Dr. David Lucantoni

Dr. David Lucantoni, 69, of Ocean Township, passed away on Wednesday, February 28, 2024. He was a beloved father, grandfather, husband, brother, uncle and friend.

David was passionate about music, with a special interest in classic rock and blues; he loved movies and enjoyed watching in his home theater. He was extremely knowledgeable about science and the universe. He was a family man and loved his twin daughters, Amy and Lisa and his late wife Andrée more than anything. An avid traveler, David visited all but one continent over his long career, spending time all over the globe presenting his work and attending conferences.

Dr. Lucantoni had an impressive career and over 37 years of telecommunications industry experience, as a practitioner, academic and independent consultant. He also served as an expert witness and consultant for over 30 patent infringement and arbitration cases in the Telecom industry.

He published over 50 professional papers ranging from multiplexer design to broadband congestion control algorithms to state-of-the-art solution techniques to complex stochastic models. Many of these papers are still cited at major universities and in industry-related textbooks to this day, in at least five languages.

Early Life

David was born on August 31, 1954 in Parkville, Maryland. He was the son of Vincent and Marie Lucantoni, and the brother of Gina Riefner and Gary Lucantoni.

David grew up in Baltimore County and attended Parkville High School. He graduated with a degree in Mathematics from Towson University in 1976. David continued to pursue his education, graduating with a Master’s Degree in Statistics from the University of Delaware in 1978. David then went on to get his Ph.D in Operations Research from the University of Delaware in 1981.

Career

David worked at Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ from 1981 - 1994 as a distinguished member of the technical staff. During his thirteen year tenure, Dr. Lucantoni was involved in several projects dealing with leading edge technology, including: Broadband ISDN/ATM, Algorithmic Solutions to Stochastic Models, Queueing Theory and Applied Probability, Variable-Bit-Rate Video, Packetized Voice and Data, Wideband Packet Technology, LAPD Frame Relay, Packet Switching, Digital Switch Performance, Cellular Phone Technology (AMPS); developed fundamental advances in Matrix Analytic Methods.

In 1988, he was awarded a patent with Lucent Technologies on a packet switching system arranged for congestion control through bandwidth management.

From 1991 to 1993, Dr. Lucantoni taught graduate courses in Probability and Stochastic Processes as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.

In 1994 David worked at Motorola's Satellite Communications Division as a performance analyst for the IRIDIUM™ Low Earth Orbit satellite system. In response to a discovery that the switching fabric in production was not “non-blocking”, Dr. Lucantoni designed a real-time resource allocation algorithm to operate on-board the satellite vehicle that could recover the potential capacity loss. This algorithm avoided a costly hardware redesign saving more than $50M and is currently implemented on-board the Iridium™ satellites.

Dr. Lucantoni was the co-recipient of the 1986 IEEE Stephen O. Rice Prize Paper Award in the field of communications theory. He received an Honorable Mention in the 1998 INFORMS Frederick W. Lanchester Prize for the best publications in the areas of operations research and management science. He also received the 2000 Lucent Patent Recognition Award for patents that were “of significant importance to Lucent Technologies' commercial success” for the patent that proposed the use of cell monitoring and tagging and selective cell discard that is now part of the ATM standards.

David had a wide-ranging expertise in internet technology and infrastructure, computer networking, digital switching, call center technology, broadband wireless satellite communications, LAN/WAN architecture and protocols, traffic engineering, capacity planning, queuing theory, performance analysis and more.

As an expert witness and consultant for over 30 patent infringement and arbitration cases in the Telecom industry, he has been deposed over 25 times, has testified in Federal District Court at a Markman claim construction hearing and has written expert reports on patent infringement, validity, written description and enablement.

In 1995, David founded DLT Consulting, L.L.C and worked as an independent consultant on hundreds of cases until his retirement in 2021.

Family

He is survived by his daughters Lisa Marie Darché and Amy Beth Hughes and their husbands Sam Darché and Harrison Hughes. He also was the proud grandfather of August Marcel Darché and had another grandson on the way due in June 2024. He is also survived by his sister Gina Riefner, her husband Warren Riefner, and his nephews Jeff Riefner (wife Stevie, children Peyton and Parker), and Jason Riefner (wife Xoe and children Hudson and Tucker).

He was predeceased by his wife Andrée Adams Lucantoni, his mother Marie Lucantoni, his father Vincent Lucantoni and his brother Gary Lucantoni.

Services

There will be a celebration of life - called the “Concert for Dave” - on Saturday, May 11th at Mister C's Beach Bistro located at Allen Avenue &, Ocean Place, Allenhurst, NJ 07711 from 4pm-8pm. We will celebrate Dave’s life in the way he would want us to celebrate it, with live music, food, fun stories about Dave and a good time.