2019 International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems

IEEE ComSoc Sponsored

July 22-24, 2019, Berlin, Germany

The goal of this annual conference is to provide a forum for professionals and researchers to discuss and disseminate the most promising contributions on performance evaluation of computer and telecommunication systems. Papers describing results of theoretic and/or practical significance are solicited. Experimental, modeling, analysis, and simulation studies as well as testbed deployment, field trials and experiences gained are all in the scope of the conference. Work presenting novel performance evaluation methods or providing insights on design and runtime tradeoffs are particularly encouraged.

Papers and tutorials are solicited in (but not limited to) the following subjects of interest:

Networking Technologies and Telecommunication Systems
Future Internet and next Generation Networking
5G & Beyond
Hyperdense networks
Massive MIMO
mm Wave communications
Multiple access, multiplexing, modulation and coding techniques
Cooperative communications and networking
Cognitive radio and networking
Autonomic Networks
Software Defined Networking
Network Function Virtualization
Cloud Radio Access Networks
Radio over Fiber
Flexible optical networks
Optical-Wireless communication and systems
Visible light communications
Internet of Things and enabling technologies
Machine to Machine systems
Device to Device communications
Cyber Physical Systems
Wireless ad-hoc Networks
Wireless Sensor Networks
Delay Tolerant Networks
Opportunistic Networks
Vehicular ad-hoc networks / connected vehicles
Nanonetworks
Satellite and Space communications and networking
Network design, optimization, management and performance evaluation
Traffic engineering, network reliability, Quality of Service / Experience
Computer Systems
Parallel and Distributed Computing
Service Oriented Architectures and Microservices
Cloud and Edge Computing
High Performance Computing
Distributed and Mobile Middleware
Computer Architectures
Microprocessors
Multi-core processors
Memory systems
High performance I/O
Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence Applications and Machine Learning
Software Engineering, Performance, Evaluation and Testing
Verification and Validation
Programming Languages
Parallel Algorithms
Data Storage Systems
Fault tolerance, signal processing, and coding techniques
Tools & Methodologies
Modeling and Analysis
Performance Optimization, Bounds and Models
Stochastic Models
Queuing Systems and Networks
Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic Applications
Integrated Modeling and Measurement
Mathematical Aspects and Integrated Design of Performance
Verification and Validation
On-Line Performance Adaptation and Tuning
Parallel and Distributed Simulation
Case studies, Testbed deployments, field trials and experiences
Scalability Studies

Special Tracks and Areas of Interest
Security and Performance in Computer and Telecommunication Systems
Chairs: Jean-Pierre Seifert, Altaf Shaik, Robert Buhren
Data security is vital to ensure protection against cyber threats that continue to raise and diversify at a rapid speed. But often, while deploying security mechanisms, the performance of the system is affected in adverse ways. A key challenge in the design of computer and telecommunication systems is to identify a neutral ground between security and performance. Whilst the widespread of devices spanning into networks and generating countless amounts of data absolutely require high performance systems. This makes us to rethink our security systems that can guarantee a high level of performance and also an acceptable level of security. In this respect, we invite researchers and security enthusiasts to submit papers that study and analyze various issues but not limited to such as tradeoff between security and performance, new security protocols in secure communication systems.

Edge Computing and Edge-enabled AI for Network Management
Chairs: Paolo Bellavista, Luca Foschini, Carlo Giannelli
Edge computing is rapidly emerging as the most relevant architectural approach to manage some hard and open technical challenges associated with wide-scale and quality-sensitive Internet of Things (IoT) applications, which typically exploit the elastic availability of cloud resources on the server side. EAINM specifically focuses on network quality configuration, optimization, configuration, control, and management enabled by edge computing in three-layer deployment environments (device, edge, cloud). In particular, EAINM considers as central all methodological, design, implementation, and deployment experiences that investigate digital twin creation at the cloud layer and distributed enforcement of twin control actions also at the edge, typically with complex machine learning processing at the cloud side and more lightweight digital twin execution and refinement at edge nodes. Contributions about enabling AI techniques for these architectures and practical application prototyping/deployment experiences (e.g., for manufacturing production quality control and optimized management of distributed caching) are strongly welcome.

