Session Details

Day 1 (10 March, 2007)   Access Management, The Technology and Current Trends Mr. T V Sriram (Novell India) Abstract : Networks are becoming increasingly complex as organizations add new applications, infrastructure components and users—day after day, year after year. At the same time, today’s networks extend far beyond the corporate campus, often because business users need to work remotely in a secure environment. Access Management provides Enterprises with a solution that protects their IT infrastructure from Internet-based threats; secures the privacy of users in the office, at home and on the road; enables simple, secure access for employees and trusted partners alike; and complies with business policies and government regulations. This session will explore the technologies that constitute a typical Access Management solution and the current trends in the industry. About the Speaker : Mr. T V Sriram works with Novell India.   Rural Wireless Connectivity: Technologies and Challenges Mr. Ajay Bakre (Intel India) Abstract : It is widely acknowledged that wireless connectivity will be the most cost effective method to bridge the "digital divide" between those who currently have Internet access and those who do not. This is especially true for developing and under-developed countries where hardly any wired connectivity options exist today in rural regions. This talk examines a few wireless technologies that are being developed today and the challenges in deploying these technologies in rural areas. Most notable among these are wireless broadband access technologies based on IEEE standards such as 802.11 and 802.16. About the Speaker : Mr. Ajay Bakre works in the Mobile Platform Architecture and Development Group at Intel India, Bangalore. He completed his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, New Jersey in 1996. He has several publications in the areas of Mobile Computing and Wireless Networking. His current interests include Wireless LAN and Access Technologies, Mobile IP, Location Based Services and Multi-media Networking Applications.   VillageNet: A low-cost, 802.11-based mesh network for rural regions Mr. Sharad Jaiswal (Bell Labs Research, India) Abstract : VillageNet is a wireless mesh network that aims to provide low-cost broadband Internet access for rural regions. The cost of building the network is kept low by using off-the-shelf IEEE 802.11 equipment and optimizing the network topology to minimize cost. In this talk we will describe the over-all operation of VillageNet and discuss two fundamental problems in building such a network; 1) how to allocate non-interfering 802.11 channels to links in the network, and 2) how to design a VillageNet topology in order to minimize costs. About the Speaker : Mr. Sharad Jaiswal works at Bell Labs Research, Bangalore. He received his Ph.D from the University of Massachussetts, Amherst.   Network as a platform and its impact on India's socio-political environment Bibhuti Kar (Cisco Systems) Abstract: One of the aims in introducing “rural networking” is to bring in “enough transparency” in to the governance so that things like corruption, access of interpreted law to common man, access of grievance forums to common man becomes easy across the country. So it invariably involves rural networking. Technically speaking, it would involve making the end user devices “dirt” cheap to “enable” access. Today’s end user platform is a bulky compputer that costs good money for our rural population, all software costs a bunch too. Research in this area now aims to keep the software intelligence in the network rather than in the end user device. About the Speaker : Bibhuti Kar is a Engineering Manager in Cisco Systems. He has a M.Tech degree in Electronics and Communications from IIT Kharagpur and has spent more than 11 yrs in the networking and communications industry. Bibhuti has contributed to IP/ATM convergence, MPLS technologies and broadband technologies immensely. He has worked closely with worlds largest service providers (ATT, TI, FT, bharti etc). His current endeavors are to come up with new boradband architectures with end to end IP connectivity, that enables next generation services to reach the end user in a more cost effective manner.   Welcoming New Disruptions in Telecom Technology Prof. Subrat Kar (IIT Delhi) Abstract : Sensors networks allow ubiquitous monitoring points in what is traditionally the access space. The talk will focus on how disruptive this technology can be in terms of the management and transport planes and why welcoming it is a good idea. About the Speaker : Prof. Subrat Kar is Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management at IIT Delhi. He works in the areas of Photonic switching architectures, telecom networks, inter-working, signalling, transmission, protocols, network management, embedded systems.   Asterisk and VoIP deployment issues Mr. Chetan Vaity (GS Lab) Abstract : Asterisk is an open-source software PBX with VoIP and PSTN connectivity capabilities. The most attractive feature is its extensibility which allows creation of interesting applications. We shall discuss how to set up an Asterisk server and get started with making VoIP calls. We will also look at some issues which need to be tacked during deployment of a VoIP solution in an enterprise network. About the Speaker : Mr. Chetan Vaity works as a Senior Member of Technical Staff at Great Software Lab, Pune. He completed his M.Tech. from KReSIT, IIT Bombay in 2005.   QoS for Real-Time services in Access Networks Mr. Subhayu Basu (Juniper Networks) Abstract : Newer access technologies like DSL, FTTx etc have enabled service providers to provide broadband applications to their customers. The service providers are looking beyond high speed internet access to increase average revenue per user (ARPU). Broadcast TV, Video on demand, VOIP are some of the real time applications, which can be provided over the higher bit rate pipe. A DSL based access network has been taken as an example to explore the QOS capability requirement for a broadband service router. The talk also explores the benefit of integrating packet layer and Control layer to optimize last mile access bandwidth usage. About the Speaker : Mr. Subhayu Basu is a Staff Engineer in Juniper Networks’ India Private Limited. He has been with Juniper for last one and half years. He has 14 Years of Telecom and Networking Industry experience. In these 14 years he has taken part in architecting and designing various products in the Telecom and Networking space. He is currently working on implementing hierarchical queuing support in one of the Juniper platforms.   