The NFV/SDN paradigms promote the deployment of Network Functions (NF) as software components into cloud infrastructures, and the identification of relevant abstractions for their configuration, control and management. Such NFs can comprise processing elements in the data plane (e.g., packet inspection, filtering, flow-level monitoring, or access control) as well as control-plane components (e.g., signaling, routing, load balancing, mobility management). This paradigm shift enables new cloud service models, i.e., NF-as-a-service (NFaaS), which can lead to significant operational and technology investment cost savings for service providers. Beyond that, telecom operators can greatly benefit from NFV/SDN, considering the increasing trend to implement mobile communication network functions in software.
Software-based networks can mitigate problems and shortcomings of today’s networks, such as long provisioning times, with wasteful over-provisioning used to meet variable demand, and reliance on rigid and cost-ineffective hardware devices. Therefore, there is an increasing need for more flexibility and agility that can be attained via the architectural decomposition of network components and network services into elementary, reusable primitives as well as the virtualization of network processing elements.
In this respect, SWFAN aims at bringing together researchers, engineers, and practitioners to discuss the latest advances on architectures, algorithms, abstractions, and technologies for fluidity, flexibility, and agility in software-based networks. SWFAN solicits submissions on: (i) the rapid and elastic provisioning of computing, storage, and network resources for NF deployment and scaling in virtualized infrastructures, (ii) the development of new models, protocols, algorithms, and abstractions for more flexible and agile network control, (iii) the specification and development of elementary and reusable primitives for flexible network processing, and (iv) new technologies for high-performance processing.