing dishes,
> some for bathing. The pipe and the faucet do not care about this; they convey
> the water regardless.
