Resume

I know the data communications industry from top to bottom. In over 20 years in the business I have done it all, from software coding all the way up to industry leadership and advocacy. And everything in between.

I consider myself to be: an engineer and a businessman; a tactician and a strategist; a team player and a tough manager; a software architect and a coder; a standards politician and a protocol guru; a student of the medium and a leader.

The result: an incomparable breadth of knowledge and experience.

Data Communications. Expert level understanding of layers 2 through 7. Extensive experience with SMTP, IMAP, POP, DNS, LDAP, HTTP, HTML, XML, PGP, S/MIME, X.509, X.500, ASN.1, CMIP, SNMP, RPC, TCP, T-TCP, IPv4, IPv6, Mobile-IP, IP-SEC, 802.1, 802.2, etc. Designer and author of RFC-2188 and RFC-2524.

Telecommunications. Extensive experience with SS7, TCAP, SCCP, OMAP, IS-136, IS-41, ISDN, Telephony/POTS, VoIP.

Wireless. Extensive experience with CDPD, WiFi-802.11, BlueTooth, GPRS, GSM, SMS, CDMA, TDMA, AMPS. One of the original and principal architects of the CDPD Specifications.

Standards Processes. ITU, IETF, IESG, IAB, TIA, ANSI, NIST, W3C.

Open-Source Software. qmail, Sendmail, courier, spamassassin, imp, ezmlm, mhonarc, HylaFAX, sane, bind, djbdns, daemontools, ucspi, Apache HTTP server, Zope, Plone, Turbine, Tomcat, Jetspeed, velocity, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Hibernate, Torque, asterisk, samba, cups, latex.

Software Development & Methodologies. Expert level understanding and experience of C, C++, Lisp, Korn Shell/Bash, Perl, Java, CVS, Subversion, GNATS, ANT, Emacs, CORBA, Unix system interface, eXtremeProgramming, Design Patterns, Refactoring, Scrum.

Platforms. Expert level understanding and experience of Linux (Debian, Red Hat), Unix/Solaris, Windows, Windows CE, MacOS, Palm OS, J2ME, eCos, embedded environments.

Operations and Deployment. Have acted as webmaster, hostmaster and postmaster of more than a dozen networks for over ten years. Managed complex layer 3 routing and security for mid-size networks. Managed ISP and ASP services for private and public user communities.

Management and Leadership Style. Responsibility oriented rather than authority oriented. Respect is to be earned rather demanded. Politics takes a back seat to engineering. Pride in workmanship is the primary motivation. What makes sense takes priority over conventions, fear, and ego.

2008. Evolved Operation WhiteBerry towards By* Libre Texting. Ported EMSD to Linux PDAs (e.g., Nokia 810) and created a complete end-to-end mobile messaging service.

2007. Fully articulated the concept of Libre Services as a non-proprietary model for delivery of Internet services, including its business model. Built By* as a concrete instance.

2006. Assisted the Technical Committee and the Department of Justice in monitoring Microsoft technical compliance with the Final Judgement.

2005. Provided prior art determination and expert witness services in the defense against a number of patent assertion claims.

Neda Communications, Inc. Bellevue, WA
Owner - President 1991 – Present
Started as a one-man consulting shop which grew within 5 years to 12 employees and annual revenues of $1.2 million. Made a succesful transition from a consulting business to a products and services company based on open-source and free software. All company protocols, software and services are now exclusively open-source.

Built a complete state-of-the-art Data Center from the ground up, including redundant stable power and backup generator, full UPS protection and redundant Internet connections. The infrastructure of this Libre Data Center is based purely on open source and free software. Created numerous domains in support of the company’s protocols, software, services, and business strategies. These include: neda.com, byName.net, byNumber.net, byAlias.net, byMemory.net, bySource.org, byBinary.org, ForSMB.net, mailMeAnywhere.org, leapforum.org, emsd.org and esro.org.

Provided consulting and/or contract engineering services for numerous clients and projects. Satisfied clients include: Sierra Wireless, AT&T Wireless Data Division, CDPD Forum, Data Critical, Electronic Mail Association, Emulex, Motorola, Microsoft.

From 1992 to 1995, played a key role in the creation of the Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) industry. Led the technical network architecture design for the CDPD specifications, and was directly involved in the planning, development and deployment of the network services for AT&T Wireless Services.

Provided liaison and advocacy for client interactions with various standards organizations including TIA, ANSI and IETF/IESG/IAB.

Participated in the strategic planning and protocol design for Mobile E-Mail and Paging services of AT&T Messaging Divison.

Free Protocols Foundation Bellevue, WA
Founder and President 2000 – Present
Founded the Free Protocols Foundation (FPF) as a U.S. tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. The FPF is an independent public forum dedicated to the support of patent-free protocols. Created web sites (http://www.freeprotocols.org) and structures to support FPF activities. Formulated policies and procedures for maintaining patent-free protocols. Developed the concept of Libre Services and created http://www.libreservices.org and and structures for introduction of the concept and the model.

Teknekron Communication Systems Bellevue, WA
Systems Architect & Project Manager 1990 1991
Managed the architectural design and implementation of medium-scale Network Management systems of SS7 networks, using SNMP and CMIP.

