July 2000
Salah Aidarous' Distinguished Lecturer Tour
By Nelson Fonseca, Brazil
In March 2000, Region 9 was honored to host Salah Aidarous' Distinguished Lecturer Tour. Salah visited Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. From March 20 to March 31 he visited Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay; and Campina Grande, Belo Horizonte and, São Paulo, Brazil. In all these locations, he delivered his tutorial entitled "IP's Impact on the Evolution of Telecom Networks," a topic of great interest nowadays.
Salah Aidarous is well known in Region 9 for his enthusiastic support of ComSoc activities in this region. Recently he played an important role in organizing the first Latin America Network Management and Operation Symposium, held in Rio de Janeiro. Salah is especially dear to the Brazilian network community. In 1997 he was an invited speaker at the Brazilian Network Symposium, where he delivered a tutorial based on the book Network Management into the 21st Century: Techniques, Standards, Technologies and Applications, which he co-authored.
After 10 months of planning, the DLT came to reality. IEEE travel did a great job organizing the itinerary that covered three countries, including Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world. It was a challenge to coordinate flights of such long distances that include, in most cases, two airports in the same city. Every long trip starts with a cancellation from the airline! One day before departure, Salah was rerouted through another air flight company, which resulted in lost luggage, as usual.
Buenos Aires
Raul Sabio did a great job organizing the meeting in collaboration with CICOMRA (Camara de Information y Communicaiones de la Argentina). (Photo A shows Salah and Raul.) Due to the capacity of the room offered by CICOMRA in their facility, only 50 people could attend the presentation from the industrial and research communities (including service providers, manufacturers, and others). The meeting was interactive, with frequent questions from the attendees during and after the presentation.
With the Telecommunication Act of Argentina opening the market for service providers to compete, the incumbent service providers and equipment manufacturers are developing their strategy for the future IP-based network and the impact on their current infrastructure. The theme of the presentation was timely to address the challenges facing them and proposing some solutions. Issues that were raised during the presentation include quality of service (QoS), management interfaces, integration, operations costs, and transition strategy. The industry and customers have an established benchmark, the public network, and the IP-based network must take this into consideration!
Montevideo
Attendance at this meeting was more than 150 (Photo B), thanks to Juan Pechiar, the chapter chair, who used all means of publicity, including creating a Web site for the event at which people could subscribe online. Even with an unexpected delay, Juan successfully contacted all participants (by e-mail and phone) to reschedule the meeting, and all attended!
The meeting was sponsored by Telefax (NEC representative in Uruguay), who provided all the facilities to make it a success. The mix of attendees (service providers, equipment suppliers, corporations, and academia) created interesting discussions on the different aspects of IP. The issue of security and vulnerability of the Internet to sabotage took a reasonable portion of the discussion. It is clearly a major concern for the industry after what happened recently to the major ISPs in the U.S.
A short presentation on ComSoc activities was requested and presented by Salah. Thanks to Carole Swaim, who provided the material for the presentation,the role of ComSoc activities was disseminated to a large audience in Uruguay.
Belo Horizonte
This talk was given to the academic community in the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). It was organized by Jose Marcos Nogueira, chairman of the Science and Computing Department and an active participant in ComSoc events. It was also attended by ComSoc president Roberto de Marca (what a coincidence!). The Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science has a good relationship with the telecom industry (e.g., Telemar, one the four major Brazilian service providers) and consequently a research and development program funded by the telecom industry. They have developed a network management system for Telemar, and they are continuing its evolution.
Discussions focused on issues related to the availability of bandwidth, its impact on engineering the network, and how to interwork new technology with the current infrastructure.
Campina Grande
Marcelo de Alencar mobilized the resources of the student section, with the support of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, to realize this event at the Federal University of Paraiba (UFPb) in Campina Grande. The Electrical Engineering Faculty of UFPb in Campina Grande was responsible for the design of digital switches when the Brazilian telecom market was a state monopoly. The big challenge was to get into Campina Grande before midnight on a Sunday.
