Congestion Control in Molecular Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are a new class of engineered systems based on interactions between cyber and physical components, by integrating three main components: communications, control, and computing. When these systems are brought to the nanoscale, some design and implementation issues arise. A high level of complexity is due to the use of biological components in a CPS, such as engineered cells, which may play the role of sensors, actuators, or even controllers. In this paper, we study the effectiveness of control solutions implemented through the usage of molecular communications in a biological nanoscale cyber-physical system, where a biological nanomachine plays the role of actuator, that releases drug molecules, and another acts as both sensor and controller. The goal of the proposal is to control the release rate, so that target cells can receive the desired amount of drug in a given time, by limiting potential side effects. Basically, we aim to limit congestion, which can arise when large amounts of molecules are released toward a target. To this aim, we propose a simple congestion detection scheme, and compare different rate control algorithms used to throttle the molecules release rate at the transmitter upon the reception of a feedback signal sent by the receiver. We validate the proposed techniques against delivery efficiency and delivery time of molecules by means of an extensive simulation campaign

Software Defined Networks based Smart Grid Communication: A Comprehensive Survey

The current power grid is no longer a feasible solution due to ever-increasing user demand of electricity, old infrastructure, and reliability issues and thus require transformation to a better grid a.k.a., smart grid (SG). The key features that distinguish SG from the conventional electrical power grid are its capability to perform two-way communication, demand side management, and real time pricing. Despite all these advantages that SG will bring, there are certain issues which are specific to SG communication system. For instance, network management of current SG systems is complex, time consuming, and done manually. Moreover, SG communication (SGC) system is built on different vendor specific devices and protocols. Therefore, the current SG systems are not protocol independent, thus leading to interoperability issue. Software defined network (SDN) has been proposed to monitor and manage the communication networks globally. This article serves as a comprehensive survey on SDN-based SGC. In this article, we first discuss taxonomy of advantages of SDNbased SGC.We then discuss SDN-based SGC architectures, along with case studies. Our article provides an in-depth discussion on routing schemes for SDN-based SGC. We also provide detailed survey of security and privacy schemes applied to SDN-based SGC. We furthermore present challenges, open issues, and future research directions related to SDN-based SGC.Comment: Accepte

Cyber Warfare and the Crime of Aggression: The Need for Individual Accountability on Tomorrow’s Battlefield

As cyberspace matures, the international system faces a new challenge in confronting the use of force. Non-State actors continue to grow in importance, gaining the skill and the expertise necessary to wage asymmetric warfare using non-traditional weaponry that can create devastating real-world consequences. The international legal system must adapt to this battleground and provide workable mechanisms to hold aggressive actors accountable for their actions. The International Criminal Court--the only criminal tribunal in the world with global reach--holds significant promise in addressing this threat. The Assembly of State Parties should construct the definition of aggression to include these emerging challenges. By structuring the definition to confront the challenges of cyberspace--specifically non-State actors, the disaggregation of warfare, and new conceptions of territoriality--the International Criminal Court can become a viable framework of accountability for the wars of the twenty-first century

Multi-Agent Systems and Complex Networks: Review and Applications in Systems Engineering

Systems engineering is an ubiquitous discipline of Engineering overlapping industrial, chemical, mechanical, manufacturing, control, software, electrical, and civil engineering. It provides tools for dealing with the complexity and dynamics related to the optimisation of physical, natural, and virtual systems management. This paper presents a review of how multi-agent systems and complex networks theory are brought together to address systems engineering and management problems. The review also encompasses current and future research directions both for theoretical fundamentals and applications in the industry. This is made by considering trends such as mesoscale, multiscale, and multilayer networks along with the state-of-art analysis on network dynamics and intelligent networks. Critical and smart infrastructure, manufacturing processes, and supply chain networks are instances of research topics for which this literature review is highly relevant

A Survey on the applications of IoT: an investigation into existing environments, present challenges and future opportunities

In today’s digital environment, devices are able to interconnect and react to contextual data more than ever before: artificial intelligence is beginning to coordinate how data collected from sensors and de-vices within the network is analysed, and device ecosystems are replacing standalone devices to deliver solutions to the user. In this paper, the researcher explores current implementations of IoT that have led to positive outcomes for the user; but also, the challenges that remain in today’s applications. Moreover, ex-ploring these current barriers may be able to infer future applications capable of being deployed on a global scal