Special Sessions

AI-Native and Data-Driven Management is important and promising for Measurement in Networking since it will enable automatic optimization and network management. 

The implementation of an effective maintenance system is a multi-faceted problem which involves advanced technologies across multiple layers, including hardware (e.g., smart sensing nodes, embedded data acquisition and edge processing units), middleware (e.g., data management and networking protocols) and software (e.g., diagnostics and information outsourcing).

The importance of distributed measurement systems is continuously increasing, particularly in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial IoT (IIoT). Beyond enabling application-level sensing, distributed measurement infrastructures play a key role in observing, characterizing, and estimating network behavior and communication parameters, which are essential for ensuring reliable and predictable system performance. 

This Special Session is designed to address the rapidly evolving landscape of smart sensing systems, achieved through the synergistic integration of innovative field sensor technologies with other engineering disciplines, such as the bio/chemical field. 

This special session will address advanced measurement techniques, networking and communication frameworks for intelligent health monitoring systems. 

The rapid expansion of e-health services in recent years has been largely driven by advances in sensing, networking, and communication technologies. Indeed, an increasing number of patients now benefit from home-based monitoring and therapy, older adults rely on continuous, non-intrusive health supervision, and healthcare providers are adopting remote solutions to support prevention, diagnosis, rehabilitation, and long-term care across diverse and challenging scenarios.

Smart transducers are the backbone of Intelligent Systems, enabling improvements in Smart Grids, IIoT, and Smart Cities. However, understanding their full potential requires overcoming significant interoperability barriers caused by heterogeneous hardware and fragmented communication protocols. This Special Session explores the convergence of physical interface standards, such as IEEE 1451, with high-level semantic frameworks to ensure seamless data exchange. We focus on bridging the gap between sensor capabilities, including self-diagnosis, edge processing (Edge AI), and synchronization, and the logical ontologies needed for accurate data interpretation. Main topics of interest include interoperability protocols and standards, conformance testing methodologies, measurement assessment, and secure integration within Cyber-Physical Systems. By unifying research on hardware constraints and software definitions, this session aims to foster standardized "plug-and-play" solutions that enhance decision-making, reliability, and operational efficiency in next-generation infrastructure. In addition, the session will emphasize measurement methodologies to quantify interoperability maturity, validate semantic correctness of metadata/ontology mappings, and assess timing/synchronization performance in heterogeneous distributed deployments.

The ubiquitous deployment of wireless communication infrastructure has made radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) an intrinsic component of modern networking environments.

Quantum communications are rapidly moving from laboratory prototypes to deployable infrastructures, at the same time as the post quantum transition accelerates: the prospect of largescale quantum computing makes post-quantum cryptography (PQC) migration and crypto-agility urgent, while quantum networking introduces new primitives, quantum key distribution (QKD), entanglement distribution, and teleportation assisted interconnection, that can reshape secure connectivity and distributed quantum information processing across quantum sensors and computing nodes.