John O'Sullivan (engineer)
John O’Sullivan is an Australian electrical engineer whose work in the application of Fourier transforms to radio astronomy[1] led to his invention with colleagues of a core technology that made wireless LAN fast and reliable. This technology was patented by CSIRO and forms part of the 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n Wi-Fi standards.
In 2009 O’Sullivan was awarded both the CSIRO Chairman’s Medal and the Australian Prime Minister's Prize for Science.
He is currently working on the design of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope, a step towards the proposed Square Kilometre Array telescope.
Fourier transforms and WiFi
In 1977 John O'Sullivan co-authored a paper in the Journal of the Optical Society of America titled "Image sharpness, Fourier optics, and redundant-spacing interferometry"[1] with J. P. Hamaker, and J. E. Noordam. In this paper, they presented a technique for sharpening and improving picture clarity in radio astronomy pictures.
In 1999, IEEE ratified 802.11a standard. O'Sullivan was not the member of the working group [2] and did not contribute to the standard.
In the early 1990's, O'Sullivan led a team at the CSIRO which patented in 1996 the use of a related technique for reducing multipath interference of radio signals transmitted for computer networking. This technology is a part of all recent WiFi implementations [3]. As of May 2010, the CSIRO has earned over $250 million in royalties and settlements arising from the use of this patent as part of the 802.11 standards with as much as a billion dollars expected after further lawsuits against other parties.[4]
Qualifications
- 1974 Doctor of Philosophy (Electrical Engineering), Sydney University [5]
- 1969 Bachelor of Engineering, H1, University Medal, Sydney University[5]
- 1969 Sydney University Sports Blue (Hockey)[5]
- 1967 Bachelor of Science, Sydney University[5]
Career highlights, awards, fellowships and grants
- 2009 (Australian)Prime Minister’s Prize for Science
- 2009 CSIRO Chairman’s Medal
- 2005–present Systems Engineer, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
- 2004–2006 Lead Signal Processing Architect, G2 Microsystems
- 2001–2004 Director IC Systems Engineering, Cisco Systems
- 2000 CSIRO Medal for development and application of fast Fourier transform technology
- 1999–2001 Vice President Systems Engineering, Radiata Communications
- 1995–2000 Director Technology, News Ltd
- 1989–1995 Deputy Chief of Division, CSIRO Radiophysics
- 1983–1989 Head of Signal Processing Group, CSIRO Radiophysics
- 1974–1983 Head of Receiver Group, Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy (now ASTRON)
Research highlights
- Achieved an eight-fold increase of the bandwidth processing capacity of the Westerbork Radio Telescope as project leader for the digital continuum backend receiver
- Participated in a series of innovative experiments to detect exploding black holes and other short time astronomical events
- Developed an intellectual underpinning for adaptive optics in light telescopes and redundant baseline interferometer in radio telescopes
- With Austek Microsystems created a fast Fourier transform computer chip. This VLSI chip consisted of 160,000 transistors and performed real time transforms at rates up to 2.5 Msamples/s
- Influential role in the system design for the Australia Telescope
- Led a CSIRO team comprising Graham Daniels, John Deane, Diethelm Ostry, Terry Percival who together invented a patented technology that uses fast Fourier transform and other techniques to enable fast, robust wireless networking in the home and office[6]
- Led the system design for the world’s first 802.11a (WiFi) chipset developed by Radiata Networks
- Over 40 scientific and technical papers at numerous industry conferences
- Granted 12 patents in the area of special purpose FFT processors, Wireless LANs and antennas
- Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and Institute of Engineers Australia
- Member of international review committee for information and communications technologies in CSIRO
- Member of Australian Square Kilometre Array Consultative Committee
- Chair of the Mathematics, Information and Communication Sciences Expert Advisory Committee, Convenor ICT Appraisal committee, 2004 CRC selection round
- Optical Society of America
- Board Director AAPT, Taggle Systems
References
- ^ a b Hamaker, J. P.; O'Sullivan, J. E.; Noordam (1977), "Image sharpness, Fourier optics, and redundant-spacing interferometry", J. Opt. Soc. Am. 67 (8): 1122–1123, doi:10.1364/JOSA.67.001122
- ^ "802.11a-1999 High-speed Physical Layer in the 5 GHz band" (pdf). 1999-02-11. pp. 6..7. http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.11a-1999.pdf. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
- ^ Older WiFi implementations which only support 802.11b do not use patented technology
- ^ Moses, Asher (1 June 2010). "CSIRO to reap 'lazy billion' from world's biggest tech companies". The Age (Melbourne). http://www.theage.com.au/technology/enterprise/csiro-to-reap-lazy-billion-from-worlds-biggest-tech-companies-20100601-wsu2.html.
- ^ a b c d 2009 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science award citation
- ^ US The present invention discloses a wireless LAN, a peer-to-peer wireless LAN, a wireless transceiver and a method of transmitting data, all of which are capable of operating at frequencies in excess of 10 GHz and in multipath transmission environments. 5487069, O'Sullivan, John D.; Graham R. Daniels & Terence M. P. Percival et al., "Wireless LAN", published 23 January 1996
External links
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