DQRAP has its origin with the idea by Graham Campbell, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, that the distributed queueing concept of DQDB (distributed queueing dual bus, an import from Australia) could be utilized in a MAC that could be deployed on networks with topologies other dual bus. He and Ph.D. student Wenxin Xu proceeded with the research and Xu came up with the result that became the basis of DQRAP. The theoretical and simulation results indicated that as a MAC DQRAP could achieve as close to the theoretical maximum as was likely to be practical. What next?
The original research objective was achieved, i.e., a MAC suitable for the cable TV environment, but the potential for DQRAP extended well beyond cable systems. Campbell assembled a team from the far reaches of the globe to investigate as many aspects of DQRAP as was possible. Michael Zhang from China was assigned to do the detailed performance analysis of DQRAP. Miroslav Miramica from Yugoslavia investigated the robustness of DQRAP. Harn-Jier Lin from Taiwan investigated how DQRAP would perform in the wireless environment but with major excursions into priorities in DQRAP and voice circuits that carried packets only when sound was present. Rami Khasawneh from Jordan undertook to look at DQRAP in MANs and the cable TV environment, the original research goal. Our home-grown researcher, Michael McPheters, investigated the effect of attaching varying number of stations to a channel. Byung-Yoon Lee from Korea undertook the study of DQRAP in networks where "a" > 1, i.e., in WANs. Finally Chien-Ting Wu of Taiwan took on the task of demonstrating that effectiveness of DQRAP where "a" < 0.5, i.e., in LANs.
This team, the "magnificent seven", directed by Campbell (who is from Canada), have prepared the groundwork that will see DQRAP become the dominant mechanism in switching fabrics for all communications. All completed their Ph.D.s, the other sections of this homepage illustrate how well they did that task. But clicking on names of the seven lets you discover more about them as individuals.
As is typical with fundamental breakthroughs most questions answered lead to new questions. The work is being carried on by Andrew Chang from Taiwan, Yon-Shik Choi from Korea and Tsun-Chieh Chiang from Taiwan. The latter is also riding herd on this homepage.