Newsflash February 2023

Call for Papers – IEEE NetSoft 2023

The 9th IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization “Boosting Future Networks through Advanced Softwarization” – June 19 – 23, 2023, Madrid, Spain

Important Dates

• Paper submission deadline: January 30, 2023 (extended!)
• Acceptance notification: March 24, 2023
• Camera-ready paper: April 28, 2023

Aims and Scope

IEEE NetSoft, the premier International Conference on Network Softwarization, addresses the advanced research challenges and opportunities raised by the overall transformation trend of network “softwarization”, which has been revolutionizing the networking field and has accelerated its convergence with adjacent industries.

Network Softwarization refers to the transition of traditional network infrastructure and functionalities, provided via hardware appliances developed by equipment and service vendors, to new ones that have been propelled over the last 15 years by the maturity of widespread technologies such as network function virtualization, software-defined networking, and service function chaining.

In particular, the ability to program, manage and operate network and service infrastructures more freely makes it possible to reinvent network and cloud architectures, customize services, accelerate service deployment, and facilitate greater operational efficiencies with guarantees. The need for further advances in these topics is reflected in the overall theme of NetSoft 2023: Boosting Future Networks through Advanced Softwarization.

NetSoft 2023 will feature technical paper presentations, keynotes, tutorials, workshops, demos, and exhibitions from world-leading experts representing service providers, vendors, research institutes, open source projects, and academia. This year, a PhD symposium will also be initiated.

Topics of NetSoft 2023

The conference is soliciting paper submissions with significant research contributions to the field of network softwarization. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Softwarized cloud, fog, and edge infrastructures
• Network softwarization for 5G/6G
• Softwarization in Metaverse (AR/VR and digital twins)
• Cooperative multi-domain, multi-tenant SDN/NFV environments.
• Future Internet and New IP architectures.
• Mobility management in softwarized networks.
• High-precision communications and computing
• Service Function Chaining (SFC).
• Network slicing and slice management
• QoS and QoE in softwarized infrastructures.
• Network softwarization for deterministic Internet re-engineering
• Softwarization for Cognitive and autonomic networking
• Policy-based and Intent-based networking.
• AI/ML techniques and network softwarization
• Dynamic resource discovery and negotiation schemes.
• Assurance and Measurements in softwarized networks
• Resilience, reliability, and robustness of softwarized networks
• Security, Safety, Trust, and Privacy in virtualized environments.
• Energy Efficiency in network softwarization
• Abstractions and virtualization of resources, services, and functions.
• Programmability for Time-Sensitive Networks (TSN)
• Programmable Networking Protocols
• Programmable SDN and NFV: languages and architectures (P4 and others)
• Open source and network softwarization.
• Hardware acceleration for programmable network functions.
• Development methodologies for network softwarization (DevOps, NetOps, Verification).
• Deployment and transition strategies.
• Experience reports from experimental testbeds and deployments.
• New value chains and service models enabled by softwarization.
• Socio-economic impact and regulations for softwarization.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors are invited to submit high-quality original technical papers for presentation at the conference and publication in the NetSoft 2023 Proceedings. All submissions must be written in English and must use standard IEEE two-column conference template that can be downloaded from

https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html

Technical Papers can be of two types: Full or Short papers, up to 9 and 5 pages respectively, including references and all other material. If accepted, a paper will be published in the category (long/short) of its submission. Long papers are the more traditional form to present technical work. Long papers should emphasize not only novelty and vision, but execution and thoroughness of the contribution (design, evaluation). Short papers are the preferred vehicle for visionary papers or traditional technical papers whose description fits within a smaller number of pages. Short papers may not yet be ‘fully baked’ in terms of execution and evaluation. In both Full and Short papers, author names and affiliations should be included after the title, as provided in the templates.

Papers submitted should describe original, previously unpublished research results, not currently under review by another conference or journal. Papers not meeting the length and formatting requirements or violating IEEE’s guidelines on plagiarized content will be rejected without review. All other submitted papers will be reviewed. Selected papers for NetSoft 2023 may be conditionally accepted and subjected to shepherding before final acceptance.

