Dawit Birhanu

Mobeen Tahir, CCIE No. 12643 (SP, R&S), is a network consulting engineer with the World Wide Service Provider Practice team in Cisco. Mobeen started his career in the communication industry in 1993 with France-based Alcatel. While working for Alcatel between 1993 and 1998, Mobeen engaged in assignments ranging from manufacturing voice switches to planning large-scale telecommunications projects. He joined Cisco in 1999 and has worked on the development testing of the IOS XR operating system for c12000 and CRS-1 platforms. His current role as a network consulting engineer at Cisco consists of designing and deploying NGN networks in the service provider space. Mobeen specializes in IOS XR—based deployments and provides consulting services to Cisco customers. Mobeen has attained master of engineering and B.S.E.E degrees from institutions in Canada and the United States. He lives with his wife and two children in Cary, North Carolina.

Mark Ghattas, CCIE No. 19706 (Service Provider), is a solutions architect focusing on architecture and design. He manages the World Wide Service Provider NGN Core Practice team in Advanced Services. Mark has more than 15 years of experience with data communication technologies. Mark joined Cisco Systems in 1999 and has supported strategic service providers. Mark has supported many of the first CRS-1 customers in Japan and the Asia Pacific theatre, CANSAC, Latin America, and North America. He has presented on various topics at Networkers relating to IOS XR. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and plans to earn his MBA degree.

Dawit Birhanu, CCIE No. 5602, is a technical leader with the World Wide Service Provider Practice team in Cisco Systems, where he is responsible for assisting global service providers with the deployment of new NGN products and technologies. He specializes in IOS XR—based platforms, QoS, MPLS, and BGP. Dawit joined Cisco Systems in 2000 and has worked on the deployment of new technologies for Cisco 12000 and CRS-1 in the service provider space. Dawit has a master of telecommunications degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a master of electronics engineering degree from Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. Before getting into the networking industry, Dawit was a lecturer of electrical engineering at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, between 1992 and 1995. Dawit lives with his wife and two daughters in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Syed Natif Nawaz,CCIE No. 8825 (SP, R&S), has more than ten years of experience in providing networking design, deployments, and escalation assistance to various service provider customers. Syed Natif Nawaz is currently the IOS XE software development manager at Cisco Systems, where he works on customer-focused software qualification/certification/deployment, feature integration, release processes, and other software quality initiatives. He has presented on various MPLS-related topics in the Networkers conference (Florida), MPLS Power Sessions (London), NANOG (Dallas), and APRICOT (Perth) and has contributed to articles such as “L2VPN: Changing and Consolidating Networks” in Techworldand “Cell Packing” in Packet Magazine. Formerly, Syed Natif Nawaz worked as a development engineer at Assured Access technologies and Alcatel, where he developed software for access concentrators. In addition to higher education in electrical and electronics from the University of Madras, Syed Natif Nawaz also holds an M.S. in computer science and engineering from State University of New York at Buffalo.