IFIP TC6 (Communication Systems)

Meeting 2002/1

Minutes

Meeting Location: Saariselka, Finland

Meeting Date: April 6th and 7th, 2002

Attendance:  H.Leitold, A.Danthine, K.Boyanov, J.Slavik, V.Hara, S.Tohme, O.Spaniol, S.Dibuz, T.Saito, I.Niemegeers, A.Casaca, R.Puigjaner, D.Khakhar (only 6th), H.Rudin, L.Chapin, A.Iyengar, G.Leduc, G.Pujolle, R.Boutaba, O.Martikainen, H. van As, V.Tschammer, V.Naumov (observer, only 7th).

Apologies: R.Posch, N.Sousa, L.Mason, D.Hu, V.Iversen, G.Prati, F.Aagesen, A.Al-Naamany, A.Grzech, K.Fabian, K.Koen, V.Wuwongse,  F.Kamoun, P.Radford, H.Perros, Y.Takahashi.

1. Approval of agenda

The proposed agenda was approved. 

2. Approval of last meeting minutes

The minutes of the last TC6 meeting (2001/2) were approved with an amendment in page 2, line –2 (E-Publishing  E-Commerce).

3. Attendance and membership

H.Leitold acted as a proxy for R.Posch, representing Austria.

Andorra: A.Casaca will contact GA representative (AP 58/1). 
Argentina: A. Roman resigned and has been replaced by J. Diaz (not yet formally appointed yet). A.Casaca will ask for the formal nomination (AP 58/2).
Armenia: Otto reported that there has been no reaction. To be removed from the list (AP 58/3).
Australia: Augusto reported that H.Dutton never appeared in the meeting. A.Casaca will contact GA representative (AP 58/4).
Belarus: Makhaniok to be removed from list (AP58/5).
Chile: R.Puigjaner to contact (AP58/6).
Egypt: S.Tohme will informally search for a candidate (AP58/7).
Greece: Theodore disappeared. A.Casaca will contact GA representative (AP 58/8). 
India: Augusto reported on the situation. S.Jha never attended a meeting. Dipak proposed that Augusto  contacts the President of Computer Society of India (AP 58/9).
Ireland: A.Casaca will contact GA representative (AP 58/10). 
Israel: A.Casaca will contact GA representative (AP 58/11). 
Korea: S.Dibuz will informally search for a candidate (AP 58/12).
Lithuania: D.Khakhar will informally search for a candidate (AP58/13).
Malaysia: A.Casaca reported on the situation (no reply form Malaysia representative), Dipak reported that there is a new GA representative. A.Casaca will contact GA representative (AP 58/14).
Poland: A. Grzech’s address was not in address list. O.Spaniol reported that the problem is solved now.
Singapore: A.Casaca will contact GA representative (AP 58/15).
Slovenia: Delegate to be nominated soon, replacement on the way.
Syria: F.Kiwan to be removed from the list (AP58/16)
CLEI: R.Puigjaner will informally search for a candidate (AP 58/17).

4. Review of action points

AP 55/4 was cancelled.
The APs still remaining from meeting 56 were either fulfilled or are listed as new APs in this meeting.

AP 57/16 was the only AP not fulfilled from meeting 57. At this meeting it was considered by TC6 as a non-prioritary action and therefore cancelled.

In consequence no pending APs remain.

5. Report from IFIP Council

The TC6 chairman gave a report on the last IFIP Council meeting (Bled,March 2002) in which he participated.

The most relevant points for TC6 were the following:
-	WG 6.9 approved subject to a modification in the aims and scope
-	New name for WG 6.8 approved
-	Nominations of T.Saito, A.Iyengar and O.Spaniol for the PC on the Entertaining Computer Workshop were done by A.Casaca, but no reply was given by the organisers. The Workshop will take place in Tokyo in May
-	TC10 followed the example of TC6 in electing the chairman by e-ballot
-	The IFIP sponsorship fee was fixed at 4€ and 8€ per participant per day for WCs and OCs, respectively.
-	Some guidelines were discussed for the IFIP Digital Library.

6. TC6 Handbook and Event Organiser´s Guidelines

The TC6 handbook has been updated and is available at the TC6 web site. The Event Organiser’s Guidelines were also updated and are available at the same site.

7. Conference Domain names

IFIP EB decided that the Conference domain names should be the responsibility of each TC.

