Special Issue "Network vs. Application Based Solutions for NGN"

Guest Editor
Dr. Antonio Cuevas Casado
University of Stuttgart, Data Center, Allmandring 30a, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany
Website: http://www.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/nks/abteilung/mitarbeiter/antonio_cuevas/index.html
E-Mail:
Interests: next -or 4th- generation network; NGN; 4G; 3GPP system architecture evolution (SAE) evolved packet core (EPC); IMS; service platforms; business aspects/models; SIP; QoS; DiffServ; IntServ; AAA; diameter; mobile IPv6; Micro-mobility/seamless handovers: fast handovers, make before break; NGN/internet architectures integrating the above

No papers have been published in this special issue yet, see below for planned papers.

Dear Colleagues,

NGN (next generation network) is being so commonly and enthusiastically used, both by the scientific and industry communities, that it is becoming a kind of buzzword covering a myriad of research topics and industrial trends. Under this vast and heterogeneous field, some common directions can be distinguished, among others, IP and the Internet as universal public communication network, mobility and ubiquity, openness to applications, devices and access technologies, and the growing role of machine to machine communication. A lot of new services are being explored but research also focuses on adapting and integrating traditional features to these new networks.

Solutions for NGN are designed at different layers, sometimes cooperating but also competing between them. For instance, mobility can be tackled at the network layer using Mobile IP while SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) offers its approach at the application layer. The choice of the layer where to develop the solutions is a major issue and has impact in aspects like performance or ease of deployment in legacy infrastructures. It may also challenge the Internet paradigm of network neutrality by relocating the “intelligence” from the applications at the edges to the network core.

We thus believe that a careful election of the layer(s) is a fundamental issue in the NGN research and deserves the interest of this special issue. We welcome papers giving answers in this direction. Comparisons of solutions developed at different layers, performance evaluation (including simulation techniques), cross-layer architectures, discussions on the implication for the network control, are some of the topics to be considered. We are confident that this special issue will be of great interest to the research community.

Guest Editor
Antonio Cuevas Casado, Ph. D.

Submission Information

All manuscripts should be submitted to futureinternet@mdpi.org with a copy to the Guest Editor. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Future Internet is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. For the first few issues, to be published in 2009 and 2010, the Article Processing Charges (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Security in Infrastructureless, Decentralized and Distributed Communication Networks - What measures on which layer?
Authors: Ralf Steinmetz and Andre Koenig; E-Mail: andre.koenig@kom.tu-darmstadt.de
Abstract: Infrastructureless, decentralized and distributed systems facilitate communication beyond borders of contemporary wired or cellular client/server systems. As an example, current research efforts aim at providing enhanced communication and information services in (large-scale) first responder or military scenarios. Here, a combination of mobile ad hoc networks and peer-to-peer systems is used as a communication substrate that is able to operate in areas where a (physical and logical) communication infrastructure is not available. Further, recent activities in the area of service oriented architectures open avenues for novel ways of developing business applications that build bridges between currently isolated software islands. Yet, from the perspective of security, infrastructureless, decentralized and distributed systems are beyond the protection of contemporary security mechanisms due to their specific characteristics. Various new threats targeting each layer of the ISO/OSI model have been identified. Central questions regarding security include how to classify, detect and deal with misbehavior and how to protect information in networks without well-defined borders, consisting of devices, services and users from multiple administrative domains and possibly lacking central trusted instances. In this paper we discuss possible solutions that tackle these challenges on different layers of the ISO/OSI model. We put special emphasis on how an interaction of security mechanisms residing on different layers can be used to improve overall system security.

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Client-Server Access Control on DACS Scheme
Authors: Kazuya Odagiri , Shogo Shimizu, RihitoYaegashi, Naohiro Ishii; E-mail: kazuodagiri@yahoo.co.jp
Abstract: Recently, much attention is paid to the network security including information leak through a network.
As one of the important technologies about network security, there is an access control for network services. There are some methods of access control: the access control by packet filtering mechanism on the network server side, the access control by the communication control mechanism on the network such as VPN, and the access control by the packet filtering mechanism on the client computer server side such as a personal firewall of a quarantine network.
In this paper, a client-server access control is proposed. This access control is realized by combing the access control on the network server side with that on the client computer side, which is realized by DACS Scheme as the policy-based network management scheme that we have been proposed.
Keywords: Access control; DACS Scheme; Packet filtering

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Evolution of the converged NGN service platforms towards Future Networks
Authors: Eugen Mikoczy, Ivan Kotuliak, M. Oskar van Deventer; E-Mail: mikoczy@ktl.elf.stuba.sk
Abstract: In this article we focus on comparison of main characteristics of the Next Generation Networks and Future Generation Internet. The aim is to discuss and compare two approaches to the Future Networks and services: evolution of NGN and revolutionary approach of new NGI. We present both frameworks from the services point of view as they are delivered to the end-user as well as from the architectural point of view. We compare selected properties of both approaches to explain commonalities and differences. Their challenges are similar: managing the quality of experience, mobility, security, scalability and providing openness to applications. Based on this comparison, we evaluate possible areas for future convergence in the approaching of the two architectures to Future Network concept. Our analysis shows that despite their different backgrounds, the internet's NGI and the telco's NGN are not that different after all. The convergence of the two approaches therefore seems the only logical way forward.
Keywords: NGN, converged applications, IPTV, Future Networks