Subject: BU/NSF Workshop on Internet Measurement, Instrumentation, and Characterization

From: "Azer Bestavros" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 22:10:22 -0400

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                          BU/NSF Workshop on

      INTERNET MEASUREMENT, INSTRUMENTATION AND CHARACTERIZATION

                           Boston University
                      Boston, Massachusetts, USA

                        Monday August 30, 1999
                      (Preceding ACM SIGCOMM'99)

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                  PRELIMINARY CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Objectives and Overview
-----------------------

Because of  its growth in size,  scope, and complexity ---  as well as
its increasingly central  role in society --- the  Internet has become
an  important  object  of   study  and  evaluation.  Many  significant
innovations  in the  networking community  in recent  years  have been
directed at obtaining a more accurate understanding of the fundamental
behavior  of   the  complex  system  that  is   the  Internet.   These
innovations have  come in the form  of better models  of components of
the system, better tools which enable us to measure the performance of
the  system   more  accurately,   and  new  techniques   coupled  with
performance   evaluation   which    have   delivered   better   system
utilization.  The   continued  development  and   improvement  of  our
understanding of the properties of  the Internet is essential to guide
designers of hardware, protocols, and applications for the next decade
of Internet growth.

As  a   research  community,   an  important  next   step  involves  a
comprehensive  look at the  challenges that  lie ahead  in this  area. 
This includes  an evaluation of  both the current  unsolved challenges
and the upcoming  challenges the Internet will present  us with in the
near future,  and a  discussion of the  promising new  techniques that
innovators in  the field  are currently developing.  To this  end, the
Networking Research Group at  Boston University, with support from the
National  Science  Foundation   (pending),  is  organizing  a  one-day
workshop which will be held at Boston University on Monday, August 30,
1999, and which will immediately precede SIGCOMM '99.

Workshop Program and Speakers
-----------------------------

The BU/NSF Internet  Measurement, Instrumentation and Characterization
(IMIC) workshop will feature four technical sessions:

 - Modeling and Characterization
 - Internet Instrumentation and Measurement
 - End-to-End Protocols and Services;
 - Network Support for Next Generation Internet Applications.

Each session will consist of 3 invited presentations to be followed by
an open discussion.

The workshop will  conclude with a panel of  researchers from academia
and industry,  as well as  representatives from funding  agencies, who
will  discuss  opportunities  and   challenges  that  lie  ahead,  and
initiatives to be undertaken.

A final report, including materials presented and discussion summaries
will be available on-line as a NSF report.

The list of  workshop presentations will be posted  on this page, once
the technical  program is finalized. For more  details, please contact
John Byers at ([email-masked]).

Local Arrangements
------------------

The workshop will be held on  the 9th floor of the Photonics Center at
the  heart of  the Boston  University Campus.   The  Boston University
Campus is  located in  Boston, across the  Charles River  from Harvard
University and  MIT. For directions,  please check the  following URL:
http://www.bu.edu/admissions/visit/campus/directns.html.    All  other
questions  concerning local  arrangements should  be directed  to Paul
Barford at ([email-masked]).

Registration
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An on-site registration  fee of $50.00 (payable in  cash, money order,
or check  drawn on a US bank)  will be charged per  attendee to defray
the costs of food and beverage services.

Pending support from the NSF,  the registration fee will be waived for
full-time  students  on a  First-Come-First-Serve  basis.  If you  are
interested in  such a waiver,  please contact Michael  Mitzenmacher at
([email-masked]).

Workshop Organizing Committee
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 - Paul Barford, Research Fellow, Boston University
 - Azer Bestavros, Associate Professor, Boston University
 - John Byers, Assistant Professor, Boston University
 - Mark Crovella, Assistant Professor, Boston University
 - Ibrahim Matta, Assistant Professor, Boston University
 - Michael Mitzenmacher, Assistant Professor, Harvard University

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      For more information check the IMIC Workshop Home Page at
                    http://www.cs.bu.edu/pub/imic