The client-server model, which has made the Internet ubiquitous and part of all aspects of modern life, is showing its age. New technologies and architectures are paving the way for new Internet paradigms and models that are more appropriate for new applications and services and accelerate the push for the softwarization and democratization of networking in general. The emergence of distributed "edge networks,” pushing the network as close as possible to service consumption points and the use of users’ devices, reduces the need to add more computation and storage in remote server farms. This is now. What is next?
New devices, improved services and applications of all kinds drive the new connected economy and seek to improve our quality of life. The relentless pace of technological growth is generating opportunities in all sectors of our life: entertainment, automotive, healthcare, education or personal communications. And of course, this innovation is linked to online connectivity, mobility and sharing. The scale and scope of the Internet is continuously expanding and connects humans, intelligent machines and more and more sensors and actuators. This Feature Topic (FT) wants to address how new architectures and protocols will support the growth and improve the performance of the Internet in order to meet the demands of the connected society. Topics covered by the FT include:
- Novel Internet architectures, both clean-slate and evolutionary, including decentralized, cloud and edge architectures
- Protocols to support upcoming applications and services
- Network solutions for delay inelastic services in industrial and vehicular networks
- Protocols to improve content and service delivery using novel approaches
- Intrinsic Network security and privacy solutions