Erlang analysis of cellular networks using stochastic Petri nets and user-in-the-loop extension for demand control

Abstract—Cellular networks face severe challenges due to the expected growth of application data rate demand with an increase rate of 100 % per year. Over-provisioning capacity has been the standard approach to reduce the risk of overload situations. Traditionally in telephony networks, call blocking and overload probability have been analyzed using the Erlang-B and Erlang-C formulas, which model limited capacity communication systems without or with session request buffers, respectively. While a closed-form expression exists for the blocking probability for constant load and service, a steady-state Markov chain (MC) analysis can always provide more detailed data, as long as the Markov property of the arrival and service processes hold. However, there is a significant modeling advantage by using the stochastic Petri net (SPN) paradigm to model the details of such a system. In addition, software tool support allows getting numeric analysis results quickly by solving the state probabilities in the background and without the need to run any simulation. Because of this efficiency, the equivalent SPN model of the Engset, Erlang-B and Erlang-C situation is introduced as novelty in this paper. Going beyond the original Erlang scenario, the user-in-the-loop (UIL) approach of demand shaping by closed-loop control is studied as an extension. In UIL, demand control is implemented by a dynamic usage-based tariff which motivates users to reduce or postpone the use of applications on their smart phone in times of light to severe congestion. In this paper, the effect of load on the price and demand reduction is modeled with an SPN based on the classical Erlang Markov chain structure. Numeric results are easily obtained and presented in this paper, including probability density functions (PDF) of the load situation, and a parameter analysis showing the effectiveness of UIL to reduce the overload probability. Keywords—User-in-the-loop (UIL); demand shaping; demand control; congestion; Erlang; stochastic Petri-net (SPN). I

Self-Evaluation Applied Mathematics 2003-2008 University of Twente

This report contains the self-study for the research assessment of the Department of Applied Mathematics (AM) of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) at the University of Twente (UT). The report provides the information for the Research Assessment Committee for Applied Mathematics, dealing with mathematical sciences at the three universities of technology in the Netherlands. It describes the state of affairs pertaining to the period 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2008

Resilience-Building Technologies: State of Knowledge -- ReSIST NoE Deliverable D12

This document is the first product of work package WP2, "Resilience-building and -scaling technologies", in the programme of jointly executed research (JER) of the ReSIST Network of Excellenc

Enabling and Understanding Failure of Engineering Structures Using the Technique of Cohesive Elements

In this paper, we describe a cohesive zone model for the prediction of failure of engineering solids and/or structures. A damage evolution law is incorporated into a three-dimensional, exponential cohesive law to account for material degradation under the influence of cyclic loading. This cohesive zone model is implemented in the finite element software ABAQUS through a user defined subroutine. The irreversibility of the cohesive zone model is first verified and subsequently applied for studying cyclic crack growth in specimens experiencing different modes of fracture and/or failure. The crack growth behavior to include both crack initiation and crack propagation becomes a natural outcome of the numerical simulation. Numerical examples suggest that the irreversible cohesive zone model can serve as an efficient tool to predict fatigue crack growth. Key issues such as crack path deviation, convergence and mesh dependency are also discussed

Curracurrong: a stream processing system for distributed environments

Advances in technology have given rise to applications that are deployed on wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the cloud, and the Internet of things. There are many emerging applications, some of which include sensor-based monitoring, web traffic processing, and network monitoring. These applications collect large amount of data as an unbounded sequence of events and process them to generate a new sequences of events. Such applications need an adequate programming model that can process large amount of data with minimal latency; for this purpose, stream programming, among other paradigms, is ideal. However, stream programming needs to be adapted to meet the challenges inherent in running it in distributed environments. These challenges include the need for modern domain specific language (DSL), the placement of computations in the network to minimise energy costs, and timeliness in real-time applications. To overcome these challenges we developed a stream programming model that achieves easy-to-use programming interface, energy-efficient actor placement, and timeliness. This thesis presents Curracurrong, a stream data processing system for distributed environments. In Curracurrong, a query is represented as a stream graph of stream operators and communication channels. Curracurrong provides an extensible stream operator library and adapts to a wide range of applications. It uses an energy-efficient placement algorithm that optimises communication and computation. We extend the placement problem to support dynamically changing networks, and develop a dynamic program with polynomially bounded runtime to solve the placement problem. In many stream-based applications, real-time data processing is essential. We propose an approach that measures time delays in stream query processing; this model measures the total computational time from input to output of a query, i.e., end-to-end delay

