The impact of global communication latency at extreme scales on Krylov methods

Krylov Subspace Methods (KSMs) are popular numerical tools for solving large linear systems of equations. We consider their role in solving sparse systems on future massively parallel distributed memory machines, by estimating future performance of their constituent operations. To this end we construct a model that is simple, but which takes topology and network acceleration into account as they are important considerations. We show that, as the number of nodes of a parallel machine increases to very large numbers, the increasing latency cost of reductions may well become a problematic bottleneck for traditional formulations of these methods. Finally, we discuss how pipelined KSMs can be used to tackle the potential problem, and appropriate pipeline depths

Wireless Communication in Data Centers: A Survey

Data centers (DCs) is becoming increasingly an integral part of the computing infrastructures of most enterprises. Therefore, the concept of DC networks (DCNs) is receiving an increased attention in the network research community. Most DCNs deployed today can be classified as wired DCNs as copper and optical fiber cables are used for intra- and inter-rack connections in the network. Despite recent advances, wired DCNs face two inevitable problems; cabling complexity and hotspots. To address these problems, recent research works suggest the incorporation of wireless communication technology into DCNs. Wireless links can be used to either augment conventional wired DCNs, or to realize a pure wireless DCN. As the design spectrum of DCs broadens, so does the need for a clear classification to differentiate various design options. In this paper, we analyze the free space optical (FSO) communication and the 60 GHz radio frequency (RF), the two key candidate technologies for implementing wireless links in DCNs. We present a generic classification scheme that can be used to classify current and future DCNs based on the communication technology used in the network. The proposed classification is then used to review and summarize major research in this area. We also discuss open questions and future research directions in the area of wireless DCs

Modelling and Co-simulation of Multi-Energy Systems: Distributed Software Methods and Platforms

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Survivable and disaster- resilient submarine optical-fiber cable deployment

06.03.2018 tarihli ve 30352 sayılı Resmi Gazetede yayımlanan “Yükseköğretim Kanunu İle Bazı Kanun Ve Kanun Hükmünde Kararnamelerde Değişiklik Yapılması Hakkında Kanun” ile 18.06.2018 tarihli “Lisansüstü Tezlerin Elektronik Ortamda Toplanması, Düzenlenmesi ve Erişime Açılmasına İlişkin Yönerge” gereğince tam metin erişime açılmıştır.Internete olan mevcut sosyal ve ekonomik bağlılık ve servis kesintileri nedeni ile oluşan önemli miktardaki tamir masrafları ile ağ kalımlılığı günümüzde telekomünikasyon ağ dizaynının önemli bir parçası olmuştur. Ayrıca, denizaltı fiber optik kabloların depremler gibi doğal afetlere veya insan-yapımı afetlere karşı zayıf olduğu da herkesçe kabul edilmiş bir gerçektir. Afete dayanıklı bir denizaltı kablo yerleştirilmesi, bir yada daha fazla kablo afet nedeni ile koptuğunda ağ servislerini yeniden eski haline getirmek için ağ operatörünün maliyetlerini (yolculuk maliyeti, kapasite kayıp maliyeti ve hasar gören kablonun tamir maliyeti) azaltabilir. Bu çalışmada afet-farkındalı denizaltı fiber optik kabloları yerleştirme problemini araştırdık. Kablolar için bir yol/rota seçerken yaklaşımımız toplam beklenen kayıp maliyetini, denizaltı fiber kabloların afetler nedeni ile zarar görebileceğini de düşünerek, bütçe ve diğer kısıtlamalar altında minimize etmeyi hedefler. Yaklaşımımızda afetle ilişkisiz arızaların ana kablonun yanında bir de yedek kablo sağlanarak üstesinden gelindiğini varsaydık. Önce basitçe bir su kütlesi (deniz/okyanus) tarafından ayrılmış iki kara parçası üzerine yerleştirilmiş iki düğümün olduğu bir senaryoyu düşündük. Daha sonra problemi formüle edebilmek için afet bölgelerinden sakınacak şekilde eliptik kablo şeklini dikkate aldık. En nihayetinde problem için, bu durumda yaklaşımımızın potansiyel faydalarını gösteren sayısal örneklerle desteklediğimiz bir Tamsayı Lineer Programlama formülasyonu ürettik. Bununla birlikte problemi daha pratik hale getirmek için, farklı kara parçalarına yerleşmiş çoklu düğümlerin örgüsel bir ağ topolojisini, düzenli şekillere sahip olmayan kabloları, deniz altındaki ortamın topografisini de dikkate aldık. Bu problemi de ifade etmek için sayısal örneklere birlikte bir Tamsayı Lineer Programlama sunduk. Sonuç olarak, pratik durumu düşünerek bir örnek durum incelemesi üzerinde yaklaşımımızı mevcut kablolama sistemleri ile kıyaslayarak teyit ettik. İki durumda da, sonuçlar bize %2-%11 oranında bir yerleştirme maliyeti artışı karşılığında beklenen maliyeti %90-%100 arasında azaltabileceğimizi gösterdi.With the existing profoundly social and economic reliance on the Internet and the significant reparation cost associated with service interruption, network survivability is an important element in telecommunication network design nowadays. Moreover, the fact that submarine optical-fiber cables are susceptible to man-made or natural disasters such as earthquakes is well recognized. A disaster-resilient submarine cable deployment can save cost incurred by network operators such as the capacity-loss cost, the cruising cost and the repair cost of the damaged cables, in order to restore network service when cables break due to a disaster. In this study, we investigate disaster-aware submarine fiber-optic cable deployment problem. While selecting a route/path for cables, our approach aims to minimize the total expected cost, considering that submarine optical-fiber cables may break because of natural disasters, subject to deployment budget and other constraints. In our approach, we assume disaster-unrelated failures are handled by providing a backup cable along with primary cable. In the simple case we consider a scenario with two nodes located on two different lands separated by a water body (sea/ocean). We then consider an elliptic cable shape to formulate the problem, which can be extended to other cable shapes, subject to avoiding deploying cable in disaster zones. Eventuaaly, we provide an Integer Linear Programming formulation for the problem supported with illustrative numerical examples that show the potential benefit of our approach. Furthermore, in order to make the problem more practical, we consider a mesh topology network with multiple nodes located on different sea/ocean, submarine optical- fiber cables of irregular shape, and the topography of undersea environment. Eventually, we provide an Integer Linear Programming to address the problem, together with illustrative numerical examples. Finally, we validate our approach by conducting a case study wherein we consider a practical submarine optical-fiber cable system susceptible to natural disasters. In this case, we compare our approach against the existing cable system in terms of deployment cost and reduction in expected cost. In either case results show that our approach can reduce expected cost from 90% to 100% at a slight increase of 2% to 11% in deployment cost of disaster-unaware approach

