Dennis P. McCracken
Professional Summary
Contents
Work Information
Company Name
What do we do?
Brooktrout Technology is a leading supplier of media processing, network interface, call control and signal processing products that enable the development of applications, systems and services for both the New Network™ (packet-based) and the traditional telephone (TDM) network.
Job Title
Principal Software Engineer
Key responsibilities
I work on the TRxStream product family writing device driver software for Telephony components.
Department or workgroup
Platform and Protocol Software
Favorite Links
Who I work for
Technology related Links
Programming Books
Design
Patterns
by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides
Design
Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design
by Alan Shalloway, James Trott
Programming Links
GNU -
Free Software Development Tools and More
Learn
Object Oriented Programming with Python
Operating System Links
Precise Software - Providers
of the MQX Operating System
Protocol Stack Provider Links
Data Connection
Limited (DCL) - MGCP/Megaco
Aztek Engineering, Inc -
GR303 / V5.2
Contact Information
E-mail address
Web address
Home phone
(978) 372-0888
Office phone
(603) 890-7281
Office fax
(603) 890-7181
Cell phone
(978)764-8719
Text Messaging
Recent Projects
Refactoring telephony interface
designs
Refactoring system clocking design
Media Gateway (MGCP/Megaco)
GR303 Voice Signaling Protocol
North American Robbed-bit Signaling
V5.2
ISDN BRI ST/U
ISDN PRI
Resume
My career has been more than slightly schizophrenic since 1995. Working in telecommunications startup companies, you find that the best engineers, the subject matter experts, often become managers out of necessity. In the last two companies I have worked for, I have started as a major contributor and ended as a Director. This is fine with me as I enjoy leading people as much as I enjoy software development. Consequently, I have not one resume but two. One resume for Dennis McCracken the software engineer and one resume for Dennis McCracken the manager.
Dennis McCracken
34 Homestead Street
Haverhill, Ma 01830
(978) 372-0888
Summary:
Over 20 years
of software engineering experience developing complex embedded systems for the
communications and minicomputer industries.
Experienced in the design and implementation of software in support of
all phases of the product development life cycle. Proven project management skills with the ability to manage
personal development responsibilities while simultaneously tracking milestones
and issues of a development team.
Technical Skills:
· Over 20 years experience programming in C and assembly languages
· Experience programming with object oriented languages: C++ (5 years), Python (2 years)
· Recent self education: Java, Java Swing, UML
· Familiar with Intel, IBM, Motorola and Zilog processor architectures
· Project management using Microsoft Project
· Device driver development experience for MQX, PSOS, Windows NT and proprietary operating systems in support of POTS, BRI, PRI, DS1, E1, 802.3, Ethernet, 802.5 and FDDI interfaces.
· Voice networking protocols: GR-303, V5.2, MGCP, RTP/RTCP, Voice over MPLS, North American Robbed Bit Signaling, ISDN
· Data networking protocols: UDP, ATM LANE, PPP, HDLC
· Linux Application development experience: python, wxPython, ncurses, sockets
· Development environments: Linux, SUN, Windows, CVS, RCS, StarTeam
Employment History:
|
BROOKTROUT TECHNOLOGY INC., Salem NH |
2004 - Present |
Public company developing enabling technology for communications companies
Project Lead, Principal Software Engineer
· Lead a team that re-designed and re-implemented all telephony interfaces for Brooktrout’s family of telecommunications boards including Analog, T1/J1/E1 and BRI.
· During the project I was responsible for the design and implementation of drivers for the BT8370 T1/J1/E1 framer and the T810x family clocking subsustem.
|
INTEGRAL ACCESS INC., Chelmsford MA |
1999-2003 |
Communications startup building a next generation converged service access platform
Director of Voice Service Development, Project Lead,
Principal Software Engineer
· Co-developed the architecture, design and implementation of a generic call control model
· Lead a team in the development of Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), GR-303 and V5.2 voice protocols. This included tracking project milestones, issues and mentoring developers throughout the project life cycle. Actively participated in the debug of tasks on critical path of each project.
· Designed and developed POTS support for V5.2, North American Robbed Bit signaling for DS1, clock synchronization, N+1 redundancy, low level T1/E1 device drivers, boot ROM, board support package for MQX OS and a serial device driver for NS16550
· Contributed to hardware design through design reviews and hardware debug in the lab using a variety of methods including software logging and the use of digital oscilloscopes and logic analyzers
· Researched performance of perceived voice quality as it relates to system load. Authored a document that was used to provide guidance to customers in central office network design
· Designed and developed logging facilities at all levels of the architecture to store call processing information. The use of call sequence tags allowed us to coordinate call logs between different subsystems.
