Officers (2008-2009)

Chair: Stefano Bregni (Politecnico di Milano, Italy)

Politecnico di Milano, Dept. of Electronics and Information

Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 MILANO MI, Italy

Ph.: +39-02-2399.3503 - Fax: +39-02-2399.3413

Email: bregni@elet.polimi.it

Vice Chair: Tarek El-Bawab (Jackson State University, USA)

Jackson State University, Department of Computer Engineering

Post Office Box 17098, Jackson, MS 39217, USA

Ph.: +1-601-979.1752 - Fax: +1-601-979.4045

Email: telbawab@ieee.org

Secretary: Ravi Subrahmanyan (NSC, USA)

Email: ravi.subrahmanyan@ieee.org

TAOS Hall of Fame: past officers (since 1976)

Charter and Scope

The Transmission, Access, and Optical Systems (TAOS) technical committee plays an active role in promoting and organizing leading-edge Journal special issues, conference symposia, tutorials and workshops, as well as in IEEE standard development, related in particular to optical and metallic guided media and wireless access systems, for the transport of voice and data of any bandwidth. Moreover, it facilitates discussion and exchange of technical information among members of the committee.

Its scope is centered on transmission systems and networks, for the transport of all kind of information in particular in the access segment of telecommunications networks. More specifically, typical areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

transmission systems and equipment for subscriber access over optical fiber, coaxial cable and twisted copper pairs;
architecture, performance and testing of wired and wireless access systems and networks;
analog and digital transmission systems for telephone and data networks;
inductive coordination and electrical protection of wired media;
wireless local loop;
SDH/SONET transmission systems;
network synchronization;
technologies, architectures and protocols for optical transmission systems;
medium access control protocols for both optical and metallic media.

In order to further the above interests, the Committee cooperates with other IEEE Communications Society Technical Committees (TCs) as well as with other organizations.

Policies and Procedures

TAOS adheres to all policies specified by the IEEE Communication Society for Technical Committees (IEEE Communications Society Policies and Procedures, Sec. 7.0 - Operating Procedures Template). The TAOS Chair reports directly to the VP-Technical Activities.

TAOS Policies and Procedures are detailed in the document "Transmission, Access and Optical Systems (TAOS) Policies and Procedures", available on the TAOS web site.

Election of Officers

According to ComSoc policies, officers (chair, vice-chair and secretary) are elected for two-years terms, in TAOS meetings usually held at all ICC and GLOBECOM conferences. Candidates are chosen among Communications Society members with a recognized active role within TAOS areas of interest. In most cases, upon expiration of the two-years term, the vice-chair steps up to the chair position, the secretary steps up to vice-chair and a new secretary is elected.

The TAOS Steering Committee includes the current officers (chair, vice-chair and secretary) and past chairs who are still active members. Other ComSoc members with outstanding record in supporting TAOS activities may be also included. The Steering Committee may serve also as candidate selection committee, recommending a slate of officers for the next two-year term. Currently, the TAOS Steering Committee includes:

Stefano Bregni, Vice-Chair (Politecnico di Milano, Italy),
Jaafar Elmirghani (University of Wales Swansea, UK),
Steve Gorshe (PMC-Sierra Inc, USA),
Mohsen Guizani, (Western Michigan University, USA),
Mounir Hamdi (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong),
Stamatios Kartalopoulos (University of Oklahoma, USA),
Michael Kincaid (MSK & Associates, USA),
Tarek El-Bawab (Jackson State University, USA).

Meetings

TAOS meetings are usually held twice a year, at major IEEE ICC and GLOBECOM conferences. Everyone is welcome to attend meetings. Minutes of the meetings are public and are available on the TAOS web site.

Subcommittees

Subcommittee on Telephone Instrument Testing (STIT)

The STIT subcommittee is chaired by John R. Bareham (MichTel Communications, USA).

Its scope focuses on testing and instrumentation for telephone lines and equipment. The STIT subcommittee issued several IEEE standards on these topics.

