IEEE Conference on Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks
9 -12 November 2020 // Virtual Conference

Call for Doctoral Symposium

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline:  August 24th, 2020
Notification of acceptance:  September 28th, 2020
Camera-ready deadline:  October 19th, 2020
NFV-SDN Conference:  November 9th– 12th, 2020

Objectives

The Doctoral Symposium is a new feature for the conference this year. It provides an opportunity for researchers (Ph.D. students) to discuss and get valuable feedback on their research work from experienced researchers from both industry and academia. It will help to build and strengthen collaboration amongst the communities researching and working in the areas of NFV and SDN.

The doctoral symposium has the status of an IEEE workshop and provides an excellent opportunity for networking amongst Ph.D. students and experienced researchers. Accepted submissions are published in the conference proceedings and disseminated through the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

The Doctoral Symposium Committee will present a Best Doctoral Paper Award. The assessment criteria for the award will include the potential of the thesis to impact future engineering practice as well as the novelty and contribution of the work to the field.

Eligibility

The forum is open to all researchers whose Ph.D. thesis is in progress, or was recently completed (i.e., during 2019 or 2020). We particularly welcome submissions from PhD students at the beginning of their work when they have a well-defined problem statement and are developing their ideas on how to approach the challenges. Likewise, we are also looking for contributions from Ph.D. students in more advanced stages who want to present their research results and share insights coming from their experience which might help others to progress their work.

Structure of Contributions

Submissions should indicate whether their work should be considered to be early-stage or late stage. Contributions can be organized using a common structure for a research paper (e.g., Abstract, Introduction, Related Work, Methodology/Architecture, Results, and Conclusions) as well as variations thereof. Beyond this, please make sure that the following key aspects (as listed below) are fully covered and clearly discernible in order to stimulate discussion amongst the symposium participants.

Early Stage Ph.D. Submissions

Early-stage Ph.D. submissions should address the following key aspects:

  • Problem Statement: Describe the main research problem and motivation for choosing this particular topic.
  • State of the Art: Outline how the research is novel and complementary to existing work.
  • Challenges: Describe the research challenges and planned methodology to tackle them.
  • Current Status: Present the current status of the work, including any open questions or early indicative results.

Late Stage Ph.D. Submissions

Late-stage Ph.D. submissions should address the following key aspects and methodological components required for a sound research synthesis:

  • Problem Statement: Describe the main research problem and motivation for choosing this particular topic.
  • State of the Art: Discuss related work and how the research is novel and complementary.
  • Approaches and Contributions: Describe the applied research methodology; present the current status of the work and the results achieved to date (which may be preliminary).
  • Conclusions and Impact: Present the main conclusions, anticipated impact on the field, and potential for industry adoption.

Submission Guidelines

Submitted papers must be written in English and formatted according to the standard IEEE double-column conference template (10-point font). Templates and examples in LaTeX and Microsoft Word are available for download at https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html.

Early-stage Ph.D. papers should be two (2) to four (4) pages in length. One additional page is available for an over-length page charge of 100USD. Papers exceeding five (5) pages are not accepted.

Late-stage Ph.D. papers should be four (4) to six (6) pages in length. One additional page is available for an over-length page charge of 100USD. Papers exceeding seven (7) pages are not accepted.

The number of authors must not exceed three (3) persons who are Ph.D. students and up to two (2) supervisors. Please clearly state the role of a supervisor in the author’s affiliation. If accepted, the Ph.D. student is expected to present the paper at the Doctoral Symposium.

The Doctoral Symposium Committee will require evidence of status as a Ph.D. student. This can be a letter from the supervisor or other recognized authority within the university.

Manuscripts are only accepted as PDF files (Adobe’s Portable Document Format) and must be submitted electronically through EDAS: https://edas.info/N27449. Please also upload an auxiliary PDF file containing a signed statement from the supervisor that certifies the status as a (former) Ph.D. student and approves the submitted manuscript.

Doctoral Symposium Program Committee

Deval Bhamare, ​Karlstad University​, Sweden
Franco Callegati​, ​University of Bologna​, Italy
Georgiana Caltais​, ​University of Konstanz​, Germany
Walter Cerroni​, ​University of Bologna​, Italy
Antonio de la Oliva​, ​Universidad Carlos III de Madrid​, Spain
Igor Faynberg​, ​Stevens Institute of Technology​, USA
Levi Perigo​, ​University of Colorado Boulder​, USA
Miguel Razo​, ​University of Texas at Dallas​, USA
Stefano Salsano​, ​University of Rome Tor Vergata​, Italy
Giovanni Schembra​, ​University of Catania​, Italy
Sandra Scott-Hayward​, ​Queen’s University Belfast​, UK
Kurt Tutschku​, ​Blekinge Institute of Technology​, Sweden

Doctoral Symposium Co-Chairs

Don Clarke, Telecom Foresight Consulting, USA
Barbara Martini, CNIT, Italy
Helge Parzyjegla, University of Rostock, Germany
Peter Willis, BT, UK