IIT Real-Time Communication, WebRTC, Mobility, VoIP, NG911 Conference & Expo


Real Time Communications Conference & Expo at Illinois Tech

IEEE International Conference

Program

Schedule

The draft schedule of conference tracks, talks and events is available at Schedule. Names of speakers and the titles of their talks can also be found at Conference Speakers. This information can be sorted by speaker name and track name.

Thanks,

Tracks

The conference includes 6 tracks addressing issues important to real time communications.  The names of the tracks, and their high level descriptions are shown below:

Research Track

Track Co-Chairs: Carol Davids and Vijay Gurbani

The functions and scope of real-time mixed media applications are expanding as these applications are integrated with IoT, ML/AI, blockchain, voice- and financial technologies, and more. While there are conferences devoted to each of these technologies separately, and to the underlying networks and platforms that support them, the RTC Conference Technical Program is specifically interested in exploring the issues, opportunities and challenges associated with the integration of these disparate technologies. The online version of this Call for Papers can be found at Call for Papers.

The RTC Research Track invites paper submissions in the area of interactive multimedia communications describing architectures, design, theoretical results, experiments, innovative systems, prototyping efforts and case studies. Papers that are accepted and presented at the conference will be submitted for publication in IEEE Xplore.

We are in particular interested in works at the intersection of multimedia interactive communications with technologies in the area of internet of things, vehicular networking, confidential computing, machine learning, network management, programmable network services, security, privacy, machine learning, voice technologies, blockchain, gaming, and robotics. The Technical Program inherits the 14-year legacy of the IPTComm Conference which evolved from a focus on Voice over IP to include some topics listed above. The archive of IPTComm publications is located at archive.

Important Dates

  • Paper submission deadline: Monday, August 22 – 1800 EDT
  • Notification of acceptance: Monday, September 12 – 1800 EDT
  • Final camera-ready submission: Monday, October 3 – 1800 EDT
  • Conference Dates: October 10-13, 2022

Programmable Real-Time Networks

Track Co-Chairs: Maureen Stillman and Chris Mayer

This year geopolitical conflicts have challenged telecom, while the impact of the pandemic is still being felt across markets. Although technology is seemingly neutral, its operation and resilience or lack thereof can be weaponized. What is the implication of this for the future of telecom, and what role can network diversity play in protecting this critical infrastructure?

By putting vast computing resources at the fingertips of billions of people, the cloud continues to be the defining technology of the twenty-first century, and offers some level of resilience. At the same time, rapidly rising mobile data consumption, coupled with the high costs for deploying 5G are forcing operators to re-examine how they deploy next generation networks. This is leading network operators to focus on advanced technologies to increase flexibility, efficiency and automation by transitioning to disaggregated systems such as Open RAN and cloud-native 5G cores, coupled with distributed compute and data, along with increased reliance on machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI).

This evolution makes it possible to build, deploy, and operate new communications services quickly and with relative ease. It increases the number of communications developers and ushers in an era of “programmable real time networks” that are focused not only on technologies such as 5G, virtualization, and machine learning (ML), but also on potential future intersections with technologies such as dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), blockchain distributed ledgers, quantum computing, and many others.

This transition toward programmable networks gives rise to a new class of developer – network engineers armed with the ability to programmatically interact with the networks they administer. Programmatic interfaces enable network engineers to automate the creation of new network services (rapidly accelerating real time network creation and service activation functions), and to monitor and scale existing network services in real time to meet the rapidly increasing demands of the applications that run on top of them.

This track will focus on the technologies behind resilient networks and the shift to programmable real time networks, new skills required for the emerging class of network developers, and how these technologies are democratizing the way developers and network engineers create value and solve problems in disparate verticals. We will also delve into the intersection of voice, video and messaging technologies with other disciplines to examine potential threats and opportunities as developers and customers define new cutting-edge services and create new, disruptive applications.

VoiceTech

Track Co-Chairs: Jordan Hosier and Nancy Munro

Speech technology has changed the nature of our daily interactions. From voice assistants to conversational bots, speech and artificial intelligence technologies give way to amazing opportunities for business applications as well as academic research.

Natural language understanding is foundational to voice-powered technology. When this technology is performing at its best, the user experience is natural, fluid, and efficient. When it breaks down, the results can be frustrating. Despite recent advances in the field of AI, most conversational technologies still require a high degree of design skill to make this technology useful and effective, but there remain many challenges that impede optimal human-computer voice interaction. 