Mailing List

TAOS provides one unmoderated mailing list, hosted on the ComSoc server, as an effective mean for timely dissemination of information among TAOS members.

The TAOS mailing list currently includes more than 1000 recipients, selected among researchers, engineers, managers, professors or students who are active in TAOS areas of interest (e.g., authors of recent IEEE papers on topics within TAOS scope). The purpose of the mailing list is to stimulate participation from academia and industry to TAOS activities.

Sending messages to the TAOS list

Only list members can post to the list. To send a message to ALL list members, send an email to

taos@comsoc.org.

We invite members to be considerate in sending emails to the list, since messages will be forwarded to all (more than 1000) subscribers. Spamming will be not tolerated.

Subscribing/Unsubscribing to/from the TAOS list

To join or leave the list, send an email to:

list@comsoc.org

and type in the body of the message

join taos

leave taos.

To change your email address where you receive your TAOS messages, please unsubscribe from the old address and subscribe using the new address by following the instructions above.

Policy of use

The IEEE Communications Society's Board of Governors in its June, 2002 meeting in NYC, discussed the proper use of the mailing lists and approved several motions in that regard. An excerpt of the minutes from that meeting can be downloaded at address
http://www.comsoc.org/socstr/org/operation/techcom/tccc/minutes/postings_BoGminutes.pdf.
In particular, the mail lists of the IEEE Communications Society cannot be used to post:

any item that reflects negatively on the reputation, character, professional ability or technical competence of anyone;
any item of a sexually explicit nature;
any item that disparages or demeans another’s ethnicity, religion, culture, or sexual orientation
any item that misrepresents one’s position in the Communications Society or in any other professional organization;
any item that promotes or serves as a marketing vehicle for materials in which the a TC committee member has a personal, financial, or business interest; this includes books, conferences and short courses in which the Communications Society does not have an interest (items for the general good such as announcements of faculty openings, fellowships, student grants, etc., may be posted);
any item that advances the candidacy of an individual for an elected office in the IEEE (including ComSoc); this conforms to existing IEEE policy;
any item that uses one’s position as a volunteer in ComSoc for personal gain;
any item that announces or encourages participation in a venue that is clearly in conflict with any initiative of the IEEE Communications Society; (This includes calls-for-papers for competing publications or announcements for competing conferences. Since the Communications Society co-sponsors a number of publications and events, it may be well to seek the advice of the appropriate ComSoc officer for further insight when preparing items of this type.)

Meetings

TAOS meetings are usually held twice a year, at IEEE GLOBECOM and ICC conferences.
Everyone is welcome to attend meetings. Please contact TAOS officers for further information.

Minutes of the meeting at ICC2008, May 2008, Beijing, China.
Minutes of the meeting at GLOBECOM2007, Nov. 2007, Washington, DC, USA.
Minutes of the meeting at ICC2007, June 2007, Glasgow, UK.
Minutes of the meeting at Globecom2006, Dec. 2006, S. Francisco, CA, USA.
Minutes of the meeting at ICC 2006, June 2006, Istanbul, Turkey.
Minutes of the meeting at GLOBECOM 2005, Dec. 2005, St. Louis, MO, USA.

Technical Activities (2007-2008)

Cooperation with Other IEEE Communications Society Technical Committees

TAOS welcomes cooperation with other IEEE ComSoc Technical Committees, especially in those areas where TC scopes partially overlap. In particular, in 2007 and 2008, TAOS successfully co-organized symposia and conferences in cooperation with the following TCs.

Optical Networking TC (ONTC)

On the one hand, TAOS scope in on topics dealing with optical physical level and transmission systems, such as transmission of optical signals, optical devices, optical wired and wireless systems. On the other, TAOS scope includes topics related specifically to the architecture and performance of optical access systems.
Hence, synergy with ONTC comes natural in dealing with optical systems and networks. In particular, in last two years, cooperation with ONTC proved remarkably effective and rewarding, for all members involved, in the technical program management of the "Optical Systems and Networks" symposia in ICC2007, GLOBECOM2007, ICC2008 and GLOBECOM2008.