A mechanism for the formation of these names and actions to be done were worked out during the TC6 meeting. They are included as  Annex 1 to these minutes.

TC6 will support the acquisition of  conference names by conference organisers with TC6 funds.

H.Leitold is in charge of controlling the implementation of the guidelines specified in Annex 1 (AP 58/18).

8. Software packages for paper reviewing

G.Leduc, V.Tschammer, R.Boutaba and A.Iyengar reported on the conference organizer tools.

G.Leduc reported on Confman and CyberChair. V.Tschammer reported on Confman. R.Boutaba reported on EDAS. A.Iyengar reported on Witanweb. All the tools are freeware except Witanaweb. Witanaweb is adequate for large conferences.

Confman and Cyberchair are already recommended to conference organisers in the TC6 web page. EDAS will be recommended as well. R.Boutaba will send the respective page address to H.Leitold (AP 58/19).

9. Steering Committees

The list of names in the Steering Committees was updated. Steering Committees for Net-Con and MMNS conferences were also created. It was confirmed not to have a Steering Committee for E-Publishing. Instead D.Khakhar, A.Iyengar and V.Tschammer will supervise the event organization from TC6 side. A Steering Committee for Africom will only be created after the next conference is confirmed.

A.Casaca will send an updated list of the Steering Committees.

10. Marketting of Events

The announcement of TC6 events in IEEE CS and ACM will be made by A.Casaca when the events are approved.

Event announcements will be sent to a list of interested people. This list will be prepared by H.Leitold (AP 58/20).

H.Leitold reported on the access statistics of the TC6 web page. A new Website design was presented and approved.

The preparation of a TC6 specific leaflet was not considered prioritary by the Committee.

Passwords to access the private part of the TC6 page will be sent by H-Leitold to the TC6 members (AP 58/21).

11. Technical Presentation

R.Boutaba gave a technical presentation on Network Management. TC6 thanked Raouf for his presentation, which clearly showed the present trends in network management.

The slides of the technical presentations given in TC6 meetings will be stored in the private part of the Website. Past presenters, i.e, G.Leduc, G.Pujolle, A.Iyengar, R.Boutaba, should send the slides to H.Leitold (AP 58/22).

12. TC6 Event Statistics

There is a need to achieve uniformity in the values of book royalties reported by IFIP Secretariat and Kluwer. A.Casaca will contact Secretariat for this (AP 58/23).

The data missing for the ONDM conferences will be sent by H. van As (AP 58/24).

The acceptance ratio has been discussed with different opinions. However, a goal of consistently reaching less than 50% has been stated.

The event statistics table needs to be continuously updated, therefore WG chairmen are requested to submit new data to A.Casaca whenever it is available.

13. TC6 Publications

TC6 publishes many of its books with Kluwer but also some of them are being published with Springer. In any case, conference organisers should always ask Kluwer for a quotation as Kluwer is the official IFIP publisher. In case there is a choice for Springer it needs to be justified. No other publishers should be considered for TC6 publications.

A.Casaca distributed a document from Kluwer named “Publishing with Kluwer - What’s in it for IFIP?”.

Guidelines for the IFIP publisher after 1st January 2005 will be prepared by the Technical Assembly. TC6 should contribute to it. Contributions from TC6 members should be sent to A.Casaca who will compile them and send to IFIP (AP 58/25).

14. IFIP Digital Library

The five options proposed by IFIP for the implementation of the Digital Library have been presented by A.Casaca. During the IFIP Council A.Casaca indicated that options 2 (IFIP joins with a publisher to operate the Digital Library) and 3 (IFIP exports into an existing DL) seem to be the most viable.

As a first step it was decided that from now on a CD (or other digital support) of each conference shall be produced and sent to the Secretariat. In this way we will have all the necessary material for the DL in the future, as Kluwer is not keeping the digital copies of the proceedings. This should be written in the EOG. H.Rudin will do it (AP 58/26). A.Casaca will warn the Secretariat that this is happening (AP 58/27). The WG chairmen should warn the conference organisers on this requirement (AP 58/28).

L.Chapin proposed to check what possibilities exist to publish in the ACM DL (AP 58/29).

It was also decided that A.Casaca should check whether the contracts signed with Springer contain anything on digital publication and indicate it to A.Danthine (AP 58/30).

