Workshops
Friday 3 December 2004 • 13:30 – 17:00 • Room: Reunion B
W04: The Quest to Control Next-Generation Transport Networks: The Role of GMPLS

The Fifth International Workshop on Optical Networking Technologies Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS): In Quest of Data and Transport Integration

GMPLS (Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching) emerged in the late 1990's as a candidate technology to control the optical transport infrastructure. It is an extension of MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching), which has been widely recognized as the technology of choice for future IP networks. GMPLS aims at allowing the IP network and the optical transport network to inter-operate while reducing network complexity. It brings the promise of a common control plane across organizational and domain boundaries. This is important for handling data-traffic growth and fluctuations, reducing provisioning time, cutting operation cost, and enhancing network flexibility, efficiency and utilization.

The GMPLS paradigm was born in a time when the telecommunications industry was enjoying unprecedented growth. It grew during the bubble years (late 1990's) and continued even through the industry's subsequent downturn. Today, some analysts argue that telecom is already stepping out of its difficult time. Therefore, there is a need for a fresh look at GMPLS. The workshop shall examine a number of issues concerning GMPLS. The program includes the following papers and presentations:

W04-1: Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS): In Quest of Data and Transport Integration
Tarek S. El-Bawab (IEEE Globecom 2004 W04 Organizer and Chair)

W04-2: A Comparison of In-Band and Out-of-Band Transport Options for Signaling
Malathi Veeraraghavan (University of Virginia, USA); Haobo Wang (Polytechnic University, USA)

W04-3: Impacts of GMPLS on Topology Design and Protection Planning of Survivable IP-over-Optical Networks
Panita Pongpaibool (National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, Thailand); Hyong S. Kim (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)

W04-4: GTEP: Generalized Traffic Engineering Protocol for Multi-Layer GMPLS Networks
Eiji Oki, Daisaku Shimazaki, Kohei Shiomoto (NTT Corporation, Japan)

W04-5: A GMPLS-controlled Optical Testbed for Distributed Storage Services
Teck Yoong Chai, Luying Zhou, Siang Fook Foo, Prashant Agrawal, Chava Vijaya Saradhi, Qiang Qiu, Jit Biswas (Institute of Infocomm Research, Singapore); Heng Ngi Yeo, Yonghong Wang (Data Storage Institute, Singapore)

W04-6: A Novel Signaling Approach to Encompass Physical Impairments in GMPLS Networks
Filippo Cugini (CNIT National Lab. of Photonic Networks, Italy); Nicola Andriolli, Luca Valcarenghi, Piero Castoldi (Scuola Superiore Sant’ Anna, Italy)

W04-7: Multi-Region Networks: Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) as Enabler for Vertical Integration
Emmanuel Dotaro, Martin Vigoureux (Alcatel Research and Innovation, France); Dimitri Papadimitriou (Alcatel Research and Innovation, Belgium)


Organizer and Chair:
Tarek S. El-Bawab, Senior Member, IEEE, USA

Technical Program Committee:
Mehran Esfandiari, SBC Communications Inc., USA
Jason Jue, University of Texas at Dallas, USA
Muriel Medard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Gurusamy Mohan, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Byrav Ramamurthy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
Kohei Shiomoto, NTT Labs, Japan
S. J. Ben Yoo, University of California, Davis, USA