For contributions in cross-layer wireless networking, wireless network coding, and Internet congestion control.

For her seminal contributions to the theory and practice of network congestion control and bandwidth allocation.

Dina Katabi's dissertation work on the explicit Control Protocol (XCP) is one of the most important contributions in the area of network congestion control. It has introduced theoretical methods  in particular, stability analysis from control theory  to the design of scalable practical network protocols. Such protocols aim to minimize network congestion, thereby maximizing utilization efficiency, while ensuring a fair allocation of capacity among different flows that compete for the same bandwidth. Katabi's XCP was the first protocol to achieve both goals simultaneously without imposing the impractical requirement that routers maintain per-flow state. Her innovation is based on the novel and theoretically justified observation that congestion control mechanisms and capacity allocation among flows can be addressed separately. She designed an ingenious packet-marking scheme to carry information about network congestion and used methods from control theory to show that her algorithm provided a stable solution  for suitable values of the algorithm's parameters  to the delayed-feedback control problem defined by this scheme. Her work thus solved an important practical problem in a novel and rigorous way while opening up hitherto unexplored connections between networking and control theory.

Katabi's research on XCP initiated a new approach to network protocol design and is essential reading for current courses in the area. Her ideas have impacted many subsequent protocols and computer systems. Perhaps more importantly, by changing the way we think about the algorithmic control of network behavior, Katabi's work is likely to impact future Internet developments to an even greater extent.

Press Release

For her dissertation, Decoupling Congestion Control from the Bandwidth Allocation Policy and its Application to High Bandwidth-Delay Product Networks, nominated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.