Jean Walrand
- Fields of study
- Computing
Biography
Jean Walrand’s research on high-speed switching and network resource allocation has improved performance for more efficient and reliable communication over the Internet. During the 1990s, Dr. Walrand developed quick simulation techniques for queuing networks to estimate the probability of events that can have catastrophic consequences in communications networks. He also developed virtual buffers to improve the marking of data packets to help detect when a router is reaching its maximum capacity. Dr. Walrand’s award-winning work on high-speed switching for queued networks initiated in 1993 investigated a method to allow Internet routers to reach 100% efficiency, overcoming the problem of “head of the line blocking.” Dr. Walrand’s contributions to network resource allocation include the concept of virtual bandwidth and work on fair end-to-end window-based congestion control. His recent research has focused on distributed schemes for resource allocation applied to switches, wireless multihop networks, and allocations in data centers.
An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Walrand is currently a professor with the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department at the University of California, Berkeley.
