Second Workshop on Flexible and Agile Networks (FlexNets) (in conjuction with WCNC 2018)

FlexNets 2018


Computer Networks & Wireless Communication



Call for Papers for the Second Workshop on Flexible and Agile Networks (FlexNets)
In conjunction with the IEEE WCNC (http://wcnc2018.ieee-wcnc.org)
15-18 April 2018, Barcelona, Spain
http://wcnc2018.ieee-wcnc.org/workshop/second-workshop-flexible-and-agile-networks-flexnets
Paper Submission: November 02, 2017
Paper Acceptance Notification: December 15, 2017
Submissions: http://edas.info/N24107
There has been a tremendous evolution from voice systems to sophisticated communication platforms in mobile communications. Today’s mobile communication systems provide a diverse set of services and applications to a large number of devices. Nevertheless, future systems such as 5G are expected to serve applications with varying requirements, be adaptive to dynamic topologies, and take autonomous decisions to reconfigure the networks for efficiency and resiliency purposes. Flexible and agile networking solutions are required to deal with uncertainties and unknowns, and also to enable backward and forward compatibility.
In this workshop, the following topics will be considered:
• Reconfigurable end-to-end mobile network architectures
• Autonomous network function allocation and placement
• Flexible network management, self-organized networks, CORD, mobile CORD
• Mobile edge, cloudlet, cloud computing for assisting radio access networks (RAN) in 5G mobile networks
• Virtualization of network functions and elements, microservices
• Virtual radio access technologies
• Heterogeneous traffic distribution in heterogeneous wireless networks
• 3GPP and Non-3GPP interconnection
• Multi-context awareness, multi-service and multi-tenancy and network slicing,
• Adaptation to the underlying networking and computing infrastructure,
• Energy-efficient RAN and elasticity in RAN, RANaaS,
• Programmable RAN and software-defined networking (SDN) architectures,
• User-in-the-loop, spatial and temporal demand shaping in wireless networks
• Service-oriented network management, service orchestration
• Flexible backhauling/fronthauling
• Control-data plane split
• Runtime flexibility in verticals
• UAV (drone) assisted agile networks, Mobile BSs
• Flexible public radio interfaces
• Flexibility in/for machine-type communication and IoT
All in all, future networks must be flexible and elastic to easily introduce new services, applications and business models. Any topic related to this concept is welcome. In relation to the timeliness of this workshop proposal, please refer to several European Union H2020 5G-PPP phase 1 projects such as FANTASTIC-5G (Flexible Air Interface for Scalable service delivery within Wireless Communication networks of the 5th Generation) and Flex5Gware (Flexible and efficient hardware/software platforms for 5G network elements and devices) addressing these issues. Furthermore, the 5G-PPP phase 2 pre-structuring model includes some target actions (TA) related to flexibility in mobile networks, specifically TA5, Novel Radio System Architecture.
Keynote Speech By Erol Gelenbe (Imperial College)
Keynote Speech Title: “QoS and Resilience with the Cognitive Packet Network”
Keynote Speech Abstract: The Cognitive Packet Network (CPN) is a bio-inspired packet network routing method (US Patent US6804201) which is adaptive, distributed and robust, and which has been implemented and experimentally tested. It also offers an effective resilience to worm and denial of service attacks. We will describe CPN and detail its reinforcement learning based quality of service routing approach based on measurements, using a Random Neural Network as the adaptive critic and decision engine. We will outline the motivation for this technique, and detail its principles and implementation. Experiments on a large laboratory test-bed and for intercontinental routing will be presented to illustrate the method. Extensions of CPN to energy-aware routing will also be discussed.
Biography: Erol Gelenbe was born in Turkey and received his PhD in the USA. During 1973-93, he was a Research Director at INRIA where he founded the performance modelling and evaluation groups in France. He also influenced the creation of research groups throughout Europe, and held professorships at the Universities of Liege (Belgium), Paris-Sud (Orsay) and Paris V. He has invented new mathematical models, such as the Random Neural Network and G-Network, and contributed to practical developments such as the SYCOMORE Voice-packet switch, the XANTHOS fibre-optics local area network, the QNAP and FLEXSIM simulation/modelling packages, the C2Agents Decision Tool and the CPN machine learning based packet routing algorithm. He has held chaired professorships at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Duke University, University of Central Florida, and is currently the “Dennis Gabor Professor” at Imperial College. He graduated over 74 PhDs, including 17 women, and 47 of his former PhD students work in Europe. Elected Fellow of ACM and IEEE, his awards include Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur, Officier du Merite, Commendatore al Merito (IT), Grand Prix France Telecom (French Academy of Sciences), ACM SIGMETRICS Life-Time Achievement Award, Denis Gabor Award (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Oliver Lodge Medal (IET, UK), and three “doctorates honoris causa”. He was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Technologies of France, the Royal Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of Belgium, and the Science Academies of Hungary, Poland and Turkey.
Important Dates
Paper Submission: November 02, 2017
Paper Acceptance Notification: December 15, 2017
Camera-Ready Papers Due: January 12, 2018
Submissions
Papers should be submitted through this link: http://edas.info/N24107
Chairs
Rui Aguiar, co-chair, Campus Universitario de Santiago, Portugal, ruilaa@ua.pt
Ilker Demirkol, co-chair, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain, ilker.demirkol@entel.upc.edu
Marcelo Carvalho, publicity chair, University of Brasilia, Brazil, mmcarvalho@ene.unb.br
Yunus Donmez, TPC co-chair, NETAS, Turkey, ydonmez@netas.com.tr
Ertan Onur, TPC co-chair, Middle East Technical University, Turkey, eronur@metu.edu.tr