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It
is our great pleasure to welcome you to the
first IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking
Conference (CCNC 2004), 5-8 January 2004, in
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
The demand for networked consumer systems and
devices is large and growing rapidly. As a result,
consumer networking is gaining increasing attention
from industry spawning a range of dramatically
different solutions including wireless, wireline,
and power line networked communications environments,
each with their own strength and special challenges
to overcome. This phenomenon, - "Consumer
Communications and Networking", has been
attracting many researchers in diverse areas
from networking to consumer electronics.
Based on our theme "Consumer Networking:
Closing the Digital Divide," this conference
presents the latest approaches and technical
solutions in the area of consumer networking,
enabling technologies such as middleware and
multimedia, and novel applications and services.
CCNC 2004 provides a compelling forum for formal
discussion and socialization of many of these
research challenges with seasoned practitioners
and colleagues from throughout the industry
and academia. The conference includes a peer-reviewed
program of technical sessions, technology application
panels, tutorials, and poster sessions.
We have received a remarkably high number of
paper submissions for a first time conference,
260 in total. Authors from 31 countries submitted
their papers to this first IEEE conference ever
on this subject. Each paper was reviewed by
at least three internationally known experts
who formed our Technical Program Committee (TPC)
to make the final decision on acceptance or
rejection of every submitted paper. In the end,
112 technical papers were selected for presentation
at CCNC 2004. In addition, 35 papers were selected
for poster presentations.
We have divided the 2-day technical program
into four parallel tracks: Two Networking tracks
focusing on protocols, infrastructures, transmission
technologies, and performance of such systems;
Enabling Technologies track covering middleware,
coding, and video technologies that enable consumer
communications; and Novel Applications track
addressing the adoption, characterization, implementation
and standardization of emerging applications
and services that will be needed for this type
of environment As a result, we are convinced
that CCNC 2004 exhibits a high-quality program
that is attractive to experts from research,
planning and implementation in the field of
consumer communications and networking.
We would like to express our gratitude, first
of all, to the authors of the technical papers,
whose work and dedication make this conference
possible and lay the groundwork for this strong
program. Next, we would like to thank the members
of the TPC and reviewers, who helped us with
their expertise and time. A very special thanks
goes to the session chairs.
We received first-rate help and guidance from
the staff at the IEEE Communications Society,
specifically Gayle Weisman. Also, we would like
to commend the people at IEEE Publications,
especially Laura Hyslop, who provided us with
the paper processing service, for their prompts
reaction to our many requests.
Finally, a big hand to our colleagues from the
CCNC 2004 Organizing Committee and Steering
Committee, who worked diligently behind the
scene to make this conference happen.
Mehmet Ulema, Technical Program Chair,
Manhattan College, New York, USA
Eric Addeo, Technical Program Vice Chair,
Devry College, USA
John Barr, Technical Program Vice Chair,
Motorola, USA
Guenter Schaefer, Technical Program Vice
Chair, Technische Universitaet Berlin, Germany
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