About the issue

Network Application is a piece of software that interacts with the control plane of a mobile network by consuming the exposed Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), e.g., northbound APIs of 5G core and Radio Access Network Intelligent Controller (RIC), and edge computing APIs, in a standardized and trusted manner to compose services for vertical industries. Network Applications can provide services to vertical applications, either as an integrated part within the vertical application or by exposing APIs, which are referred to as business APIs.

The Network Application ecosystem is more than the introduction of new vertical applications with interaction capabilities. It refers to the need for a separate middleware layer to simplify the implementation and deployment of vertical systems on a large scale. Specifically, Network Application can be contributed by third parties or network operators, depending on the level of interaction and trust. As a result, verticals can expend significantly less effort to migrate their software-based systems, and this advantage of Network Applications can shorten time-to-market for vertical industries, allowing them to focus on value-added services.

This Special Issue (SI) focuses on the different technical needs of Network Application, new business models for all stakeholders, experimental facilities to support Network Application, and new Network Intelligence (NI) solutions that can be enabled based on data collected using Network Application. Recent technologies, such as cloud-native, software-led, low-touch operations, and ultimate automation of the network and the services it delivers, will be key to tailoring vertical industry requirements. Potential topics of this special issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Exposed API modeling language and protocols for Network Application
• Network adaptation of non-public network for Network Applications
• Fully featured experimentation platform for third-party experimenters and vertical users of Network Applications
• Experience and lessons learned from Network Application development and deployment across all vertical industries
• Orchestration and lifecycle management for Network Applications
• Network Application requirements for realizing network intelligence
• Security and trusted approaches to invoke Network Application deployment and data collection
• New business models introduced by Network Applications in the value chain

Submission guidelines

All original article manuscripts should conform to the standard format specified in Information for Authors section of the Article Submission Guidelines. All submissions will be peer-reviewed to ensure that only the high quality articles will be published in IEEE Internet of Things Magazine. The article must be submitted through Manuscript Central using the corresponding special issue date and topic from the “Please Select an Article Type” drop-down menu.

Important dates

• Manuscript Submission Deadline: 24 September 2022
• Authors’ Revision Notification Date: 30 September 2022
• Revised Manuscript Submission Deadline: 14 October 2022
• Final Decision Notification Date: 31 October 2022
• Publication Date: December 2022