QoE management of multimedia streaming services in future networks : a tutorial and survey

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Internet of Things (IoT) for Automated and Smart Applications

Internet of Things (IoT) is a recent technology paradigm that creates a global network of machines and devices that are capable of communicating with each other. Security cameras, sensors, vehicles, buildings, and software are examples of devices that can exchange data between each other. IoT is recognized as one of the most important areas of future technologies and is gaining vast recognition in a wide range of applications and fields related to smart homes and cities, military, education, hospitals, homeland security systems, transportation and autonomous connected cars, agriculture, intelligent shopping systems, and other modern technologies. This book explores the most important IoT automated and smart applications to help the reader understand the principle of using IoT in such applications

Fully-photonic digital radio over fibre for future super-broadband access network applications

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityIn this thesis a Fully-Photonic DRoF (FP-DRoF) system is proposed for deploying of future super-broadband access networks. Digital Radio over Fibre (DRoF) is more independent of the fibre network impairments and the length of fibre than the ARoF link. In order for fully optical deployment of the signal conversion techniques in the FP-DRoF architecture, two key components an Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC) and a Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC)) for data conversion are designed and their performance are investigated whereas the physical functionality is evaluated. The system simulation results of the proposed pipelined Photonic ADC (PADC) show that the PADC has 10 GHz bandwidth around 60 GHz of sampling rate. Furthermore, by changing the bandwidth of the optical bandpass filter, switching to another band of sampling frequency provides optimised performance condition of the PADC. The PADC has low changes on the Effective Number of Bit (ENOB) response versus analogue RF input from 1 GHz up to 22 GHz for 60 GHz sampling frequency. The proposed 8-Bit pipelined PADC performance in terms of ENOB is evaluated at 60 Gigasample/s which is about 4.1. Recently, different methods have been reported by researchers to implement Photonic DACs (PDACs), but their aim was to convert digital electrical signals to the corresponding analogue signal by assisting the optical techniques. In this thesis, a Binary Weighted PDAC (BW-PDAC) is proposed. In this BW-PDAC, optical digital signals are fully optically converted to an analogue signal. The spurious free dynamic range at the output of the PDAC in a back-to-back deployment of the PADC and the PDAC was 26.6 dBc. For further improvement in the system performance, a 3R (Retiming, Reshaping and Reamplifying) regeneration system is proposed in this thesis. Simulation results show that for an ultrashort RZ pulse with a 5% duty cycle at 65 Gbit/s using the proposed 3R regeneration system on a link reduces rms timing jitter by 90% while the regenerated pulse eye opening height is improved by 65%. Finally, in this thesis the proposed FP-DRoF functionality is evaluated whereas its performance is investigated through a dedicated and shared fibre links. The simulation results show (in the case of low level signal to noise ratio, in comparison with ARoF through a dedicated fibre link) that the FP-DRoF has better BER performance than the ARoF in the order of 10-20. Furthermore, in order to realize a BER about 10-25 for the ARoF, the power penalty is about 4 dBm higher than the FP-DRoF link. The simulation results demonstrate that by considering 0.2 dB/km attenuation of a standard single mode fibre, the dedicated fibre length for the FP-DRoF link can be increased to about 20 km more than the ARoF link. Moreover, for performance assessment of the proposed FP-DRoF in a shared fibre link, the BER of the FP-DRoF link is about 10-10 magnitude less than the ARoF link for -19 dBm launched power into the fibre and the power penalty of the ARoF system is 10 dBm more than the FP-DRoF link. It is significant to increase the fibre link’s length of the FP-DRoF access network using common infrastructure. In addition, the simulation results are demonstrated that the FP-DRoF with non-uniform Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is more robust against four wave mixing impairment than the conventional WDM technique with uniform wavelength allocation and has better performance in terms of BER. It is clearly verified that the lunched power penalty at CS for DRoF link with uniform WDM techniques is about 2 dB higher than non-uniform WDM technique. Furthermore, uniform WDM method requires more bandwidth than non-uniform scheme which depends on the total number of channels and channels spacing