Aspects and trends of software evaluation
Chairs: George Tsihrintzis, Maria Virvou
Software applications are evolving rapidly and are expanding their use to all the areas of human activity by the means of all sorts of hardware, including computers, handheld devices, smart things, digital signage etc. The vast use of software in many contexts imposes the need for the development of new evaluation methodologies, frameworks and processes to address software quality characteristics that include reliability, reusability, effectiveness, correctness, accuracy and also security and privacy that conform to new law regulations. Moreover, the important software quality characteristics of usability, user friendliness and utility have to be ensured for end users of a vast range of disciplines and backgrounds. Thus, measuring and evaluating the quality of software applications has become of critical importance and should attract a lot of research energy. The aim of ASE is to address current aspects and trends of software evaluation.

Modeling and Evaluation of Wireless Body Area Networks
Chair: Yahya Osais
Wireless Body Area Not (WBAN) are networks of medical sensors which are attached or implanted into the body of a human being or animal to monitor and control biological processes. Their performance is limited by their constrained resources and side effects such as heat. Before the full potential of WBANs can be realized, many fundamental issues must be studied using performance evaluation tools and measurements. The aim of MEWBAN is to provide the necessary insights to make the needed progress.

Social Network Analysis and Performance Aspects of Socially-Aware Networking
Chairs: Magdalini Eirinaki, Iraklis Varlamis, Malamati Louta
The rapid development of wireless communications and the rise of social networks established a new research field that stands between telecommunications and social network theory. Smart and wearable mobile devices act as alternative gateways for participation in social networks and introduced “mobility” as a new aspect of social networking and applications. The aim of SANet is to provide a forum where researchers from the fields of Social Network Analysis and Telecommunication Systems Performance will come together, exchange ideas and generate new collaborations that bring us a step closer to Socially-Aware Networking.

Call for Papers

Deadlines
Paper submission: April 22, 2019
Author notification: May 20, 2019
Camera-ready paper submission: June 3, 2019

Paper Submission procedure:

Please submit your complete papers electronically to https://www.softconf.com/sim/SummerSim19/

Instructions for authors
Current templates supplied by IEEE must be used. Submissions should not exceed 8 two-column, 8.5×11" pages (including figures, tables, and references) in 10 point fonts. Please include 5-10 keywords, complete postal and e-mail address, and fax and phone numbers of the corresponding author. If you have difficulties with electronic submission, please contact Technical Program Co-Chairs or the Local Arrangement Chair.

Proposals for tutorials (max 2 hours) should be sent to the Tutorial Chair. Tutorial abstracts along with keynote speeches' abstracts will be included in the proceedings of the conference.

Best Paper Awards
All accepted papers will be evaluated for a best paper award based on originality and technical contribution by an external commission.

Call for Tutorial Proposals
SPECTS 2019 is soliciting proposals for tutorials (max 2 hours) to be held in conjunction with the conference. Tutorials should address established as well as new emerging research topics and practical applications in the area of performance evaluation of computer and telecommunication systems. Tutorials should present a comprehensive overview of the state of the art and outline open research and technical challenges.

A tutorial proposal should contain the following information:

Tutorial title
Names, titles, affiliations and contact details of the presenters
Preferred duration
Extended abstract
Short description of the intended audience and prerequisite knowledge of the attendees (if any)
Short bio of the presenters
The extended abstracts of the tutorials will be included in the conference proceedings. Tutorial proposals should be submitted for review in a single PDF file — not exceeding five pages — mailed to the tutorial chair.

Important Dates for Tutorials
Proposal submission: April 22, 2019
Acceptance notification:May 20, 2019
Tutorial Chair
Maria Calzarossa, University of Pavia, Italy
Please address questions to the Tutorial Chair.

