Data centers manufacturing steel: rethinking industrial networks in the age of IT
Published in: HotNets '25: Proceedings of the 24th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks, pages 85 ‑ 95
Nikolaos Mitsakis, Marco Reisacher, Matthias Eichholz, Yannic Breiting, Harald Albrecht, Andreas Blenk, Oliver Hohlfeld
Industrial networks are undergoing a shift from static OT environments to open networks integrating IT and OT. This transition applies IT operational principles to OT, such as virtualizing Programmable Logic Controllers and leveraging AI to boost efficiency. However, this paper shows that IT/OT convergence remains an underexplored research area, missing key opportunities for future networking systems. We highlight three core challenges: timing constraints, service availability and changing traffic dynamics. For each, we present a use case detailing preliminary findings and defining new research avenues for SIGCOMM.
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LLMs on edge: Network traffic characteristics of distributed inference under the loupe
Submitted to: NAIC '25: Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Networks for AI Computing, pages 108 ‑ 114
Philippe Buschmann, Arne Broering, Georg Carle, Andreas Blenk
Large language models (LLMs) are expanding from cloud deployments to edge computing environments, including end-customer devices and industrial settings. However, deploying LLMs at the edge presents unique challenges due to network infrastructure and resource limitations. Although distributed LLM frameworks have emerged to optimize edge deployments, they are still in the early stages of development and have not undergone comprehensive real-world testing. This paper evaluates the performance of distributed LLM frameworks in edge environments, revealing unexpected drops in performance when adding compute nodes and uncovering complex network traffic patterns.
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Interoperable cyber-physical multi-agent systems through Web of Things
Published in: 2025 International Conference on Web Engineering
Roman Binkert, Fady Salama, Ege Korkan, Sebastian Käbisch, Sebastian Steinhorst
The rise of IoT systems has introduced multi-agent systems (MAS) as a means of managing growing complexity via autonomous, self-organizing agents. However, existing MAS frameworks suffer from fragmentation, limited agent interoperability and complex cyber-physical system (CPS) integration. To address these issues, we introduce the Web of multi-agent things (WoMAT), which incorporates the W3C Web of Things (WoT) standard directly into agent communication. By mapping WoT interaction affordances to AgentSpeak performatives, WoMAT enables seamless, protocol-independent interaction and semantic interoperability using ontology-enriched thing descriptions. Implemented with the JaCoMo framework, WoMAT establishes MASs as a viable edge solution.
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A survey on satellite computing: Connecting the dots between networks and applications
Published in: 2025 IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials (Volume: 28)
Carlos Guimarães, Alessio Netti, Markus Sauer, Florian Zeiger, Hans-Peter Huth, Elizaveta Boriskova
Rapid advancements in satellite technology, driven by low Earth orbit (LEO) mega-constellations and inter-satellite links, have rekindled interest in satellite computing as a means of providing edge computing services worldwide. Despite growing research in this area, the field remains fragmented and unstandardized, and its role in beyond-5G/6G systems is unclear. This survey addresses these gaps by evaluating the networking and computing factors that impact satellite computing, as well as its key applications. The paper presents a taxonomy based on application requirements and design choices, offering an industrial perspective and outlining open challenges to guide future research.
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Open-source SBOM generator for Debian-based distributions
Published in: 2026
F. Mößbauer, C. Steiger, T. Larisch, M. Adler, G. Hillier
debsbom generates software bills of materials (SBOMs) for Debian-based distributions in SPDX and CycloneDX formats. SBOMs list both installed binary packages and Debian source packages. This is crucial for security tracking because Debian CVEs are assigned to source packages rather than binary components. Additionally, debsbom creates a complete dependency graph of the analyzed system. This allows users to identify critical distribution components and determine which package dependencies introduced specific vulnerabilities.
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