LCN 2015 keynote by Bob Metcalfe, UTAustin professor of Innovation, Ethernet Inventor, 3Com Founder

Innovation sometimes advances in leaps and bounds when robust “platforms” appear. Ethernet´s story going back 42 years involves two robust platforms: CMOS according to Moore´s Law and TCP/IP/Ethernet according to, well OK yes, Metcalfe´s Law. Ethernet began as a Local Computer Network (later LAN) in 1973. Back then it ran at 2.94Mbps and coaxially connected PCs in a building. Now it runs up to 100Gbps in the LAN, has returned to its Alohanet wireless roots as Wi-Fi, and is moving down to serve the coming Internet of Things. Ethernet platform innovation is paced by semiconductors. But then there are the many innovations that have taken place on top of the evolving Ethernet platform. The TCP/IP/Ethernet Internet has gone web, video, mobile, social, cloud, embedded - from mainframes to minicomputers to workstations to PCs to cellphones to things. Some of this innovation can be attributed to the venerable Ethernet business model, which is based on packet switching, de jure standards (IEEE), owned implementations, fierce competition, interoperability, rapid evolution, backward compatibility, build it and they will come. Ethernet is the answer; what is the question?