IFIP TC6 (Communication Systems)

Meeting 2000/2

Minutes

Meeting Location: Beijing, China

Meeting Date: August 25-26, 2000

TC6 attendants:  R.Posch, A.Danthine, K.Boyanov, L.Mason, D.Hu, J.Slavik, V.Hara, O.Spaniol, F.Aagesen, A.Grzech, A.Casaca, K.Fabian, K.Koen, R.Puigjaner, D.Khakhar (only 25th), L.Chapin, A.Iyengar, G.Leduc, G.Pujolle, V.Tschammer.

Apologies: A.Roman, H.Dutton, N.Sousa, V.Iversen, S.Tohme, S.Dibuz, T.Saito, H.Nah, J.Gyorkos, V.Wuwongse, H.Rudin, F.Kamoun, P.Radford, J.Whiley, H.Perros, Y.Takahashi, W.Zimmer, O.Martikainen, H.van As.

1. Approval of agenda

The proposed agenda was approved. 

2. Approval of last meeting minutes

The minutes of the last TC6 meeting (99/2) were approved.

3. Attendance and membership

Since the last meeting new delegates for TC6 have been nominated by the Computer Societies of the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Slovenia and Thailand.

TC6 welcomed the new delegate from Poland, Prof. Adam Grzech, for his first presence in a TC6 meeting.

Delegates from the following countries, which are members of IFIP, are still missing in TC6: Andorra, Egypt, Ireland, Israel, Korea, Netherlands and Singapore.

The following actions to get delegates were agreed:
Delegate from Andorra (AP55/1 – R.Puigjaner)
Delegates from Egypt, Ireland, Israel, Korea and Netherlands (AP55/2 – A.Casaca)
Delegate from Singapore (AP55/3 – L.Mason).

Replacements should be asked for delegates from India, Italy, Malaysia and Syria (AP55/4 – A.Casaca).

It was requested that L.Pouzin is invited to attend the event to be organized in memory of Donald Davies (AP55/5 – A.Casaca).

4. Review of action points

There are two action points pending: 51/16 and 54/14.

(AP51/16 – H. van As): Addresses of WG 6.10 members

(AP 54/14 – A.Casaca): send a letter to Patrick Horster asking for e-mail addresses of authors in order to send an apology. This should be done together with TC11.

All the remaining action points have been fulfilled.

5. News from IFIP

The main news related to WCC’2002 in Montreal.

TC6 decided that will participate in the Congress if the following is agreed by the Congress organization:
-	single track for Communications
-	it will not be one of the existing TC6 conferences
-	the program will be based on invited and solicited state-of-the-art papers
-	all the speeches should have a paper to be published in the proceedings
-	the theme of the Congress should be changed into “Information and Communication technologies …….”.

If these points are accepted TC6 will nominate one of its members to chair the respective track (AP55/6 – A.Casaca).

6. Event advertising

A.Casaca informed that the Link2 award was given to the TC6 web page. This is mainly the merit of H.Leitold.

The following actions were agreed:
-	Insert the e-mail from A.Iyengar in the private part of the TC6 page (AP55/7 – A.Casaca)
-	The ACM addresses for calendar announcement should be confirmed and ACM should be warned that the advertsements will originate in H.Leitold (AP55/8 – L.Chapin).
-	The green light for event advertisement in IEEE and ACM calendar sections will be given by the respective WG chair instead of the TC6 chair. The advertisements will be sent by H.Leitold upon receiving the respective authorization.
-	The events should be announced in the IFIP member societies by e-mail. A list of addresses needs to be prepared (AP55/8 – A.Casaca)
-	WG chairs should have a private list of interested people in the field, to whom the respective event announcements should be also sent.

7. TC6 handbook

The following actions were agreed to complete the TC6 handbook:
-	update the job description of the WG chair (AP55/9 – A.Casaca)
-	insert the job description of the TC chair (AP55/10 – A.Casaca)
-	insert a job description of TC members (AP55/11 – D.Khakhar)
-	introduce agreed changes in the scope of WG6.2 and 6.4 (AP55/12 – A.Casaca)
-	harmonize the text of the aims and scope of all the WGs (AP55/13 – A.Casaca)
-	Computer Integrated Telephony will be dealt with by TG 6.11 (AP55/14 –V.Tschammer, K.Koen).

The TC6 slides should be inserted in the private part of  the TC6 web page. A text description of TC6 should be inserted in the public part (AP55/15 – A.Casaca).

8. Working Group reports

It was decided to continue the technical presentation of the WGs during the TC6 meetings. The next ones, in Cape Town, will be done by WG6.2 and 6.4. Each WG will have one hour, in which 30 minutes for presentation and 30 minutes for discussion (AP55/16 –G.Pujolle, A.Iyengar).

TG 6.11

It was agreed to have the E- Commerce, E-Business and E-Governement Conference together with TC8 and TC11. The first edition of the Conference will be in Zurich in 2001. The second edition will be in Portugal in 2002 and the third in Singapore in 2003.

The Steering Committee will consist of a representative of each TC plus the past, present and future Conference chairs. Need to define the Committee for the 2001 conference (AP55/17 –V.Tschammer).

It is proposed that the loan and profits of the Conference will be shared by the three TCs (AP55/18 – A.Casaca).

A proposal to upgrade the existing TG into WG 6.11 was approved in TC6 and will be forwarded to the IFIP Technical Assembly. (AP55/19 – A.Casaca).

WG 6.10

The steering committee for the ONDM Conference is missing (AP55/20 –H. van As).

TG 6.9

It was decided to wait for the evaluation of the Workshop that ACM is organizing in Costa Rica before taking any decision on joint sponsorship.

TC6 agreed to have tutorials in Venezuela if their interest is confirmed by R.Puigjaner.

