The First International Workshop on Self-organization in Heterogeneous networks (ISONET)
In conjunction with The International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2013, Budapest, Hungary
https://sites.google.com/site/isonet2013


In order to face the steady increase in traffic demand and quality of
service, it becomes necessary to deploy different networks than the
conventional ones with macro cells. Heterogeneous networks are promising
network architecture and a hot research topic where different types of
cellular access points (e.g., conventional macro cells, femto, and pico
cells) coexist to offer a better performance to the end users.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that numerous challenges must be overcome to
ensure the optimal functioning of the network with minimum manual
intervention. To this end, self-organization is a requirement.

A self-organizing network (SON) is a network that can automatically
manage, extend, change, configure, and optimize the network coverage,
capacity, spectrum allocation, and bandwidth based on changes in certain
observed parameters, such as interference, signal strength, location,
traffic pattern, required QoS, etc. The main purpose of introducing
self-organization is to minimize the operation costs and the delay
related to the deployment and operation of a network. This is achieved
by reducing or eliminating human interventions related to network
planning, deployment, operation, maintenance, and network optimization.

The workshop welcomes submissions from both academy and industry,
considering theoretical and practical aspects of SONs. Areas of
interest include but are not limited to:

* Application of game theory for auto-organization
* Bio-inspired models
* Stochastic approximation
* Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (ICIC)
* Coverage and capacity optimisation
* Mobility robustness
* Energy efficiency
* Heterogeneous networks (Macro, Pico, Femto, Small cells)
* Complex networks
* Self-* Networks Management
* Joint radio resource management
* Quality of service (QoS)/Quality of experience (QoE) in SONs.

For the regular paper track (Category 1), we invite submissions of regular
technical papers, position papers, and case studies relevant to the
workshop. The regular track includes, but not limited to, the
fundamental principles, theory, models, methods and design strategies in
self-* networks to leverage those understandings to build robust and
efficient systems. Submitted papers must not substantially overlap with
papers that have been published or that are simultaneously submitted to a
journal or a conference with proceedings.

A special industry track (Category 2) is available for demonstrators and field trials on
experiences on field performance of SON features implemented which
contribute new and on-going challenges, requirements and applications
from self-* systems in the testbed network and industry. We especially
encourage contributions from network operators, vendors, practitioners,
testbed experimenters, and national research project members.

The invited speaker at the workshop is Berna Syarac from Orange Labs,
France. This talk will come from relevant experts in the fields of SON
and will serve to frame the discourse for related sessions within the
workshop. It is our hope that this session will provoke and inspire
attendees.


*Organizing Committee*

- Mérouane Debbah, Supelec, France.
- Afef Feki, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, France.
- Majed Haddad, INRIA, France.
- Jakob Hoydis, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, Germany.
- Gaoning HE, Huawei, China.

*TPC members*

- Tony Q. S. Quek, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore.
- Ismail Güvenç, Florida International University, USA.
- Marios Kountouris, SUPELEC, France.
- David López-Pérez, Bell Labs, Ireland.
- Giuseppe Caire, University of Southern California, USA.
- Tansu Alpcan, University of Melbourne, Australia.
- Mehdi Bennis, University of Oulu, Finland.
- Samir Perlaza, Princeton university, USA.
- Berna Syarac, Orange Labs, France.
- Véronique Capdevielle, Alcatel Lucent Bell Labs, France.
- Walid Saad, University of Miami, USA.
- Alonso Silva, Berkeley, USA.
- Misha Dohler, CTTC, Spain.
- Amar Azad, UCSC, USA.
- Salam Akoum, University of Texas at Austin, USA.
- Abla Kammoun, Supelec, France

*IMPORTANT DATES*
- Submission deadline regular paper track and industry track: January 11, 2013.
- Notification of acceptance: February 22, 2013.
- Camera-ready version due: March 8, 2013.