Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Cloud-Edge-Fog Computing are driving an unprecedented techno-economic shift in the Telecom and ICT industries. Network softwarization and programmability promise to reduce operational costs, provide better flexibility and enable new service paradigms. For instance, they facilitate the deployment of 5G infrastructures, spanning from high data rate fixed-mobile services to Hybrid Clouds and the Internet of Things, all of which are accelerating the digital transformation that we are witnessing across industry and society. As a result, new service models and new value chains are emerging, leading to novel business models and significant socio-economic impact.
The International Conference on Network Softwarization, aka NetSoft, was launched as an outcome of the SDN Initiative that was running in 2014-2017 under the Future Directions Committee of IEEE. The inaugural event took place in April 2015 in London, UK. Since then, NetSoft has established itself as a well-recognized event. Past events and venues have been as follows:
- IEEE NetSoft 2021, 28 June – 2 July 2021, Virtual, Tokyo, Japan
- IEEE NetSoft 2020, 29 June – 3 July 2020, Ghent, Belgium
- IEEE NetSoft 2019, 24 –28 June 2019, Paris, France
- IEEE NetSoft 2018, 25 – 29 June 2018, Montréal, Canada
- IEEE NetSoft 2017, 3 –7 July 2017, Bologna, Italy
- IEEE NetSoft 2016, 6 – 10 June 2016, Seoul, Korea
- IEEE NetSoft 2015, 13 – 17 April 2015, London, UK
In 2022, NetSoft is hosted in Milan, Italy, and is organized around the theme Network Softwarization Coming of Age: New Challenges and Opportunities. This theme recognizes the fact that Network Softwarization has transitioned just in a few years from experimental concept to large-scale commercial deployment, yet many new requirements are emerging to enable the next wave of networking innovation, covering a wide and diverse set of topics ranging from accelerated ICT convergence and intelligent network automation to support for real-time sensitive services and new network programming models