Keynote
Using any Surface to Realize a New Paradigm for Wireless Communications, through Software-controlled Metasurfaces

Summary
Wireless communications is undeniably becoming ubiquitous in everyday life, with user demands growing at a very fast pace. Despite impressive breakthroughs in almost every part of our wireless systems-from antennas to hardware to operating software-this demand is getting increasingly challenging to address. The humongous scale of research effort and investment in the upcoming 5th generation of wireless communications (5G) reflects the scale of the challenge. This talk will introduce a valuable and unnoticed resource, which could be exploited to tackle these increasing challenges.

Wireless communication environments, i.e., the set of physical objects (such as walls, doors, desks, and humans) that stand between two wireless communicating devices, are unaware of the ongoing data exchange efforts within them. Moreover, their effects on the communication quality are intractable in all but the simplest cases. These ensuing effects are degenerative, due to such phenomena as the path loss, the multi-path scattering, and the Doppler effect, exacerbated as operating frequencies scale up, e.g. mm-wave solutions for 5G. Existing proposals for mitigating these effects generally tackle the problem by adopting device-side approaches, treating the environment as an uncontrollable factor that does not participate into the communication process. Examples include device-oriented (e.g. MIMO techniques, real-time adaptation of signal modulation and coding), and retransmitter-oriented (e.g. intelligent placement of passive or active amplifiers) techniques. These effects, as well as different approaches to minimize them, and their inability to tackle the problem at its root, will be briefly overviewed.

Next, the talk will introduce a new approach that could control these effects, producing a wireless environment with software-defined electromagnetic behavior. The novel idea of HyperSurfaces*, which are software-controlled metamaterials embedded in any surface in the environment (e.g. by coating walls, doors, furniture, poles, and other objects) will be motivated. HyperSurfaces are envisioned to realize a new generation of applications, as for example programmatically controlled wireless environments, realizing application related functionalities such as perfect absorption, beam steering via anomalous reflection, or polarization control. These materials can interact with electromagnetic waves in a fully software-defined fashion, even unnaturally. Thus, the electromagnetic behavior of the environment as a whole can become deterministic, controlled and tailored to the needs of mobile devices within it. HyperSurfaces have inter-networking capabilities, allowing for the first time the participation of electromagnetic properties of materials into control loops, leading to the concept of the Internet of Smart Materials. Our solution will be briefly contrasted with closer in concept approaches, such as phased antennas and reflect arrays, which can only support coarse EM steering, e.g., for beamforming applications in wireless devices.

Beyond the conceptual introduction of the topic, a specific application scenario of a Programmable Wireless indoor Environment (PWE) will be presented, from inception to design to evaluation in 2.4 and 60 GHz setups.

In conclusion the talk will highlight the substantial gains in communication quality, communication distance and battery savings of mobile devices, and even in security and privacy, will discuss open problems and plausible research directions, as well as outline its potential application in diverse areas, as e.g. highly efficient energy harvesting photovoltaics, and thermophotovoltaics, ultra-high resolution medical imaging, sensing, quantum optics and military applications.

Open discussion with the audience will be encouraged.

(*) VISORSURF project is funded by the European Union via the Horizon 2020: Future Emerging Topics call (FETOPEN), grant EU736876

Short Bio

Andreas Pitsillides is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, heads NetRL, the Networks Research Laboratory, and is appointed Visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), School of Electrical and Information engineering, Johannesburg, South Africa. His broad research interests include communication networks (fixed and mobile/wireless), Nananetworks and Software Defined Metamaterials, the Internet- and Web- of Things, Smart Spaces (Home, Grid, City), and Internet technologies and their application in Mobile e-Services, especially e-health, and security. He has a particular interest in adapting tools from various fields of applied mathematics such as adaptive non-linear control theory, computational intelligence, game theory, and nature inspired techniques, to solve problems in communication networks. Published over 270 referred papers in flagship journals (e.g. IEEE, Elsevier, IFAC, Springer), international conferences and book chapters, 2 books (one edited), participated in over 30 European Commission and locally funded research projects as principal or co-principal investigator, received several awards, including best paper, presented keynotes, invited lectures at major research organisations, short courses at international conferences and short courses to industry, and serves/served on several journal and conference executive committees.


