The theme of IEEE NetSoft 2026 – Autonomous and Reliable Softwarized Networks in the Age of Distributed Intelligence –, reflects the rapid evolution of intelligent network infrastructures and their convergence with AI-driven automation, cloud-edge computing, programmable networking, and next-generation 5G/6G systems. The conference highlights recent advances in distributed intelligence, reinforcement learning, agentic AI, digital twins, and AI-native orchestration, emphasizing the growing need for autonomous, adaptive, energy-efficient, and resilient networks.
During the conference, I presented in the PhD symposium my position paper on how Knowledge distillation has become another threat surface that needs to be managed within AI systems. Within “Towards Secure Knowledge Distillation in Edge and Federated AI Systems: A System-Level Perspective” I explore how to manage the new trust boundary in edge and distributed systems.