Boeing Computer Services Bellevue, WA
Systems Architect 1989 1990
Responsible for standards tracking and strategic planning of Directory Services (X.500) in Boeing office. Chairman of North American MAP/TOP Directory Services Technical Committee. Represented Boeing in NIST-OIW and ANSI OSI standards committees.

Interconnections Bellevue, WA
Project Engineer 1988 1989
Designed and implemented the network layer of XNS for Novell Netware VMS. Ported software to SCO Unix as a Kernel Streams Module.

Retix Santa Monica, CA
Project Engineer 1986 1988
One of the original seven software engineers who developed the core technology for Retix. Lower layers work was focused on Transport Class 4, IP, LLC1 and 802.3 drivers. Upper layers work was focused on X.400. Ported Retix’s lower layer software to various hardware platforms and operating systems.

Teltone Corporation Seattle, WA
Software Engineer 1983 1985
Developed a local telephone call billing system for step-by-step and cross-bar central offices in C for custom embedded Teltone hardware. Worked closely with hardware engineers to ensure overall proper system functionality.

University of Washington Seattle, WA
M.S. in Electrical Engineering 1981–1982
Specialization in Digital Systems and Computer Engineering

Seattle University Seattle, WA
B.S. in Electrical Engineering 1978–1981
Graduated Magna Cum Laude

I have a large number of publications; a small sample follows. You can obtain a more complete list at the “Publications” section of my site at http://mohsen.banan.1.byname.net/Publications. All of these publications are web accessible at the indicated URLs.

1. M. Banan, J. Cheng, and M. Taylor. AT&T/Neda’s Efficient Short Remote Operations (ESRO) Protocol Specification Version 1.2. Request for Comments (Informational) 2188, Neda Communications, Inc., September 1997. Available at ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2188.txt.
2. Banan, M. Neda’s Efficient Mail Submission and Delivery (EMSD) Protocol Specification Version 1.3. Request for Comments (Informational) 2524, Neda Communications, Inc., February 1999. Available at ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2524.txt.
3. Mark S. Taylor and William Waung and Mohsen Banan. Internetwork Mobility: The CDPD Approach. Prentice Hall, Inc., New Jersey, 1997. ISBN 0–13–209693–5.
   Available at http://mohsen.banan.1.byname.net/PLPC/120021.
4. Mohsen Banan and Andrew Hammoude. Libre Services: A non-proprietary model for delivery of Internet services. Free Protocols Foundation, Bellevue, WA, 2007. Available at
   http://www.freeprotocols.org/PLPC/100101.
5. Mohsen Banan. Neda’s Open Business Plan. Neda Communications, Inc., Bellevue, WA, 2008. Available at http://www.neda.com/PLPC/110002.
6. Mohsen Banan and Andrew Hammoude. Neda s By* family of Libre Services: Strategy and A Collaborative Execution Framework. Neda Communications, Inc., Bellevue, WA, 2008. Available at http://www.neda.com/PLPC/110004.
7. Mohsen Banan and Andrew Hammoude. Operation WhiteBerry. Free Protocols Foundation, Bellevue, WA, January, 2000. Available at http://www.freeprotocols.org/PLPC/100006.
8. Mohsen Banan. The WAP Trap - An Expos of the Wireless Application Protocol – Le WAP la trappe - Un expos sur le Wireless Application Protocol. Free Protocols Foundation, Bellevue, WA, January, 2000. Online document is available at http://www.freeprotocols.org/PLPC/100014.
   And transalted into French at: http://www.freeprotocols.org/PLPC/100015.
9. Mohsen Banan and Andrew Hammoude. Free Protocols Foundation Policies and Procedures. Free Protocols Foundation, Bellevue, WA, January, 2000. Available at
   http://www.freeprotocols.org/PLPC/100201.
10. Mohsen Banan. Lightweight & Efficient Application Protocol (LEAP) Manifesto. LEAP Forum, Bellevue, WA, January, 2000. Available at http://www.freeprotocols.org/PLPC/100012.
11. Banan et al. Open C Platform. Neda Communications, Inc., Bellevue, WA, October, 1996.
    http://www.neda.com/PLPC/110301.
12. Mohsen Banan. Computer Telephone Interface. Master of Science in Electrical Engineering Thesis, University of Washington, August, 1982. Available at
    http://mohsen.banan.1.byname.net/PLPC/120002.

I have developed a large body of software; a small sample follows. You can obtain a more complete list at the “Software” section of my site at http://mohsen.banan.1.byname.net/Software. All of the following software is licensed under the GPL or LGPL, and is freely available at the indicated URLs.

Libre Services Integration Platform (LSIP):

Available at http://www.neda.com/SW/lsip-pub.

Efficient Mail Submission and Delivery Server Agent (EMSD-SA):

Available at http://www.neda.com/SW/emsd-sa-mul.

Efficient Mail Submission and Delivery User Agent (EMSD-UA):

Available at http://www.neda.com/SW/emsd-ua-mul.

Efficient Short Remote Operations (ESRO):

Available at http://www.neda.com/SW/esros-mulpub.

Open C Platform (OCP):

Available at http://www.neda.com/SW/ocp-mul.

Voice Response Development Environment (VoRDE):

Available at http://www.neda.com/SW/vorde-mul.