ICNP, the IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols, is the premier conference covering all aspects of network protocol research, including design, analysis, specification, verification, implementation, and performance. ICNP 2024 will be organized by UCLouvain and the University of Mons in Charleroi, Belgium on October 28-31, 2024.

Scope

The conference is soliciting paper submissions with significant research contributions to the field of network protocol research. Both experimental studies as well as formal investigations are equally welcome. Topics traditionally of interest include, but are not limited to:

• All aspects of network protocol research including design, specification, verification, implementation, measurement, testing, and analysis.
• Protocols for data center networks, software-defined networks, information-centric networking (ICN), AI/ML clusters, Internet of Things, cellular networks, sensor networks, satellite networks, vehicular networks, and wireless networks.
• Domain-specific solutions, including protocols for network security, routing, user privacy, or network management.
• Network protocols meet AI/ML, e.g., application of AI/ML to improve network protocols and operations; networking and protocols for improving the performance of AI/ML systems.
• Contributions to network architecture, e.g., algorithms and protocols for network virtualization or future Internet architectures.
• Contributions to other areas of data communications to the extent that they articulate a strong connection to network protocols, for example by discussing potential implications on the design, implementation or performance of certain types of network protocols.

Authors who are unsure whether or not their submissions might fit the scope of the conference are welcome to contact the Program Committee Co-Chairs.

Technical Program Chairs

Olivier Bonaventure (UCLouvain, Belgium)
Kai Chen (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR)

Important Dates

Title / Abstract registration:	May 17, 2024 (AoE)
Full paper submission:	May 24, 2024 (AoE)
Notification of acceptance:	July 28, 2024
Camera ready version:	September 16, 2024

Paper Formatting

Paper submissions should adhere to the IEEE Conference formatting requirements using the templates available here, and should not exceed 10 pages excluding references. It is the authors' responsibility to produce readable submissions that comply with the formatting constraints. Violating the formatting requirements to squeeze in additional materials will result in a submission being returned without being reviewed. The authors would have developed software or collected data for the paper are encouraged to release their artefacts and describe them in the submitted paper. To preserve anonymity, the artefacts will only be publicly released upon paper acceptance.

Submission and Anonymity Policy

Papers submitted to the conference will be reviewed through a double-blind review process, where the identities of the authors are withheld from the reviewers (and that of the reviewers from the authors). Achieving this goal requires some care to, on the one hand, preserve the anonymity of your submission, and on the other hand ensuring proper coverage of related past work, including your own. While this requirement may seem challenging, the few basic steps listed below will go a long way towards achieving the desired outcome:

• Remove all authors' identifiers, e.g., names, emails, and affiliations, from the title page.
• Remove acknowledgments of and identifiers of funding sources.
• Use anonymous names for your files, as source file names are often embedded in the final output you generate, and therefore accessible as comments.
• When referring to your own related work, refer to it in the third person as you would with any other related work by another author.

Besides anonymizing your submission, double-blind reviewing also imposes additional requirements on both authors and reviewers. Specifically, while it is permissible for authors to give local talks on their work and release their paper on a non-peer-reviewed location, e.g., an institutional repository or even arXiv, care should be exercised to limit public exposure as much as possible. This requirement includes refraining from advertising the work on mailing lists and public forums, and in general limiting as much as possible the odds that program committee members be exposed to the work and the authors’ identity. Conversely, program committee members will be advised to neither actively seek to “reverse engineer” the authors’ identity, nor to directly share with other program committee members any such information they may have acquired. All questions regarding possible breaches of the anonymity covenant that underlies the double-blind review process will be adjudicated by the Program Committee Co-Chairs. All papers will be provisionally accepted, and the final acceptance of any paper will be subject to shepherding by a member of the Program Committee.

All papers will be provisionally accepted, and the final acceptance of any paper will be subject to shepherding by a member of the Program Committee.

Submission and Plagiarism Policy

Papers must present original contributions and can neither be previously published nor under review by another conference or journal. Papers containing plagiarized materials will be subject to the IEEE plagiarism policy and possible penalties and will be rejected without being reviewed.

Best Paper Award and Fast-Track Journal Publication

One of the accepted papers will be selected for the Best Paper award and will be fast tracked to the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, with a streamlined journal review process.

Presentation and Registration Requirements

ICNP 2024 will be held physically in-person in Charleroi, Belgium. IEEE ICNP requires that at least one of the authors of any accepted paper must register for the conference at the full rate and be available to present the paper at the conference. Any paper that is not presented by an author of the paper will be withdrawn from the proceedings and thus from IEEE Xplore.