Bob Kahn worked with Vinton Gray Cerf to create a system whereby computer networks with different individual hardware and software configurations could communicate with one another. Kahn knew very well the overall problems involved with networking, and Cerf was best at implementing the small details into different systems. Kahn and Cerf knew enough about each other's expertise to be able to find problems with each other's logic. They decided that no changes would be made within individual networks in order for them to connect with others. This was reasonable, since changing all networks would be incredibly difficult. Instead, Kahn and Cerf decided to put the Interface Message Processor (IMP) minicomputer (now called a router) between networks to change the size of packets (small pieces of data) or the number of packets that each network needed at the packets' destination. They called this system the Transmission Control Protocol, later known as TCP/IP. In the TCP/IP system, the Internet Protocol (IP) ensures only that the packets arrive at the computer destination. TCP focuses on reliable delivery of data, deals with lost or corrupted packets, and reassembles the packets at the destination. Kahn and Cerf announced their idea for TCP/IP in 1973 and published on the topic in 1974. As Kahn and Cerf worked on their ideas for their paper, Cerf had graduate students at Stanford University implementing these ideas on a minicomputer that could be used, if necessary, to modify Kahn and Cerf's approach to solving this problem.

In 1977, Kahn and Cerf set up a network that transmitted data through three separate networks--Packet Radio Net, ARPANET, and SATNET. The packets of data were transmitted 94,000 miles, from the San Francisco Bay Area to Massachusetts, then to Norway and London, and finally to the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute. No information was lost in this transfer. Although this was the first demonstration of the TCP aspect of the new protocols, the landmark event--a pivotal step in the development of the Internet--went largely unnoticed.

As the co-inventor of the TCP/IP system, Kahn helped create the now standard system of protocols used to connect computer networks over the Internet. TCP/IP is the language by which computers around the world "speak" with one another. Indeed, this language has allowed the Internet to develop into the powerful forum it is today.

Kahn had the insight to inspire and organize others to work to build the Internet in the 1970's. He continued to develop the Internet for decades after he helped to establish the TCP/IP system. . .

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