SPECTS Steering Committee

Franco Davoli, Univ. of Genoa, Italy
Pascal Lorenz, Univ. of Haute Alsace, France
Mohammad S Obaidat, Fordham Univ., USA (Chair)
Jose L. Sevillano, Univ. of Seville, Spain
Helena Szczerbicka, Leibniz Univ. of Hannover, Germany
Laurence Yang, St. Francis Xavier Univ., Canada

Technical Program Committee

Efthimios Alepis, Univ. of Piraeus, Greece
Ala'a Al-Habashna, Carleton Univ., Canada
Muhammad Usman Awais, National Univ. of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Pakistan
Paolo Bellavista, Univ. of Bologna, Italy
Igor Bisio, Univ. of Genoa, Italy
Robert Buhren, Technical Univ. of Berlin, Germany
Christian Callegari, Univ. of Pisa, Italy
Vicente Casares-Giner, Univ. Politécnica de Valencia, Spain
Joaquín Entrialgo Castaño, Univ. of Oviedo, Spain
Minas Dasygenis, Univ. of Western Macedonia, Greece
Franco Davoli, Univ. of Genoa, Italy
Tomaso De Cola, DLR, Germany
Magdalini Eirinaki, San José State Univ. USA
Peppino Fazio, Univ. of Calabria, Italy
Luca Foschini, Univ. of Bologna, Italy
Daniel Garcia, Univ. Of Oviedo, Spain
Carlo Giannelli, Univ. of Ferrara, Italy
Mary Grammatikou, National Technical Univ. of Athens, Greece
Fabrizio Granelli, Univ. of Trento, Italy
Carlos Guerrero, Univ. de les Illes Balears, Spain
Vincenzo Inzillo, Univ. of Calabria, Italy
Helen Karatza, Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki, Greece
George Karetsos, University of Thessaly, Greece
Baha Uddin Kazi, Carleton Univ., Canada
Peter Kemper, College of William and Mary, USA
Zbigniew Kotulski, Warsaw Univ. of Technology, Poland
Udo Krieger, Univ. of Bamberg, Germany
Sanja Lazarova-Molnar, Univ. of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Jian Li, Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Alejandro Linares-Barranco, Univ. of Seville, Spain
Pascal Lorenz, Univ. of Haute Alsace, France
Malamati Louta, Univ. of Western Macedonia, Greece
Imadeldin Mahgoub, Florida Atlantic Univ., USA
Tahir Maqsood, COMSATS Univ. Islamabad, Pakistan
Mario Marchese, Univ. of Genoa, Italy
Alvaro Marco, Univ. of Zaragoza, Spain
Luisa Massari, Univ. of Pavia, Italy
Nuno Moniz, Univ. of Porto, Portugal
Pierre Olivier, Virginia Tech, USA
Ibrahim Onyuksel, Northern Illinois Univ., USA
Yahya Osais, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia
Elena Pagani, Univ. di Milano, Italy
Prantosh Kumar Paul, Raiganj Univ., India
Gianluca Reali, Univ. of Perugia, Italy
Evangelos Sakkopoulos, Univ. of Piraeus, Greece
Jean-Pierre Seifert, Technical Univ. of Berlin, Germany
Altaf Shaik, Technical Univ. of Berlin, Germany
Georgios L. Stavrinides, Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki, Greece
Daniele Tessera, Catholic Univ. of Sacred Heart, Italy
George Tsihrintzis, Univ. of Piraeus, Greece
John Vardakas, Iquadrat Informatica, Spain
Iraklis Varlamis, Univ. of Athens, Greece
Manuel Villen-Altamirano, Univ. of Malaga, Spain
Maria Virvou, Univ. of Piraeus, Greece
Gabriel Wainer, Carleton Univ., Canada
Bernd Wolfinger, Univ. of Hamburg, Germany
Adam Wolisz, Technical Univ. of Berlin, Germany