Professors Ted Rappaport, William Bard Speak at THEnet Conference

Professor Ted Rappaport, Director of WNCG, and Professor Bill Bard, a distinguished WNCG professor, were speakers at the THEnet Networking and Telecommunications Conference on March 6, 2003. The conference was hosted by the University of Texas System, and was held on the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in Austin. Representatives of many educational levels, libraries, health care, institutions, and agencies throughout the State of Texas were in attendance.

Professor Rappaport spoke in depth about wireless technologies and the recent breakthroughs that allow accurate prediction of wireless end-users network performance based on antenna and access point locations. Rappaport’s work is the first to allow RF engineering to appear invisible to IT professionals so that rapid deployment and blind WLAN design can be carried out in minutes.

Professor Bill Bard closed the afternoon program with his presentation "Voice on the Internet." The talk focused on the growing imperatives for transitioning voice telephone services from legacy circuit switched to packet switched infrastructures. Benefits that accrue from the convergence include new services, e.g., unified messaging, compatibility with 3G wireless technology, and elimination of duplicative/redundant equipment, plant, and administrative overhead.

Power Point presentations for both talks are available on the THEnet conference web site at the following addresses:

Rappaport: http://www.the.net/conference/agenda/rappaport.html
Bard: http://www.the.net/conference/agenda/bard.html