January 2000

Editor's New Year Message

Nelson L. S. da Fonseca, Editor

The advancements in science and technology in the 20th Century have provided a fuller and more prosperous life to mankind. In particular, advancements in telecommunications and information technology allowed people from all corners of the world to share information, ideas and dreams. These advancements shape the way we live in all facets of life such as entertainment, education, health and commerce. As we approach the 21st Century, we expect tremendous growth in all these areas with a further increase in network capacity as well as a whole spectrum of new multimedia applications.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, telegraph was already established, and technology development was still needed to provide telephony services on a large scale. Nonetheless, progress could not rely solely on men such as Morse, Bell and Marconi. Professionals felt the need to associate themselves to overcome the complexity of new technological challenges. In this vein, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) and the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) were founded, respectively, in 1884 and in 1912. In 1963, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) was created by the merger of IRE and AIEE. The IEEE Comunications Society (ComSoc) has its roots in the Professional Group of Communications of IRE, and ComSoc was created in 1952.
The IEEE Communications Society has been playing an important role in the communications industry since its creation. ComSoc connects researchers, professionals and students in a fast changing world, allowing the debate and the dissemination of high-quality research results to a large worldwide audience.
For the past several years, ComSoc has successfully been implementing a globalization process intended to increase members' participation from all over the world. One of the results of this globalization process is the Global Communications Newletter (GCN). The GCN is now in its sixth year and it is a popular newsletter among ComSoc members. Such popularity is due to a long-term effort of both its first two editors, Dr. Andrzej Jajszczyk and Dr. Byeong Gi Lee, and GCN regional correspondents.
The Global Communications Newsletter publishes ComSoc-related articles and articles about telecommunications. ComSoc articles discuss ComSoc structure and activities. ComSoc-related articles are normally supplied by ComSoc officers and volunteers. Articles about telecommunications focus the attention of the ComSoc community on communications issues in a specific country or region of the world. These articles are intended to make the world a common-place for ComSoc members. I would like to make it clear that the value of articles in this category is the dissemination of information about the status of telecommunications worldwide.
During my editorial term, I would like to increase the participation of GCN readers interested in writing articles to introduce any regional aspects of telecommunications. To achieve this purpose, an alias was established to receive contributions. It is: gcn@comsoc.org.
Contributions can be sent to this address either in plain ASCII format or in MS-Word format. Articles should be no longer than 1,000 words. Areas of interest are:
  • National and regional developments in communications technology and services
  • Communications research and development around the world
  • Trends in regulatory and legal matters
  • Market trends
  • Science and engineering education
  • Standards
  • ComSoc chapter activities
Besides regular articles from the open-call and from diverse aspects of ComSoc, we will publish a series dedicated to the view of distinguished writers about the telecommunications field in the 21st Century. The first article in this series, written by ComSoc Past President Tom Plevyak, appears in this issue.
Last but not least, I would like to wish all GCN readers a happy and fruitful 2000!

- Distinguished Article Series -
The IEEE Communications Society Into the 21st Century

