Donald Davies became interested in data communications for computer networks

Following discussions with J. C. R. Licklider in 1965, Donald Davies became interested in data communications for computer networks. Later that year, at the National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom), Davies designed and proposed a national data network based on packet switching. The following year, he described the use of an "Interface computer" to act as a router. The proposal was not taken up nationally but by 1967, a pilot experiment had demonstrated the feasibility of packet switched networks. He and his team were the first to use the term 'protocol' in a data-commutation context in 1967.