Scope and Topics of Interest

The world is undergoing an unprecedented pace of urbanization; and if present trends continue, the world urban population will rise at a phenomenal rate in the next few years. This rapid scale of urbanization will need smarter, sustainable cities based on smart infrastructure that are able to effectively and efficiently manage city utilities and services for its citizens. Electric grids, water distribution systems, transportation systems, communication infrastructure, waste treatment plants, commercial buildings, hospitals, homes and education centers are existing vital facilities and infrastructure components that shape the liveability standard of a city; along with newer infrastructures and services components that we may not have imagined yet.

The key premise of smart infrastructure is based on a new digital strategy, wherein automated systems would be architected to collect and transmit data from more physical sources than ever. While such a possibility provides an extended ability to look more broadly and deeply at cities and their infrastructures, the cardinality of the networked systems is expected to grow manifold, both in scale and complexity. In addition, the availability of a wide range of heterogeneous network technologies is expected to obscure this ecosystem, with NO one-size-fits-all network connectivity solution. Besides, the realization challenges in emerging markets complicates these aspects further; with their unique urban demographics.

The workshop welcomes submissions that provide a “large scale” networked systems approach to smart infrastructure; and address the complex end-to-end interplay of various connectivity and networking challenges (both in the last-mile and the backhaul segments) . It is particularly interested in papers reporting practical insights and experimental findings from deployed systems and large scale testbeds; with a special focus on emerging markets.

Topics of interest include, but not limited to :

• Practical experiences from “large-scale” deployments, measurements, case studies and applications
• Networked system design, architectural nuances, and best practices for “large-scale” deployments
• Interoperability challenges in communication and networking for “large-scale” networked systems
• “Last-mile” networked system management (such as network topology, configuration, mobility, fault, etc.), and troubleshooting at “large-scale”
• Coexistence and synergic exploitation of heterogeneous wireless networks at “large-scale”
• Innovative applications of proximity, device-to-device, and piggybacking communication for the “last-mile” segment
• Dependability, adaptation and intermittency in “large-scale” networked systems
• Techniques to cope with mobility, limited bandwidth, limited power, and/or intermittent connectivity
• Attack models and de-risking strategies in network security for “large-scale” networked systems
• Virtualized network functions and their management using software defined networks
• 5G networks, and realization models (i.e., architectures, algorithms, and protocols ) in emerging markets
• 5G testbeds, and field trial experiences

Within the context of city and urban infrastructures, this workshop - based on the theme of “Emerging Markets" - will provide a discussion forum to experts, researchers, practitioners, smart-city stakeholders, and thought-leaders; where innovations and experiences would be shared for an appropriate communication, networking, and data transfer framework for upcoming smart cities deployments around the world. With a deeper focus on emerging markets, it will attempt to identify megatrends that are likely to arise due to their unique urban demographics, discuss technology gaps that will prevent them from being realized in practice, and finally, distill the opportunities for instrumenting transformative solutions that significantly advance the state-of-the-art.