David R. Huber is an American engineer specializing in

optical networking Optical networking is a means of communication that uses signals encoded in light to transmit information in various types of telecommunications networks. These include limited range Local area network, local-area networks (LAN) or wide area networ ...

. He is the holder and assignor of several patents in the field of optical transmission, distribution, and communication. David R. Huber received his B. S. degree in physics from Eastern Oregon State College in 1974 and his PhD degree in electrical engineering from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

in 1980. Upon graduation, he began working at the Martin Marietta Company in the area of space instrumentation. It was in 1982 when his career focus changed to fiber optics receivers, wavelength division fiber-optic communication systems, and fiber-optic bandwidth and

dispersion Dispersion may refer to: Economics and finance *Dispersion (finance), a measure for the statistical distribution of portfolio returns * Price dispersion, a variation in prices across sellers of the same item *Wage dispersion, the amount of variat ...

measurements while employed at

ITT Corporation ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesses ...

. Working at

Optelecom Optelecom-NKF, Inc. is an American company that designs, manufactures, and markets high-bandwidth communications products, financial market data information, and business video systems. History The company was founded as Optelecom in 1974 by Wi ...

from 1983 to 1988, Huber developed optical multiplexed sensors and a multiplexed fiber optic wideband data distribution system. In 1988, he joined

General Instrument Corporation General Instrument (GI) was an American electronics manufacturer based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, specializing in semiconductors and cable television equipment. They formed in New York City in 1923 as an electronics manufacturer. During the 1950s, ...

, where he patented several inventions, including Remote pumping for active optical devices, Method for producing a tunable erbium fiber laser, and wavelength selective coupler for high power optical communications. These technologies were core elements of the wave division multiplexing (“WDM”) system developed by Huber. Huber returned to Optelecom in 1993 to develop optical networking systems by starting Hydralite Inc. (renamed Ciena Corp.) with Optelecom and entrepreneur

Kevin Kimberlin Kevin Kimberlin is chairman of Spencer Trask & Co., a technology firm. Kimberlin's career includes work with Jonas Salk, Walter Gilbert, John Wennberg and Robert Langer. Technology In 1982, Kimberlin invested in Millicom, a startup selected by ...

. Their venture was chartered and the founders shares were issued to Huber, Kimberlin, and Optelecom on November 12, 1993. Optelecom took an ownership stake for providing management, financial, and production support for Ciena. Press coverage at that time noted that the firm would “specialize in equipment such as lasers, modulators, and amplifiers used to send data through fiber cables at very high rates." Referred to as wave division multiplexing, the new technology would, according to William H. Culver, Optelecom's chairman, let “a single, hair-thin cable carry many signals simultaneously, with each one being piggybacked on a different frequency of light." In June 1996, Ciena introduced the first dense WDM system. After Ciena went public, Huber left to start another optical networking company, Corvis Corporation (renamed Broadwing Corporation) in 1997, where he served as Chairman of the Board until Corvis was acquired by Level 3 Communications, Inc. in 2007 for $1.4 billion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huber, David R. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers Eastern Oregon University alumni Brigham Young University alumni 20th-century American businesspeople American company founders Martin Marietta people