Thomas Plevyak, Past President, IEEE Communications Society

Less than one month ago, at the end of the 20th Century, Communications Society members everywhere, past and present, could proudly look back at nearly fifty years of outstanding service to the global communications industry. As the world's leading professional organization for presentation and debate in the field of communications, the Society was positioned squarely in the center of explosive growth in communications technology - technology that fundamentally enabled the second half of the century. ComSoc has crossed into this hopeful new century in a position of great strength and with an even greater sense of purpose. Never before has communications technology offered greater opportunity to serve the cause of human advancement and understanding. I know I speak for ComSoc members everywhere when I express my excitement and anticipation as the IEEE Communications Society begins its journey into the 21st Century.
I see an ever-expanding Communications Society. One of my favorite examples is the expansion of ComSoc products and services to both members and non-members. The Virtual ComSoc, a theme of my 1998/99 term as President of the Society, has been made real by substantial application of information systems and services. The ComSoc Web site, an extensive source of Society and technical information, has been available for almost four years. Appropriate access is defined for members and non-members. Most recently, anyone with Web access can download individual technical papers, at appropriate member and non-member fees. Virtual conference attendance is a continuing, though more elusive goal. ComSoc will learn by doing, and when fully effective technology arrives, will create its own infrastructure for every form of conference attendance. Members and non-members will be able to travel to an "electronically enriched" conference location, to participate from their own location in real time including paper presentations, or to later access stored events, all at appropriate fees.
Web-enabled services will continue to expand, and at an accelerating rate. Not too far into the 21st Century, I expect anyone in communications and related disciplines to derive whatever level of professional involvement they need from the Communications Society. Many will choose to be members with all the products and services and volunteer opportunities that provides. More than 55,000 individuals see ComSoc in this way, and membership is accelerating around the world. A great many more will look to ComSoc's online publications, tutorials, and education products, virtual conferences, and so on, for whatever specific and timely information they need.
If we carry this further, a new publishing model begins to appear. It is widely held that professionals, in any discipline, simply require the right information at the right time. Technology for storing and distributing technical information is rocketing from paper print and postal delivery to electronic databases with searchable access and downloading. Individuals traditionally subscribe to specific publications because the information they need is most likely to be found there with reasonable timeliness. Libraries do the same, across a broad range of periodicals, in service to those doing information research. Although it is true that authors and many individual and library subscribers like the look and feel of paper print periodicals and their "shelf availability," technology into the 21st Century will change these traditions. A university professor recently told me that ComSoc's online-only Communications Surveys provided just the information he needed to prepare his class material that very day. Programs already underway in the Society, with ever-enlarging goals, are setting the foundation for ComSoc's future.
The Communications Society is a dynamic entity within the parent organization, IEEE. ComSoc is a microcosm of IEEE, deriving from the parent organization, but often leading in important areas such as globalization and aspects of electronic processes. As we go forward, the Society will remain leading-edge, but its every decision and direction will take into account the strength and well-being of the parent organization.
The Communcations Society's technical envelope will continue to expand. An example, already in progress, is ComSoc's attention to the communications aspects of multimedia technology and services. The Internet is perhaps the most profound current example of an expanding ComSoc technical envelope. As the Internet and Telecom cultures continue to approach one another, ComSoc is taking important steps to address IP technologies, networks, and services with the same strength that it has historically addressed Telecom. As you may know, Dr. Vinton Cerf, co-father of the Internet, is Chairman of the ComSoc Internet Steering Committee. It can generally be said that any advancement in any discipline will have, or will evolve to, a communications component, taking it right back into the proper realm of the Communications Society. Into the 21st Century, ComSoc will begin, early on, to jointly address technology advances with professionals and organizations from many disciplines.
Collaboration with other professional communications organizations around the world will be very important. ComSoc refers to these national professional organizations as Sister Societies. You may know that the Communications Society currently has agreements in place with 14 Sister Societies, and the list is growing. Among other things, these agreements extend favorable subscription rates for ComSoc publications to Sister Society members, and vice versa, as well as the opportunity to register at each others' conferences at member rates. New agreements, as well as the renewal of existing agreements, include innovative new aspects. We are clearly seeing growth in optimism that cooperation among the world's professional communications organizations is effective, productive, and, in fact, necessary. The combined membership of ComSoc and its current Sister Societies is several hundred thousand communications and related professionals. One can envision a loose federation derived from a rich array of mutually beneficial initiatives. Use your own imagination to envision where these important collaborations might take the world community of communications and related professionals.
If we look further out, where the view is not at all clear, I am tempted to ask the question: Is it outside the realm of possibility that ComSoc membership dues will trend downward? As a derivative of the elements described above, particularly the proliferation and "instant" delivery of Web-enabled products and services to the Virtual ComSoc Community, so much added value might occur that dues could be effectively and continuosly reduced, with a corresponding increase in membership. I believe part of the meaning of "global" is "affordable," regardless of economic conditions from one country to the next.
With knowledge doubling approximately every three years, by 2060 humankind will know one million times more than it knows today. Short of an unpredictable event, there is nothing to limit this pace of new knowledge. There will be many surprises, opportunities, and hazards within this wealth and turbulence of knowledge. An agile ComSoc will be increasingly more agile into the 21st Century.
I believe that ComSoc members and non-members can begin to look forward with pride to the fundamentally important role that lies ahead for the IEEE Communications Society.

