Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV)

Dear Colleagues,

Next generation communication networks are expected to be implemented on virtualized infrastructures, where network functions are deployed on virtual machines instead of current proprietary equipment. Moving away from an architecture based on multitude of black boxes equipped with specialized network hardware and pre-loaded with specialized software, to a new architecture consisting of a "white box" running a multitude of specialized network software appears to be the dominant choice and direction in current and future communication and computing infrastructures. This is required to support 5G vision as well, calling for a new network architecture which directs flexible, dynamically configurable network elements to provide on-demand customized services to traffic demands which may be dynamic in time and space, while supporting heterogeneity and diversity.

Towards realizing such a technological paradigm shift Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) have been proven two promising technologies in how we manage future networks. With their enormous benefits which include reducing the operational cost, better resources utilization and easier management requirements, the adoption of such technologies is gaining significant momentum. Increasing network resource utilization and decreasing operational costs have been traditionally among the key objectives in the era of network management and control. NFV allows even further flexibility by migrating network functions from dedicated hardware to virtual machines running on commodity hardware. SDN has emerged as a key driver for innovation and change in networking as several market and technology factors converge. Such factors include the growth of cloud applications and services across enterprise and cloud providers, and the focus on converged infrastructures (compute/storage/network) and on the software-defined datacenters.

Though significant research results and several deployments have occurred and realized over the last few years focusing on the NFV and SDN technologies, several issues - both of theoretical and practical importance - remain still open. For example, optimizing and guaranteeing the performance of such virtualized systems is still a challenging problem. Leveraging semantic technologies towards interoperability and model-based software automation in the context of NFV technology, allows to efficiently deal with the current lack of a common understanding in support of development, deployment and operation tasks, such as orchestration and service assurance across NFV and SDNs. As 5G promises a paradigm shift in telecommunication systems and services, focusing not only on providing high speed connections with higher data rates, but also serving large number of devices/users and flows in large-scale SDNs spanning thousands of switches and routers over large geographic areas, advancements and developments in protocols, application design, and architecture specification for achieving scalability in SDN become of high relevance and criticality.

This special issue is soliciting conceptual, theoretical and experimental contributions, discussing and treating challenges, state-of-the-art, and solutions to a set of currently unresolved key questions including, but not limited to, the following themes related to NFV and SDN technologies: architecture, infrastructure, performance analysis, optimization, orchestration, applications, interoperability, scalability, security, business and techno-economic aspects, etc.

Prof. Dr. Symeon Papavassiliou
Guest Editor

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