Professor Harley Myler is bound for Egypt, Dec. 16-18, but it isn’t the nation’s antiquity that is drawing him there; it’s the future.
Myler, holder of the Mitchell Endowed Chair and chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Lamar University, will be there to serve as the keynote speaker on the convergence of information technologies. Myler will address the attendees of the Information Technology Institute’s fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technology, to be held at the Cairo Marriott Hotel.
Myler’s address, “Network and Media Convergence: Issues, Challenges and Trends” will take a look at technology issues that will shape the future of the information age.
“The world is currently witnessing the arrival of a new domain in telecommunications, that of network and media convergence,” Myler said. “This new field was motivated by the desire to provide a unified interface capable of supporting various services across the many types of delivery networks that are available. “
Myler describes a “a rush to develop and implement new standards and protocols” that include both “Triple Play” delivery of voice, data and video, and “Quadruple Play” delivery of voice, data, video, and mobility.
“Among the emerging standards is the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) that is an overlay control subsystem across heterogeneous access networks,” Myler said. “IMS will enable fixed and mobile convergence and support service mobility.”
On the practical side, Myler said, an intense competition is underway among fixed and mobile network operators where each is striving to be the leader in providing fixed-mobile convergence. At the same time, competition to converge applications is taking place among Internet Service Providers and content providers seeking to gain customer loyalty.
Not to be overlooked in this rush to convergence is the need for security techniques and policies that ensure confidentiality, privacy, anonymity, availability, and accountability, Myler said.
“Clearly, these activities cannot be sustained and enhanced without developing an appropriate regulatory framework that defines the roles, rights, and responsibilities of all involved parties,” he said.
In his address, Myler will cover the many crucial issues underlying network and media convergence.
“We also examine current activities and track future trends that will help us grasp the bigger picture of this new and exciting realm,” he said, “a development that is expected to shape the way we live for many years to come.”
Myler graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1975 with a double major in chemistry and electrical engineering. After military service as a missile systems officer in the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery, he attended the New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, N.M., and received the M.S.E.E. degree in 1981 and the Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1985.
From 1986 to 2001, Myler was a professor on the faculty of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida in Orlando where he was named researcher of the year four times. In 2001, he accepted the Mitchell Endowed Chair at Lamar University as well as the chairmanship of the Phillip M. Drayer Department of Electrical Engineering.
Myler has published four books, more than 30 refereed papers and over 50 conference articles and holds two U.S. patents. His research and teaching interests are in digital video, HDTV and broadcast technologies.