· Developed python applications to interpret and present call processing logs. This was a major contributor to IA’s ability to quickly retrieve and analyze days of detailed call activity and facilitate fast resolution of customer issues.
|
RAScom
Inc.,
Salem NH |
1996-1999 |
Communications startup building a remote access server based on Windows NT
Director of Software Engineering, Principal Software
Engineer
· Lead a team of software engineers in the development of embedded software, Windows applications, NT device drivers and diagnostic software using C and C++. All embedded software was written in C++
· Designed and developed NT WAN Miniport device driver for 30-port PCI based Rockwell RL56CSM/3-S 56K modem card for COM port and sync-PPP applications
· Developed boot ROM and serial communications drivers for Motorola 68MH360 Power QUICC
· Designed and developed object oriented device driver for HDLC device drivers
· Designed and developed object oriented buffer architecture
· Designed and developed inter-process communication drivers for both embedded and NT sides of the ISA / PCI bus
|
Agranat
Systems,
Waltham MA |
1995-1996 |
Off-site fixed bid contracting
Contract Software Engineer
· Designed and developed an NDIS 3.0 device driver for a TI 1561 ATM SAR supporting RFC 1483
· Designed and developed ATM LANE protocol test suite
· Implemented an ncurses based Linux app to configure a Proxy SNMP agent for a large disk array
· Implemented support for TI TMS380 802.5 switch: SR, SRT
· Port driver for TI TMS380 802.5 chip from a RISC based bridge/router to pSOS based net management card supporting 'zero byte copy' and Manufacturing and power on self-test diagnostics
· Ported a socket based TFTP stack to a non-sockets environment. Developed PC based simulation for testing
· Authored a document evaluating an 802.1D spanning tree protocol implementation
|
UB
Networks / Ungerman Bass, Andover MA |
1989-1995 |
Builders of the first intelligent hub
Software Engineer
· Member of a small team that defined the architecture for a switch/router common code base and followed that effort through to implement the architecture for three bridging / switching products
· Designed and developed multi-protocol switching translation for Ethernet/802.3/802.5/FDDI switch, network management applications and a NetView gateway.
|
IDEAssociates, Billerica MA |
1987-1989 |
PC based emulation of IBM System 36/38/AS400 terminals and printers
Software Engineer
· Developed software to share 5251 Terminal sessions over 802.5 LANS, modems and direct serial connections
· Developed 5250 printer emulation software
· Developed multitasking engine to run under DOS off the system timer
|
Wang
Laboratories,
Lowell MA |
1979-1987 |
Minicomputer manufacturer
Software Engineer
· Developed diagnostic software, a Z80 based embedded power supply test system and guided probe test beds using signature analysis techniques
Education:
My educational background is not traditional. After graduating from Greater Lawerence Regional Vocational Technical High School where I studied Analog and some Digital circuit theory, I attended college classes at night at three institutions: Merrimac College, New Hampshire College and Northern Essex Community College where I studied:
· Undergraduate Math
· Undergraduate English
· Business and Humanities
· C Programming, Pascal Programming with Data Structures
In addition to night courses, I also sought out technical education available on the job at Wang Laboratories. I took many job related courses at Wang including:
· Microprocessor theory
· Z80 and 68K Assembly language
· VS Operating System theory: Virtual Memory Management and Task Scheduling
· Project Management
Dennis McCracken
34 Homestead Street
Haverhill, Ma 01830
(978) 372-0888
Summary:
Over 5 years technical management experience leading software engineering groups up to 20 individuals. Responsible for budget, hiring, project planning and oversight in fast paced telecommunications companies. Proven project management skills with the ability to manage personal development responsibilities while simultaneously tracking milestones and issues of a development team. Over 20 years of software engineering experience developing complex embedded systems for the communications and minicomputer industries. Experienced in the design and implementation of software in support of all phases of the product development life cycle.
Technical Skills:
· Project management using Microsoft Project
· Over 20 years experience programming in C and assembly languages
· Experience programming with object oriented languages: C++ (5 years), Python (2 years)
· Recent self education: Java, Java Swing, UML, Linux internals
· Familiar with Intel, IBM, Motorola and Zilog processor architectures
· Device driver development experience for MQX, PSOS, Windows NT and proprietary operating systems in support of POTS, BRI, PRI, DS1, E1, 802.3, Ethernet, 802.5 and FDDI interfaces.
