During the last two decades we have seen a tremendous development within the computer and communication industry. The ever increasing density on silicon, the increasing transmission speeds on fiber based systems as well as twisted pairs, the revolutionary development in the wireless area and of course the Internet have all led to many opportunities for new service developments. It is interesting to note that the last time this conference was held three years ago, the Web really did not fully exist. We are now ready to face new interesting challenges. It is an utmost importance for the performance community to focus on the modeling and analysis of the Internet, the multimedia applications and the untethered applications that are coming to the forefront. There will be a need for new and better simulation methods, new analytical tools and a much better understanding of measurement techniques. "Performance of Information and Communication Systems", PICS'98, which takes place in Lund, Sweden, May 25-28, 1998, is the seventh conference in a series on performance of communication systems organized by IFIP TC 6, WG 6.3. In response to our call for papers, we have received nearly fifty submissions.
