Keynote Speakers



Professor Thomas Magedanz


Thomas Magedanz (PhD) is full professor in the electrical engineering and computer sciences faculty at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, leading the chair for next generation networks (www.av.tu-berlin.de). In addition, he is director of the "next generation network infrastructure" division of the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS (www.fokus.fraunhofer.de/go/ngni). Since 2006, Prof Magedanz acts also as Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Cape Town, South Africa (www.ee.uct.ac.za).

Since more than 22 years Prof. Magedanz is working in the convergence field of fixed and mobile telecommunications, the internet and information technologies, which resulted in many international R&D projects centered around prototyping of new innovative multimedia applications and related Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs) above mobile and fixed Next Generation Networks and the emerging Future Internet. In this context Prof. Magedanz developed various globally recognized NGN software toolkits and established in 2005 the Open IMS Playground (www.open-ims.org), in 2008 the Open SOA Telco Playground (www.opensoaplayground.org), and most recently the Future Seamless Communications Playground (www.fuseco-playground.org) in 2010. These toolkits particularly help academics and industry in emerging countries to leapfrog in the context of NGN technologies.

In addition, Prof. Magedanz is working since 2009 on the evolution of NGN towards the emerging Future Internet (www.ngn2fi.org), where he joined in 2007 the European Commission's FIRE (Future Internet Research and Experimentation) Experts Group.

In the course of his research activities he published more than 250 technical papers/articles in journals and conference proceedings. In addition, Prof Magedanz is senior member of the IEEE, and editorial board member of several journals.



Next Generation Network Infrastructures Introduction and Evolution in Emerging Countries - Challenges and Options

by Professor Thomas Magedanz from Technische Universitat Berlin / Fraunhofer FOKUS, Germany.

Looking at the evolution in the field of ICT one can witness, that due to the convergence of telecommunications and the internet, the next generation network infrastructures and envisaged broadband multimedia applications on top of these are strongly adopting internet technologies and business models and thus are challenging the existing telecommunications eco system and value chain. Today it is assumed that in the future voice communications and messaging becomes a commodity and traditional network operators will become (smart) bit pipe providers for an increasing number of over the top service providers. In regard to the increasing growth in fixed and particularly mobile data demand, the lack of a clear NGN killer application, and the expected long tail approach for multimedia service provisioning inspired by the Web2.0, the deployment of efficient and low cost fixed and mobile network infrastructures and uniform service delivery platforms becomes of key importance. In thi s context an increasing adoption of open source solutions can be witnessed on the different layers of the NGN architecture.

One of the biggest challenges is the transition from existing mobile and fixed networks towards these all-IP based mobile and fixed next generation networks, as the existing and new infrastructures have to be operated in parallel and have to interwork for a smooth replacement. In addition the NGN rollout demands new staff skills and very often organizational changes inside operators, which results in additional challenges to be mastered. Here emerging countries may have some interesting opportunities, as very often there is no or only limited legacy technology available and voice, messaging and internet capabilities for some time will still remain of high value. Here particularly mobile devices and networks will play a key role to reach the mass market. However, mobile NGN technology education at universities and industry becomes a key prerequisite to enable an early and cost efficient deployment of NGN technologies in emerging countries.

In this keynote we will look at the global drivers for fixed and mobile broadband networks and subsequently provide an overview of mobile and fixed NGN standards, as defined by ITU-T, ETSI TISPAN, and 3GPP. Also a short overview about global future internet research activities are given as NGN evolution target. Based on this information we will look at available toolkits for cost efficient and rapid prototyping of mobile and fixed NGNs, such as the FOKUS SIP Express Router, the OpenIMScore and the new openEPC. These toolkits are used since years by universities and industry players around the world to set up local technology testbeds to obtain fast the required practical knowhow about NGN technologies and applications. Furthermore, these provide the basis for many emerging future internet testbeds (such as within the European FIRE initiative), in which transition from NGNs to the future internet is considered to be of key importance. An outlook about existing and potential N GN testbed cooperations in Africa, such as between FOKUS and UCT, will conclude the talk. For more information look at www.ngn2fi.org




Professor Lassi Linnanen


Dr. Lassi Linnanen is Professor of Environmental Economics and Management at Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), Institute of Energy Technology. He is also Director of Environmental Technology Master Program at LUT, and Head of Laboratory of Environmental Technology and Management.

Before joining academia, he was CEO and co-founder of Gaia Group Ltd, a leading Finnish energy and environmental consultancy.

He has extensive international academic network, being invited to lecture in several universities, including


His current main research interests include sustainable innovations, corporate responsibility strategies, and climate policy.

His fields of teaching include