In 1980, when IEEE started Project 802 to standardize local area networks (LANs), Gary Robinson was part of the “DIX-group” which submitted the “Blue Book” carrier-sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) specification as a candidate. Robinson ended up being one of the catalysts in developing the flexibility of the IEEE 802 standards family and working group which has proven to be key to its long-term viability.

On the brink of what he calls his “sixth career, whatever that’s going to turn out to be,” Robert M. Metcalfe shares some of the earliest stories from the technology’s history. Regarded as the “Father of Ethernet,” Metcalfe is credited with co-inventing Ethernet while working at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1973.