Conference objectives
Networking 2004 is the third in the series of IFIP-TC6 networking conferences, launched in year 2000 and organized every 2 years thereafter.

As of the first two predecessors, the main objectives of Networking 2004 include:

  • Bringing together active and proficient members of the networking community, from both academia and industry
  • Reviewing progress and presenting recent advances in this broad and fast-evolving field of telecommunications, focusing especially on three main areas:
    • Networking technologies, services & protocols,
    • Performance of computer and communication networks and
    • Mobile and wireless communications.
  • Highlighting key-issues, identifying trends and refreshing vision in the field of telecommunications.
  • Giving the networking industry people the opportunity to refine or revise their business model and reduce risks.

These objectives will be pursued through highly technical sessions organized thematically, key-note talks offered by invited experts, as well as through panel discussions on hot topics.

The event will be combined with tutorial sessions and workshops. Tutorials will precede the main program, aiming at the dissemination of mature knowledge and technology advances in the field. Up to three one-day thematic workshops will immediately follow the main conference, offering the opportunity for a more focused exchange of ideas and presentation of on-going research relevant to selected topics. During Networking 2004, demo areas will also be available to R&D labs and consortia to demonstrate their testbeds, prototype implementations, or other prominent results.

Special topics
As Networking 2004 will be held shortly before the Olympic Games of 2004 in Athens, the city hosting the Games, a special topic of the conference will be about the communication networks for world-wide events. Communications for covering such events is not a trivial issue at all: the scale, the special features of the traffic patterns in terms of density and time-space variations, as well as the special reliability and security requirements impose special challenges requiring special treatment. Experience gained from previous Olympiads as well as from the Athens event preparation will be presented and analyzed.

Structure of the conference
As before, the conference will be structured into three tracks addressing the respective main areas mentioned above. Plenary sessions with key-note talks will open or close the morning part of the conference, while the rest of the time the three tracks will be running in parallel. Panel discussions will also be organized, probably in combination with some of the key-note speeches. The conference structure is roughly shown in the page CONFERENCE AT-A-GLANCE.