IFIP TC6 (Communication Systems)

Meeting 2003/2

Minutes

Meeting Location: Muscat, Oman.

Meeting Date: 16th and 17th October, 2003.

TC6 Attendants: G.Haring, A.Danthine, J.Slavik, V.Iversen, O.Spaniol, F.Aagesen, A.Al-Naamany, A.Casaca, P.Radford, G.Leduc, G.Pujolle, D.Gaiti, G.Omidyar.
TC6 Guest: O.Cherkaoui
Apologies: M.Nicolau, J.Sousa, K.Boyanov, L.Mason, H.Yuan, S.Tohmé, G.Prati, T.Saito, I.Niemegers, A.Grzech, K.Fabian, J.Bester, K.Koen, R.Puigjaner, D.Khakhar, H.Rudin, V.Wuwongse,  F.Kamoun, L.Chapin, A.Iyengar, J.Whiley, I.Stavrakakis, R.Boutaba, H. van As, V.Tschammer.

1. Approval of agenda
The proposed agenda was approved. 

2. Approval of last meeting minutes
The minutes of the last TC6 meeting (2003/1) were approved, but with a correction to the TC6 meeting 2003/2 dates.

3. Attendance and membership
The meeting was attended by thirteen delegates plus one guest (Dr. Omar Cherkaoui, Univ. Quebec, Canada).  Twenty five apologies were received.

TC6 welcomed Gunter Haring and Guy Omydiar on their first attendance of a TC6 meeting.

The situation of the different delegates is as follows:
Albania – no longer an IFIP member
Andorra – OK
Argentina – replacement promised
Australia – OK
Austria – OK
Belgium – OK
Brazil – OK
Bulgaria – OK
Canada – OK
Chile – nomination promised
China – OK
Croatia – no nomination (not requested yet)
Cyprus – no nomination (not requested yet)
Czech Republic – OK
Denmark – OK
Egypt – nomination requested
Finland – replacement requested
France – OK
Germany – OK
Greece – replacement requested
Hungary – OK
India – replacement requested
Ireland – nomination requested
Israel – nomination requested
Italy – OK
Japan – OK
Korea – nomination requested
Lithuania – nomination requested
Malaysia – is now only an observer to IFIP
Netherlands – OK
Norway – OK
Oman – OK
Poland – OK
Portugal – OK
Singapore – nomination requested
Slovakia – replacement promised
Slovenia – OK
South Africa – OK
Spain – OK
Sweden – OK
Switzerland – OK
Syria – nomination requested
Thailand – OK
United Kingdom – OK
USA/ACM – OK
USA/IEEE CS – OK
Zimbabwe – OK.

G.Omidyar will try to provide  names for Egypt and Singapore (AP61/1).
G.Haring will contact Raghavan for the India delegate (AP61/2)
A.Casaca will contact O.Martikainen for the Finland delegate (AP61/3).
A.Casaca will ask R.Boutaba to try to get a name for a Korean delegate (AP61/4).

4.  Review of Action Points
All the action points from previous meetings have been fulfilled, except AP59/16 (WG6.6 membership) and AP60/12 (Netcon’03 ERF).

5. IFIP Secretariat
A.Casaca made a short report on the present situation of the IFIP Secretariat and distributed the call for application for a new IFIP Head of Secretariat to be launched by IFIP soon.

6. Report from IFIP General Assembly
A.Casaca reported on the most important points discussed in the last IFIP General Assembly in Vilnius, Lithuania, last September.

7. Web site for conference organization
A.Danthine reported on the present status of development of the Conference Web tool under development for TC6. The development of the first phase has already been paid by IFIP (1,000 Euro).

The second phase, without including Confman software, will be available by the end of October. The third and final phase will be ready before the next TC6 meeting.  IFIP will be charged on 1,250 Euro for the second phase still in 2003. The remaining 2,500 Euro will be paid after the system is ready in 2004.
With the help of A Danthine, G.Pujolle is going to try the system at its present status and will report on that (AP61/5).

8. Steering Committees
The Steering Committee table was updated. 
New updates are needed for:
PfHSN – G. Pujolle (AP 61/6)
Networking – G.Pujolle (AP61/7)
WITA – A.Iyengar (AP61/8)
IWAN – D.Gaiti (AP61/9)
Netcon – D.Gaiti (AP61/10)
I3E – V.Tschammer (AP61/11)
MWCN – G.Omidyar (AP61/12)

9.  Proposed WG 12.4
Possible conflicts between parts of the scope for the proposed WG 12.3 and 12.4 with WG 6.7 and 6.4, respectively, was detected. A.Casaca will report on this, attaching the aims and scope of WG6.4 and 6.7, to Max Bremmer and to the Technical Assembly, so that these issues are discussed in the next Technical Assembly before approving the new WG 12.3 and 12.4. (AP61/13).

10. Working Group Activities

WG 6.1
The WG 6.1 report was presented by G.Leduc.

G.Leduc referred to the possibility of splitting WG 6.1 into two distinct WGs. It was decided to keep the existing structure for the time being and to discuss the issue again in 2004, when TC6 will re-evaluate the structure of the WGs.

G.Leduc will update the numbering of the FORTE series of conferences in the documentation of TC6 Conferences and will send it to A.Casaca (AP61/14).  G.Leduc also will clarify how QoS’03 was published and see what is planned for QoS’04 (AP61/15).

WG 6.2
The WG 6.2 report was presented by G.Pujoille.

It was decided to organize the Networking Conference every year from 2004 on. In 2005 it will be in Toronto, Canada. G Pujolle was to notify Raouf Boutaba about the Toronto conference (AP61/16).

