International Teletraffic Congress

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The International Teletraffic Congress (ITC) is the first international conference in networking science and practice. It was created in 1955 by Arne Jensen [1] to initially cater to the emerging need to understand and model traffic in telephone networks using stochastic methodologies, and to bring together researchers with these considerations as a common theme. Up through World War II, teletraffic research was done mainly by engineers and mathematicians working in telephone companies. Most of their work was published in local or company journals. In 1955, however, the field acquired a formal, international, institutional structure, with the organization of the first International Teletraffic Congress (ITC). [2]

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International Teletraffic Conference (ITC) logo used since 2016 International Teletraffic Conference Logo 2016.png
International Teletraffic Conference (ITC) logo used since 2016

Over the years, it has broaden its scope to address a wide spectrum ranging from the mathematical theory of traffic processes, stochastic system modelling and analysis, traffic and performance measurements, network management, traffic engineering to network capacity planning and cost optimization, including network economics and reliability for various types of networks. ITC served as a forum for all theoretical fundamentals and engineering practices for large-scale deployment and operation of telecommunications networks. Since its inception, ITC witnessed the evolution of communications and networking: the influence of computer science on telecommunication, the advent of the Internet and the massive deployment of mobile communications and optics, the appearance of peer-to-peer networking and social networks, the ever increasing speed and flexibility of new communication technologies, networks, user devices, and applications, and the ever changing operation challenges arising from this development. ITC documented this evolution with contemporary measurement studies, performance analyses of new technologies, recommendations for provisioning and configuration, and greatly contributed to the methodological toolbox of network scientists.

Today, with its conferences, [3] specialist seminars, [4] regional seminars, training courses and publications, the ITC aims at a worldwide forum for all questions related to network and service performance, management, and assessment, both present and futuristic. The notion of traffic is broadly used to encompass data traffic from the MAC layer all the way to application traffic in the application layer. The scope of ITC is thus ranging all issues embedding operations, design, planning, economics and performance analysis of current and emerging communication networks and services, to be addressed by applying a variety of tools from different fields, such as Stochastic Processes, Information theory, Control theory, Signal and Processing, Game theory and optimization techniques, Statistical methodologies and Artificial Intelligence techniques. The target audience of such issues is experts from research organizations, universities, equipment vendors and suppliers, network operators, service providers, system integrators and international technical organizations, guaranteeing a well-balanced contribution from theory, application, and practice. The general goal remains to bring researchers and practitioners together toward operational understanding of all types of current and future networks.

The ITC is ruled by the International Advisory Council (IAC) which gathers a number of technical experts, from universities and the research arms of key corporations in the industry, from countries having a strong tradition in teletraffic development. The IAC responsibilities are to disseminate information on teletraffic which is of interest for the whole community and:

The technical program and the organization of each ITC event remains within the responsibilities of the hosting country, but with significant IAC support to guarantee that the event is consistent with the quality standards established during the previous congresses.

The ITC Plenary Congresses were scheduled tri-annually from 1955 until 1995 when the interval became bi-annual to account for the ever-accelerating development of network technologies, products and services and the associated dramatic increases in network demands. Similarly, to better cover the impact of dramatic changes undergoing in the field of computer and communication systems, networks and usage, it has been decided to hold the Plenary Congress on an annual basis from 2009.

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Teletraffic science is the traditional term for all theoretical fundamentals and engineering practices to describe data flows in telecommunication networks, the performance of the usage of network resources, procedures for sizing of resources and engineering the networks for given traffic load and quality of service requirements. For more than 50 years of the 20th century, traffic or teletraffic has been identified primarily with telephone networks. With the huge development of computers, stored program control of network nodes and computer communication, the traditional teletraffic science field naturally extended to computer networks, mobile and wireless/optical networks, and for a wide spectrum of new applications. The convergence between the voice network, the Internet, the television and mobility raised new questions that request new models and tools to be developed. In addition, the development of community networks, home networking, multiple access networking technologies, and the advent of pervasive and ambient communications dictates new challenges to be addressed. Today, ITC addresses the emerging paradigms such as an increasing diversity of distributed applications and services over various media like mobile/optical networks, enabling new markets and economy.

