Conflict Resolution in a Multi-level IT-enabled Outsourcing Network: A Structured Solution Approach

Using the case study of an Indian Technology and Outsourcing Service Provider, SmartKey (real but renamed company), a technology vendor to a global healthcare provider, this paper analyses offshore outsourcing issues using IT-enabled services to gain deeper insights needed to understand the core conflict and propose a well-reasoned solution approach. Reasoning, the conscious thought process leading to a well-justified decision, is an important managerial skill required for making dynamic decisions, resolving conflicts, and thereby developing human resources. This paper explores Goldratt’s Evaporating Clouds (ECs) as a systematic approach to reasoning in particular, and as a system for developing human resource in general. We show how Evaporating Clouds provided direction towards an acceptable solution to this case. We suggest that ECs can be used proactively as a springboard to ensure win/win solutions in various possible future interactions between the supply chain network partners. We conclude our paper by acknowledging the limitations of current research and provide future research directions

Reputation-Based Internet Protocol Security: A Multilayer Security Framework for Mobil Ad Hoc Networks

This research effort examines the theory, application, and results for a Reputation-based Internet Protocol Security (RIPSec) framework that provides security for an ad-hoc network operating in a hostile environment. In RIPSec, protection from external threats is provided in the form of encrypted communication links and encryption-wrapped nodes while internal threats are mitigated by behavior grading that assigns reputations to nodes based on their demonstrated participation in the routing process. Network availability is provided by behavior grading and round-robin multipath routing. If a node behaves faithfully, it earns a positive reputation over time. If a node misbehaves (for any number of reasons, not necessarily intentional), it earns a negative reputation. Each member of the MANET has its own unique and subjective set of Reputation Indexes (RI) that enumerates the perceived reputation of the other MANET nodes. Nodes that desire to send data will eliminate relay nodes they perceive to have a negative reputation during the formulation of a route. A 50-node MANET is simulated with streaming multimedia and varying levels of misbehavior to determine the impact of the framework on network performance. Results of this research were very favorable. Analysis of the simulation data shows the number of routing errors sent in a MANET is reduced by an average of 52% when using RIPSec. The network load is also reduced, decreasing the overall traffic introduced into the MANET and permitting individual nodes to perform more work without overtaxing their limited resources. Finally, throughput is decreased due to larger packet sizes and longer round trips for packets to traverse the MANET, but is still sufficient to pass traffic with high bandwidth requirements (i.e., video and imagery) that is of interest in military networks

5G and beyond networks

This chapter investigates the Network Layer aspects that will characterize the merger of the cellular paradigm and the IoT architectures, in the context of the evolution towards 5G-and-beyond, including some promising emerging services as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or Base Stations, and V2X communications

Business Intelligence for Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) Shaping Flexible C2 Organizational Structure

NPS NRP Project Article17 USC 105 interim-entered record; under review.Distributed Marine Operations (DMO) or EABO initiatives require integration the USMC EABO organization into the Navy C2 hierarchy, but there is no consensus on the best EABO CONOPS organizational structure. The magnitude of organizational combinations between organizational elements from Joint Services/Agencies (Navy/USMC, Army, Undersea, Air Force, Space, Cyber, MDA, etc.) is huge. Hard-coded C2 point-to-point organizational structures as inflexible and non-extensible. The objective of this is to identify a flexible Command & Control tool with a model that is capable of flexibly representing a variety of different Joint Force organizations. We propose to apply business intelligence(BI) including such as Tableau, Microsoft power BI, data mining tools such as Orange, network analysis tool such as lexical link analysis (LLA) to address the research questions: Is information on ‘organization’ hierarchy with level details is available from authoritative USMC and Navy sources? What are these sources? How to prevent some critical organizations in the Navy and/or USMC, from being forgotten and excluded from the EABO vision? Will the proposed model be manageable to extend beyond the DoD to Intel and Coalition Partners? We planned three tasks. We will build a network of organizations from the existing tactical units of USMC and Navy C2 related to the operations of DMO or EABO. Each node in the network is an organization, containing the data attributes and content describing the organization’s unit structures, skills, capability, equipment, geolocations, missions performed before, and lessons learned etc. The link between two nodes represents the similarity and dissimilarity in terms of shared skills, capabilities, distance of locations, and past collaborations/interactions. We will use the unit profiles to show how to match the future EBO and DMO operation concepts and requirements, discover gaps that might show the insights for reorganizing and shaping flexible C2 structures. We will apply the proposed tools to build multidimensional cubes, predictive models, and what if analysis. The deliverables include a report a demonstration, and a paper to publish approved by a sponsor.N2/N6 - Information WarfareThis research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Parallel Genetic Algorithms with Application to Load Balancing for Parallel Computing

A new coarse grain parallel genetic algorithm (PGA) and a new implementation of a data-parallel GA are presented in this paper. They are based on models of natural evolution in which the population is formed of discontinuous or continuous subpopulations. In addition to simulating natural evolution, the intrinsic parallelism in the two PGA\u27s minimizes the possibility of premature convergence that the implementation of classic GA\u27s often encounters. Intrinsic parallelism also allows the evolution of fit genotypes in a smaller number of generations in the PGA\u27s than in sequential GA\u27s, leading to superlinear speed-ups. The PGA\u27s have been implemented on a hypercube and a Connection Machine, and their operation is demonstrated by applying them to the load balancing problem in parallel computing. The PGA\u27s have found near-optimal solutions which are comparable to the solutions of a simulated annealing algorithm and are better than those produced by a sequential GA and by other load balancing methods. On one hand, The PGA\u27s accentuate the advantage of parallel computers for simulating natural evolution. On the other hand, they represent new techniques for load balancing parallel computations

Adaptive load balancing metric for WLANs

As the number of mobile devices accessing large-scale WLANs such as campus and metropolitan area networks increases, the need for load balancing among the cells becomes crucial. In addition, the network must also support some minimum handoff tolerance defined by an application. A number of load balancing techniques have been proposed in the literature that focuses on formulating new load metrics rather than using Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) as the association metric. These schemes consider a variety of factors such as number of STAs, enhanced RSSI, channel utilization, queue length, bandwidth, and throughput to achieve balanced load. However, some of these techniques require protocol modifications to both APs and STAs or need special agents such as admission control server, extra software, and switches. Others do not consider Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of applications, which vary from one application to another, and thus do not satisfy users requiring minimized handoff latency and real-time services. Moreover, most techniques ignored the hidden node problem, which causes packet collisions and thus the presence of such nodes can severely affect the performance of WLANs. This dissertation proposes a new metric that provides load balance as well as timely handoffs for WLANs by taking into account both direct and hidden node collisions as well as the types of traffics in order to support QoS. Another novel feature of the proposed method is the use of probe requests during the discovery phase to monitor the states of the channels to determine the best Access Point (AP) for association. Our simulation results show that the proposed method is significantly better than relying only on signal strength in term of utilization, end-to-end delay, collision rate, and packet loss