Nikolaos Presents "Data Centers Manufacturing Steel" at ACM HotNets 2025
Today Nikolaos delivered a talk at the 24th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks (HotNets 2025), a premier, invitation‑only venue where the networking community debates breakthrough ideas and sets future research agendas. Acceptance at HotNets signals that a contribution is both original and likely to spark significant discussion among top scholars.
The paper, Data Centers Manufacturing Steel: Rethinking Industrial Networks in the Age of IT, join work with Siemens, highlights the ongoing transformation of industrial networks from closed, static OT environments to open, IT‑integrated systems. By applying IT operational principles—such as virtualized programmable‑logic controllers and AI‑driven optimization—to OT domains, we expose three under‑explored research challenges: timing constraints, service availability, and evolving traffic characteristics. For each challenge we present a concrete use case and early findings that open new avenues for SIGCOMM‑level research.
The full paper is available for download here.