Network architectures, security, and applications: An introduction

Owing to the ever growing communication systems, modern networks currently encompass a wide range of solutions and technologies, including wireless and wired networks and provide basis for network systems from multiple partly overlapping domains such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud services, and network applications. This appears in numerous active research areas with particular attention paid to the architecture and security of network systems. In parallel, novel applications are developed, in some cases strongly linked to rapidly developing network-based data acquisition and processing frameworks. This chapter presents a general introduction to the topics of network architectures, security, and applications in addition to short descriptions of the chapters included in this volume.