Introducing Development Features for Virtualized Network Services

Network virtualization and softwarizing network functions are trends aiming at higher network efficiency, cost reduction and agility. They are driven by the evolution in Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). This shows that software will play an increasingly important role within telecommunication services, which were previously dominated by hardware appliances. Service providers can benefit from this, as it enables faster introduction of new telecom services, combined with an agile set of possibilities to optimize and fine-tune their operations. However, the provided telecom services can only evolve if the adequate software tools are available. In this article, we explain how the development, deployment and maintenance of such an SDN/NFV-based telecom service puts specific requirements on the platform providing it. A Software Development Kit (SDK) is introduced, allowing service providers to adequately design, test and evaluate services before they are deployed in production and also update them during their lifetime. This continuous cycle between development and operations, a concept known as DevOps, is a well known strategy in software development. To extend its context further to SDN/NFV-based services, the functionalities provided by traditional cloud platforms are not yet sufficient. By giving an overview of the currently available tools and their limitations, the gaps in DevOps for SDN/NFV services are highlighted. The benefit of such an SDK is illustrated by a secure content delivery network service (enhanced with deep packet inspection and elastic routing capabilities). With this use-case, the dynamics between developing and deploying a service are further illustrated

APPLICATION OF ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK TECHNIQUES FOR DESIGN OF MODULAR MINICELL CONFIGURATIONS

Artificial neural networks, so far, have not been used for designing modular cells. Therefore, Self-organizing neural network (SONN) is used in the present research to design minicell-based manufacturing system. Two previously developed methods were studied and implemented using SONN model. Results obtained are compared with previous results to analyze the effectiveness of SONN in designing minicells. A new method is then developed with the objective to design minicells more effectively and efficiently. Results of all three methods are compared using machine-count and materialhandling as performance measuring criteria to find out the best metho

Implementing Functionality to Identify and Fix Time Gaps, and Generate Custom Reports and Graphs Will Improve the Analysis, Modification and Reporting Off Tidal Data in Ireland

The Irish National Tide Gauge Network (ITGN) is ongoing development involving the Marine Institute (MI) and a number of public sector organisations to develop a permanent tidal monitoring infrastructure. As part of this ongoing work the MI wish to be able to analyse the existing ITGN dataset for time gaps, and make changes to the dataset if needed, they would also like to be able to view custom reports and graphs based on the ITGN dataset. This thesis presents a webbased and windows application to meet the aforementioned needs of the Marine Institute and ITGN

Towards cloud-aware policy enforcement with universal cloud classification as a service (UCCaaS) in software defined networks

Network services are a critical component of today's networks. They apply critical functions (e.g. security, routing or quality of service) to traffic to enhance the network operators and application consumers experience. Today these services are inserted physically on the data-forwarding plane without providing much flexibility to deal with different traffic types or affiliations. Cloud Computing, however, demands policy enforcement on a per-Provider, per-Service and/or per-Tenant basis. In addition, there is an increasing need for dynamic transparent network chaining independent of the underlying transport infrastructure. We first introduce the concept of Universal Cloud Classification as a Service (UCCaaS). Followed by highlighting how it can be leveraged in conjunction with Network Service Headers (NSH) to address above challenges. UCC provides an addressing scheme to isolate traffic streams on a per-provider, per-service and/or per-tenant basis. To enable bi-directional policy enforcement in network functions we extend the UCC proposal by adding source and destination support. NSH is a way to steer network traffic dynamically across a set of network functions. We demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of our UCCaaS + NSH proposal with an example application, where a service chain defines Access Control Lists and traffic rate limiting on a per-Service and per-Tenant basis. Our proposal opens a door for a wide range of cloud-aware network services and functions

Displaying rainy days in Bergen(s Tidende): Combining weather and news in a user-friendly way

This thesis studies users', especially Bergenser's, relationship to weather with the aim to make a prototype of weather widgets for Bergens Tidende's digital platforms. By applying Design Science Research methodologies, a front-page widget is prototyped, giving users the ability to get a quick overview over temperature, wind, precipitation and one chosen niche weather feature like pollen or ebb and flow. Users are able to choose how the data is presented to them, for example seeing the amount of wind as "a little wind" instead of meters per second. A weather theme page is also prototyped, giving users the ability to see all weather and climate articles in one place, along with a dedicated detailed weather widget containing summaries, a rainy day counter, extreme weather warnings, a seasonal-specific forecast section, hour-by-hour weather, a long-term forecast, sea-specific forecasts, and more. The thesis asks the following research questions: RQ1. What different needs do the users of weather services have? And how can we cover these needs in a customizable weather widget? RQ2. What makes a good summarized local weather report? RQ3. How can we use user-centered design to gain insights to create different weather forecast designs? The findings of this thesis will help future projects that aim to explore the design possibilities around local weather forecasts, especially connected to news platforms.Masteroppgave i medie- og interaksjonsdesignMIX350MASV-MI

A Reliability-Aware Approach for Resource Efficient Virtual Network Function Deployment

OAPA Network function virtualization (NFV) is a promising technique aimed at reducing capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenditures (OPEX), and improving the flexibility and scalability of an entire network. In contrast to traditional dispatching, NFV can separate network functions from proprietary infrastructure and gather these functions into a resource pool that can efficiently modify and adjust service function chains (SFCs). However, this emerging technique has some challenges. A major problem is reliability, which involves ensuring the availability of deployed SFCs, namely, the probability of successfully chaining a series of virtual network functions (VNFs) while considering both the feasibility and the specific requirements of clients, because the substrate network remains vulnerable to earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters. Based on the premise of users & #x2019; demands for SFC requirements, we present an Ensure Reliability Cost Saving (ER & #x005F;CS) algorithm to reduce the CAPEX and OPEX of telecommunication service providers (TSPs) by reducing the reliability of the SFC deployments. The results of extensive experiments indicate that the proposed algorithms perform efficiently in terms of the blocking ratio, resource consumption, time consumption and the first block

Is Implementing ERP Like Pouring Concrete Into a Company? Impact of Enterprise Systems on Organizational Agility

Literature is divided on whether enterprise systems promote or hinder organizational agility. To the best of our knowledge, this paradox has never been rigorously theoretically analyzed nor empirically investigated. This paper seeks to address this paradox by leveraging upon innovation assimilation literature and knowledge based and capabilities based views of organizations. We propose a theoretical framework of the effects of ERP assimilation on agility. We also theorize that the dynamic capability of systems agility not only has a direct effect on organizational agility, but also moderates the effect of ERP assimilation levels on agility. We validate the proposed framework by conducting a cross-sectional survey across 215 organizations. The results validate our key theoretical claims: higher ERP assimilation levels positively influence organizational agility. Moreover, systems agility acts as a critical enabler by amplifying the net positive impact of ERP assimilation on organization agility in addition to having a strong direct effect