E5 – LABORATORY FOR OPEN SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS

In memory of Peter Kirstein

Professor Peter Kirstein left this world on Wednesday, 8 January 2020. Professor Kirstein was, along with famous american computer legends Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, the frontrunner in research and development of communication between computer networks. Their efforts led to the development of today’s standard internet protocol TCP/IP.  Professor Kirstein also helped establish the first cross-atlantic internet line between USA and Europe (GB).  During his carieer he contributed a lot to the expansion of internet services and establishing internet infrastructure in Europe.

We collaborated intensively with professor Kirstein on the COSINE-EUREKA 8 project (1985–1991), which helped us in the growth and build of secure internet services, such as digital signatures and public key infrastructure in the year 1992. Later, in 2008–2010 we also collaborated in the development of a video-conference system Global Plaza.

Professor Kirstein will be missed especially for his optimism, friendship, teamwork, and wisdom.

Electrotechnical and Computer Science Conference (ERK 2019)

The ERK 2019 conference was held on September 23-24, 2019, in Portorož, Slovenia. It was organized by the IEEE Slovenia Section together with Faculty of Electrical Engineering University of Ljubljana and other Slovenian professional societies. From the Laboratory for Open Systems and Networks, the researcher Samed Bajrić  presented a research paper with the title “Reducing the number of solutions in the unit commitment problem using variations with repetition”, which is joint work with Izudin Softić, Nedžmija Demirović, Marina Pejić and Midhat Umihanić (all professors from Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Tuzla, BiH).

How Internet arrived in Slovenia

The book “Don Quihote in Slovenia or how Internet arrived in Slovenia”, written by prof. Borka Jerman Blažič and published by the Publishing Company e-Besede, provides very detailed information in narrative form about all scientific research that has contributed to the development of the computer networks, which are now known as the Internet and Internet services.

In the book, the basic components of the Internet are described in the context of the protocol stack war that took part in the eighties of the last century between the academics on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The long-lasting war delayed the development of the open computer systems and networks until 1991, when the Internet communication model, known as communication between the server and user device, emerged victorious. The book points to the advantages of the Internet communication model, among which are the intermediate devices that connect the Internet protocol stack with the underlying communication infrastructure composed from different technologies. In addition, the author points out that the Internet is a communication infrastructure without central governance, as the only central Internet infrastructure is composed from the hierarchical Domain Name Servers Infrastructure (DNS), which is the main glue that interconnect the Internet networks. The DNS infrastructure provides the mapping between the device numeric Internet address to the mnemonic name of the Internet components, for example “www.ijs.si”.

In the second part of the book, the author presents the events around Slovenia in the process of independence that coincided with the actions for setting up the first Internet network in the country and its inclusion in the world Internet. The book also contains 100 original documents from that time.

GIRDA Workshop – Learning Digital Skills for eldery people

Members of the Laboratory for Open Systems and Networks from Jožef Stefan Institute organized a workshop in the scope of the GIRDA project on 4 July 2019 in Orehov Gaj. Along with our partners Simbioza Genezis, organization that cares for the inter-generation cooperation and learning, and the Slovenia philanthropy, we presented the results from the project. Girda is a project from the EU program Erasmus+, where the main objective is development of methodology for improving the digital literacy among elderly adults based on digital games and touch screen tablets. The development and the application of novel methods for acquiring digital skills was oriented around methods that successfully enable better coordination of the cognitive and motor skills of the elderly adults. This in turn facilitates efficient use of the modern digital devices, like smart phone, in everyday life of elderly people.

25th Anniversary of the ISABEL videoconferencing system

The Laboratory for Open Systems and Networks at Jozef Stefan Institute, together with 19 partners from 12 countries from Europe, America and Africa, marked the 25th anniversary of the ISABEL videoconferencing system. In the past, the system was used to carry out a number of large-scale distributed events with participants from all over the world. With the goal of participating in these events in 1997, the members of the laboratory also established the first broadband optical ATM connection of Slovenia with the rest of the world. Experience in mastering new technologies and the results of further research on networks and videoconferencing systems were used in several successful European Union projects, such as NICE, UNIVERSAL, PROLEARN and GLOBAL, and the establishment of our infrastructure group.

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Laboratory for open systems and networks

  • Jamova cesta 39, 1000, Ljubljana
  • + 386 (0)1 477 3900
  • info@e5.ijs.si