Datacenter Traffic Control: Understanding Techniques and Trade-offs

Datacenters provide cost-effective and flexible access to scalable compute and storage resources necessary for today's cloud computing needs. A typical datacenter is made up of thousands of servers connected with a large network and usually managed by one operator. To provide quality access to the variety of applications and services hosted on datacenters and maximize performance, it deems necessary to use datacenter networks effectively and efficiently. Datacenter traffic is often a mix of several classes with different priorities and requirements. This includes user-generated interactive traffic, traffic with deadlines, and long-running traffic. To this end, custom transport protocols and traffic management techniques have been developed to improve datacenter network performance. In this tutorial paper, we review the general architecture of datacenter networks, various topologies proposed for them, their traffic properties, general traffic control challenges in datacenters and general traffic control objectives. The purpose of this paper is to bring out the important characteristics of traffic control in datacenters and not to survey all existing solutions (as it is virtually impossible due to massive body of existing research). We hope to provide readers with a wide range of options and factors while considering a variety of traffic control mechanisms. We discuss various characteristics of datacenter traffic control including management schemes, transmission control, traffic shaping, prioritization, load balancing, multipathing, and traffic scheduling. Next, we point to several open challenges as well as new and interesting networking paradigms. At the end of this paper, we briefly review inter-datacenter networks that connect geographically dispersed datacenters which have been receiving increasing attention recently and pose interesting and novel research problems.Comment: Accepted for Publication in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

The Failed Promise of User Fees: Empirical Evidence from the United States Patent and Trademark Office

In an attempt to shed light on the impact of user-fee financing structures on the behavior of administrative agencies, we explore the relationship between the funding structure of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and its examination practices. We suggest that the PTO’s reliance on prior grantees to subsidize current applicants exposes the Agency to a risk that its obligatory costs will surpass incoming fee collections. When such risks materialize, we hypothesize, and thereafter document, that the PTO will restore financial balance by extending preferential examination treatment—i.e., higher granting propensities and/or shorter wait times—to some technologies over others

The Failed Promise of User Fees: Empirical Evidence from the United States Patent and Trademark Office

In an attempt to shed light on the impact of user-fee financing structures on the behavior of administrative agencies, we explore the relationship between the funding structure of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and its examination practices. We suggest that the PTO’s reliance on prior grantees to subsidize current applicants exposes the Agency to a risk that its obligatory costs will surpass incoming fee collections. When such risks materialize, we hypothesize, and thereafter document, that the PTO will restore financial balance by extending preferential examination treatment—i.e., higher granting propensities and/or shorter wait times—to some technologies over others

Network Neutrality and Congestion Sensitive Content Providers: Implications for Service Innovation, Broadband Investment and Regulation

We consider a two-sided market model with a monopolistic Internet Service Provider (ISP), network congestion sensitive content providers (CPs), and Internet customers in order to study the impact of Quality- of-Service (QoS) tiering on service innovation, broadband investments, and welfare in comparison to network neutrality. We find that QoS tiering is the more efficient regime in the short-run. However it does not promote entry by new, congestion sensitive CPs, because the ISP can expropriate much of the CPs' surplus. In the long-run, QoS tiering may lead to more or less broadband capacity and welfare, depending on the competition-elasticity of CPs' revenues

Information Technology Project Prioritization

This thesis provides a contemporary review of several topics related to information technology project prioritization, which will help managers create their own custom methodology. Traditional prioritization tools such as weighted average scoring models are used for simultaneous comparison of a number of proposed projects on multiple dimensions, to facilitate alignment with organization goals. These methods are used for the analysis of information related to the weight preferences over criteria used. If used correctly with this procedure, it is possible to bring forward an authentic figure of merit, which is used as the projects strategic potential. This allows the projects to be ranked and the highest-ranking projects to be considered for selection. Visual tools can then be used for selection of optimum project portfolio. The literature dedicates less time on tools beyond the selection of projects. This study aims to bridge this gap by proposing a final phase of project prioritization as Project Portfolio Management

IMPLEMENTING PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT MODEL TO SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED PROJECTS IN A MULTINATIONAL COMPANY – A DYNAMIC APPROACH

