ISMA 2006 WIT: Workshop on the Internet Topology

On May 10-12, 2006, CAIDA will host the first ISMA Workshop on the Internet Topology (WIT) supported by NSF, CAIDA and SDSC. The attendance at the workshop is by invitation only. Please contact wit-chairs@caida.org for more information.

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Webcast

The first two days of the ISMA 2006 WIT were webcasted and recorded. The third day, discussions and planning, was not webcast. The recorded webcast is archived and available on the Webcast Page.

Announcement

Internet topology analysis has recently experienced a surge of activity in computer science, physics, mathematics, and statistics communities. Notably, researchers are often approaching essentially the same problems from different angles, but their findings are not always complementary and sometimes even conflict, leading to inconsistent conclusions.

The Workshop on the Internet Topology (WIT) aims to bring together the most active researchers from the involved communities. The main objectives of the workshop are to promote synergy, enable interdisciplinary cross-fertilization, and reveal common ground in different approaches. The high-level program is to discuss recent advances, seek to resolve arguments, and identify open problems that require further research.

There is no registration fee. However, registration is closed.

Program

The workshop will consist of a half day of tutorials and two days of presentations. The tutorials will introduce field-specific details to facilitate more efficient information and idea exchange among participants with diverse backgrounds. Ideally, all presentations should be targeted at participants from all four communities, not just the presenter's own. Significant time will be designated for group interaction among participants.

Suggestions for tutorials:
- Computer science:
  - Internet topology in reality
  - State-of-the-art in the Internet topology measurement
- Physics:
  - What does it mean for a model to be physical?
  - Introduction to the principles of statistical mechanics
- Mathematics:
  - The history of random graphs
Topics of specific interest include:
- Problems with Internet topology measurements
  - What has been the recent progress in measuring "missing links", understanding sampling biases, etc.?
- Internet topology modeling and Internet topology generators
  - What has been the recent progress in modeling the Internet topology? What have we learned from these new models/generators?
- Equilibrium vs. non-equilibrium networks
  - All existing Internet topology models can be roughly split into two classes: equilibrium models produce static (random) graphs and non-equilibrium models try to mimic network growth. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. Which one is more legitimate for what type of problem? Which one is of more practical utility, theoretical value, etc.? Is it at all possible to use equilibrium models to describe growing networks?
- Correlations in networks
  - The Internet is a correlated network. What progress has been made in understanding properties of correlated networks? Can we accurately model correlations? What errors do we introduce if we neglect them?
- Interdependencies among network properties
  - What network properties introduce what types of constraints to what other properties? Is it possible to identify a small set of network properties that define a larger set of other important properties?
- Metric structure of networks
  - Shortest path length (distance) distributions are important for many networking applications and protocols. What progress has been made in estimating distance-related characteristics in the most popular network models and random graphs?

Submission instructions

The participants willing to make a presentation or give a tutorial should submit 1-2 page abstracts. Submissions must be in electronic form, as plain-text or PDF documents, and they should be e-mailed to: wit-chairs@caida.org. Abstracts will be selected based on their relevance to the workshop program, and on the diversity of the covered topics. Please, plan to give a 15-20 minute presentation or a 45-60 minute tutorial that will be posted at the workshop's web page. There will be no full-paper submissions or proceedings.

Important Dates:

February 27, 2006 - abstract submission deadline
March 17, 2006 - acceptance notification
May 1, 2006 - registration deadline
May 10-12, 2006 - WIT dates at CAIDA in San Diego, CA

Organizing and program committee: