Call for Papers

With the rapid adoption of new technologies and applications, e.g., Internet of Things, 5G/6G communication networks, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence, a deluge of devices are being connected to the network, thus generating a large amount of data. The collection, processing, and analysis of this vast amount of data is essential to help people and enterprises gain valuable information, make sensible decisions, and subsequently improve the quality of people’s lives. However, the underlying communication networks are thus facing a new number of un-precedented challenges. Managing these large number devices in a scalable and secure manner is bringing significant challenges to the infrastructure construction, maintenance, and management of the communication networks. Recurring data privacy breaches and the lack of control are making Internet users and enterprises less willing to provide valuable data for processing and analysis.

In recent years, the emergence of blockchain technology offers several salient features including decentralization, trust, immutability, and security that could address some of these safety, privacy, and transparency challenges. For example, the traceability of blockchain allows data to be recorded on the distributed ledgers from every step of collection and transaction, improve the quality of the data, and ensure the correctness of data analysis and mining. The decentralization of blockchain also offers a different perspective for device management in a communication network, as devices can establish and learn relationships with other devices. Thus, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) offers tremendous potential to disrupt all the industrial domains which involve coordination among autonomous resources. This includes finance technology (fintech) and payment systems (e.g., Bitcoin/Ethereum, SWIFT and Central Bank Digital Currencies), but also networks (e.g., power grids or telecom networks), computing (e.g., brokering of edge resources), IoT (e.g., supply chains or industry 4.0), and other service platforms (e.g., identity management).

The purpose of this Special Issue is to explore the research challenges in Blockchain technologies with a highlight in their promising capabilities to provide reliable and secure networked applications and services.

IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (IEEE TNSM) is a premier journal for timely publication of archival research on the management of networks, systems, services, and applications. Following the success of the recent TNSM Special Issues on cybersecurity techniques for managing networked systems in 2020 and 2021, this Special Issue will focus on recent advances in network security management using DLT. We welcome submissions addressing the important challenges (see the non-exhaustive list of topics below) and presenting novel research or experimentation results. Survey papers that offer an insightful perspective on related work and identify key challenges for future research will be considered as well. We look forward to your submissions!

About the Special Issue

Authors are invited to submit high-quality papers containing ori­ginal work from either academia or industry reporting novel advances in (but not limi­ted to) the following topics on blockchains applied and deployed in network and service mana­ge­ment:

• Blockchains for management of communication networks
• Security and privacy of blockchain networks
• Data protection and dissemination in communication networks using blockchain technology
• Intersection of Blockchains and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for network and service management
• Applications of Blockchain in Communication Networks, Internet of Things, 5G/6G communication networks, Edge/Fog/Cloud Computing, Internet of Vehicles (V2X), Smart Grids, Identity Management, and other industry verticals
• Smart Contracts for network and service management
• Security, resilience and economics of blockchain networks for network and service management
• Novel Blockchain as a Service abstractions and applications
• Interoperability of blockchain networks
• Addressing communication challenges, cross-chain and sharding in blockchain networks for network and service management
• Novel architectures and consensus algorithms, protocols, and mechanisms for blockchains for network and service management

Submission Format

Papers will be evaluated based on their originality, presentation, relevance, and contribution to the targeted research field as well as their overall quality and suitability for the special issue. The submitted papers must be written in good English and describe original research which has not been published nor currently under review by other journals or conferences. Previously published conference papers should be clearly identified by the authors at the initial submission stage and an explanation should be provided of how such papers have been extended when compared to past submissions so to be considered for this Special Issue.

Author guidelines for the preparation of manuscript (including number of pages and potential extra page costs) can be found on the IEEE TNSM Submit a Manuscript page.

Submission Guidelines

All manuscripts and any supplementary material should be submitted through the IEEE Manuscript Central service. Authors must indicate in the submission cover letter that their manuscript is intended for the “Recent Advances in Blockchain for Network and Service Management” Special Issue.

Important Dates

Paper Submission Date: 4 April 2022 25 April 2022 2 May 2022 (Extended Deadline)
Notification Round 1: 30 June 2022
Notification of Acceptance: 19 September 2022
Final Version Ready: 31 October 2022
Publication Date: *1 December 2022

(* online published version will be available in IEEE Xplore after the camera-ready version has been submitted with final DOI)

Guest Editors