Monday at NGN is all about early registration and tutorials. These tutorials seem to follow recurring themes. For instance, for the past four years there has been an advanced Internet Protocols tutorial. And there seems to always be a tutorial addressing the "sad and deplorable state of network security". So determining what's new isn't a matter of some big, new, earth-shattering topic. It's the subtleties.

For example, in 2001 there was maybe one mention of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). Last year, some mention of SIP found it's way into about half of presentations. Bing, just like that. From no-big-deal to the big thing twelve months later. And given that NGN sets its agenda at least six months in advance, the SIP phenomenon is all that much more amazing.

I took the opportunity this morning, after registering, to look through much of the material that will be presented over next five days. That's another great thing about NGN. All of the presentations are available, (minus a few that are "proprietary"), at the beginning of the conference. That way if there are two interesting-sounding sessions a quick review of the presentations can help in determining which one to attend.

Well, anyway, one of the presentations listed Many Challenges Confronting the Internet. It was an interesting list. Of the twelve entries, Security came in at number two. Giving hope that we are all getting serious about this important network issue.

Two years ago Last Mile Bottleneck was at the top of the list. This year it comes in at number 4. Wireless makes the list near the bottom. Convergence is there, although it has dropped to near the bottom. It was all the rage and dominated discussions just three years ago. SIP is included somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Comparing this list to the full agenda it seems to be representative of what will be addressed this week. I'll know more in a few days. Until then, I will continue to assess the value and importance of NGN. It seems that completely new issues do arise (i.e. SIP) but mostly, priorities are reshuffled as needs and circumstances change..........
7:40:58 PM    comment []