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September 24, 2019

Stikine Room (Room 260) of Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1


The last few years have seen the emergence of a handful of paradigms, with the potential to impact the Internet infrastructure and the design and deployment of Internet-based services. These paradigms will have significant consequences for content delivery models, cloud networks, distributed computing and the economics of over-the-top application rollouts. These include aspects such as blockchain and decentralized Internet technologies, quantum communications and low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication networks. Following a brief review of the latest trends affecting the evolution of the Internet infrastructure, our talk will focus specifically on LEO satellite networks, and mostly addresses the challenges to overcome to ensure their potential success. It provides a glimpse of how the technologies, protocols, standards and mechanisms in use for the rollout of LEO-based communication networks over the next few years. There is an opportunity to leverage state-of-the-art Internet designs and evolving those optimally to enable the deployment of this new generation of space networks. We present a non-exhaustive review of some of the key aspects that need to be addressed, both in the service offerings and the technology development fronts. For each one of the dimensions considered, we list some of the aspects that require further work, and that could take advantage of the available Internet mechanisms and standards, for the specific context of LEO networks.

Riad Hartani's Bio

Dr. Riad Hartani has spent the past two decades designing and scaling-out foundational Internet technologies, mostly out of the Silicon Valley as a hub. He contributed to the development of notable world-firsts in Mobile and Space Internet technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Security and Blockchain. He has co-founded and led teams in multiple technology startups and innovation labs, including Xona Partners (a global telecom, media, technology advisory firm) and (a Fintech startup co-creation studio), including various Silicon Valley startups, with successful exits. He has advised some of the world’s top 10 technology corporations and top 10 global investment firms in the world. Earlier, he held lead roles in R&D centers primarily in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Canada, the USA and France.  He holds a Doctorate in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence). He is an active contributor to various industry fora, such as the IETF, ATMF, ITU-T, OIF, IPv6, IEEE and 3GPP, and a frequent invited speaker, chairman and panelist at global industry and technology events.  He has lived and lead R&D teams in about 8 countries, deployed advanced technology solutions in over 50 countries and travelled to over 100 countries/regions on 6 continents, gaining a valuable understanding of cross-cultural technology ecosystems development and management.

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