Overview
NSDI focuses on the design principles, implementation, and practical evaluation of networked and distributed systems. Our goal is to bring together researchers from across the networking and systems community to foster a broad approach to addressing overlapping research challenges.

NSDI provides a high-quality, single-track forum for presenting results and discussing ideas that further the knowledge and understanding of the networked systems community as a whole, continue a significant research dialog, or push the architectural boundaries of network services.

Topics
We solicit papers describing original and previously unpublished research. Specific topics of interest include but are not limited to:
*Highly available and reliable networked systems
*Security and privacy of networked systems
*Distributed storage, caching, and query processing systems
*Energy-efficient computing in networked systems
*Cloud/multi-tenant systems
*Mobile and embedded/sensor applications and systems
*Wireless networked systems
*Network and workload measurement systems
*Self-organizing, autonomous, and federated networked systems
*Managing, debugging, and diagnosing problems in networked systems
*Virtualization and resource management for networked systems
*Systems aspects of networking hardware
*Experience with deployed networked systems
*Communication and computing over big data on networked systems
*Practical aspects of economics and verification applied to networked systems
*Any innovative solution for a significant problem involving networked systems

Operational Systems Track
In addition to papers that describe original research, NSDI '18 also solicits papers that describe the design, implementation, analysis, and experience with large-scale, operational systems and networks. We encourage submission of papers that disprove or strengthen existing assumptions, deepen the understanding of existing problems, and validate known techniques at scales or environments in which they were never used or tested before. Such operational papers need not present new ideas or results to be accepted.

Authors should indicate on the title page of the paper and in the submission form that they are submitting to this track.

What to Submit
Complete submission instructions for NSDI '18, including paper length and blindness policies, will be available by May 2017.

Policies
Simultaneous submission of the same work to multiple venues, submission of previously published work, or plagiarism constitutes dishonesty or fraud. USENIX, like other scientific and technical conferences and journals, prohibits these practices and may take action against authors who have committed them. See the USENIX Conference Submissions Policy for details.

Previous publication at a workshop is acceptable as long as the NSDI submission includes substantial new material.
Authors uncertain whether their submission meets USENIX’s guidelines should contact the Program Co-Chairs, nsdi18chairs@usenix.org.

Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. All submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the USENIX NSDI '18 web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.

Ethical Considerations
Papers describing experiments with users or user data (e.g., network traffic, passwords, social network information), should follow the basic principles of ethical research, e.g., beneficence (maximizing the benefits to an individual or to society while minimizing harm to the individual), minimal risk (appropriateness of the risk versus benefit ratio), voluntary consent, respect for privacy, and limited deception. When appropriate, authors are encouraged to include a subsection describing these issues. Authors may want to consult the Menlo Report for further information on ethical principles, or the Allman/Paxson IMC '07 paper for guidance on ethical data sharing.

Authors must, as part of the submission process, attest that their work complies with all applicable ethical standards of their home institution(s), including but not limited to privacy policies and policies on experiments involving humans. Note that submitting research for approval by one's institution's ethics review body is necessary, but not sufficient—in cases where the PC has concerns about the ethics of the work in a submission, the PC will have its own discussion of the ethics of that work. The PC’s review process may examine the ethical soundness of the paper just as it examines the technical soundness.

Best Paper Awards
Awards will be given for the best paper(s) at the conference.

Community Award
To encourage broader code and data sharing within the NSDI community, the conference will also present a “Community Award” for the best paper whose code and/or data set is made publicly available by the final papers deadline, February 21, 2018. Authors who would like their paper to be considered for this award will have the opportunity to tag their paper during the submission process.