Innovative Approaches to 3D GIS Modeling for Volumetric and Geoprocessing Applications in Subsurface Infrastructures in a Virtual Immersive Environment

As subsurface features remain largely ‘out of sight, out of mind’, this has led to challenges when dealing with underground space and infrastructures and especially so for those working in GIS. Since subsurface infrastructure plays a major role in supporting the needs of modern society, groups such as city planners and utility companies and decision makers are looking for an ‘holistic’ approach where the sustainable use of underground space is as important as above ground space. For such planning and management, it is crucial to examine subsurface data in a form that is amenable to 3D mapping and that can be used for increasingly sophisticated 3D modeling. The subsurface referred to in this study focuses particularly on examples of both shallow and deep underground infrastructures. In the case of shallow underground infrastructures mostly two-dimensional maps are used in the management and planning of these features. Depth is a very critical component of underground infrastructures that is difficult to represent in a 2D map and for this reason these are best studied in three-dimensional space. In this research, the capability of 3D GIS technology and immersive geography are explored for the storage, management, analysis, and visualization of shallow and deep subsurface features

ROVER: a DNS-based method to detect and prevent IP hijacks

2013 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is critical to the global internet infrastructure. Unfortunately BGP routing was designed with limited regard for security. As a result, IP route hijacking has been observed for more than 16 years. Well known incidents include a 2008 hijack of YouTube, loss of connectivity for Australia in February 2012, and an event that partially crippled Google in November 2012. Concern has been escalating as critical national infrastructure is reliant on a secure foundation for the Internet. Disruptions to military, banking, utilities, industry, and commerce can be catastrophic. In this dissertation we propose ROVER (Route Origin VERification System), a novel and practical solution for detecting and preventing origin and sub-prefix hijacks. ROVER exploits the reverse DNS for storing route origin data and provides a fail-safe, best effort approach to authentication. This approach can be used with a variety of operational models including fully dynamic in-line BGP filtering, periodically updated authenticated route filters, and real-time notifications for network operators. Our thesis is that ROVER systems can be deployed by a small number of institutions in an incremental fashion and still effectively thwart origin and sub-prefix IP hijacking despite non-participation by the majority of Autonomous System owners. We then present research results supporting this statement. We evaluate the effectiveness of ROVER using simulations on an Internet scale topology as well as with tests on real operational systems. Analyses include a study of IP hijack propagation patterns, effectiveness of various deployment models, critical mass requirements, and an examination of ROVER resilience and scalability

Visualizing the Geography of Platform Boundary Resources: The Case of the Global API Ecosystem

Platform boundary resources play an increasingly transformative role in the global digital ecosystem. In this study, we focus on one type of platform boundary resource, namely application programming interfaces (APIs). Guided by two competing assumptions—1) that geographic boundaries are blurred and potentially less important in a digitally connected world, and 2) that geographic proximity matters for co-innovation—we investigate the global footprint of APIs. Using a data-driven visual network analysis approach to examine more than 15,000 APIs and mashups, we first map the global locations of where APIs are being created. We then examine how API mashups connect these locations globally and regionally. Our results show that while APIs are globally distributed, they are mainly concentrated in major entrepreneurial regions. We also find that there is a skewed distribution, with the U.S. and Silicon Valley in particular leading the way. We conclude with both theoretical and managerial implications

Understanding health information technology adoption: A synthesis of literature from an activity perspective

The vast body of literature on health information technology (HIT) adoption features considerably heterogeneous factors and demands for a synthesis of the knowledge in the field. This study employs text mining and network analysis techniques to identify the important concepts and their relationships in the abstracts of 979 articles of HIT adoption. Through the lens of Activity Theory, the revealed concept map of HIT adoption can be viewed as a complex activity system involving different users, technologies and tasks at both the individual level and the social level. Such a synthesis not only discloses the current knowledge domain of HIT adoption, but also provides guidance for future research on HIT adoption

Standards-based sensor web for wide area monitoring of power systems

The balance of supply and demand of energy is the key factor in the stability of power systems. A small disturbance in the supply demand relationship, if not properly handled, can cascade into a major outage, costing millions of dollars to the stakeholders. Proper monitoring and exchange of critical information in real time is the only solution to prevent the instability in this vulnerable system. But, the disparity in the protocols used by power utilities and the lack of infrastructure for information exchange are proving to be hindrance to obtaining a reliable de-regularized power industry. In this thesis, an emerging Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) has been adapted for the wide area monitoring of power systems. SWE and CIM provide a solution to both problems; the heterogeneity of data and the lack of central repository of the data for proper action. The sensor data from utilities that are published in CIM were modeled thorough a SensorML and exposed via a Sensor Observation Service (SOS). This provides a standard method for discovering and accessing the sensor data between utilities and facilitates rapid response functionality to handle contingences

PATHS : Why is life filled with so many detours?

