DSN 2012 Call for Papers: DCCS and PDS

What's The Difference Between PDS and DCCS?

There are two tracks for regular papers, practical experience reports, demonstrations, and panels: DCCS and PDS. Below is a summary of the main differences between these two tracks.

The Dependable Computing and Communications Symposium (DCCS) emphasizes research and practice on all aspects of design and validation of system level dependability and security. This spans system lifecycle phases including architecture, design, verification/validation, and deployment. More details are available at the DCCS Call for Papers below.

The Performance and Dependability Symposium (PDS) emphasizes research and practice on all aspects of assessment and evaluation of dependable systems. This spans analytical, simulation, and measurement techniques for evaluating performance, dependability, and security assessment in computer and communication systems. More details are available at the PDS Call for Papers below.

Relevant application areas for both tracks include, but are not limited to:

Fault-tolerant and resilient systems
Distributed, parallel, clustered and grid systems
Peer to peer systems and social networks
Embedded, real-time and cyber-physical systems
Database and transactional systems
Operating systems, file and storage systems
Mobile and multimedia systems
Sensor, wireless and ad-hoc networks
Internet and web-based information services and systems
Secure and intrusion tolerant systems
Critical infrastructures and mission-critical systems

Information for authors is the same for both tracks.
Dependable Computing and Communications Symposium (DCCS)

DCCS Submission Site: ClickHere

Program Committee Chair
Philip Koopman
Carnegie Mellon University
koopman .at. cmu.edu

All of us depend upon computers in our everyday lives. But, as the complexity of computer-based systems and networks grows, it is ever more challenging to provide resilience to malicious attacks, accidental faults, design errors, and unexpected operating conditions. Beyond that, such systems are increasingly trusted to provide safety, confidentiality, and near-continuous operation. The challenges to providing computing that is truly dependable in all respects are significant, but meeting them is essential to the well-being of corporations, individuals, governments, and our global economy.

The Dependable Computing and Communications Symposium (DCCS) brings together academic and industrial researchers in all aspects of dependability and security for the premier international conference in this field. We seek first-tier papers on all aspects of the research and practice of creating, validating, deploying, and maintaining systems to achieve dependability and security. All aspects of systems are included, such as architecture, networks, hardware, software, and human elements.

We welcome research papers, practical experience papers, and tool descriptions and demonstrations related to dependable computing and communications, including, but not limited to:

Design and evaluation of novel algorithms, architectures, and techniques for dependable hardware, software, and networking.
Dependability challenges and solutions in different computer system application areas including, but not limited to: high speed networking, Internet and WWW, databases and transaction processing systems, distributed systems, embedded and real-time systems, SCADA systems, automotive and aerospace systems, wireless and mobile systems, parallel, grid and cloud systems.
Novel dependability challenges introduced by new computing and communication technologies and application areas such as, virtualization, utility/on-demand/cloud computing, mobile banking and commerce, sensor networks, multi-core systems, virtual worlds, online social networking, and critical infrastructures (e.g., smart power grid).
Issues, challenges, and solutions in security, trust, survivability, intrusion detection and tolerance, system integrity, critical infrastructure, and safety-critical systems.
Dependability issues and solutions in autonomic computing, adaptive and self-managing systems, resilient systems, exception handling, and graceful degradation.
Reliability, testing, validation, and verification for software, hardware, and systems-of-systems.
Practical experience in deployment and management of dependable systems, and lessons learned from the application of dependability and security theory to practical systems.

Performance and Dependability Symposium (PDS)

PDS Submission Site: ClickHere

Program Committee Chair
Michel Cukier
University of Maryland
mcukier .at. umd.edu

The activities of our daily life are increasingly dependent on networked information systems. Therefore, evaluating and assessing the quality of service delivered by these systems, in terms of their performance, dependability and security is crucially important. This objective is challenging, in particular when considering current and future information systems that are more and more composed of large, evolving, networked systems and infrastructures, involving everything from super-computers and widely deployed server farms to myriads of small mobile computers and tiny embedded devices. Efficient and scalable modeling and experimental techniques are needed to allow the designers and the administrators of computer systems and networks to better understand and to quantify the relationships between the occurrence of accidental or malicious threats and their impact on performance, dependability and security.

