April 23, 2013
Present-day networks are being challenged by dramatic increases in data rate demands of emerging applications. A new network architecture, incorporating “optical flow switching”, will enable significant rate growth, power-efficiency and cost-effective scalability of next-generation networks. We will explore architecture concepts germinated 22 years ago, technology and testbed demonstrations performed in the last 17 years and the recent architecture construct from the Physical Layer to the Transport Layer of an implementable optical flow switching network that is scalable and manageable.
Vincent W. S. Chan, the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Professor of EECS, MIT, received his BS(71), MS(71), EE(72), and Ph.D.(74) degrees in EE all from MIT. From 1974 to 1977, he was an assistant professor, EE, at Cornell University. He joined MIT Lincoln Laboratory in 1977 and had been Division Head of the Communications and Information Technology Division until becoming the Director of the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (1999–2007). He is currently a member of the Claude E. Shannon Communication and Network Group at the Research Laboratory of Electronics of MIT.
In July 1983, he initiated the Laser Intersatellite Transmission Experiment Program and in 1997, the follow-on GeoLITE Program. In 1989, he formed the All-Optical-Network Consortium among MIT, AT&T and DEC. He also formed and served as PI the Next Generation Internet Consortium, ONRAMP among AT&T, Cabletron, MIT, Nortel and JDS, and a Satellite Networking Research Consortium formed between MIT, Motorola, Teledesic and Globalstar. He has founded in 2009 and is serving as the Editor-in-Chief of a new IEEE/OSA Journal: Journal of Optical Communications and Networking. He is currently a Member of the Corporation of Draper Laboratory, the Technical Advisory Board of Mercury Computer and on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Communication Society as VP of Publications. He is also an elected member of Eta-Kappa-Nu, Tau-Beta-Pi and Sigma-Xi, the Fellow of the IEEE and the Optical Society of America.
Throughout his career, Professor Chan has spent his research focus on communication and networks, particularly on free space and fiber optical communication and networks and satellite communications. His work has led the way to a successful laser communication demonstration in space and early deployment of WDM optical networks. His recent research emphasis is on heterogeneous (satcom, wireless and fiber) network architectures with stringent performance demands.