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The Fifth International Workshop on
Real-Time and Cyber-Physical Cloud
(RT-Cloud 2026)

www.ecrts.org/rt-cloud-2026/
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While most cloud services operate on a best-effort basis and provide no timing
guarantees, there is a growing interest in cloud technologies for industrial and
safety-critical applications. Edge/Fog computing has emerged as a paradigm that
brings computing and storage resources closer to the user, offering benefits
such as low latency, high bandwidth, and enhanced privacy, while still maintaining
the scalability of the cloud. Driven by the surge of AI/ML workloads and the need
for intelligent, responsive systems, Edge/Fog computing is increasingly becoming
extensions of the cloud continuum. By moving compute and storage closer to where
data is generated, they enable real-time analytics, adaptive AI models, and secure
and robust on-device intelligence, while maintaining the flexibility and scalability
of traditional cloud environments.

All this makes it attractive for real-time and cyber-physical systems (CPS).
However, a higher degree of determinism and timing failure resiliency is still
desired for cloud/edge technologies to be fully embraced by the real-time/safety-critical
industry. This calls for new methodologies and techniques to design predictable
and reliable cloud/edge technologies and applications of the future. Indeed, all
the above requirements should be covered in all layers of a cloud/edge stack:

- The compute layer, with a focus on virtualization technologies (e.g., VMM/hypervisors),
must provide deterministic and robust behavior.

- The network layer has to provide bounded and controllable communication latencies.
For example, in time-sensitive networks (TSN), this implies a need for a higher-level
controller integrated with the cloud orchestrator.

- The storage layer, such as messaging and storage services, needs to guarantee latency bounds.
The management and orchestration layer, which includes services like scaling,
resource management, and orchestration, must be aware of the real-time requirements
and use appropriate techniques.

The 5th International Workshop on Real-time and Cyber-Physical Cloud (RT-Cloud) aims
to bring together industrial and academic researchers and become a forum for discussing
topics (including ideas, open and upcoming challenges, use cases, initiatives,
calls to action, and projects, regulations and standards, future research directions, etc.)
related to real-time cloud/edge/fog computing and virtualization techniques.

Topics covered by the RT-Cloud workshop are related to three pillars:

- Real-Time Computing & Virtualization
* Designing predictable, time-sensitive systems through:
** Real-time operating systems and mixed-criticality scheduling
** Hardware-assisted virtualization for embedded platforms
** Timing analysis, system partitioning, and formal verification

- Cloud Computing & Orchestration
* Modern distributed architectures across cloud-edge infrastructures, including:
** Containerization, microservices, and orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes)
** Edge and fog computing for low-latency applications
** Secure, scalable deployment strategies for industrial CPS

- Industrial Use Cases
* Real-world applications and challenges in:
** Automotive, aerospace, robotics, and manufacturing
** Cyberphysical integration, digital twins, and IoT
** Standards, safety certification, and innovation ecosystems

Original full and short papers on all aspects of real-time/safety-critical
cloud/edge/fog and virtualization are welcome. Researchers are encouraged
(but not limited) to, submit papers regarding the following:

1. Use cases and applications for RT-cloud
- Use of cloud computing principles to improve performance/safety/
security in existing real-time systems/use cases
- Real-time cloud and edge applications
-- Industrial use cases and requirements
-- Experiments and experiences with RT-cloud
-- Real-time / safety-critical applications as a cloud-based service
-- Real-time extension to existing cloud-computing technologies
-- Decomposition between the edge, fog, and cloud

2. Virtualization and cloud computing technologies/models for RT-cloud
-- Deterministic hypervisors and cloud execution environments, including containers and WebAssembly
* Real-time extension to existing cloud-computing technologies, e.g., Kubernetes
-- Real-time Saas, PaaS, IaaS, and XaaS (anything as a service model)
-- Execution and deployment models for RT-Cloud, including serverless compute
* Modeling of network and cloud, execution stacks, and applications
-- Microservices Architectures for real-time system
-- Development Operations (DevOps) for RT-cloud
-- Edge-cloud-IoT continuum and interaction/interfacing

3. Resource management (including monitoring, scheduling) and orchestration for RT-cloud
-- Predictable orchestration and cloud operation, e.g., how to allocate and configure
cloud resources within a bounded time
-- Tools and techniques for resource sharing and isolation
-- End-to-end resource management and resource scheduling in the edge-to-cloud continuum
-- Co-scheduling of virtual network and compute resources
-- QoS mechanisms, isolation guarantees
-- Autonomous monitoring systems
-- Adaptive SLAs for RT-cloud

4. Safety and Security for RT-cloud
-- Assurance, deterministic scaling, fail-over, migration, etc.
-- Trusted RT-Cloud/edge environment
* Considering security and privacy together with safety

Further, this year, the workshop will have a focus on new frontiers like
Edge AI, LLMs, Agentic Edge AI, in the field of real-time and
cyber-physical cloud, including:

- Edge AI and on-device intelligence for time-critical systems.
- LLMs and Agentic AI in real-time and edge environments, exploring their use in autonomous
orchestration, monitoring, and adaptive control of distributed systems.
- Security, Privacy, and Trustworthiness in Cyber-Physical Cloud Infrastructures.
- Integration of AI-based optimization with cloud/edge resource management under timing constraints.

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IMPORTANT DATES

Submission deadline: May 14, 2026 (AoE)
Notification of Acceptance: June 6, 2026
RT-Cloud Workshop: July 7, 2026
ECRTS 2026: July 7-10, 2026

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SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Manuscripts must present original work. They must be written in English,
using the IEEE format, and submitted through Easychair. There are no strict
rules about the number of pages, but the recommended length for full papers
is 6-8 pages, and for short papers is 3-4 pages.

** Submission link: https://easychair.org/my2/conference?conf=rtcloud2026 **

All submissions will be reviewed by the technical program committee members,
and accepted papers will be included in the workshop proceedings, which will
be available online on the workshop website. Papers will not be assigned a
DOI to enable authors to submit a full/extended paper later on to a
conference or a journal. For every accepted paper, at least one author is
expected to register for the workshop and present the paper.

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WORKSHOP CHAIRS

Luigi De Simone (Universita' degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy)
Schmidt Kevin (Bosch, Germany)

Contact for general questions regarding the workshop: luigi.desimone@unina.it

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TECHNICAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Allan Valle (TU Kaiserslautern, Germany)
David Kozhaya (ABB Corporate Research, Switzerland)
Harald Gustafsson (Ericsson Research, Sweden)
Remo Andreoli (Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy)
Schahram Dustdar (Vienna University of Technology, Austria)
Johan Eker (Ericsson Research, Sweden)
Sanjoy Baruah (Washington University in St. Louis, USA)
Mauro Marinoni Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
Gerhard Fohler (TU Kaiserslautern, Germany)
Tilmann Unte (University of Augsburg, Germany)
Isser Kadusale (TU Kaiserslautern, Germany)
Paul Pop (Technical University of Denmark, Denmark)
Dario Faggioli (SUSE, Italy)
Luca Abeni (Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy)
Luiz Maia (TU Kaiserslautern)
Ahmed Al Bayati (Lund University, Sweden)
Armando Migliaccio (DigitalOcean, USA)

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