User-centric networks (UCNs) are a recent architectural trend of self-organizing, autonomic networks where the Internet end-user cooperates by sharing network services and resources. UCNs are spontaneous and grassroots deployments of wireless architectures (e.g., ad-hoc or infrastructure), often involving low-cost deployment. Furthermore, users in such environments tend to roam frequently. In such roaming environments, users carry equipment that plays an active role in terms of topology changes (e.g., an LTE phone which is sharing Internet access to other surrounding devices, may become active or inactive without operator control). Common to user-centric environments is a social behaviour that heavily impacts network operation from an end-to-end perspective, and on the different layers of the OSI stack.

UCNs empower the end-user as a new Internet stakeholder and not just as a consumer and producer of content. User-centric networking technologies can be applied to a wide range of scenarios, encompassing: i) sharing subscribed broadband Internet access; ii) providing support for better Internet connectivity; iii) allowing the use of communication services even in the absence of reliable Internet access; iv) assisting networking services based on user involvement for the detection and repair of communication problems.

The new role of an empowered end-user is disruptive in several aspects, namely: i) in the end-to-end Internet paradigm, end-user devices will actively participate as a network element in addition to being an endpoint host; ii) network boundaries of trust will need to be extended in a way that should mimic social behavior; and iii) end-user devices should be capable of handling intermittent Internet connectivity as well as fast and transparent roaming between micro-operators. There is also the need to further understand wholesale models incorporating UCNs, as well as to understand the impact of UCNs in the context of standardization.

This special issue is accepting papers on the topics including, but not limited to, the following:

* To promote unprecedented approaches and techniques in participatory and opportunistic data collection, communication, analysis, and visualization;
* To identify open issues which remain a challenge towards the convergence of information and communication technologies, privacy protection methods, social and psychological theories in MCS;
* To exploit novel application areas and demonstrate the benefits of MCS in contrast with more traditional static sensing approaches.

Topics may include (but are not limited to):

* Community detection and social interaction
* Dynamic trust management models
* Cooperation incentive models
* Distributed mobility management
* Human behavior and mobility prediction
* Virtual currency architectures and models
* Resource management in spontaneous environments
* Cooperative networking
* Market impact and analysis of UCN integration
* Standardization aspects in regards to UCN topics such as user liability, authentication, and highly efficient WLANs.

IMPORTANT DATES

* Deadline for Manuscript Submission: March 30th 2014
* Author Notification: April 30th 2014
* Final Manuscript Due: July 1st, 2014
* Publication Date: September 2014

Editors:

Rute Sofia, COPELABS/University Lusofona, rute.sofia@ulusofona.pt

Alessandro Bogliolo, University of Urbino, alessandro.bogliolo@uniurb.it

Huiling Zhu, University of Kent, h.zhu@kent.ac.uk

Fikret Sivrikaya, Technical University of Berlin, fikret.sivrikaya@dai-labor.de

Olivier Marce, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, France, Olivier.Marce@alcatel-lucent.fr

David Valerdi, Fon Wireless, Ltd., david.valerdi@fon.com