Policies and Procedures

Version history:

Version 1 Henning Schulzrinne, Nov. 2001
Version 2 circa 2006-2007
Omits Conference Coordinator as an elected office.
Version 3 Joe Touch, Aug. 2012
Updates election procedure to IRV method used since 2008.
Includes conference endorsement procedures previously approved.

 

1. Name

IEEE Communications Society Technical Committee on Computer Communications,
abbreviated as TCCC.

2. Mission

The TCCC facilitates research and education in computer communications, particularly the transport of data and multimedia content in packet networks.

3. Charter

The primary goal of the Committee is to provide its members with a forum that promotes technical discussions and interactions on topics in the general area of Computer Communications, as well as give them the opportunity to broaden their professional contacts through interactions with peers.  The area of Computer Communications is clearly a broad one, and also a continuously changing one because of the pace at which the underlying technology is progressing.  The goals of TCCC are, therefore, to both enable our members to keep abreast of the latest trends and results in the field of Computer Communications, and also, and probably more important, to provide them with a vehicle through which they can contribute to and influence the direction of research and engineering in this field.
Achieving these goals take many forms.  Through our conference representatives, we participate in the paper review process and session organization of the different conferences and workshops we sponsor, and also play an active role in proposing tutorials as well as organizing special sessions on hot or emerging topics.  During our meetings, we exchange views on how we can further promote the topics of interest to our members, initiate discussions on other relevant IEEE issues such as publications or interactions with other Technical Committees, and open the floor to technical questions and discussions.  Finally, many of our activities are carried on our mailing list tccc@lists.cs.columbia.edu, which is used to post relevant technical material as well as announcements on available positions, calls for papers, etc.
As mentioned earlier, the field of Computer Communications is by now a very diverse one.  The areas of interest to TCCC include “traditional” networking topics such as performance of computer networks and switch architectures, interfaces and protocols, scheduling and buffer management, routing, multicast, flow control and admission control algorithms, error control, wireless and optical networks, network security, network reliability, network measurements and network management.  They also encompass areas such as multimedia applications, Web server performance and caching strategies, end-to-end performance, network pricing models, protocol verification and testing, end-systems designs, and other recent research topics from the field of networking.

4. Membership

A member is defined as anyone interested in furthering the goals of the TCCC mission statement who subscribes to the TCCC mailing list.  The IEEE Communications may impose additional membership requirements in the future.  Anyone can subscribe to the TCCC technical mailing list; only subscribers to that mailing list can post messages.

5. Elected and Appointed Officers

TCCC has three elected officers, as follow. Other appointed officers are determined at the discretion of the elected officers, serving a term coincident with the officers.

5.1. Chair

The Chair sets overall direction and policy, in consultation with other officers and the TCCC membership, coordinates the activities of other TCCC Officers, chairs the TCCC meetings, represents the committee in the ComSoc Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), and initiates elections for vacant officer positions. The chair, in consultation with the other officers, also approves or denies requests for TCCC to technically co-sponsor conferences and workshops.

5.2. Vice Chair

The Vice Chair fulfills the duties of the Chair in his or her absence.

5.3. Secretary

The Secretary maintains the TCCC web page and mailing list(s), deals with questions regarding mailing list postings and web page, arranges for meeting facilities for TCCC meetings, announces these meetings to the TCCC membership, compiles minutes of the meetings, and participates in the discussions of the TCCC Officers.

6. Officer Elections

Officers are elected for renewable terms of two years. If an officer resigns before the expiration of his or her term, a successor is elected to fill the remainder of the term.
Any member of the TCCC can nominate candidates, including himself or herself.  At the time of election, candidates must be members of the IEEE Communications Society, IEEE Communications Society Affiliate or IEEE Communications Society Sister Society. The Chair solicits nominations for a period of at least two weeks on the TCCC mailing list. It is highly desirable that each position has at least two candidates. Candidates nominated must agree to serve before being put on a ballot. It is also highly desirable that candidates have been active on the TCCC mailing list, e.g., by posts beyond meeting and job announcements.
Each TCCC member has one vote. The election is conducted using Instant Runoff Voting, in which each vote includes a ranking order of all candidates for each office. Ties will be resolved by randomization using publicly-verifiable information, such as a well-known stock market average.
A candidate can be candidate for more than one office. If a candidate is elected for Chair, he or she is removed from consideration for all other offices. Similarly, if a candidate is elected for Vice Chair, he or she is removed from consideration for Secretary.
Balloting is by email, for a duration of two weeks. At the end of the election, the election results will be presented to the TCCC mailing list.  The email addresses of those voting are also indicated, but not their vote.  Email is sent to a person designated by the Chair.  All officers, except those under consideration for a particular position, may inspect the ballots. If such inspection does not satisfy a candidate or a member of TCCC, such person can appeal the election to the appropriate officers of the IEEE Communications Society’s Technical Activities Council.
The election is supervised by the Chair unless the Chair is also a candidate for TCCC office. In that case, the Vice Chair and Secretary fulfill this duty, in that order.
There is no quorum for the election.

