In the first contribution, entitled “An analysis of the fees and pending time correlation in Ethereum,” Sousa et al. study the main features of Ethereum transactions and evaluate the common belief—for blockchain systems that rely on proof of work—that users who pay higher fees will have their transactions confirmed faster. The empirical analysis shows strong evidence that there is no clear correlation between fees‐related features and the pending time. Overall, the paper concludes, based on its investigation, that transaction's features, including gas and gas price defined by users, cannot determine the pending time of transactions.

In the second paper, entitled “Counselors network for intrusion detection,” Quincozes et al. propose an intrusion detection architecture that combines multiple classifier systems and multiple heterogeneous data sources for improving the overall accuracy of intrusion detection systems (IDSes). By introducing a new concept of counselors' networks, the authors deal with conflicts from different classifiers and enable the collaboration between multiple IDS systems. The empirical results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed architecture in improving the accuracy of the intrusion detection process.

In the third contribution, entitled “VNF‐Consensus: A virtual network function for maintaining a consistent distributed software‐defined network control plane,” Venâncio et al. propose VNF‐Consensus, a virtual network function that implements Paxos to ensure strong consistency among controllers of a distributed control plane. In the proposed solution, controllers can perform their control plane activities without having to execute the expensive tasks required to keep consistency. Experimental results are presented showing the cost and benefits of the proposed solution, in particular in terms of low controller overhead.

In the fourth contribution, entitled “Classification and evaluation of IoT brokers: A methodology,” Bertrand‐Martinez et al. define a methodology for software quality evaluation of message brokers for the Internet of Things (IoT). This methodology also provides a theoretical framework for scientists to develop their own metrics system to evaluate quality in IoT middleware and showcases a practical implementation of the methodology in order to make it more didactic.

In the fifth contribution, entitled “SDN‐based teleprotection and control power systems: A study of available controllers and their suitability,” Soares et al. evaluate and compare several software‐defined networking (SDN) controllers for the scenarios of teleprotection and control power systems based on the IEC 61850 standard, which defines stringent requirements in terms of real‐time communication and availability. With those requirements in mind, the authors evaluate several controllers qualitatively and quantitatively. The results suggest that Open Network Operating System (ONOS) is currently the most suitable controller available, although performance and reliability could still be improved.

The guest editors thank the Editor‐in‐Chief of the International Journal of Network Management (IJNM) for the opportunity of organizing this special issue as well as the anonymous reviewers who provided invaluable help in evaluating the submitted papers. Finally, we hope all interested readers enjoy reading the selected papers and find them useful for their own research.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

None.

中文翻译：

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拉丁美洲网络运营与管理研讨会第九版的精选论文，有关网络运营与管理研究趋势专刊的社论

Sousa等人在题为“以太坊中的费用和待处理时间相关性分析”的第一篇论文中指出。研究以太坊交易的主要特征，并评估普遍的信念（对于依赖工作量证明的区块链系统），即支付更高费用的用户将更快地确认交易。实证分析显示，有力的证据表明，与收费相关的功能与挂起时间之间没有明显的相关性。总体而言，本文根据调查得出的结论是，交易的功能（包括用户定义的天然气和天然气价格）无法确定交易的待定时间。

在第二篇题为“用于入侵检测的咨询网络”的论文中，Quincozes等人。提出了一种将多个分类器系统和多个异构数据源结合在一起的入侵检测体系结构，以提高入侵检测系统（IDSes）的整体准确性。通过引入顾问网络的新概念，作者处理了来自不同分类器的冲突，并实现了多个IDS系统之间的协作。实验结果证明了所提出的体系结构在提高入侵检测过程的准确性方面的可行性。

Venâncio等人在题为“ VNF-Consensus：一种用于维护一致的分布式软件定义的网络控制平面的虚拟网络功能”的第三篇文章中。提出了VNF-Consensus，这是一种虚拟网络功能，可实现Paxos，以确保分布式控制平面的控制器之间的强一致性。在提出的解决方案中，控制器可以执行其控制平面活动，而不必执行保持一致性所需的昂贵任务。给出的实验结果表明了所提出解决方案的成本和收益，特别是在控制器开销较低的方面。

Bertrand-Martinez等人在题为“物联网经纪人的分类和评估：一种方法”的第四篇论文中。定义一种用于物联网（IoT）的消息代理的软件质量评估的方法。该方法还为科学家提供了一个理论框架，以开发他们自己的指标系统以评估IoT中间件的质量，并展示了该方法的实际实施以使其更具说服力。

在第五篇名为“基于SDN的远程保护和控制电源系统：对可用控制器及其适用性的研究”中，Soares等人。针对基于IEC 61850标准的远程保护和控制电源系统场景，评估和比较几种软件定义的网络（SDN）控制器，该标准定义了实时通信和可用性方面的严格要求。考虑到这些要求，作者定性和定量地评估了几个控制器。结果表明，尽管仍可以提高性能和可靠性，但开放网络操作系统（ONOS）是当前最合适的控制器。

特邀编辑感谢《国际网络管理杂志》（IJNM）的主编提供了组织此期特刊的机会，并感谢匿名审阅者在评估提交的论文方面提供了宝贵的帮助。最后，我们希望所有感兴趣的读者喜欢阅读所选的论文，并发现它们对自己的研究有用。

数据可用性声明

没有任何。