On the identification and analysis of ICT-induced stability risks in cyber-physical energy systems

This thesis addresses emerging ICT-based stability risks for cyber-physical energy systems (CPESs) in light of the increasingly complex task of coordinating modern generation and consumption assets in power grids. It does so by identifying cyber-physical services as the main drivers of interdependence first. It then provides a general approach on how to assess such a service's dependence on data in general and its sensitivity towards the high-level ICT error categories "latency", "data loss" and "data corruption" in particular. Based on these results, the service states "normal", "limited", and "failed" are introduced in order to summarise the findings in an abstract and more widely applicable as well as comparable manner. These aggregated service states are required as additional inputs for the main method which determines how disturbances propagate through modern CPESs. This method is first presented with a focus on static stability and is later extended to also incorporate dynamic stability phenomena. The resulting disturbance propagation, combined with the service states and the ENTSO-E state description for power systems, can be used to derive a summarising state trajectory which helps compare different CPES layouts and control designs concerning their stability.Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit neuartigen, IKT-basierten Stabilitätsrisiken für cyber-physikalische Energiesysteme (CPES) vor dem Hintergrund zunehmend komplexer Koordination neuartiger Verbraucher und Erzeugungsanlagen in modernen Energiesystemen. Dazu werden zunächst IKT-basierte Dienste als Haupttreiber wechselseitiger Abhängigkeiten zwischen der Energie- und IKT-Domäne im CPES identifiziert. Anschließend wird ein Ansatz zur Bewertung der Datenabhängigkeit solcher Dienste im Allgemeinen sowie ihrer Empfindlichkeit gegenüber erhöhter Kommunikationslatenz, Datenverlust und Datenkorruption im Speziellen vorgestellt. Basierend auf diesen Ergebnisse werden drei Betriebszustände für Dienste eingeführt. Diese lauten "normal", "eingeschränkt" und "fehlerhaft" und dienen der Abstraktion und Vergleichbarkeit der IKT-Abhängigkeit verschiedener Dienste. Im Anschluss wird eine Methode vorgestellt, die der Bestimmung der Ausbreitung von Störungen innerhalb des CPES dient. Die Methode wird zunächst mit einem Fokus auf statischer Stabilität erläutert und anschließend so erweitert, dass auch dynamische Stabilitätsphänomene berücksichtigt werden können. Die sich daraus ergebende Ausbreitung von Störungen kann in Verbindung mit den Betriebszuständen und der ENTSO-E-Zustandsbeschreibung für Stromversorgungssysteme zur Ableitung eines zusammenfassenden Zustandsverlaufs verwendet werden. Mit den so ermittelten Zustandsverläufen wird wiederum ein qualitativer Stabilitätsvergleich verschiedener CPES-Layouts und Regelungskonzepte ermöglicht

