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Call for Papers for Feature Topic on

Modeling and Simulation: A Practical Guide for Network Designers and Developers

IEEE Communications Magazine

Modeling and Simulation (M&S) is a critical element in the design, development, and test and evaluation (T&E) of any network product or solution. In many cases, M&S provides the only method to gain insight into the performance of the eventual product or solution in a large-scale environment, and allows for more informed design trade studies. The role of M&S in the design and development process is expected to further increase in the future due to the rapidly increasing complexity of communications networks. Because of the increasingly large and distributed nature of networked systems, and the resulting interdependencies of individual sub-systems to operate as a whole, individual sub-systems in general cannot be tested in isolation. Rather, multiple systems must be evaluated in concert to verify system-level performance and behavior. This increases the scale of network T&E, and adds significant complexity as several different types of measurements will often be required in several different locations simultaneously. This will further increase the required support for physical test events in the required platforms, personnel, and measurement equipment, further limiting the realistic amount of physical testing. It will place a premium on analysis and M&S to perform requirements verification to augment physical testing. The envisioned increase in complexity of physical testing is expected to further reduce role in the testing of emerging systems. Not only is M&S an important element of the overall T&E strategy, but high-fidelity M&S will become increasingly important in predicting system performance. Large-scale, high-fidelity M&S is notoriously challenging to accomplish, and is still an active research area.

There are numerous highly capable M&S tools and techniques available today. However, it is often difficult for a network designer, developer, or tester to know what are the most appropriate tools and techniques for a particular task. Additionally, while a large amount of outstanding technical contributions have been made into the M&S community, there are still many key technical limitations that must be addressed to enable large-scale, high-fidelity M&S of complex network systems. The goal of this feature topic is to present the state-of-the-art in M&S, with a particular focus on practical information such as current best practices, tools, and techniques. It aims to provide (1) an overview on state-of-the-art M&S tools and environments available commercially and from open-source, (2) examples of optimization methods and techniques for improving M&S performance, (3) expert insights on best practices and methods for ensuring sufficient model functionality and fidelity (verification and validation). We solicit original unpublished manuscripts not currently being considered elsewhere for publication. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: Evaluations and comparisons of open-source and commercially available network M&S tools and environments, including the modeling of propagation environments, waveform performance, as well as the network, transport, and application layers of the protocol stack.

Large-scale, high-fidelity M&S methods and examples
M&S verification and validation (V&V) methods and examples
Large-scale M&S V&V methods and examples
Distributed M&S methods and examples
Hardware-in-the-loop M&S testbed methods and examples
Interactive M&S (e.g. virtual modeled systems interacting with actual systems)
Rare event M&S methods and examples

Schedule
Manuscript submission: July 1, 2008
Notification of acceptance: October 1, 2008
Final manuscripts due: November 1, 2008
Publication date: January 1, 2009

Submission
Articles should be tutorial in nature and should be written in a style comprehensible to readers outside the specialty of the field. All submissions will be reviewed based on technical merit, relevance and readability. Articles should have no more than 4,500 words, no more than 6 tables/figures, and no more than 15 references. Authors must follow the IEEE Communications Magazine's guidelines for preparation of the manuscript. Complete guidelines for prospective authors can be found at http://www.comsoc.org/pubs/commag/sub_guidelines.html. All articles to be considered for publication must be submitted through IEEE Manuscript Central (http://commag-ieee.manuscriptcentral.com). Select "January 2009/Modeling and Simulation: A Practical Guide for Network Designers and Developers" from the drop down menu in order to have your manuscript submitted to this feature topic.

Liaison Editor
Mr. Jack L. Burbank
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
11100 Johns Hopkins Road
Laurel, MD 20723, U.S.A.
E-mail: jack.burbank@jhuapl.edu