Workshops 
on 
Availability and Robustness of Europe’s Future Communications Networks

Note: The proceedings of each Workshop will be posted on the Proceedings page after the Workshop.

You are receiving this invitation because your organization is a stakeholder in ensuring the availability and robustness of Europe’s future communications networks.  Your organization has the opportunity to send its best experts to one or more 1-day Experts Workshops to be held during October and November.  The objective of each workshop is to facilitate rigorous, expert-level discussions on the subjects of network availability, robustness, reliability, security, emergency preparedness and disaster recovery.  

The events are being co-hosted by major communications industry private sector and public sector stakeholders, and technically co-sponsored by Bell Labs and the IEEE Technical Committee on Communications Quality & Reliability (CQR).  The event is also supported byEURESCOM.  

These Expert Workshops will include a review of summary information from extensive information collected across Europe during the past 6 months.  Further, the workshops will build upon the IEEE CQR International Workshop held in London this past Spring, which focused on world-class events, extreme events and financial sector dependencies.  Results from the workshop will be used to support the European Commission Study on Availability and Robustness of Electronic Communications Infrastructures (ARECI), which is being conducted by Bell Labs and for which a report will be published in early 2007.  

There is no cost to participate in these events, however participation is limited due to the high interest in these workshop and associated logistics.  Acceptance will be based on the order of registration form receipt.  

Your perspective is considered critical to this dialogue and we hope you will take part in this formulation of expert, consensus perspectives regarding Europe’s future networks.  

For more information on the workshops, please contact Aleksei Resetko at +49 6102 249 2124, or via email at resetko@lucent.com.  

There will be 4 Experts Workshops as described below, each with a different type of expertise being engaged, thus it is expected that an organization wishing to contribute to more than one subject/event, will send different experts.  

Interested individuals can register at http://www.bell-labs.com/europe-networks-workshop/. There is no cost for registration. Participants will simply need to cover their own travel and lodging arrangements.  Additional information, such as agendas, background information, hotels suggested by the local sponsors, etc. can be found on the above web link.  

Workshop 1 Power & Environment
Rome, Italy
Tuesday, October 3, 2006

These subjects cover the power systems internal to communications infrastructure and the physical locations (environments) of the network equipment such as buildings and towers.  Experts sought for this workshop include those with insights, experience and responsibilities related to power system engineering, back-up power planning, emergency preparedness, disaster recovery, network maintenance and physical security including co-location.

Workshop 2 Network & Payload 
London, U.K.
Friday, October 6, 2006

These subjects include the design, engineering, architecture, maintenance, operation, growth, convergence, evolution, transition, interoperability, reliability and security of networks and the traffic that is carried through them.  Experts sought for this workshop include those with insights, experience and responsibilities related to these subjects as well as emergency communications services, cyber security and reliability engineering.  

Workshop 3 Hardware & Software 
Berlin, Germany
Wednesday, October 11, 2006

These subjects include the design, testing and deployment of hardware and software, computer programming, quality management, trouble shooting, customer technical support, supply chain management, cyber security and systems engineering.   Experts sought for this workshop include those with insights, experience and responsibilities related to these subjects.  

Workshop 4 Policy & Human 
Brussels, Belgium
Wednesday, November 15, 2006

These subjects include standards development, communications industry policy development, peering agreements, mutual aid agreements, government affairs, human-machine interfaces, training, emergency preparedness, management, supervision, human performance and executive oversight.  Experts sought for this workshop include those with insights, experience and responsibilities related to these subjects.  

Agenda

Evening before:  A light reception will be held early in the evening preceding each workshop

Each of these workshops will follow the following agenda … 

9:00      Welcome & overview of program

•      ARECI Study overview, including summary of extensive interviews of European stakeholders regarding availability and robustness

•      Overview of 2 Ingredients by workshop chair

•      Break-outs into Ingredient expertise to discuss

  •     top concerns in today’s networks

  •     top concerns for future networks

  •     any other issues related to intrinsic vulnerabilities

•      Read-outs and discussion of break-outs

12:30    Lunch

•     Break-outs into top concern areas identifies in the morning session, existing BPs, recommendations

•     Read-outs and discussion 

•    Workshop evaluation and closing remarks

4:30      Adjourn 

For more information on 

• Bell Labs, click on  www.bell-labs.com

• Eurescom, click on www.eurescom.de

• For more information on the IEEE CQR, click on cqr.committees.comsoc.org