TelePLoP: Workshop on Patterns in Telecommunications

With this workshop, we hope to accomplish the following:

• Enrich the still small body of publicly available telecommunications patterns.
• Help the participants learn how to write better patterns.
• Clarify costs and benefits of writing and using telecommunications patterns.
• Gain understanding regarding processes for applying patterns in the development of architectures and designs for telecommunications systems.
• Form a group of people interested in telecommunications patterns which will transcend this workshop.

Possible Discussion Topics:

• How should telecommunications patterns be classified? Is there a basic set of patterns that form a foundation across switching products, including voice switching, call management systems, multimedia, voice response systems, mailbox systems, etc.? What are the patterns specific to these product families?
• The areas of system availability and reliability are especially important in switching systems. What are the important patterns in these areas? Which patterns are specific to telecommunications systems, and which might be applied in other domains?
• The knowledge of switching systems from which telecommunications patterns are derived is based on years of experience with voice systems. Can patterns which are true in the world of wireline voice processing be applied to the new worlds of wireless and multimedia switching?

Possible topics for papers:

• Patterns of overall architecture of telecommunications systems.
• Patterns of base level services, such as timers, IPC facilities, databases, or protocol processing.
• Patterns for call processing, load management, maintenance and administration, system reliability and availability.

Participation:

Participation in the workshop is open to anyone world-wide with experience in telecommunications, and interest in advancing the state of telecommunications software. Participants must submit a paper consisting of patterns directly applicable to the field of telecommunications. All papers must be in pattern form, and written in English. Papers should be concise, but complete.

All papers are due on 1 August 1996. Authors should submit the papers electronically in postscript format to teleplop@nortel.ca and include their complete contact information (name, affiliation, address, phone, fax, and email address.) Papers will be reviewed by the organizers and their associates. All authors will be notified of the acceptance or rejection of their papers. Accepted papers will be made available, and authors will be expected to thoroughly study all accepted patterns before the workshop.

Organization:

The workshop will be held Monday, October 7, during OOPSLA '96. It will start at 9 a.m. and continue until 5 p.m. The format of the workshop is expected to follow along the lines of "Writer's Workshop" used in past OOPSLA and PLoP workshops. This format concentrates on having the participants give the author of a pattern constructive feedback rather than the author giving a formal presentation of the pattern.

Proposed Agenda:

• Begin with a plenary session. Explain schedule and writer's workshop format.
• Split into groups for writer's workshop and technical discussions.
• Reconvene; each group reports on highlights and experiences.
• Summarize and make plans for future joint work.

For More Information:

Jim Doble