SIPNOC 2013 Call for Presentations

The SIP Forum is holding its third SIP Network Operations Conference (SIPNOC 2013) on April 22nd through the 25th, 2013, at the Hyatt Dulles Hotel in Herndon, Virginia – a few minutes from Dulles International Airport.  The SIPNOC Program Committee is now seeking proposals for presentations, panels, or BOFs (Birds-Of-a-Feather) for the SIPNOC 2013 program.  We invite presentations highlighting issues relating to SIP deployments.  Operators are encouraged to present on successes, issues, and concerns found in their deployments. Vendors are encouraged to work with operators to present real-world deployment experiences.

Details of the submission process, as well as SIPNOC 2013 dates of interest are described below.

About SIPNOC

SIPNOC is the premier meeting for SIP network operators.  Unlike other SIP-related conferences, SIPNOC is not a marketing or sales event, not a research-based event, and not meant for executive-level hobnobbing or corporate positioning.  If you don't know what Wireshark is, you probably don't want to attend.  SIPNOC is intended to provide a forum for information exchange among network operators, engineers, as well as researchers.

SIPNOC includes panels, presentations, and informal BOFs (Birds of a Feather sessions).  SIPNOC attendees include operators from networks of all sizes, service providers, wholesale/transit operators, enterprise operators, peering coordinators, equipment vendors, and researchers.  SIPNOC attendees will share ideas and interact with leaders in the field of SIP network operations, discuss current operational events and issues, and learn about state-of-the-art operational techniques.  It is also an opportunity to interact with members of various SIP-related standards bodies, to learn about what's being worked on, or complain to them about what's not.

Key Dates for SIPNOC 2013

Technical Conference

The SIPNOC Program Committee seeks proposals for presentations, panels, and BOFs in all areas of SIP network operations, including (but not limited to):

• Peering - topics may include best practices, issues, agreement models, and routing methods for SIP enterprise trunks, or peering between service providers or between enterprises
• SIP Trunking - Topics may include SIPconnect-related deployments, troubleshooting tips and tricks, etc.
• Congestion Control
• Applications/content Development - topics may include new or novel media, new user service features, new uses of SIP, storage/recording, or topics about IM, presence, fax, video or telepresence
• Interoperability - topics may include best practices, issues found, current state of deployed equipment, or tactics for resolving interop issues
• Call Routing - topics may include new or novel mechanisms, best practices, or issues with routing of SIP sessions/requests/calls
• Security - topics may include experience with or tactics/best-practices for handling fraud, DDoS, overload events, AAA, blacklists, SPIT or war-dialers
• Monitoring/Troubleshoooting and Operational Issues - topics may include experiences or mechanisms for monitoring remote or large SIP networks, measuring or monitoring call quality, or how to reproduce and resolve issues
• Testing Considerations and Tools - topics may include techniques for equipment certification, procedures for testing new trunks/peers, useful tools or scripts
• Availability/Disaster-Recovery - topics may include techniques, architectures or procedures for handling equipment failures, site/PoP failures, Internet or network transport outages, or power outages
• WebRTC and SIP
• SIP-Network Operations Center Best Practices
• Standardization Issues and Progress
• FoIP/T.38 Deployment
• User-Agent Configuration
• IPv6 Deployment Challenges
• Emergency Services
• Scaling and Capacity Issues
• HD-Voice Deployment Challenges
• Video Interop Issues

In general, presentations are being sought by and for SIP network operators of all sizes.  Presentations about difficult problems (and interesting solutions) that you encounter in the course of your job are encouraged. 

Vendors are allowed to submit presentations, but are warned that product-specific information or marketing type content is inappropriate and strictly forbidden. Teaming with an operator to make a joint presentation is highly encouraged.

If you think you have an interesting topic but want some feedback or assistance working it into a presentation, please email the Program Committee chair ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ), and a representative on the Program Committee will give you the feedback needed to work it into a presentation.

We look forward to reviewing your submission!

Talk Types

General Session Talk: A General Session presentation should be on a topic of interest to the general SIPNOC audience, and may be up to 30-minutes long (including time for Q&A).  Speakers must submit slides for a General Session presentation.

General Session Panel: Panels are 45-minute discussion sessions between a moderator and a team of panelists. The panel moderator should submit an abstract on the panel topic, a list of panelists, and how the panel will be organized. Panel selection will be based on the importance, originality, focus and timeliness of the topic, expertise of proposed panelists, as well as the potential for informative and controversial discussion.  After acceptance the panel leader will be given the option to invite panel authors to submit their presentations to the SIPNOC program Committee for review.   Until then authors should not submit their individual presentations for the panel.

Research Topics: Researchers are invited to present short (15-minute) summaries of their work for operator feedback.  Topics may include call routing, network performance, statistical measurement and analysis, and protocol development and implementation.  Studies presented may be works in progress.  Researchers from academia, government, and industry are encouraged to present.

BOFs: BOFs (Birds of a Feather sessions) are informal sessions on topics which are of interest to a portion of the SIPNOC community.  BOFs may be part of the main conference agenda, or held in the hallways, break-out areas or in an unscheduled room. Requests for scheduled BOFs can be made at any time, including on site at the meeting.

A typical BOF session may include some structure or presentations, but usually is focused on community discussion and interaction.

Based on the actual BOFs held at SIPNOC US 2012, BOF topics at SIPNOC 2013 could include:

• IPv6 Deployment
• FoIP/T.38 Interop Issues
• Wireshark Tips and Tricks
• SIPconnect
• Deploying Wide-Band Codecs
• Security Best Practices

The less structured nature of BOF sessions allows for the greatest flexibility from a timing perspective.

Registration Fee Waivers

The conference registration fee will be waived for any approved speakers.

How To Present

The deadline for accepting abstracts has been extended to February 28, 2013. The deadline for submitting draft presentations has been extended to March 7, 2013. While the majority of speaking slots may be filled by that date, a limited number of slots may be available after that date for topics that are exceptionally timely, important, or critical to the operations of SIP networks.

The primary speaker, moderator, or author should submit presentation information and an abstract online at:

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sipnoc2013

Once you have done this, you will receive instructions for submitting your draft slides.

Submissions should contain:

• Author's name(s)
• Preferred contact email address
• A preferred phone number for contact
• Submission category (General Session, Panel, or Research)
• Presentation title
• Abstract -- Due February 28, 2013
• Draft slides -- Due March 7, 2013 (attachment or URL), in PDF or PowerPoint format.

What Makes a Good Talk?

To increase the chance that your talk will be accepted, we recommend that you:

• Highlight operational experience, i.e., present a case study.
• Identify anomalies or counter-intuitive (interesting) aspects of your experience
• Educate in your area of expertise (so the audience can learn something)
• Motivate action (so the audience goes out and does something as a result of the talk)
• Entertain (so the audience stays in the room)

Slide Format

Company logos must only appear on the first and last slides of your talk.  Full-page logos on cover slides are discouraged.  Company and personal background information can be mentioned verbally, but not in slides.  A plain white background is strongly recommended.  A PDF is recommended rather than the source file for the slides, e.g., a PowerPoint file.  To be legible, slides should use as least 28-point fonts (larger for titles).

Presenters/authors may retain copyright of their material, granting the SIP Forum a perpetual license at no cost to archive and redistribute the material. Unobtrusive copyright notices may be on any or all slides of the presentation. Presentations must not be marked confidential.

SIPNOC 2013 Management Note

This SIPNOC Call For Papers has been modeled after NANOG CFP documents, and the SIP Forum owes a debt of gratitude to the organizers of NANOG for the high quality of their submission policies and rules.