COMNET SI SDN/NFV Security/Performance 2017 : Elsevier Computer Networks: Special Issue on Security and Performance of SDN/NFV

Software-defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) are envisioned to massively change network management by enabling a more flexible management of complex networks. While the aim of SDN is to split the control and data plane and to introduce open interfaces between these layers, NFV abstracts network functions from dedicated hardware to virtual machines running on commodity hardware. Consequently, applying SDN/NFV is claimed to have a high business advantage in terms of cost savings and additional revenue sources for network operators, new opportunities for solution providers, and opening new business models.

However, major performance challenges arise when realizing SDN/NFV given the overheads imposed by software and virtualization stacks. At the same time, e.g., the outsourcing of network control or the relocation of network functions to cloud services create new challenges on data privacy and network security.

This special issue of the Computer Networks Journal solicits original, high-quality papers that present, analyze and discuss solutions to improve the security and privacy in SDN/NFV, mechanisms to achieve high packet processing performances in virtualized environments, as well as performance benchmarking aspects and standards. Related topics, such as new security mechanisms enabled by SDN/NFV (e.g. mitigation of DDoS attacks), validation, verification and certification of network functions, design of energy efficient NFV networks, new algorithms controlling the function placement, as well as new services offerings enabled by SDN/NFV (e.g. to improve the end-user experience), techno-economic aspects (e.g. new pricing and business models), and others are also within the scope of the special issue.


 * Submission Format and Guidelines*

Submissions should be clearly organized, written in excellent English and must describe original, complete research not published or currently under review by other journals or conferences. Substantially enhanced and extended versions of quality papers presented at conferences or workshops may be submitted with the differences to the previous version clearly described. All submissions will be peer reviewed. The guest editors reserve the right to reject submissions that are clearly out of scope or well below the expected quality for this special journal issue without further review.

Authors must prepare and format their submissions according to the "Guide for Authors" found at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/comnet and submit them online at http://ees.elsevier.com/comnet/, choosing the "Security in SDN and NFV" as article type. Submissions must be in single-column format, single-spaced, use a font size of at least 11 points, and should not exceed 25 pages including all figures and references.

Manuscript due: July 31, 2017 (extended) Acceptance notification: Sept 30, 2017 Final paper revisions due: Oct 31, 2017 Publication date: Winter 2017
 * Important Dates*

Guest Editors David Hausheer (Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany) Oliver Hohlfeld (RWTH Aachen, Germany) Stefan Schmid (Aalborg University & TU Berlin, Denmark and Germany) Guofei Gu (Texas A&M University, U.S.A.)