While the global telecom industry is struggling with growing pains, I've had a stream of inspirations on how to bring solutions and take industry to new heights. I am writing details of my vision as a book on Telecommunication Network Architecture. In this seminar I will share elements of my thinking, in plain English for both technical and non-technical people, focusing on strategic thinking rather than technical details.

My basic paradigm is to promote public interests and maximize benefits to consumers in order to achieve a socially responsible and successful industry. This then unfolds into an elaborate thinking which starts with the question 'What networks should the industry build in order to really appeal to the market?' But this is a question of design, not engineering. It is best answered by a specialized "Telecommunication Network Architecture" design discipline that complements the Telecommunication Engineering discipline. Hence the seminar topics include:

• Making the case for "Telecommunication Network Architecture" to be developed as this new discipline specializing in the design aspects of telecom networks. Its scope being to design networks as the nervous system of civilization, with inspirations from building architecture and from nature's design of life-forms.
• Fundamentals of this new discipline: creativity in design, the architecture process - from 'identifying customer needs' to 'producing the network design concepts', including 'regulations & standards' and 'presentation of network models'.
• Its implementation and its impacts on the telecom industry, telecom technology, telecom networks, the global digital divide, and the long term future.
• The need for a multi-disciplinary research program to further advance this new discipline, involving multiple University Departments.

Dr. Shila Heeralall is currently writing a book on Telecommunication Network Architecture. This project results from a long time interest in architecture, deep insights from 20 years of experience in the global telecom industry, and a present desire to help industry rise to new heights. Until 2001 she was with Lucent in NJ where she was a Lucent/US delegate to international standards meetings of ITU-T, ITU-R, 3GPP2, etc. participating in Systems aspects for IMT-2000 and All-IP networks. She held various leadership positions: Lucent delegation manager to ITU-R, Chairperson of CDG WLL, Editor of ITU-T Recs., and ITU-R Liaison Rapporteur to ITU-T. She led campaigns to get the 'family concept' adopted in ITU-T as a basis for convergence of IMT-2000 networks, and to get cdma2000 included in ITU-R Recs. Before 1997, she was with Nortel in Ottawa, doing Systems Engineering and Wireless Standards; and earlier with Bell Mobility in Toronto as a Canadian delegate to ITU-R promoting global roaming and lobbying for spectrum allocations at WARC'92. In 1988, she was awarded a contract in UK to simulate/evaluate GSM layer 3 protocols. Before 1985, she was with Mauritius Telecom managing various aspects of the wireline network. Dr. Heeralall has a B.Sc. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Leeds University, UK, a M.Sc. in Telecommunication Systems and a Ph.D. in Cellular Mobile Radio Systems, both from Essex University, UK. She has authored and presented numerous standards contributions and many conference papers on topics dealing with telecommunication systems.