Communications Switching and Routing (CS&R)

TAOS cooperated with CS&R in the technical program management of the "Optical Systems and Networks" symposia in ICC2007, GLOBECOM2007, ICC2008 and GLOBECOM2008.

Broadband on Power-Line (BoPL)

PLC and TAOS endorsed the "International Symposium on Power Line Communication and its applications" in 2007 and 2008, namely ISPLC 2007, Pisa, Italy, March 26-28, 2007, and ISPLC 2008, Jeju Island, Korea, April 2-4, 2008.
Owing to the proximity and overlap between PLC and TAOS scopes, officers of both TCs aim at pursuing close cooperation also in the future.

Appointments in IEEE Communications Society Committees

The main appointments of TAOS members in IEEE Communications Society committees are the following at present:

S. Bregni is voting member of the GLOBECOM/ICC Technical Content (GITC) Committee. Since 2007, he has led a GITC workgroup to define the standard review form and the standard review process for future ICC/GLOBECOM conferences. The standard review form defined by this WG was approved in the GITC meeting in ICC2007 and, since then, has been used in all GLOBECOM/ICC conferences. The first draft specification of the standard review process has been approved at the GLOBECOM2007 GITC meeting. Since then, underwent several updates. Work is still in progress.
S. Bregni has been appointed Director of Education (2008).
M. Kincaid (Former TAOS Chair) has been the chair of the GLOBECOM/ICC Management and Strategy (GIMS) Committee for two years, and past chair (until 2005) of the Awards Committee. Currently, he is voting member of the GLOBECOM/ICC Management and Strategy (GIMS) Committee.
S. Gorshe (Former TAOS Chair) has been appointed Director of Magazines and also Associate Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Communications Magazine
Wei Lan (Jennifer) Huang is TAOS representative in the ComSoc Standards Board.

Conferences

TAOS cooperates actively with other IEEE Communications Society Technical Committees in endorsing and organizing conferences, in particular in setting up the technical program and in managing successfully the process of paper review.The following conferences have been endorsed by TAOS in 2007-2008.

IEEE GLOBECOM 2009, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, Nov. 2009.

S. Bregni is Symposia Chair. The role of the Symposia Chair is to supervise all 11 technical symposia, appoint their chairs and organize the paper review and selection process.
TAOS endorses the Optical Networks and Systems Symposium (A. Bononi, co-Chair) in cooperation with the ONTC and CS&R TCs, and the General Symposium on Selected Areas in Communications, track Emerging Technologies for Access Systems and Networks (T. El-Bawab, co-Chair).

IEEE ICC 2009, Dresden, Germany, June 2009.

TAOS endorses the Optical Networks and Systems Symposium in cooperation with the ONTC and CS&R TCs and the General Symposium on Selected Areas in Communications.

IEEE GLOBECOM 2008, New Orleans, USA, Nov.-Dec. 2008.

TAOS endorses the Optical Networks and Systems Symposium (Tarek El-Bawab, co-Chair) in cooperation with the ONTC and CS&R TCs and the General Symposium on Selected Areas in Communications.

IEEE ICC 2008, Beijing, China, June 2008.

TAOS endorses the Optical Networks and Systems Symposium (S. Bregni, co-Chair) in cooperation with the ONTC and CS&R TCs and the General Symposium on Selected Areas in Communications.

9th International Workshop on Optical Networking Technologies (IWONT 2008), part of IEEE GLOBECOM 2008, New Orleans, USA, Nov. 2008

The theme of IWONT 2008 is ROADMs: Components, Systems, and Networks. IWONT is an annual workshop which has been associated with the IEEE ICC and Globecom conferences since 2000. It has been organized and Chaired by Tarek El-Bawab for about ten years so far.

2008 REV Conference on Advanced Technologies for Communications (ATC-REV 2008), Hanoi, Vietnam, Oct. 2008.