ABSTRACT Hectic project environment encourages organizations to invest more in developing overall project management through portfolio management to improve resource allocation and project prioritization whilst maximizing portfolio value and customer satisfaction. Thus, this thesis is conceived to examine the implementation of a project portfolio management model to respond to the dynamic customer project needs in the departments of electrical and automation as well as technical documentation in Etteplan Finland Oy. There were five separate interviews conducted together with the essential managers accompanied with thorough research on the current methodologies. Exploiting the interview results, a comprehensive research on the feasible dynamic management methodologies was executed. Based on results from the mentioned research methods, there was a broad case study implemented to compare the current methodologies with the new proposals and evaluate their feasibility and business value for the departments. Additionally, a SVM implementation was performed to find new aspects to efficiently managing projects. The results of the thesis showed the positive impact of applying dynamic project management methods for improved efficiency and reduction in projects overall costs. This enabled better understanding of KPI’s as well as methods for transparent communication. From a profitability perspective, this thesis emphasizes the need of implementing the methods for the companies small and medium sized projects for continuous development.TIIVISTELMÄ Hektinen projektiympäristö kannustaa organisaatioita investoimaan projektien portfolion hallintaan ja täten parantamaan projektienhallintaa kokonaisuudessaan. Näin voidaan saavuttaa parempi resurssien hallinta, projektien priorisointi ja samanaikaisesti maksimoida portfolion arvoa sekä asiakastyytyväisyyttä. Täten työn tarkoituksena on tutkia projektisalkun käyttöönottoa Etteplan Finland Oy:n sähkö ja automaation, sekä teknisen dokumentoinnin yksiköissä, jotta voidaan vastata asiakasprojektien dynaamisiin vaatimuksiin. Tutkielmassa haastateltiin yksikköjen päälliköitä ja projektitoimiston henkilöstöä, sekä tutkittiin kattavasti yrityksen käyttämiä tämänhetkisiä työkaluja. Tutkimustulosten avulla selvitettiin toteuttamiskelpoisten dynaamisten projektinhallintatyökalujen käyttömahdollisuuksia yksiköissä. Tämän jälkeen toteutettiin laaja case-tutkimus ja vertailu nykyisten ja uusien toimintatapojen välillä, sekä arvioitiin toimintatapojen käyttökelpoisuutta ja liiketoiminnallista arvoa. Lisäksi, työssä otettiin käyttöön SVM-malli tuomaan uusia näkökulmia tehokkaaseen projektien johtamiseen. Työn tulokset todensivat dynaamisen projektijohtamisen vaikutukset projektin tehokkuuteen ja kokonaiskustannusten alentumiseen. Tämän lisäksi työ toi esille toimintatapoja läpinäkyvään kommunikointiin, sekä korosti suorituskykymittareiden tärkeyttä. Yrityksen jatkuvan kehityksen ja kannattavuuden näkökulmasta työssä painottuu työkalujen ja metodien käyttöönoton tärkeys pienissä ja keskisuurissa asiakasprojekteissa

Ethical Guidelines for the Treatment of Patients with Suspected or Confirmed Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

This white paper provides basic ethical guidelines for treating patients with suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19). It responds to the need from healthcare organizations to address the moral considerations inherent to caring for this patient population, particularly in the context of scarce resource allocation, the imposition of limits to individual freedoms, and de facto social distancing. These guidelines are not narrowly prescriptive, but recognize the need of decision makers to transform this guidance into specific decisions. Ethical decision making assumes that such judgments will be based on current scientific knowledge, that effectiveness of interventions is carefully assessed, and that transparency of the process is evident. As specific decisions are considered, processes should be in place for identifying which ethical issues were addressed, how guidelines were used, how decisions affected the community, and what lessons can be shared with other decision makers. In this way, these guidelines will continue to be an interactive, working document

Network slicing to enable scalability and flexibility in 5G mobile networks

We argue for network slicing as an efficient solution that addresses the diverse requirements of 5G mobile networks, thus provid-ing the necessary flexibility and scalability associated with future network implementations. We elaborate on the challenges that emerge when we design 5G networks based on network slicing. We focus on the architectural aspects associated with the coexistence of dedicated as well as shared slices in the network. In particular, we analyze the realization options of a flexible radio access network with focus on network slicing and their impact on the design of 5G mobile networks. In addition to the technical study, this paper provides an investigation of the revenue potential of network slicing, where the applications that originate from such concept and the profit capabilities from the network operator's perspective are put forward.This work has been performed in the framework of the H2020-ICT-2014-2 project 5G NORMA

A Systematic Public Capital Management and Budgeting Process

This chapter introduces the readers to a public capital management and budgeting process and its role in generating public infrastructure networks. The main purpose of the chapter is to describe the normative public capital management and budgeting practices that are recommended by the public finance literature. These normative practices are segregated into four main components: (1) long-term capital planning, (2) capital budgeting and financial management, (3) capital project execution and project management, and (4) infrastructure maintenance. Given that the literature recommends specific practices to maximize efficiency in public capital spending, the four main components, combined, are referred to as the systematic capital management and budgeting process. The systematic process discussed in detail in this chapter is used as a common framework for each of the 12 country case studies in describing their respective public capital management and budgeting practices

Analysis of peer-to-peer electricity trading models in a microgrid

La tesi propone uno indagine nel campo degli scambi di energia peer-to-peer a livello locale. nella prima parte viene fornito uno stato dell'arte della tecnologia, con una revisione bibliografica dei vari progetti svolti e delle tecnologie utilizzate. Successivamente viene presentato il caso di studio considerato nel progetto, l'implementazione e applicazione di due specifici algoritmi di trading e la discussione di risultati ottenuti e prospettive future