Digital Twins in Industry

Digital Twins in Industry is a compilation of works by authors with specific emphasis on industrial applications. Much of the research on digital twins has been conducted by the academia in both theoretical considerations and laboratory-based prototypes. Industry, while taking the lead on larger scale implementations of Digital Twins (DT) using sophisticated software, is concentrating on dedicated solutions that are not within the reach of the average-sized industries. This book covers 11 chapters of various implementations of DT. It provides an insight for companies who are contemplating the adaption of the DT technology, as well as researchers and senior students in exploring the potential of DT and its associated technologies

The compatibility of lean and innovation - The coevolution of lean management and innovations in the automotive industry

In the automotive industry, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) face the challenge of being innovative and lean at the same time. This ambidexterity influences their research and development strategy as well as their production system strategy. Considering that until today no consistent definition exists of innovation within the literature, a multidimensional approach is used in this work, which focuses on three main objectives to analyse the compatibility of lean and innovation. Within the theoretical background, innovations are characterised based on their origin (generated or adapted innovation), type (process, product or organisational innovation), and intensity (incremental or radical innovation). Embedding this characterisation into the lifecycle theories of industries, technologies, and products displays the resulting complexity and leads to the drawing of connections between state decisions (laws and regulations) and society (megatrends), thereby creating a holistic theoretical framework in which OEMs have to align their production system strategy. The first objective of this work is to create a deeper understanding of the ambidexterity of the patent structure within the automotive industry focusing on OEMs and their production systems. The coevolution of lean und innovation is analysed in a long-term view using a statistical patent analysis. Until today, the question of whether companies should set their priorities in explorative or exploitative inventions to generate innovations has not been clarified explicitly. Therefore, a model combining ambidexterity (exploitation and exploration) with leagility (lean and agile) is defined and tested to obtain an enhanced understanding that the combination of being agile and being lean plays a key role within a lean production system and has a main influence on innovation. The second objective is to propose how a production system can successfully cope with external/adapted (incremental and radical innovation) innovation using lean principles. A model focusing on the target orientation of new concepts, methods, and technologies is defined and tested to obtain an enhanced understanding that lean must be integrated into the selection and evaluation process of innovations projects within the production system to ensure target orientation and make it possible to cope with innovation successfully. The third objective is to demonstrate how lean principles can be successfully integrated into innovation projects using augmented reality (AR) in assembly training. Modern workplaces equipped with large screens provide new employees with 2D and 3D information about the current task. Workers receive additional visual or haptic information through pick-to-light systems to prevent picking mistakes or smart tools, such as a screwdriver with torque and rotation angle monitoring. Over the last years, a various range of AR systems have been proposed. This shows that assembly training with head-mounted displays using AR and taking lean principles into consideration are as good as being trained by a trainer, which provides an enhanced understanding that lean principles must be integrated in process and product innovation projects to achieve the optimal output and ensure smooth implementation in the production system.In der Automobilindustrie stehen Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) vor der Herausforderung, gleichzeitig innovativ und schlank zu sein. Diese Ambidextrie beeinflusst ihre Forschungs- und Entwicklungsstrategie sowie ihre Produktionssystemstrategie. In Anbetracht dessen, dass bis heute keine einheitliche Definition von Innovation in der Literatur existiert, wird in dieser Arbeit ein mehrdimensionaler Ansatz verwendet, der sich auf drei Hauptziele konzentriert, um die Vereinbarkeit von Lean und Innovation zu analysieren. Innerhalb des theoretischen Hintergrunds werden Innovationen anhand ihrer Herkunft (generierte oder adaptierte Innovation), ihres Typs (Prozess-, Produkt- oder Organisationsinnovation) und ihrer Intensität (inkrementelle oder radikale Innovation) charakterisiert. Die Einbettung dieser Charakterisierung in die Lebenszyklustheorien von Industrien, Technologien und Produkten zeigt die daraus resultierende Komplexität und führt dazu, Zusammenhänge zwischen staatlichen Entscheidungen (Gesetze und Vorschriften) und Gesellschaft (Megatrends) zu ziehen und damit einen ganzheitlichen theoretischen Rahmen zu schaffen, in dem sich OEMs bewegen müssen ihre Produktionssystemstrategie ausrichten. Das erste Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, ein tieferes Verständnis für die Beidhändigkeit der Patentstruktur innerhalb der Automobilindustrie zu schaffen, wobei der Fokus auf OEMs und ihren Produktionssystemen liegt. Die Koevolution von Lean und Innovation wird in einer langfristigen Betrachtung anhand einer statistischen Patentanalyse analysiert. Bis heute ist die Frage, ob Unternehmen ihre Prioritäten auf explorative oder auf ausbeuterische Erfindungen setzen sollten, um Innovationen zu generieren, nicht explizit geklärt. Daher wird ein Modell definiert und getestet, das Ambidextrie (Exploitation und Exploration) mit Leagilität (Lean und Agilität) kombiniert, um ein besseres Verständnis dafür zu erlangen, dass die Kombination aus Agilität und Lean-Sein eine Schlüsselrolle innerhalb eines Lean-Produktionssystems spielt und einen Haupteinfluss hat auf Innovationen. Das zweite Ziel besteht darin, vorzuschlagen, wie ein Produktionssystem externe/angepasste (inkrementelle und radikale Innovation) Innovationen unter Verwendung von Lean-Prinzipien erfolgreich bewältigen kann. Um ein erweitertes Verständnis dafür zu erlangen, dass Lean in den Auswahl- und Bewertungsprozess von Innovationsprojekten innerhalb des Produktionssystems integriert werden muss, um die Zielorientierung sicherzustellen und zu ermöglichen, wird ein Modell zur Zielorientierung neuer Konzepte, Methoden und Technologien definiert und erprobt Innovation erfolgreich zu bewältigen. Das dritte Ziel ist es aufzuzeigen, wie Lean-Prinzipien erfolgreich in Innovationsprojekte integriert werden können, indem Augmented Reality (AR) in der Montageschulung eingesetzt wird. Moderne Arbeitsplätze mit großen Bildschirmen versorgen neue Mitarbeiter mit 2D- und 3D-Informationen über die aktuelle Aufgabe. Werker erhalten zusätzliche visuelle oder haptische Informationen durch Pick-to-Light-Systeme zur Vermeidung von Kommissionierfehlern oder smarte Tools, wie z. B. einen Schraubendreher mit Drehmoment und Drehwinkelüberwachung. In den letzten Jahren wurde eine Vielzahl von AR-Systemen vorgeschlagen. Dies zeigt, dass Montageschulungen mit Head-Mounted Displays unter Verwendung von AR und der Berücksichtigung von Lean-Prinzipien so gut sind wie die Schulung durch einen Trainer, der ein verbessertes Verständnis dafür vermittelt, dass Lean-Prinzipien in Prozess- und Produktinnovationsprojekte integriert werden müssen, um den optimalen Output zu erzielen und sorgen für eine reibungslose Implementierung im Produktivsystem

