IEEE Future Directions

An important open question in visual neuroscience is how visual information is represented in cortex. Important results characterized neural coding by assessing the responses to artificial stimuli, with the assumption that responses to gratings, for example, capture the key features of neural responses, and deviations, such as extra-classical effects, are relatively minor. The failure of these responses to have strong predictive power has renewed these questions. It has been suggested that this characterization of visual responses has been strongly influenced by the biases inherent in recording methods and the limited stimuli used in experiments. In creating the Allen Brain Observatory, we sought to reduce these biases by recording large populations of neurons in the mouse visual cortex using a broad array of stimuli, both artificial and natural. This open dataset is a large-scale, systematic survey of physiological activity in the awake mouse cortex recorded using 2-photon calcium imaging. Neural activity was recorded in cortical neurons of awake mice who were presented a variety of visual stimuli, including gratings, noise, natural images, and natural movies. This dataset consists of over 63,000 neurons recorded in over 1300 imaging sessions, surveying 6 cortical areas, 4 cortical layers, and 14 transgenically defined cell types (Cre lines). We found that visual responses throughout the mouse cortex are highly variable. Using the joint reliabilities of responses to multiple stimuli, we classify neurons into functional classes and validate this classification with models of visual responses. Only 10% of neurons in the mouse visual cortex show reliable responses to all of the stimuli used, and are reasonably well predicted by linear-nonlinear models. The remaining neurons fall into classes characterized by responses to specific subsets of the stimuli and the neurons in the largest class do not reliably responsive to any of the stimuli. These classes reveal a functional organization within the mouse visual cortex wherein putative dorsal areas show specialization for visual motion signals.

Over the last two decades neural prostheses that aim to restore lost motor function have moved quickly from concept to laboratory development and clinical demonstration. In parallel, advances in neural interfacing technologies poised to broaden clinical application of these prostheses are actively in development in both academic and industry settings. In this talk, I will provide a broad overview of the technical history of these neural prostheses starting from enabling neurophysiology insights to work currently being conducted. Additionally, I will describe research within my own lab with the goal of augmenting neural prosthesis performance and expanding their potential application space. This work will highlight key enabling research collaborations in multiple clinical settings and the development of complementary animal models that accelerate development. We will take a few deep dives to describe the application of statistical signal processing, machine learning, and algorithm design to this research domain.

The recent advancements in technology and the exponential increase in the use of interconnected devices have drawn significant interest and influenced the development of complex computing systems. Working with the emerging digital technologies of Virtual (VR), Augmented (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), Digital Twins, and Robots has never been more exciting than today. Especially when these technologies are fused together in innovative ways to allow the development of a new amalgamated reality and provide opportunities that may radically change the way we interact with real and artificial agents, our surroundings, and with each other.

This webinar presents a new type of Cyber-Physical-Social Eco-Society (CPSeS) system that implements the idea of ‘technological fusion’ by bringing together Mixed Realities, Robots and Social Networking to provide engaging and interactive new 'realities’. This CPSeS goes beyond current virtual environments experiences by encompassing both physical and virtual spaces using cutting edge robotics technology for actuating, sensing, processing and guiding purposes, immersive technologies for visualization, and integrating social inputs between users in the real and virtual worlds, creating a disruptive new paradigm that can contribute to the digital transformation of a wide range of domains.

All human communications, not to mention those of all primates, most vertebrates, and even insects have been mediated by the production of meaning, from mere utterances to the most evolved media. Algorithms produce meaning too, but they achieve it through a process that doesn’t require an understanding (e.g. Google Translate needs no background information and doesn't always make sense). Hence, humans are unable to influence systematically produced algorithms. This fact may present a challenge to epistemology in matters of decision-making, robotics, symbiotic autonomous systems, and ethics.

