Joerg Ott

Congestion control using FEC for conversational multimedia communication

In this paper, we propose a new rate control algorithm for conversational multimedia flows. In our approach, along with Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) media packets, we propose sending redundant packets to probe for available bandwidth. These redundant packets are Forward Error Correction (FEC) encoded RTP packets. A straightforward interpretation is that if no losses occur, the sender can increase the sending rate to include the FEC bit rate, and in the case of losses due to congestion the redundant packets help in recovering the lost packets. We also show that by varying the FEC bit rate, the sender is able to conservatively or aggressively probe for available bandwidth. We evaluate our FEC-based Rate Adaptation (FBRA) algorithm in a network simulator and in the real-world and compare it to other congestion control algorithms.

PeerShare: A System Secure Distribution of Sensitive Data among Social Contacts

We present the design and implementation of the PeerShare , a system that can be used by applications to securely distribute sensitive data to social contacts of a user. PeerShare incorporates a generic framework that allows different applications to distribute data with authenticity and confidentiality guarantees to authorized sets of recipients, specified in terms of social relationships. By using existing interfaces in popular social networks for user authentication and social graph information, PeerShare is designed to be easy to use for both end users as well as developers of applications. We have used PeerShare already in three different applications and plan to make it available for developers.

Bridging the gap between internet standardization and networking research

The participation of the network research community in the Internet Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) has been relatively low over the recent years, and this has drawn attention from both academics and industry due to its possible negative impact. The reasons for this gap are complex and extend beyond the purely technical. In this editorial we share our views on this challenge, based on the experience we have obtained from joint projects with universities and companies. We highlight the lessons learned, covering both successful and under-performing cases, and suggest viable approaches to bridge the gap between networking research and Internet standardization, aiming to promote and maximize the outcome of such collaborative endeavours.