Networks of the Future: Architectures, Technologies, and Implementations

With the ubiquitous diffusion of the IoT, Cloud Computing, 5G and other evolved wireless technologies into our daily lives, the world will see the Internet of the future expand ever more quickly. Driving the progress of communications and connectivity are mobile and wireless technologies, including traditional WLANs technologies and low, ultra-power, short and long-range technologies. These technologies facilitate the communication among the growing number of connected devices, leading to the generation of huge volumes of data. Processing and analysis of such "big data" brings about many opportunities, as well as many challenges, such as those relating to efficient power consumptions, security, privacy, management, and quality of service. This book is about the technologies, opportunities and challenges that can drive and shape the networks of the future.

Written by established international researchers and experts, Networks of the Future answers fundamental and pressing research challenges in the field, including architectural shifts, concepts, mitigation solutions and techniques, and key technologies in the areas of networking. The book starts with a discussion on Cognitive Radio (CR) technologies as promising solutions for improving spectrum utilization, and also highlights the advances in CR spectrum sensing techniques and resource management methods.

The second part of the book presents the latest developments and research in the areas of 5G technologies and Software Defined Networks (SDN). Solutions to the most pressing challenges facing the adoption of 5G technologies are also covered, and the new paradigm known as Fog Computing is examined in the context of 5G networks.

The focus next shifts to efficient solutions for future heterogeneous networks. It consists of a collection of chapters that discuss self-healing solutions, dealing with Network Virtualization, QoS in heterogeneous networks, and energy efficient techniques for Passive Optical Networks and Wireless Sensor Networks. Finally, the areas of IoT and Big Data are discussed, including the latest developments and future perspectives of Big Data and the IoT paradigms.

Dr. Mahmoud Elkhodr completed his Ph.D. degree in Information and Communication technologies at Western Sydney University (Western), Australia. Mahmoud has been awarded the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) and Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) in 2012-2015. He has been awarded the High Achieving Graduate Award twice in 2010 and 2012. Mahmoud has authored several journal articles and book chapters and presented at prestigious conference venues. He is currently editing two books on Future Networks and 5G technologies to be published in 2017. His research interests include: Internet of Things, e-health, Human Computer- Interactions, Security and Privacy.

Dr. Qusay F. Hassan is an independent researcher and a technology evangelist with 15 years of professional experience in ICT. He is currently a systems analyst at the United States Agency for International Development in Cairo, Egypt, where he deals with large-scale and complex systems. Dr. Hassan has received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. from Mansoura University, Egypt in computer science and information systems in 2003, 2008, and 2015, respectively. His research interests are varied which include IoT, SOA, high- performance computing, cloud computing and grid computing. Dr. Hassan has authored and co-authored a number of journal and conference papers as well as book chapters. He also published a book lately: Applications in Next-Generation High Performance Computing (published in 2016 by IGI Global), and he is currently editing two new books on the Internet of Things to be published in 2017. Dr. Hassan is an IEEE senior member, and a member of the editorial board of a number of associations

Dr. Seyed Shahrestani completed his PhD degree in Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of Sydney. He joined Western Sydney University (Western) in 1999, where he is currently a Senior Lecturer. He is also the head of the Networking, Security and Cloud Research (NSCR) group at Western. His main teaching and research interests include networking, management and security of networked systems, artificial intelligence applications, health ICT, IoT and smart environments. He is also highly active in higher degree research training supervision, with successful results.