Message from the general co-chairs

Welcome to the Third IEEE International Symposium on Advanced Networks and Telecommunications Systems (ANTS) 2009. IEEE ANTS started out as plain ANTS in 2007 and was a two-day single-track event then. In its second year, ANTS became IEEE ANTS due to the IEEE Communications Society becoming a full sponsor of the event. The conference also grew into a 3-day event. In this third year, IEEE ANTS continues to become stronger by attracting more paper submissions - 59 in 2007, 109 in 2008, and 139 in 2009. It continues to be a single-track event to encourage stronger cross-fertilization of ideas among its attendees with diverse backgrounds, but this year papers were solicited under 4 different areas — Core telecom networks, Access telecom networks, Network applications, and Networking broadly defined. IEEE ANTS 2009 also boasts a star-studded lineup of 8 keynote speakers, 17 invited speakers, and numerous panelists from industry and academia to discuss their perspectives on topics such as service provider issues, unified communications, telecom opportunities, telecom research in India, etc.