Although several millions Euros of research funds have been spent on future network technologies, only a few valuable results are available in the literature for a critical communication infrastructure, addressing the primary characteristics of a global cloud ecosystem and diversified requirements of next-generation services. Information Centric Networking (ICN, decoupling between IP and information), Software Defined Networking (SDN, decoupling between control and data planes, OpenFlow), Cloud Networking (inter-cloud protocols and mist computing), Virtualization (features of all types of devices, network, distributed infrastructures, distributed data / files / storage), Autonomic Management and Networking (bio-inspired algorithms), and Open Connectivity (User-to-Network Interface (UNI), Network-to-Network Interface (NNI)) are the key ingredients for the "Carrier Network of the Future".
Trust, security and privacy, enforcement of Service Level Agreements (SLA) and inter-operability of various virtual cloud systems remain the primary issues. Another important trend is the Decoupling between Hardware and Software (the shift from hardware defined network elements to software defined networks using general purpose hardware).

This Special Issue of IEEE Communications Magazine will bring together researchers from industry and academia to present and analyze the above issues and propose how to resolve each of these design space components for Future Carrier Networks (FCN), i.e. networks that will enable the business of Telco operators in 2020 horizon and beyond, ahead of the existing standardization frameworks. We are soliciting original research, analysis of test beds in a realistic environment, and survey articles written in a tutorial style, comprehensible to all readers of the magazine. Submissions will undergo a rigorous peer review process.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Future Carrier Network Architectures: use cases, business models, functional and non-functional requirements, interface and building blocks (logical elements), end to end (including terminals).

- Future Carrier Network Security: security as design architecture goal, instead of additional overlays; specific vulnerabilities in architecture, characteristics and core-technologies of future carrier networks; methods for security controls and technologies for vulnerability factors reduction; Security as a Service (SaaS).

- Software Defined Networks: resource description languages and usage; architecture of metadata to describe all components from end user to cloud centers; network and mobility operating systems; algorithms for efficient embeddings; portable programmability, orchestration and system composition; Network as a Service (NaaS).

- Information Centric Networking: active objects (containing both code and data) in information-centric networks; multi-site clouds exploitation (optimal placement of applications in a network of clouds); network adaptation to applications data paths, end to end (including terminals).

- Distributed Mobile Networking: distributed architecture; small and portable wireless access node with distribution of network functions, including mobility functions; mobility events and data paths managed and anchored as closely as possible to the terminals.

- Cloud Networking: protocols for carrier grade cloud interoperability; cloud federation for greater resilience and elasticity; autonomic elastic connectivity; optimization of virtual resource usage dealing with scale and heterogeneity; multidimensional, dynamic and large scale resource scheduling.

Manuscript Submission and Schedule:
Articles should be tutorial in nature and written in a style comprehensible to readers outside the specialty of the article. References should be limited to 10, figures and tables to a combined total of 6. Mathematical equations should be avoided. The paper length should not exceed 4,500 words.Complete guidelines can be found at: http://www.comsoc.org/commag/paper-submission-guidelines. All articles must be submitted through the IEEE Manuscript Central at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com:80/commag-ieee.

- Full Paper Submission Deadline: 30 Nov 2012
- Decisions Notification: 28 Feb 2013
- Final Manuscripts Due: 31 Apr 2013
- Publication of Special Issue: June 2013 (tentative)

Guest Editors
Dr. David Soldani (Corresponding Editor)
VP Huawei European Research Centre
Huawei Technologies Düsseldorf GmbH
Ries str. 25, 80992, Munich, Germany
E-mail: david.soldani@huawei.com

Dr. Roberto Saracco
Trento Node Director
EIT ICTLBS
v. Sommarive 18, 38123, Trento, Italy
E-mail: roberto.saracco@ictlabs.eu