Wi-Fi Planet Conference & Expo, San Jose, CA

Agenda*
Wednesday, December 1, 2004
Exhibit Hall Hours: 10:00am-6:00pm

Track: Building the Network Track: Technical Topics
Track: Wi-Fi Outdoors Track: Hotspot Central
Track: RFID

8:00am - 6:00pm

Registration

TRACK:
BUILDING THE NETWORK

9:00am - 10:00am

The Great Mesh Architecture Debate
Wireless meshes are beginning to have an impact on metro-scale Wi-Fi deployments, largely because of the potential for huge cost savings. This session will look at the future of large-scale mesh installations, but will also consider how meshes will play in enterprise settings, and discuss how meshes will meet core throughput and time-boundedness performance challenges both today and tomorrow.
Moderator:
Craig J. Mathias, Principal, Farpoint Group
Speakers:
Kenny Bain, President and Co-founder, Fastline Internet
Francis daCosta, Founder and CTO, MeshDyanmics
Ike Nassi, CTO, Firetide, Inc.
Dr. Ambatipudi R. Sastry, CTO and Co-Founder, PacketHop
Ron Sege, President and CEO, Tropos Networks

10:00am - 10:30am

Morning Break

10:30am - 11:20am

Morning Keynote: Business Transformation and Emerging Broadband Solutions
Today's global marketplace is expansive, dynamic and intensely competitive. Across industries, the demands placed upon companies' infrastructures are rapidly outpacing status quo capabilities. This in turn, is compelling executives to remodel processes, adopt new efficiency measures and convert their companies into nimble, forward-looking enterprises. We call this response e-business on demand^TM, a business model characterized by highly responsive, variable, focused and resilient business systems and processes. Fundamental to any on demand implementation is a mobile, interactive and flexible IT environment offering real-time data access to enable customers to enhance their business by focusing on critical market issues and higher customer service.

In this presentation, Jim Keegan will look at the coming Pervasive Revolution, its contributing factors, and how the new capabilities of WiMax is making this revolution possible. He'll illustrate how WiMax, Broadband and virtual networks will enable an enterprise to rapidly adjust to changing market demands and redefine how business is done. Then, Mr. Keegan will specifically review the new portfolio of Emerging Broadband Solutions and provide examples of significant business transformation enabled by Wimax. He will also illustrate how the various elements of consulting, architecture, infrastructure, security, and wireless hosting services help enterprises and local governments increase productivity, efficiency and respond quickly to customer demands and provide new sources of revenue.
Speakers:
James H. Keegan, Vice President, Global Pervasive/Wireless e-Business, IBM Corporation
Chris Couper, CTO for Wireless Solutions, IBM Corporation

11:30am - 12:30pm

Wireless Applications
Handheld and other portable computing devices are changing the way the world works, but, as always, the revolution is ongoing. Some early efforts have securely and reliably connected workers in the field with enterprise data, and business processes are being retooled to take advantage of this real-time access to data. Portable computers no longer function as isolated islands.

Vertical applications are revolutionizing many industries (healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, education, to name but a few.) with new ways of gathering, managing, and accessing data, specifically designed to solve particular industry challenges. New generation of horizontal wireless technologies are also evolving, in some cases taking advantage of often ignored functionalities, such as ad hoc mode, to create entirely new types of networks.
Speakers:
Barry Jinks, President and CEO, Colligo Networks
Matthew P. Moore, Vice President, Marketing, Dexterra, Inc.
Mike Munro, Director of Business Development, iAnywhere Solutions
Abbas Sadriwalla, Chariman and CEO, V Link Solutions, Inc.

12:30pm - 1:20pm

Lunch Break

1:30pm - 2:20pm

Afternoon Keynote: The Successful Wireless Enterprise
Enterprise adoption of wireless technologies, especially Wi-Fi, continues to grow. New technologies such as RFID are also being adopted by a growing number of companies in the retail and manufacturing industries. But all these advances are on a slippery slope if not planned and executed with a strategic business value in mind. CIOs today are tasked with optimally utilizing existing IT infrastructure while simultaneously evolving it to the next level of security, management, and cost control - which continue to be on the top of their minds when it comes to deploying new technologies. Yogesh Gupta, Computer Associates’ Chief Technology Officer, presents the current and emerging state of wireless, and how Enterprise Infrastructure Management is the foundation of a successful enterprise – wired and wireless.
Speaker:
Yogesh Gupta, Chief Technology Officer, Computer Associates

