IM 2015 in Ottawa Focused on Integrated Management in the Age of Big Data

By Wahab Almuhtadi - Chair of the IEEE Ottawa ComSoc/CESoc/ BTS Joint Chapter, Canada
CONFERENCE REPORT

The IEEE Communication Society, the IEEE Ottawa Section, and the IEEE Ottawa ComSoc/CESoc/BTS Joint Chapter joined forces to sponsor and organize the IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management 2015 (IM 2015) on 11-15 May at the Shaw Centre, located on the scenic banks of the Rideau Canal in the cultural center of Ottawa, Canada’s beautiful capital city. As a core national high-technology and R&D center, Ottawa is an ideal setting for this conference. There are more than 1,800 companies in the area working in software, photonics, defense & security, and more. It also offers many historical and cultural sites, including Canadian Parliament buildings, the Canadian Museum of History, and the National Gallery of Canada, among others.

IM 2015 attracted and brought together many of the world’s industry leaders, scientists, academics, engineering professionals, and students from around the world. The theme of the IM 2015 conference, “Integrated Management in the Age of Big Data,” aimed at capturing the new management challenges and opportunities offered by Big Data, and examined the potential of Big Data to improve the quality of management in a number of areas, including network management, service management, and business management, as well as in management approaches and methodologies. The emergence of network virtualized function also creates a great opportunity for traditional network management, and the instrumentation when the hardware is generic. In this perspective, the conference program featured:

  • Six keynote presentations presented by top industry and academic leaders who shared their visions and experiences, and challenged us in exciting new ways. The engaging keynote talks were: “Practical meets Transformational Aspirations” by Ibrahim Gedeon (TELUS, Canada); “Big Data in Science: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” by Joseph L. Hellerstein (University of Washington, USA); “Data Science: The Analytics of Big Data” by José M. F. Moura (Carnegie Mellon University, USA); “Harnessing a Petabyte: Opportunities and Challenges for Next Generation Ultra- Scale Data Platforms” by Richard J. Friedrich (Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, USA); “From Software-Defined Infrastructures to Smart City Platforms” by Alberto Leon-Garcia (University of Toronto, Canada); and “Micro Cloud: Moving Computing to Data to Deal with Data Management and Security Issues for Enterprise Clouds” by Dinesh C. Verman (IBM T.J. Watson, USA).

  • Four panel sessions, featuring recognized experts sharing exciting and often controversial viewpoints on hot new topics of importance to our community. The topics covered included: big data analytics, cloud infrastructures, data centers, software-defined networking, virtualization, Internet-of-Things, smart cities, future Internet, content delivery, self-management, and security.

  • Fourteen technical paper sessions and eight mini-conference sessions. The selected papers presented the latest research advances in the field. The conference had 206 technical paper submissions from all over the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. All submitted papers underwent a rigorous review process with at least three reviews for every paper and a rebuttal phase. The review process concluded with 56 papers accepted for the main technical track, with a competitive acceptance rate of 27 percent. Due to the high quality of the submitted papers, many good papers could not be selected for this track. The 36 best papers were selected for the eight mini-conference tracks.

  • The program of IM 2015 also offered four experience paper sessions, 20 selected papers presenting lessons learned from developing and deploying management solutions.

  • Four poster sessions (52 posters) that enabled one-on-one interactions between authors and attendees.

  • Three demonstration sessions with 18 demos showcased research prototypes and research demonstration systems.

  • Two dissertation sessions (eight papers), recognizing the best doctoral theses from among the best and brightest of our next generation.

  • Workshops, with a specialized focus on the latest breakthroughs in information and communications technology management in an environment that encourages discussion and debate. There were 67 workshop paper submissions.

  • Tutorials, offering educational material to keep up with new and emerging topics essential to today’s engineering and technology environment. •Industry exhibits, where major vendors and service providers displayed their latest products and services, including conference patrons.

  • A young professional session, providing a forum for the IEEE Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) program to address career and other professional development needs for recent graduates.

In addition to the technical program, several Committee and Board meetings were held during the IM 2015, including the TNSM Editorial Board meeting; the CNOM/IFIP WG6.6 committee meeting; the IJNM Editorial Board meeting; the NOMS/IM Steering Committee meeting; the NOMS 2016 TPC/OC committee meeting; and the IRTF NMRG committee meeting.

The IM’15 Organizing Committee of dedicated and outstanding volunteers achieved their goal to make IM 2015 a successful event, and made the attendees’ participation in IM 2015 one of their most valuable and memorable experiences from both professional and personal perspectives.

Our valued patrons also made the conference a success due to their contributions: TELUS (Diamond Patron), Algonquin College, Juniper Networks, and Huawei (Gold Patrons); the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, Ciena, Nakina Systems, IEEE SDN, and IEEE Big Data (Silver Patrons); openNMS (Bronze Patron); and Ottawa Tourism and CENGN (Supporters).

For more details on IM 2015, visit: http://im2015.ieee-im. org/.

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