Infocom'96Panels

Panel P1: Wireless Multimedia Networks: Issues, Challenges and Directions

Organizer:
Ian F. Akyildiz, Georgia Tech
Date and time:
Tuesday, March 26, 1996, 5:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Description:
In recent years, the idea of ubiquitous multimedia computing and communication systems has caught the attention of researchers and the dreams of computer enthusiasts. For wireline systems, the implementation of multimedia systems has been facilitated by the immense available bandwidth in optical fiber. In comparison, the implementation of multimedia through wireless has proved elusive due to the very limited available bandwidth and the unreliable characteristics of wireless communication.

It is evident that a successful implementation of a multimedia system over wireless will require a number of compromises and a very efficient use of all available resources. In addition, traditional approaches will need to be revised, and new architectures, protocols and algorithms will need to be developed. The focus of this panel will be to reveal current issues challenges and directions for how to realize the multimedia computing and networking through wireless.

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Panel P2: Inter-operability in Multi-vendor ATM Networks

Organizer:
Israel Cidon, Technion
Date and time:
Wednesday, March 27, 1996, 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm (box lunch will be served)
Description:
The panel will address the current problems and proposed solutions for operating heterogeneous ATM networks with multiple vendor switches. Inter-operability and performance problems might exist because of different and proprietary software control implementations and architectures, different rate control algorithms or different versions of the same standard (in particular for the ABR class) and different vendor interpretations of QoS requirements.
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Panel P3: How Much Synchronization is Needed for Multimedia Communications?

Organizer:
Yoram Ofek, IBM and Wei Zhao, Texas A&M University
Date and time:
Wednesday, March 27, 1996, 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm (box lunches will be served)
Description:
The question we will discuss and debate in this panel is what level of synchronization should be provided by the network in order to satisfy multimedia applications. Initially, in packet switch networks, the packets have been flowing inside the network, in an asynchronous manner. Moreover, there has been no notion of a common time reference among the switching nodes and network interfaces. However, the inclusion of real-time applications (e.g., video tele-conferencing) and the need to interoperate with circuit-switched networks (e.g., N-ISDN) introduce the need for having a stronger notion of synchronization (e.g., using time stamps). Therefore, the debate in this panel will focus on two main issues:
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Panel P4: Can high-speed wide-area networks be effectively controlled?

Organizer:
Pitsillides Andreas, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Date and time:
Wednesday, March 27, 1996, 5:15 pm - 6:15 pm
Description:
The panel will address the issue of whether high-speed wide-area networks can be effectively controlled. It will, mainly, focus on the following: reactive vs proactive control; network edge vs link-by-link control on a per VC and/or aggregate flow; whether formal control theory is relevant and necessary, and if yes why has it not been widely used in the design of effective controls; and other control issues, such as do we apply control only to ABR traffic? is it possible, and necessary that we must come up with a single universal integrated control strategy that handles all traffic types? should we be designing with applications and their real requirements in mind? is there a need to (re)define the interface between the various protocol levels?
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Panel P5: Simulation Modeling of Communication Networks: State of the Art and Challenges

Organizer:
David Tipper, University of Pittsburgh
Date and time:
Wednesday, March 27, 1996, 5:15 pm - 6:15 pm
Description:
The main focus of the discussion would be on what is the role of simulation in modeling communication networks (especially high speed networks) versus other techniques (i.e., measurement, queueing theory).
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Panel P6: The Economics of the Internet

Organizer:
Yannis Korilis, AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date and time:
Thursday, March 28, 1996, 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm (box lunches will be served)
Description:
The Internet is currently undergoing a dramatic transformation from a government-funded to a commercial network. Internet access, that was traditionally restricted to academic and research institutions and incurred no usage costs to the end users, is now becoming widely available to the general public through various profit-making service providers. The orders-of-magnitude increase in the number of users and the contemplated wide array of supported applications indicate that pricing of Internet services will play a key role in its future evolution.

Pricing has been receiving increasing interest within the research community. Most researchers take a normative approach, and investigate usage-based pricing mechanisms that will motivate the users to adopt a "social" behavior (e.g., by regulating their traffic, or by requesting lower grade of service) that improves the overall performance of the network. Service providers, on the other hand, will benefit from using a more efficient Internet, but at the same time are interested in mechanisms that first produce profit and second are more appealing to the end users than the mechanisms of their competitors.

The interface between the performance- and the market-oriented approach to pricing is one of the main factors that will define the structure of the future Internet. The goal of the panel is to bring the research and business communities at the same table and motivate a dialogue that will delineate this interface.

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Last modified: November 16, 1995
Henning Schulzrinne