This workshop on “Protocols for High-Speed Networks” is the seventh in a s- cessful series of international workshops, well known for their small and focused target audience, that provide a sound basis for intensive discussions of hi- qualityand timelyresearch work. The location of the workshop has alternated between Europe and the United States, at venues not onlyworth visiting for the workshop, but also for the distinct impressions theyleave on the participants. The ?rst workshop was held in 1989 in Zurich. Subsequentlythe workshop was moved to Palo Alto (1990), Stockholm (1993), Vancouver (1994), Sophia-Antipolis/Nice (1996), and Salem (1999). In 2002, the workshop was hosted in Berlin, the capital of Germany. PfHSN is a workshop providing an international forum that focuses on issues related to high-speed networking, such as protocols, implementation techniques, router design, network processors and the like. Although the topics have shifted during the last couple of years, for example, from parallel protocol implemen- tions to network processors, it could be observed that high speed remains a very important issue with respect to future networking. Traditionally, PfHSN is a r- ativelyfocused and small workshop with an audience of about 60 participants.

As the speed of networks increase, users expect to deliver high bandwidth to their applications. There is much debate in the research community over the choice of protocols for these new networks. Discussion about new protocol architectures remains at center stage in the research community even as the user community continues to standardize protocols such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). New transport protocols as well as resource management mechanisms are being designed to support real time multimedia applications on gigabit networks. This volume focuses on state-of-the-art protocol design and efficienct implementation techniques, interfacing high speed networks to high performance host computers and ATM as a protocol for high speed networks.

1 This year marks the l0 h anniversary of the IFIP International Workshop on Protocols for High-Speed Networks (PfHSN). It began in May 1989, on a hillside overlooking Lake Zurich in Switzerland, and arrives now in Salem Massachusetts 6,000 kilometers away and 10 years later, in its sixth incarnation, but still with a waterfront view (the Atlantic Ocean). In between, it has visited some picturesque views of other lakes and bays of the world: Palo Alto (1990 - San Francisco Bay), Stockholm (1993 - Baltic Sea), Vancouver (1994- the Strait of Georgia and the Pacific Ocean), and Sophia Antipolis I Nice (1996- the Mediterranean Sea). PfHSN is a workshop providing an international forum for the exchange of information on high-speed networks. It is a relatively small workshop, limited to 80 participants or less, to encourage lively discussion and the active participation of all attendees. A significant component of the workshop is interactive in nature, with a long history of significant time reserved for discussions. This was enhanced in 1996 by Christophe Diot and W allid Dabbous with the institution of Working Sessions chaired by an "animator," who is a distinguished researcher focusing on topical issues of the day. These sessions are an audience participation event, and are one of the things that makes PfHSN a true "working conference.

Welcome to the fourth IFIP workshop on protocols for high speed networks in Vancouver. This workshop follows three very successful workshops held in Ziirich (1989), Palo Alto (1990) and Stockholm (1993) respectively. We received a large number of papers in response to our call for contributions. This year, forty papers were received of which sixteen were presented as full papers and four were presented as poster papers. Although we received many excellent papers the program committee decided to keep the number of full presentations low in order to accommodate more discussion in keeping with the format of a workshop. Many people have contributed to the success of this workshop including the members of the program committee who, with the additional reviewers, helped make the selection of the papers. We are thankful to all the authors of the papers that were submitted. We also thank several organizations which have contributed financially to this workshop, specially NSERC, ASI, CICSR, UBC, MPR Teltech and Newbridge Networks.

Multimedia data streams will form a major part of the new generation of applications in high-speed networks. Continuous media streams, however, require transmission with guaranteed performance. In addition, many multimedia applications will require peer-to-multipeer communication. Guaranteed performance can only be provided with resource reservation in the network, and efficient multipeer communication must be based on multicast support in the lower layers of the network. Architecture and Protocols for High-Speed Networks focuses on techniques for building the networks that will meet the needs of these multimedia applications. In particular two areas of current research interest in such communication systems are covered in depth. These are the protocol related aspects, such as switched networks, ATM, MAC layer, network and transport layer; and the services and applications. Architecture and Protocols for High-Speed Networks contains contributions from leading world experts, giving the most up-to-date research available. It is an essential reference for all professionals, engineers and researchers working in the area of high-speed networks.