Larry Roberts

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Larry Roberts

American computer engineer who invented the concept of computer networking and data packet transmission, making possible the Internet, e-mail, and the World Wide Web. Telephone companies initially dismissed Roberts's concept of "packet switching," now the backbone of Internet data transmission, as impractical. However, sending data in small packets by often varying routes and reassembling it at the destination proved much more efficient and reliable than other methods. Roberts's method subsequently became the global standard for data transmission.