Dear Colleagues,

The increase of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices and the quality of services (QoS) requirements have challenged the internet infrastructure to be evolved. The challenges enable a plethora of innovations in the network and computing fields, ranging from wireless (IoT, 4G, 5G), network softwarization (NS) to cloud/edge/fog computing. In the future IoT, it is envisioned that those technologies will be massively adopted, significantly enhancing human lives. In such a context, the emerging distributed ledger technology (DLT), which has found applications such as cryptocurrencies (i.e., using blockchain), has attracted much attention as a disruptive technology. DLT outperforms the traditional centralized ledger approach, where participants reach a consensus of digital transactions only at a centralized authority or intermediary. Hence, DLT enables decentralized interaction in a secure, trustworthy, trackable manner. Despite the salient features, it is nontrivial to apply DLT to IoT or NS service provision, especially with the QoS considerations. Moreover, although development progress is impressive, state-of-the-art DLT is not mature yet. The efficiency and applicability of DLT, especially in IoT and network softwarization systems, need to be thoroughly investigated.  

This Special Issue aims to gather original, unpublished papers focusing on theoretical analysis, emerging applications, novel architecture, and experimental studies of DLT in IoT and NS. Topic areas include but are not limited to the following:

• DLT-based architectures, protocols, and algorithms for IoT, NS;
• DLT-based solutions for network softwarization;
• DLT-based solutions for edge computing/networking in IoT systems;
• DLT and machine learning for IoT systems;
• DLT-based QoS provisioning mechanisms for IoT, NS;
• DLT-based automation methods for IoT, NS;
• DLT for 5G and IoT;
• Theoretical modeling of DLT, NS operations;
• Networking and computing optimization in DLT for IoT and NS systems.

Finally, we would like to thank Mr. Partha Pratim Ray and his valuable work for assisting us with this Special Issue.

Manuscript Submission Information

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• distributed ledger technology
• IoT
• network softwarization
• automation
• QoS provisioning