Message from the NoF 2020 Chairs

The Network of the Future (NoF) conference is a premier annual conference that covers advances in the areas of Future Internet design and management, with emphasis on enabling technologies, architecture and services. Networks are continuously witnessing significant transformations that are resulting in new ways to address the deployment of applications and services in a digital society. Major trends like softwarization leveraged by Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Cloud & Edge Computing, and the introduction of new radio techniques have been recently shaping the evolution in the Telecom and ICT industries, today emphasized by the early deployment of 5G networks and services. Other paradigms like the Internet of Things (IoT) as well as real-time constraints for the tactile Internet or smart factories are relevant for the network of the future. Still, security but also bandwidth provisioning plays a major role for networks and services. Networking benefits from the growing introduction of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques that are expected to alleviate complexity and to allow smart and reliable automation of service delivery. Those topics are well reflected in the program of NoF 2020.