A Workshop on Network Signalling was approved. G.Pujolle will give details about date and place (AP61/17).

WG 6.3
There was no report from WG 6.3..

WG 6.4
The WG 6.4 chairman was not present and the report was introduced by the TC6 chairman..

WG 6.6
The WG 6.6 chairman was not present and the report was introduced by the TC6 chairman..

WG 6.7
The WG 6.7 report was presented by D.Gaiti.

It was decided to concentrate the activity of WG 6.7 on 3 conferences: Active Networks (annually), Netcon (annually) and Intelcom (every two years). 

D.Gaiti was asked to investigate why the TC6 reference was in the CFP for MATA’03 but not in the final program (AP61/18).

WG 6.8
The WG 6.8 report was presented by J.Slavik.

From January 1st, 2004, G.Omidyar will be the only chairman of WG6.8, due to the fact that J.Slavik has reached the end of his six year mandate. TC6 thanked Jan for the great job that he has done in creating WG6.8 and having it in such a good shape now.

WG 6.9
The WG 6.9 chairman was not present and the report was introduced by the TC6 chairman..

TC6 recommended that WG6.9 continues to be involved in WITFOR (with WITFOR 2005). It was also agreed to collaborate with CLEI in 2004 by sponsoring one invited speaker.

Due to the low attendance of LANC’03, TC6 would like to discuss the situation for the next edition of this event in 2005, during the next TC6 meeting with the WG 6.9 chairman present.

G.Omidyar will propose a conference to be organized in one of the states south of Russia (AP61/19).

WG 6.10
There was no report from WG 6.10.

Since Harman van As is coming to the end of his 6 years tenure as chairman of WG 6.10, it was decided that the TC6 chairman will request CVs and position papers concerning WG 6.10 activities from nominated candidates, if they are interested in becoming the next WG 6.10 chairman (AP61/20). The nomination will be done at the next TC6 meeting, or earlier if possible.

WG 6.11
The WG 6.11 chairman was not present and the report was introduced by the TC6 chairman..

11. TC6 directly supported events
O.Spaniol requested that those interested in particpating in the Workshop on Crisis Management in Dagstuhl in 2004 should contact him.

The Traffic Engineering Workshop in 2005 will be under the joint sponsorship of WG 6.2 and 6.10.

It was agreed to collaborate with the SBRC Brazilian conference in 2004 by sponsoring one invited speaker. The same type of collaboration will be done for ICT’04 in 2004.

It was decided to support the organization of a Workshop on Grid Networking, which will take place in 2004. O. Cherkaoui will organize it and will report on the place and dates by next 15th November (AP61/21).

12. Calendar of Events
The calendar of events was updated.

13. WG 6.7 Presentation
D.Gaiti did a presentation on the technical aspects of WG 6.7. A lively discussion has followed. At the end  the TC6 chairman thanked Dominique for her nice and well structured presentation.

14. IFIP Publications
A.Casaca reported on the bid issued to several publishers around the world to present proposals to be the IFIP publisher from January 2005 on. The proposals are expected by the IFIP Secretariat by 15th of October, 2003. There is an IFIP Committee which will recommend to the IFIP EB the selection to be made. The final decision will be taken by the IFIP EB by the end of 2003.

15. TC6 event statistics
The updated table was commented and it was decided to keep it in the private part of the TC6 web page. A.Casaca will request H.Leitold to do it (AP61/22).

16. TC6 Finance
A.Casaca indicated that the procedures for TC funds were approved in the last IFIP GA. These procedures are along the lines explained in the TC6 meeting in Budapest.

TC6 approved a budget of 25,000 Euros for 2004.

It is split as follows in the different items:
Best Paper Awards – 5,000 Euros
Student Travel Grants – 11,000 Euros
Grants to speakers for developing countries – 4,000 Euros
Operating Expenses – 5,000 Euros.

During the meeting Best Paper Awards of 500 Euros each were approved for Testcom, Networking, Middleware, FORTE, PWC, MWCN, WWW, MMNS, DSOM and Intellcom.

During the meeting Student Travel Grants were also approved for Testcom (750 Euro), Middleware (1,500 Euro), FORTE (750 Euro), Networking (2,000 Euro), PWC (1,500 Euro), WWW (1,500 Euro) and Intellcom (1,500 Euro).

The speaker´s grants will be for ICT (1,000 Euro), SRBC (1,000 Euro), CLEI (1,000 Euro) and Intellcom (1,000 Euro).

A loan of 3,000 Euro was approved for IT&Sport.

17.  Election of TC6 chair
A.Danthine announced that there are two candidates for the chairmanship of TC6. The following procedure was agreed:
-	A.Casaca will prepare a list with the names of the voters and send it to D.Hayden with cc to TC6. (AP61/23)
-	A.Danthine will send a mail to TC6 with the CVs and position statements of the candidates during the first week of November. (AP61/24)
-	Voting by e-mail will follow, by a date to be specified by A.Danthine, which will be, however, before the end of November. Votes should be sent simultaneously to Dorothy Hayden in the IFIP Secretariat and to Peter Radford.
-	Votes will be counted during the first week of December.
-	The new chairman will take office on January 1st, 2004.

18. Election of WG chairs
The only pending nomination is the one of WG 6.10 as reported before.

19. Next TC6 meetings
The first TC6 meeting in 2004 will be in Athens on May 15th and 16th at the kind invitation of I.Stravakkakis.

The second meeting of 2004 has not been fixed yet. F.Aagesen will investigate whether it will be possible to have the meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, together with the Intellcom’04 conference (AP61/25).

20. AOB
TC6 thanked Ahmed Al-Naamany for the perfect organization of the meeting and for the splendid reception that was provided to the TC6 members present.