RE-NET 2026
ACM CoNEXT-2026 First International Workshop on a Resilient, Renewable, and Responsible Internet
RE-NET 2026
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The First International Workshop on a Resilient, Renewable, and Responsible Internet (RE-NET 2026), co-located with the 22nd International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (CoNEXT 2026), brings together researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of society and networking technologies. The workshop's goal is to promote an Internet that is re-invented in the sense that novel networking developments are guided by societal needs.
The workshop seeks high-quality contributions addressing theoretical research, method and algorithm development, system design, experimental evaluations, operational experiences, and socio-technical studies on the interplay of Internet technologies and society.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
9:00 – Welcome Message
9:05 – Keynote 1: "Engineering Responsibility: Accountability and Institutional Design in Algorithmic Systems" by Helen Eenmaa (University of Tartu)
9:50 – Paper Presentation Session 1 – Security
10:30 – Coffee Break
11:00 – Paper Presentation Session 2 – Mobility and Energy
11:40 – Panel: "A New Internet Architecture", moderated by Karin Anna Hummel (Johannes Kepler University Linz)
12:30 – Lunch Break
13:30 – Keynote 2: "The Responsible Internet of AI Agents" by George Polyzos (ExcID and The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
14:15 – Paper Presentation Session 3 – Networking
14:55 – Keynote 3: "Who Is in Control When Networks Become Autonomous? Rethinking Sovereignty in 6G" by Tihana Galinac Grbac (Juraj Dobrila University of Pula)
15:40 – Coffee Break
16:00 – Strategy Session: "What's Next in Responsible Networking?", moderated by Paola Grosso (University of Amsterdam)
16:30 – Workshop Closing
Speaker: Helen Eenmaa (University of Tartu)
Abstract:
The talk would build on my legal-philosophical work on obligations, autonomy, and algorithmic contracting, while connecting with the Responsible Internet research on governance embedded in network architectures. I'd like to explore how increasingly autonomous and technically constrained systems reshape responsibility and accountability, and what this means for the design of institutions capable of governing them. Among else, I aim to ask, when technical architectures increasingly determine what can happen, how should we redesign the institutions that determine who is responsible for what happens? I hope this would resonate with the workshop's broader interest in building networks that are not only resilient and sustainable, but also responsible and responsive to societal needs.
Speaker: George Polyzos (ExcID and The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Abstract: To be announced.
Further information will be added when available.
Speaker: Tihana Galinac Grbac (Juraj Dobrila University of Pula)
Abstract:
As communication networks evolve towards increasingly autonomous, AI-driven infrastructures, a fundamental question arises: who is actually in control? Future 6G networks promise unprecedented adaptability through intelligent software, distributed decision-making, and interacting control loops. Yet, as networks become more autonomous, maintaining effective control over their operation, decisions, and dependencies becomes increasingly challenging. Digital sovereignty is commonly discussed in terms of infrastructure ownership, data localisation, technological independence, and regulatory compliance. But are these perspectives sufficient for networks that continuously reconfigure themselves? This talk advocates for treating operational sovereignty as an emergent architectural concern, shaped by the collective runtime behaviour of autonomous network functions rather than solely by individual technical safeguards. Drawing on the evolution of mobile network architectures and emerging 6G concepts, it explores the tension between autonomy and control and the implications for designing trustworthy and responsible network infrastructures. Looking ahead, the talk highlights open research questions and invites the networking community to rethink what it means to maintain sovereignty in an increasingly autonomous Internet.
This work is funded by the EU NextGeneration under the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula institutional research project numbers IIP_UNIPU_010162 and IIP_UNIPU_010159, and supported by the Croatian Science Foundation under project no. HRZZ-IP-2022-10-4615.
Short Bio:
Tihana Galinac Grbac is a full professor of computer science at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia, where she leads the Software Engineering and Information Processing Laboratory (SEIP Lab). Her research focuses on the evolution, reliability, and trustworthiness of complex software-intensive, AI-driven and distributed systems with particular interest in autonomous network operation and AI-enabled network management, combining empirical investigations involving humans and complex network analysis. Her work spans software fault behaviour, software-defined networking, cloud and service orchestration, and autonomous network management.
Prior to joining academia, she worked in Research and Development at Ericsson Nikola Tesla (ENT) on mobile core network evolution, software development, and fault prevention and detection. Her PhD research, supported by ENT and grounded in industrial data and case studies, investigated improvements in early software verification. She has led nationally funded research projects and participated in EU-funded international research collaborations. Her publication record includes 80+ journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers, and she has served in editorial and conference leadership roles. She is an IEEE Senior Member and a member of ACM.
Accepted workshop papers will be published in the same set of proceedings as the conference's short papers, available in the ACM Digital Library. Submitted papers must be at most 6 pages long, including figures and references, in two-column 10pt ACM conference proceedings format. The Overleaf LaTeX authoring template sigconf.tex can be found here. Authors are invited to submit papers describing original, not previously published work and work that is not currently under review. A single-blind peer-review process will be adopted. Each submitted paper will receive at least three reviews from the Technical Program Committee.
Submission site: The submission will be managed at https://re-net2026.hotcrp.com
