Subject: [BEHAVE] CFP: IEEE Network Special Issue on Implications and Control of Middleboxes in the Internet

From: Xiaoming Fu <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:49:35 +0100

... sending this CFP after Chair's approval.
Xiaoming
--------------------------------------------------------
                      Call for Papers

                   IEEE Network Magazine
                      Special Issue on
Implications and Control of Middleboxes in the Internet

Important Data
==============
Manuscript Submission Due: March 1, 2008
Acceptance Notification: June 1, 2008
Final Manuscript Due: July 15, 2008
Special Issue Publication Date: September/October 2008

Call for Papers
===============
Network Address Translators (NAT) and IP firewalls have been introduced 
to the Internet some time ago, and over the time become an integral part 
of the Internet architecture. Moreover, there are also other types of 
middleboxes, such as Virtual Private Network (VPN) gateways, Application 
Layer Gateways (ALG), Performance Enhancing Proxies (PEP) and web 
proxies. These intermediary boxes perform functions different from 
normal IP packet treatment, which can even change the content of packets 
or do rerouting of IP packets.

There have been diverse views on the value of middleboxes. Some believe 
that middleboxes introduce problems for network applications as well as 
challenges to the traditional end-to-end Internet architecture. These 
issues range, for instance, but not limited to, from naming and 
addressing of nodes behind NATs, directionality of communication 
establishment, and performance impairments. On the other hand, many 
administrators and operators see the middleboxes represent an important 
part for their network operations. For example, firewalls are widely 
deployed with the intention of securing enterprise, campus and home 
networks, so as to block attacks to nodes or keep nodes from sending 
malicious traffic.

The Internet community has acknowledged the emergence of the middleboxes 
and developed middlebox control and coordination protocols that allow 
end hosts (or application proxies) to learn about the presence of 
middleboxes and communicate their needs (i.e. required packet treatment) 
to those devices. A number of middlebox control protocols, such as UPnP, 
MIDCOM and STUN, have been developed over the years and are partially 
used in current deployments.

The papers in this special issue will focus on the state-of-the-art 
research in various aspects of middleboxes and middlebox control 
mechanisms, which help to understand their impact to the Internet 
architecture and network operations, and how they can be further 
integrated, or leveraged for different purposes, such as load balancing 
and mobile network environments, among the others. Specifically, within 
the aforementioned context in Internet middleboxes and their control 
mechanisms, the special issue will present tutorials, surveys and 
original research articles (written in a tutorial manner readable by 
non-specialists) that cover the following subjects, but not limited to:

* Middlebox-supported network architectures vs. other Internet evolution 
alternatives (e.g., IPv6)
* Design and/or performance evaluation of middlebox software architectures
* Control and coordination across middleboxes and their traversal mechanisms
* Security, including authentication, authorization and accounting 
issues with middlebox control/traversal mechanisms
* Scalability and performance studies of middlebox control/traversal 
mechanisms
* Deployment scenarios and case studies (corporate, ISP, content 
providers, mobile environments etc.) based on middleboxes
* Interaction and implications with other network protocols and components
* Interaction and implications with end-to-end applications and services
* Related standardization efforts

Manuscript Submission
=====================

With regard to both the content and formatting style of the submissions, 
prospective contributors must follow the IEEE Network guidelines for 
authors that can be found at
http://www.comsoc.org/pubs/net/ntwrk/authors.html. Submitted papers must 
be original and must not be under current consideration for publication 
in other venues. Authors should submit a PDF format of their complete 
papers via http://www.edas.info/newPaper.php?c=6198.

Guest Editors
=============
Prof. Xiaoming Fu
Institute for Computer Science
University of Goettingen
Goettingen
Germany
Email: [email-masked]

Martin Stiemerling
NEC Europe Laboratories
Network Research Division
Heidelberg
Germany
Email: [email-masked]

Prof. Henning Schulzrinne
Department of Computer Science
Columbia University
New York, NY
USA
Email: [email-masked]

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