Call for papers

Special issue of IEEE Network Magazine on

Internet Scalability: Properties and Evolution

The modern Internet is a large-scale distributed system composed of many complex, interoperating sub-systems: traffic, topology, routing, addressing, etc. With its continued growth, the scaling of these different sub-systems becomes an increasingly important issue, as does the nature of the complex interactions between them. A detailed investigation/study of these interactions is crucial to foresee the future of the Internet, and ensure its smooth evolution.

The current Internet architecture suffers from scalability problems caused by a number of factors. Growth in traffic and topological size, multi-homing, and interdomain routing dynamics are some examples of factors stressing the current infrastructure. Trends in multi-homing that might impact the behavior of the traffic depend on the evolution of addressing, like the deployment and use of IPv6, or nodes mobility. The way business relationships are defined between domains affects the spread of routing information, and in turn the flow of the traffic. Applications determine between which hosts traffic is exchanged. Understanding any of these aspects requires understanding the relationships between all of them.

To add to this confusion, it is now understood that different subsystems of the Internet depend on each other in unexpected ways. For instance, traffic surges due to worm attacks are able to partially disrupt routing. By studying the large-scale properties of the Internet (as opposed to the behavior of isolated sub-systems), we will better understand the issues that are of significant importance for its future.

Scope of special issue

The goal of this special issue is to discuss all aspects that have an impact on the large-scale behavior of the Internet, with a focus on their interactions. To properly understand how the Internet will evolve, we believe that a global systemic view of the Internet is necessary. Submitted papers should thus bring significant insight into how different aspects of the Internet impact its global behavior.

The purpose of this special issue of IEEE network magazine is to publish both state-of-the-art and prospective papers on the properties and the evolution of Internet scalability. Papers describing original research results, surveys or prospective papers should be written in a tutorial manner and be readable by non-specialists. Overly analytical papers are not welcome. Instead, contributions must focus on giving insight into the global Internet behavior without getting into unnecessary mathematical formalism.

Topics of interest include

Manuscript submission Authors must submit their manuscript (single column, double-spaced) electronically in PDF format by email to Steve Uhlig (S.P.W.G.Uhlig@ewi.tudelft.nl) before the deadline. The manuscript should be written in single column, double-spaced, in accordance to the guidelines of the IEEE network magazine (http://www.comsoc.org/pubs/net/). Please also include information about the manuscript (title, complete list of authors, corresponding author's contact, abstract, and keywords) in the body of your submission email message.

Important dates:

Submission deadline: June 15th 2007
Notification of acceptance: October 2007
Final version manuscript to the publisher: December 1st, 2007
Publication: 1st Quarter 2008

Guest editors

Dr. Matthew Roughan
University of Adelaide, Australia
School of Mathematical Sciences
SA 5005
AUSTRALIA
E-mail: matthew.roughan@adelaide.edu.au

Dr. Steve Uhlig
Delft University of Technology
Network Architectures and Services
4 Mekelweg CD 2628 Delft
THE NETHERLANDS
E-mail: S.P.W.G.Uhlig@ewi.tudelft.nl

Dr. Walter Willinger
AT&T Research Labs
180 Park Avenue
Florham Park, NJ
USA
E-mail: walter@research.att.com