I appreciate the praise that TCP/IP gets in this post:
" TCP/IP is the foundation of the Internet. The protocol dates back to the early days of the ARPANet, and has existed in its present form since September 1981 (the date of RFC 791 and RFC 793). This protocol violates all of the first five principles of de-commoditization.
It is simple. Together, the two RFCs span 130 simply formatted pages, appendices and all. This is nothing short of astonishing, considering how difficult a problem internetworking is considered to be.
It is completely specified. IETF protocols in general are well known for specifying "bits on the wire", and these protocols exemplify IETF practice. There are no complicated options or variants. As a consequence, TCP/IP implementations tend to work together very well. (actually, you need to add a link layer to get a complete TCP/IP implementation. However, RFC 1055 describes such a link layer (SLIP) in six pages.
It is well documented. The RFCs are a model of clarity, thanks in large part to Jon Postel.
It is stable and mature. The protocol has been in use since 1981, and has scaled by many orders of magnitude. Old implementations still work on the modern Internet.
It is unencumbered. No patents, copyrights, nor trademarks are infringed by a working TCP/IP implementation.
To say that TCP/IP has been enormously successful would be an understatement."
Through writing that I also found that the "narrow waist" idea and metaphor comes from Postel himself (see the appendix). This doesn't seem to be widely acknowledged, and others cite various non-Postel RFCs, but it's fairly clear in Jacobsen's telling (and he was there)
" TCP/IP is the foundation of the Internet. The protocol dates back to the early days of the ARPANet, and has existed in its present form since September 1981 (the date of RFC 791 and RFC 793). This protocol violates all of the first five principles of de-commoditization.
To say that TCP/IP has been enormously successful would be an understatement."