Novel Cloud-Based Service/Application Platforms and Ecosystems

Dear Colleagues,

In the fast approaching 5G era telcos, cloud operators and online application providers will join forces to deliver ICT services to customers globally. Several technologies act as enablers for novel application design: software-defined networking (SDN) along with network function virtualization (NFV) ensure that online services are elastic and resilient, and their deployments are fast and flexible. Besides revolutionizing telco services, virtualization provides us with the possibility of creating online applications that require low latency, e.g., X reality (XR), and tactile Internet applications over edge cloud infrastructure. In this ecosystem, not only infrastructure and platform-level technologies play important roles, but business aspects will also greatly influence the capability and performance of the global system: the collaboration of provider actors will determine the availability and the end user prices of certain services.This Special Issue focuses on recent research results and challenges, as well as novel developments and technologies, related to NFV, SDN, and virtualization in general. We are particularly interested in application level design, system and network management methods, and the control and data plane performance of cloudified platforms. We welcome the latest findings from research, ongoing projects, and review articles that can provide readers with current research trends and solutions. The potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Novel telco services, applications enabled by SDN/NFV
• Ultra-low latency applications, e.g., AR/VR/MR (augmented/virtual/mixed reality), tactile Internet enabled by edge computing
• SDN, NFV, beyond 5G technologies
• Cloud native platforms: CaaS (container as a service), FaaS (function as a service), serverless
• Real-time cloud solutions
• Network-cloud integration
• Novel/disrupt network technologies, e.g., NDN (named data networking)
• AI-based technologies and system components
• Business aspects of cloudification and cloud/network provider federation

Prof. Dr. Balázs Sonkoly
Prof. Dr. László Toka
Dr. Byung-Seo Kim
Mr. Luis Miguel Contreras-Murillo
Dr. Róbert Szabó
Guest Editors

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