The group's interest was focused on two topics: IP and 3G wireless management. The result was two presentations for the professors, graduate students, and engineers from the wireless service provider TIM (a wireless provider owned by Telecom Italia Mobile). The discussions dealt with the same issues as previous meetings. However, the existence of TIM people, opportunities, and challenges for mobile internet were addressed. These included, for example, what mobility means in this context, and what type of applications not currently available can be offered in the future and the business case for them. The discussions were interesting as an explanation of the role to be played by network management to simplify the resulting infrastructure.
São Paulo
Nelson Segoshi, the chair of the Southern Brazil Chapter, did an excellent job organizing this event. The Sul Brazil section has a good infrastructure that includes a professional secretary. It usually hosts IEEE events in South America. An introductory presentation on ComSoc was made. The meeting was sponsored by NEC do Brazil and 3COM.
The talk generated discussions on the following topics:
- Which new services can be offered on the new IP-based networks that are not offered on the current network.
- The issues of Quality of Service and reliability represent major concerns (especially after what happened to the major Internet providers last month).
- The important aspect of cost, if ubiquitous services for the residential market is needed.
There was also an opportunity to discuss telecom issues during an enjoyable lunch and during coffee breaks (Photo C).
Final Remarks
Salah Aidarous' Distinguished Lecturer program could not have happened without the support of two membership program directors, two regional directors, and ComSoc staff who handled the Tour during the 1999/2000 transition in ComSoc.
All the chapters appreciated the ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer program and the value that it can bring to them. The interaction with local chairs to involve industry through participation and sponsorship is promising. It is again a good sign of support for a successful Distinguished Lecturer program.
Boston Chapter: 1999 Chapter of the Year
By Anant Kumar Jain, Boston Chapter Chair
The IEEE Communications Society Boston Chapter has been in existence since the early 1990s, on its own or jointly with other Chapters. There was very little interest in the early years until it became more active starting in 1996 with joint efforts of Jim Peters of Motorola and especially Bill Nelson of BBN Technologies. These past Chapter Chairs revived the Boston Chapter by their volunteer efforts and helped build up the Chapter and attract more volunteers.
The newly revived Chapter had Jim Peters as Chairman and Bill Nelson as Vice-Chair in 1995-96, and activities progressed well. Then the following year Bill served as Chairman and did an excellent job. He moved the meeting place to Waltham, a more centrally-located site, so more people could join, and he changed the focus of topics being presented, from those centered on "Network Control" to more diversified topics of general interest as well as highly technical topics.
ComSoc's Boston Chapter has since then continued to make contributions to the IEEE Communications Society in general and the local chapter in particular, especially by expanding benefits to the Chapter members.
The past Chairs have been William Chan, Motorola (1991-1992); Jim Peters, Motorola (1992-96); Bill Nelson, BBN Technologies (1996-97); Bruce McGuffin, MIT Lincoln Lab (1997-98); and Lori Jeromin, MIT Lincoln Lab (1998-99). Anant Kumar Jain, Lucent Technologies, is the current Chapter Chair for 1999-2000. Gerry Brody has provided his constant support asTreasurer for years.
Chapter Officers and Planning Committee
ComSoc's Boston Chapter functions with the help of a slate of officers, namely, a Chairperson, a Vice-Chair, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and a Planning Committee. (The Chapter operated for a time without a Secretary, but has restablished the position for 2000.) The officers are responsible for the overall program and all activities. The Planning Committee, which meets generally once a year in June and conducts subsequent communications through e-mail, is responsible for definning the program and arranging Chapter events.
Every year a new slate of officers is elected in the Spring for the next year. First nominations are sought from February through April through e-mail and announcements made during meetings, and Elections are conducted at the May/June meeting. In addition, at every meeting those members in attendance are invited to join the Planning Committee.
Chapter Program
The Chapter starts preparing for its annual program in June when all Planning Committee members brainstorm on topics of interest and then vote for the 10 best topics. Then one person is assigned for each topic from those 10 and he/she is responsible for arranging the speaker and coordinating with him/her to get the necessary information, including title, abstract, and biography, for inclusion in the IEEE Boston Section's monthly newsletter, The Reflector.
