Communication Systems: The State Of The Art Ifip 17th World Computer Congress — Tc6 Stream On Communication Systems: The State Of The Art August 25–30, 2002, Montréal, Québec, Canada

COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS The State of the Art IFIP • The International Federation for Information Processing lFIP was founded in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO, following the First World Computer Congress held in Paris the previous year. An umbrella organization for societies working in information processing, lFIP's aim is two-fold: to support information processing within its member countries and to encourage technology transfer to developing nations. As its mission statement clearly states, lFIP's mission is to be the leading, truly international, apolitical organization which encourages and assists in the development, exploitation and application of information technology for the benefit of all people. lFIP is a non-profitmaking organization, run almost solely by 2500 volunteers. It operates through a number of technical committees, which organize events and publications. lFIP's events range from an international congress to local seminars, but the most important are: • The IF1P World Computer Congress, held every second year; • open conferences; • working conferences. The flagship event is the IFIP World Computer Congress, at which both invited and contributed papers are presented. Contributed papers are rigorously refereed and the rejection rate is high. As with the Congress, participation in the open conferences is open to all and papers may be invited or submitted. Again, submitted papers are stringently refereed. The working conferences are structured differently. They are usually run by a working group and attendance is small and by invitation only. Their purpose is to create an atmosphere conducive to innovation and development. Refereeing is less rigorous and papers are subjected to extensive group discussion. Publications arising from lF1P events vary. The papers presented at the IFIP World Computer Congress and at open conferences are published as conference proceedings. while the results of the working conferences are often published as collections of selected and edited papers. Any national society whose primary activity is in information may apply to become a full member of 1FlP, although full membership is restricted to one society per country. Full members are entitled to vote at the annual General Assembly, National societies preferring a less committed involvement may apply for associate or corresponding membership. Associate members enjoy the same benefits as full members. but without voting rights. Corresponding members are not represented in IFIP bodies. Affiliated membership is open to non-national societies, and individual and honorary membership schemes are also offered. COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS The State of the Art IFlP 17'" World Computer Congress TC6 Stream on Communication Systems: The State of the Art August 25-30, 2002, Montrea~ Quebec, Canada Edited by Lyman Chapin NextHop Technologies USA ~. " SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congres