International Workshop on
Collaboration and Cognition in Next Generation Networks (CoNGN 2008)
www.criticalnet.org/CoNGN
In conjunction with CollaborateCom-2008
Orlando, Florida, November2008
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The rapid developments in the Internet and emerging alternative network protocol stacks promise unprecedented levels of sharing of information, computing and communication resources through distributed collaborations of diverse network elements. Collaborative networking comprises complex systems with many tunable interdependent components, parameters and network performance objectives. To realize their potential, collaborative networks need to provide effective and efficient support for ubiquitous integration of heterogeneous technologies such as mobile devices and infrastructures, web services, grid computing systems, various operating environments, and diverse COTS products. In addition, research is needed to provide network cognition, which entails learning and reasoning by the diverse network elements to dynamically select the ideal network operating state and adapt to varying network and group contexts in order to optimize end-to-end performance of the network as a whole. Moreover, networking aspects such as autonomicity, security, trust, management, quality-of-service support and localization need to be cognizant of group dynamics. Aparently, numerous challenges face the realization of collaborative networking. These challenges include balancing the competing goals of collaboration, autonomy and security; allowing mobile users and groups to seamlessly communicate throughout multiple heterogeneous networks and enjoy multiparty multimedia applications while on the move between different administrative domains; developing new APIs to enable applications to detect available access networks and learn their characteristics, thus becoming aware of location, context, and quality-of-service; and carefully optimizing network parameters across the entire protocol stack. The key goal of this workshop is to foster active interactions among diverse researchers and practitioners, and generate added momentum towards research addressing collaborative and cognitive networking aspects. Topics include, but are not limited to the following:

Architectural principles for decentralized information, computing and communication resource sharing

Moving networks and dynamic coalition environments

Collaboration-aware network management

Peer-to-peer collaborative networking

Bio-inspired collaborative networking

Cognitive and autonomic network protocols and services

Collaborative sensor-actuator networks

Policy-based management of collaborative networks

Coopererative, un-cooperative, and anti-cooperative behavior characterization, identification, modeling, and impact analysis

Context modelling and management in collaborative networks

Network monitors, API and network discovery services

Security, trust, and privacy models, frameworks, architectures, and systems for collaborative networks

Security, dependability, privacy, QoS, performance, and energy awareness and trade-offs

Middleware for large-scale, distributed, multi-modal collaboration

Admission, delegation, accountability, and information flow control in collaborative networks

Ubiquitous communication support for social networking

Web services and grid technologies for supporting multidomain collaborative applications

Testbeds and experimental frameworks for collaboration and cognition in network prtocol stacks


General Co-Chairs
Mohamed Eltoweissy, Virginia Tech, USA
Silvia Geordano, University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland
Stephan Olariu, Old Dominion University, USA

Program Chairs
Deepa Kundur, Texas A&M University, USA
Cristina Pinotti, University of Perguia, Italy
M. Tamer Refaei, NIST, USA

Publicity Chairs
James Joshi, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Abdelmounaam Rezgui, Virginia Tech, USA

Panel Chair
Wael AbdelMageed, University of Maryland, USA


Technical Program Committee (to be invited (please add to this list))
Ayman Abdel-Hameed, Arab Academy of Science and Technology, Egypt
Ehab Al-Shaer, DePaul University, USA
Mohamed Hefeeda, Simon Fraiser University, Canada
Saurabh Bagchi, Purdue University, USA
David Tipper, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Axel Krings, University of Idaho, USA
Kishor Trivedi, Duke University
Bjarne E. Helvik, University of Science and Tech, Norway
Deep Medhi, University of Missouri - Kansas City, USA
Ahmaed Kamal, Iowa State University, USA
Nils Aschenbruck, University of Bonn, Germany
Cory Beard, University of Missouri Kansas City, USA
Hossam Hassanein, Queens University, Canada
Victor Leung, University of British Columbia, Canada
Scott Midkiff, Virginia Tech, USA.
Nader Moayeri, NIST, USA
Farid Nait-Abdesselam, University of Sciences and Tech. of Lille, France
Jean-Jacque Quisquater, Catholic University, Belgium
Pedro M. Ruiz, University of Murcia, Spain
Krishna Sivalingam, University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
Robin Sommer, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Doru Tiliute, University of Suceava, Romania
Gene Tsudik, University of California Irvine, USA
Stephen D. Wolthusen, University of London, UK
Naoki Wakamiya, Osaka University, Japan
Michele Weigle, Old Dominion University, USA


Manuscript Submission

Submitted papers must be unpublished and must not be currently under review for any other
publication. All paper submissions will be handled electronically via email to CoNGN-submission@criticalnet.org. Authors should prepare a Portable Document Format (PDF)
version of their full paper. Papers must be no longer than 6 pages and in font size no smaller than 11 points. Please refer to the CollaborateCom manuscript preparation page for details and make sure
the manuscript conforms to the format/font/page requirements. Manuscripts that are
not compliant with the requirements may be declined without review. All submitted
papers will be judged based on their quality through peer reviewing, where TPC members
are invited to assess the scientific contributions of papers. Proceedings will appear in a Springer Lecture Notes on Computer Science (LNCS) proceedings. For more information send email to CoNGN2008-info@criticalnet.org.

Important Dates

Paper Submission: September 2, 2008
Acceptance Notification: September 26, 2008
Camera Ready Due: October 14, 2008
Workshop Date: November13, 2008