Biography

Silverton built the first all-optical Ethernet in the first mile

Ethernet in the first mile

Ethernet in the first mile refers to using one of the Ethernet family of computer network protocols between a telecommunications company and a customer's premise. From the customer's point of view it is their "first" mile, although from the access networks' point of view it is known as the "last...

 networks in Palo Alto, California

Palo Alto, California

Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...

 in 1999 to 2000, as the result of research and work that first began in 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

.

Fiberhood Networks, Inc, a Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

 company championed by Silverton, and co-founded Sinuhe Hardegree and Jonathan Usuka, along with Christopher Lein, Chris Minchberg, Keith Cooley, and Joe Villareal, failed financially, but the engineering success and ensuing industry enthusiasm from the likes of Pirelli, Corning, France Telecom, Telstra, SBC Communications, and industry standards groups like the IEEE, all validated a proof of concept for this first field-operational implementation of its kind.
The Information superhighway

Information superhighway

The information superhighway or infobahnwas a popular term used through the 1990s to refer to digital communication systems and the Internet telecommunications network. It is associated with United States Senator and later Vice-President Al Gore....

 term was used in the National Information Infrastructure

National Information Infrastructure

The National Information Infrastructure was the product of the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991. It was a telecommunications policy buzzword, which was popularized during the Clinton Administration under the leadership of Vice-President Al Gore...

 effort of the 1990s.
Silverton's 1997 Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 thesis described a "Information Superdriveway", extending early analogies of "internet as roadway" connecting consumers to the information city streets and global superhighways.
The company existed from about 1998 through 2001.
It partnered with PAIX

PAIX

PAIX, the Peering And Internet eXchange, is a neutral Internet exchange point operated by Switch and Data.PAIX began operations in 1996 as Palo Alto Internet Exchange in Palo Alto, California, and was owned and operated by Digital Equipment Corporation, or DEC...

, an early Palo Alto Internet exchange.
In 1999 Silverton became founding director of the Open Access Alliance of the Bay Area, a group advocating for independent Internet service provider

Internet service provider

An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...

s.
In 2001 the company still planned to expand.

Silverton presented his experience to the Ethernet in the first mile

Ethernet in the first mile

Ethernet in the first mile refers to using one of the Ethernet family of computer network protocols between a telecommunications company and a customer's premise. From the customer's point of view it is their "first" mile, although from the access networks' point of view it is known as the "last...

 (EFM) study group in March 2001.
After several years of industry collaboration, the standard was published in June 2004.
In 2004 he was interviewed as an early adopter of voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.

External links