MNCNA: Middleware for Next-generation Converged Networks and Applications
           Workshop of the 8th International Middleware Conference
              Newport Beach, Orange County, California, USA
                Website: http://research.ihost.com/mw07/
                        November 26th, 2007
            
Call for Papers
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The fixed mobile convergence of telecommunication networks along with the
telecom-IP network convergence have opened up prospects for a rich ecosystem of
IP-based Next-Generation Converged Network technologies and applications.
Emergence of principles and practices like Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
and Web 2.0, along with gradual adoption of industry standards like Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), and Java API for
Internetworking (JAIN) is making this convergence possible. The challenges to
the telecom service providers stem from the fact that a converged network needs
to carry a multitude of high-bandwidth triple-play (voice, video and data)
services over a single network that is much more distributed, multipoint,
diverse and interactive in nature. End users will interact with the network via
sophisticated devices, and be able to select from a wide range of
Quality-of-Service (QoS) options. To cater to these emerging service paradigms,
network intelligence has to address several aspects including multimedia
session management, co-ordination of multi-protocol connections, advanced
security, etc. To stay ahead in the competition and provide market leading
offerings, carriers further need to enable a global ecosystem of third party
independent application developers to deliver converged services leveraging
open standards-based service delivery platform. Finally, to establish a common
architecture for the convergence among services and networks, standards and
frameworks will be required to ensure the interoperability of networks and
applications, and facilitate best utilization of the existing
telecommunications infrastructure within the converged ecosystem.

It is in this setting of an open services market- with service operators,
application developers as well as the IT infrastructure as stakeholders, the
role of middleware is crucial. Middleware-enabled rapid development and
deployment of new applications allows early introduction of value-added
services to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Established telcos
often have a plethora of legacy systems, such as Intelligent Networks (IN),
Business/Operational Support Systems (BSS/OSS), Web-based systems and
SIP/IMS-based services, which can all interoperate through open interfaces
provided by the middleware layer, allowing a seamless, autonomic interaction
between them. The arguments for a middleware-oriented consolidation of services
in the telco service provider/carrier space are also largely applicable to the
enterprise segment. There are, of course, differences in requirements and
service expectations for corporate users as opposed to consumers; however the
trend towards consolidation of IT and telecom architectures is just as
compelling. Further, middleware approaches can offer scalability and
load-balancing capabilities to critical infrastructure components. For example,
the roll out of distributed/federated presence-based applications will
necessitate management of huge amounts of subscriber data residing in the
middleware. Finally, there are challenges of enabling guaranteed QoS and
seamless access to triple-play services. 

In this workshop, we seek original, unpublished papers on different aspects of
middleware technologies for enabling Next-Generation Network (NGN) services and
applications. Topics of submission include, but are not limited to:  ·
Middleware architecture for converged networks
· NGN Middleware for triple play services 
· NGN Middleware for ad hoc, mobile and wireless services
· Publish/Subscribe middleware
· Presence and contextual data management
· Trust, security and privacy issues
· Scalable, Adaptive, and Self-Managing aspects of middleware
· Converged networks policy-based management, monitoring and control
· Middleware support for NGN inter-networking, non-NGN interoperability,
migration
· QoS provisioning, service differentiation, accounting, and billing
· NGN Middleware for context-aware applications
· NGN Middleware for collaborative/P2P applications
· NGN Middleware for Enterprise applications
· Service Modeling and Composition
· Service Deployment and Orchestration
· Programming paradigms, Web 2.0, and mashups
· Web Service/Grid-enabled middleware for converged networks

Program Co-Chairs
__________________
Arup Acharya, IBM T J Watson Research Centre, USA 
Thomas Magedanz, TU Berlin/Fraunhofer FOKUS, Germany


Organizing Committee
____________________
Nilanjan Banerjee, Telecom Research Innovation Center, IBM India Research
Laboratory (Email: nilanjba@in.ibm.com)
Dipanjan Chakraborty, Telecom Research Innovation Center, IBM India Research
Laboratory (Email: cdipanjan@in.ibm.com)
Koustuv Dasgupta, Telecom Research Innovation Center, IBM India Research
Laboratory (Email: kdasgupta@in.ibm.com)

Important Dates
________________
Submission Deadline: August 5th, 2007
Notification of Acceptance: September 15th 2007
Camera-ready Copy Due: October 1st 2006
Workshop Date: November 26th/(27th) 2007