ICIN 2018, the 21st edition of the long-standing ICIN conference series, took place on 20–22 February, in Paris, France. It was technically co-sponsored by IEEE ComSoc and IFIP, and held in cooperation with ACM Sigmobile, with Orange, Nokia and Gandi being patrons (gold, silver, bronze, respectively). The conference was attended by 125 delegates from around the globe, representing academia, research institutes, standardization organizations, network operators and equipment vendors. As with all previous editions of ICIN, from the first edition in 1989 onward, ICIN 2018 provided presentations on the latest research and development projects in the field of mobile communications, along with sharing market experiences, discussing trends and setting out directions for industry.

The main theme of ICIN 2018 was “5G Network Architecture and Solutions,” a topic that a large cross-section of the operators, equipment vendors and academia and research institutes in the area of telecommunications, are currently working on. The overall organization of the conference was in the capable hands of the general co-chairs, Prosper Chemouil, Orange Labs, France, and Bruce Maggs, Duke University and Akamai, USA. The TPC was formed by Laurent Ciavaglia, Nokia Bell Labs, France, and Rahim Tafazolli, University of Surrey, UK. The conference steering committee was chaired by Noël Crespi, Institut Mines Telecom, France. Out of 85 submissions, the TPC selected 24 full papers and 13 short papers.

Christian Jacquenet, Orange Labs, France, gave a keynote presentation on Dynamic Service Negotiation in 5G Networks. The concept of Network Slicing in 5G networks requires careful network management, to ensure availability of network resources when requested, at the negotiated QoS. The presentation taught, among other things, the role of SDN in this framework. Pierre Lynch, Ixia Solutions Group, Keysight Technologies, USA, gave a keynote presentation on Validating 5G. The presentation took the audience through the 5G network architecture and presented novel approaches for isolating individual VNF’s for testing, so eventually an entire 5G network can be tested. The keynote presentations were organized by Bruno Chatras, Orange Labs, France, and Alex Galis, UCL, UK.

An invited session, entitled “5G: Are We on the Right Track,” led by Amina Boubendir, Orange Labs, France, complemented the keynotes. The invited session comprised presentations that view the 5G network from a standardization perspective.

The main part of the conference was divided into six fulltrack technical sessions, comprising 24 papers:

1. 5G Network Architecture and Modelling (chair: Dimitri Papadimitriou, Nokia–Bell Labs, Belgium), presenting novel techniques for optimal 5G network design.

2. Cloud and Content Services (chair: Anders Lundqvist, Oracle, Sweden), in which the role of cloud in 5G networks was discussed and explained.

3. Routing and Resource Allocation (chair: Rogier Noldus, Ericsson, Netherlands), focusing on novel techniques and research for efficient resource allocation and how SDN can be applied for path selection.

4. Security, Authentication and Privacy (chair: Ning Wang, University of Surrey, UK), providing an overview of the challenges, of security in 4G and 5G networks.

5. Reliability and Energy Efficiency (chair: Stefano Secci, Sorbonne Université, France), discussing a variety of topics in the area of network robustness and fault-resilience.

6. Performance and Service Assurance (chair: Armen Aghasaryan, Nokia Bell Labs, France), covering network modelling and traffic scheduling.

The conference also included two short-track sessions, comprising 13 presentations:

1. Network Design (chair: Jérémie Leguay, Huawei, France).

2. QoS Management (chair: Bruce Maggs, Duke University and Akamai, USA).

During the conference, 11 demos were held, showing practical use cases of various aspects of 5G and future mobile communication networks. The demos provided good insight into the fact that the communication networks that we are developing and building are being used in all parts of society. The demos were organized by Emmanuel Bertin, Orange Labs, France, and Nadjib Ait-Saadi, ESIEE, France.

The conference closed with a panel session (chairs: Rogier Noldus, Ericsson, Netherlands and Antonio Manzalini, TIM, Italy), where delegates from academia, research institutes and industry shared their views on the success factors of 5G networks today and in the near future. The panel session also provided a podium for the audiesnce to engage in the discussion.

ICIN 2018 was co-located with two additional events on February 19: DRCN 2018, the 14th International Conference on the Design of Reliable Communications Networks, and NI 2018, the 1st International Workshop on Network Intelligence. Furthermore, ICIN 2018 comprised two tutorial sessions: a tutorial on Multipath TCP by Olivier Bonaventure, UCL, Belgium, and a tutorial on Federation, Programmability and Security in Future NFV/SDN Infrastructures by Roberto Minerva EIT Digital, Italy, et al.

ICIN proved once again to be a dynamic and diverse community of dedicated professionals in the field of telecommunications, who wish to share their knowledge and experience in their work. The atmosphere within ICIN is truly unique.

Arrangements for ICIN 2019 are in full swing. ICIN 2019 will be held on 19–21 February 2019, in Paris, France again. ICIN 2019 will be chaired by Alex Galis, UCL, UK, and Fabrice Guillemin, Orange, France. The TPC is formed by Rogier Noldus, Ericsson, Netherlands, and Stefano Secci, CNAM, France. Noël Crespi, Institut Mines Telecom, France, will be the steering committee chair.