ICNEWS 2006: Next-gen wireless conference opens a window of possibilities

Published in The Daily Star
Section: Star Tech
Sat. January 07, 2006



Nafid Imran Ahmed and Syed Tashfin Chowdhury

The International Conference on Next-Generation Wireless Systems (ICNEWS) 2006 ended on January 4 amidst compliments and hope on implementation of some of the papers presented at the conference by some of the world's leading researchers, academics and practitioners in wireless communications.

"A number of academic institutions, members of the software industry and the regulatory bodies of the government attended the different sessions of the conference. They responded rather enthusiastically to the keynote papers and the papers presented at the conference," said Muzibul H Khan, vice-president, Engineering, Samsung Telecommunications America and General Chair of ICNEWS 2006.

Khan pointed out that the members of the conference met President Dr Iajuddin Ahmed, Post and Telecommunications Minister Barrister Md Aminul Haque, State Minister of Education, ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon and other dignitaries concerning the conference.

"The conference was a great learning experience," said Khan.

Locally hosted by North South University (NSU) and sponsored by Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and technically co-sponsored by IEEE communications society, the conference started on January 2 at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel. The first day was dedicated to tutorials for beginner registrants at the conference.

The actual sessions began the next day on January 3. The sessions were divided into technical and business programs.

In the technical program, 34 papers in the wireless networking sub-track and 17 papers in the wireless communications sub-track were presented.

Some of the papers in the wireless LANs (Local Area Network) category included 'Integration of Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) & Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)', 'Performance Analysis of IrBurst for Large Data Object Exchange over Infrared Links', 'Fairness Studies of IEEE 802.11b DCF under heavy traffic conditions' and many more.

Promising papers were also presented during the other categories that included Wireless Technology for Developing Countries, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Communications, Wireless Adhoc Networks, Next generation wireless communications, "Wireless" ICT Infrastructure for Bangladesh, Wireless Sensor Networks and Performance Analysis of Wireless Systems.

Other categories included applications, services and development of wireless systems, next generation mobile networks, applications, services, 3G and beyond 3G wireless networks. Five papers were included as posters in the technical program while 15 papers on the business track were presented in the final program.

The keynote papers were presented in between the different tracks.

Some notable researchers and academics presented these papers. Marco Chiani, University of Bologna, Italy, was the session chair during the Wireless Adhoc Networks session.

Chiani and Dr. Giridhar Mandayam of Radio systems group, Radio communications laboratory of Nokia Reseach Center and Head of the Nokia Research center presented two keynote papers separately on January 3.

Dr Khaled Ben Letaief, chair professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) and Head of the EEE Department at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Arindam Mukherjee from Intel presented their separate keynote papers on the last day of the conference.

Dr. Vijay K Bhargava, chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia, Moe Z. Win, associate professor, Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Professor Sajal K. Das, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) contributed in the submission and presentation of a number of papers themselves.

Bhargava also spoke during the award ceremony, which took place during the evening of January 4.

Three panel sessions concerning surveillance and location based technology, wireless vision, ICNEWS legacy and next step were also organised at the conference from January 2 till 4.

"The responses through the submission of papers were overwhelming," said Dr. Miftahur Rahman, publication, co-chair, ICNEWS 2006 and Head of Computer Science and Engineering department of NSU.

Rahman informed that enthusiastic researchers submitted 132 valid papers for presentation.

"It is quite apparent that they all wanted to participate in an event of such caliber where most of the keynote speakers are eligible for the Nobel Prize," he said.

The first-ever major event in Bangladesh, focused toward the field of wireless communication, was supported by some major names and reputed brands.

Besides NSU, IEEE, and IEEE communications society, the sponsors list also included Motorola, Megacorp, Nokia, IBM, Daffodil International University, Square Informatrix, OnAir solution, Jalalabad Telecom Limited, Flora Limited, WorldLink, Siemens, GrameenPhone, Aktel, Zip and many more.

Daffodil Online Ltd and Daffodil PC were the technology partners of ICNEWS 2006.

The technology provided by Daffodil at the event comprised of Fiber Optic Internet link through AsiaSat4 and Apstar 2R Satellite via DOL's VSAT, LAN set up, color printers, Negative/Slide/Print Scanners and photocopiers.

Along with this complimentary internet connection were also provided at every stall at the conference premises.

Participants and attendants at the conference complimented the efforts taken by the organisers of the fair.

With an objective of developing world class SQL Server professionals in Bangladesh, BDPASS, a local resident and non resident Bangladeshi initiative of PASS, the Professionals Association for SQL Server, a non-profit foundation founded by Microsoft and Computer Associates in the late '90s, were officially launched on the second day of the conference. PASS has almost 50+ chapters worldwide.

With the slogan 'Select Top n* from BDPASS', based on a SQL command, Kahar RMB Kahar, principal consultant and owner of North American Global Outsourcing announced the inception of BDPASS and elaborated the three-year roadmap of the foundation and hopes to hold the first PASS conference in BD by next year and the first BDPASS conference in USA by the year 2008. Kahar also hopes to host an international PASS conference in BD within the next three years. BDPASS will also hold outsourcing software development contest, where Bangladeshi software development companies can participate and win software development projects up to USD 10,000. Students can also participate and win software development projects up to USD 1,000.

"This was an innovative idea and is highly required for an emerging country in the field of Information technology and telecommunication like Bangladesh. I just hope the papers submitted and presented would reach the concerned authorities for implementation in due time," said Hassan Khan, a student of North South University, who attended the conference.

TIM Nurul Kabir, Vice-President, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (Basis) appreciated the event as being a suitable platform where local talents and the software industry could show off their talents to noted IT and telecom personalities of the world.

"Most of the professors and Bangladeshi's abroad participating at the conference responded enthusiastically to our local developments in the field of IT and telecommunication. Some of them are even inclined to invest into this sector," said Kabir.

Organisers of the event are hopeful that the impressive response generated through this event will pave the way for other such useful conferences in the near future.