Application-layer Performance Analysis of PRIME in Smart Metering Networks

This paper assesses the performance of actual PRIME v1.3.6 and PRIME v1.4 systems when used for Smart Metering applications. The analysis is performed at the application level using the DLMS/COSEM stack. Hence, it considers performance indicators that are of practical interest for distribution system operators, such as the availability and the average time needed to read the energy load profile of all the meters. To this end, two test networks with 112 smart meters have been deployed in the laboratory (to ensure the stability of the network). In one of them all the Service Nodes communicate directly with the Base Node, while there exist up to 5 switching levels in the other tested network. First, the PRIME v1.3.6 system is evaluated, stressing the significant performance gain that can be obtained by implementing some MAC layer strategies, which are compatible with the specification but not specifically defined on it. Then,the improvement offered by the PRIME v1.4 system is assessed.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Environmental analysis for application layer networks

Die zunehmende Vernetzung von Rechnern über das Internet lies die Vision von Application Layer Netzwerken aufkommen. Sie umfassen Overlay Netzwerke wie beispielsweise Peer-to-Peer Netzwerke und Grid Infrastrukturen unter Verwendung des TCP/IP Protokolls. Ihre gemeinsame Eigenschaft ist die redundante, verteilte Bereitstellung und der Zugang zu Daten-, Rechen- und Anwendungsdiensten, während sie die Heterogenität der Infrastruktur vor dem Nutzer verbergen. In dieser Arbeit werden die Anforderungen, die diese Netzwerke an ökonomische Allokationsmechanismen stellen, untersucht. Die Analyse erfolgt anhand eines Marktanalyseprozesses für einen zentralen Auktionsmechanismus und einen katallaktischen Markt. --Grid Computing

Multimedia Teleservices Modelled with the OSI Application Layer Structure

This paper looks into the communications capabilities that are required by distributed multimedia applications to achieve relation preserving information exchange. These capabilities are derived by analyzing the notion of information exchange and are embodied in communications functionalities. To emphasize the importance of the users' view, a top-down approach is applied. The (revised) OSI Application Layer Structure (OSI-ALS) is used to model the communications functionalities and to develop an architecture for composition of multimedia services with these functionalities. This work may therefore be considered an exercise to evaluate the suitability of OSI-ALS for composition of multimedia teleservices

Synchronization of multihop wireless sensor networks at the application layer

Time synchronization is a key issue in wireless sensor networks; timestamping collected data, tasks scheduling, and efficient communications are just some applications. From all the existing techniques to achieve synchronization, those based on precisely time-stamping sync messages are the most accurate. However, working with standard protocols such as Bluetooth or ZigBee usually prevents the user from accessing lower layers and consequently reduces accuracy. A receiver-to-receiver schema improves timestamping performance because it eliminates the largest non-deterministic error at the sender’s side: the medium access time. Nevertheless, utilization of existing methods in multihop networks is not feasible since the amount of extra traffic required is excessive. In this article, we present a method that allows accurate synchronization of large multihop networks, working at the application layer while keeping the message exchange to a minimum. Through an extensive experimental study, we evaluate the protocol’s performance and discuss the factors that influence synchronization accuracy the most.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2006-15617-C0

Application Layer Anycast

In this paper, we present a new approach to application layer anycasting. The key to anycast is making it possible for clients to efficiently find the `best´ server for a given application in an unknown group of servers. The anycast service makes a wide range of new multimedia applications possible, and will be part of future integrated services networks. We designed a selective anycast protocol, which is aimed at picking the right server based on application specific metrics, such as network delay and server load. This paper considers server-choosing metrics and efficient mechanisms to compute these metrics. We also present simulation results, which show our approach´s merit, and proves that anycast can significantly improve the performance as compared to the traditional methods