Curracurrong: a stream processing system for distributed environments

Advances in technology have given rise to applications that are deployed on wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the cloud, and the Internet of things. There are many emerging applications, some of which include sensor-based monitoring, web traffic processing, and network monitoring. These applications collect large amount of data as an unbounded sequence of events and process them to generate a new sequences of events. Such applications need an adequate programming model that can process large amount of data with minimal latency; for this purpose, stream programming, among other paradigms, is ideal. However, stream programming needs to be adapted to meet the challenges inherent in running it in distributed environments. These challenges include the need for modern domain specific language (DSL), the placement of computations in the network to minimise energy costs, and timeliness in real-time applications. To overcome these challenges we developed a stream programming model that achieves easy-to-use programming interface, energy-efficient actor placement, and timeliness. This thesis presents Curracurrong, a stream data processing system for distributed environments. In Curracurrong, a query is represented as a stream graph of stream operators and communication channels. Curracurrong provides an extensible stream operator library and adapts to a wide range of applications. It uses an energy-efficient placement algorithm that optimises communication and computation. We extend the placement problem to support dynamically changing networks, and develop a dynamic program with polynomially bounded runtime to solve the placement problem. In many stream-based applications, real-time data processing is essential. We propose an approach that measures time delays in stream query processing; this model measures the total computational time from input to output of a query, i.e., end-to-end delay

Telecommunications Networks

This book guides readers through the basics of rapidly emerging networks to more advanced concepts and future expectations of Telecommunications Networks. It identifies and examines the most pressing research issues in Telecommunications and it contains chapters written by leading researchers, academics and industry professionals. Telecommunications Networks - Current Status and Future Trends covers surveys of recent publications that investigate key areas of interest such as: IMS, eTOM, 3G/4G, optimization problems, modeling, simulation, quality of service, etc. This book, that is suitable for both PhD and master students, is organized into six sections: New Generation Networks, Quality of Services, Sensor Networks, Telecommunications, Traffic Engineering and Routing

Distributed Termination Detection For Multiagent Protocols

The research conducted in this thesis is on distributed termination detection in multiagent systems. Agents engage in complex interactions by executing behaviour specifications in the form of protocols. This work presents and experiments with a framework for making termination in a multiagent system explicit. As a side effect, the mechanism can be exploited to aid management of agent interactions, by providing visibility of the interaction process and can be extended to drive multiagent system management tasks such as timely garbage collection. Results from previous attempts to deploy agents systems when scaling up, e.g. Agentcities, have shown and exposed a big gap between theory and practice especially in the reliability and availability of deployed systems. In particular more work needs to be done in the area of supporting agent infrastructures as much as in theoretical agent foundations. There are two aspects to this problem of termination detection in multiagent systems, firstly, the formal verification of behaviour at compile-time and secondly, monitoring and control at run-time. Regarding the former, there has been some work on the ver- 13 ification of agent communication languages. But overall verification is difficult and often requires knowledge of internal states of agents at compile time, and as yet has not been satisfactorily solved to be deployed in real systems. The second, the runtime approach is adopted in here. The research is not about protocol engineering but assumes correct protocols, and protocol specifications to be finite state machine graphs. Given these correct verified protocols, the thesis proposes a number of definitions culminating in identification of minimal information in the form of sub-protocols that agents being autonomous, can make available for the termination detection. An off line procedure for deriving these sub-protocols is then presented. The thesis then considers a termination detection model, and within this model, proposes an conversationmodel encompassing protocol executions, with hierarchical conversations modelled as diffusing computation trees and defines a number of predicates to derive termination in centralised and distributed environments. Algorithms that implement these predicates are sketched and some complexity analysis is performed. The thesis then considers a prototype implementation evaluated over some defined detection delays metric. The evaluation approach is heavily empirical, with an experimental approach adopted to evaluate various configurations of the termination detection mechanism. The evaluation employs robust resampling and bootstrapping methods to analyse and obtain distributions and confidence intervals of the detection delays metric for the termination detection mechanism

RFID Technology in Intelligent Tracking Systems in Construction Waste Logistics Using Optimisation Techniques

Construction waste disposal is an urgent issue for protecting our environment. This paper proposes a waste management system and illustrates the work process using plasterboard waste as an example, which creates a hazardous gas when land filled with household waste, and for which the recycling rate is less than 10% in the UK. The proposed system integrates RFID technology, Rule-Based Reasoning, Ant Colony optimization and knowledge technology for auditing and tracking plasterboard waste, guiding the operation staff, arranging vehicles, schedule planning, and also provides evidence to verify its disposal. It h relies on RFID equipment for collecting logistical data and uses digital imaging equipment to give further evidence; the reasoning core in the third layer is responsible for generating schedules and route plans and guidance, and the last layer delivers the result to inform users. The paper firstly introduces the current plasterboard disposal situation and addresses the logistical problem that is now the main barrier to a higher recycling rate, followed by discussion of the proposed system in terms of both system level structure and process structure. And finally, an example scenario will be given to illustrate the system’s utilization