2:30pm - 3:30pm

Virtualization and Mixed-Use WLANs
Multi-functionalism seems to be a natural evolutionary path for wireless LANs, now that they're in place in so many venues. The bigger the network, the more important is the ability to keep private, secure traffic separate from public or "guest" access, establish different service levels, and control access to specific network resources. Mixed-use networks are becoming commonplace in municipal deployments, where public safety and other government officials use a virtually separate "piece" of the WLAN from the public, but they're un use in many other settings, such as hotels, hospitals, coffee shops, and corporate campuses. This session examines the techniques and technologies for implementing virtual Wi-Fi networks.
Moderator:
Doug Huemme, AVP Marketing, Strix Systems, Inc.
Speakers:
Phil Belanger, Vice President, Marketing, BelAir Networks
Nandu Desai, Director, Product Management, Pronto Networks
Shawn Sweeney, Director, Technical Marketing, Chantry Networks

3:30pm - 4:00pm

Afternoon Break

4:00pm - 5:00pm

Making High-Use WLANs Robust: Beam-Steering Antennas and RF Management Software
It's no secret that, despite many undeniable merits and advantages, wireless networks—especially those running in unlicensed spectrum—are subject to numerous "stress factors." RF interference, high traffic loads, and attenuating signal strength, for example, are all known to degrade nominal or "peak" performance—sometimes to the point of unsatisfactory levels.

Fortunately, advanced technologies not codified in the standards specifications can improve matters substantially, producing something approaching theoretical optimum performance on a consistent basis.

For example, beam-steering antenna technology—often referred to as smart antenna, can boost throughput by steering the RF energy toward the desired signal and away from sources of interference. Another set of technologies—collectively known as RF management solutions—dynamically manage power, frequency, and data rates for increased capacity, coverage, and stability.

This presentation gives a detailed look at how beam-steering antenna technology and RF management software can work together to fulfill the promise of robust WLANs.
Speakers:
Brett Attebery, Product Marketing Manager, InterDigital Communications Corp.
Adrian Bishop, Director of Business Development, InterDigital Communications Corp.

5:00pm - 6:00pm

Networking Reception in the Exhibit Hall

TRACK:
TECHNICAL TOPICS

9:00am - 10:00am

The Promises and Challenges of Multimedia Wi-Fi
Delivering on the promise of the "digital home" and been a long time coming, but Wireless delivery of content such as audio and video must not only be reliable, but transfers need to meet certain minimum parameters such as guaranteed stream bandwidth, latency variation, and packet loss. In addition, a wireless multimedia device must be able to go anywhere inside the consumer's house. This panel will take an in-depth look at some of the key technical issues necessary to help make wireless video multimedia a reality.

We'll look at the wireless requirements coming from CE manufacturers, and explore how designers can meet these, and consumer's expectations for wireless audio and video product. Topics will include techniques for long-reach, high-bandwidth RF links, how to use the 802.11 standards to support high-rate video, as well as other enhancements such as jitter removal techniques for making wireless video delivery more reliable.
Moderator:
Lee Goldberg, Sr. Editor, analogZONE
Speakers:
Dr. Moses Asom, Cofounder and SVP of Marketing and Business Development, SyChip, Inc.
Mike Stauffer, Director of Business Development, Atheros Communications
Jung Yee, Chief Technology Officer, IceFyre Semiconductor

10:00am - 10:30am

Morning Break

10:30am - 11:20am

11:30am - 12:30pm

Designing Wi-Fi Gear for the Real World
As seasoned designers know all too well, a product that works perfectly in the lab will often display unexpected behaviors once it's deployed at a customer's site. This session contains a potpourri of hard-core technical topics concerning the off-beat, unexpected, and occasionally annoying problems (and solutions) that designers may encounter when trying to make 802.11 work under "real world" conditions.
Speakers:
Tom Alexander, CTO, VeriWave
Patrick Kelly, VP of Silicon Engineering, Bandspeed Inc.
Scott Lindsay, VP Marketing and Business Development, Engim, Inc.
Fanny Mlinarsky, CTO & Founder, Azimuth Systems

12:30pm - 1:20pm

Lunch Break

1:30pm - 2:20pm

2:30pm - 3:30pm

All About MIMO
Regardless of which scheme is finally adopted for the 802.11n high-speed WiFi standard, it's a sure bet that it will include MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) antenna technology. Thanks to the high levels of silicon integration now possible, it's becoming practical to put the equivalent of two, four, or even more radio subsystems on a single chip to greatly increase both the throughput and range of a wireless network. While it is not inherently an Wi-Fi technology, its immediate future is inextricably linked with that of 802.11 WLANs as the effort to double and redouble data rates drives the Wi-Fi market. Join us for a lively mix of technical topics that will help you understand out what makes MIMO tick and the design issues engineers will face when incorporating into real-world products.
Moderator:
Lee Goldberg, Sr. Editor, analogZONE
Speakers:
Sean Coffey, Manager of Communication Systems Engineering, Texas Instruments
Patrick Kelly, VP of Silicon Engineering, Bandspeed Inc.
Dr. Jack Winters, Chief Scientist, Motia, Inc.