For the publication of IM’03 proceedings R.Boutaba referred that they will be published by Kluwer but that the event organisers wish to insert the papers into the IEEE DL. The IM’03 event organisers should contact Kluwer for that (AP 58/31). In the meantime A.Casaca will analyse this situation with P.Nedkov (AP 58/32).

15. WG 6.9 Aims and Scope

A modification on the aims of WG 6.9 was approved. This modification will be submitted to IFIP TA for approval (AP 58/33).

The aims read in the following way: “To identify and study technical problems related to the access to, understanding of and application of network and telecommunications technology in developing countries or regions. To encourage cross-fertilisation of concepts and techniques among developing countries, and between developing countries and developed countries.”

The revised aims and scope will be inserted in the IFIP TC6 handbook and web site (AP 58/34).

16. WCC’02

L.Chapin reported on the state of the TC6 stream on WCC’02. The TC6 stream papers will be published by Kluwer. L.Chapin will send the final program of the stream to TC6 by e-mail (AP 58/35).

It was recommended that special care should be taken with the advertisement of TC6 stream due to its innovative characteristics. A digital format of the proceedings should be sent to the Secretariat (AP 58/36).

17. TC6 30th Anniversary

Augusto explained what the draft plans are (invitations, celebration, dinner, etc.). The suggestion was that the committee decides exactly what to do. 

Kiril reported that some resources will be required, e.g. restaurant, professional photograph. It has been suggested to separate the booklet and the presentations/celebration. 

Otto reported that it is clear now that the first meeting has been on 2nd – 4th 1973 April in Munich. Otto’s proposal was to invite Tibor and Louis Pouzin for presentations and also Gert van der Veer and Plamen Nedkov.

Andre aims to add the most relevant activities to the booklet (technical aspects). Also events with respect to political aspects (free access for participants), and exceptional happenings of meetings. Interviews with the past chairmen might be added. 

Photos of the past meetings shall be sent to Andre in electronic form with indication of what meeting. (AP for everybody) (AP 58/37).

The editors of the booklet will be A.Danthine, K.Boyanov and O.Spaniol. The celebration will have presentations on Saturday (4-6 pm), and the speeches of Louis and Tibor will be done during the TC6 dinner. O.Spaniol will organize all the speeches (AP 58/38).

The travel expenses of Louis and Tibor will be supported by TC6. K.Boyanov asked every delegate to bring some small, specific item from each country to the TC6 meeting in Lisboa.

18. Working Group Reports

Most of the WG reports were submitted using the special facility at the TC6 web site. This permitted to have some uniformity in the WG reports presentation. It was decided to have a discussion on the status of every conference being organised by the WGs and then to discuss any other issue relevant to the respective WG.

WG 6.1

FORTE: Publisher changed to Springer for next event; TC6 agreed to have this conference with a risk loan, but probably the organizers will not request it; they requested student travel grant and best paper award which were approved.

TESTCOM: attendance 122 paying, but about 140 participants in last event; number of submissions is increasing; to be an open conference (to be discussed with the steering committee). 

FMOODS: is a working conference, but has the size of a workshop. Low number of submissions. However, the proposal was to keep it as working conference (Enschede was 48 % acceptance ratio and 46 participants).

IWQOS: Very successful. Co-sponsored by IEEE. Last year published by Springer, next year will be published by IEEE Press. Low acceptance ratio. 

MIDDLEWARE: Target around 180-200 participants. However, this year was difficult to get above 100 participants. Low acceptance ratio (around 24%).

DAIS: 	Participants above 100. Good acceptance ratio. There are some requests to be merged with Middleware. G.Leduc does not see a need to merge, as both events run well. 

The next WG meeting not yet fixed, probably 11/11/02 in Houston, Rice Univ. 

WG 6.2

NETWORKING:	Good participation, good number of submissions (around 400). Networking’2004 will be in Greece. 

NETCON: CfP running. Next year the event shall be in Oman (13-15/10/2003), together with the TC6 meeting (16-17/10/2003).  

pfHSN: 	Workshop but classified as a working conference. We will wait for the Berlin figures and then will see how to proceed for further events.

World-Telecom-Congress: Huge conference sponsored by IFIP this year. G.Pujolle and S.Tohmé will see if it is possible that TC6 shall continue to be involved in future events (AP 58/39). IFIP leaflets will be distributed there. G.Pujolle will request them from Secretariat (AP 58/40).

