A Perspective on the Cypress Internetworking Technology

The Cypress Project at Purdue University started in early 1985 to explore ways of providing low-cost Internet access to the scientific community. The central goal of the Cypress project was to develop a low-cost internetworking technology that provides all the functionality of Internet Protocol at a cost as inexpensive as CSNET's Phonenet service. The Cypress network has been operational since November 1985 and has succeeded in meeting that goal. Thls paper describes the design goals, protocols, implementation, and perfor­ mance of the Cypress network.