Reminder: Call for Papers: COVID-19 Network Impacts Workshop

[IAB Executive Administrative Manager <[e-mail]>]

COVID-19 Network Impacts Workshop

An Internet Architecture Board virtual workshop

Web page: https://www.iab.org/activities/workshops/covid-19-network-impacts-workshop-2020/

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on people's lives and 
the societies and economies around the globe. But it also had big impact 
on networking. With large numbers of people working from home or 
otherwise depending on the network for their daily lives, network 
traffic has surged.  Internet service providers and operators have 
reported 20% traffic growth or more in a matter of weeks. Traffic in 
Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) is similarly on the rise. Most forms of 
network traffic have seen an increase, with conversational multimedia 
traffic growing in some cases more than 200%. And user time spent on 
conferencing services has risen by an order of magnitude on some 
conferencing platforms.

In general, the Internet has coped relatively well with this traffic 
growth. The situation is not perfect: there has also been some outages, 
video quality reduction, and other issues. Nevertheless, it is 
interesting to see how the technology, operators and service providers 
have been able to respond to large changes in traffic patterns.

Understanding what actually happened with Internet traffic is of course 
interesting by its own right. How that impacted user experience, or the 
intended function of the services is equally interesting. Measurements 
and reports of traffic situation from 2020 are therefore valuable. But 
it would also be interesting to understand what types of network 
management and capacity expansion actions were taken in general. 
Anecdotal evidence points to Internet and service providers tracking how 
their services are used, and in many cases adjusting services to 
accommodate the new traffic patterns, from dynamic allocation of compute 
resources to more complex changes.

The impacts of this crisis are also a potential opportunity to 
understand the impact of traffic shifts and growth more generally, or to 
prepare for future situations -- crisis or otherwise - that impact 
networking. Or even allow us to adjust the technology to be even better 
suited to respond to changes.

The IAB is holding this workshop to convene interested researchers, 
network operators, and network management experts, and Internet 
technologists to share their experiences. The scope of  the workshop 
includes:

- measurements about traffic changes, user experience, service 
  performance, and other relevant aspects
- discussion about the behind the scenes network management and 
  expansion activities
- experiences in the fields of general Internet connectivity, 
  conferencing, media/entertainment, and Internet infrastructure
- lessons learned for preparedness and operations
- lessons learned for Internet technology and architecture

Interested participants are invited to submit position papers on the 
workshop topics. The position papers form the background for actual 
discussions in the workshop. The workshop itself will be virtual 
meeting, focused on discussions based on the input rather than go 
through each submitted paper.

The workshop virtual meeting consists of several sessions dedicated to 
specific topics, such as operations experience, lessons learned on  
conferencing technology, or the possible impacts for Internet technology 
or architecture. Given the wide breadth of the topics in the workshop, 
individual participants may choose to participate the sessions that are 
relevant for their experience, but can also follow the full set of 
sessions.

Logistics

* Submissions Due: 9 October 2020
* Invitations Issued by: 15 October 2020
* Workshop Date: This is an over the Internet virtual workshop. Several 
  sessions will  be scheduled for the different topics on the week of 
  November 9, 2020, based on input from the participants.

The Program Committee members are Jari Arkko (IAB, Ericsson), Stephen 
Farrell (IAB, Trinity College Dublin), Cullen Jennings (IAB, Cisco), 
Colin Perkins (IRTF, University of Glasgow), Ben Campbell (IAB, 
independent consultant), and Mirja Kühlewind (IAB, Ericsson).

Send Submissions to: [e-mail]

Position papers from academia, industry and others that focus on 
measurements, experiences, observations and advice for future are 
welcome. Papers that reflect experience based on deployed services are 
especially welcome. The organisers understand that specific actions 
taken by operators are unlikely going to be discussed in detail, so 
papers discussing general categories of actions and issues without 
naming specific technologies, products, or other players in the 
ecosystem fit well in this category as well. Papers that are proposals 
for technology solutions are less useful, and can simply be submitted as 
Internet-Drafts and discussed on relevant IETF lists.

The workshop will be by invitation only. Those wishing to attend should 
submit a position paper to the address above; this may take the form of 
an Internet-Draft.

All inputs submitted and considered relevant will be published on the 
workshop web page. The organisers will decide whom to invite based on 
the submissions received. Sessions will be organized according to 
content, and not every accepted submission or invited attendee will have 
an opportunity to present as the intent is to foster discussion and not 
simply to have a sequence of presentations.

Position papers from those not planning to attend the virtual sessions 
themselves are also encouraged. A workshop report will be published 
afterwards.