Are you knowledgeable about previous pandemics that affected the world? How much of that info do you take into consideration in situations relevant to Covid-19? Learn more about this and the challenges regarding epistemology in matters of decision-making, robotics, symbiotic autonomous systems, and ethics.

Information search is an activity that involves various techniques and methods for finding new insights. Physical and digital spaces as different contexts provide unique advantages for search activities: the physical environment provides spatial layout and interaction with tangible objects, while online information applications support browsing and knowledge discovery.

This talk focuses on systems that aim (or could be used) to bridge the gap between physical and digital arenas, using digital data associated with physically situated objects, and transforming and visualizing this data in relation to a given context. Using portable devices or digital realities headsets, applications generate the object-related data visualizations for further exploration. With such systems and its interplay between real and digital realms, new avenues could be opened for creating in-situ immersive visual experiences.

This is Day 2 of the 2020 IEEE International Nanodevices & Computing (INC) Conference. The event was held virtually on Thursday, 3 September 2020. State-of-the-art experimental results and more were presented by an international group of invited experts covering Computer Architecture & Communication Systems and Nanodevices & Materials.

This is Day 1 of the 2020 IEEE International Nanodevices & Computing (INC) Conference. The event was held virtually on Wednesday, 2 September 2020. The 2020 IRDS™ roadmap was presented, new upcoming chapters of 2021 IRDS™ on More than Moore and Packaging Integration were introduced for the first time, and overall plans for the 2021 IRDS™ were outlined. Highlights of actual industry responses to the 2020 IRDS™ and actual trends were also presented.

Direct interfaces with the brain provide exciting new ways to restore and repair neurological function. For instance, motor Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs) can bypass a paralyzed person's injury by repurposing intact portions of their brain to control movements. Recent work shows that BMIs do not simply "decode" subjects' intentions - they create new systems subjects learn to control. To improve BMI performance and usability, we must therefore understand how to optimize learning and control in these systems. I will present a survey of recent work and new directions exploring how the design of BMI systems influence BMI performance. I'll touch on the importance of control loop design, brain-decoder interactions and multi-learner approaches, and network-informed neural signal selection. These examples highlight the role of learning and closed-loop in BMIs, and demonstrate the promise of engineering approaches based on optimizing learning and control along with information "decoding."

Digital Twins are becoming the bridge, the orchestrators in between the cyber and the physical space and technologies like AR/VR/MR are at the same time the tools letting us enter the cyberspace and the manifestation of the cyberspace itself. This webinar will start with an introduction to Digital Twins, how the concept has evolved in the last 15 years, and how they are now applied in manufacturing, their current market value, and the main players in this area. Then, the talk will shift to the future, how Digital Twins are evolving right now, how they are becoming an important tool in areas as diverse as Healthcare, Finance, Education, etc. In this evolution, the Digital Reality Initiative is playing a significant role, and this webinar will address the current activities where all of you can be involved.

The Personal Digital Twins (PDTs) and their Role in Epidemics Control webinar addresses the potential usefulness of PDTs in the context of epidemics alert, monitoring, and containment. This webinar presents a few technical issues, and quite a few societal issues, including privacy and stigma.

This webinar will introduce the concept of Knowledge-as-a-Service (KaaS). Indeed, KaaS is a computing service that delivers knowledge to users, as opposed to data or information. KaaS enables technologists and engineers to make knowledge live and evolving on the web by allowing users to learn directly from elaborated knowledge, for example, in the form of knowledge graphs.

By merging KaaS with Artificial Intelligence, it is then possible to define the concept of a Cognitive Digital Twin. A complete cognitive digital twin will act similarly to AI that can make its own decisions, process thoughts, and execute actions, just like a real, functioning organism.

This webinar will describe potential scenarios for the utilization of the Cognitive Digital Twin and introduce current activities within IEEE in this area.

