Post-IP Networks: Advances on RINA and other Alternative Network Architectures

Dear Colleagues,

During the last decade, research funding bodies have supported “Future Internet” or “Clean-slate” design initiatives intended to reduce network complexity by redesigning the network protocol architecture, questioning some of its key principles. Industry groups such as the ETSI ISG NGP are looking at alternatives to the current “TCP-IP” protocol suite. However, few initiatives have really been able to “clean the slate” and question the core model and underlying principles of current Internet protocols. Of those who have done it, RINA—the recursive internetwork architecture—is probably the simplest yet most general solution.
RINA implementations are maturing while researchers keep working on characterizing its applicability to a wide variety of current networking challenges. During the last year, RINA has been featured in an ETSI ISG NGP group report as a potential candidate for future-proof protocols, and the standardization work on its core specifications at ISO has advanced to Committee Draft Standards. New projects like RINArmenia are working to develop RINA expertise at the national level and are teaming with the local industry to implement and deploy the technology in a variety of markets.
This Special Issue solicits papers that investigate the application of RINA in different types of network segments and applications, papers reporting on prototype implementations, experimental deployments, and interoperability with existing technologies. We are also interested in papers that challenge the RINA principles and show limitations in its approach, disprove its claims or provide a simpler solution without compromising the benefits obtained by following the RINA architectural principles.
Selected papers presented at the Workshop on 7th International Workshop on the Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA 2020): Challenging RINA are invited to submit their extended versions to this Special Issue of the journal Computers. All submitted papers will undergo our standard peer-review procedure. Accepted papers will be published in open access format in Computers and collected together on the Special Issue website.
Conference papers should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper; authors are asked to disclose that it is a conference paper in their cover letter and include a statement on what has been changed compared to the original conference paper. Please note that the submitted extended paper should contain at least 50% new content (e.g., in the form of technical extensions, more in-depth evaluations, or additional use cases) and not exceed 30% copy/paste from the conference paper.

Dr. Eduard Grasa
Dr. Peyman Temoori
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short 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 thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Computers is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• network architecture
• recursive networking
• distributed interprocess communication
• network protocols
• experimental deployments
• recursive internetwork architecture