The resource persons generally find the speakers through their contacts in the industry or sometimes just solicit experts. Mostly, speakers are from the local area, except for those from outside the area who happen to be visiting Boston on business and can spare the time to give a talk during their visit.
Monthly Meetings
The Chapter has its monthly meetings on the second Thursday of every month. Usually an expert from a hot telecom/datacom area is invited to speak on a topic of general interest to the ComSoc community. All meetings are preceded by a dinner social with the Chapter members and the speaker. The Chapter meetings are open to the public.
Meeting and all local arrangements had been coordinated by Bill Nelson until 1999, when he moved from GTE to BBN. Now Paul Skelly of GTE Labs is helping in those efforts.
Detailed information is available at the Chapter's Web site or in IEEE Boston Section's monthly newsletter, The Reflector. Announcements about monthly meetings are made through e-mail one week in advance, and are also shared with other local ComSoc Chapters.
The average attendance at meetings is usually 30 to 40 persons. We have also tried to have at least one meeting each year featuring a "big name" speaker giving a more general, less technical overview of some hot area in the industry. These have included Tim Berners-Lee, head of the WWW Consortium at MIT and inventor of the World Wide Web, and Bob Metcalfe, who invented Ethernet. These meetings have been very popular.
Mailing List
The Chapter started a mailing list, "boston-comsoc-list," in September 1999 for several reasons:
- To provide a forum for its members.
- To communicate about its monthly meetings.
- To provide information about IEEE ComSoc-sponsored conferences
- in the Boston area.
- To let members share any useful information within the chapter.
Members are invited to subscribe to the mailing list by sending a simple e-mail message to "majordomo@majordomo.ieee.org" with the following command in the body (omit the double quotes) "subscribe boston-comsoc-list". Chapter members are also made aware of the IEEE's Acceptable Use Practices, available at http://eleccomm.ieee.org/email-aup.shtml, before subscribing to the mailing list.
The Chapter's Web Page:
The Chapter has organized a Web site (http://members.aol.com/IEEEcomsoc/index.html) with the help of Webmaster Jim Peters (past chair of the Chapter) to provide information about the officers and meetings and to list important links.
Support to ComSoc Sponsored Conferences
The Chapter has always supported conferences/workshops held in Boston area. The Chapter hosted a stall for the IEEE Communications Society at MILCOM '98, and provided all needed information to the attendees about Communication Society membership and its advantages.
Since 1999, the Chapter has also been active in promoting, through e-mails and at meetings, announcements for IEEE ComSoc-sponsored conferences/workshops being held in the Boston area. In a meeting with then ComSoc President Tom Plevyak in June 1999 in Boston, the Chapter also pledged support for paper liaison or paper reviewers for such conferences. Chapter members have also been involved in reviewing papers for IEEE Communications Magazine.
Electro 2000:
The Chapter also supports the IEEE Boston Section's annual industry show, IEEE Electro, held in June every year in Boston in conjunction with NEPCON East. The Chapter participated in 1998 by having a track on communications, and in 2000 it is having a track on optical networking.
IN2001
The Chapter Chair has been invited to organize the Intelligent Network Workshop 2001 (IN2001), an IEEE ComSoc-sponsored workshop to be held in Boston 6-9 May 2001. The local Chapter members have been invited to participate, and a few of them have volunteered to participate and help in a significant way by being part of the IN2001 Organizing and TechnicalCommittee to make this event a great success.
Educational Program
The Boston Chapter has been organizing a continuing education class each year for the Boston Section. A lecture series on Satellite Communications was organized in 1998.
A minicourse/seminar on "MultiUser Detection" was held on 5-6 May 1999 at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, Waltham (organized jointly with the Boston IT Chapter). The Chapter also supported the IEEE Boston Section in the development of new educational activities through Fellow Members, and participated in joint meetings with other chapters in 1999.
