[e2e] Call for Participation. Stanford Workshop on 'The Future of TCP: Train-Wreck or Evolution?'

[Nandita Dukkipati]

THE FUTURE OF TCP: TRAIN-WRECK OR EVOLUTION?
http://yuba.stanford.edu/trainwreck/

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Stanford University, CA,  USA
1 April, 2008

IMPORTANT DATES
REGISTRATION DEADLINE 17 MARCH, 2008

Spurred on by a widespread belief that TCP is showing its age and
needs replacing - and a deeper understanding of the dynamics of
congestion control - the research community has brought forward many
new congestion control algorithms. There has been lots of debate about
the relative merits and demerits of the new schemes; and a
standardization effort is under way in the IETF.

But before the next congestion control mechanism is deployed, it will
need to be deployed widely in operating systems and - in some cases -
in switches and routers too. This will be a long road, requiring the
buy-in of many people: Researchers, product developers and business
leaders too. Our own experience of proposing new congestion control
algorithms has been met with the challenge: "Show me the compelling
need for a new congestion control mechanisms?", and "What will really
happen to the Internet (and my business) if we keep TCP just the way
it is?"

As a community, we need examples that are simple to understand, and
demonstrate a compelling need for change. We call them the "Train
wreck scenarios". Examples might show that distribution of video over
wireless in the home will come to a halt without new algorithms. Or
that P2P traffic will bring the whole network crashing down. Or that
huge, high-performance data-centers need new algorithms. Whatever your
favorite example, we believe that if we are collectively armed with a
handful of mutually agreed examples, it will be much easier to make a
business case for change. Or put another way, if we can't articulate
compelling examples to industry leaders, then is the cost and risk of
change worth it?

The goal of the workshop is to identify a handful of really compelling
demonstrations of the impending train-wreck. The outcome will be a set
of canonical examples that we will use to persuade industry of the
need for change.

The whole purpose of the workshop it to focus on the problem, not the
solutions. We are most definitely not interested in your favorite
scheme, or ours. We will video the entire workshop and all the
demonstrations, and make it publicly available on the Internet. We
will make any proceedings and talks available too. The goal is to open
up the demonstrations for public scrutiny and feedback after the
event.

The event is hosted by the Stanford Clean Slate Program and local
arrangements will be made by the Stanford Computer Forum. The workshop
has received offers of support and funding from Cisco Systems and
Microsoft.

The workshop will feature 8 demos, and 3 invited talks. You can find
the agenda and the registration information at -
http://yuba.stanford.edu/trainwreck/

*Please distribute to your research or product groups and others who
would be interested in attending*