founded 1948 ; 68 years ago 1948 founder leo beranek and richard bolt headquarters cambridge massachusetts us website www.bbn.com dr. talib hussain senior scientist at bbn technologies looks over the shoulder of a recruit during a training session on the virtual environments for ship and shore experiential learning system at recruit training command . bbn technologies originally bolt beranek and newman is an american high technology company which provides research and development services . bbn is based next to fresh pond in cambridge massachusetts usa . it is a military contractor primarily for darpa and also known for its 1978 acoustical analysis for the house select committee on the assassination of john f. kennedy . 1 bbn of the 1950s and 1960s has been referred to by two of its alumni as the third university of cambridge after mit and harvard . 2 in 1966 the franklin institute awarded the firm the frank p. brown medal . bbn became a wholly owned subsidiary of raytheon in 2009 . on february 1 2013 bbn technologies was awarded the national medal of technology and innovation . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 spin offs and mergers 2 locations and subsidiaries 3 computer technologies 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit founded in 1948 by leo beranek and richard bolt professors at the massachusetts institute of technology with bolt s former student robert newman bolt beranek and newman started life as an acoustical consulting company . their first contract was consultation for the design of the acoustics of the united nations assembly hall in new york . subsequent commissions included mit s kresge auditorium 1954 tanglewood s koussevitzky music shed 1959 lincoln center s avery fisher hall 1962 the cultural center of the philippines 1969 and baltimore s joseph meyerhoff symphony hall 1978 . citation needed experts at the company examined the richard nixon tape with the 18.5 minutes erased during the watergate scandal 4 and the dictabelt evidence which was purportedly a recording of the jfk assassination . citation needed the substantial calculations required for acoustics work led to an interest and later business opportunities in computing . bbn was a pioneer in developing computer models of roadway and aircraft noise and in designing noise barriers near highways . citation needed some of this technology was used in landmark legal cases where bbn scientists were expert witnesses . citation needed bbn bought a number of computers in the late 1950s and early 1960s notably the first production pdp 1 from digital equipment corporation . 5 bbn was involved in building some of the earliest internet networks including arpanet milnet csnet and nearnet . a number of well known computer luminaries have worked at bbn including daniel bobrow ron brachman john seely brown jerry burchfiel richard burton edmund clarke allan collins bernie cosell william crowther john curran wally feurzeig ed fredkin bob kahn stephen kent 6 j. c. r. licklider john mccarthy marvin minsky dan murphy severo ornstein seymour papert oliver selfridge bob thomas ray tomlinson and peiter mudge zatko . former board members include jim breyer anita k. jones and gilman louie . spin offs and mergers edit in the 1970s bbn created telenet inc. to run the first public packet switched network . in 1989 bbn s acoustical consulting business was spun off into a new corporation acentech incorporated located across the street from bbn headquarters in cambridge . 7 bbn formed an early internet service provider in 1994 as its bbn planet division . 8 previously traded as bbn on the stock market the company was purchased by gte in 1997 as a wholly owned subsidiary . 9 bbn planet was joined with gte s national fiber network to become gte internetworking powered by bbn . when gte and bell atlantic merged to become verizon in 2000 the internet service provider division of bbn was included in assets spun off as genuity to satisfy federal communications commission fcc requirements leaving behind the remainder of bbn technologies . genuity was later acquired out of bankruptcy by level 3 communications in 2003 . 10 in march 2004 verizon sold the remainder of the company by then known as bbnt solutions llc to a group of private investors from accel partners general catalyst partners in q tel and bbn s own management 11 making bbn an independent company for the next five years . in september 2009 raytheon entered into an agreement to acquire bbn as a wholly owned subsidiary . 12 the acquisition was completed on october 29 2009 13 and the company was valued at approximately 350 million . 14 in december 2014 the domain name bbn.com the second oldest currently registered domain name on the internet was redirected to www.raytheon.com ourcompany bbn . former bbn employees have formed about a hundred startup companies with varying levels of official involvement including parlance corporation and everyzing . 15 locations and subsidiaries edit as of 2013 bbn technologies maintains offices in 16 cambridge highlands cambridge massachusetts columbia maryland st. louis park minnesota o fallon illinois newport east middletown rhode island near naval station newport 17 rosslyn arlington virginia near washington d.c. digital force technologies dft of san diego california is a wholly owned bbn subsidiary purchased in june 2008 . 