The very first device that had fundamentally the same functionality as a Cisco Router does today, was the (IMP); IMPs were the devices that made up the , the first network. The idea for a Cisco Router (called ” ” at the time) initially came about through an international group of computer networking researchers called the International Network Working Group (INWG). Set up in 1972 as an informal group to consider the technical issues involved in connecting different networks, later that year it became a subcommittee of the .