Paul Baran first developed the field of packet switching networks while conducting research at the historic RAND organization.

The concept of packet switching is what the Internet uses to get data from place to place.

When data is sent from one computer to another computer on the Internet it is sliced into small "packets" of from 128-512 bytes.

Packets have the TO and FROM address so that each packet can find its way to the intended destination.

The packets of information may travel different paths, but are reassembled at the end of the journey to their original order.