********************* CALL FOR PAPERS ********************

           IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine

                     Special Issue on

            "Practical aspects of mobility in
            wireless self-organizing networks"

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Wireless and mobile computing advanced significantly in the last
decade. In particular, we now face the possibility to spontaneously
establish wireless self- organizing networks, such as ad hoc,
disruption-tolerant, sensor, and wireless mesh networks. These
spontaneous self-organizing networks have been the focus of intensive
research activity in recent years. Spontaneous networks arise from the
cooperation of mobile devices in an ad hoc fashion requiring no
previous infrastructure in place. A key point to couple research and
real-life applications in this context is to understand how mobility
(of devices, users, and applications) impacts practical networking
aspects.

The knowledge accumulated so far in the area of wireless
self-organizing networks is in general supported by either simulation
or theoretical analysis relying on strong assumptions. The research
community needs a step forward and should definitely consider real
aspects of mobility in their protocols and algorithms. Such a
situation is to be compared with the one found for
infrastructure-based networks (e.g., cellular networks), in which
mobility has been thoroughly investigated (both theoretically and
through measurements) and properly incorporated in their management
architecture. In wireless self-organizing networks, contrary to common
belief, much is still to be done in this domain, and definitive
solutions are still to emerge.

Mobility can no longer be seen as an issue to be hidden from higher
layers of the protocol stack, but as an expected characteristic of
today's communication systems.  In this context, it is of utmost
importance to address issues related to the impact of mobility as seen
in practice, covering characterization, modeling, and applications of
mobility in modern wireless networks. The research community working
on wireless self-organizing networks has recently started giving more
attention to the practical mobility issues in this area. This may be
attested by the increasing number of initiatives worldwide like the
many measurement campaigns and the considerable body of developed
theoretical background work supported by practical arguments (e.g.,
mobility models, mobility increasing network capacity, relationship
between node mobility and wireless channel conditions).

The goal of this special issue is to help filling this gap by
presenting contributions ranging from the impact of mobility on
self-organizing networks to mobility-aware architectures for
self-organizing networks. As we intend to focus on the practical
impacts of mobility in wireless self-organizing networks, papers
presenting insights from the applicability of mobility measurements
and realistic mobility models in this context are also expected. We
will be particularly interested in contributions that explore mobility
to improve the behavior of network protocols and algorithms.

We are soliciting papers covering, but not limited to, the following
topics:

* Mobility-aware architectures for self-organizing networks.
* Impact of mobility on self-organizing networks.
* Practical applicability of wireless testbeds and mobility measurements.
* Realistic mobility models for self-organizing networks.
* Mobility-centric killer applications.


MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

With regard to both the content and formatting style of
the submissions, prospective contributors must follow the
IEEE Wireless Communications guidelines at
http://www.comsoc.org/pubs/pcm/sub_guidelines.html.
Submitted papers must be original and must not be under
current consideration for publication in other venues.
Authors should submit a PDF format of their complete
papers via email to wmag@rp.lip6.fr.


SCHEDULE

* Manuscript Submission Due: February 15, 2008
* Acceptance Notification:  June 30, 2008
* Final Manuscript Due: July 30, 2008
* Publication:  December 2008


GUEST EDITORS

Marcelo Dias de Amorim
Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6, France
Email: amorim@rp.lip6.fr

Artur Ziviani
National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC), Brazil
Email: ziviani@lncc.br

Yannis Viniotis
North Carolina State University, USA
Email: candice@ncsu.edu

Leandros Tassiulas
University of Thessaly, Greece
Email: leandros@inf.uth.gr