Abstract: Communication networks are part of the critical infrastructure upon which society depends. The goal of network survivability is to develop cost effective techniques, which can be deployed to ensure the functionality of communication networks in the face of failures and physical attacks. In this seminar we present two recent research papers presented at IEEE Design of Reliable Communication Networks (DRCN 05) conference focused on specific aspects of network survivability. The first talk presents an optimization formulation and heuristic solution method to the problem of designing survivable third generation wireless backhaul networks. The second talk presents a novel matrix based approach to sharing spare capacity across network technology layers in backbone networks.

Speaker's Bio: Dr. Tipper is an Associate Professor of Telecommunications in the Department of Information Science and Telecommunications at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to his duties at Pitt, Dr. Tipper holds the position of Professor II of Informatics at Molde College in Norway and an adjunct professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Clemson University. Also he has a secondary appointment in the Electrical Engineering Department at Pitt.

Professional activities include serving as the co-guest editor of two special issues of the Journal of Network and Systems Management one on “Fault Management in Communication Networks” which appeared in June, 1997 and one on “Designing and Managing Optical Networks and Service Reliability”, which appeared March, 2005. He has served on the technical program committee for several conferences including IEEE INFOCOM (seven times most recently in 2003), ACM/IEEE MWSIM 2005, IEEE ISCC 2006 and IEEE IPCCC 2006. He was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Network and Systems Management from 2002 to 2005. He was the technical program chair of the Design of Reliable Communication Networks 2003 Workshop held in Banff, Canada in October, 2003. Currently he is a member of the steering committee for future DRCNs.

Recent University of Pittsburgh service activities include serving on the University Research Council (1/2000 - 5/2004), Faculty Assembly and Senate Council (97-99), as well as the University Community Relations Committee (96-98). In the department he has served as the director of the Telecom Program, chaired the financial aid committee and been a member of several faculty search committees.

For more information : http://www.sis.pitt.edu/%7Edtipper/tipper.html