W1SEG

Amateur Radio Station

I’ve always thought the fact that Boggs was a ham radio operator was important. It had a great impact on the way the Ethernet was designed, because the Ethernet fundamentally doesn’t work reliably. It’s like citizens’ band radio, or any of the other kinds of radio communication, which are fundamentally not reliable in the way that we think of the telephone. Because you know it basically doesn’t work, you do all the defensive programming—the ‘say again, you were garbled’ protocols that were worked out for radio communication. And that makes the resulting network function extremely reliably.… I’ve often wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t had that background.
—Bert Sutherland, referring to David Boggs and the invention of Ethernet

quote Bill Lear

Strive for design simplicity. You never have to fix anything you leave out.
—Bill Lear

W1SEG Amateur Radio Station

quote Bill Lear

Strive for design simplicity. You never have to fix anything you leave out.
—Bill Lear

I’ve always thought the fact that Boggs was a ham radio operator was important. It had a great impact on the way the Ethernet was designed, because the Ethernet fundamentally doesn’t work reliably. It’s like citizens’ band radio, or any of the other kinds of radio communication, which are fundamentally not reliable in the way that we think of the telephone. Because you know it basically doesn’t work, you do all the defensive programming—the ‘say again, you were garbled’ protocols that were worked out for radio communication. And that makes the resulting network function extremely reliably.… I’ve often wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t had that background.
—Bert Sutherland, referring to David Boggs and the invention of Ethernet