As this year marks 38 years since Radia Perlman invented the algorithm for implementing a spanning tree protocol (STP), I thought it a great time to share her story which originally appeared in my book, Female Innovators at Work.
Radia is an American computer programmer and network engineer and a major figure in assembling the networks and technology to enable what we now know as the internet. She is most famous for her invention of the spanning-tree protocol (STP), which is fundamental to the operation of network bridges thus earning her nickname "Mother of the Internet.” Her innovations have made a huge impact on how networks self-organize and move data. She also made large contributions to many other areas of network design and standardization: for example, enabling today's link-state routing protocols, to be more robust, scalable, and easy to manage.
Radia’s invention of STP (one of many patents she holds) transformed the Ethernet from technology which was limited to a few hundred nodes confined to a single building into a technology that could handle massive networks and thus laying the groundwork for the internet as we know it today.
As an undergraduate at MIT, Radia undertook what was known as an Undergraduate Research Opportunity within the LOGO Lab at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. While there, working under the supervision of Seymour Papert, Radia created TORTIS (Toddler’s Own Recursive Turtle Interpreter System), a children’s version of the educational LOGO robotics language.
Radia’s seminal books include Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches, and Internetworking Protocols and Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World. Radia also holds more than a hundred issued patents.
Radia has taught at the University of Washington, Harvard University, and MIT. She has a BS degree and an MS degree in Mathematics from MIT, and a PhD in Computer Science, also from MIT. She was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2014 and the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2016, was awarded a SIGCOMM Award for Lifetime Contribution.
I think that I shall never see
A graph more lovely than a tree.
A tree whose crucial property
Is loop-free connectivity.
A tree that must be sure to span
So packets can reach every LAN.
First, the root must be selected.
By ID, it is elected.
Least cost paths from root are traced.
In the tree, these paths are placed.
A mesh is made by folks like me,
Then bridges find a spanning tree.
— Radia Perlman’s poem to describe how her invention works.
Danielle Newnham: Can you tell me about your background?
Radia Perlman: I don’t think there’s anything remarkable about my background. I grew up in New Jersey with an older sister. Family values were critical thinking, hard work, non-discrimination, living frugally, and not displaying wealth, being very against classism. My father especially had a good sense of humour. I was pretty shy and quiet, but very ambitious academically.
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