7. Mailing List

The TCCC electronic mailing list is for discussion of a technical nature, or issues related to TCCC business.
Faculty positions as well as post-doctoral, graduate and under-graduate student positions, and summer internships can be posted on the TCCC mailing list without consulting the TCCC chair, provided they are in areas that are likely to be of interest to TCCC members.  If in doubt regarding the latter point, please check first with the TCCC chair.
The TCCC mailing list is also open to other postings of potential interest to its members, which include job offers subject to the limitations of the ComSoc (noted above), and RFIs or RFPs in areas of technical interest to TCCC members. Those may be publicized on the TCCC mailing list, provided that such requests are first cleared with the TCCC chair.  In the context of RFIs and RFPs, the TCCC chair and other TCCC officers will evaluate the technical relevance of the RFI/RFP, possibly with the assistance of other TCCC members, and determine their suitability for posting on the TCCC mailing list.
Assuming a favorable response to a request for posting an announcement related to an RFI or RFP, the information to be distributed on the mailing list should preferably be in the form of a title and short abstract describing the essence of the proposal, with a pointer (URL) to a site from where the full document and additional information can be retrieved.  In cases where the requesters cannot make their proposals available on-line and depending on the actual size of the documents, such postings will either be sent directly on the mailing list (short documents) or optionally posted on the TCCC web page with a short summary sent to the TCCC mailing list.
Note that posting to the list without explicitly including the list in the To:  field is an expressly prohibited use of the mailing list.  In other words, do not include TCCC in meta lists, i.e., a mailing list consisting of other mailing lists, as this has been shown repeatedly to cause mail storms.  Violations of this policy will be brought to the attention of the local administrator.
Postings to the mailing list should be in plain text, i.e., no attachments.  Additional information should be referenced via a URL pointing to the document.  If attachments cannot be avoided, they should use open-standard document formats such as HTML or PDF.
The mailing list should be archived.
The TCCC mailing list is not moderated.  Only members of TCCC can post to the mailing list.  Other postings are reviewed by the TCCC Secretary and may be forwarded at his or her discretion.  TCCC will choose a suitable site for hosting the mailing list, preferably IEEE Communications Society.  Such site must allow for the filtering of email as described.
Posters to the mailing list should identify themselves by true name and professional affiliation.  (It is sufficient if the sender’s email address identifies the affiliation.)
TCCC may, at its discretion, set up additional mailing list.

8. Budget and Expense Policies

TCCC has no budget.

9. TCCC Meetings

TCCC meets at places deemed convenient for its membership, chosen from the major IEEE Communications Society conferences, currently ICC, Globecom and IEEE Infocom.
Meetings are announced at least two weeks in advance on the TCCC mailing list. Meetings are open to any conference attendee.
Meetings are chaired by the TCCC Chair or a designated substitute, typically another TCCC Officer. Any TCCC member can suggest items for the agenda.
The Secretary will take minutes; in the absence of the Secretary, a designee of the meeting chair can substitute. Minutes should be made available within one month of the meeting. Their availability is announced on the TCCC mailing list. Minutes are posted on the TCCC web site and are public.

10. TCCC Support of Meetings and Conferences

TCCC aims to assist the IEEE Communications Society and other appropriate entities in meetings and conferences that fall within its scope. The Officers will do so through:

  • Endorsement of technical sponsorship when asked by ComSoc;
  • Solicitation of reviewers, session chairs, panel contributors for conferences from its membership;
  • Dissemination of call for papers and participation on its mailing list and web page.

TCCC has been endorsing the IEEE Infocom and the Computer Communications Workshop for many years.

10.1. TCCC Endorsement

The TCCC endorses meetings in support of IEEE ComSoc technical cosponsorship. Please see the ComSoc website for their procedures on applying for ComSoc technical cosponsorship. TCCC reviews applications for ComSoc technical cosponsorship as a regular part of that process, but we will also provide early feedback for applicants in advance of their submitting formally to the ComSoc.
Note that TCCC endorsement by itself is never provided; we provide early intent to endorse meetings which are later submitted through the ComSoc process. TCCC endorsement must not be indicated until ComSoc technical cosponsorship has been granted.
Like the ComSoc technical cosponsorship, TCCC endorsement is granted to events on a per-instance basis; repeated events (e.g., of a series) must reapply for each new instance.
Like the ComSoc, TCCC does not permit meetings to identify themselves as “pending” TCCC endorsement, nor should they use TCCC or IEEE logos until endorsement and in-cooperation with the ComSoc has been granted.Like the ComSoc, TCCC expects requests for endorsement to be made in sufficient advance of the meeting.
TCCC endorsement is intended for meetings whose primary focus is computer communications (including meetings bridging computer communications with disparate fields).
TCCC reiterates the purpose of endorsement, which, as noted on the ComSoc sponsorship application, include:
“The endorsement helps to ensure that the technical program falls within the committee’s scope, that there is a quality, independent peer review process for paper selection, and that three members of the ComSoc TC will be active members of the event’s technical program committee.”As a result, TCCC determines responses to requests for endorsement based on the following criteria:

