A team including Thomas La Porta, distinguished professor of computer science and engineering and director of the Networking Security Research Center at Penn State, has been named the winner of the 2009 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award by the Research and Development Council of New Jersey.
The annual award recognizes technological creativity and leadership of New Jersey's research and development community.
In addition to La Porta, the team consisted of Alcatel-Lucent engineers Krishan Sabnani, Katztaka Murakami and Robert Sellinger. The patent for the team's work was filed by New Jersey-based Alcatel-Lucent, known as Lucent at the time of the filing.
The award-winning patent is titled "Multi-protocol Home Location Register and Method of Use." The Home Location Register is a key element in a cellular network that stores profiles for users and authenticates them. The invention provides a differentiated global roaming capability by devising a common database and common schema for all cellular standards and wireless networks.
The team's invention is used in more than a dozen networks around the world and serves hundreds of millions of mobile telephone subscribers globally.