The advances in neuroimaging in the last decades have bridged the translational gap, and enabled our understanding of brain under physiological and disease conditions. Multiscale and multimodal imaging such as positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, optoacoustic and fluorescence imaging have provide molecular, structural, and functional insights at cellular, circuit and whole brain levels. The use of maging biomarkers has also assisted the early and accurate diagnosis of brain disorders, and facilitated personalized medicine. This webinar will focus on the development of novel brain imaging techniques, as well as their application in the field of Alzheimer?s disease. Multimodal high-resolution imaging tools were developed for non-invasive visualization of the neuropathology (amyloid-beta and tauopathy), brain connectivity, and atrophy in mouse models of Alzheimer?s disease.

The human visual system consists of a hierarchy of areas, each of which represents different features of the visual world. Recent studies have revealed that most brain areas--and even many individual neurons--represent information about multiple visual features. Thus, a complete model of the brain must specify the relative importance of multiple visual features across the visual hierarchy. This talk will describe our work to estimate the importance of object boundary contours relative to other features. Boundary contours define the edges of figural objects in scenes, and figure/ground segmentation has long been held to be a critical process in human vision. However, the relative importance of boundary contours compared to both lower- and higher-level features (e.g. motion energy and visual categories) remains unknown. To address this issue, we measured fMRI responses while human subjects viewed two sets of movies that varied in many feature dimensions: rendered movies of artificial scenes and cinematic movies. We modeled responses to both sets of movies independently using the same three models: models of motion energy, object boundary contours, and visual categories. We used the encoding models to predict withheld fMRI data, and used variance partitioning to determine whether the various models explained unique or shared variance in each dataset. We found that the pattern of unique variance explained by the three models was qualitatively consistent across both datasets, with unique variance explained by boundary contours in Lateral Occipital cortex and other areas. However, the three models also shared substantially more variance in the cinematic movies, likely due to correlations between model features. For example, much of the motion energy in the cinematic movies was a result of people moving. The shared variance between all three models in the cinematic movies in particular highlights the need for complex stimulus sets in which features in different models are de-correlated from each other.

Although 5G is changing the mobile communications game, there is one gap that need to be surpassed, which is the connectivity in remote areas. This application scenario has important social and economic impacts and 5G should be able to address its requirements in the near future. Billions of people live in uncovered or underserved areas, unable to enjoy the benefits of the Digital Era. A reliable and cost accessible 5G for Remote Areas Network would offer the opportunity for these people to be included in the digital world, opening new markets for operators and new opportunities for vendors. Also, agribusiness is demanding higher efficiency from the fields and the ability to collect data and remotely control the machinery and systems (such as watering) is essential for improving productivity in farms. The aim of this webinar is to discuss the possibilities for 5G to support and address the remote area networks requirements and to present the major technologies that can help in this challenging task.

Understanding the neural basis of brain function and dysfunction may inform the design of effective therapeutic interventions for brain disorders and mental illnesses. Optical techniques have been recently developed for structural and functional imaging as well as targeted stimulation of neural circuits. One of the challenges of optical modality is light delivery deep into the brain tissue in a non-invasive or at least minimally invasive way. Scattering and absorption prevents deep penetration of light in tissue and limits light-based methods to superficial layers of the tissue. To overcome this challenge, implantable photonic waveguides such as optical fibers or graded-index (GRIN) lenses have been used to deliver light into the tissue or collect photons for imaging. Existing large and rigid optical waveguides cause damage to the brain tissue and vasculature. In this talk, Dr. Maysam Chamanzar will discuss his research on developing next generation optical neural interfaces. First, Dr. Chamanzar will introduce a novel compact flexible photonic platform based on biocompatible polymers, Parylene C and PDMS, and GaN active light sources for optogenetic stimulation of neural circuits with high spatiotemporal resolution. This photonic platform can be monolithically integrated with implantable neural probes. Then, Dr. Chamanzar will discuss his recent work on developing a novel complementary approach to guide and steer light in the brain using non-invasive ultrasound. Dr. Chamanzar will show that ultrasound waves can sculpt virtual graded-index (GRIN) waveguides in the tissue to define and steer the trajectory of light without physically implanting optical waveguides in the brain. These novel neurophotonic techniques enable high-throughput bi-directional interfacing with the brain to understand the neural basis of brain function and design next generation neural prostheses.