The Performance and Dependability Symposium (PDS) aims to bring together academic and industrial researchers in these related areas, with emphasis on integrating theory and practice. Topics of interest to the symposium include analytical modeling, simulation, and measurement; benchmarking of performance, dependability and security; and submissions considering hardware and software during the design, operation and maintenance of computer systems and networks. Also, we encourage submissions including real world empirical studies and focusing on implementation and experimental issues.

We welcome original regular research papers, practical experience reports, tool descriptions/demonstrations, and panel proposals related to performance, dependability and security assessment, including, but not limited to:

Analytical, numerical, and simulation techniques for performance and dependability assessment
Measurement and monitoring techniques for performance and dependability assessment
Dependability benchmarking and fault injection/robustness testing
Model verification and validation for performance and dependability evaluation
Field data statistical analysis and data mining for performance and dependability evaluation
Modeling and measurement of security, malware and intrusion detection systems
Vulnerability analysis and threat assessment
Design and use of tools and testbeds for performance, dependability and security assessment
Case studies showing the role of performance, dependability and security assessment in the design, operation or maintenance of computer systems and networks

Information for Authors

Papers must be submitted through the DSN 2012 submission pages, either ClickHere for DCCS or ClickHere for PDS
New for 2012: Double-blind reviews will be used. Details provided below.
New for 2012: Authors must specify which program committee members have potential conflicts of interest with their paper at the time of submission. Details provided below.
Reviews will be done primarily by program committee members using a two-phase process. Three program committee members will review in a first phase, and two additional program committee members will review up-selected papers in a second phase. The paper selection process will be done at an in-person meeting for each track.
Authors will have the opportunity to submit an 800 word response to reviews before the program committee meeting.
Papers will not be redirected between tracks, and will not be changed between categories after submission.
Acceptance will be determined by paper quality, with no set acceptance percentage.

Important Dates

Mandatory abstracts: November 30, 2011 (11:59 p.m.EST or UTC/GMT – 5h).
Full paper submission: December 7, 2011 (11:59 p.m. EST or UTC/GMT – 5h).
Author response period: February 14-16, 2012.
Author notification: February 29, 2012.

Please note that all submission deadlines are hard—there will be no extensions. Please refer to the international times for the deadlines.

Paper Categories

Manuscripts in the following categories will be considered for publication in the IEEE Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks:

Regular papers (max. 12 page submission; 12 pages in proceedings): full paper describing a research contribution to dependable computing, including experimental work focused on implementation and evaluation of existing dependability techniques.
Practical experience reports (max. 8 page submission; 8 pages in proceedings): a shorter paper describing practitioner experiences or lessons learned applying tools and techniques to real-world problems.
Tool descriptions/demonstrations (max. 8 page submission; 8 pages in proceedings): descriptions of the architecture, implementation and usage of substantive tools to aid the research and practice of dependability.
Panel proposals (2 page submission; 2 page panel summary in proceedings): descriptions of the proposed panel, including the proposed topic(s); the panel objectives; the panel organization; and the names, addresses and background of probable panelists.

Please contact your program chairs (Philip Koopman for DCCS and Michel Cukier for PDS) in case you have any questions concerning to which category your paper should be submitted.

Paper Submissions

The first page must include the title of the paper, a maximum 150-word abstract, five keywords, the submission paper category (e.g., regular paper), an approximate word count, and a declaration that the material has been cleared through the affiliations of the author(s).

The first page is not a separate page, but is a part of the paper (and thus has technical material in it). Thus, this page counts toward the total page budget for the paper. Submissions must adhere to the IEEE Computer Society camera-ready 8.5"x11" two-column camera-ready format. Due to double-blind procedures, author names and affiliations should be omitted. The templates are reproduced below for your convenience, and further details can be found here.

LaTex Package (ZIP)
Word Template (ZIP)

Each paper must be submitted as a single Portable Document Format (PDF) file. We recommend that you embed fonts if at all possible to improve portability. We also strongly recommend you print the file and review it for integrity (fonts, symbols, equations, legibility, etc.) before submitting it. A defective printing of your paper can undermine its chance of success. Proceedings distributed in soft-copy and therefore papers can incorporate color graphics, but authors are cautioned to ensure that all aspects of the paper are clearly legible when printed in black & white.