3:30pm - 4:00pm

Afternoon Break

4:00pm - 5:00pm

Cheap Talk: Design Issues of Wi-Fi VoIP Equipment In Residential And Public Networks
Combining WiFi and VoIP technologies has produced a heady mixture of exciting applications ranging from delivering multi-line cordless residential phones and wireless PBXs to radical mobile phone services that turn any Wi-Fi hot spot into a low-cost long-distance phone booth. In this session, we'll look at how the emerging business cases will drive technical requirements of VoIP equipment, and what it's going to take for designers to meet them.
Speakers:
Mary Cramer, Strategic Marketing Manager, Mobility Division, Agere Systems
Tom Flanagan, Worldwide Director of Broadband Strategy, Broadband Communications Group, Texas Instruments Inc.
Colby Goff, Boingo Wireless

5:00pm - 6:00pm

Networking Reception in the Exhibit Hall

TRACK:
WI-FI OUTDOORS

9:00am - 10:00am

Building Outdoor Wireless Networks: The ISP Case
Building a WISP to serve residential customers is all about getting the most out of the technology -- for the lowest price. This panel will focus on the technology issues facing those building a network on a budget, but will also cover the financial issues involved. We are proud to present a panel of very well known experts in this field -- who do not agree on all issues. Be sure to bring your questions, as we expect to have a lively Q&A session!
Moderator:
Alex Goldman, Managing Editor, ISP-Planet.com
Speakers:
Steve Stroh, Editor, FOCUS On Broadband Wireless Internet Access
Jack Unger, President, Ask-Wi.com

10:00am - 10:30am

Morning Break

10:30am - 11:20am

11:30am - 12:30pm

Building Outdoor Wireless Networks: The Campus Case
Whether you're designing a network for a large corporation, a university, or a national or state government, a campus wireless network benefits from the best technology available but poses daunting challenges concerning reliability, security, and management. This panel of experts will show how to get it done.
Moderator:
John McQuilter, Principal, Spectrum Management
Speakers:
Martin J. Brewer, Senior Product Manager, Wavelink Corporation
Sunil Dhar, Director of Product Management, Firetide
Stephen Rayment, CTO, BelAir Networks
Ron Seide, Senior Product Line Manager, Wireless Networking Business Unit, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Bruce Van Nice, Director of Product Marketing, Trapeze Networks

12:30pm - 1:20pm

Lunch Break

1:30pm - 2:20pm

2:30pm - 3:30pm

The State of Municipal Deployments
Municipal Wi-Fi networks are a phenomenon whose time has come. Less than a year ago, we heard of the first efforts to create a Wi-Fi cloud over much, if not all, of a small community (the ski resort town of Whistler, B.C.) The big news as of late August is the city of Philadelphia considering deployment of a WLAN covering 135 square miles of urban reality. Clearly, it's a happening thing, but the objectives, infrastructure and configuration choices, and business models vary tremendously. Get the latest perspectives and insights on muni WLANs.
Moderator:
Esme Vos, Founder, MuniWireless.com
Speakers:
Kenny Bain, President and Co-founder, Fastline Internet
Michael Keegan, Member, City Council, Hermosa Beach, California
Carlo MacDonald, President and CEO, Verge Wireless

3:30pm - 4:00pm

Afternoon Break

4:00pm - 5:00pm

Wi-Fi Cloud as a Community Tool
When city-wide Wi-Fi -- a wireless "cloud" -- is mentioned, most imagine Internet access for the masses. However, that aspect might not even be the first choice, if it's a choice at all, for many municipalities installing wireless. The communication aspects of a wide-area WLAN for police, fire fighters, and emergency services are becoming well known, but what about other community needs? Wireless meter reading? Tracking of kids and pets? Real-time transportation schedules (based on the location of buses and taxis)? How about street mounted wireless cameras to keep an eye on crime? All of these are examples happening today, and they are just the beginning of the discussion we'll have on the way wireless can become a powerful tool in any community.
Moderator:
Esme Vos, Founder, MuniWireless.com
Speakers:
Chris Demarche, Senior Vice President Marketing & Business Development, Vivato
Thomas Husted, Chief Executive Officer, Columbia REA & Columbia Energy, LLC - A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Columbia REA
Willem Poterman, CEO and Co-Founder, iGear BV
Leonard Scott, Business Unit Manager, City of Corpus Christi
Ron Sege, President and CEO, Tropos Networks

