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GUEST EDITORIAL
CONSUMER COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKS: INTEREST CONTINUED TO GROW
Mario Kolberg
Madjid Merabti
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We are pleased to be able to provide some additional articles on the general topic of Consumer Communications and Networking in this issue of IEEE Communications Magazine. When we issued a call for papers for this topic last year, our goal was to have enough articles for a feature topic in the December 2008 issue. The quality and quantity of submissions we received were so high that we had to request additional space to publish some excellent articles we did not want to reject. The editors of IEEE Communications Magazine were able to accommodate that request in this issue. The number of papers submitted for this series in combination with the record number of attendees at CCNC 2009 (as detailed in the article “Record Number of Attendees Explore Latest Consumer Networking Technologies at CCNC 2009” in the February 2009 issue of this magazine) leads us to conclude that this topic area is one that continues to grow. This growth is likely due to the large number of research issues that still need to be addressed in this area. This attracts the attention of academics to the growing use of communications and networking in a large variety of consumer products, which in turn captures the attention of practicing engineers and others in the commercial world. The IEEE Communications Society will continue to provide opportunities to publish, present, and discuss issues in the consumer communications and networking space. For example, the call for papers for IEEE CCNC 2010 is out (http://www.ieee-ccnc.org/2010) with paper submissions due at the end of June. And most important, do stay tuned for another full feature topic in December 2009!
BIOGRAPHIES MARIO KOLBERG [SM] (
[email protected]) is a lecturer within the Department of Computing Science and Mathematics at the University of Stirling. His research interests include peer-to-peer overlay networks, home automation, and IP telephony. He ledi a project funded by Panasonic (USA) investigating efficiency gains in structured peer-to-peer overlays. He is the academic supervisor for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership focusing on developing a peer-to-peer overlay for mobile handsets. He is working in the ESRC project Interlife on using peer-to-peer networks with 3D virtual worlds in an educational context. He is also involved in the MATCH project, focusing on integrating different network technologies for care in the home. He led an effort to provide a proof of concept demonstrating the integration of digital pen and paper with networked appliances. He has been on extended research visits to Telcordia Technologies, New Jersey, a leading presence in
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home automation, and Avaya Labs Research, New Jersey, a leading Internet telephony provider. He is on the editorial Board of the Springer journal Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications and has a long-standing involvement with the IEEE CCNC conference series. He has served the conference as TPC Vice Chair, Special Sessions Chair, and Tutorial Chair. He is a member of a number of international conferences’ program committees on networking and communications. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom. MADJID MERABTI [M] (
[email protected]) is a professor of networked systems and director of the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom. He holds a Ph.D. from Lancaster University, United Kingdom. He has over 20 years’ experience in conducting research and teaching in the areas of computer networks (fixed and wireless), mobile computing, and computer network security. He is widely published, with over 150 publications in these areas, and leads the Distributed Multimedia Systems and Security Research Group, which has a number of U.K. government, EU, and industry supported research projects. He is principal investigator in a number of current projects: Mobile Networks Security and Privacy Architectures and Protocols, Secure Component Composition in Ubiquitous Personal Networks, Networked Appliances, Mobile and Ad Hoc Computing Environments, Sensor Networks, and computer games technology. He is Co-Editor in-Chief for the International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, a member of the Editorial Board for Wiley Network Security Journal, the Springer journal Peerto-Peer Communications, and the International Journal on Computer Communications. He was Guest Editor for the Special issue on Research Developments in Consumer Communications and Networking of Multimedia Tools and Applications: An International Journal (Kluwer, September 2005). He is technical program co-chair for IEEE ICC 2009 — Symposium on Selected Areas in Communications and a member of the Steering Committee for IEEE CCNC. He has acted as TPC chair for a number of international conferences, including the 5th IEEE Workshop on Networked Appliances, Liverpool, October 2002. He is a member of a number of international conferences program committees on networking, security, and computer entertainment. STAN MOYER [SM] (
[email protected]) is executive director and strategic research program manager in the Applied Research area of Telcordia Technologies, where he has worked since 1990. Currently, he is the product manager for the Telcordia Mobile Messaging and Application Solution, a hosted service for mobile marketing and affinity messaging and mobile Web applications. In the past he has led research and business development activities related to digital content services and home networking. On these and other topics, he has been a frequent speaker at events such as IEEE CCNC, IETF, The Broadband Home conferences, IEEE ICC, and other technical workshops. Prior to that he worked on ATM switch hardware, broadband network architectures and protocols, middleware, Internet network and application security, Internet QoS, and voice over IP. He is currently president of the OSGi™ Alliance. He is a member of the Board and Treasurer for the IEEE Communications Society, vice-chair of the IEEE CCNC steering committee, and a member of the IEEE Technical Activities Board Finance Committee.
IEEE Communications Magazine • June 2009
