| Kenichi Sato |
Dr. Kenichi Sato received his M.S. degree in electronics engineering from the University of Tokyo, in 1978. The same year, he joined Yokosuka Electrical Communication Laboratory, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (currently Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT)). In 1985, he worked at British Telecom Research Laboratories as an exchange researcher. In 1999, he became the executive manager of the Photonic Transport Network Laboratory, NTT Network Innovation Laboratories. In 2004, he was designated as an NTT R&D Fellow. Since that year, he has been a Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University (electrical engineering and computer science).After he joined NTT, he was one of the first in the world to conduct research into broadband networks based on ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), a technology that provided the basis for broadband communication networks, and photonic transport networks, and produced many outstanding research results. In Nagoya University, he has been promoting industry-government-academia R&D activities on next-generation photonic networks and low-power-consumption networks, and has also been devoting himself to educating young researchers.
One of his noteworthy achievements was that, in 1987, he introduced the world to the concept of ATM Virtual Paths, the basic concept that underlies B-ISDN, and presented a new way of configuring a transport network. This concept has been widely adopted as the foundation of ATM, and is also providing the basis for the development of the Label Switched Path (LSP). The deployment of LSP is being accelerated in current IP/MPLS networks. Another of his important achievements is that he proposed the concept of optical paths as the basic concept for future transport networks, and on the basis of this concept, he proposed highly efficient photonic transport network architectures. In pursuing the development of the concept, he led research projects that covered a variety of key technologies, and yielded wide ranging outstanding results, such as the development of a new network design method that includes the allocation of wavelengths to optical paths, a transport node system and optical switch architecture. The VP and optical path concepts have been adopted in ITU-T recommendations, and are setting the direction in which the transport network will develop. His concepts of Virtual Paths and optical paths have been recognized by several Japanese patents.
With his distinguished creativity and leadership, he headed research on photonic routers designed to integrate the IP layer and the optical layer, and made the world’s first super-high-capacity photonic MPLS router a reality in 2001. An optical cross-connect (OXC), the first photonic transport system in the world based on the above new architecture, was introduced to Japan’s nation-wide experimental network JGN-2 in 2002. This experimental system was later developed into a commercial system known as a ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer), which is now widely used.
Since 2004, as a professor at the graduate school of Nagoya University, he has been undertaking a wide range of R&D activities, including the next-generation photonic network and new optical node systems, and continues to nurture young researchers. He has authored many research papers mainly in the area of optical communication technology. He has been active internationally in a wide range of capacities, serving on numerous committees of international conferences including ECOC and OFC, and serving as an Editor of Transactions and as a member of the IEEE Award Committee.
Within the IEICE, Dr. Sato has been devoted to expanding the IEICE’s activities by serving successively as Director, Journal and Transaction in fiscal 1997-1998, Chair, Technical Committee on Communication Systems in fiscal 2000-2001, Chair, Technical Committee on Photonic Network in fiscal 2003-2004, and Councilor in fiscal 2008-2009. In 2000, he received the Achievement Award from the IEICE. He was designated as a Fellow by the IEEE in 1999 and from the IEICE in 2003. In fiscal 2003-2004, he served on the expert committee of Science and Technology Council, the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and more recently, in fiscal 2010-2011, he was a Councilor (Regional) of the IEICE.
His achievements have been highly rated by different organizations. He received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture in 2002. In addition, he received the IEICE Best Paper Award in 1991, and the IEICE Society Excellent Paper Award in 2007 and 2008.
As mentioned above, Dr. Sato’s contribution to the IEICE and to the electronics, information and communication field has been so outstanding that I am convinced that he deserves the Distinguished Achievement and Contribution Award from the IEICE.