Student Activities
The Chapter organized one of its Chapter meetings on 13 April 2000 as a special student meeting for which Chapter members were invited to "Bring a Student" with them. The announcement was sent to IEEE Student Chapter contacts in colleges and universities in the Boston area. The ideas was to appraise them of the extra benefits they can realize from IEEE/IEEE ComSoc membership besides getting magazines and financial benefits.
Membership Development and Advancements
For the past two years, the Boston Chapter has been participating in IEEE ComSoc's New Member Incentive Program. In this program, a special mailing is sent to all new members who joined in the previous year as ComSoc members inviting them to attend the Chapter's meeting, held early next year. These efforts are shared with ComSoc headquarters New York.
Further, the Boston Chapter Chair has volunteered to represent East Coast Chapters on IEEE ComSoc's Membership Development Board, and to further solicit input from other Chapter Chairs to share their concern/issues regarding their Chapters' operations.
The Chapter Chair also participated as a panel member in the Admission and Advancement Committee meeting, held in Boston on 26 June 1999.
Information Sheet
The Chapter initiated distribution of an Information Sheet, similar to a newsletter, that provides a snapshot of details about the Chapter's mailing list, Web site, future meetings, etc. Also included is information about conferences in the Boston area.
Chapter Library
With the support of ComSoc Headquarters, the Boston Chapter has chosen to receive IEEE ComSoc publications and would provide access to these publications to Chapter members. This will definitely benefit those members who are independent consultants.
Accomplishments
The ComSoc Boston Chapter has been awarded the "Chapter of the Year" award for 1999 for achieving excellence in its Chapter operations and for furthering the objectives of the Society. Anant Kumar Jain, Chair, and Lori Jeromin, past Chair, received the award at GLOBECOM '99, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Report from the IEEE Karachi Section
By Fasih Ahmed Masood Sindhu, Pakistan
IEEE's presence in Pakistan traces its roots to the efforts of 65 members who gathered on 19 September 1968 in Lahore to form the Pakistan Section. From that point onward, IEEE has continuously been on the move for new avenues. The Karachi Sub-Section was formed on 22 May 1978, and was upgraded to Section on 17 July 1982 with 76 members, followed by the establishment of Islamabad Sub-Section on 5 August 1998. The IEEE Computer Society Karachi Chapter was formed on 5 October 1999 with 33 members.
The Karachi Section has always lived up to the objectives of IEEE, i.e., to organize conferences and seminars for its members according to national policies and with regional perspective. The Section has so far arranged conferences on Electronic Commerce (1998), IT and Telecoms (1998), Data Networks (1996), Networking (1994), Information Technologies: Toward 2000 (1993), Computers and Applications (1992), Electronic Communications, Industrial Electronics and Digital Communications (1991), Bio-Medical Engineering (1990), Micro-Electronics (1989), Energy Management and Conservation (1988), Computer Appreciation (1987) and Developments in Telecommunications (1986).
To highlight the technological advancements that will shape the lives of people across Pakistan at the dawn of the new millennium, the Section has arranged a conference on "Millennium Technologies" to be held on 27 November 2000 in Karachi. The conference emphasizes the developments and prospects of IT, electro and Internet technologies.
The scope of the conference includes but is not limited to the areas of Information Superhighways/Internet Exchanges; Internet Access: Technologies, Systems and Services; Internet Telephony/Computer Telephony Integration; Internet Instrumentation and Measurement; Electro/Mechanical/IT Systems; Communications: Data/Satellite/Multimedia; Electronics: Power/Industrial/Consumer; Networks: Mobile/Wireless/ Optical/Neural; Information Modeling, Storage and Integration; Cryptography, Encryption & Security; Digital Publishing and Libraries; Knowledge Management and Data Mining; Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems; Telemedicine and Biomedical Engineering; Virtual Universities; Software Engineering; Electronic Commerce; Web Applications and Technologies; Electric Vehicles and Intelligent Highway Systems; Nano Technologies, Micro Machines and Protein-Based Computers; Internet2 and the Next Generation Internet (NGI).
For up to date information about the conference, please visit the conference Web site.