Leonard Kleinrock (born June 13, 1934) is an American engineer and computer scientist. A computer science professor at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, he 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, the precursor to the Internet, at UCLA.[3]
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 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962, published in book form in 1964; he later published several of the standard works on the subject. He 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 worldwide Internet.
Education and career
Kleinrock was born in New York City on June 13, 1934 to a Jewish family,[4] and graduated from the noted Bronx High School of Science in 1951. He received a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree in 1957 from the City College of New York, and a master's degree and a doctorate (Ph.D.) in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1959 and 1963 respectively. He then joined the faculty at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where he remains to the present day; during 1991–1995 he served as the Chairman of the Computer Science Department there.[5]
ARPANET and the Internet
The first message on the ARPANET was sent by UCLA student programmer Charley Kline, at 10:30 p.m, on October 29, 1969 from Boelter Hall 3420, the school's main building.[6] Supervised by Kleinrock, Kline transmitted from the university's SDS Sigma 7 host computer to the Stanford Research Institute's SDS 940 host computer. The message text was the word "login"; the "l" and the "o" letters were transmitted, but the system then crashed. Hence, the literal first message over the ARPANET was "lo". About an hour later, having recovered from the crash, the SDS Sigma 7 computer effected a full "login". The first permanent ARPANET link was established on November 21, 1969, between the IMP at UCLA and the IMP at the Stanford Research Institute. By December 5, 1969, the entire four-node network was established.[7]
In 1988, Kleinrock was the chairman of a group that presented the report Toward a National Research Network to the U.S. Congress.[8] This report was highly influential and was used to develop the High Performance Computing Act of 1991,[9] that was influential in the development of the Internet as it is known today.[10] Funding from the bill was used in the development of the 1993 web browser Mosaic, at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).[11]
Room 3420 at Boelter Hall was restored to its condition of 1969 and converted into The Kleinrock Internet Heritage Site and Archive. It opened to the public with a grand opening attended by internet pioneers October 29, 2011.[6][12]
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."[2] In 2010 he shared the Dan David Prize.[13] In 2012, Kleinrock was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.[14]
See also
- ARPANET
- Computer Science
- UCLA Engineering School
- Internet pioneers
- Nerds 2.0.1 - 1998 documentary in which Kleinrock gives a lengthy interview
- Plan 55-A, a message switching system analyzed in Kleinrock's thesis.
Works
- Kleinrock, Leonard (May 1961). "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets". Ph.D. Thesis Proposal (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
- Kleinrock, Leonard (July 1961). "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets". RLE Quarterly Progress Report (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
- Kleinrock, Leonard (April 1962). "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets". RLE Quarterly Progress Report (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
- Kleinrock, Leonard (December 1962). "Message Delay in Communication Nets with Storage" (PDF). (PhD thesis) (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
- Kleinrock, Leonard (1964). Communication Nets: Stochastic Message Flow and Design. McGraw-Hill. p. 220. ISBN 978-0486611051.
- Kleinrock, Leonard (2 January 1975). Queueing Systems: Volume I – Theory. New York: Wiley Interscience. p. 417. ISBN 978-0471491101.
- Kleinrock, Leonard (22 April 1976). Queueing Systems: Volume II – Computer Applications. New York: Wiley Interscience. p. 576. ISBN 978-0471491118.
- Kleinrock, Leonard; Kamoun, Farok (January 1977). "Hierarchical Routing for Large Networks, Performance Evaluation and Optimization". Computer Networks 1 (3): 155–174.
- Kleinrock, Leonard; Gail, Richard (12 April 1996). Queueing Systems: Problems and Solutions. Wiley-Interscience. p. 240. ISBN 978-0471555681.
References
- ^ Leonard Kleinrock at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ a b "Eight National Medals of Science Awardees Honored at Gala". NSF. 26 September 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Philip (29 October 2009). "Web pioneer recalls 'birth of the Internet'". CNN. Retrieved October 30, 2009.
- ^ "Jews in Computer & Information Science". The Jewish Contribution to World Civilization web site. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
- ^ "Leonard Kleinrock's Profile". UCLA. 12 April 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
- ^ a b Savio, Jessica (1 April 2011). "Browsing history: A heritage site is being set up in Boelter Hall 3420, the room the first Internet message originated in". UCLA Daily Bruin (UCLA). Retrieved 1 April 2011.
- ^ Sutton, Chris. "Internet Began 35 Years Ago at UCLA with First Message Ever Sent Between Two Computers". UCLA. Archived from the original on 8 March 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
- ^ "Toward a National Research Network".
- ^ "High-Performance Computing Act of 1991". Retrieved 21 March 2011.
- ^ "A Bill of Rights for the Internet: What Should it Have Been at the Outset" (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2011.
- ^ Tuutti, Camille (23 September 2011). "R&D in IT essential to help US stay competitive". Federal Computer Week. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ McCarty, Meghan (19 July 2011). "Beginning of the Internet commemorated in new UCLA museum". Southern California Public Radio. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
- ^ Wileen Wong Kromhout (March 15, 2010). "UCLA Internet pioneer Leonard Kleinrock looks toward future, helps students do the same". UCLA Engineering. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
- ^ "2012 Inductees". Internet Hall of Fame. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
External links
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.
| Persondata |
|---|
| Name | Kleinrock, Leonard |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | Computer scientist |
| Date of birth | June 13, 1934 |
| Place of birth | New York, NY |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
