Subject: Call for participation for session on Transport APIs

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 96 11:20 EST

OPENSIG Workshop
	    Open Signalling for Middleware and Service Creation
		  Columbia University, April 29-30, 1996.

  (http://www.ctr.columbia.edu/opensig/activities/opensig.spring.96.html)

		       Session: APIs for Transport
		       April 30, 1996, 4.00-5.30 pm.

		Organizer: S. Keshav, AT&T Research.

			  Call for Participation

Open signalling will enable new applications that can exploit QOS-enhanced 
connections and advanced services. What should be the characteristics of a 
transport API, that is, the interface between the protocol stack and the
application? This session will attempt to bring together experts and 
interested observers in order to come to a rough consensus on transport API 
requirements. 

Networks are already carrying multimedia data over best-effort connections 
using either BSD sockets or ad hoc APIs. It is not clear, however, that a 
traditional read-write-open-close file system interface is suited for 
applications that may open multiple connections with complex synchronization 
requirements. Moreover, efficient single-copy architectures are feasible only 
by violating classical semantics, that allow an application to delete a buffer 
after writing it to a socket. We encourage submissions that explore alternatives
for transport APIs in light of these and other requirements.

Prospective participants are encouraged to submit an extended abstract 
of their work to the address below. Selected speakers will have ten
to fifteen minutes to make a presentation.

Topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:

* Expected requirements for transport APIs
* Experience with experimental APIs 
* Design for extensibility
* Innovative API architectures
* Compatibility with existing standards

If you would like to make a contribution, please submit a tentative
title and a short abstract to:

S. Keshav					  Email: [email-masked]
AT&T Research, Rm. 2C-552			  Tel: (908) 582-3384
600 Mountain Ave, Murray Hill, NJ 07974-0636.	  Fax: (908) 582-5857