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Over recent years a considerable amount of effort has been devoted, both in industry and academia, towards the performance modelling, evaluation and convergence of multi-service networks of diverse technology, such as IP, ATM, MPLS, D-WDM, IPO, WLL, xDSL, Metro-WDM, Gigabit Ethernet, WLAN, all-optical networks, Ad-hoc wireless networks as well as GSM, GPRS, UMTS & 4G mobile systems and beyond. However, many interesting and important performance engineering issues, such as those involving heterogeneous network architectures & technology integration, traffic engineering, management & congestion control and design & optimisation of multi-layer networks, need to be addressed and resolved before a global and wide-scale integrated broadband network infrastructure can be established for the efficient support of multimedia applications with different quality of service (QoS) guarantees. Of crucial importance is the design and engineering of the next generation (NG) Internet including the creation of generic evaluation platforms capable of measuring and validating the performance of heterogeneous networks and multi-services inter-operability. Moreover, robust quantitative methodologies are needed, such as those based on novel queueing network models (QNMs), neural networks (NNs), spatial modelling (SM) and stochastic Petri nets (SPNs), to provide a theoretical underpinning leading to both credible and cost-effective exact and approximate algorithms for the performance prediction of heterogeneous networks and protocols.
The Second International Conference on the Performance Modelling and Evaluation of Heterogeneous Networks (HET-NETs '04) aims to contribute to fundamental, both theoretical and applied, research into the performance modelling, analysis and dimensioning of evolving networks of diverse technology. It is the second event organised on the behalf of the EU Network of Excellence (NoE) Euro-NGi which, under the auspices of EU Commission's 'Broadband for All' NoE Research Programme, focuses on the 'Design and Engineering of the Next Generation Internet - towards the Convergence of Multi-Service Networks'. The conference is staged in co-operation with other academic and industrial organisations worldwide including two major EU IST consortiums, namely, IASON focusing on the design and development of performance measurement platforms for heterogeneous networks and EVOLUTE dealing with seamless multimedia services over all IP-based infrastructures. As with HET-NETs '03, the First Euro-NGi International Working Conference in Ilkley, U.K., HET-NETs '04 provides the friendly and informal working atmosphere in which both experts and new researchers from industry and academia worldwide exchange novel ideas and establish new research initiatives.
The conference is soliciting original research papers, tutorials, poster papers and research works-in-progress reviewing current state of progress and addressing state-of-the-art research and technological development in the field of performance modelling and evaluation of convergent multi-service heterogeneous networks and the Internet. In particular, delegates are encouraged to present recent advances in:
- Traffic characterisation, engineering and performance modelling aspects towards the management, integration, congestion control, bandwidth sharing and end-to-end QoS of evolving heterogeneous network architectures and emerging cost-effective Internet technologies;
- Performance optimisation of the topology, layout, flow and capacity design of protected multi-layer core and robust access multi-service networks of diverse technology. Network reliability and performance related security & pricing schemes.
- Design and development of experimental performance validation & measurement platforms and traffic engineering test-beds for multi-services inter-operability, protocols and convergent heterogeneous networks;
- Applied methods and solutions for seamless mobility and mobile network QoS optimization, capacity utilization and resource management, based on enhanced performance against traditional and current state of the art mechanisms;
- Analytic, numerical and simulation methodologies for quantitative analysis, optimisation and control of finite capacity QNMs, SPNs, SM and other stochastic models of heterogeneous networks with bursty, self-similar and multi-fractal traffic flows of long-range (LRD) versus short-range (SRD) dependence and, where applicable, their approximation, with tolerable accuracy, by simpler traffic processes.
It is envisaged that HET-NETs '04 will make an effective contribution towards the research integration and collaboration in the field of heterogeneous networks and the spreading of excellence worldwide.
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