smart networks comprises the proceedings of smartnet2002, the seventh conference on intelligence in networks, which was sponsored by the international federation for information processing (ifip) and organized by working group 6.7. it was held in saariselkä, finland, in april 2002. the conference series closely reflects the developments in networking. currently we are facing two conflicting trends: the increasing popularity of the internet and the growth of mobile communications. the traditional internet approach is to regard a network as a dummy pipe of bits and place all the intelligence in the end-devices. the traditional telecom approach is to regard the end-devices as dummy senders or receivers of bits and to put all the intelligence in the network. for fixed-line access to the internet using a powerful pc, the internet approach is plausible. however, for a nomadic user, who sometimes accesses services through a fixed-line internet connection and, at other times, through a wireless connection using a restricted-capability access device, the situation becomes intolerable. intelligence needs to be distributed and partially replicated in end-user devices, access networks, and the core network.the presentations in this volume consider these new trends and cover three major topics: platform software, services, and protocols. the sessions on platform software address various aspects of software infrastructure in networks including object-orientation, components, agents, and plug-and-play. the session on services includes interactive tv, group communication, and location awareness. the session on protocols discusses bandwidth brokers, authentication, and protocol testing.
