An increasing demand for highly scalable, timely and efficient distribution of content and information has motivated the development of architectures for Information Centric Networks (ICNs). ICNs focus on retrieving information objects regardless of the current source location. The information source can be a network cache, a peer or a mirror server holding a copy of the content. However, customers in ICN will expect to get the information from the most convenient source. Different designs and prototypes for ICNs have been introduced; some adopted a centralized approach to retrieve information such as the Rendezvous-Based systems, while others adopted a fully-distributed approach such as Data-Oriented Network Architecture (DONA). Research works so far have been investigating different mechanisms for naming and addressing, routing and resolution (deciding on how to forward "interest" in information and actual information objects), as well as resource management. However, further research is needed to enhance current mechanisms and exploring new ones. Furthermore, while issues like in-network caching and routing have drawn a considerable attention, other areas like security (privacy, data protection and key distribution), trust management, and lessons from prototyping and experimentations require further investigations. This SI invites original contributions on Information-Centric networking architecture topics, algorithms, protocols, and applications, with an emphasis on real world problems and experimental investigations. Survey/review articles summarize the current state-of-the-art and provide valuable insights into future directions and challenges in the field are welcomed as well. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• ICN enabled applications and techno-economic aspects
• ICN architecture design and implementations
• Information naming, addressing and routing
• Resource management (caching strategies, congestion control)
• Content-based traffic engineering, and support for mobility
• Security, privacy and trust management
• Simulations frameworks, testbeds and performance evaluation

Submission Format and Guideline

All submitted papers must be clearly written in excellent English and contain only original work, which has not been published by or is currently under review for any other journal or conference. A detailed submission guideline is available as “Guide to Authors” at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622893/authorinstructions. All manuscripts and any supplementary material should be submitted through Elsevier Editorial System (EES). The authors must select as “SI – Information Centric-Loo” when they reach the “Article Type” step in the submission process. The EES website is located at: http://ees.elsevier.com/jnca/. Requests for additional information should be addressed to the guest editors.

Editor in Chief

Mohammed Atiquzzaman
University of Oklahoma

Guest Editors

Dr Jonathan Loo
School of Science and Technology, Middlesex University, UK
J.Loo@mdx.ac.uk

Dr Mahdi Aiash
School of Science and Technology, Middlesex University, UK
M.Aiash@mdx.ac.uk

Important dates

Paper submission: 15 December 2013
Acceptance notification: 15 March 2014
Final papers: Tentatively June 2014