ITC has steered the evolutions in communications since its creation in 1955 and remains at the forefront of innovation regarding modeling and performance. The scientific roots of communications traffic are based on the theory of probability and stochastic processes, modelling and performance evaluation. Modelling is the key for the mathematical description and quantitative performance analysis. Traffic flows are described by stochastic processes with complex dependencies which have to be validated by traffic measurements. Modelling also includes operational properties of resource control reflected by service strategies such as queueing disciplines, admission control, and routing. The results of such performance analyses are used for resource dimensioning (sizing), resource management, and network optimization while providing targeted Quality of Service. Teletraffic science is closely related to methods of operation research (queueing theory, optimization, forecasting) and computational sciences (simulation technology distributed systems).

In this context, ITC represents a wide community of researchers and practitioners and is regularly organizing events like Congresses, Specialist Seminars and Workshops in order to discuss the latest changes in the modelling, design and performance of communication systems, networks and services.

The evolution of technologies of the 20th century

ITC has been witnessing the change of communication and networking technologies which are reflected in the proceedings and programs of the congresses. The specialist seminars and the motto of the congresses thereby reflect the hot topics of that time and the evolution. Selected topics of the 70's, 80's and 90's were

Recent topics in the 21st century

With the rise of the Internet, new networking paradigms and technologies but also new challenges emerged:

Arne Jensen Lifetime Achievement Awards

The Arne Jensen Lifetime Award has been created in memory of Arne Jensen, Founder of the International Teletraffic Congress (ITC) and Chair of the International Advisory Council (IAC) from its inception in 1955 until 1991. The Award is presented at ITCs to an individual who has provided exceptional contribution to traffic modeling, control and performance, and dedication to the teletraffic community.

Before ITC 21, the Award was referred to as IAC Lifetime Achievement Awards. The prize was established at the ITC 15 in Washington in 1997.

ITC Conferences and Proceedings

The proceedings of the ITC conferences are available in the ITC Digital Library: http://itc-conference.org/itc-library.html

ConferenceDateYearLocationNumber of accepted papers
ITC 120–23 June1955Copenhagen26
ITC 27–11 July1958The Hague31
ITC 311–16 September1961Paris48
ITC 415–21 July1964London60
ITC 514–20 June1967New-York80
ITC 69–15 September1970Munich108
ITC 713–20 June1973Stockholm130
ITC 810–17 November1976Melbourne163
ITC 916–24 October1979Torremolinos151
ITC 108–15 June1983Montreal86
ITC 114–11 September1985Kyoto203
ITC 121–8 June1988Turin207
ITC 1319–26 June1991Copenhagen198
ITC 146–10 June1994Juan-les-Pins143
ITC 1522–27 June1997Washington D.C.138
ITC 167–11 June1999Edinburgh131
ITC 172–7 December2001Salvador da Bahia98
ITC 1831 August - 5 September2003Berlin133
ITC 1929 August - 2 September2005Beijing152
ITC 2017–21 June2007Ottawa139
ITC 2115–17 September2009Paris58
ITC 227–9 September2010Amsterdam35
ITC 236–8 September2011San Francisco38
ITC 244–7 September2012Cracow24
ITC 2510–12 September2013Shanghai32
ITC 269–11 September2014Karlskrona27
ITC 278–10 September2015Ghent26
ITC 2812–16 September2016Wuerzburg37
ITC 294–8 September2017Genoa28
ITC 304–7 September2018Vienna18
ITC 3127–29 August2019Budapest15
ITC 3222–24 September2020Osaka20
ITC 3331 August - 3 September2021Avignon11

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Jacobeus, Christian (1973). "ITC - The International Teletraffic Congress" (PDF). Ericsson Review. 50 (4): 118–121. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  2. ↑ Kranakis, E.; Leydesdorff, L. (May 1989). "Teletraffic conferences: Studying a field of engineering science". Scientometrics. 15 (5–6): 563–591. doi:10.1007/BF02017071. S2CID   127582.
  3. ↑ "ITC Congresses" . Retrieved 2016-12-13.
  4. ↑ "ITC Specialist Seminars" . Retrieved 2009-03-13.
  5. ↑ "ITC 28 Conference" . Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  6. ↑ "Arne Jensen Lifetime Achievement Awards" . Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  7. ↑ Boxma, Onno J.; Syski, Ryszard (2001). "Obituary: Jacob Willem Cohen". J. Appl. Probab. 38 (2): 604–608. doi:10.1239/jap/996986766. S2CID   121138522 . Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  8. ↑ Syski, Ryszard (2001). "Remembering Wim Cohen" (PDF). Journal of Applied Mathematics and Stochastic Analysis. 14 (1): 1–9. doi: 10.1155/S1048953301000028 . Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  9. ↑ "Alfred Descloux Obituary". NY Times. 22 October 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2017.

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