Curriculum Vitae (Ben M. Segal) - Additional Notes - Date: 2000
Ben Segal has played a role in many areas of CERN computing, including:
Introduced the Internet protocols (then called TCP/IP) at CERN. From 1985-1988 he was the first official CERN TCP/IP Coordinator. This period saw their introduction on all the main computer platforms as well as in the LEP/SPS control system. This was at a time when "wars of religion" were being waged in the field of network protocols - the Internet was not so welcome at CERN or elsewhere as it is today.
One of the first Unix and C programmers at CERN. Taught socket programming to many students including Tim Berners-Lee and Les Robertson. Wrote CERNLIB routines for Fortran TCP access, enabling PAW to run in distributed mode. Member of the first CERN Workstation Project, based on the Apollo RISC machine.
Co-responsible for the first CERN computer security project (to protect the CRAY XMP). He managed the SecurID security card system and introduced the first Cisco routers in Europe, used to filter the Cray IP network. He later co-supervised a student project which led to the CERN passive security monitor system, still in use today as our primary means of detecting external network intrusions.
One of the two people chosen by Les Robertson in 1988 to form a new Section devoted to Distributed Computing. This led very quickly to the SHIFT Project, completely changing the way central physics computing is done at CERN. Today, as a result, we have several hundred times the computing capacity for a lower cost. He worked on the basic ideas, the project proposals and the successful implementation of SHIFT, producing and managing a vital element: its parallel network architecture.
Introduced the first Gigabit network at CERN: UltraNet for the backbone of SHIFT. In later years (from 1996), introduced a switched multi-Gigabit network (HIPPI) to replace UltraNet, and is currently assisting the introduction of a cheaper network technology, Gigabit Ethernet. Most data in the CERN Computer Centre is today transferred via these Gigabit networks, particularly the 1-2 Terabytes per day read or written to the CERN tape robots.
Introduced the first data links from the central SHIFT computers to the experiments' remote computer clusters. At first this was done with FDDI fibres at 100Mb/s but in 1997 an 8km Gigabit link was set up using HIPPI to support live data recording for two runs of NA48. He then proposed to test Gigabit Ethernet over this distance, which greatly exceeded the recommended standard. The test succeeded, and today Gigabit Ethernet links are standard for CDR production. Since 1999, he became responsible for all aspects of the CDR service, not just networking.
Recognized the potential of the Linux operating system (and the Open Source software phenomenon) relatively early. Therefore agreed to supervise the Masters degree project of a top Linux developer (Jes Sorensen) and employed him later as a CERN Fellow to provide timely support for the first Gigabit networking devices for Linux, as well as helping with Linux kernel expertise IT-wide and making a major contribution to CERN's Trillian Project participation. Linux is today a key to using commodity PC clusters as the major computing resources for LHC, and tomorrow it may well supplant most proprietary operating systems.
He currently leads the Technologies for Experiments section in PDP Group, responsible for several areas required for LHC era computing. Examples of two very promising networking technologies are: Storage Area Networks (where low-level I/O commands are carried directly between hosts and networked I/O devices, without using TCP/IP or intermediate server systems) and the first GigaByte-speed network "GigaByte System Network (GSN)". Using contacts and experience both inside and outside CERN, he has established Technology Transfer collaborations with external partners including Silicon Graphics, Storage Technology, Compaq and Genroco.
Very recently, CERN and partner HEP institutes have decided to launch a testbed of the proposed worldwide Regional Centre model of LHC era computing. The data management architecture for this project is under his responsibility.
Related Activities Outside CERN
Outside CERN he has become widely known as a teacher and invited speaker in many countries, including China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Italy, Britain, Sweden and others. His interest in teaching outside CERN began in 1986 in association with the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), where he helped to found a series of courses on networking technology for developing country scientists. He is currently a member of the Advisory Committee to the ICTP-RADIONET Programme of Training and System Development on Networking and Radiocommunications.
In 1995 he helped to found the Geneva Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC), a world wide organization created in 1992 by some of the principal Internet pioneers. In 1997, he was elected for a three year term to the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society, a position offering CERN considerable international prestige. In 1995 he also set up the Geneva ISOC Development Special Interest Group to assist developing country access to the Internet. Between 1997 and 1998, he helped ISOC to organize their latest annual Conference INET'98, which was held in Geneva in July 1998. His particular interest was local coordination of the associated Network Technology Workshops; these occur the week before each INET conference and offer Internet training to engineers from developing countries selected by ISOC as best fitted to spread Internet technology internationally. The Geneva edition trained 165 engineers in four English language and two French language tracks.