Mathilde Benveniste

Mathilde Benveniste has worked on wireless systems, including cellular systems and wireless LANs, for the past nineteen years. She holds forty-two patents in this field with fifty-nine more pending. She has held research positions at Avaya Labs, AT&T Labs and AT&T Bell Labs. She has been active in the QoS and Mesh Networking 802.11 standards task groups, and has made numerous contributions to the 802.11 standard. She has proven the feasibility of self-configuring cellular networks, a concept she pioneered. She has published technical papers on network planning, radio resources management, traffic engineering, WLAN medium access technology, and wireless mesh performance. She received Ph.D. and M.S.E. degrees from the Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, MD, and a B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, PA.

Senior Telecom Research Scientist

Broad experience in network planning, WiFi, and cellular systems design and optimization
Introduced multiple features in the WLAN 802.11 standard – more than 50 contributions
More than 100 patents issued/pending

Professional Experience - Consulting

2008 - present Founder, En-aerion (www.en-aerion.com), South Orange, NJ

Consulting on wireless systems
Intellectual property acquisition and evaluation
Active in IEEE Standards Association and IEEE 802.11 WLAN standards – voting member

Professional Experience - Industrial

2002 - 2008 Research Scientist, Wireless Systems Research, Avaya Labs Research, Basking Ridge, NJ

Research in the design and performance on wireless LANs and wireless mesh networks
Introduced features to the IEEE 802.11-2007 WLAN standard for QoS and power management
Avaya’s technical representative at the WiFi Alliance
Formulated new services/products
Participated in technical advisory team on new products and business partnerships
Named Avaya’s most prolific inventor (May 2008)

1983 – 2002 Held several positions in AT&T Bell Labs, AT&T Network Wireless Systems, and AT&T Labs
Most recent title Technical Manager, Information Sciences Research, AT&T Labs – Research, Florham Park, NJ

Invented the priority-based MAC protocol TCMA and successfully advocated its adoption as the EDCA MAC of the IEEE 802.11e standard
Pioneered the concept of self-configuring wireless systems and led team in prototyping an indoor selfconfigurable TDMA cellular system
Developed MAC protocols and algorithms for wireless resources management in enterprise networks
Developed channel assignment methods for both circuit-based and packet-based wireless networks
Formulated mathematical programming model for international private network design

Professional Experience - Academic

1977-1983 Assistant Professor, School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Taught graduate and undergraduate courses in energy policy, resources management, operations research, numerical methods, and computer programming
Supervised graduate students
Conducted research (principal investigator ERDA funding)

Professional Activities

Patents: 41 patents; 60 pending patent applications
Publications: More than 60 publications and presentations. (For details see list of Selected Professional
Activities and. Publications)
Standards: More than 50 contributions to IEEE 802.11 standards (See https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/documents )

Education

Ph.D. SYSTEMS ANALYSIS, The Johns Hopkins University
M.S.E., OPERATIONS RESEARCH, The Johns Hopkins University
B.A., PHYSICS, University of Pennsylvania

Honors and Fellowships

Best Paper Award, Mesh 2008, IARIA, Cap Esterel, France, August 2008
Avaya External Standards Recognition Award
IEEE recognition for 802.11 Standard contributions
Bell Laboratories Exceptional Contribution Award
AAUW - IBM Fellow
Johns Hopkins University Graduate Fellowship
Fulbright Scholar
University of Pennsylvania Full Scholarship

Professional Affiliations

IEEE
IEEE Communications Society
IEEE Standards Association
IEEE 802.11 Working Group – Voting Member