Workshop Scope

IWSOS 2009 is the fourth workshop in a series of annual workshops dedicated to self-organization in networks and networked systems. The necessity for and expected benefit of self-organization is caused by the growing scale, complexity, and heterogeneity of future networked systems, like the future Internet. Future networks will form complex networks integrating wired and wireless infrastructures with mobile ad-hoc, and sensor networks that could be spontaneously deployed in hostile environments, have a dynamic population and a potentially short life time. In spite of this, there will be stringent user requirements, such as high availability and real-time guarantees. Although self-organization is desirable for these kinds of networks, it is not yet clear to what extent self-organization can be exploited.

Research into networked systems started a few years ago to systematically investigate self-organization and has lead to a multitude of open research issues. The applicability of well-known self-organizing techniques to specific networks and networked systems is being investigated, as well as adaptations and novel approaches inspired by cooperation in nature and evolutionary dynamics, sociology, and game theory. Additionally, models originating from areas like control theory and complex systems research, are being applied to networked systems to analyze their controllability and behavior. Aspects of engineering self-organizing networked systems are studied that draw on approaches like programmable networks, and tools and frameworks for deploying, testing, and monitoring self-organizing networks. The role of self-organization in the future Internet and the impact on its architecture is an important topic, as well as the application of self-organization in future intelligent transportation systems and vehicular ad-hoc networks.

Building on the success of its predecessors, this workshop aims at bringing together leading international researchers to create a visionary forum for discussing the future of self-organization in networked systems. Topics include, but are not limited to the following.


Key Topics

- Self-organization and self-management
- Self-configuration and self-optimization
- Self-protection, -diagnosis, and -healing
- Applications, e.g. the self-organizing home network
- Self-organization in peer-to-peer, sensor, ad-hoc and vehicular networks
- Control theory based models and approaches to self-organization
- Applications of game theory for self-organization
- Bio-inspired and socially inspired models of self-organization
- Group-forming networks and techniques
- Programmable and cognitive networks as a basis for self-organization
- Visualization of network state
- Self-organization for Quality of Service
- Resilience, robustness and fault tolerance for networked systems
- Security in self-organizing networked systems
- Self-organization in heterogeneous network convergence
- Evolutionary principles of the (future, emerging) Internet
- Self-configuring place-and-play sensor/mobile networks
- Self-organizing vehicular ad-hoc networks
- Methods for configuration and management of large, complex networks
- Risks of self-organization
- The human in the loop of self-organizing networks


Paper Submission

IWSOS invites submission of manuscripts as full or short papers that present original research results, and that have not been previously published or are currently under review by another conference or journal. Any previous or simultaneous publication of related material should be explicitly noted in the submission. All papers must be submitted in PDF format. Submissions will be peer reviewed by at least three members of the international TPC and judged on originality, significance, interest, clarity, relevance, and correctness.


Full Papers

Submissions should be full-length papers up to 12 pages using the LNCS style, including all figures and references, and must include an abstract of 100-150 words.


Short Papers

Submissions should be position papers, challenging papers, and papers presenting first or late results up to 6 pages length (LNCS style, including all figures and references), and must include an abstract of 100-150 words.


Proceedings

The proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in their Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. At least one of the authors of each accepted paper must attend IWSOS 2009 to present the paper.


Posters and Demonstrations

To complement the main technical programme of IWSOS 2009, we are soliciting extended abstracts (up to two pages, LNCS style) that describe posters and demonstrations that will be presented at an informal session during the workshop. This session should provide a platform to present and discuss work-in-progress and demonstrations. The abstracts will be collected and made available at the event.