Alex Zinin's homepage
My book: "Cisco IP Routing: Packet Forwarding & Intra-domain Routing Protocols"
I was born in a small scientific town in Russia--Ozersk (used to be Chelyabinsk-65), where I grew up and went to school . After school, I moved to Kazan to study in KAI (Kazan Aeronautical Institute), now Kazan State Technical University named after Tupolev, and graduated from it with honors with the major in Computer Science. This city has truly become my second hometown.
What I do:
Though my initial professional background is in system software development, I've been doing computer networking for more then ten years and have an extensive knowledge in IP routing and MPLS technologies.
I currently live in Cupertino, California, USA, and work for Alcatel, IP Division, as a Principle Engineer and Alcatel Fellow, working with customers on their network architectures, helping Alcatel with the overall IP strategy and product development teams with Internet routing technologies. Before Alcatel I worked for a startup--Nexsi--where I helped with IP routing; at Cisco, where I worked in the ISP team, supporting Verio, being an escalation guy for routing, and working close with routing protocol developers; at AMT Group, where I was teaching networking, helping Russian ISPs, and developing Zebra routing software and writing the book in my spare time; at Lint (later Center Group), where a couple of my friends and myself established the networking department, etc...
I've been active in the IETF since mid-90's, primarily in the Routing Area, where I started in the OSPF WG, and later contributed to many others (ISIS, IDR, MPLS, CCAMP, etc.). From 2002 to 2006 I served as an Area Director for the IETF Routing area, which also made me a member of the IESG. I'm currently a co-chair of the IETF RTGWG, and a member of the Routing Area Directorate, and still an active contributor in many other WGs. The IETF is an exceptional organization, where engineers from different companies and countries can get together to work on Internet technology evolution and... have some fun, of course.
Non-work stuff:
Judo plays a big
role in my
life
and the life of my family. I started doing Judo when I was a teenager
back
in Russia.
After a huge gap (I didn't do it for more than 10 years), I
started doing it again when I was 28. I am a member of
the San
Jose Buddihst Judo Club--one of the oldest and the biggest Judo
clubs
in California and probably in the US.
My wife Liza, though doesn't
practice
Judo herself (maybe one day ;), knows about it quite a lot--her brother
and farther
used to do Judo. Our son Artem goes to the Cupertino
Judo Club. Also, check out the web-site of a brand new
club--Silicon Valley Judo--that a
few
members of SJBJC have founded.
If you would like to try Judo for yourself or your child, or you're not sure if you should do this--talk to me :)