The 3rd ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Formal Methods Aided Network Operation (FMANO)

Call for Papers

There has been a growing interest from networking researchers, equipment vendors, and Internet service providers to apply formal methods in network operation to improve the availability, reliability, and performance of networks. Starting from the pioneering work on data plane verification (i.e., Anteater, HSA and Veriflow), researchers have invented many novel approaches to utilize formal methods in a wide range of aspects of network operation, including but not limited to routing configuration verification, diagnosis and synthesis, verification and testing of programmable networks, DNS configuration and implementation verification, and congestion control and scheduling verification. Many of these innovations have been published in top-tier venues such as SIGCOMM, NSDI, SOSP, and OSDI. The percentage of papers on network formal methods in SIGCOMM and NSDI for the past ten years shows a steady interest in network formal methods in our community (e.g., up to 16.4% in SIGCOMM 2021 and up to 16.9% in NSDI 2020).

Although it is a relatively new research area, the impact of this line of research has already gone beyond publications. Not only several startups (e.g., Intentionet) have emerged, but multiple mega-scale Internet companies (e.g., Microsoft, Amazon, and Alibaba) have deployed formal-methods-based operation tools (e.g., Batfish, RCDC, and Hoyan) in their production networks.

The goal of the formal methods aided network operation (FMANO) workshop is to (1) provide a venue for the community to engage in a lively discussion on the challenges, opportunities, and future research agendas in the intersection of networking and formal methods and (2) make this emerging and exciting research area accessible to a broader audience.

In this workshop, we seek contributions to the design principles, implementations, and operation experiences of formal-methods-based network operating systems. Selected keynotes and a panel of experts from both academia and industry will be included to complement more traditional paper sessions, to set the research agenda, debate the issues, and share the most recent progress.

Topics of Interest

We welcome submissions on all aspects of formal-methods-based network operating systems. Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Deployment and operation requirements
• Network design
• Network diagnosis
• Network modeling
• Network monitoring
• Network protocol design and analysis
• Network repair
• Network security
• Network simulation
• Network synthesis
• Network verification
• Operation across multiple domains

Submission Instructions

Submissions must be original, unpublished work, and not under consideration at another conference or journal. We accept two types of submissions: regular papers that are at most six (6) pages long, including all figures, tables, references, and appendices in two-column 10pt ACM format; and extended abstracts that are at most two (2) pages long with a maximum of one additional page for references only.

Papers and extended abstracts must include author names and affiliations for single-blind peer reviewing by the PC. Authors of accepted submissions are expected to present and discuss their work at the workshop.

Please submit your paper via https://fmano26.hotcrp.com.

Important Dates

Organizers

Program Committee