This track brings attendees up-to-date on current and emerging NLU technology, analyzing how state-of-the-art technology is applied and the potential implications when it fails. We will cover concepts related to conversational AI including, but not limited to, optimization and implementation of NLU engines, conversational design, voice biometrics and authentication, as well as best practices for the collecting, generating, and annotating of voice data. This track will highlight recent developments in NLU, challenge the operational impact of emerging technology, and identify opportunities for growth and improvement in the field of VoiceTech.

WebRTC & Real-Time Applications

Track Chair: Alberto Gonzalez

Real Time Applications are no longer a niche – they are a crucial part of the modern internet and our distributed and socially distanced lives. Live audio and video is a key component of this new experience, as well as real-time data transfers that keep us informed even when working apart.

WebRTC video has come a long way since 2012 when it was proposed as a standard for allowing JavaScript code to access the microphone and camera via the browser, permitting peer-to-peer video, audio, and data connections to be created directly between browsers.

WebRTC usage has been growing dramatically since 2020 with the increased need to work from home and to have physically distant interactions due to coronavirus quarantines globally. This further increases the visibility and need for WebRTC and brings with it conversations around scalability, higher quality and usability. 

Last year, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) announced WebRTC as an official standard, and today its being used in billions of browsers, mobile phones and other devices. It enables video and audio communications in a wide range of industries, including: social media, telecommunications, healthcare, education, broadcasting, and more. 

In this track we will:

  • Go over the current status of WebRTC from a standards and market perspective
  • Explore best practices for implementing Real Time Applications and WebRTC, covering topics such as web/mobile development, testing, and security
  • Examine leading use cases for WebRTC applications
  • Learn how to scale WebRTC

Next Generation Emergency Communications Services

Track Chair: Mark Fletcher

Yet another pandemic-burdened year has overshadowed our industry, and we are in the SECOND hypothetical end of “The Great Pandemic”. Clearly, from a technology perspective, Real Time Communications and innovation was on our side, as emerging Next Generation-inspired communications constructs allowed our most critical life and public safety services to continue to do their jobs.

In the US, a number of states have begun initial deployments of Next Generation services; Canada announced its deployment of end-to-end NG911 services in the western provinces, and Canadian telcos are considering a planned decommissioning of their legacy networks. The Core Service Providers are vying for customers as the move toward Next Generation migration accelerates.

As more and more end-to-end environments go live, handset-based location services, multimedia in the form of pictures and video, and other ‘in-the-moment’ sensor data will begin to push the human ability to deal with the volumes of incident related imagery that is on the cusp of becoming a reality, potentially overburdening critical human resources. Artificial- and Assistive intelligence and Machine Learning will be the next area explored by technologists as the industry tries to find the “Goldilocks Zone” in which we use these methods to increase our situational awareness, location accuracy and past experience to save lives and minimize suffering.

Join us to hear from the people who are writing this next exciting chapter as Real Time Communications intersects Public Safety!

Internet of Things

Track Chairs: Alvin Chin and Dieff Vital

Internet of Things (IoT) networks and technologies are expected to connect 25 billion smart objects to the Internet by 2025. New applications are making use of the growth in connectivity and the data generated by these networked smart objects to produce innovative and ground-breaking solutions. Older service paradigms are being transformed by this technology.

Disparate technologies including Silicon, Devices, Software, Multimedia Communications Systems, System and Service Integration are all reaping the benefits afforded by the accelerating availability of smart objects and the information they send. Vertical industry segments such as manufacturing, healthcare, digital workplace technologies, transportation and public sector continue to invest their resources heavily in IoT in order to capitalize on this burgeoning market which is poised to have an overall impact of many trillion dollars. Through these applications, the data collected can foster breakthroughs in decision making, operational efficiencies, safety, and security and have an effect on nearly every aspect of the customer experience.

IoT relies upon a vast confluence of technologies and standards – including sensors and actuators, wearable computing, communications & protocols, network, storage and compute infrastructure, big data and analytics, middleware, security, visualization and control and finally immersive applications. Many applications in domains such as manufacturing, automotive, transportation, healthcare, retail and in-home environments are leveraging AI and cloud computing to create edge solutions that use AI models to draw useful conclusions rapidly based on the analysis of the sensor data.

This track brings together researchers from academia and industry to present and discuss their latest development work, deployment activities and research in the many and various fields employing the IoT paradigm.