Leonard Kleinrock

Leonard Kleinrock, Ph.D. (born June 13, 1934 in New York) is a computer scientist, and a professor of computer science at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, who made several important contributions to the field of computer networking, in particular to the theoretical side of computer networking. He also played an important role in the development of the ARPANET at UCLA.

His most well-known and significant work is his early work on queueing theory, which has applications in many fields, among them as a key mathematical background to packet switching, the basic technology behind the Internet. His initial contribution to this field was his doctoral thesis in 1962, published in book form in 1964; he later published several of the standard works on the subject.

He has described this work as:

"Basically, what I did for my PhD research in 1961–1962 was to establish a mathematical theory of packet networks ..."

His theoretical work on hierarchical routing, done in the late 1970s with his then-student Farouk Kamoun, is now critical to the operation of today's world-wide Internet.

ARPANET and the Internet

In 1969, ARPANET, the world's first packet switched computer network, was established on October 29 between nodes at Kleinrock's lab at UCLA and Douglas Engelbart's lab at SRI. Interface Message Processors (IMP) at both sites served as the backbone of the first Internet [http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/stories/2004/Internet35.htm] .

In addition to SRI and UCLA, UCSB, and the University of Utah were part of the original four network nodes. By December 5, 1969, the initial 4-node network was connected.

In 1988, Kleinrock chaired a group which presented the report "Toward a National Research Network" to congress [http://newton.nap.edu/books/NI000393/html] . This report was highly influential upon then-Senator Al Gore who used it to develop the "Gore Bill" or the "High Performance Computing Act of 1991" [http://www.mit.edu/afs/net.mit.edu/dev/mit/jis/OldFiles/nrenbill.txt] , which was influential in the development of the Internet as it is known today. [http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/PS/paper224.pdf] . In particular, it led indirectly to the development of the 1993 web browser MOSAIC, which was created at National Center for Supercomputing Applications(NSCA) which was funded by the "High-Performance Computing and Communications Initiative", a program created by the "High Performance Computing Act of 1991".

Education and career

He graduated from the legendary Bronx High School of Science in 1951, and received a B.E.E. in 1957 from the City College of New York, and an S.M. and a Ph.D. in EECS from MIT in 1959 and 1963 respectively. He then joined the faculty at UCLA, where he remains to the present day; during 1991-1995 he served as the Chairman of the Computer Science Department there.

Kleinrock is also a member of the advisory board of TTI/Vanguard.

Awards

He has received numerous professional awards. Kleinrock was selected to receive the prestigious National Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor, from President George W. Bush in the White House on September 29, 2008. "The 2007 National Medal of Science to Leonard Kleinrock for his fundamental contributions to the mathematical theory of modern data networks, and for the functional specification of packet switching, which is the foundation of Internet technology. His mentoring of generations of students has led to the commercialization of technologies that have transformed the world." [White House News report]

ee also

*ARPANET
*UCLA
*Computer Science
*"Nerds 2.0.1" - 1998 documentary in which Kleinrock gives a lengthy interview

Further reading

* Leonard Kleinrock, [http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/LK/Bib/REPORT/PhD/proposal.html "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets"] , Ph.D. Thesis Proposal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, July 1961
* Leonard Kleinrock, [http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/LK/Bib/REPORT/RLEreport-1961.html "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets"] , RLE Quarterly Progress Report, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, July 1961
* Leonard Kleinrock, [http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/LK/Bib/REPORT/RLEreport-1962.html "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets"] , RLE Quarterly Progress Report, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, April 1962

* Leonard Kleinrock, "Communication Nets: Stochastic Message Flow and Design" (McGraw-Hill, 1964)
* Leonard Kleinrock, "Queueing Systems: Volume I – Theory" (Wiley Interscience, New York, 1975)
* Leonard Kleinrock, "Queueing Systems: Volume II – Computer Applications" (Wiley Interscience, New York, 1976)

* Leonard Kleinrock, Farok Kamoun, "Hierarchical Routing for Large Networks, Performance Evaluation and Optimization", "Computer Networks", Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 155–174, January 1977

References

External links

* [http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu Leonard Kleinrock's personal web site]
* [http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/LK/Bib/ Bibliography]
* [http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/LK/Inet/birth.html Leonard Kleinrock's Personal History/Biography]
* [http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/internet_history.html Network history links]
* [http://www.cbi.umn.edu/oh/display.phtml?id=117 Oral history interview with Leonard Kleinrock] at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Kleinrock discusses his dissertation work in queuing theory, and his move to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). As one of the main contractors for the ARPANET, Kleinrock describes his involvement in discussions before the official DARPA request was issued, the people involved in the ARPANET work at UCLA, the installation of the first node of the network, the Network Measurement Center, and his relationships with Lawrence Roberts and the IPT Office, Bolt Beranek and Newman, and the Network Analysis Corporation.
* [http://www.cbi.umn.edu/oh/display.phtml?id=115 Oral history interview with Howard Frank] at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Frank describes his work on the ARPANET, including his interaction with Roberts and the IPT Office.
*Association for Computing Machinery [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1008213.1008229 Video Interview with Leonard Kleinrock]
* [http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/electronicplay.aspx?fid=28176&id=E0C5478 Video: Leonard Kleinrock on the first Internet connection]
* [http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/electronicplay.aspx?fid=28175&id=E0C5478 Video: Leonard Kleinrock displays Internet's first router]
* [http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/electronicplay.aspx?fid=28174&id=E0C5478 Video: Leonard Kleinrock on packet-switching, early Internet]