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PANEL SESSIONS

Panel One: QoS Management

Chair: Poornima Lalwaney,
General Instrument Corp, USA
Abstract: Quality of Service introduces the notion of dedicated resources over the shared Internet Infrastructure. Various models of quality of services are evolving on the Internet, including but not limited to, integrated services (RSVP), differentiated services model, multiprotocol label switching (MPLS). The participants will address amongst other issues the following:

  • Should applications be "network aware" or should networks be "application aware"?
  • Should reservations be end-to-end (RSVP) or should they be based on a DiffServ?
  • Is COPS becoming the de-facto protocol for policy provisioning and admission control?
  • How do network entities authorize, authenticate and account for resource utilization?

Panel Two: Service Level Agreement - Facing the Challenge

Chair: Salah Aidarous, NEC, USA
Abstract: Today's service providers are faced with unprecedented challenges with intense competition to gain market share. Diversity of telecom and computing technologies coupled with ambiguous deregulation has become the catalyst of industry's primary focus on customer requirements for Quality of Service (QoS). The participants will address amongst other issues the following:

  • What are the SLA requirements, specification, information models, and application platforms?
  • What are the SLA parameters embraced and implemented by the telecom industry?
  • What are the current measurement techniques, and are they end-to-end?
  • What are the standards and the telecom responsibilities to the customer?

Panel Three: IP Telephony

Chair: Jonathan Weinstock, General Instrument Corp, USA
Abstract: IP telephony is an emerging technology with significant business focus and management. This panel will focus on:

  • How is high QoS assured over time in end-to-end IP telephony systems?
  • How are network faults identified and sectionalized in end-to-end IP telephony systems?
  • How do multiple organizations share resources that provide data, voice, and video?
  • What really exists today and where should OSS standards efforts be focused on?

Panel Four: Provisioning of Datacentric Networks and Services: Achilles Heel of the Internet?

Chair: C.J. Stumpf, GTE Corp, USA
Abstract: Flow-through provisioning is a critical enabling technology for the projected growth of datacentric network and services. As such, it is the subject of considerable angst and expense amongst carriers and ASP, and is the focus of a small explosion of niche players and equipment provider investments. This panel will explore whether provisioning may indeed be the "Achilles Heel" of the networks and services of the new millennium. The panel will address questions like:

  • Will today's legacy systems work for the Internet?
  • Will standards help or hinder?
  • Can ISPs and traditional carriers work together?

Panel Five: Policy-based Management

Chair: Morris Sloman, Imperial College, London UK
Abstract: Policy based management is currently a hot topic with vendors who develop management tools. The IETF/DMTF community is attempting to bring order in the field through standardization efforts, and this panel will discuss amongst others, the following key questions:

  • What are the policy definition languages?
  • Can we automatically go from business goals to policies?
  • Are vendors on the right track with their tool development effort?
  • What infrastructure is needed to implement policies?

Any questions or problems, please contact noms2000@comsoc.org