Center for Advanced Technology in

Telecommunications (CATT)

Mission

• The New York State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR) has re-designated Polytechnic University as the New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Telecommunications and Distributed Information Systems for the period 2004-2014. Several researchers at Columbia University are affiliated with CATT.

• The mission of the Center is to stimulate economic development in information technology through research and education.

CATT - A short tour of the last 25 years

• 1983: CATT is one of the first four New York State Centers for Advanced Technology

• Early 1980’s was the dawn of today’s information age– AT&T broken up – NSFnet, a precursor of the Internet is a largely

academic research network– Wireless phone service prohibitively expensive

Metrotech

• 1980s:The creation of CATT coincided with President George Bugliarello’s vision of an urban industry-academic park.

• 1990s: Many companies with substantial IT operations, starting with KeySpan, SIAC (now NYSE Euronext) and JPMorgan Chase are attracted by the educational and R&D synergies.

Packet-switching

• 1980s: Packet switching network tools developed that helped design the first generation packet switched networks for Contel (now Verizon), IBM and SIAC (NYSE Euronext) and NASDAQ.

• 1990s: Network fault management: Root cause analysis technology becomes the basis of SMARTS, Inc. (now part of EMC)

Wireless networks

• 1980s: CATT helps solve a complex scheduling problem for Argos, Inc., a satellite company offering telephone service.

• 1990s: The Wafisch-Bertoni model is adopted by the cellular industry to site base stations. It is now a part of all cellular network design tools.

Imaging/Multimedia

• 1990s: CATT develops technology to optimize video compression for transport over networks. Advanced compression techniques are adopted by KeySpan to transmit maps to field engineers using wireless PDA’s.

• 1990s: As part of a Financial Services Technology Consortium project, CATT demonstrates that digital images of checks can be a good substitute to physically transporting checks. Banks subsequently adopt digital imaging of checks.

Voice over IP

• 1990s: CATT plays key role in the development of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) that is a fundamental building block of VOIP; spin-off company: FirstHand Technologies

• 2000s: CATT researchers work with Verizon to show how VOIP can be used securely in a carrier-class deployment

What’s cooking now?

• Cooperative wireless communications: Will likely be part of next generation wireless standards, increasing bits/Hz

• P2P video

• Cyber-security

• New startups: Vivic, Arootz, Digital Assembly, Mobile Matrix,…