--- 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.