This open access book explores the amazing similarity between paths taken by people and many other things in life, and its impact on the way we live, teach and learn. Offering insights into the new scientific field of paths as part of the science of networks, it entertainingly describes the universal nature of paths in large networked structures. It also shows the amazing similarity in the ways humans and other – even nonliving – things navigate in a complex environment, to allow readers to easily grasp how paths emerge in many walks of life, and how they are navigated. Paths is based on the authors recent research in the area of paths on networks, which points to the possible birth of the new science of “paths” as a natural consequence ‘and extension) of the science of “networks.” The approach is essentially story-based, supported by scientific findings, interdisciplinary approaches, and at times, even philosophical points of view. It also includes short illustrative anecdotes showing the amazing similarities between real-world paths and discusses their applications in science and everyday life. Paths will appeal to network scientists and to anyone interested in popular science. By helping readers to step away from the “networked” view of many recent popular scientific books and start to think of longer paths instead of individual links, it sheds light on these problems from a genuinely new perspective. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The path is the goal. The essence behind this short sentence is known to many people around the world, expressed through the interpretations of some of the greatest thinkers like Lao-Tze and Gandhi. It means that it is the journey that counts, not the destination. When speaking about such subjective and intangible things, philosophy and religion are some of the only approaches that are addressed. In this book, the authors address this conventional wisdom from the perspective of natural science. They explore a sequence of steps that leads the reader closer to the nature of paths and accompany him on the search for “the path to paths”

Disentangling agglomeration and network externalities : a conceptual typology

Agglomeration and network externalities are fuzzy concepts. When different meanings are (un)intentionally juxtaposed in analyses of the agglomeration/network externalities-menagerie, researchers may reach inaccurate conclusions about how they interlock. Both externality types can be analytically combined, but only when one adopts a coherent approach to their conceptualization and operationalization, to which end we provide a combinatorial typology. We illustrate the typology by applying a state-of-the-art bipartite network projection detailing the presence of globalized producer services firms in cities in 2012. This leads to two one-mode graphs that can be validly interpreted as topological renderings of agglomeration and network externalities

Centralized Microgrid Control System in Compliance with IEEE 2030.7 Standard Based on an Advanced Field Unit

The necessity for the utilization of microgrids emerges from the integration of distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, and battery storage systems into the conventional grid structure. In order to achieve a proper operation of the microgrid, the presence of a microgrid control system is crucial. The IEEE 2030.7 standard defines the microgrid control system as a key element of the microgrid that regulates every aspect of it at the point-of-interconnection with the distribution system, and autonomously manages operations such as the transitions of operating modes. In this paper, a microgrid control system is developed to achieve real-time monitoring and control through a centralized approach. The controller consists of a centralized server and advanced field units that are also developed during this work. The control functions of the centralized server ensure the proper operation during grid-connected and island modes, using the real-time data received via the advanced field unit. The developed server and the field unit constitute a complete system solution. The server is composed of control function and communication, database, and user interface modules. The microgrid control functions comprise dispatch and transition core-level functions. A rule-based core-level dispatch function guarantees the security of supply to critical loads during the islanded mode. The core-level transition function accomplishes a successful transition between the operation modes. Moreover, a communication framework and a graphical user interface are implemented. The presented system is tested through thecases based on the IEEE 2030.8 standard

Towards Data Sharing across Decentralized and Federated IoT Data Analytics Platforms

In the past decade the Internet-of-Things concept has overwhelmingly entered all of the fields where data are produced and processed, thus, resulting in a plethora of IoT platforms, typically cloud-based, that centralize data and services management. In this scenario, the development of IoT services in domains such as smart cities, smart industry, e-health, automotive, are possible only for the owner of the IoT deployments or for ad-hoc business one-to-one collaboration agreements. The realization of "smarter" IoT services or even services that are not viable today envisions a complete data sharing with the usage of multiple data sources from multiple parties and the interconnection with other IoT services. In this context, this work studies several aspects of data sharing focusing on Internet-of-Things. We work towards the hyperconnection of IoT services to analyze data that goes beyond the boundaries of a single IoT system. This thesis presents a data analytics platform that: i) treats data analytics processes as services and decouples their management from the data analytics development; ii) decentralizes the data management and the execution of data analytics services between fog, edge and cloud; iii) federates peers of data analytics platforms managed by multiple parties allowing the design to scale into federation of federations; iv) encompasses intelligent handling of security and data usage control across the federation of decentralized platforms instances to reduce data and service management complexity. The proposed solution is experimentally evaluated in terms of performances and validated against use cases. Further, this work adopts and extends available standards and open sources, after an analysis of their capabilities, fostering an easier acceptance of the proposed framework. We also report efforts to initiate an IoT services ecosystem among 27 cities in Europe and Korea based on a novel methodology. We believe that this thesis open a viable path towards a hyperconnection of IoT data and services, minimizing the human effort to manage it, but leaving the full control of the data and service management to the users' will