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Call for Papers:
3rd IEEE LCN Special Track on Maritime Communication and Security (MarCaS 2025)
in conjunction with the
50th Annual IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (IEEE LCN 2025)

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Sydney, Australia, October 14-16, 2025

https://garykessler.net/lcn_marcas/


## MarCaS Special Track Synopsis

The ongoing digital transformation of the worldwide maritime transportation
system (MTS) is moving from previously isolated legacy systems to fully
interconnected, globally available, and remotely controllable maritime systems.
This transformation has a huge impact on most global supply chains that depend
existentially upon maritime. Ultimately, it has also the potential to pave the
way for autonomous, smart, and green shipping, improving the efficiency and
sustainability of the MTS.

However, in light of the growing threat of cyberattacks and malicious electro-
magnetic activities, protecting our maritime transportation and communication
systems must be a top priority not only from an economic view, but also from a
social and political perspective. The Ever Given’s Suez Canal obstruction in
March 2021 has made the world community noticeably aware of how fragile and
vulnerable our global supply chains are. But even beyond merchant ships and
shipping lanes, port facilities and cargo terminals, as well as many other
infrastructures such as oil and gas platforms, offshore wind farms, and subsea
pipelines and cables, must be secured, especially in view of the current
geopolitical conflicts. The sabotage of gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in 2022,
the attacks on merchant ships off the Yemeni coast in the Red Sea by the Houthi
militia in 2023 and the recent and increasing destruction of submarine cables
clearly highlight the need for more networked surveillance systems.

The LCN’s MarCaS 2025 Special Track is the continuation of the successful MarCaS
workshop from the previous year. Its scope are innovations from research
necessary for the digital transformation, focusing on maritime information
technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) on board vessels and maritime
industrial control systems, but also on shore at ports, terminals, and other
maritime infrastructures. Maritime communication, satellite navigation, radio-
based situational awareness systems, and maritime cloud services are of
particular interest of MarCaS, combined with novel cybersecurity approaches for
a safer and more resilient MTS.


## Topics

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
* Maritime IT/OT systems, architectures, and communication technologies
* Multi-sensor networks and Cyber-Physical Systems
* Underwater communication, networks, and surveillance
* On-shore and intermodal communication systems
* Maritime cybersecurity and vulnerability analysis
* Safe and secure navigation, GPS interference technique, and GNSS-independent
localization
* AIS and radar protocol security
* Security assessments, threat analyses, and cyber risk management
* (Open source) test and simulation environments and maritime datasets
* Autonomous systems and shipping
* Smart ships, smart ports, and maritime IoT technologies
* Maritime (security) education and training
* Machine learning / artificial intelligence
* Maritime blockchain use cases

## Submission Guidelines

* via EDAS: https://edas.info/N33698
* Paper submissions may be up to six (6) pages, excluding bibliography,
* formatted in 10pt font, two-column IEEE conference style,
* must be prepared for a double-blind review process,
* and must describe original, previously unpublished research and developments,
not currently under review by another conference, workshop, or journal.
* Detailed instructions can be found on the webpage.

## Important Dates

* Special Track Paper Registration: April 20, 2025
* Special Track Paper Submission: April 27, 2025
* Paper Acceptance Notification: July 1, 2025
* Camera-ready Papers Due: August 1, 2025

## MarCaS Chairs

* Jan Bauer, Fraunhofer FKIE, Germany
* Ulku Clark, University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA
* Gary C. Kessler, Gary Kessler Associates, USA
* Stephen McCombie, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands

You can contact the organizers at marcas@garykessler.net.