From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John O’Sullivan (engineer)
John O’Sullivan (engineer)
John O’Sullivan Qualifications
Nationality Australian • 1974 Doctor of Philosophy (Electrical Engineering),
Work Sydney University [5]
• 1969 Bachelor of Engineering, H1, University Medal,
Employer(s) CSIRO
Sydney University[5]
Significant Technology underlying OFDM used in • 1969 Sydney University Sports Blue (Hockey)[5]
advance 802.11 Wireless LANs • 1967 Bachelor of Science, Sydney University[5]
Significant Prime Minister’s Prize for Science
awards Career highlights, awards, fel-
John O’Sullivan is an Australian electrical engineer whose lowships and grants
work in the application of Fourier transforms to radio as-
• 2009 (Australian)Prime Minister’s Prize for Science
tronomy[1] led to his invention with colleagues of a core
• 2009 CSIRO Chairman’s Medal
technology that made wireless LAN fast and reliable. This
• 2005–present Systems Engineer, CSIRO Australia
technology was patented by CSIRO and forms part of the
Telescope National Facility
802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n Wi-Fi standards.
• 2004–2006 Lead Signal Processing Architect, G2
In 2009 O’Sullivan was awarded both the CSIRO Chair-
Microsystems
man’s Medal and the Australian Prime Minister’s Prize
• 2001–2004 Director IC Systems Engineering, Cisco
for Science.
Systems
He is currently working on the design of the Aus-
• 2000 CSIRO Medal for development and application
tralian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope, a
of fast Fourier transform technology
step towards the proposed Square Kilometre Array tele-
• 1999–2001 Vice President Systems Engineering,
scope.
Radiata Communications
• 1995–2000 Director Technology, News Ltd
Fourier transforms and WiFi • 1989–1995 Deputy Chief of Division, CSIRO
Radiophysics
In 1977 John O’Sullivan co-authored a paper in the Jour-
• 1983–1989 Head of Signal Processing Group, CSIRO
nal of the Optical Society of America titled "Image sharp-
Radiophysics
ness, Fourier optics, and redundant-spacing interferometry"[1]
• 1974–1983 Head of Receiver Group, Netherlands
with J. P. Hamaker, and J. E. Noordam. In this paper, they
Foundation for Radio Astronomy (now ASTRON)
presented a technique for sharpening and improving pic-
ture clarity in radio astronomy pictures.
In 1999, IEEE ratified 802.11a standard. O’Sullivan was Research highlights
not the member of the working group [2] and did not con-
• Achieved an eight-fold increase of the bandwidth
tribute to the standard.
processing capacity of the Westerbork Radio
In the early 1990’s, O’Sullivan led a team at the CSIRO
Telescope as project leader for the digital continuum
which patented in 1996 the use of a related technique for
backend receiver
reducing multipath interference of radio signals trans-
• Participated in a series of innovative experiments to
mitted for computer networking. This technology is a
detect exploding black holes and other short time
part of all recent WiFi implementations [3]. As of May
astronomical events
2010, the CSIRO has earned over $250 million in royalties
• Developed an intellectual underpinning for adaptive
and settlements arising from the use of this patent as
optics in light telescopes and redundant baseline
part of the 802.11 standards with as much as a billion
interferometer in radio telescopes
dollars expected after further lawsuits against other par-
• With Austek Microsystems created a fast Fourier
ties.[4]
transform computer chip. This VLSI chip consisted of
160,000 transistors and performed real time
transforms at rates up to 2.5 Msamples/s
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John O’Sullivan (engineer)
• Influential role in the system design for the Australia [3] Older WiFi implementations which only support
Telescope 802.11b do not use patented technology
• Led a CSIRO team comprising Graham Daniels, John [4] Moses, Asher (1 June 2010). "CSIRO to reap ’lazy
Deane, Diethelm Ostry, Terry Percival who together billion’ from world’s biggest tech companies". The
invented a patented technology that uses fast Age (Melbourne). http://www.theage.com.au/
Fourier transform and other techniques to enable technology/enterprise/csiro-to-reap-lazy-billion-
fast, robust wireless networking in the home and from-worlds-biggest-tech-
office[6] companies-20100601-wsu2.html.
• Led the system design for the world’s first 802.11a [5] ^ 2009 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science award
(WiFi) chipset developed by Radiata Networks citation
• Over 40 scientific and technical papers at numerous [6] US The present invention discloses a wireless LAN,
industry conferences a peer-to-peer wireless LAN, a wireless transceiver
• Granted 12 patents in the area of special purpose FFT and a method of transmitting data, all of which are
processors, Wireless LANs and antennas capable of operating at frequencies in excess of 10
• Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics GHz and in multipath transmission environments.
Engineers and Institute of Engineers Australia 5487069, O’Sullivan, John D.; Graham R. Daniels &
• Member of international review committee for Terence M. P. Percival et al., "Wireless LAN",
information and communications technologies in published 23 January 1996
CSIRO
• Member of Australian Square Kilometre Array
Consultative Committee
External links
• Chair of the Mathematics, Information and • CSIRO 2009 Chairman’s Medal award citation
Communication Sciences Expert Advisory • CSIRO’s achievements: Wireless LAN
Committee, Convenor ICT Appraisal committee, 2004 • Australia and New Zealand’s proposed Square
CRC selection round Kilometre Array telescope
• Optical Society of America Persondata
• Board Director AAPT, Taggle Systems Name Osullivan, John
Alternative names
References Short description
[1] ^ Hamaker, J. P.; O’Sullivan, J. E.; Noordam (1977), Date of birth
"Image sharpness, Fourier optics, and redundant-
Place of birth
spacing interferometry", J. Opt. Soc. Am. 67 (8):
1122–1123, doi:10.1364/JOSA.67.001122 Date of death
[2] "802.11a-1999 High-speed Physical Layer in the 5 Place of death
GHz band" (pdf). 1999-02-11. pp. 6..7.
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/
802.11a-1999.pdf. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
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Categories:
• Australian electrical engineers
• Living people
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