Who invented an IP address?

The invention of the IP address cannot be attributed to a single individual. The concept of IP addressing and the development of the Internet Protocol (IP) can be traced back to the work of multiple researchers and organizations over several decades.

The fundamental design of IP addressing was established by Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn, who are often referred to as the “fathers of the internet.” They played a crucial role in the development of the TCP/IP protocol suite, which includes the IP addressing scheme.

In the early stages of the internet’s development, researchers and organizations, such as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), collaborated to refine and standardize IP addressing. This involved defining the structure and format of IP addresses and developing protocols for routing and managing IP-based networks.

The original IP addressing scheme, known as IPv4, was introduced in the 1980s and used a 32-bit address format. As the internet grew in popularity, the need for more available addresses became apparent. This led to the development of IPv6, a newer version of IP addressing, which uses a 128-bit address format and provides a significantly larger pool of unique addresses.

While specific individuals made significant contributions to the development of IP addressing, the concept and implementation of IP addresses were the result of collective efforts by various researchers and organizations working to build and improve the internet infrastructure we use today.