Emerging Technologies and Design Issues in Metro and Enterprise Optical Networks Prof. Ashwin Gumaste (KReSIT - IIT Bombay) Abstract : Metro optical networks that provide connectivity and services to small, medium and large corporate offices form the communication backbone of electronic trade and commerce. With emerging service demands such as Triple Play, Video on Demand, Pseudo Wire services there is a new onus on such networks in being able to provide reliability, scalability and availability from both cost and performance stand-point. We investigate into the technologies that form the corner-stone of metro networks from a business driver perspective. We will also discuss some of the design issues involved in technologies that constitute metro networking - in particular we will look at carrier class Ethernet based networks. Network and element architectures are also studied as part of the talk. Technologies on the horizons that are likely to be the mainstay of future metro networks such as PONs, light-trails and ASONs will also be presented. About the Speaker : Prof. Ashwin Gumaste is an Assistant Professor in the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology, IIT Bombay. His areas of expertise are Optical Networks, Access Networks, Metro and Enterprise Networks and Network Algorithmics. Prof. Gumaste received his Ph.D from the University of Texas, Dallas.     Day 2 (11 March, 2007)   Enabling QoS and Resource Optimization in Converged (IP/MPLS) Core Networks Prof. Girish Saraph (EE, IIT Bombay) Abstract : MPLS enables convergence of data, voice, and multi-media services on a single packetized core network (backbone, metro, or wireless backhaul networks). Traffic engineering in MPLS is used to enable optimization paths to support QoS requirements of different types of services and customers as well as, the overall network resources. We bring robust, scalable algorithms to address this and present an overlay solution built at Vegayan Systems. About the Speaker : Prof. Girish Saraph received his B. Tech degree from IIT Bombay, M.S. from the University of Florida, Gainesville and Ph. D from the University of Maryland College Park, USA. Since 2000 he is working in the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay as Associate Professor and is in-charge of the Communication Laboratory. His research interests in Communication Networks include Traffic Engineering, QoS, MPLS and Network Management.   Providing QoS to real and interactive data applications in WiMax mesh networks Prof. Vinod Sharma (IISc) Abstract : We consider the problem of centralized routing and scheduling for IEEE 802.16 mesh networks so as to provide QoS to individual real and interactive data applications. We first obtain an optimal and fair routing and scheduling decision for aggregate demands for different source-destination pairs. We then present scheduling algorithms which provide per flow QoS guarantees while utilizing the network resources efficiently. Our algorithms are also scalable: they do not require per flow processing and queueing and the computational requirements are modest. We also discuss admission control policies which ensure that sufficient resources are available. We have verified our algorithms via extensive simulations. About the Speaker : Prof. Vinod Sharma is a Professor of Electrical Communication Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His areas of interest lie in Communications Networks, Adaptive Signal Processing, Estimation, Identification and Control and Information Theory. Prof. Sharma is a Senior Member of IEEE.   Efficiently tracking the changing world Prof. Krithi Ramamritham (KReSIT - IIT Bombay) Abstract : Much of the data consumed today is dynamic, typically gathered from sensors, coming to users in the form of data streams and delivered through proxies which form a peer-to-peer network within the internet. Such data reflect the rapid and unpredictable changes in the world around us. Clearly, the Quality of Service needs for such delivery are much more stringent than for static data. This talk will examine the nature of dynamics of distributed data and review the variety of infrastructure in use today for disseminating time varying information. Simultaneously improving scalability, availability and reliability pose challenges given the data dynamics as well as failures in the infrastructure. How these can be met by the judicious design of algorithms for data dissemination, caching, and cooperation forms the crux of the talk. About the Speaker : Prof. Krithi Ramamritham is Dean of Research and Development at IIT Bombay and the Vijay & Sita Vashee Chair professor in the Department Of Computer Science & Engineering. He is a fellow of the IEEE, ACM. His areas of interest include real time systems, transaction processing in Database Systems, and Dynamic Data Dissemination in sensor networks, embedded systems, and mobile environments.   Leveraging Information Overload for Effective Security Management Mr. A S Shivaprakash (Novell India) Abstract : Following are the challenges that Security Adminstrators face today: Overwhelming Flood: Security devices such as firewalls and IDSs overwhelm security staff, generating tens or hundreds of millions of logs each day. Theres no way any company can hire the people it would take to manually review these logs Massive false positives: The vast majority of these logs, or events, are false positives…useless or insignificant data from chatty devices that lack the context or intelligence to ascertain the true threats. Islands of Defense: each device, or each set of devices from an individual vendor, lack any context that is gained by a higher-level view and provides valuable context on whats going on across devices, across the systems and networks. The solution is a single integrated system that can collect all the security events and enables security teams to identify, prioritize, and defend against internal & external threats. About the Speaker : Mr. A S Shivaprakash works with Novell India.   Wireless Intrusion Prevention Systems Mr. K. N. Gopinath (AirTight Networks) Abstract : IEEE 802.11 (popularly known as WiFi) has been quite successful in penetrating enterprise networks, academic institutions and even, homes. In the past, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) has been used to secure a WiFi network. With vulnerabilities discovered in WEP, today’s WiFi networks use more robust security frameworks such as Wireless Privacy Access (WPA) and Robust Security Network (RSN). However, there exists a class of problems (e.g., rogue access points, client mis-associations) that cannot be handled by security frameworks such as above. Such problems are solved using specialized devices known as Wireless Intrusion Prevention Systems (WIPS). Together, WIPS and security mechanisms can provide a good security solution in today’s WiFi dominated market. However, certain emerging disruptive technologies (such as IEEE 802.11n, 802.11w, 802.16, EVDO) can create certain gaps in today’s solution suite and lead to certain interesting problems for future. About the Speaker : Mr. K. N. Gopinath is a Senior Manager, Technology Research, at AirTight Networks .