Milestone-Proposal talk:IEEE 802

Advocates’ Checklist

1. Is proposal for an achievement rather than for a person?
2. Was proposed achievement a significant advance rather than an incremental improvement to an existing technology?
3. Were there prior or contemporary achievements of a similar nature?
4. Has the achievement truly led to a functioning, useful, or marketable technology?
5. Is proposal adequately supported by significant references (minimum of five) such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or citations to pages in scholarly books? At least one of the references from a peer-reviewed scholarly book or journal article. The full text of the material, not just the references, shall be present. If the supporting texts are copyright-encumbered and cannot be posted on the ETHW for intellectual property reasons, the proposers shall email a copy to the History Center so that it can be forwarded to the advocate. If the advocate does not consider the supporting references sufficient, the advocate may ask the proposer(s) for additional ones.
6. Are the scholarly references sufficiently recent?
7. Is proposed citation readable and understandable by the general public?
8. Does the proposed plaque site fulfill the requirements?
9. Is the proposal quality comparable to that of IEEE publications?
10. Scientific and technical units correct? (e.g. km, mm, hertz, etc.) Are acronyms correct and properly upperercased or lowercased?
11. Date formats correct as specified in Section 6 of Milestones Program Guidelines? https://ieeemilestones.ethw.org/Helpful_Hints_on_Citations,_Plaque_Locations

Reviewers’ Checklist

1. Is the suggested wording of the Plaque Citation accurate?
2. Is evidence presented in the proposal of sufficient substance and accuracy to support the Plaque Citation?
3. Does the proposed milestone represent a significant technical achievement?

Submission and Approval Log

23 August 2023 -- Submitted. 23 August 2023 -- Advocate approval. 6 September 2023 -- History Committee approval. 19 November 2023 -- Board of Directors

Original Citation Title and Text -- Administrator4 (talk) 18:20, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Original citation will go here when the proposal is submitted

Re: Original Citation Title and Text -- Administrator4 (talk) 17:32, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

IEEE 802 Family of Networking Standards, 1980-1999

The necessity to standardize computer Local Area Networks (LANs) resulted in the IEEE Computer Society sponsoring LAN Standard Project 802 in 1980. Four 802 Working Groups formed by 1989 have been particularly successful and transformative: IEEE 802.1 (Bridging), IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi®), and IEEE 802.15 (Wireless Personal Area Networks). IEEE 802 standards have defined ever-expanding networking speeds and features, thus enabling the seamless interconnection of computing devices worldwide.

Re: Re: Original Citation Title and Text -- GeoffT (talk) 18:59, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

The proposed Citation had cited 1989, but this has been corrected in the Citation on the main page to 1999 (the year of creation of the 802.15 Working Group).

Expert Review #1: Robert Garner -- GeoffT (talk) 01:14, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Robert Garner has provided an enthusiastic positive confirmation to the 3 key questions:
1. Is the suggested wording of the Plaque Citation accurate?
2. Has evidence been presented in the proposal of sufficient substance and accuracy to support the Plaque Citation?
3. Does the proposed Milestone represent a significant technical achievement?

Robert Garner began his 41-year Silicon Valley career in 1977 when Bob Metcalfe recruited him into the Xerox System Development Division (SDD) in Palo Alto to co-design the first commercial 10-Mbps Ethernet controller and the Xerox 8010 STAR Professional Workstation and Servers, both announced in 1981. Xerox's 10-Mbps Ethernet became the basis of the 1980 joint DEC-Intel-Xerox (DIX) Ethernet specification, subsequently incorporated into the IEEE 802.3 LAN standard. Employing the XNS high-level protocol for gateway, file, and print server sharing, Xerox STAR systems at real world customer sites demonstrated Ethernet’s viability and efficacy.

From 1984-1998, Robert’s career continued at Sun Microsystems - whose workstations incorporated Ethernet adapters since the company's founding. While Director of Hardware at Brocade Communications, he spearheaded a multi-firm effort in 2000 to define the 10-Gbps XAUI interface standard, which was the 10-Gbit evolution of Ethernet’s AUI (Attachment Unit Interface). Since 2021, Robert has been writing a technical history of Ethernet's first decade (its ALOHAnet inspiration, invention at Xerox PARC, initial products, and standardization by IEEE 802.3 in 1983), an effort that has so far included interviews of over 110 participants.

Technical Review: Peter Jones -- GeoffT (talk) 15:06, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

Peter Jones has provided confirmation to the 3 key questions:
1. Is the suggested wording of the Plaque Citation accurate?
2. Has evidence been presented in the proposal of sufficient substance and accuracy to support the Plaque Citation?
3. Does the proposed Milestone represent a significant technical achievement?
He also agrees that the Computer History Museum is an appropriate location for the plaque.

Please note that Peter is not able to serve as an Expert Reviewer based on his involvement with some of the IEEE 802 Working Groups. Although he thus has a conflict of interest in this regard, his being an "insider" and providing support for this Milestone is also very important. Peter is thus shown here as a "Technical Reviewer" of this proposal.

Peter Jones has worked at Cisco since 2005 where he is a Distinguished Engineer in the Cisco Networking HW team. He works on system architecture and standards strategy across the company's product portfolio. He was a major contributor to the Catalyst switching product line, including the Catalyst 9000 series and the UADP ASIC family. This product line includes network switches, wireless controllers, and wireless access points which support Ethernet and other network interfaces.

Peter has been in the networking product business since 1988, initially working on embedded software, moving to system architecture, and then product/technology evangelization. His evangelization has included being Chair of the NBASE-T Alliance from its inception until its merger with the Ethernet Alliance. He now serves as Chair of the Ethernet Alliance, advocating for Ethernet as a technology. Peter is a Cisco Live Distinguished speaker, and can often be found promoting Ethernet at industry events, in industry publications, and on podcasts/vodcasts. He has been active in IEEE 802.3 for several years, mostly working on BASE-T projects, and was previously an active contributor to IEEE 802.17.

Expert Review #2: Steve Diamond -- GeoffT (talk) 00:00, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

Steve Diamond has provided confirmation to the 3 key questions:
1. Is the suggested wording of the Plaque Citation accurate?
2. Has evidence been presented in the proposal of sufficient substance and accuracy to support the Plaque Citation?
3. Does the proposed Milestone represent a significant technical achievement?

Steve Diamond is a subject matter expert in industry standards, and has extensive industry experience in business development, product management, marketing, and mergers & acquisitions. He has built and led high-performance teams in industry standards, cloud computing, and semiconductors, and has authored over 20 technical publications on cloud computing, signal processing, expert systems, computer graphics, and memory and microprocessor technology.

At VMware from 2016-2020, Steve was Senior Director of the Industry Standards Office in the Office of the CTO. At EMC from 2010-2016, he was General Manager of the Industry Standards Office, and Global Standards Officer in the Office of the CTO. Steve was 2003 IEEE Computer Society President and served two terms on the IEEE Board of Directors. He was the founding Vice Chair of the IEEE Standards Association. Steve received the IEEE Richard Merwin and Third Millennium Medals, the Computer Society Golden Core Award, and was elected to the IEEE Technical Activities Hall of Honor. He currently chairs the IEEE Cloud Computing Standards Committee and is an independent consultant specializing in industry standards.