With the Internet offering a single best-effort service, there have been numerous proposals of diversified network services that align better with the divergent needs of different distributed applications. The failure of these innovative architectures to gain wide deployment is primarily due to economic and legacy issues, rather than technical shortcomings. We propose a new paradigm for network service differentiation where design principles account explicitly for the multiplicity of Internet service providers and users as well as their economic interests in environments with partly deployed new services. Our key idea is to base the service differentiation on performance itself, rather than price. 

In the last decade, a new theoretical foundation for quantitative network research has emerged. Its key ingredients are the following: economic models to formulate network resource allocation as a convex optimization problem; use of optimization methods to devise decentralized solutions to these problems, in terms of dynamic adaptation of the relevant variables; tools of control theory to understand the dynamic properties of these methods. The resulting body of theory has been highly successful in providing models for TCP congestion control, describing how local protocols should be designed to allow for interesting global properties to emerge. From here, recent research has advanced this methodology to other layers of the protocol stack. In this course we will provide an introduction to this interdisciplinary field of research.

Multimedia Communications, involving traditional “media” such as audio, video, text, 2D graphics, have become parts of everyday e-life. New digital media, such as Virtual Reality and Haptics, have now added new dimensions to multimedia tele-collaboration. This presentation will introduce basic issues on Distributed and Collaborative Virtual Environments, where the feeling of “touch” (haptics) and its transmission over networks is becoming essential. Various applications will be described ranging from industrial training to e-commerce to medical education, and the current research at the DISCOVER research lab, Univ. of Ottawa will be outlined.

Ralf Steinmetz is one of the world experts in multimedia and P2P applications, is the author of one of the most referenced books in the area, and he has received the ACM Multimedia Award. Since early 1996 Ralf Steinmetz has been a professor at the dept. of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology as well as at the dept. of Computer Science of the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. There he is in charge of a chair position as managing director of the "Multimedia Communications Lab". From late 1996 until late 2001 he directed the GMD/Fraunhofer Integrated Publications and Information Institute. In 1999 he founded the Hessian Telemedia Technology Competence Center (httc e.V.). On whose board he has since served as chair. He is also one of the directors of the Information Transfer Office at the university. From 2002 to 2004 as dean he managed the department.

Multimedia Communications, involving traditional media such as audio, video, text, 2D graphics, have become parts of everyday e-life. New digitalmedia, such as Virtual Reality and Haptics, have now added new dimensions to multimedia tele-collaboration. This presentation will introduce basic issues on Distributed and Collaborative Virtual Environments, where the feeling of touch (haptics) and its transmission over networks is becoming essential. Various applications will be described ranging from industrial training to e-commerce to medical education. Effects of networking =93quality of experience on collaborative hapto-virtual applications will be discussed and methods for delay and jitter compensation will be described.

Nicolas Georganas received the Dip. Ing. (Diplom-Ingenieur – German equivalent of M.Sc. degree) in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (Athens, Greece) in 1966. He went on to achieve his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (Summa cum Laude) in 1970 from the University of Ottawa (Ottawa, Canada). In 2004, he was conferred a Dr-Ing. (Doktor Ingenieur) (honoris causa) in Electrical Engineering by the Technische Universität Darmstadt (Darmstadt, Germany). In 2007, he was awarded his second Ph.D. (honoris causa) in Electrical and Computer Engineering by the National Technical University of Athens. He currently holds the position of Distinguished University Professor in the School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE) of the University of Ottawa. In addition to this, he is also a Visiting Researcher at IMDEA Networks and a Cátedra de Excelencia at University Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M). In 1986 he became the Founding Dean of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Engineering, and from 2005-08 served as Associate Vice-President, Research (External).

On Security and Quality of Service in Multihop Wireless Networks Mobile Ad hoc Networks, Wireless Mesh Networks and Wireless Sensor Networks have attracted remarkable attention in the research community in recent years. Fashioned from whatever devices are immediately available, the self-organizing nature of these networks promises spontaneous, untethered communication in absence of infrastructure, or the organic growth of wireless meshed networks. However, the fact that ad hoc and mesh networks are not yetdeployed at large indicates that they are not ready for prime time. This talk discusses selected issues in the area of quality of service and security for multihop wireless networks. We start with an overview on the work carried out at the Mobile Networking & Ubiquitous Communications group at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany.

If you would like more information about James Aweya, please visit his homepage.

More information about Alex Bikfalvi

ACM CoNEXT 2008 is a major forum for future networking technologies. Previous CoNEXT Conferences have successfully encouraged original, long-term studies and contributed to the integration of networking research on an international level. The 4th ACM International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (ACM CoNEXT 2008), will be hosted by the University Carlos III of Madrid. The conference will be a major forum for presentations and discussions of novel networking technologies, which are set to shape the future of Internetworking. We strive to open informative and stimulating debates between distinct international research communities. The conference is single-track and will feature a high-quality technical program, with significant opportunities for individual and small-group technical and social interactions. The main conference will also be preceded by three one-day workshops.