Session Date/Time: 04 Nov 2024 17:30

irtfopen

Summary

The IRTF Open meeting included updates on IRTF activities, recognition of retiring contributors, announcement of Applied Networking Research Prize winners, and presentations on carbon-aware routing and censorship circumvention techniques. A proposed new research group on sustainability was also introduced.

Key Discussion Points

IRTF Structure and Activities: Overview of the IRTF's role, research groups, and publications. The Computation in the Network Research Group is closing. The IRTF code of conduct regarding research integrity, including crediting AI use, is nearing approval. Colin Perkins is stepping down as IRTF Chair.
Diversity Travel Grants: The program has brought a diverse group of participants to the meeting, and the next round of applications will open soon.
Sustainability Research Group (Proposed): Discussion on the increasing urgency of addressing the ICT sector's carbon emissions and the need for research beyond energy efficiency, encompassing environmental, social, and economic sustainability aspects. Addresses ethical and architectural considerations to reduce the environmental impact of networks.
Applied Networking Research Prize: Announcement of the 2024 ANRP awards to Sosen El Zahar for her work on reducing the carbon footprint of incident routing and to Mingshi Wu for his work to understand the censorship of fully encrypted traffic.
Carbon-Aware Routing: Presentation on exploring the benefits of carbon-aware routing, considering the geographical dimension of the energy mix and the predictability of grid carbon intensity. Metrics for energy and carbon efficiency are evaluated in the context of routing optimization. The success of this approach is application-specific.
Censorship of Fully Encrypted Traffic: Presentation on how the Great Firewall of China detects and blocks fully encrypted traffic. Reversal of the algorithm, and then how it was bypassed by tool developers. Political events are shown to be correlated.

Decisions and Action Items

Action Item: Community feedback is solicited on the draft describing the role and purpose of the IRTF as seen by the IRTF chair.
Action Item: The IAB will decide on a new IRTF Chair. Feedback deadline is the end of the day on Wednesday this week.
Action Item: Consider attending the side meeting on Wednesday about the proposed Sustainability Research Group.
Action Item: Submit nominations for the Applied Networking Research Prize by November 15th.

Next Steps

The IRTF Code of Conduct is expected to be approved in the coming weeks.
The IAB will select the next IRTF Chair.
Call for papers for the Applied Networking Research Workshop will be released, with a submission deadline expected in April 2025.