5G, the next generation cellular standard will cover different usage scenarios covering enhanced mobile broadband (EMBB), ultra-reliable, low latency communication (URLLC) and low power massive machine-to-machine communication (mMTC). Radio interface of mmWave 5G EMBB may have different hardware architecture options both for User Equipments (UE) and infrastructure (like small cell, wireless backhaul). Current talk will focus on key figures of merits for 5G mmWave radio, different hardware architecture and chip partitioning options and how different silicon technologies like partially and fully depleted SOI, Silicon-Germanium BiCMOS can address the requirements for different mmWave 5G radio architectures.

5G is a new communications standard to serve both new and existing markets. As such, 5G comes with high expectations from both mobile operators and consumers. The existing market of mobile phones is no exception. 5G marketing hype is high and pressure to deliver on the billions of dollars spent on 5G spectrum is even higher. Realizing a successful 5G handset deployment comes with significant challenges. We are seeing an unprecedented impact on RF architectures, components, and technologies. Our aim is to first outline some of the complexities derived from the latest 3GPP 5G communications standards. Then, by analyzing macro level handset RF architectures as well as front end module functional blocks, we will describe the resulting RF impacts.

This talk will review the evolution of Michigan neural probe technologies toward scaling up the number of recording sites, enhancing the recording reliability, and introducing multi-modalities in neural interface including optogenetics. Modular system integration and compact 3D packaging approaches have been explored to realize high-density neural probe arrays for recording of more than 1,000 channels simultaneously. In order to obtain optical stimulation capability, optical waveguides were monolithically integrated on the silicon substrate to bring light to the probe shank tips. Excitation and inhibition of neural activities could be successfully validated by switching the wavelengths delivered to the distal end of the waveguide. For scaling of the number of stimulation sites, multiple micro-LEDs were directly integrated on the probe shank to achieve high spatial temporal modulation of neural circuits. Independent control of distinct cells was demonstrated ~50 ?m apart and of differential somato-dendritic compartments of single neurons in the CA1 pyramidal layer of anesthetized and freely-moving mice.

The Mindscope project at the Allen Institute aims to elucidate mechanisms underlying cortical function in the mouse, focusing on the visual system. This involves concerted efforts of multiple teams characterizing cell types, connectivity, and neuronal activity in behaving animals. An integral part of these efforts is the construction of models of the cortical tissue and cortical computations. To achieve this, multi-model experimental data are integrated into a highly realistic 230,000-neuron model of the mouse cortical area V1. We perform systematic comparisons of simulated responses to in vivo experiments and investigate the structure-function relationships in the models to make mechanistic predictions for experimental testing. To enable this work, we developed the software suite called Brain Modeling ToolKit (BMTK) and a modeling file format called SONATA. These tools, the models, and simulation results are all being made freely available to the community via the Allen Institute Modeling Portal.

Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are the key pillars of future networks, including 5G and Beyond that promise to support emerging applications such as enhanced mobile broadband, ultra low latency, massive sensing type applications while providing the resiliency in the network. Service providers and other verticals (e.g., Connected Cars, IOT, eHealth) can leverage SDN/NFV to provide flexible and cost-effective service without compromising the end user quality of service (QoS). While NFV and SDN open up the door for flexible networks and rapid service creation, these offer both security opportunities while also introducing additional challenges and complexities, in some cases. With the rapid proliferation of 4G and 5G networks, operators have now started the trial deployment of network function virtualization, especially with the introduction of various virtualized network elements in the access and core networks. These include elements such as virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC), virtualized IP Multimedia Services (vIMS), Virtualized Residential Gateway, and Virtualized Next Generation Firewalls. However, very little attention has been given to the security aspects of virtualization. While several standardization bodies (e.g., ETSI, 3GPP, NGMN, ATIS, TIA) have started looking into the many security issues introduced by SDN/NFV, additional work is needed with larger security community involvement including vendors, operators, universities, and regulators. This tutorial will address evolution of cellular technologies towards 5G but will largely focus on various security challenges and opportunities introduced by SDN/NFV and 5G networks such as Hypervisor, Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), SDN Controller, Orchestrator, Network slicing, Cloud RAN, and security function virtualization. This tutorial will also highlight some of the ongoing activities within various standards communities and will illustrate a few deployment use case scenarios for security including threat taxonomy for both operator and enterprise networks. In addition, I will also describe some of the ongoing activities within IEEE Future Network initiative including roadmap efforts and various ways one can get involved and contribute to this initiative.

Digital Twins are becoming increasingly pervasive in the industry, and they are now being used to generate digital replicas to mirror individual human beings, their unique behaviors, their expertise, and even their emotions. This brings us into an unchartered territory where new ethical questions arise.

The market opportunity for digital twins and other forms of advanced visualization is significant -- with demonstrated potential to transform the world of work as we know it. While attention around the potential of the metaverse has put a greater focus on all types of mixed reality technology, AR represents an immediate opportunity for businesses to enhance productivity and improve operational efficiency.

During this free, virtual webinar, Roberto Saracco, IEEE Digital Reality co-chair, explained Personal Digital Twins. The concept of applying Digital Twins to model a person is already underway, but very few have attempted to model a whole person—the physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects.

During this special two-part webinar, four experts from different disciplines will define the Metaverse in their own terms and delve into potential use-cases for leveraging the Metaverse across a multitude of industries, including public services.

During this special two-part webinar, four experts from different disciplines will define the Metaverse in their own terms and delve into potential use-cases for leveraging the Metaverse across a multitude of industries, including public services.

Drug discovery is one of the most complex, risky, and lengthy areas of human development. It takes many highly-intelligent and highly-skilled experts in biology, chemistry, and medicine to discover a drug. It is known that artificial intelligence thrives on data, especially on big datasets of high quality. Fortunately, there is a lot of data generated at each step of the drug discovery process, making it a lucrative application for modern AI technologies.

AI/ML and 5G are a perfect match sharing a mutually beneficial relationship. While 5G offers very high speeds for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), support for a massive number of devices (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC). AI/ML complements the technology by learning from complex patterns to provide scope for autonomous network operations, transforming 5G into a scalable real-time network that is data-driven. To optimize performance, AI/ML is used across all layers -- from disaggregated radio access networks (RAN), to integrated access backhauls (IAB), to the distributed cloud layer (Edge/Core). Just as AI/ML is useful for 5G network operations, 5G is useful for AI/ML by providing multiple points of presence for data collection & computing, control loops that can operate in multiple time scales to support distributed intelligence, deployment automation, and orchestration for the life cycle management of models. 

What if buses didn't have predefined routes? It's an easy enough question to describe and, even without being steeped in the world of optimization, logistics, or even transportation, one can come up with many different visions of how a bus system without bus lines may function. That is the beauty and the curse of the question...

Driverless vehicles are not a new concept, and several autonomous vehicles have been designed, tested, and even used for different purposes. However, the implementation of such an enhanced technology cannot happen overnight.

Image analysis algorithms have become indispensable in the modern information ecosystem. Beyond their early use in restricted domains (e.g., military, medical), they are now widely used in consumer applications and social media, enabling functionality that users take for granted.

