The process of putting together the SIGCOMM technical program was a challenging one. There were a record 300 submissions this year with authors from well over a hundred different institutions. The program committee selected 25 papers, which we've grouped into 9 sessions. We trust you'll find the program and talks exciting and thought-provoking!All submissions to SIGCOMM 2002 underwent a rigorous double-blind review process by members of the program committee and nearly 100 external reviewers from the community (see page xxx). In response to advice from the SIGCOMM Technical Advisory Committee, the program committee was smaller (24 members) than usual this year. The goal was to foster a particularly broad participation at the PC meeting, though it required that each PC member put in an immense amount of work. We also strongly encouraged the PC to emphasize innovation over perfect execution in evaluating each paper. Our aim was to include as many "high-risk," thought-provoking papers as we could.Cumulatively, the PC and external reviewers generated 942 reviews. The median number of reviews per paper was 4, with some papers receiving as many as 9 reviews. The culmination of the review process was the PC meeting held at MIT on April 11, 2002. The meeting started at 8:30am and ran until 11pm, with a break for dinner in between. The result was a selection of 25 high-quality papers, including a few papers that were accepted with shepherding by members of the PC to ensure that any significant concerns raised by the reviewers or the PC were satisfactorily addressed.SIGCOMM 2002 features a single-track technical program that spans the areas of Internet routing and BGP, flow measurements and simulation, protocol design, overlay networks, and new theoretical results.In addition, and for the first time, SIGCOMM includes a session on "position papers" that articulate high-level architectural principles and challenging future directions. The PC selected two position papers from 36 submissions, in a process that was both highly stimulating and quite contentious. While it's clear to us that the process of shaping and accepting good position papers will take time to fully iron out, we are excited by the possibilities they offer for broadening SIGCOMM's scope, and urge SIGCOMM to continue the experiment for a few years to gain further experience with the idea.The technical program also features a student poster session showcasing works-in-progress, as well as an invited talk by Mike O'Dell, who promises to provide a thought-providing reality check on the future prospects and challenges of network research for building tomorrow's global networks.