Krishan Sabnani

Krishan Sabnani (born 1954 in New Delhi) is an Indian-American networking researcher. He has made many seminal contributions to the Internet infrastructure design, protocol design, and wireless networks. Krishan (with T. V. Lakshman and T. Woo) made a breakthrough in Internet re-design. The main idea behind this work was to separate control functions and complex software from the forwarding portions on Internet routers. This work made it possible for forwarding technologies (e.g., different link layer and switching protocols) to evolve and be deployed independently from control protocols (e.g., routing, security). This contribution is a precursor to the current Software Defined Networking (SDN) revolution. A patent based on this work won the 2010 Edison Patent Award.

Krishan received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. He completed his PhD in reliable multicasting at Columbia University. Upon his graduation from Columbia University in 1981, Krishan joined Bell Labs, Murray Hill, New Jersey as a Member of Technical Staff and was promoted to Department Head in 1993. He was named VP of Networking Research in 2000.

Krishan was Vice President of Networking Research at Bell Labs from Jan. 2000 to Sept. 2013. In that role, he managed all networking research in Bell Labs, comprising nine departments in seven countries: USA, France, Germany, Ireland, India, Belgium, and South Korea. Krishan retired from Bell Labs in Jan 2017. He received an award upon his retirement - appointment as Ambassador-at-large for Bell Labs. Krishan is the first person to receive this award.

Krishan is a part-time consultant at Bell Labs. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and an honorary professor at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He is also a visiting scientist at The Johns Hopkins University.