The NoF Best Paper Award is presented annually to authors whose work exemplifies the highest standards of research in future internet and next-generation network systems. It is a mark of distinction within the international networking community.
The award recognizes papers that push the boundaries of network research—combining rigorous methodology with practical relevance. Winners are selected for their contributions to advancing network architectures, protocols, and operational paradigms that will define the next generation of the Internet.
Unlike broader conference awards, the NoF Best Paper Award places particular emphasis on:
All accepted papers undergo single-blind peer review. The Best Paper Award is selected by the Technical Program Committee from among the papers presented at the conference. The evaluation process considers:
“Selection is highly competitive—each year the committee evaluates dozens of strong submissions before arriving at the award recipients. A Best Paper Award at NoF signals that the work meets the most exacting standards of the field.”
— NoF Steering CommitteeNoF is technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society. All accepted and presented papers are published in IEEE Xplore, ensuring worldwide visibility and archival preservation for the research community.
The award covers the full breadth of NoF’s scope, including but not limited to: network softwarization (SDN/NFV), edge and fog computing, AI-driven network orchestration, content delivery architectures, network slicing, intent-based networking, and next-generation mobile and wireline access technologies.