[Mycolleagues] Mesh Networking: From Technology to Social Impact

Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CfP.

                Deadline is approaching!!!!

============ SocialNets'2008 ===================== ========= IEEE PIMRC 2008 WORKSHOP ================

Mesh Networking: From Technology to Social Impact
             Cannes, France
            15th September 2008

We are witnessing a rapid and uncontrolled deployment of cellular wireless networks operating in unlicensed bands of spectrum. Such networks are composed of access points (AP) connected to the Internet, but with seldom exceptions are completely unrelated with each other.

This is quite limitative in a time where information technology moves toward the so-called pervasive world, intelligence is pushed from the user to the infrastructure, and "always connected" is an increasing expectation.

The problem we face today is that existing access points operate in a selfish, self-centered, method, as they do not collaborate on the behalf of the users. In other words, access points are virtually isolated from each other, while users could benefit from their cooperation. This created opportunities to companies like FON and Boingo. The natural, user-centric, evolution of this trend would be for users to cooperate forming wireless neighborhood communities, instantiated as a (single) wireless mesh network. A useful lesson we learned from the Internet is that users can cooperate by nature given common interests, as observed for instance through P2P applications. Cooperation in the wireless last mile is then possible if we provide the expected incentives and mechanisms.

One problem is that existing works on wireless mesh networks assume a single administrative entity that can then take the appropriate decisions to provide end-to-end connectivity between users. While moving to a self-organized, user-centric environment, wireless neighborhood communities will not be centrally managed, which raises problems not previously addressed by the research community. This presents challenges both at the physical and the administrative domains.

In this mesh environment, communication paradigm completely changes:
wireless networks are no longer a mere access technology, but form the core of the network so that the current Internet becomes a utility network providing interconnection services. Access points, which are the interface between users and the core network, should be able to quickly learn how to cooperate and thus become active elements in this wireless communication infrastructure. This participation has physical layer, network connectivity, and user interests aspects that need to be taken in consideration.

The goal of this workshop is to help covering cooperation-related aspects of such unmanaged wireless mesh networks. We solicit papers covering, but not limited to, the following topics:

---  Architectures of community mesh networks
---  Self-organization mechanisms in community mesh networks
---  Lower layer techniques in community mesh networks
---  Spectrum management in community mesh networks
---  Mobility management in community mesh networks
---  Trust, incentives, reputation
---  Application and service design for community networks
---  Social aspects on mesh networking design

Organization

In order to achieve excellence, the workshop will only accept top-quality papers, evaluated by an international technical program committee. Paper format will follow the same instructions of IEEE PIMRC. Each paper will be reserved a slot of 30 minutes (20-minute presentation plus 10 minutes for

discussion.)
Papers will be submitted IEEE conference format, through the EDAS system (not yet open). Deadlines are:
------- Paper submission (final paper):            11st April 2008
------- Acceptance notification:                   15th May 2008
------- Final paper submission:                    2nd June 2008

Workshop chair
Rémy Bayou, European Commission, Belgium

Technical program committee
Rui Aguiar, Universidade de Aveiro (TPC co-chair) Serge Fdida, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (TPC co-chair) Lars Berlemann, Deutsche Telekom, Germany Andrew Campbell, Dartmouth University, USA Luis Correia, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal Christophe Diot, Thomson, France Andrzej Duda, Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France Anje Gimmler, Aalborg University, Denmark Edward Knightly, Rice University, USA Stefan Mangold, Swisscom, Switzerland Josep Mangues-Bafalluy, Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Spain Ramjee Prasad, Aalborg University, Denmark Bozidar Radunovic, Microsoft Research, UK Catherine Rosenberg, University of Waterloo, Canada Rainer Sauerwein, Siemens AG, Germany Peter Steenkiste, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Leandros Tassiulas, University of Thessaly, Greece Nitin Vaidya, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA Ryuji Wakikawa, Keio University, Japan Cedric Westphal, DoCoMo Labs, USA

Further information:
http://hng.av.it.pt/~ruilaa/wmesh08.htm

----------------------------------------------------
Dr.  Rainer Sauerwein
Principal Research Scientist
Siemens AG
Corporate Technologie
Information & Communication
Wireless Networks
Otto-Hahn-Ring 6
81730 München
Tel.: +49 89 636 41567
Mobile: +49 151 17438769
Fax: +49 89 636 51115
email: rainer.sauerwein@siemens.com
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft: Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Gerhard Cromme; Managing Board: Peter Loescher, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Wolfgang Dehen, Heinrich Hiesinger, Joe Kaeser, Erich R. Reinhardt, Hermann Requardt, Siegfried Russwurm, Peter Y. Solmssen; Registered offices: Berlin and Munich; Commercial registries: Berlin Charlottenburg, HRB 12300, Munich, HRB 6684; WEEE-Reg.-No. DE 23691322