April 15, 2005 —
USC Viterbi School computer scientist Aaron Falk has been
appointed the new chair of the Internet
Research Task Force (IRTF).
Executive Director Herb Schorr, executive director of the Viterbi
School's Information Sciences Institute congratulated Falk who is a
project leader in
ISI's computer networks division.
The IRTF is a loose confederation of researchers in academia and
industry who coordinate research and exchange information on Internet
research, working in research groups, under suggested rules codified in
RFC 2014, co-authored by the late ISI Internet pioneer Jon Postel. The groups
are meant to “foster cross-organizational
collaboration, help to create critical mass in important research
areas, and add to the visibility and impact of the work,” the
guidelines direct. IRTF esearch groups are now active in ten areas, ranging from
"anti-spam" to
"peer-to-peer."
"A Research Group is expected to be long-lived, producing a
sequence of products over time," the guidelines continue. "The products
of a Research Group are research results that may be disseminated by
publication in scholarly journals and conferences, as white papers for
the community, as Informational RFCs, and so on. In addition, it is
expected that technologies developed in a Research Group will be
brought to the IETF as input to IETF Working Group(s) for possible
standardization."
Per the rules, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) appointed
Falk to the chairmanship. His duties include the designation in
consultation with others of members of the groups steering committee,
and playing a leading role in encouraging, regulating (and if necessary
disbanding) existing groups, and deciding when and whether to start new
ones.
He will in general "ensure that Research Groups produce
coherent, coordinated, architecturally consistent and timely output as
a contribution to the overall evolution of the Internet architecture."
Falk has a long history of activity in Internet research, As his
web biography notes, he "started and chaired the Internet Protocols
over Satellite working group within the Satellite Communication
Division of the Telecommunications Industry Association. This lead to a
role chairing the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working group
on TCP over Satellite.
He is past chair of the IETF Performance Implications of Link
Characteristics (PILC) working group and currently chairs the
Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) working group.
Prior to coming to ISI, Falk worked for TRW, and before that as a
graduate student at the University of Maryland Institute for Systems
Research invented and coded DirecPC, a system to deliver broadband
Internet access via satellite.
His current ISI research work includes work on the new XCP Internet protocol,
aimed at easing Internet congestion.