Animating the Ethical Demand:Exploring user dispositions in industry innovation cases through animation-based sketching

This paper addresses the challenge of attaining ethical user stances during the design process of products and services and proposes animation-based sketching as a design method, which supports elaborating and examining different ethical stances towards the user. The discussion is qualified by an empirical study of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in a Triple Helix constellation. Using a three-week long innovation workshop, UCrAc, involving 16 Danish companies and organisations and 142 students as empirical data, we discuss how animation-based sketching can explore not yet existing user dispositions, as well as create an incentive for ethical conduct in development and innovation processes. The ethical fulcrum evolves around Løgstrup's Ethical Demand and his notion of spontaneous life manifestations. From this, three ethical stances are developed; apathy, sympathy and empathy. By exploring both apathetic and sympathetic views, the ethical reflections are more nuanced as a result of actually seeing the user experience simulated through different user dispositions. Exploring the three ethical stances by visualising real use cases with the technologies simulated as already being implemented makes the life manifestations of the users in context visible. We present and discuss how animation-based sketching can support the elaboration and examination of different ethical stances towards the user in the product and service development process. Finally we present a framework for creating narrative representations of emerging technology use cases, which invite to reflection upon the ethics of the user experience.</jats:p

Proceedings of the Seventh Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics CLiC-it 2020

On behalf of the Program Committee, a very warm welcome to the Seventh Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics (CLiC-it 2020). This edition of the conference is held in Bologna and organised by the University of Bologna. The CLiC-it conference series is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC) which, after six years of activity, has clearly established itself as the premier national forum for research and development in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, where leading researchers and practitioners from academia and industry meet to share their research results, experiences, and challenges