· Voice networking protocols: GR-303, V5.2, MGCP, RTP/RTCP, Voice over MPLS, North American Robbed Bit Signaling, ISDN
· Data networking protocols: UDP, ATM LANE, PPP, HDLC
· Linux Application development experience: python, wxPython, ncurses, sockets
· Development environments: Linux, SUN, Windows, CVS, RCS, StarTeam
Employment History:
|
INTEGRAL ACCESS INC., Chelmsford MA |
1999-2003 |
Communications startup building a next generation converged service access platform
Director of Voice Service Development, Project Lead,
Principal Software Engineer
· Responsible for management of all voice services development for IA PPS. This included budget providing budget input to upper management for tools, 3rd party software and travel. Conducted annual employee reviews in a merit based compensation system.
· Responsible for the management of a software group of up to 20 individuals including off-site employees developing Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), GR-303 and V5.2 voice protocols, DSP software and system services. This included developing requirements, tracking project milestones, issues and mentoring developers throughout the project life cycle. Actively participated in the debug of tasks on critical path of each project.
· Managed engineering response to customer issues including prioritization of issues, assignment of resources and managing written communication of issue resolution with customers.
· Before joining the management team at IA, I designed and developed POTS support for V5.2, North American Robbed Bit signaling for DS1, clock synchronization, N+1 redundancy, low level T1/E1 device drivers, boot ROM, board support package for MQX OS and a serial device driver for NS16550
· Contributed to hardware design through design reviews and hardware debug in the lab using a variety of methods including software logging and the use of digital oscilloscopes and logic analyzers
· Researched performance of perceived voice quality as it relates to system load. Authored a document that was used to provide guidance to customers in central office network design
|
RAScom
Inc.,
Salem NH |
1996-1999 |
Communications startup building a remote access server based on Windows NT
Director of Software Engineering, Principal Software
Engineer
· Lead a team of up to 15 software engineers in the development of embedded software, Windows applications, NT device drivers and diagnostic software using C and C++. All embedded software was written in C++
· Designed and developed NT WAN Miniport device driver for 30-port PCI based Rockwell RL56CSM/3-S 56K modem card for COM port and sync-PPP applications
· Developed boot ROM and serial communications drivers for Motorola 68MH360 Power QUICC
· Designed and developed object oriented device driver for HDLC device drivers
· Designed and developed object oriented buffer architecture
· Designed and developed inter-process communication drivers for both embedded and NT sides of the ISA / PCI bus
|
Agranat
Systems,
Waltham MA |
1995-1996 |
Off-site fixed bid contracting
Contract Software Engineer
· Designed and developed an NDIS 3.0 device driver for a TI 1561 ATM SAR supporting RFC 1483, ATM LANE protocol test suite, an ncurses based Linux app to configure a Proxy SNMP agent for a large disk array, support for TI TMS380 802.5 switch (SR, SRT, SRTB), ported a driver for TI TMS380 802.5 chip from a RISC based bridge/router to pSOS based net management card supporting 'zero byte copy' and Manufacturing and power on self-test diagnostics, proted a socket based TFTP stack to a non-sockets environment, authored a document evaluating an 802.1D spanning tree protocol implementation.
|
UB
Networks / Ungerman Bass, Andover MA |
1989-1995 |
Builders of the first intelligent hub
Software Engineer
· Member of a small team that defined the architecture for a switch/router common code base and followed that effort through to implement the architecture for three bridging / switching products
· Designed and developed multi-protocol switching translation for Ethernet/802.3/802.5/FDDI switch, network management applications and a NetView gateway.
|
IDEAssociates, Billerica MA |
1987-1989 |
PC based emulation of IBM System 36/38/AS400 terminals and printers
Software Engineer
· Developed software to share 5251 Terminal sessions over 802.5 LANS, modems and direct serial connections
· Developed 5250 printer emulation software
· Developed multitasking engine to run under DOS off the system timer
|
Wang
Laboratories,
Lowell MA |
1979-1987 |
Minicomputer manufacturer
Software Engineer
· Developed diagnostic software, a Z80 based embedded power supply test system and guided probe test beds using signature analysis techniques
Education:
My educational background is not traditional. After graduating from Greater Lawerence Regional Vocational Technical High School where I studied Analog and some Digital circuit theory, I attended college classes at night at three institutions: Merrimac College, New Hampshire College and Northern Essex Community College where I studied:
· Undergraduate Math
· Undergraduate English
· Business and Humanities
· C Programming, Pascal Programming with Data Structures
In addition to night courses, I also sought out technical education available on the job at Wang Laboratories. I took many job related courses at Wang including:
· Microprocessor theory
· Z80 and 68K Assembly language
· VS Operating System theory: Virtual Memory Management and Task Scheduling
·
Project Management
Last revised: January 27th, 2004