5:00pm - 6:00pm

Networking Reception in the Exhibit Hall

TRACK:
HOTSPOT CENTRAL

9:00am - 10:00am

The Battle of the Hotspot Business Models
As Wi-Fi continues to grow in popularity, acceptance, and ubiquity, the deployment of various types of venues offering public network access grows right along with it. Hotspots now number in the tens of thousands, worldwide, and inhabit hotels, airports, coffee shops, and entire urban neighborhoods, but there continue to be many different notions of what constitutes a proper hotspot business model. Panelists in this session speak for three distinctly different biz model points of view.
Moderator:
Mike Moore, Director of Business Development, iPass Inc.
Speakers:
Alan Gale, CEO, Deep Blue Wireless
Martyn Halsall, CEO, WizzWiFi
Dan Lowden, VP Business Development and Marketing, Wayport Inc.
Abbas Sadriwalla, Chariman and CEO, V Link Solutions, Inc.

10:00am - 10:30am

Morning Break

10:30am - 11:20am

11:30am - 12:30pm

WLANs for MDUs
For network installers, Multiple Dwelling Units (aka apartment buildings) represent an enticing variety of low-hanging fruit. Add Wi-Fi and you've got an efficient, cost-effective, and potentially profitable way of providing Internet connectivity for large numbers of customers. However, the infrastructure, design, and logistics of MDU deployments have a flavor all their own. Our panelists bring their considerable expertise to bear on the problems faced in specialized type of Wi-Fi deployment.
Moderator:
William Terrill, Senior Analyst, Burton Group
Speakers:
Nandu Desai, Director, Product Management, Pronto Networks
Alan Gale, CEO, Deep Blue Wireless
Cyrus Irani, Vice President, Marketing, Strix Systems

12:30pm - 1:20pm

Lunch Break

1:30pm - 2:20pm

2:30pm - 3:30pm

The Value-Add Road to Success
One school of thought in the hotspot business world holds that public wireless Internet access is so inherently ubiquitous that only a small number of enterprise road warriors are every likely to actually pay for it -- that dreams of millions of travelers paying premium prices to hook to the net are just that: dreams. So, it's not the Internet access that will pull in the profits, but value-adds provided by the venue - anything from printing services to local travel/tourist information, to... who knows what? Presumably our panel of value-add believers does, and they will share their ideas.
Anchor:
Jonathan Morgan, VP of Product Marketing, Tatara Systems
Speakers:
Colby Goff, Vice President of Network Strategy, Boingo Wireless
Flavio Gomes, Chairman, LogiSense Corp.
Dan Lowden, VP Business Development and Marketing, Wayport Inc.

3:30pm - 4:00pm

Afternoon Break

4:00pm - 5:00pm

Neutral Hotspots
Another emerging concept that seeks to define the successful future of public Wi-Fi access is the neutral hotspot, where things are less mono-branded than is typically the case today. Where, for example, customers can select from multiple service providers rather than the single service provider of most venues. Where multiple payment options are available. Where a variety of co-branding and co-marketing initiatives can exist. Our two speakers cover the topic both from the anecdotal, case study point of view and from an infrastructure, back-end slant.
Speakers:
Joe Beatty, CEO, Concourse Communications Group
Peter Claaseen, Vice President, Business Development, Nomadix, Inc.

5:00pm - 6:00pm

Networking Reception in the Exhibit Hall

TRACK:
RFID

9:00am - 10:00am

RFID Business Basics: Costs and benefits of RFID... and getting from one to the other
The industry press has long chanted the mantra that the "5 cent tag" will be the making of RFID. While the cost of tags is certainly a factor in a world where we envision tagging every shipping pallet - in some cases every item of merchandise—it is far from being the defining one. In fact, tag costs are only a small part of an RFID implementation.

This session will provide guidance on the real costs typically associated with an RFID project—as well as the financial and operational benefits they promise to confer. We'll uncover the strategies, the implementation issues, and the technology lessons learned by early adopters and how they developed the business case for RFID.
Moderator:
Fran Rabuck, President, Rabuck Associates
Speakers:
Tim Harrington, Vice President of Product Strategy, WhereNet
Jonathan Loretto, Global Technology Lead - RFID, Capgemini Global
David Shuster, Emerging Market Development Executive, IBM

10:00am - 10:30am

Morning Break

10:30am - 11:20am

11:30am - 12:30pm

Software, Middleware, and Integration Issues: Making RFID Talk to ERP and other problems
What comes after you've negotiated your price point for tags, tagged your pallets, and hit required read rates for your RFID operation?