Supporting real time video over ATM networks

Includes bibliographical references.In this project, we propose and evaluate an approach to delimit and tag such independent video slice at the ATM layer for early discard. This involves the use of a tag cell differentiated from the rest of the data by its PTI value and a modified tag switch to facilitate the selective discarding of affected cells within each video slice as opposed to dropping of cells at random from multiple video frames

Interconnect technologies for very large spiking neural networks

In the scope of this thesis, a neural event communication architecture has been developed for use in an accelerated neuromorphic computing system and with a packet-based high performance interconnection network. Existing neuromorphic computing systems mostly use highly customised interconnection networks, directly routing single spike events to their destination. In contrast, the approach of this thesis uses a general purpose packet-based interconnection network and accumulates multiple spike events at the source node into larger network packets destined to common destinations. This is required to optimise the payload efficiency, given relatively large packet headers as compared to the size of neural spike events. Theoretical considerations are made about the efficiency of different event aggregation strategies. Thereby, important factors are the number of occurring event network-destinations and their relative frequency, as well as the number of available accumulation buffers. Based on the concept of Markov Chains, an analytical method is developed and used to evaluate these aggregation strategies. Additionally, some of these strategies are stochastically simulated in order to verify the analytical method and evaluate them beyond its applicability. Based on the results of this analysis, an optimisation strategy is proposed for the mapping of neural populations onto interconnected neuromorphic chips, as well as the joint assignment of event network-destinations to a set of accumulation buffers. During this thesis, such an event communication architecture has been implemented on the communication FPGAs in the BrainScaleS-2 accelerated neuromorphic computing system. Thereby, its usability can be scaled beyond single chip setups. For this, the EXTOLL network technology is used to transport and route the aggregated neural event packets with high bandwidth and low latency. At the FPGA, a network bandwidth of up to 12 Gbit/s is usable at a maximum payload efficiency of 94 %. The latency has been measured in the scope of this thesis to a range between 1.6 μs and 2.3 μs across the network between two neuron circuits on separate chips. This latency is thereby mostly dominated by the path from the neuromorphic chip across the communication FPGA into the network and back on the receiving side. As the EXTOLL network hardware itself is clocked at a much higher frequency than the FPGAs, the latency is expected to scale in the order of only approximately 75 ns for each additional hop through the network. For being able to globally interpret the arrival timestamps that are transmitted with every spike event, the system time counters on the FPGAs are synchronised across the network. For this, the global interrupt mechanism implemented in the EXTOLL hardware is characterised and used within this thesis. With this, a synchronisation accuracy of ±40ns could be measured. At the end of this thesis, the successful emulation of a neural signal propagation model, distributed across two BrainScaleS-2 chips and FPGAs is demonstrated using the implemented event communication architecture and the described synchronisation mechanism

Modelling and Design of Resilient Networks under Challenges

Communication networks, in particular the Internet, face a variety of challenges that can disrupt our daily lives resulting in the loss of human lives and significant financial costs in the worst cases. We define challenges as external events that trigger faults that eventually result in service failures. Understanding these challenges accordingly is essential for improvement of the current networks and for designing Future Internet architectures. This dissertation presents a taxonomy of challenges that can help evaluate design choices for the current and Future Internet. Graph models to analyse critical infrastructures are examined and a multilevel graph model is developed to study interdependencies between different networks. Furthermore, graph-theoretic heuristic optimisation algorithms are developed. These heuristic algorithms add links to increase the resilience of networks in the least costly manner and they are computationally less expensive than an exhaustive search algorithm. The performance of networks under random failures, targeted attacks, and correlated area-based challenges are evaluated by the challenge simulation module that we developed. The GpENI Future Internet testbed is used to conduct experiments to evaluate the performance of the heuristic algorithms developed