He received the 1989 Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award “for contributions to computer communications and the invention of virtual-circuit switching,” the 1992 ACM SIGCOMM Award for “pioneering concepts, such as virtual circuit switching, space-division packet switching, and window flow control,” and the 2001 IEEE Richard W. He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society and IEEE. Sandy has received numerous awards for his pioneering contributions to the architecture of communication networks through the development of virtual circuit switching technology. Today AAC is deployed on every smartphone worldwide and is one of the most widely used music compression applications - if someone has MP4 files, they’re using AAC. Euphony was the “brains” of one of the first solid-state music players, FlashPAC, which was used to demonstrate AAC to potential adopters. Sandy contracted for the development of innovative test platforms for AAC, including the Euphony processor, one of the first System-on-Chip microprocessors. Sandy promoted AAC use to other companies, notably including Apple, which adopted AAC for its iTunes music application. Sandy supported researcher participation in ISO MPEG, resulting in the MPEG Advanced Audio Coder (“AAC”) international standard. Realizing that the new network infrastructure would need a business justification, Sandy promoted research projects that would “fill the pipes.”Īmong these projects was high-fidelity audio coding. In the late 1990s he developed a plan for a network architecture to bring high-speed networking to the home - a capability which is now taken for granted but was almost unknown 25 years ago. He recognized and nurtured technologies that connected people to the internet using cable TV channels, a variety of wireless approaches, and fiber optics believing education and audio and video to the home would require large amounts of bandwidth. Eight universities and labs across the country were linked by a network of Datakit Virtual Circuit Switches joined by high-speed links to provide a wide area systems research laboratory where student researchers could run network experiments.Īlthough Sandy’s research focused primarily on networking, he was also interested in the benefits that improved networks could provide. ![]() In the late 1980s, Sandy created the Experimental Universities Network (XUNET) project to promote graduate research on computer networks. ![]() He also developed Datakit, the first virtual circuit network switch, which became the backbone of the AT&T telecommunications network. He invented cell-based networks, the precursor to Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), one of the foundational protocols of modern data communications. Once at Bell Labs, in the early 1970s, Sandy’s attention turned to computer networking. At Cambridge University he developed the file system for the Atlas 2 (Titan) computer. While at Ferranti, Sandy developed Nebula, a language and compiler for the Sirius computer. In 2009, he completed his vision for redesigning the internet. In 2002, Sandy retired from AT&T and formed Fraser Research in Princeton, NJ, where he continued his research and provided summer internships for a few select graduate students interested in networking. for two years, at which time he was appointed Chief Scientist so that he could focus his time and research energy on the development of a new architecture and protocols for a large-scale internet focused on networking to the home. (AT&T Labs Research) in Florham Park, NJ. In 1996, when AT&T spun off Lucent and Bell Labs., Sandy, who was passionate about research, led the effort to establish Shannon Labs. He became Director of its Computing Science Research Center in 1982, Executive Director in 1987, and Associate Vice President for Information Science Research in 1994. He was recruited to join AT&T Bell Labs in 1969. He began his career at Ferranti and then at Cambridge University, U.K., where he was awarded a Ph.D. Sandy earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Bristol University, U.K. ![]() The family subsequently moved to Weston Super Mare where his mother ran a small hotel overlooking the sea. Born in Surrey, England in 1937, Sandy spent the war years with his family in Lancashire where his father was a research chemist. Alexander (Sandy) Fraser passed away peacefully on Jwith his wife, Elisabeth, at his side.
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