TC6 is interested in organizing a regular Conference in Latin America. The first one could be in Argentina in 2002 (AP55/21 –R.Puigjaner).

A repository of the available tutorials will be done as planned and put in the TC6 page (AP55/22 – A.Danthine).

WG 6.8

It was agreed that there is a need to enlarge the current membership of the Group. A few TC6 members will help J.Slavik in achieving this aim (AP55/23 – L.Chapin, A.Iyengar, L.Mason, G.Pujolle, A.Casaca, V.Hara).

A Workshop on Digital TV will be planned (AP55/24 –J.Slavik).

WG 6.7

The problem occurred with the reviewing process indicates that we need to improve the quality control of the Conferences. Guidelines for the reviewing process will be inserted in the EOG (AP55/25 – A.Casaca).

A steering committee for Active Networking Conference is missing (AP55/26 –O.Martikainen).

WG 6.6

TC6 advises W.Zimmer to contact also Springer-Germany for the publication of the IM’01 proceedings, in case an agreement is not achieved with Kluwer. (AP55/27 – A.Casaca).

A loan of 16,000 CHF was agreed for IM’01 Conference. For the same Conference, it was also agreed 500 USD for the BPA and 2,500 USD for student travel grants, which can cover travel and lodging.

The nomination of a new WG chair is still pending as contacts are proceeding. In the interim, W.Zimmer agreed to continue chairing the Group.

WG 6.4

It was agreed to sponsor the Conference on “Mark-up languages” chaired by F.Vitali in 2001, but a new name should be found for the Conference, to integrate it better in the Group objectives (AP55/28 – A.Iyengar).

It was also agreed to organize a new event directed to the general aims of WG 6.4 (AP55/29 – A.Iyengar).

TC6 approved to co-sponsor other Conferences already existing, namely WWW and USITS. The conditions have to be worked out (AP55/30 – A.Iyengar).

The names and addresses of WG members should be sent to A.Casaca (AP55/31 – A.Iyengar).

WG 6.3

No special remarks were done.

WG 6.2

Networking’ 2002 should have two independent tracks for Network Architecture and Network Performance, respectively. There is a proposal to organize Networking’2004 in Japan. (AP55/32 – G.Pujolle).

A few actions were agreed:
-	send addresses ogf WG members to A.Casaca (AP55/33 – G.Pujolle).
-	send a message to WG members, explaining the changes (AP55/34 – G.Pujolle).
-	define members of PC for NAPC’2001 (AP55/35 – G.Pujolle).
-	define steering committee for NAPC’2001 (AP55/36 – G.Pujolle).

It was agreed to reduce the sponsorship fee of the Networking’2000 Conference down to 2.5 CHF/participant/day. This was mainly due to the high number of other co-sponsorships. IFIP Secretariat to be informed (AP55/37 –A.Casaca).

WG 6.1

The Confman software will be sent to H.Leitold, in order that is available to all the Conference organisers for the paper reviewing (AP55/38 – G.Leduc).

The suggestions to improve the quality control of the Conferences will be adopted for the EOG.

WG 6.1 might be interested in starting a journal with Kluwer. Contact with Y.Lambert was agreed (AP55/39 – G.Leduc).

9. TC6 events and Calendar

The Interworking series of Conferences was allocated  to WG 6.2. Organisers of 2000 event should be informed (AP55/40 –A.Casaca).

The present situation of INDC’01 should be investigated (AP55/41 –A.Casaca).

IP Traffic Management’2000 is not sponsored by IFIP as no agreement was reached with the organisers.

10. TC6 publications

TC6 feels that there is a   need to move into on-line publication in order to have the proceedings available on-line at the date of the Conference. A business model is needed for this approach. This should be transmitted to IFIP GA (AP55/42 –A.Casaca).

11. WG report structure

A need was identified for every WG report to include some information, which will be proposed by A.Casaca for approval by the TC6 (AP55/43 –A.Casaca). This information will be mainly related to the main indicators of past events and status of future events, besides the updating of WG members, WG meetings and strategy.

12. Finance/ Loans/ Grants

It was agreed that Stuedent Travel Grants (STG) should be given only for paper presentation and a free registration should be given to the student. Full guidelines for the allocation of STG will be prepared. (AP55/44 – L.Chapin, G.Leduc).

Loans agreed: 16,000 CHF (IM’01)
BPA agreed: 500 USD (IM’01)
STG agreed: 2,500 USD (IM’01); 1,200 USD (FORTE/PSTV’00)

13. Next TC6 meetings

The meetings for 2001 were agreed for the following places and dates:

Meeting 2001/1: Cape Town, South Africa, May 31 and June 1, 2001
Meeting 2001/2: Zurich, Switzerland, October 6 and 7, 2001 (dates to be confirmed).

The meeting 2001/1 was postponed by two months in relation to the previous date agreed, as we were informed that there were logistical difficulties to organize the meeting in March.

K.Boyanov requested that, in the future, the dates of the TC6 meetings are not changed after agreed, except in very exceptional circumstances.

For meeting 2001/2 there was also an invitation from Finland. The Committee thanked and showed appreciation for the invitation from Finland but decided to keep Zurich as the place of the meeting 2001/2.

No decision was taken for the meetings in 2002 and next. The offer done by Brazil for organizing a meeting in 2002 needs to be confirmed.

14. Next WG meetings

The dates for WG meetings are inserted in the updated version of the TC6 Calendar.

15. Procedures for election of TC6 chair (2001-2003)

Following what was decided in the Paris meeting, A.Danthine will organize the election of the TC6 chairman for the period 2001-2003.

16. AOB

No other business was treated.

The meeting concluded with the thanks of A.Casaca, in the name of TC6, for the excellent organization of the meeting and for the unforgetable experience in the social activities organised, namely the visit to the Great Wall.