Subject: [75all] More information on the IAB Plenary

From: IAB Chair <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:49:03 -0700 (PDT)

Dear Colleagues,

During the Thursday evening technical plenary we have an agenda that
features 3 parts:
  - IAB and IRTF Chair Reports
  - A technical topic around Net Neutrality 
  - An open microphone session

Some words on organization and purpose of the agenda follow.

= Open Microphone Session Organization.

The purpose of an open microphone session mainly for the IAB to account
for their actions. It is the moment where the IAB can clarify its actions
or (published) thoughts. Questions about those can normally be answered in
a straightforward and direct manner. Much harder are the long rhetoric
questions where folk present their architectural vision and ask the IAB
for their comments. Answers to such questions are often, because of the
nature of the questions, vague and not to the point while, quite
unrealistically, visionary answers are expected. 

If you consider asking a question during the open-microphone session it
would be helpful to send that question to the IAB<[email-masked]> in advance.
In that way we may be able to think about the problem and answer your
question effectively. Note that sending in a question is _not_ a
requirement for asking one. The open microphone session will be structured
around the central microphone for fresh-topics and the side microphones
for follow-ups. Please be considerate to the audience in the room and in
'audio-land': state your name clearly, and try to ask your questions
succinctly and comprehensively.

= Network Neutrality; placing the debate in IETF context

Below you will find the description of this agenda topic as it can be
found in the agenda but I would like to add a few, what I hope will be,
clarifying words.

IAB technical sessions are organized for several reasons. Sometimes the
IAB wants to get a message across to the community, sometimes we think a
technical topic will be informative or entertaining for the IETF
community, and sometimes the IAB wants to to be informed itself through a
discussion with the community. This session is intended to be of the last
variety.

What we are trying to accomplish is a more in-depth understanding of how
policy and technical requirement and realities interact and how IETF
technology can be designed for, or impacted by, the tussle. We think we
can accomplish through the presentations and the follow up discussion on
how various technology choices would impact the various different policy
choices and vice verse. It is certainly not the intention of the IAB to
develop a position in the network neutrality debate. It is the intention
to understand the impact of the debate on the technology.

We would therefore like the participants of the open session to refrain
from passing judgement on the policy choices. Rather think, in-depth,
about the interactions with technology, specifically within their area of
expertise.

Marcelo Bagnulo will be moderating the network neutrality open microphone
and also here we will use the central microphone for new topics and the
outlying microphones for new topics. Also, he will try to limit the
discussion per topic to about 5 minutes.

----------------------------------
For completeness the agenda as posted follows.

Agenda for the IETF 75 Technical plenary
THURSDAY, July 30, 20009. 17:00-19:30

[16:30-17:00]
+ Welcome

+ IRTF Chair's report
  Aaron Falk

+ IAB Chair's report
  Olaf Kolkman

[17:00-19:10]
 + Network Neutrality; placing the debate in IETF context
   - Introduction
     IAB - (5 min)

   - Overview of the network neutrality debate
     Barbara van Schewick - (45 min)

   - Implications for protocol design
     Mark Handley - (40 min)

   - Moderated discussion
     All - (40 min)
  
  See more detail below

[19:10-19:30]
+ Open microphone session

Network Neutrality; placing the debate in IETF context

Over the last few years, the network neutrality debate has raised
significant amount of interest among the different Internet stakeholders.
Regulators all over the world are considering whether to introduce network
neutrality regulation in their countries. Their decisions may have
far-reaching implications for security, quality of service, or business
models, among others. At the same time, what started as a debate over
whether network providers should be allowed to block unaffiliated
applications and content on their networks has evolved into a number of
sub-debates that are difficult to follow.

The technical plenary is devoted to present the network neutrality debate
and its implications to the IETF community. It will start with an
introduction to the debate and will continue with an analysis of the
implications of such debate for the design of Internet protocols.

It is not the intention of the organizers to have (yet another)
instance of the NN debate, instead we want to investigate how the
design of Internet Protocols is influenced by or can influence the
debate. Therefore Barbara van Schewick,  a specialist in how regulatory
aspects influence communication networks, will first introduce an
overview of the various aspects of the debate. Thereafter Mark Handley,
a  well known Internet Architect researcher,  will share his thoughts
on how the Network Neutrality tussle impacts protocol design.

The two presentations will be followed by a discussion where we
would like to ask the participants to focus on the technical aspects
and considerations, and to keep away from stating their NN opinion.