Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe won the Turing Award, saying that humans are now connected

50 years ago, Bob Metcalfe and another researcher invented Ethernet. With this innovative technology, he laid the foundation for the development of modern computer communication and the Internet.

Metcalfe promoted the idea that the value of the web grows rapidly with the number of users, a view now known as "Metcalfe's Law."

On March 22, Bob Metcalfe, 76-year-old inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, won the Turing Award. This highest honor in computer science recognizes his contribution to ushering the masses into the era of hyperconnectivity.

Born in New York in 1946, Metcalfe is a world-renowned computer scientist, engineer and entrepreneur. 50 years ago, Metcalf and another researcher invented Ethernet, a local networking technology that connects personal computers around the world to the global internet. He also played a central role in the standardization and commercialization of Ethernet. With this innovative technology, he laid the foundation for the development of modern computer communication and the Internet.

Metcalf has always believed in the power of social networks. In the 80s and 90s of the 20th century, he popularized the idea that the value of the network increases rapidly with the number of users, which is now known as "Metcalfe's Law", which has important reference value for understanding network effects and the development of the Internet economy.

Today, with the ubiquity of the Internet, Metcalfe's thinking has expanded further. "The most important new fact about the human condition is that we are suddenly connected." He said.

On March 22, Bob Metcalfe, 76-year-old inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, won the Turing Award.

Career is a history of Internet development

Metcalfe's career can be described as developing in tandem with the Internet.

Metcalfe's research career began studying electrical engineering and industrial management at MIT. He then went to Harvard University for graduate school, at a time when the U.S. Department of Defense was ramping up its investment in Arpanet, the Internet's predecessor.

Metcalfe proposed building an interface to connect the network to the host computer at Harvard University, but the university refused. He turned around and made the same proposal to MIT, where he was hired as a researcher at MIT even though he was a graduate student at Harvard at the time. When he submitted a paper describing the work to the Harvard University Thesis Committee in 1972, he failed to defend. The Committee stated that the subject lacked a theoretical character.

At that time, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) threw an olive branch to Metcalfe. Bob Taylor, the director of his lab, told Metcalfe to come to PARC anyway and allowed him to complete his thesis in Palo Alto. Metcalfe began building an ARPANET interface for a new computer at the Palo Alto Research Center, while looking for a theoretical topic that would meet Harvard's requirements.

In May 1973, Metcalf outlined his vision for Ethernet in a memorandum.

Computer networking at that time was both a theoretical and an engineering challenge. The fundamental problem is how to share access to the network among many users. While the telephone network handles this problem in the simplest way, it also has the fatal drawback that the connection between the two parties occupies the communication channel during the call, at which point it cannot be accessed by any other user. This inefficiency is not a big problem for phone conversations, as conversations are rarely silent for long periods of time. However, computer communication is characterized by bursts of short periods of time, which are usually separated by long periods of silence.

This dilemma took a turn after University of Hawaii professor Norm Abramson built a radio network called ALOHAnet, which, like the ARPANET, transmits data in small packets. But unlike ARPANET, ALOHAnet does not try to avoid collisions between packets. Conversely, any user who loses information or makes an error due to a collision is retried after a random interval. This "random retransmission" is similar to the etiquette of conversation at a banquet: when two people start talking at the same time, they both stop and try again later. The randomness of the wait time ensures that the problem is resolved after a few attempts. This strategy works well in low-traffic situations, but when the network is congested to a certain extent, collisions are so frequent that no messages can be delivered.

Bob Metcalfe holds an original Ethernet cable taken from the Palo Alto Research Center.

Metcalf stumbled upon Abramson's paper on ALOHAnet's theory and came up with a way to avoid crowded impasse. In Metcalfe's model, users will independently adjust the average wait time between transmission attempts based on the frequency of collisions: if there are few collisions, they will try again faster, and if the network is congested, they will back off, making communication more efficient overall. This model allowed Metcalfe's paper to pass Harvard review with enough weight, and he soon realized he could put it into practice in his new work.

Metcalfe's plan also exempts ALOHAnet's central hub. Instead, the computer will be connected through some passive media. He thought of using a specific cable for transmission, noting that wireless networks could also work in theory, and that as technology improved, it might work better in practice.

To avoid emphasizing specific hardware, Metcalfe named his idea "Ethernet," which later became simply Ethernet. He was inspired by the hypothetical medium of electromagnetic wave propagation by 19th-century physicists.

By November 1973, Metcalfe and his colleagues had their first network up and running. He continued to further develop the design, hoping to expand it beyond Xerox, but executives seemed uninterested in commercializing the new technology. By 1979, Metcalfe had had had enough of Xerox's apathy. He left PARC to set up his own company, 3Com, to do what Xerox was unwilling to do.

Shortly after starting his own business, Metcalfe persuaded representatives of Xerox, Intel and the now-defunct Digital Equipment Corporation to adopt Ethernet as an open industry standard for local networks. Other companies promoted their own technology, but Ethernet ultimately won, in large part due to its simplicity and Metcalfe's early push for standardization.

Entering new territory at the age of 76

In 1990, Metcalfe left 3Com to become a critic and technical columnist. It was the second time he had become restless after about a decade at a job, and it wouldn't be the last. He later became a venture capitalist and became a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Metcalfe has a theory about what prompted him to make such a dramatic change. "You don't know anything at first, then you go up the learning curve, and then you know everything." In an interview with Quantum Magazine, he said, drawing a curve with his finger and pointing to the middle of the curve, adding: "I have found from experience that the most interesting part is actually here." ”

Later, Ethernet was used in the home, becoming the basis for Wi-Fi networks in the late 1990s. Ethernet has also been tweaked over the years, with few of the initial technical details remaining, but the name "Ethernet" remains. It continues to play an integral role as a conduit for personal computer networks that we now take for granted.

"Almost everything you do online goes through Ethernet at some point." Marc Weber, curator and director of the Internet History Program at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, told The New York Times, "You've been using it."

Metcalfe has received a lot of attention during his career as he has published numerous articles and presentations on networking, technology, and entrepreneurship. His views and insights provide an important reference for the advancement of the technology industry. As a long-standing technology leader with a focus on innovation, Metcalfe is also actively involved in public affairs, serving as a policy advisor and advising government departments on technology developments.

Less than a year ago, Metcalfe made another career change at age 76. He is now a researcher at MIT, studying the application of supercomputers to complex problems in energy and other fields. "I'm still in the early part of the learning curve." "I don't know much, but I'm trying to fix that," he said. ”