Special issue: advanced topics on scalable computing

Scalability is a desirable quality for contemporary and future computing and communication systems and becomes one of the most important considerations during the design and deployment of these systems. With rapid increases in the information volume and system complexity, new architecture and techniques are required to support scalable computing and communications. In view of this, we selected six papers on scalable computing and communications for this special issue. This special issue is a collection of the best papers submitted to the IEEE International Conference on Scalable Computing and Communications (ScalCom 2009), held on 25–27 September 2009, in Dalian, China. All the papers were selected on the basis of their originality, technical quality, and significance. ScalCom 2009 promotes the scalability research and the development of relevant areas. Themes include the following aspects: • Scalable computing • Network technologies and applications • Parallel and distributed systems