Biography

J. Noel Chiappa is an independent researcher working in the area of information systems architecture and software; for a long time, principally computer networks.

His current principal occupation is setting up to write iMucs, a Multics-like operating system (i.e. built around a single-level memory) for the Intel x86 architecture (which, until recently, supported segments very well).

Prior Research

Previously, he was involved in research related to the long-term future of the Internet, including various efforts in the Internet Research Task Force. He was also involved in the work of the Internet Engineering Task Force (the IETF), the group which creates the technical standards for the Internet.

At one point, his principal technical activity was thinking about the basic architecture of a next generation internetwork layer: what service model would it provide, how would it be broken up into functional subsystems, how would those functional subsystems interact, and what would be the basic outline of the mechanisms involved, in terms of what state would reside where in the system, and how would it be maintained.

Although his primary research interest at that point was in the overall structure of the fundamental network-wide basic data service, he was generally interested in the problems of the packet layer of internetworking; i.e. everything involved in getting traffic from one host to another anywhere in the internetwork. He also had interests in the area of routing and addressing architectures for very large scale (globally ubiquitous and larger) internetworks.

His final principal activity in these areas was the LISP project, where he was thinking about the long-term architectural developmental path, and also working on optimizations.

Past activites

Among other important past activities in these areas with which he has been associated was the Nimrod project, a design for the next generation routing and addressing architecture for the Internet. He was co-chair of the Nimrod Working Group (WG) of the IETF. Other past activities in these areas also include the DARPA-funded NewArch Project, and the IRTF Namespace Research Group.

He was a member of the TCP/IP Working Group (the group which started the Internet project as an ARPA-funded research effort) and its sucessors, up to the IETF, from 1977-2014. He served as the Area Director for Internet Services of the IETF Steering Group from 1987-1992.

He was a member of the Research Staff of the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1977-1982 and 1984-1986. While at M.I.T. he worked on packet switching and local area networks, and was responsible for the conception of the multi-protocol backbone and the multi-protocol router.

After leaving M.I.T. he worked with a number of companies, including Proteon, to bring networking products based on work done at M.I.T. to the public.

Outside interests, etc

His outside interests include: the study of Far Eastern fine and industrial arts (particularly Chinese archaic jades); the study of antique racing cars (principally Lotuses, on which he has helped conduct research for a book on Lotus Indycars of the '60's); the study of Oriental rugs (in particular tribal and cottage rugs of central Asia); landscape gardening and architecture (especially the works of Frank Lloyd Wright); music (especially the music of Johann Sebastian Bach); and reading, particularly political and military history and biographies.

He was born and grew up in Bermuda. He attended Saltus Grammar School, Phillips Andover Academy, and M.I.T. He resides in Yorktown, Virginia, with his family.