The 33rd IEEE Symposium on High-Performance Interconnects, Hot Interconnects (HotI 2026), will take place virtually from Wednesday, August 19 – Friday, August 21, 2026

IEEE Hot Interconnects is the premier international forum for researchers and developers of state-of-the-art hardware and software architectures and implementations for interconnection networks of all scales, ranging from multi-core, on-chip interconnects to those within systems, clusters, data centers, and clouds. This yearly conference is attended by leaders in industry and academia.

HotI 2026 solicits original research papers addressing the design, analysis, implementation, and evaluation of high-performance interconnects and closely related technologies. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, interconnect architectures, network protocols, networking software, communication runtimes, congestion control, optical and emerging fabrics, accelerator and chiplet interconnects, disaggregated systems, and system–network co-design.

Submissions

Event Deadline (AoE)
Paper abstract deadline May 9, 2026
Submission deadline May 15, 2026
Notification of acceptance June 26, 2026
Camera-ready July 17, 2026

Topics of Interest

  • Systems software for communication
  • Novel and innovative interconnect architectures
  • Accelerator interconnects, e.g. NVLINK, Infinity Fabric
  • Network software/hardware designed for AI/ML workloads
  • Multi-core processor interconnects
  • System-on-Chip Interconnects
  • Chiplet-interconnect technologies such as UCIe and BOW
  • Advanced chip-to-chip communication technologies
  • Optical interconnects
  • Protocol and interfaces for inter-processor communication
  • Survivability and fault-tolerance of interconnects
  • High-speed packet processing engines and network processors
  • System and storage area network architectures and protocols
  • High-performance host-network interface architectures
  • High-bandwidth and low-latency I/O
  • Pb/s switching and routing technologies
  • Innovative architectures for supporting collective communication
  • Novel communication architectures to support cloud & grid computing
  • Centralized and distributed cloud interconnects
  • Requirements driving high-performance interconnects
  • Traffic characterization for HPC systems and commercial data centers
  • Software-defined networking and software overlay networks
  • Software for network bring-up, configuration and performance management (OpenFlow, OpenSM)
  • Data Center Networking

HotI 2026 Conference Theme

Scale-Up, Scale-Out, Scale-Across: Do they really differ?


Complex high-capacity training and disaggregated inference workloads are being scaled-across multiple sites, blurring the lines between contemporary scale-out and scale-up interconnection stacks. All the classical issues, such as jitter, bursts, flow/congestion, long-tail latencies, etc. are amplified over long distances, requiring deliberate interventions across the full interconnection stack: algorithms, operational tools, communication frameworks, and network fabrics. This edition of Hot Interconnects will explore these interventions behind operationalizing interconnects over long, short and shorter distances.

Paper Format

This year we invite papers to be submitted either as regular (long) papers (up to 10 pages) or as hot topic papers (up to 4 pages). Hot topic papers could be positional papers, industry papers, or papers describing hot-off-the-press breaking research results and will be judged accordingly and independently from the regular papers.

  • Papers need sufficient technical detail to judge quality and suitability for presentation. Submissions must conform to [IEEE ethics standards]
  • Submissions should include title, author, abstract, and paper in double-column, see [IEEE format] for details.
  • Papers will be submitted electronically through [EasyChair] and will undergo a single-blind review process.
  • Regular papers: up to 10 pages (including technical content and figures), excluding references and any appendices. Appendices (if any) are limited to 5 pages (the limit might be extended upon committee approval in advance). Reproducibility appendices are encouraged but no official verification is provided by the HotI program committee.
  • Hot topic papers: up to 4 pages (including technical content and figures) excluding references. Appendices are not allowed for hot topic papers.
  • Materials other than the abstract, main paper body, and references will be read at the committee’s discretion.
  • Authors may post their preprints in arXiv.org, TechRxiv.org, or any not-for-profit preprint server approved by the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board (PSPB), in Author’s employer’s website or institutional repository, or in Author’s personal website.
  • Accepted papers will be submitted for inclusion into IEEE Xplore subject to meeting IEEE Xplore’s scope and quality requirements.
  • After a paper is accepted, the authors must follow the conference and [IEEE CPS guidelines] in publishing the paper. Review [IEEE post publication policies].

Author/Reviewer Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Text

IEEE Hot Interconnects follows [IEEE’s Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Text]. We allow the use of AI tools in the creation of submitted works.

Authors are responsible for all content submitted. If the precise usage of AI for the paper’s technical content is not disclosed, or inappropriate usage is seen, such as ghost citations, HotI reviewers may choose to desk-reject a paper. HotI reserves the right to revoke publication after acceptance of any submissions that do not follow these guidelines.

IEEE Hot Interconnects follows [IEEE’s Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Text] for reviewers. Public AI platforms may not be used for the evaluation of manuscripts under review in order to avoid breaching confidentiality.