The 17th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks (HotNets 2018) will bring together researchers in computer networks and systems to engage in a lively debate on the theory and practice of computer networking. HotNets provides a venue for discussing innovative ideas and for debating future research agendas in networking.

We invite researchers and practitioners to submit short position papers. We encourage papers that identify fundamental open questions, advocate a new approach, offer a constructive critique of the state of networking research, re-frame or debunk existing work, report unexpected early results from a deployment, report on promising but unproven ideas, or propose new evaluation methods. Novel ideas need not be supported by full evaluations; well-reasoned arguments or preliminary evaluations can support the possibility of the paper’s claims.

We seek early-stage work, where the authors can benefit from community feedback. An ideal submission has the potential to open a line of inquiry for the community that results in multiple conference papers in related venues (SIGCOMM, SOSP, OSDI, NSDI, MobiCom, MobiSys, CoNEXT, etc.), rather than a single follow-on conference paper. The program committee will explicitly favor early work and papers likely to stimulate reflection and discussion over “conference papers in miniature”. Finished work that fits in a short paper is likely a better fit with the short-paper tracks at either CoNEXT or IMC.

HotNets takes a broad view of networking research. This includes new ideas relating to (but not limited to) mobile, wide-area, data-center, home, and enterprise networks using a variety of link technologies (wired, wireless, visual, and acoustic), as well as social networks and network architecture. It encompasses all aspects of networks, including (but not limited to) packet-processing hardware and software, virtualization, mobility, provisioning and resource management, performance, energy consumption, topology, robustness and security, measurement, diagnosis, verification, privacy, economics and evolution, interactions with applications, and usability of underlying networking technologies.

Position papers will be selected based on originality, likelihood of stimulating insightful discussion at the workshop, and technical merit. Accepted papers will be posted online prior to the workshop and will be published in the ACM Digital Library to facilitate wide dissemination of the ideas discussed at the workshop.

Toward facilitating reflective discussion within the networking research community, HotNets 2018 will continue the HotNets Dialogues: give-and-take written discussions of a selection of accepted papers, each between a pair of program committee members, that will be posted on the HotNets web site shortly before the workshop.