18 computer technologies edit some of bbn s notable developments in the field of computer networks are the implementation and operation of the arpanet ; the first person to person network email 19 and the use of the sign in an email address ; 20 the first internet protocol router then called an interface message processor ; 21 the voice funnel an early predecessor of voice over ip ; and work on the development of tcp . other well known bbn computer related innovations include the logo programming language the tops 20 tenex operating system the colossal cave adventure game the first link state routing protocol and a series of mobile ad hoc networks starting in the 1970s . citation needed bbn also is well known for its parallel computing systems including the pluribus and the bbn butterfly computers which have been used for such tasks as warfare simulation for the u.s. navy . 22 bbn also developed the rs 1 rs explore and rs discover statistical software systems . bbn was the first networking organization to receive an autonomous system number as1 for network identification . 23 asns are an essential identification element used for internet backbone routing . lower numbers generally indicate a longer established presence on the internet . as1 is now operated by level 3 communications following their acquisition of genuity . today bbn leads a wide range of research and development projects including the standardization effort for the security extension to the border gateway protocol bgpsec mobile ad hoc networks advanced speech recognition the military s boomerang mobile shooter detection system and quantum cryptography . bbn is also part of the global environment for network innovations geni project for the national science foundation which includes a 11.5 million grant for 33 research teams . 24 see also edit darwars a military simulation game developed with darpa since 2003 george g. robertson richard e. hayden interlisp references edit darpa funded grants 2005 2010 pdf . retrieved 25 april 2013 . 40 years after sparking the internet bbn s long search for a home ends at home . 2009 09 02 . retrieved 2013 01 03 . quoting where wizards stay up late the origins of the internet by katie hafner and matthew lyon 1998 president obama honors nation s top scientists and innovators . retrieved 2013 02 11 . hafner katie ; lyon matthew 2001 . where wizards stay up late the origins of the internet . new york touchstone . p. 83 . isbn 0684872161 . hafner katie ; lyon matthew 2001 . where wizards stay up late the origins of the internet . new york touchstone . pp. 84 85 . isbn 0684872161 . internet hall of fame inducts raytheon cybersecurity expert . retrieved 4 april 2016 . acentech acoustic solutions company overview & acoustical services . retrieved 28 may 2012 . timeline about us raytheon bbn technologies . bbn.com . retrieved on 2013 07 26 . gte bbn merger complete . 1997 08 15 . retrieved 2013 01 03 . level 3 s acquisition of genuity earns court approval . 2003 01 27 . retrieved 2013 01 03 . bbnt solutions acquisition finalized . 2004 03 01 . retrieved 2012 01 03 . raytheon announces agreement to purchase bbn technologies . waltham mass . pr newswire . 1 september 2009 . retrieved 13 november 2009 . raytheon completes acquisition of bbn technologies . mckinney texas pr newswire . 26 october 2009 . retrieved 13 november 2009 . raytheon buys bbn for about 350m . the register . 27 october 2009 . retrieved 28 may 2012 . bbn birthplace of 100 startups focuses on game tech . 2009 07 16 . retrieved 2013 01 23 . contact utility raytheon bbn technologies . bbn.com . retrieved on 2013 07 26 . bbn technologies . riedc . retrieved on 2013 07 26 . bbn technologies and digital force technologies partner for growth . 2008 06 24 . retrieved 2013 01 03 . tomlinson ray . the first email a neat idea . corporate website . bbn . retrieved 1971 . check date values in access date help tomlinson ray . the sign icon for the digital age . corporate website . bbn . retrieved 1971 . check date values in access date help the computer history museum sri international and bbn celebrate the 40th anniversary of first arpanet transmission precursor to today s internet sri international . sri.com . retrieved on 2013 07 26 . technology services raytheon bbn technologies . bbn.com . retrieved on 2013 07 26 . postel jon ; jim vernon january 1983 . assigned numbers . ietf . rfc 820 . https tools.ietf.org html rfc820 . retrieved 19 may 2011 . geni project office at bbn technologies announces 115 . m in nsf funding . retrieved january 6 2013 . external links edit official website oral history interviews . with various figures about bbn and the arpanet charles babbage institute university of minnesota . figures include the following vinton g. cerf ; frank heart ; robert e. kahn ; leonard kleinrock ; alexander a. mckenzie ; severo ornstein ; david c. walden ; charles a. zraket ; and others . timeline . bbn technologies . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bbn technologies & oldid 717575851 categories networking companies of the united statescompanies based in cambridge massachusettsdefense companies of the united statestechnology companies established in 1948time sharing companieshidden categories cs1 errors datesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from may 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to 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