The Croatian Way into the Communications Age

Nikola Rozic and Dinko Begusic, Croatia

The County of Split and Dalmatia

The county of Split and Dalmatia is located in the southern part of Croatia and is the largest among 26 counties in the country. The town of Split is the administrative, cultural, university, transit and commercial center of the region of central Dalmatia. Split is also a center of the world famous tourist destinations situated both at the Croatian Adriatic coastline and on a number of islands in central Dalmatia.

The County Telecommunication Network

During the last nine years telecommunication infrastructure in Croatia and particularly in the county of Split and Dalmatia has experienced a considerable development. The eight-year index of growth of telephone subscriber lines was nearly 300, or a yearly index of nearly 115. Today Croatian Telecom-Centre Split (HT-TKC Split) owns 11 AXE exchanges (Ericsson-N.Tesla) which can process more than 4,000,000 calls (BCHA). At the end of 1997, a new AXE-10 exchange equipped with 120 BRI (N-ISDN) excess circuits of 2B+D capacity and 16 PRI circuits of 30B+D capacity along with PSTN analog and digital circuits was installed in the Split town network. In addition a number of intelligent network (IN) services such as toll free services (800), value-added services, universal access number (UAN) and telephone voting services were introduced. Credit card calling, prepaid and account card calling, as well as international toll free services are also in the developing stage in Croatia.
The whole county, including all larger islands, is covered by a high-quality wireless telephone network mainly based on GSM, and interlaced by cables with optical fibers that enable high-capacity transmission links of 155 Mb/s and 622 Mb/s using SDH systems. By developing such fiber optic-based infrastructure, Croatia has reached a level of nearly 80 percent transmission digitalization.
Recent years are considered to be historical years for telecommunications around the world and Europe, but particularly in Croatia because this year we have started market liberalization and privatization in telecommunications. Croatian telecommunications have been developing quickly during recent years regarding their total potential as well as the share of the newest technologies, which makes them very attractive for capital investments.

Projects Survey

In the area of telecommunication and information systems, researchers from the University of Split cooperate with a number of institutions and firms. A particularly successful cooperation is developed with Croatian Telecom-Center Split (HT-TKC Split). Cooperation with HT-TKC Split is not constrained only to R&D. Besides the professional and research work, the cooperation program also includes training of junior engineers employed at the firm in several areas such as project management, writing and speaking in business and technical areas both in Croatian and English, presentation and promotion of new systems and services, as well as user education. In the field of professional work the group formed by professors from the University of Split (FESB faculty) and employers from HT-TKC Split has been engaged in the following fields:
  • Integrated broadband technology (IBC) including ISDN and ATM
  • Wireless communications such as GSM, PCN, TETRA, DECT and wireless local loops
  • Multimedia communication and information technologies based on TCP/IP and IP telephony
  • Videotelephony and videoconference systems (H.32x)
  • Computer telephone integration (CTI) technologies and interactive voice systems, including call centers
  • Telemedicine, telelearning and teletrading systems
During the last two years the workgroup has finished a number of very interesting proposals, feasibility studies and mini-projects. The most interesting among them are:
  • Paging system based on ERMES standard, and a CATV system in Croatia and in the county of Split and Dalmatia
  • Communication and information system for the county Gonverment
  • Communication system of the first-aid service in the county
  • Distance learning system in the county
  • Intelligent transport system in the county
The purpose of the development of the communication and information system for the self-government offices of the county of Split and Dalmatia has been to enable both the exchange of messages, data and documents among self-managed local units in towns and districts, and communication among these sites and the central self-government office of the county located in Split. The proposed system is based on ISDN, PSTN, and TCP/IP networks. The Web server is supplied with more than one hundred well designed pages containing meaningful data and images, as well as historical and cultural information, and information about tourism and travel. The system offers services such as e-mail, file transfer (ftp), WWW and Usenet.