Internet technology and cellular communications technology have transformed many aspects of how we communicate, and caused us to consider and do things in ways not previously possible or for many even imaginable. 5G and other technology will take us further down this path. Every device that communicates by definition consumes electricity. As we advance communications technologies with new concepts and capabilities, it makes sense to do the same for electricity. Local Power Distribution (LPD) is a "network model of power", organized from the bottom-up into nanogrids that can be networked to each other, local generation, and a utility grid. A nanogrid controller contains a battery and provides power to attached end-use devices. The controller establishes a local price that influences device operation, management of internal storage, and exchanges of power with other controllers, sources, and the grid. All power connections are digitally managed and plug-and-play. LPD is intended for all application contexts, whether a utility grid is present always, never, or intermittently. Future communications devices will exist in a variety of power contexts, from those that are stand-alone but grid-connected, stand-alone without a grid connection, or internal to a building with power available from that building. Many of these may be connected to local renewable generation, and for reliability and other purposes, all will include at least some amount of energy storage. In some countries, grid power is routinely unreliable. A generic technology solution which allows for base stations to automatically adapt to any changing power contexts can reduce costs, increase efficiencies, improve performance, and enable more use of renewables and storage. It can also enable more graceful system degradation when power is in short supply. As with Internet technology, we not only want new electrical technology to operate in different ways internally, we want users to think about electricity differently with new capabilities.

The ability for Virtual Reality (VR) to create rich and compelling experiences drives research in a variety of domains beyond entertainment. One such area of interest is the use of VR for learning and training purposes.

In contrast to humans, all decisions made by algorithms are systematic and based on user data, sensors, and algorithms. The question is, who is responsible for errors: the provider, the integrator, or the end-user? In most scenarios, responsibility is distributed amongst all stakeholders. Full autonomic systems (including self-driving technology) are not accepted by lawmakers, and a human supervisor is demanded as a backup.

Just like every company is now a software company, every business will soon become an Artificial Intelligent (AI) business. In this talk, David Carmona, Microsoft’s General Manager for AI and Innovation, will discuss the key technological trends that will fuel that revolution, including massive AI models trained on super computers, autonomous systems that learn with humans, augmented intelligence, and responsible AI.

In this webinar, Derrick DeKerchove and Roberto Saracco share views on the ongoing Digital Twin evolution, as well as address the societal and personal issues that are emerging.

The next generation of run-time risk models will act as Digital Twins to anticipate threats and enable novel paradigms, like proactive dependability and collaborative security, as support to prognostics and preventive maintenance in Industry 4.0 and other Smart-X applications (e.g.,smart-houses, smart-cities, smart-transportation, etc.).

This webinar will cover two current hot topics in EEG-based brain-computer interface research and research ongoing at the Intelligent Systems Research Centre. Part 1 will focus on assessment of patients with prolonged disorder of consciousness (PDoC). Part 2 will focus on direct speech BCIs.

Optogenetics has transformed experimental neuroscience by manipulating the activity of specific cell types with light, enabling in vivo neuromodulation with millisecond temporal resolution. Visible light with wavelengths between 430 nm and 640 nm is used for optogenetics, limiting penetration depth in vivo and resulting in an invasive fiber-tethered interface that damages the endogenous neural tissue and constrains the animal’s free behavior. In this talk, Dr. Guosong Hong will present two recent methods to address this challenge: "sono-optogenetics" and "macromolecular infrared nanotransducers for deep-brain stimulation (MINDS)". In the first method, we demonstrate that mechanoluminescent nanoparticles can act as circulation-delivered nanotransducers to convert sound into light for noninvasive optogenetic neuromodulation in live mice. In the second method, we demonstrate 1064-nm near-infrared-II light can penetrate the brain to reach 5-mm depths for modulating neural activity in tether-free, freely behaving animals. Dr. Hong will present an outlook on how new optical neural interfaces may advance neuroscience research by reducing the invasiveness and mechanical restraints in live animals and even humans.

In this webinar, Professor Roberto Poli describes three megatrends, the related windows of opportunity (when available), and exemplifies their countertrends.

