India Internet Engineering Society (IIESoc) & Industry Network Technology Council (INTC) will be organizing the 5th iteration of Connections a fully online event on April 2-8, 2022.  

The first Connections event was held in Bangalore in 2017 (with a subsequent one also in Bangalore in 2018). The third Connections event was held in Kolkata in 2019 before we went fully online in 2020 because of the pandemic. This iteration will also be fully online, free, and generously sponsored by the APNIC Foundation, Internet Society, Juniper Networks & Cisco Systems. 

Connections is an annual event to get protocol developers, enterprises, academicians, and network operators together on the same platform to discuss the latest problems facing the internet and the solutions relevant to them.  The event includes discussions on network deployments, operations, and the design of networks and protocols. The aim is also to educate and prepare new members for Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) involvement from underserved geographies and constituencies. This aligns well with the IIESoc's mission which is focused on bridging the gap between India and the internet standards whereas the INTC’s mission is focused on the impact of internet standards and technologies in the traditional “Brick-n-Mortar” Enterprise networks.

We have a great line of speakers such as Bob Hinden (co-inventor of IPv6), Dr Paul Vixie (Internet Hall of Fame inductee), Adrian Farrel (GMPLS and PCE pioneer), Geoff Huston (Chief Scientist, APNIC), etc. The aim of the event is also to bring in diverse voices from all stakeholders in the Internet Community. The event focuses on technology trends in IPv6 Extension headers, IoT, DNS, the latest trends in networking as well as problems that might be keeping our speakers up at night! This time we are also focusing beyond IETF and discussing other standards developing organizations (SDOs) with a focus on private 5G networks,  performance testing for Wi-Fi, and Broadband Forum User Services Platform (USP).

The esteemed speakers include service providers such as Satish Jamadagni (Reliance Jio) and Barbara Stark (ex-AT&T). From the network equipment vendor side we have Ron Bonica (Juniper), Dr Pascal Thubert (Cisco), and Dr Dirk Trossen (Huawei). We have a panel on IoT with special representations from Indian startups founders such as  Ravishankar G Shiroor (Stellapps), Rahul Jadhav (Accuknox), and Sundar Ramakrishnan (Pinaka Aerospace). And another panel on the IPv6 Extension header is moderated by Eric Vyncke (Cisco). The panel will have esteemed IPv6 champions like Ron Bonica, Darren Dukes, Mike Ackermann, Justin Iurman, and Fernando Gont debating IPv6 Extension headers. From the academic side, Georgios Z. Papadopoulos (IMT Atlantique), Carsten Bormann (TZI), and Lincoln Lavoie (University of New Hampshire) will bring in their expertise! Not to miss out on Martin Thomson (Mozilla), Jason Walls (QA Cafe), Nalini Elkins (Inside Products), Shwetha Bhandari (ThoughtSpot), etc who will be bringing their unique perspective and expertise. 

There is also a pre-Event focused on learning about IETF and listening directly from the long-term IETFers on Saturday 2nd April. 

Full schedule - https://www.connections.iiesoc.in/programme
with abstract - https://www.connections.iiesoc.in/abstract
and speaker - https://www.connections.iiesoc.in/speakers

Dhruv Dhody, President IIESoc

Nalini Elkins, President INTC