International Meetings

Seven years ago the Department of Electronics at the University of Split in collaboration with Croatian Telecom-Center Split (HT-TKC Split) started the annual organization of the International Conference on Software in Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM). This conference is not only concerned with software technologies but with all "soft" aspects of contemporary communications. For the last two years the conference has also been sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), in particular by the Technical Committee on Communications Software (CommSoft). This sponsorship has brought a new dimension and made SoftCOM recognized among researchers and experts all over the world.
The SoftCOM '98 conference and the related events were held in an extraordinary but quite pleasant ambiance. All participants were aboard the luxury ship Marko Polo anchored during the day in towns on the Split-Bari-Dubrovnik route, sailing by night to another town. The social activities were also organized for all participants with the aim of introducing them to a number of cultural, historical and ambiance values and sights of Split, the island of Hvar (Croatia), Bari (Italy) and Dubrovnik (Croatia). SoftCOM '99 is organized in a similar way including also Venice as the second destination on the Italian coast. The SoftCOM '99 Call for Papers has been distributed and all information can be found on the Web at http://www.softcom.tel.hr or http://www.ieee.org/conferences.

This Communications Society Chapter's Got What it Takes

Katherine Baum, U.S.A.

What does it take to start a Communications Society Chapter? When organizers made the decision in 1995 to form a Communications Society Chapter in Orange County, a firm basis for success was already in place. First, Southern California was a thriving technology area, located midway between Los Angeles and San Diego, both flourishing technology sites. And Orange County itself could boast placing third in the state. Second, these experienced organizers had the support of the local IEEE Computer Society and had served it as officers. On top of this, the hot climate of the Internet was fueling the drive to get information faster through telecommunication pipes and was indirectly pushing the changes in communications. It was upon this foundation then that founding Communications Chair Dwight Borses had the vision to focus on the technology horizon and the fledging chapter catapulted into immediate success.
One could hardly imagine a better place to form a new Communications chapter. The engineering environment in Orange County provides a large pool from which to draw members and volunteers. It is the site of two large universities, many established companies, and rapidly growing technology development in the Irvine Spectrum area. At the inception of the chapter it was reported that within the county there were 81,000 high-tech workers and 2,543 high-tech establishments, most employees being involved in electronic components manufacturing (12,000), followed by communications services (11,600) and software services (11,000).
The fever over the Internet in the 1995 through 1998 time period spurred a renewed competition among businesses for getting information faster. The potential of communication networks sparked a seemingly voracious appetite for communications. The communications frontier was assailed by competitive technologists. On everybody's mind was high-speed transmission and the fat pipes to get it. High speed was the real agenda, whether the subject was bandwidth, operating environments, or advanced services.
In this fervent atmosphere, the Communications Society audiences in Orange County pulled in 60 to 120 attendees for their monthly technical meetings. Here again, location meant everything. Prestigious engineers from nearby Rockwell Semiconductor, PairGain, Qualcomm, and National SemiConductor accepted invitations to speak on DSL, CDMA, set-top boxes, modems, and wireless and satellite communications. Hot meeting topics and distinguished speakers were the attraction, and people from as far away as Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego counties - all areas rich in high-tech companies and IEEE members - hopped into their cars after long days at the office and braved the freeways at rush hour, driving in some cases up to two hours through heavy traffic, just to get to the monthly Monday night technical meeting. It's always been a diverse group: researchers at local companies; start up business owners who needed to know how the technology worked because they needed to use the new technology; and students and faculty members from the two local universities. Many came to hear from speakers what they could not hear anywhere else and to ask questions of these experts. The Q&A period afterward was invariably extensive, and the questions were detailed, intense, and esoteric.
Initially, the founders had anticipated that the interaction of the Computer Society and the Communications Society would enhance the technical meetings. However, when Signal Processing became the third member of this collaboration, the result was a truly synergistic effect, and not only for the technical presentations. As a result of this combined energy, the administrative support of the Computer Society met the challenge with a streamlined e-mail list reaching all IEEE members in the Computer, Communications, and Signal Processing chapters. They created a Web site with information about future meetings and past meetings, and even posted all the presentation materials. They took over all advertising to local newspapers and newsletters. The new Orange County publication, the Lynx, filled in the gap when Orange County could no longer advertise in the Los Angeles newsletter. To ease the meeting scheduling, a program collaboration between the three societies sprang up to meet the challenge.
It has been four years since that first technical meeting in 1995. Now the chapter is consolidating around its own accomplishments and expanding its volunteer base. The current goals of the members of the executive committee are to reach administrative independence from the Computer Society with a separate program schedule, yet continue the successful collaboration. Some joint meetings with the Computer and Signal Processing Societies are planned for next year as well as future joint meetings with the Los Angeles and San Diego. Here's to our continued success!