Farouk Kamoun

Infobox Scientist
name = Farouk Kamoun
box_width =


image_width = 200
caption =
birth_date = Oct 20, 1946
birth_place = Sfax
death_date =
death_place =
residence = Tunis
citizenship = Tunisia
nationality = Tunisian
ethnicity = Arabic
field = Computer Science
work_institutions = ENSI
alma_mater =
doctoral_advisor = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Kleinrock]
doctoral_students = L. Saidane, A. Belguith, Y. Jammoussi
known_for = Herarchical routing optimal number
author_abbrev_bot =
author_abbrev_zoo =
prizes =
religion = Muslim
footnotes =

Farouk Kamoun, PhD. (born 1946) is a Tunisian computer scientist and professor of computer science at ENSI (Ecole Nationale Sciences Informatiques) who made significant contributions to the field of computer networking.

His contribution is in the domain of hierarchical routing, begun in 1979 with his professor at UCLA, Leonard Kleinrock. They discovered that the optimal number of levels for an $N$ router subnet is $ln(N)$, requiring a total of $ecdot\; ln(N)$ entries per router. They also showed that the increase in effective mean path length caused by hierarchical routing is sufficiently small that it is usually acceptable.

He received a French engineering degree in 1970, a Master's and a PhD degree from the University of California at Los Angeles Computer Science Department. His PhD work, undertaken under the supervision of Dr Leonard Kleinrock, a pioneer in the area of networking, was related to the design of large computer networks. They were among the first to introduce and evaluate cluster-based hierarchical routing. Results obtained then are still very relevant and have recently inspired considerable work in the area of ad-hoc networking.

Upon his return to Tunisia, in 1976, he was given the task to create and chair the first Computer Science Department of the country. During his term as chairman, 1976-1982, and as a professor since then, he taught the first course ever in Tunisia on computer networks. He also launched the first research group on networking. His research work on network flow control based on buffer management was a precursor to the now famous selective reject algorithms used in the Internet. His former students are now leaders in this field in Tunisia, whether in academia or in the professional sector.

He also promoted the field of networking in Tunisia, through the organization of several national conferences and workshops dealing with networks.

From 1982 till 1993, he chaired the CNI, Centre National de l'Informatique, a Government Office in charge of IT policies andstrategic development. As chairman of the board and CEO of CNI, he chaired several IT strategic and planning committees and supervised the development of major government software. He also launched several advanced pilot projects in the field of networking and software engineering.

One such pilot project dealt with the installation and operation, in the mid 80's, of the first packet switching network. This pilot network enabled Tunisia to acquire know-how in the field and paved the way for the acquisition of a full-fledged commercial Packet Switching Network. This also established the first connections to Bitnet, UUCP and later the Internet.

As chairman of CNI, he represented Tunisia at the general assembly and executive board meetings of the Intergovernmental Bureau for Informatics (IBI) in Rome, in the 80's, as well as those of the UNESCO IT Intergovernmental Committee, with a focus on issues related to developing countries.

From 1993 till 1999, he served as Dean of ENSI, Ecole Nationale des Sciences de l'Informatique, a School of Engineering dedicated to the training of computer engineers .

External links

* [http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/indices/a-tree/k/Kamoun:Farouk.html His list of Publications]
* [http://www.ercim.org/publication/policy/tunisia/frame9.html Ecole Nationale des Sciences de l'Informatique]