Telcordia Impact Players:
Richard Lau
These days, it's rare to find a company as invested in research as Telcordia. And in a business climate where ROI is king, Chief Scientist Dr. Richard Lau helps ensure that Telcordia's investment in research truly pays off - not only for Telcordia, but for the telecom industry. Indeed, Dr. Lau puts the "applied" into the Telcordia Applied Research division.
"One of our greatest research challenges is to develop technologies that can be commercially viable for Telcordia, and lead to successful solutions for other companies," says Dr. Lau. "If we are successful, the entire industry is more successful."
His resume certainly supports that philosophy. A 20-year veteran of Telcordia, and recently named Telcordia Fellow, Dr. Lau's contributions to the telecom industry range from SONET to ATM to IMS. He holds five U.S. patents related to high-speed networking, and has another seven patents pending in the area of wireless and service management. He is also co-author of a recently published book entitled, Service Assurance for Voice over WiFi and 3G Networks.
Dr. Lau conceived the "Synchronous Residual Time Stamp for Timing Recovery in a Broadband Network," or (SRTS), which provides an innovative technique for recovering the timing signal of a constant bit rate data stream in an ATM network - an idea that was adopted by major standards bodies such as the ITU, ANSI and the ATM Forum. This SRTS patent has been utilized by almost every major telecom network equipment provider, and is one of Telcordia's most valuable patents in terms of revenue.
Dr. Lau was also instrumental in the invention of the SONET self-healing ring, which was widely adopted by providers as a key technique to protect against network failures. His work in this area led to his induction into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame, where he shared Inventor of the Year honors with his colleague, Tsong Ho Wu.
While working on commercial projects for Telcordia, Dr. Lau still enjoys engaging in "pure research" for the U.S. government and other entities. And, he sees Telcordia's role in government-funded research as a uniquely valuable part of what Telcordia offers.
"Government projects offer a great advantage to our work in the commercial world. This type of fundamental research informs what we do and leads us to innovative conclusions that benefit other projects," says Lau. "That helps us create IP that serves everyone."
Currently, Dr. Lau is part of the IMS task force within Telcordia. He works with the Business Units to help identify the best technologies and close gaps, and has been influential in helping to bring the Maestro™ Portfolio of IMS-ready solutions to the market.
Ever since Richard Lau joined Telcordia as a graduate student studying at the University of Pennsylvania, he has been known as a contributor - someone who works well with others, solves problems, and makes good things happen.
While many of Dr. Lau's contributions have benefited telecom consumers the world over, some of his contributions hit closer to home. Dr. Lau has served as the volunteer principal for a school dedicated to teaching the Chinese language and culture to Chinese children growing up in America (and anyone else who wants to learn). Certainly, "applying" Dr. Lau's knowledge isn't just good for the laboratory; it's also good for the community.