Only PDF files will be accepted for the review process and all manuscripts must be electronically submitted through EDAS: https://edas.info/N30268

Important: NetSoft 2023 is enforcing a strict publication and no-show policy as stated by IEEE. By submitting a contribution, you agree with the terms of the publication and no-show policy as mentioned in https://netsoft2023.ieee-netsoft.org/authors/publication-and-no-show-policy

TPC Co-Chairs

• Elisa Rojas, Universidad de Alcalá (UAH), Spain
• Fábio Luciano Verdi, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Brazil
• Zuqing Zhu, University of Science and Technology of China, China

General Co-Chairs

• Barbara Martini – Universitas Mercatorum, Italy
• Carlos Jesus Bernardos – University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain

The 2023 IEEE GLOBECOM will be held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 4-8 December 2023. Themed “Intelligent Communications for Shared Prosperity,” the conference will offer five full days of original paper presentations, tutorials, workshops, industry program with keynotes and panels from prominent research, industry and government leaders, business and industry panels, and technological exhibits. In addition to exciting technical symposia, tutorials, industry panels and exhibitions, we solicit proposals for half-day or full-day workshops, to be held on 4 or 8 December 2023.

The aim of the conference workshops is to emphasize emerging topics that are not specifically covered in the main symposia. Each workshop may include a mix of regular papers, invited presentations, keynotes and panels that encourage the participation of attendees in active discussion.

Please address your questions to Workshop Program Co-Chairs Yacine Ghamri-Doudane, Guanyi Liu, Christos Verikoukis.

== Workshop Program Co-Chairs == 

·      Yacine Ghamri-Doudane, University of La Rochelle, France. <yacine.ghamri@univ-lr.fr>

·      Guanyi Liu, China Mobile, China. <liuguangyi@chinamobile.com>

·      Christos Verikoukis, ISI/ATH and University of Patras, Greece. <chverik@gmail.com>

== Recommended Outline of Proposals ==

The proposal should concisely and clearly describe the content and objectives of the workshop, and must include (maximum 5 pages):

·     Title of the workshop

·     Description of the technical issues covered, emphasizing the timeliness of the proposed workshop topics not covered or specifically addressed by the main conference symposia (1 page maximum)

·     Workshop Organizers (names, affiliation and contact information)

·     A short biography of the organizers (up to 200 words), highlighting any conferences/workshops chaired, especially in IEEE Globecom/ICC

·     Names of potential participants, such as program committee members and invited speakers (indication that speakers have accepted to participate is a plus)

·     Planned format of the workshop, including

–    duration of the workshop (Half-day, Full-day and tentative schedule)

–    preferred day of workshop (Sunday December 4 or Thursday December 8, 2023)

–    number of refereed papers, hot topic sessions, keynotes, panels (and panel formats) etc.

–    plan for the review of the refereed papers according to the ComSoc’s academic best-practices

–    unique, creative and novel workshop formats are strongly encouraged and will be given particular consideration.

·     Draft Call for Papers (max 1 page)

·     A description of the publicity and promotion plan

·     The workshop potential website address (if available at the time of the proposal – will be required later if the workshop proposal is accepted)

·     If appropriate, a description of past versions of the workshop, including number of submitted and accepted papers, number of attendees, etc.

== How to Submit Proposals == 

Workshop proposals should be submitted as a single PDF file online via EDAS here.

Proposals that address exciting topics in creative formats that generate lively interactions among participants are highly encouraged. Examples include facilitating multi-disciplinary discussions across academicians, practitioners and policy makers leading to high impact and transformative research. Papers will be added to the IEEE GLOBECOM Conference Proceedings and submitted to IEEE Xplore.

== Timeline == 

·     Proposal Submission Deadline: 15 March 2023

·     Acceptance Notification: 15 April 2023

·     CFP for Web Posting: 25 April 2023

·     Workshop Paper Submission Deadline: 15 July 2023

·     Paper Acceptance Notification: 1 September 2023

·     Camera Ready: 1 October 2023

Full instructions and important deadlines are posted here.