Steven H. Low
Biography
The Internet’s ability to provide fast and reliable data relies on managing congestion that can lead to sluggish performance. Steven Low played a crucial role in developing the network utility maximization (NUM) approach to congestion control, thus improving the performance and efficiency of the Internet for billions of users. His pioneering approach used congestion signals from routers as shadow prices to adjust window sizes. This led to the Random Early Marking mechanism, which provides high utilization with low delays and losses. Low also developed the theory for dual-based controllers, resulting in the FAST congestion control algorithm. This work led to the creation of FastSoft Inc., later acquired by Akamai.
An IEEE Fellow, Low is the Frank J. Gilloon Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA and is the 2025 recipient of the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award for "contributions to the theoretical foundation and practical implementation of Internet congestion control."