INTERWORKING: In a good state, organized with CEC. Action to check whether to merge it with Network and Internetworking Architecture conference (AP 58/41 – G.Pujolle). 

NIA: It will be the flagship conference of the WG. Date not yet fixed (AP 58/42 – G.Pujolle).

MED-HOC-NET: Request for sponsorship. Proposed to be co-sponsored between WG6.2 and WG6.8. Sponsorship approved. 

Next WG meeting in Pisa on 21/5/02. 

WG 6.3

Harry Perros was not present. Augusto reported on the report submitted by Harry.

The main WG 6.3 event is the Networking Conference, which is co-sponsored with WG 6.2 and 6.8.

WG 6.4

WWW-conf: Next event in Hawaii. The decision was to join an existing big conference instead of establishing an own event. 454 submissions (record was about 350 before), probably due to joint marketing effort where IFIP did a lot. 74 papers accepted. The following event will be in Budapest. Dates to be sent to Augusto (AP 58/43). 

WITASI: Designed to take place every two years. Organized together with WG 6.11. Comment by Volker that the conference should be aligned with I3E, i.e. to co-locate WIATSI with the I3E event. Arun and Volker to prepare a proposal on that and send to Augusto (AP 58/44). 

WG 6.6

NOMS: 	Mid April in Italy.  3 key note talks, 3 tracks. 

IM: 2003 in Colorado Springs. CfP ready, organization committee established, proceedings will be published with Kluwer.  The insertion of papers in IEEE DL will be discussed with Kluwer and IFIP.

DSOM: 	Last one was in Nancy; 76 submitted papers, 26 accepted, 72 participants, proceedings by Inria-press. 

MMNS: Co-sponsored by WG 6.2. 105 submitted papers, 25 accepted, 86 attendees. Next event in Santa Barbara. To be published by Springer.

WG 6.7

A presentation on the WG has been given by Olli. 

After some discussion it was decided that WG 6.7 should continue on its own.

Smartnet: The discussion was included in the presentation. It is a Working Conference that needs to be focussed. It is not attrcating a lot of people.

Active Networks: care should be taken so that this conference remains with IFIP.

The question was whether to merge Smartnet and Active Networks, or to keep both. It has been agreed that a merger of both should be considered in the future.

EUNICE workshop organized by Finn Aagesen requested sponsorship, which has been approved. 

Olli wishes to resign from chairmanship as it is already 1 year overtime. A.Casaca proposed that O.Martikainen discusses this issue during the WG meeting and brings a proposal for substitution to TC6 (AP 58/45).

The group  thanked Olli Martikainen for his splendid work done in WG6.7. 

WG 6.8

PWC: Next conference in Singapore, unfortunately with a time conflict with NET_CON. A plan for the next two years has been established. 

MWCN: Co-sponsorship requested and accepted. 

Jan proposed to nominate G. Omidyar as co-chair of WG 6.8, which has been unanimously approved. Jan to send the coordinates of G.Omidyar to Augusto (AP 58/46).

Jan wants to add an ‘ad hoc networks’ item to the scope, Jan to send a proposal to Augusto (AP 58/47).

WG 6.9

Latin-America-Conference: There are two problems with the event: (1) Not sufficient papers have been submitted. (2) The organizers lack sponsors and asked for financial support.  The actions taken are that CfP has been extended to see whether there are sufficient papers. Invited speakers are offered from both IFIP and ACM. If there are not enough papers, as an alternative a set of tutorials might be offered during the dates of the conferences. At the end of April R.Puigjaner, A.Casaca, L.Chapin and J.Clot will decide whether the conference will take place (AP 58/48).

AFRICOM: It was decided to ask for a concrete proposal from Farouk Kamoun for Fall 2004 or Spring 2005 (AP 58/49). 

Ramon and Lyman to propose on how to achieve coordination between Latin Networking Conference and CLEI (AP 58/50).

WG 6.10

ONDM: So far six events, always on the 1st week of February. 

Augusto mentioned that the numbers of participants shall be increased as the field is important. Andre commented that he has the impression that the CfPs arrive late. 

Statistics of the events shall be submitted to Augusto as well as and the addresses of the WG members, preferably within two weeks (AP 58/51). The CFP will be sent into TC6 list by H. van As (AP 58/52).

