WueWoWAS’26 on “Networking and Computing in the 6G Era”

The Würzburg Workshop on Next-Generation Communication Networks (WueWoWAS’26) took place on September 28–29, 2026, bringing together around 30 participants from academia and industry. Under the theme “Networking and Computing in the 6G Era,” the workshop provided a forum for discussing ongoing and emerging research on next-generation communication networks and computing infrastructures. The program combined technical contributions, keynotes, tutorials, discussions, and speed mentoring, with opportunities for exchange between junior and senior researchers.

Technical Program

The technical program reflected the increasingly close integration of communication networks, computing, artificial intelligence, automation, resilience, and experimental methodology in the 6G era. Several contributions addressed AI and automation for future networks, including constraint-aware reinforcement learning for SLA-preserving RAN slicing, adaptive in-network machine learning on programmable switches, and agentic AI for translating Infrastructure-as-Code resources. Resilience of communication services was addressed through the concept of island-ready applications, demonstrating how everyday messaging services can continue operating during Internet outages using local failover infrastructures.

Measurement, reproducibility, and experimental methodology formed another central theme. Contributions investigated the relationship between geographic distance and network latency using RIPE Atlas and discussed lessons learned from reproducibility-oriented experimentation in private 5G campus networks.

• Wissal Messikh, “Constraint-Aware SAC-Lagrangian Control for SLA-Preserving RAN Slicing”: presented a reinforcement-learning approach for dynamic RAN resource allocation that independently considers the SLA requirements of different network slices [DOI:  10.25972/OPUS-46544].

• Juled Zaganjori, “Drift-Adaptive in-Network Random Forest Classification on Programmable Switches”: demonstrated adaptive in-network machine learning on programmable switches, enabling traffic classifiers to detect concept drift and update models without interrupting packet processing [DOI: 10.25972/OPUS-46547].

• David Raunecker, “Evaluating Geographic Distance as a Proxy for Network Latency Using RIPE Atlas”: investigated how well geographic distance predicts network latency and showed that its usefulness strongly depends on the considered network environment and scale [DOI: 10.25972/OPUS-46545].

• Leon Janzen, “Island-Ready Messengers: Making Crisis-Relevant Everyday Apps Resilient Against Internet Outages”: explored how everyday messaging applications such as Signal can remain operational during Internet outages through local failover infrastructures [DOI: 10.25972/OPUS-46516].

• Lukas Schumann, “Repeatable Experiments, Inspectable Results: Lessons from Private 5G Campus Networks”: discussed methodological requirements and practical lessons for obtaining reproducible, transparent, and interpretable measurement results from private 5G networks [DOI: 10.25972/OPUS-46546].

• Piotr Zuraniewski, “Towards a Reliable Agentic Pipeline for IaC Resource Translation”: presented an LLM-based agentic pipeline for translating and validating heterogeneous Infrastructure-as-Code resources, with a focus on improving interoperability and translation reliability [DOI: 10.25972/OPUS-46515].

Keynotes and Tutorials

A particular highlight of WueWoWAS’26 were the keynotes by Artur Michalczyk and Viktoria Pauw, providing perspectives from industry and research on networking and computing in the 6G era. Artur Michalczyk is CTO of emnify, where he drives product strategy and leads the engineering teams building the cloud-native IoT SuperNetwork that lets enterprises connect, operate, and secure device fleets worldwide with a single SIM.  Viktoria Pauw, Head of Environmental Computing at LRZ, presented how state-of-the-art supercomputing and environmental research are combined to address climate change and global challenges through applications such as extreme-weather simulations, sustainable-city analyses, and digital twins of the Earth.

The technical program was further complemented by tutorials from Sebastian Gallenmüller and Viktoria Vomhoff, offering participants the opportunity to engage with relevant technologies and methodologies in greater depth and with hands-on-sessions. The tutorial “Reproducible Experiment Workflows” by Sebastian Gallenmüller (TU Munich)  introduced the plain orchestrating service (pos) and demonstrated how it supports researchers in building and deploying reproducible experiments using standardized workflows and templates. As a hands-on component, participants created their own experiments on a pos-driven testbed, with pos also serving as a key orchestration framework for the future SLICES research infrastructure. The tutorial “MARKLAB – Understanding International Roaming in Next Generation Mobile Networks” by Viktoria Vomhoff (University of Würzburg) provided insights into international roaming in LTE and 5G networks and introduced the MARKLAB measurement platform. A hands-on demonstration allowed participants to conduct active measurements in production mobile networks.

Speed Mentoring and Exchange

The speed mentoring session was particularly valuable for students, providing direct access to experienced researchers and experts. We sincerely thank our mentors Michael Seufert, Andreas Kassler, Michael Jarschel, as well as our keynote speakers Artur Michalczyk and Viktoria Pauw, for sharing their experience and engaging in open discussions with the participants.

What makes WueWoWAS special is its open and interactive format, providing plenty of room for discussing ongoing research, exchanging new ideas, receiving direct feedback, and building connections across institutions and career stages. The workshop’s get-together and coffee breaks fostered informal scientific exchange, while the joint dinner provided a relaxed setting to continue discussions and strengthen connections among participants.

Thanks !

Many thanks to our sponsors emnify and Infosim® for making this event possible and helping create such a welcoming atmosphere. The event was technically co-sponsored by the VDE ITG expert group KT 2 on “Communication Networks and Systems” as well as the GI/ITG special interest group “Communication and Distributed Systems'” (KuVS). WueWoWAS’26 was further supported by the CELTIC-NEXT flagship project SUSTAINET, the DFG Research Unit SOS, and the ORIGAMI Project.

Finally, we thank all authors, participants, reviewers, mentors, speakers, and everyone involved in organizing WueWoWAS’26. 

Stefan Geißler (University of Würzburg)
Tobias Hoßfeld (University of Würzburg, Co-Chair of KT 2 "Communication Networks and Systems")
Amr Rizk (Leibniz Universität Hannover, GI/ITG Special Interest Group KuVS)