10th IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization
24–28 June 2024 // St. Louis // USA
Softwarized Networks in the Age of Generative AI

Call for PhD Symposium

 

IMPORTANT DATES

Paper submission deadline: April 1, 2024 [Firm]  Author's notification deadline: May 1, 2024 Camera ready deadline: May 7, 2024

OBJECTIVES

The spirit of the PhD symposium is to offer an opportunity for students, currently performing a PhD in the scientific scope of the Netsoft conference, as specified in the call for papers, to present the advancement of their research work and collect tailored feedback from experts of the Netsoft community. As such, expected submissions must be issued by ongoing or very recently defended PhD students. The PhD symposium clearly expects submissions which summarize the PhD scientific activities at a given advancement stage. As such, they must not overlap with traditional scientific papers presented as long or short papers in conferences and workshops.

Since the relevant scientific aspects evolve according to a PhD advancement, two types of submissions are considered in the PhD symposium, as described  below.

EARLY STAGE PHD

Expected contribution: Early stage PhD submissions are welcome with papers describing the general context of the PhD activity and the locks it aims at eventually overcoming. A synthetic but comprehensive state of the art of the field must be provided and the limits of current scientific contributions must be especially emphasized so that to formulate one or a few research questions which form the core of the PhD problem statement. Finally, the selected research methodology and some early ideas, even neither implemented nor validated, can be exposed. Finally, a general view of the work lying ahead has to be provided too.

Eligibility: The Early Stage paper format is dedicated to the 1st year PhD students or early 2nd year PhD students who are starting to elaborate their first research contributions.

Paper format: Submitted papers should not exceed four (4) pages in length, including references.

An Early Stage PhD Symposium  paper can be submitted through EDAS using the following link: https://edas.info/newPaper.php?c=31395&track=123334

 

LATE STAGE PHD

Expected contribution: Late Stage submissions aim at providing an overview of the accomplished PhD work from a methodological perspective. More specifically, it must provide an up-to-date state of the art that pinpoints some limits motivating the contribution further exposed. Then, the current status of the research work with a particular emphasis on the selected methodology is expected and a comparison with the state of the art can be provided when relevant and achievable. Finally, according to the PhD advancement, the planned or implemented evaluation methodology and to what extent the latter supports reproducibility of research (sharing data sets, codes, etc.) have to be exposed. For PhD students who have already graduated, the PhD outcomes and the way they push forward the initial limits, as well as their current limits, is particularly expected.

Please note that late stage submissions must not overlap with standard scientific papers focused on a standalone scientific contribution as presented in long or short papers of conferences and workshops, such as Netsoft and beyond.

Eligibility: Late Stage submissions target ending PhD students or those who recently graduated, which is roughly from the beginning of the PhD manuscript writing up to 6 months after the defense. The Late Stage format is also open to ongoing PhD (i.e. 2nd year) if the submitted content satisfies with the expectations exposed above.

Paper format: Submitted papers should not exceed six (6) pages in length, including references.

 

A Late Stage PhD Symposium paper can be submitted through EDAS using the following link: https://edas.info/newPaper.php?c=31395&track=123335

GENERAL ELIGIBILITY

As PhD symposium differs from standard scientific tracks, and solely targets ongoing or very recently defended PhD, some eligibility assessment must be satisfied for submissions to be considered:

  • The list of authors is restricted to the PhD student and the supervisor. In the case where more than one advisor is involved in the PhD, thus leading to several authors in addition to the PhD student, the PhD symposium chairs must be informed and any official assessment must be provided.
  • PhD students of accepted PhD symposium papers must register to Netsoft 2024 and they are the sole person able to present their work during the event.
  • An official letter from the PhD advisor(s) is required to state the PhD status (beginning for Early Stage, ending with PhD defense date (expected or achieved) for Late Stage).

GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 

Two tracks are available for submission: one for Early Stage PhD submissions, and one for Late Stage PhD submissions. In both tracks, PhD students have to submit two files: the manuscript and the letter of their supervisor to prove their status as a PhD student. Manuscripts must be written in English and formatted according to the standard IEEE double-column conference template (10-point font). Templates and examples in LaTeX and Microsoft Word are available for download at:

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

Papers not matching 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. Only PDF files will be accepted for the review process and all manuscripts must be electronically submitted through EDAS using the links indicated so far for Early Stage PhD Symposium papers and Late Stage PhD Symposium papers, respectively.

Accepted submissions are published in the conference proceedings and submitted to the IEEE Xplore Digital Library, provided that they are duly presented.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

The symposium solicits submissions in the same field of the main conference. 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.

PHD SYMPOSIUM CO-CHAIRS

Patrons