Prof. Henning Schulzrinne Wins SIGCOMM Award for Lifetime Achievement

By
Holly Evarts
June 28, 2022

Computer Scientist recognized for his groundbreaking work on internet protocols and applications

EE and Computer Science Professor Henning Schulzrinne has won the 2022 SIGCOMM Award for Lifetime Achievement for his “impactful and sustained contributions to the design of protocols, applications, and algorithms for Internet multimedia.” He shares the prize, which has been awarded annually since 1989, with Deborah Estrin, professor of computer science at Cornell Tech.

Schulzrinne, who is Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Mathematical Methods and Computer Science at the Engineering School, co-developed the key protocols that enable voice-over-internet-protocols, known widely as VoIP, that now power voice, video and text communications for modern mobile phones, enterprise, consumer, and public safety applications.

From 2010 through 2019, he advised the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where he also served as FCC Chief Technologist from 2012 to 2014 and in 2017, on public safety, enabling communications for people with disabilities, the Open Internet, cybersecurity, network measurements, and ways to prevent robocalling. From 2019 to 2020, he served as a Technology Fellow in the office of Senator Ron Wyden, advancing efforts on protecting data against illegal searches, improving broadband availability for rural and low-income households, and deterring identity theft. He currently co-chairs the Emerging Technologies working group on the FCC’s technological advisory council (TAC).

Schulzrinne, who is also professor of electrical engineering, and his group have developed the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP), and other multimedia signaling and support protocols that are used in the 3GPP, CableLabs, NENA NG911 (for emergency calls), and other system standards to support VoIP and multimedia streaming applications. Most recently, he has been working on automating the diagnostics of internet network faults, protecting the electric grid against cyberattacks, analyzing broadband deployment, and scaling up the Internet of Things.

ACM is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society. ACM SIGCOMM is ACM's professional forum for discussing communications and computer networks.

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