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| Robert E. Kahn | |
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| Born | December 23, 1938 |
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| Nationality | USA |
| Fields | Computer Science |
| Institutions | DARPA Corporation for National Research Initiatives |
| Known for | TCP/IP |
| Notable awards | Turing Award |
Robert Elliot Kahn, (born December 23, 1938) invented the TCP protocol, and along with Vinton G. Cerf created the IP protocol, the technologies used to transmit information on the Internet.
After receiving a B.E.E. from the City College of New York in 1960, Dr. Kahn earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University in 1962 and 1964 respectively.
In 1972 he moved to ARPA (now known as DARPA), and in October of that year, he demonstrated the ARPANET by connecting 40 different computers at the International Computer Communication Conference, publicizing the network to the general public for the first time. After he became Director of DARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), he started the United States government's billion dollar Strategic Computing Program, the largest computer research and development program ever undertaken by the U.S. federal government.
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The Internet
While working on a satellite packet network project, he came up with the initial ideas for what later became the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which was intended as a replacement for an earlier network protocol, NCP, used in the ARPANET. While working on this, he played a major role in forming the basis of open-architecture networking, which would allow computers and networks all over the world to communicate with each other, regardless of what hardware or software the computers on each network used. To reach this goal, TCP was designed to have the following features:
- Small sub-sections of the whole network would be able to talk to each other through a specialized computer that only forwarded packets (first called a gateway, and now called a router).
- No portion of the network would be the single point of failure, or would be able to control the whole network.
- Each piece of information sent through the network would be given a sequence number, to ensure that they were dealt with in the right order at the destination computer, and to detect the loss of any of them.
- A computer which sent information to another computer would know that it was successfully received when the destination computer sent back a special packet, called an acknowledgement (ACK), for that particular piece of information.
- If information sent from one computer to another was lost, the information would be retransmitted, after the loss was detected by a timeout, which would recognize that the expected acknowledgement had not been received.
- Each piece of information sent through the network would be accompanied by a checksum, calculated by the original sender, and checked by the ultimate receiver, to ensure that it was not damaged in any way en route.
Vint Cerf joined him on the project in the spring of 1973, and together they completed an early version of TCP. Later, it was separated into two separate layers, with the more basic functions being moved to the Internet Protocol (IP). The two together are usually referred together as TCP/IP, and are the basis for the modern Internet.
Recent career
After thirteen years with DARPA, he left to found the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) in 1986, and as of 2006 is the Chairman, CEO and President. CNRI is a nonprofit organization which is intended to provide leadership and funding for research and development of the National Information Infrastructure.
Recognition
He was awarded the SIGCOMM Award in 1993 for "for visionary technical contributions and leadership in the development of information systems technology", and shared the 2004 Turing Award with Vint Cerf, for "pioneering work on internetworking, including .. the Internet's basic communications protocols .. and for inspired leadership in networking."
He is a recipient of the AFIPS Harry Goode Memorial Award, the Marconi Award, the ACM SIGCOMM Award, the President's Award from ACM, the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computer and Communications Award, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the IEEE Third Millennium Medal, the ACM Software Systems Award, the Computerworld/Smithsonian Award, the ASIS Special Award and the Public Service Award from the Computing Research Board. He has twice received the Secretary of Defense Civilian Service Award. He is a recipient of the 1997 National Medal of Technology, the 2001 Charles Stark Draper Prize from the National Academy of Engineering, the 2002 Prince of Asturias Award, and the 2004 A. M. Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery. Dr. Kahn received the 2003 Digital ID World award for the Digital Object Architecture as a significant contribution (technology, policy or social) to the digital identity industry. In 2005 he was awarded the Townsend Harris Medal from the Alumni Association of the City College of New York, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the C & C Prize in Tokyo, Japan. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2006. He was awarded the 2008 Japan Prize for his work in "Information Communication Theory and Technology" (together with Vinton Cerf).
- In 2001 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
- Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf were each inducted as an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) in May 2006.
Dr. Kahn has received honorary degrees from Princeton University, University of Pavia, ETH Zurich, University of Maryland, George Mason University, the University of Central Florida and the University of Pisa, and an honorary fellowship from University College, London.
Articles
See also
- Paul Baran co-inventor of packet-switched networks with Donald Davies
Notes
External links
- Biography of Robert E. Kahn on the Corporation for National Research Initiatives' website.
- Oral history interview with Robert E. Kahn Oral history interview by William Aspray, 22 March 1989, Reston, Virginia Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
- Bio of Robert E. Kahn from the Living Internet.
- "Morning Edition" interview (NPR)
- "Nerd TV" interview (with Robert X. Cringley) - Requires QuickTime (transcript)
- Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing, documentary ca. 1972 about the ARPANET. Includes footage of Robert E. Kahn.
- A short history of Bobs (story/slideshow) in computing, from Bob Kahn to Bob Metcalfe to Microsoft Bob and Alice & Bob
- "An Evening with Robert Kahn in conversation with Ed Feigenbaum" - Requires WMV player
- "Managing Digital Objects on the Web - Dec. 11, 2007" - The talk is available in Flash, Mpeg-4, Real Media and Windows Media formats
| Awards and achievements | ||
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| Preceded by Tadahiro Sekimoto |
IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal 1997 with Vint Cerf |
Succeeded by Richard Blahut |
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| Persondata | |
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| NAME | Kahn, Robert E. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American computer scientist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 23, 1938 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 5 September 2008, at 11:01.
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