O-RAN Innovation Leading the Way for Network Transformation

Sachin Katti is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University and an Advisor in charge of Telco Strategy at VMware. He is also the Co-Chair of the Technical Steering Committee for O-RAN Alliance and the Director of the xRAN Foundation. He is also Co-Founder and ex-CEO of Uhana (now part of VMware) which built a a network AI platform to monitor and optimize mobile networks and applications. He has previously co-founded Kumu Networks, which is commercializing breakthrough research from his lab on full duplex radios. He received his PhD in EECS from MIT in 2009. His research focuses on designing and building next generation high capacity wireless networks by combining techniques from information and coding theory, RF systems, and networking. His research has won numerous awards, including the 2008 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award - Honorable Mention, the George Sprowls Award for Best Doctoral Dissertation in EECS at MIT, the IEEE William Bennett Prize, the Best Student Paper Award at ACM SIGCOMM 2012, USENIX ATC 2013, the Sloan Fellowship, the NSF Career Award as well as Okawa, Hooover, Packard and Terman Faculty Fellowships.

Udayan Mukherjee is an Intel Fellow in the Network Platforms Group and chief technologist for network infrastructure at Intel Corporation. He leads technology and product development related to wireless radio access and core networks, including Cloud-RAN, virtual RAN, base stations based on the LTE and LTE-Advanced standards, and mobile edge platforms, as well as gateways and packet core solutions. Udayan is also responsible for establishing new growth areas for Intel in the telecommunications market segment, a role that includes developing technologies and optimizations for telecom platforms designed for software-based networking and network function virtualization, developing wireless-specific intellectual property, and leading Intel’s 5G wireless network technology development. Udayan’s research interests include mobile computing and communication platforms; heterogeneous networks; next-generation air interface technologies; network virtualization; and mobile edge services and applications.

A specialist in communications and compute system design and development, Udayan joined Intel in 2000. Before assuming his current role, he led Advanced CA-based telecom server development as principal engineer in Intel’s Modular Communications Platform Group. He also led technology development in areas such as memory power management and chassis-, shelf- and rack-based manageability software, and he spearheaded Intel’s efforts to deliver the industry’s first draft of a carrier-grade telecom Linux specification.

Before joining Intel, Udayan spent more than a decade leading engineering teams at various technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard Co. and First Data Corp. A three-time recipient of the Intel Achievement Award, Udayan was appointed an Intel Fellow in 2016. He has been granted 10 U.S. patents, with additional patents pending, and is the author or co-author of multiple papers on topics related to wireless and telecom technologies.

Udayan holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology Durgapur in India, and earned dual master’s degrees in systems science and industrial engineering from Louisiana State University.