Carpenter spent 25 years, from 1971 to 1996, working at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). He initially wrote software for process control systems and later served as the head of the networking group from 1985 to 1996, working alongside Robert Cailliau and Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web.[3][4] He took three years off of his CERN career to teach undergraduate computer science at Massey University in New Zealand.[2]
When Carpenter left CERN, he joined IBM, where he was an IBM Distinguished Engineer working on Internet Standards and Technology between 1997 and 2007. From 1999 to 2001 he was at iCAIR, international Center for Advanced Internet Research, sponsored by IBM at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Upon leaving iCAIR, he was based in Switzerland, first in Zurich, then Geneva.
In 2013, Carpenter published a professional memoir called Network Geeks: How They Built the Internet.[6]
Contributions to Internet technology
Carpenter's research interests include Internet protocols, especially the networking and routing layers.[1] He is also interested in the history of computing.[7]
Carpenter served from March 1994 to March 2002 on the Internet Architecture Board, which he chaired for five years.
In 1996, he edited an important memo on the Architectural Principles of the Internet.[8]He has worked on IPv6[9][10][11][12][13] and on differentiated services[14][15] and served as the DiffServ working group chair. He also served as a Trustee of the Internet Society, and was Chairman of its Board of Trustees for two years until June 2002. In March 2005, he became IETF Chair, a position he held until March 2007.[16]
Selected publications
Brian Carpenter; Robert W. Doran (1977). "The Other Turing Machine". The Computer Journal. 20 (3). British Computer Society: 269–279. doi:10.1093/comjnl/20.3.269.
AM Turing's ACE Report of 1946 and Other Papers, Vol. 10 of Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series for the History of Computing, B.E. Carpenter, R.W. Doran (eds), MIT Press, 1986.
Network Geeks: How They Built the Internet. Springer Science & Business Media. 2013. ISBN 9781447150251.
^S. Amante; B. Carpenter; S. Jiang; J. Rajahalme (November 2011). IPv6 Flow Label Specification. IETF. doi:10.17487/RFC6437. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 6437. Proposed Standard. Obsoletes RFC 3697. Updates RFC 2205 and 2460.
^B. Carpenter; S. Cheshire; R. Hinden (February 2013). Representing IPv6 Zone Identifiers in Address Literals and Uniform Resource Identifiers. IETF. doi:10.17487/RFC6874. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 6874. Proposed Standard. Updates RFC 3986.
^B. Carpenter; S. Jiang (February 2014). Significance of IPv6 Interface Identifiers. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). doi:10.17487/RFC7136. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 7136. Proposed Standard. Updates RFC 4291.
^O. Troan (May 2015). B. Carpenter (ed.). Deprecating the Anycast Prefix for 6to4 Relay Routers. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC7526. BCP 196. RFC 7526. Best Current Practice. Obsoletes RFC 3068 and 6732.
^K. Nichols; B. Carpenter (April 2001). Definition of Differentiated Services Per Domain Behaviors and Rules for their Specification. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3086. RFC 3086. Informational.
^D. Black; S. Brim; B. Carpenter; F. Le Faucheur (June 2001). Per Hop Behavior Identification Codes. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3140. BCP 53. RFC 3140. Proposed Standard. Obsoletes RFC 2836.
^"IESG Past Members". IETF. Retrieved 28 January 2018.