From left to right: JOHN O’ SULLIVAN, DAVID SKELLERN, AND TERENCE PERCIVAL
2017 IEEE MASARU IBUKA CONSUMER ELECTRONICS AWARD
Sponsored by Sony Corporation
JOHN O’ SULLIVAN, DAVID SKELLERN, AND TERENCE PERCIVAL
For pioneering contributions to high-speed wireless LAN technology
The efforts of John O’Sullivan, David Skellern, and Terence Percival in developing and commercializing high-speed Wi-Fi provided the milestone technology for practically all in-home and local area mobile Internet communications. O’Sullivan initiated and led the early efforts in techniques for very high-speed wireless networks at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Percival took over and led the CSIRO project that modeled and prototyped the high-speed modulation schemes and hardware needed for successful Wi-Fi communications. Working in conjunction with CSIRO, Skellern led a pioneering project on wireless local area networks at Macquarie University and in 1997 co-founded, with Percival and Neil Weste, Radiata Communications to commercialize the CSIRO-Macquarie research. O’Sullivan joined Radiata in 1999. In 2000 Radiata demonstrated the first working Wi-Fi system based on the IEEE 802.11a 5-GHz standard. An IEEE Senior Member, O’Sullivan is a physicist and electrical engineer (retired). An IEEE Life Fellow, Skellern is chairman of CMCRC Ltd, Sydney, Australia. Percival is an electrical engineer and director of TMPP Pty Ltd, Northbridge, Australia.