Information integration and software to capture, manage, and analyze your data with your current ERP and supply chain applications can be a major challenge. This panel will discuss a model system, your available options, and pose questions such as . . .

Should you consider software based on Open Source standards?
How will Microsoft play in the game?

Hear our panel of experts explain their perspectives on integration solutions and challenges for dealing with this massive explosion of data.
Moderator:
Fran Rabuck, President, Rabuck Associates
Speakers:
Romen Kuloor, VP Marketing & Business Development, Blue Vector Systems
Tao Lin, PhD, Director of Auto-ID, SAP Research, Palo Alto, SAP LLC
Sanjay Sharma, CTO, Keytone Technologies

12:30pm - 1:20pm

Lunch Break

1:30pm - 2:20pm

2:30pm - 3:30pm

RFID in Industry Applications: Case studies of works in progress
This session will focus on experience gleaned from key industry applications, beyond the retail space. We'll review RFID in action in the automotive, pharmaceutical, government, military, and other arenas. Learn what's in the next planning cycles for these early adopters of the technology for 2005 and beyond. While each of these industries has unique challenges and issues to deal with and their approach to their solutions can be different, some common success patterns can provide guidance for all RFID industry applications.
Moderator:
Fran Rabuck, President, Rabuck Associates
Speakers:
Lani Fritts, Vice President, Business Development - Collaborative Network Services, Savi
Michael Hartman, Manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Jim Soriano, President, TagStream, Inc.
Hung Tran, Director, Client Services, Shipcom Wireless

3:30pm - 4:00pm

Afternoon Break

4:00pm - 5:00pm

RFID FUTURES: Where do we go from here?
What's in store for the near-term future of RFID? Our panel of experts will share their visions of what the next series of challenges will be for 2005 and beyond.

How will the standards wars play out?
Can Intellectual Property issues be resolved or is a protracted market-share battle among proprietary technologies likely to dog the market?
When can we really expect a "Network of things"?
What industries and applications will be next to adopt this technology?
How will consolidation, partnerships, and mergers in the RFID industry affect the ecosystem.
What are the stumbling blocks for the near term that will need to be overcome?

Our roundtable of experts will provide their insights and field your questions in this open discussion on the RFID industry.
Moderator:
Fran Rabuck, President, Rabuck Associates
Speakers:
Salil Vijaykumar Pradhan, CTO, RFID Program, Hewlett Packard
Jeff Richards, President and CEO, R4 Global Solutions

5:00pm - 6:00pm

Networking Reception in the Exhibit Hall

Whitepapers and eBooks

Intel Whitepaper: Comparing Two- and Four-Socket Platforms for Server Virtualization
IBM Solutions Brief: Go Green With IBM System xTM And Intel
HP eBook: Simplifying SQL Server Management
IBM Contest: Are You the Next Superstar? Join the "Search for the XML Superstar" Contest to Find Out
Microsoft PDF: Top 10 Reasons to Move to Server Virtualization with Hyper-V
Microsoft PDF: Six Reasons Why Microsoft's Hyper-V Will Overtake Vmware
Microsoft Step-by-Step Guide: Hyper-V and Failover Clustering
Intel PDF: Quad-Core Impacts More Than the Data Center
Intel PDF: Virtualization Delivers Data Center Efficiency
Go Parallel Article: PDC 2008 in Review
Microsoft PDF: Top 11 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Server 2008
Avaya Article: Communication-Enabled Mashups: Empowering Both Business Owners and IT
Intel Whitepaper: Building a Real-World Model to Assess Virtualization Platforms

PDF: Intel Centrino Duo Processor Technology with Intel Core2 Duo Processor
Microsoft Article: Build and Run Virtual Machines with Hyper-V Server 2008
Go Parallel Article: Q&A with a TBB Junkie
IBM Whitepaper: Innovative Collaboration to Advance Your Business
Internet.com eBook: Real Life Rails
IBM eBook: The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing
Internet.com eBook: Best Practices for Developing a Web Site
IBM CXO Whitepaper: The 2008 Global CEO Study "The Enterprise of the Future"
Avaya Article: Call Control XML in Action - A CCXML Auto Attendant
IBM CXO Whitepaper: Unlocking the DNA of the Adaptable Workforce--The Global Human Capital Study 2008
Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro: Web Conferencing and eLearning Whitepapers
HP eBook: Guide to Storage Networking
MORE WHITEPAPERS, EBOOKS, AND ARTICLES

Whitepapers and eBooks

Webcasts

Downloads and eKits

Tutorials and Demos