[EFM] IEEE 802.3ah Meeting hosted by Samsung and Infineon
Dear Member of the IEEE 802.3ah EFM Task Force,
Now that the Seoul meeting of the IEEE 802.3ah EFM Task Force,
hosted by Samsung and Infineon, has concluded, I wish
to offer my profound thanks for a very successful meeting,
and for the exceptional arrangements, facilities, and
service that we enjoyed.
I have been chairing task force meetings in the IEEE
802.3 Working Group for 10 years, in locations around
the world. No host and no hotel has ever done more
to make our group feel welcome, comfortable, and productive.
This meeting will stand out in my mind as one of the best we
have had to date, in all respects.
I would be remiss in not acknowledging the contributions
of the following individuals and organizations:
Song Jaeyeon of Samsung deserves our thanks for all of
her efforts to host this meeting. Dr. Song worked tirelessly
to convey our needs to the hotel, ensuring that every detail
was in order, and ensuring that we achieved our goal of
involving local participants. Samsung deserves
our thanks for using its resources to secure a world class
venue, and for its contributions to the work of the task force.
Thomas Murphy and John Egan of Infineon provided the initial
vision of holding an interim meeting in Korea, so that we
could witness first hand how a technologically advanced country
is embracing EFM. I am grateful for their leadership and
wisdom in this choice, and for Infineon's demonstrated
commitment to our project.
I must thank all of the participants from Korea,
who patiently sat through our sessions, probably wondering what
all the fuss was about. If there was ever any doubt about
whether EFM meets the "5 Criteria" for a new project
in the IEEE 802 LMSC, that doubt went out the window at this
meeting. The technology reflected in our draft is alive and
well and being deployed all over the country, and the engineers
who came to our meeting to share their experience and expertise
in EFM provided inspiration to us all. I offer a special
thanks to Kim Chan of ETRI for his assistance in
removing barriers to communication.
The J. W. Marriott in Seoul truly has the best facility and
the best staff that I have encountered in my travels.
In particular, I must thank Heidi Kim and Ginnie Park for
their extraordinary efforts to accommodate us. Every member
of the staff at the hotel should also be commended for providing
a level of service and attention to detail that cannot be
exaggerated.
From the meeting facilities, to the audio visual equipment,
to the lavish food and beverage service, to the internet connectivity,
and all of the myriad details, we could not have asked for
a better venue. I wish that Mr. Cho could be present at
all of our meetings, and I ask that my thanks be conveyed to
him by the hotel, as I do not have an email address for him.
As always, the staff at Face to Face Events did an exceptional
job of planning, organizing, and executing the event. Given
the fact that Dawn Slykhouse and her staff were running
three simultaneous meetings in three countries, one can only
wonder at how they were able to make it all come together so well.
They are truly up to any challenge. Hurricanes, global
conflict, economic downturns, and scary diseases are but
trivial problems for this bunch. I am particularly grateful
for Darcel Moro's on-site support. Maybe if F2F was running
the UN, we would all be enjoying world peace by now.
Finally, I offer my thanks to all of the members of the
IEEE 802.3ah EFM Task Force who attended the meeting.
You demonstrated a level of commitment that is worthy
of recognition. We resolved over 1500 comments in our effort
to refine our draft and get it ready for an IEEE 802.3 Working
Group ballot. We had a very productive meeting, and we should
all be very proud of our accomplishment.
Howard Frazier
Chair, IEEE 802.3ah EFM Task Force