About Netsoft

Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Cloud-Edge-Fog Computing are driving an unprecedented techno-economic shift in the Telecom and ICT industries. Network softwarization and programmability promise to reduce operational costs, provide better flexibility and bring new service paradigms. In particular, they are enabling the deployment of 5G infrastructures, spanning from high data rate fixed-mobile services to the Internet of Things, which is expected to accelerate the digital transformation that all the industry is witnessing. As a result, new service models and new value chains will emerge, leading to novel business models and significant socio-economic impact.

Considering this important trend, the SDN Initiative that was running in 2014-2017 under the Future Directions Committee of IEEE decided to launch a new conference that was capturing the important development in the scope of softwarized networks. The International Conference on Network Softwarization, aka NetSoft was then created and had its first event in April 2015 in London, UK.

Since then, a number of new ideas and models facilitating the evolution of networks and services towards flexibility and automation have been witnessed: from software-defined infrastructures and SD-WAN to open edge and access networks, from open APIs to open networking using open source, from continuous deployment to full automation, from service function chaining to network slicing, from optimization techniques to AI-based decisions, all of them converging to the 5G networks and verticals.

All these aspects have been addressed along the recent years in the various NetSoft events since its inception.

In 2019, NetSoft has been hosted in Paris, France with the specific focus: Unleashing the Power of Network Softwarization. The conference statistics have been :

For previous NetSoft venues, conference data  have been as follows: