Rouzbeh Yassini

Rouzbeh Yassini is an American engineer who is known within the broadband communications industry as "the father of the cable modem" for being the founder of LANCity, the first company to deliver a practical device. He also helped establish cable modem industry standards (DOCSIS) through his work with Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs). Yassini is executive director of the University of New Hampshire Broadband Center Of Excellence, founder and board member of the YAS Foundation, and is the author of several books.

Early life and education Yassini was born in Tehran, Iran and attended the University of Pahlavi for one year before immigrating to the United States in 1977. In 1986 he moved to Proteon, a data networking company.

Yassini then joined CableLabs as a consultant, where he contributed to the development of DOCSIS, a standard for transmitting data over cable television systems. At CableLabs, Yassini coordinated with manufacturers and operators of cable equipment and helped lead the organization's certification testing project. DOCSIS was later adopted as an interoperability standard through the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

In the same period, Yassini established YAS Corporation, a Boston-based consulting and investment firm focused on broadband technologies.

In 2008, he opened the Yassini Broadband Knowledge Center in Boston to support broadband research and technology demonstration. In 2013, its activities were transferred to the University of New Hampshire, where Yassini became executive director of the newly formed UNH Broadband Center for Excellence (UNHBCoE). The center focused on broadband expansion and interoperability research.

Selected awards and achievements 2019: Inducted to Light Reading Hall of Fame class of 2019 2013: Inducted to WVU Distinguished Alumni class of 2013. 2003: Honorary Ph.D. from West Virginia University 2000: Inducted as member of WVU Lane Department of Academy Rouzbeh Yassini, Television White Spaces: Assessing TVWS for Rural Broadband Access, UNHBCoE, November 2014 Rouzbeh Yassini, Broadband 2030: The Networked Future, Broadband Intelligent Series, UNHBCoE, December 2013 Rouzbeh Yassini, Broadband 2020: Achieving Ubiquity, Broadband Intelligent Series, UNHBCoE, November 2013