  1. the meeting is in-scope for TCCC
  2. that the meeting has a peer review process in which every submission* receives at least three substantive and independent reviews
  3. the meeting has an appropriate TPC
  4. the meeting is demonstrably non-profit
  5. the meeting has an acceptance rate and acceptance rate history (where applicable) appropriate to the meeting type
  6. the request is made in advance of all aspects of the meeting TCCC shall specifically require the application be received at least two months prior to the deadline for the initial due date for responses to the call for participation for any part of the meeting (papers, posters, panel chairs, track/symposium topics, tutorials, etc.)
  7. TCCC shall be permitted to select or appoint three TPC members to monitor and report back on the above points, (or shall approve three existing TPC members who are TCCC members, at the TCCC’s discretion)

The requirements for submitting a request for TCCC endorsement consists of sending a copy of the following information to any TCCC officer:

  • date and location information
  • info on the two most recent meetings:
    • number of submissions
    • accept rate (percent accepted)
    • amount of time on reviewed submissions vs. other, i.e., invited papers, speakers, panels
    • number of reviews per paper
  • names, affiliations, and locale of the following:
    • general chair
    • program chair
    • TPC members
  • description of the focus of the meeting (1 paragraph or a draft call for papers)
  • description of the components of the meeting i.e., fraction of the meeting time on each of:
    • reviewed submissions
    • invited submissions
    • panels
    •  invited speakers
    • co-located workshops, demos, etc.
  • description of the review process, number of reviewers, paper length, approx. intended acceptance rate
  • description of the budget overheads of the meeting, i.e., non-profit status, extent of support to parent/sponsoring entity
  • brief description of why TCCC endorsement is requested

If endorsement is granted to an event, we offer:

  1. The meeting may indicate TCCC endorsement (“Endorsed by TCCC”) on the primary meeting web pages, the proceedings, and other promotional material (e-mails, paper announcements, etc.), after the meeting receives ComSoc in-cooperation status.
  2. The meeting site / publications may include the TCCC logo, after the meeting receives ComSoc in-cooperation status.
  3. TCCC will cross-list info on the meeting on our web pages, and note our endorsement at our meetings

TCCC will, through its conference monitor in communication with the meeting’s TCCC representative, ensure the following:

  1. The meeting included mostly peer-reviewed papers
  2. The peer review process was rigorous, e.g., three detailed reviews for each submitted paper
  3. Selection of accepted papes was determined by the technical program committee through email discussions and/or a program committee meeting
  4. Most paper presentations were made by an author of the paper – Invited papers were included in conference proceedings

During the period of TCCC endorsement of an event, we expect the following:

  • The meeting shall notify the TCCC on any significant changes to info provided in the application (at which point the application will be re-reviewed)
  • The meeting shall allow for 3 TCCC members on the TPC, to be confirmed after endorsement is determined. TPC members already in TCCC may, at the discretion of TCCC, be selected for this purpose. The appointed members will report back to the TCCC on the paper review process and file a brief (1 paragraph) report to the email list.

Regarding any changes to a meeting once endorsed:

  • Once a TC endorses a meeting, the representatives to that meeting should be tracking and reporting back on substantive changes to process or organization (large increase/change in the TPC, large number of additional side-meetings, etc.)
  • It is understandable to add workshops, tutorials, or other side meetings after endorsement/support is determined, but these should be commensurate with being ancillary (side meetings shouldn’t overtake the core meeting goals), and related to the core meeting
  • If proceedings of the side meetings is intended to be available via Xplore, that general decision needs to be made at the time of endorsement/support.
  • If details of such meetings are known at the time of endorsement, then the decision of endorsing the meeting will be contingent on endorsing its side meetings.
  • If the details of such meetings are to be decided post endorsement, then the TCCC reserves the right to decide on endorsement of side meetings on a per-side-meeting basis, and the endorsement of the core meeting is made agreeing to this right.

Any changes that result in ComSoc withdrawal of technical cosponsorship will result in TCCC withdrawal of endorsement. Any changes that result in TCCC withdrawal of endorsement will result in a report to the ComSoc and recommendation that they withdraw technical cosponsorship.

11. TCCC Information Dissemination

TCCC maintains a mailing list (see above) and web page.  The TCCC web site, including the mailing list archive, is accessible to the public.

12. Changes in Policies and Procedures

Any TCCC member can petition to make changes in the above policies and procedures.  Such changes can be voted in either by a “last call” or by an explicit vote.  A “last call” solicits objections to the change on the TCCC mailing list.  If there are none within a two-week period, the change becomes effective.  If there are objections, a formal vote is held.  Changes are voted by a simple majority of respondents, with a quorum of 10% of the TCCC membership.  The change petition fails if no quorum is reached.
If a part of the policy conflicts with IEEE or IEEE Communications Society policies, IEEE or IEEE Communications Society policy takes precedence, but the remainder of the policy remains in effect.

 

* excepting only those declined due to process (format, late, etc.) or scope (widely out of scope, or widely out of context for a technical meeting)