ARPANET predated NSFNET by a couple of decades and was decommissioned in large part because of the existence of superior networks like NSFNET. ARPANET, a project of the Department of Defense, was the network where the Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP, was developed and first used. NSFNET followed behind ARPANET and was designed as a network of research centers and supercomputers communicating over a TCP/IP network much as ARPANET before it. With NSFNET online, ARPANET became redundant and was decommissioned in favor of the more advanced network.