WG 6.11

ELPUB: For future events full papers should be requested and not abstracts. This is the condition for TC6 to continue supporting this event.

I3E: It is the flagship conference of the WG. This year will be in Lisbon. So far 45 papers and therefore the deadline will be exteneded until end of April. For the following events Singapore and Sao Paulo are candidates.

Joint events

CMS: 	Herbert reported on the event. About 37 submissions have been received, the review is under progress. A single-track event with two invited speakers is planned. H.Leitold will indicate the location for 2003 (AP 58/53).

19. Calendar of Events	

The calendar of events for 2002 and 2003 looks fine. An updated version of the calendar is periodically distributed by A.Casaca.

20. Grid Computing

A Task Force constituted by R.Boutaba, O.Spaniol and A.Casaca will report on the interest of TC6 for Grid Computing at the next TC6 meeting (AP 58/54).

21. TC6 Budget

A.Casaca reported on the TC6 budget for 2002. It was also reported that IFIP allocated to the TC6 funds (25% of book royalties + 75% of event proceeds) at the end of 2001 as had been decided in the 2001 IFIP GA.

Proposals for Best Paper Awards and Student Grants should be sent to the TC6 chairman.

22. Next TC6 meetings

TC6 decided to accept the kind invitation of Oman to organise a meeting there in the Fall of 2003.

The schedule of meetings is as follows:
Meeting 2002/2: Lisboa, Portugal (5+6 October)
Meeting 2003/1: To be decided
Meeting 2003/2: Oman (16+17 October).

23. Any Other Business

TC6 thanked Olli Martikainen and Ansa Laakkonnen for the perfect organization of the meeting and for the great atmosphere that they created for TC6 members in snow-covered Saariselka.

ANNEX 1

GUIDELINES FOR THE TC6 CONFERENCE DOMAIN NAMES

Domain names:

Precondition: 	Plamen Nedkov needs to be contacted on how to manage the DNS 
			for confname.ifip.org (AP for H.Leitold))

In order to maintain the conference domain names under IFIP control, the following 
structure shall be established:

•	There already is a TC6 Webserver at http://www.ifip.tu-graz.ac.at
an alias tc6.ifip.org shall be established that resolves to www.ifip.tu-graz.ac.at
•	Each conference series is assigned an alias confname.ifip.org which also 
resolves to the Graz server www.ifip.tu-graz.ac.at 
(i.e., a DNS 'A record' to be added by the DNS-administraor of ifip.org
 for each conference)
•	A homepage for each conference series:
The TC6 server at TU-Graz hosts a Web-page for each conference series and 
which links to the conferences 
example 	http://forte.ifip.org resolved to www.ifip.tu-graz.ac.at which than redirects to 
		the actual physical location at http://www.ifip.tu-graz.ac.at/TC6/CONF/FORTE ) 
option 	If a series decides to have an own domain name, e.g. www.testcom.org, these may 
		also be directed to the conference series homepage
The individual conference series homepage links to the actual conference homepages 
(e.g. http://forte2001.unh.edu )
The individual conference pages are hosted by the conference organizer.

Responsibilites:
•	TC6: To provide Plamen Nedkov a list of confname.ifip.org and tc6.ifip.org

•	WG chair: To provide a few sentences of introductory  text for each series 
(to not just have links there)  and a conference logo for being added to the 
Conference Series Webpages.  (AP by end of April) 
To provide the TC6 Webmaster with the links to the conference homepages 
To provide a 'summary HTML-page' ready to be added to the TC6 homepage 'archive'.  ( e.g. an index.htm plus images to be added to .../TC6/CONF/FORTE/2001/ )

To do: 
-  Provide a list of confname.ifip.org 
   (if possible, one list for all TC6 conferences, to not bother the DNS-admin )
-  Establish the conference series homepages 
   (confname.ifip.org likely organised as subdirectories under the existing 
    server for technical reasons)

The following names have been decided:
CMS
FORTE
TESTCOM
MIDDLEWARE
FMOODS
IWQOS
DAIS
pfHSN
Net_Arch
Net_Con
Net_Traffic
Internetwork
Networking
WWW.WWW.IFIP.ORG ??
WITASI
IM
DSOM
NOMS
MMNS
IWAN
Smartnet
PWC
MWCN
LatinAmericaNetworking
Africom
ONDM
I3E
elpub