Software-defined, AI-enabled Autonomous Vehicles (AV) require Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for developing and running AI and XR end-to-end. GPUs enable the technology to apply deep learning algorithms to complex sensor data in order to produce autonomous actions. In addition, GPUs are used for the creation of next-generation augmented reality (AR) interfaces, with information pertaining to points of interest, alerts, navigation, and co-pilot support for drivers.

This webinar will provide an overview of the fundamental characteristics of GPUs required to support new functionalities, including architecture, design, and verification points of view. It will also describe how dependability and functional safety need to be considered in order to provide the required level of trust for GPU computing.

The IEEE Software Defined Networks’ (SDN) eLearning Module 3 “It's All About Control: ONOS SDN Controller” builds on the previous two modules, “An Introduction to SDN: Part 1” and “An Introduction to SDN: Part 2”, which covered SDN and SDN controllers, in general. Module 3 takes a close look at one particular Open Source Controller– the Open Network Operating System (ONOS). This session demonstrates how ONOS fits into the SDN universe; what and how it controls and what problems it solves. In addition, it covers what ONOS brings to the SDN revolution.

The IEEE Software Defined Networks’ (SDN) eLearning Module 4 builds on Module 3: ONOS SDN Controller which dived into its architecture and features. This module discusses one particular Open Source Controller– the Open Network Operating System or ONOS– in its role as SDN Controller in an SDN based Service Provider Network. The session attempts to answer: Why ONOS?

This IEEE Software Defined Networks’ eLearning Module “Contrail: Cloud Network Automation” gives an overview of Contrail, a product of Juniper Networks, and is designed for network administrators, operators and developers. For example, network admins will learn how they can use Contrail, while developers can see how Contrail enables them to consume networks in an abstracted simple and orchestrated fashion. The module will start with looking at the trends and challenges that are prompting enterprises and service providers to implement Contrail; then, examine Contrail’s major features and look at how they fit in with those industry trends and customer challenges.

The sequel to the first module which provides an introduction to Network Function Virtualization (NFV), this IEEE Software Defined Networks’ eLearning module offers an overview of the Open Baton Open Source Framework. The module is structured into two major parts. First, it presents the NFV ecosystem as it is today. This part will also cover all the available open source technologies and their architectures which are compliant and relevant in the NFV ecosystem. Second, the module focuses on the Open Baton project: its architecture, functionalities and roadmap are extensively discussed.

The IEEE Software Defined Networks’ eLearning Module “An Introduction to Network Function Virtualization (NFV)“ covers the context and meaning of NFV and SDN, focusing on the management and orchestration of virtual network functions and their composition in complex network services. Moving from hardware-based appliances towards software-based artifacts requires a complete redesign of legacy network components. Virtualizing a Network Function using virtualization technologies can be easily achieved. This session provides an overview of the ETSI NFV architecture, focusing on the network services management and orchestration aspects, as well as virtualized resource management. Network Slicing in 5G, and Edge Computing, need to be analyzed for addressing requirements at the infrastructure level. An overview about Cloud-Native applications principles and microservices approaches will be given. Those principles are the basis for building highly reliable network services in each of those use cases. This first module will conclude with the benefits and challenges for Network Operators who are currently moving towards this paradigm.

The sequel to IEEE Software Defined Networks’ eLearning Module “An Introduction to Software Defined Network Security,” this second module covers “SDN Security Use Cases.” The presentation highlights some key uses cases in a vast landscape of network security uses cases found in research articles, and in talking to customers and SDN application developers.

The IEEE Software Defined Networks’ eLearning Module “An Introduction to Software Defined Network Security” is the first of two modules and gives an overview of the subject with a quick reminder of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and on the Openflow protocol. Then, the session will provide an introduction to a policy model based security framework that is a great fit to SDN. This presentation will also feature the new risks that SDN introduces and how to mitigate those. And lastly, a recent security concept named Software Defined Security where SDN and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) meet.