Special Issue on selected papers from IFIP Networking 2024

This Special Issue presents extended versions of selected top papers from the 23rd IFIP Networking Conference (IFIP Networking 2024), sponsored by the IFIP Technical Committee on Communication Systems (TC6), IEEE ComSoc, and the Italian RESTART Foundation. The contributions advance reliability and determinism through multipath redundancy for 5G streaming and practical packet ordering for deterministic wireless networking. They improve scalable traffic engineering by speeding up segment-routing optimization via path preprocessing without breaking constraints. Support is provided for emerging XR services with both cooperative access/edge orchestration and realistic, measurement-based XR traffic modeling. Finally, the contributions strengthen trustworthy and impactful networking through AS risk assessment at IXPs, an IoT framework for smart water systems, and optimized virtual channel establishment in payment channel networks. Taken together, they paint a picture of a field that is simultaneously pushing new capabilities, while also advancing a shift from optimality to operational practicality, where scalable methods bridge the gap between theoretically optimal solutions and real-world constraints in traffic engineering, deterministic networking, and XR orchestration. An emerging theme is that of measurement-driven design, highlighting how empirical traffic modeling and control-plane analyses strengthen credibility, reproducibility, and operational relevance. Finally, the papers emphasize reliability, resilience, and security by construction and the growing importance of networking for societal-scale applications, spanning sustainable smart infrastructure and immersive services.