Boston Section and Signal Processing Society award:

Boston Section and Signal Processing Society award the IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing for the First Real-Time Speech Communication on Packet Networks

The IEEE Boston Section and the IEEE Signal Processing Society will present an IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing to MIT Lincoln Laboratory for the “First Real-Time Speech Communication on Packet Networks, 1974 – 1982,” in a special dedication and program, which will take place Thursday, 8 December 2011 at MIT Lincoln Laboratory 244 Wood Street, Lexington, MA.

IEEE members, non-members, guests, families and friends are encouraged to attend this memorable event. Attendance is free but pre-registration is required as described below.

The milestone plaque to be presented will be engraved with this citation:

First Real-Time Speech Communication on Packet Networks, 1974 - 1982

In August 1974, the first real-time speech communication over a packet-switched network was demonstrated via ARPANET between MIT Lincoln Laboratory and USC Information Sciences Institute. By 1982, these technologies enabled Internet packet speech and conferencing linking terrestrial, packet radio, and satellite networks. This work in real-time network protocols and speech coding laid the foundation for voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) communications and related applications including Internet videoconferencing.

Internet Pioneers Robert Kahn and Danny Cohen to Speak at Packet Speech Milestone Event

This Milestone award event will be attended by a number of key contributors to the work, and will feature talks by two Internet Pioneers who were leaders in the seminal packet speech research and development. Dr. Robert E. Kahn, the original DARPA Program Manager who initiated the research and led it through its first several years, will give the keynote talk on "Perspectives on Packet Speech, ARPANET, and the Development of the Internet." Robert Kahn is a co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocols and was responsible for originating DARPA's Internet Program. He is Chairman, CEO and President of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), which he founded in 1986. Dr. Danny Cohen, who was the principal architect of the Network Voice Protocol when he was at USC/ISI, and who is a pioneer in real-time internet applications, will speak on "Development of Real-Time Speech and Video Applications on Packet Networks.

Background on Packet Speech Technology

This pioneering work on speech in packet networks developed and demonstrated systems [1] which were forerunners of the voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) systems [2] that are now so widely in use. The real-time voice work included development of a new Network Voice Protocol (NVP), because the packet and reliability constraints of the available Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) implementation made it unsuitable for real-time communication [3]. This protocol development was an immediate forerunner of the separation of TCP and IP, so that the real-time packet speech work played a large role in the development of the protocols, which are still in wide use today. The technology and protocols for real-time speech over packet networks also enabled other real-time Internet applications such as packet video, so that now systems, like Skype and others, enable real-time voice and video at home and in offices for extremely large number of people.

This work combined major developments in multiple areas, including the first real-time implementations of narrowband LPC speech coding on digital signal processors [4], network protocols to enable real-time packet delivery, strategies for reconstituting speech, techniques for reconstitution of speech from packets arriving at non-uniform intervals, packet speech conferencing techniques, and interoperation over different types of packet networks (landline, Ethernet, satellite, radio). Another feature was the outstanding collaboration among organizations and across technology areas. Finally, the long-term impact is a major feature which sets this work apart, as evidenced by the wide use of VoIP and related application such as packet video.

The figure shows a geographic map of the ARPANET in June 1975, with arrows indicating the first 4 ARPANET packet speech sites. The first real-time packet speech, between Lincoln and USC/ISI in August 1974, traversed at least 8 hops on the ARPANET and used 8 kbps Continuously Variable Slope Delta Modulation to digitize the speech. The 50 kbps lines between ARPANET nodes were a severe limitation on performance; lower bit rate coding for speech was needed, so real-time Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) systems were developed and deployed. In December 1974, the first real-time LPC packet speech communication over the ARPANET took place at 3.5 kbps between Culler Harrison Incorporated (CHI) and Lincoln Laboratory. Many additional accomplishments followed, including the first real-time LPC Conferencing over the ARPANET among CHI, Lincoln, and SRI in January 1976. By 1982, Internet packet speech and conferencing was demonstrated, linking an Ethernet at Lincoln, a telephone interface at USC/ISI, and a mobile packet radio net at SRI, over a wideband packet satellite network.

REFERENCES

[1] Clifford J. Weinstein and James W. Forgie, “Experience with speech communication in packet networks,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Special Issue on Packet Switched Voice and Data Communications, Vol. 1, No. 6, December 1983.

[2] Robert M. Gray, “The 1974 origins of VoIP,” IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, Vol. 22, July 2005, pp. 87-90.

[3] Dan Cohen, “RFC0741: Specifications for the Network Voice Protocol,” 22 Nov 1977. Available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc741.txt.

[4] Robert M. Gray, Linear Predictive Coding and the Internet Protocol, NOW Publishers, 2010

SUMMARY

When

Thursday, 8 December 2011, from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

Where

MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 244 Wood Street, Lexington, MA. For directions, go to http:/www.ll.mit.edu. Please use the Wood Street gate. Parking is free. Meeting will be held in the auditorium and registration is in the main lobby.

Registration

IEEE members, non-members, guests, families and friends are encouraged to attend this memorable event. Attendance is free but pre-registration, by November 28 if possible, is required. Please register by sending an email note, including your name and organization if appropriate, to Linda Scott l.scott@ieee.org at Boston Section IEEE Headquarters (phone number 781-245-5405). Please cc Nancy Levesque nancy.levesque@ll.mit.edu at Lincoln Laboratory (781-981-7620) on your registration note. Important: if you are not a US citizen, then a visit to Lincoln Laboratory requires a visit request at least 10 days in advance. In that case, please register by November 28 and indicate your citizenship in your email.

The meeting will be held at the Lincoln Lab auditorium, 244 Wood Street, Lexington, MA at 4:00 PM. Registration is in the main lobby. Foreign National visitors to Lincoln Laboratory require visit requests. Please pre-register by e-mail to reception@ll.mit.edu and indicate your citizenship. Please use the Wood Street gate.

Program Outline

4:00 pm		Registration
4:10 pm		Welcome by IEEE Boston Section -  Dr. Karen Panetta, Chair, Boston Section IEEE
4:15 pm		Welcome by IEEE Signal Processing Society - Dr. Mostafa Kaveh, President, IEEE Signal Processing Society
4:20 pm		Welcome by Lincoln Laboratory - Dr. Eric Evans, Director, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
4:30 pm		Packet Speech Milestone program
4:30 pm		Introduction -- Dr. Clifford Weinstein, Group Leader, Human Language Technology, MIT Lincoln Laboratory,
4:40 pm		Keynote -- Dr. Robert E. Kahn, CEO and President, Corporation for National Research Initiatives, "Perspectives on Packet Speech, ARPANET, and the Development of the Internet"
5:05 pm		Dr. Danny Cohen, Distinguished Engineer, Oracle Labs, "Development of Real-Time Speech and Video Applications on Packet Networks"
5:25 pm		Presentation of the Packet Speech Milestone Award Plaque - Dr. Peter Staecker, IEEE President-Elect, Dr. Karen Panetta, Dr. Mostafa Kaveh
5:45 pm		Reception
7:00 pm		Closure