Location: Quebec City, Canada, Quebec City Convention Centre, Room 206 B
Date: Tuesday, 26 July 2011
11:45 am-12:45 pm (local time)

Topic: Internet evolution – Where is “there” and how do we get “there” from here?

Evolution occurs as a response to a stimulus. In the Internet context, these come in the shape of challenges for which improvements are needed, as well as bright ideas for which implementations are sought. Yet, some very valid critical Internet technologies have had challenged deployment histories because the incentives haven’t been aligned with the costs of deployment.

This panel will explore different paths that Internet evolution could follow:

  • Natural evolution – letting “market forces prevail”
  • Top-down regulatory – return to the telco regime
  • Clean slate – repealing the “laws of Internet physics”
  • Or?

From those vantage points, what are the successes and failures in Internet evolution, and how can we stimulate more fruitful advances going forward. Incremental improvements don’t bring us the grand-scale forward leaps that have characterized the Internet’s growth. On the other hand, untethered intellectual exploration can yield unimplementable solutions.

In RFC3869 ‘IAB Concerns and Recommendations Regarding Internet Research and Evolution’, the IAB identified an incomplete set of open Internet research topics in the broad areas of naming, routing, security, network management and transport. In all of these areas we have seen some progress in the intervening years, but perennial questions remain unanswered.

Panelists will discuss their views of the most pressing challenges for the evolution of the Internet, and their views on the right ways to approach the longer-term innovation problems that need a more structured approach — through research or otherwise. The difficulty of deploying changes on the operational Internet will be an important consideration throughout.

Meet the Panelists

  • Bernard AbobaBernard Aboba is the Principal Architect, Lync Division at Microsoft. Previously Bernard was the Principal Architect, Windows Networking at Microsoft. He has also worked as a Group Program Manager at Microsoft, a Contract Programmer at Borland International and Senior Engineer at Failure Analysis. At RAND Corporation, he worked as an Engineer. Aboba was a member of the Internet Architecture Board from 2003 to 2007. He is also an IETF liaison to the IEEE, and co-chairs the IETF AAA and EAP Working Groups. In 2000 he chaired the IETF Nomcom. He was again selected as an IAB member in 2010. He founded the MSN Internet Access business in 1994. He is a founding board member at UCI Forum.
  • Mark HandleyMark Handley joined the Computer Science department at UCL as Professor of Networked Systems in 2003, receiving a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award. From 2003-2010 he led the Networks Research Group. Prior to joining UCL, Professor Handley was based at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California, where he co-founded the AT&T Center for Internet Research at ICSI (ACIRI). Professor Handley has been very active in the area of Internet Standards, and has served on the Internet Architecture Board, which oversees much of the Internet standardisation process. He is the author of 30 Internet standards documents (RFCs), including the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which is the principal way telephony signalling is performed in Internet-based telephone networks.
  • Geoff HustonGeoff Huston is the chief scientist at the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) where he undertakes research on topics associated with Internet infrastructure, IP technologies, and address distribution policies. Widely regarded as the preeminent researcher on IPv4 exhaustion, he is routinely referenced by international agencies and is frequently quoted by the ICT media. Geoff has also presented at a number of global technical and government forums, including APEC, ICANN, IETF, ITU, and OECD. Prior to APNIC, Geoff served as the chief Internet scientist at Telstra and as the technical manager of the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNET). He was a leading figure in the development of Australia’s academic and commercial Internet services.