Submissions that do not conform to the above submission deadline and formatting guidelines (e.g., too long, excessively small fonts, tightened line spacing, shrunken margins) or are out of scope, previously published, or under submission to multiple venues, may be rejected without review at the discretion of the Program Chair.

Review Process and Author Response

Submissions are reviewed by multiple experts in the field including at least three Program Committee members and occasionally non-program committee experts to ensure breadth of coverage. Papers are subject to two rounds of reviews with three program committee member reviewers in the first phase and two additional program committee members if the paper advances to the second phase. Reviewers also exchange on-line discussions and all program committee members attend their track's in-person two-day paper selection meeting.

After the papers have been reviewed, but prior to the in-person selection meeting, reviews will be made available to the authors to provide a forum for responding to any factual errors in the reviews. Please note that this is not a forum to add any additional information to the paper, to submit an updated or revised paper, or to list changes the authors promise to include in the final version. Author responses will be made available to all program committee members before the paper is discussed at the paper selection meeting, and reviewers will specifically consider author responses during the paper selection discussion. Further author response guidance will be provided during the course of that process.

Double-Blind Reviews

All submitted papers will be judged based on their quality and relevance through double-blind reviewing, where the identities of the authors are withheld from the reviewers. As an author, you are required to make a good-faith effort to preserve the anonymity of your submission, while at the same time allowing the reader to fully grasp the context of related past work, including your own. Common sense and careful writing will go a long way towards preserving anonymity. Minimally, please take the following steps when preparing your submission:

Follow the instructions on the submission web site for providing author information separate from your paper.
Remove the names and affiliations of authors from the title block of your submitted paper.
Remove acknowledgment of identifying names and funding sources.
Use care in naming your files. Source file names are often embedded in the final output as readily accessible comments.
Use care in referring to related work, particularly your own. Do not omit references to provide anonymity, as this leaves the reviewer unable to grasp the context. Instead, reference your past work in the third person, just as you would any other piece of related work by another author.

The Program Chairs, General Chair, and Conference Coordinator will have access to author identity and affiliation (e.g., so we can double-check conflicts and notify you of acceptance). But identities will not be revealed to program committee members during the course of making acceptance decisions.

Conflict of Interest Rules

Both authors and program committee members must provide conflict of interest information. The Program Chairs will review paper conflicts to ensure the integrity of the submission process, adding conflicts where necessary. Broadly, we define a conflict of interest with a program committee member to exist using the following principles:

One or more author is currently employed at the same institution as a program committee member, has been previously employed at the same institution within the last twelve months, or is going to begin employment within the next six months at the same institution. (Different departments still count as the same institution.)
One or more author has one or more of the following professional relationships with a program committee member:
Past or present association as thesis advisor or thesis student.
Collaboration on a project, publication, or grant proposal within the last 36 months.
Co-edited a journal, conference proceedings, book, or workshop without proceedings within the last 24 months.

Conflict of Interest information must be provided when you submit your paper. If there is no basis for program committee conflicts provided by authors, those conflicts will be removed. In particular, do not improperly identify program committee members as conflicts simply in to attempt to avoid unfavorable reviews. The submission website will have details on providing this information.

William C. Carter Award

The William C. Carter Award is presented annually since 1997 to recognize an individual who has made a significant contribution to the field of dependable computing through his or her graduate dissertation research. The award honors the late William C. Carter, a key figure in the formation and development of the field of dependable computing. The award is sponsored by IEEE Technical Committee on Dependable Computing and Fault-Tolerance and IFIP Working Group on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance (WG 10.4). To qualify, a paper based on the student's Ph.D. dissertation must have been submitted to DSN as a regular paper with the student as the first author. Both current and former graduate students, no more than two years past completion of their dissertations, are eligible. All nominated submissions accepted as regular papers to DSN in both the PDS and DCCS tracks are evaluated by the Steering Committee of the Conference.

Consideration for an award requires a nomination. Dissertation advisors wishing to nominate a student should submit a plain ASCII nomination e-mail to award2012@dsn.org by February 1st with the following:

Student name, paper title, track (DCCS or PDS), and paper submission ID.
PhD defense (or expected defense) date of student, confirming no more than two years have passed since dissertation completion as of December 2011.
A paragraph explaining why this student is deserving of the award.

All nomination submissions will be confirmed via return e-mail. If you do not receive a confirmation within 24 hours of sending the e-mail please contact the General Chair (Bob Swarz).