Disaster-resilient communication networks:Principles and best practices

Communication network failures that are caused by disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and cyber-attacks, can have significant economic and societal impact. To address this problem, the research community has been investigating approaches to network resilience for several years. However, aside from well-established techniques, many of these solutions have not found their way into operational environments. The RECODIS COST Action aims to address this shortcoming by providing solutions that are tailored to specific types of challenge, whilst considering the wider socio-economic issues that are associated with their deployment. To support this goal, in this paper, we present an overview of some of the foundational related work on network resilience, covering topics such as measuring resilience and resilient network architectures, amongst others. In addition, we provide insights into current operational best practices for ensuring the resilience of carrier-grade communication networks. The aim of this paper is to support the goals of the EU COST Action RECODIS and the wider research community in engineering more resilient communication networks

Dependable Embedded Systems

This Open Access book introduces readers to many new techniques for enhancing and optimizing reliability in embedded systems, which have emerged particularly within the last five years. This book introduces the most prominent reliability concerns from today’s points of view and roughly recapitulates the progress in the community so far. Unlike other books that focus on a single abstraction level such circuit level or system level alone, the focus of this book is to deal with the different reliability challenges across different levels starting from the physical level all the way to the system level (cross-layer approaches). The book aims at demonstrating how new hardware/software co-design solution can be proposed to ef-fectively mitigate reliability degradation such as transistor aging, processor variation, temperature effects, soft errors, etc. Provides readers with latest insights into novel, cross-layer methods and models with respect to dependability of embedded systems; Describes cross-layer approaches that can leverage reliability through techniques that are pro-actively designed with respect to techniques at other layers; Explains run-time adaptation and concepts/means of self-organization, in order to achieve error resiliency in complex, future many core systems

An ontology-based approach toward the configuration of heterogeneous network devices

Despite the numerous efforts of standardization, semantic issues remain in effect in many subfields of networking. The inability to exchange data unambiguously between information systems and human resources is an issue that hinders technology implementation, semantic interoperability, service deployment, network management, technology migration, among many others. In this thesis, we will approach the semantic issues in two critical subfields of networking, namely, network configuration management and network addressing architectures. The fact that makes the study in these areas rather appealing is that in both scenarios semantic issues have been around from the very early days of networking. However, as networks continue to grow in size and complexity current practices are becoming neither scalable nor practical. One of the most complex and essential tasks in network management is the configuration of network devices. The lack of comprehensive and standard means for modifying and controlling the configuration of network elements has led to the continuous and extended use of proprietary Command Line Interfaces (CLIs). Unfortunately, CLIs are generally both, device and vendor-specific. In the context of heterogeneous network infrastructures---i.e., networks typically composed of multiple devices from different vendors---the use of several CLIs raises serious Operation, Administration and Management (OAM) issues. Accordingly, network administrators are forced to gain specialized expertise and to continuously keep knowledge and skills up to date as new features, system upgrades or technologies appear. Overall, the utilization of proprietary mechanisms allows neither sharing knowledge consistently between vendors' domains nor reusing configurations to achieve full automation of network configuration tasks---which are typically required in autonomic management. Due to this heterogeneity, CLIs typically provide a help feature which is in turn an useful source of knowledge to enable semantic interpretation of a vendor's configuration space. The large amount of information a network administrator must learn and manage makes Information Extraction (IE) and other forms of natural language analysis of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) field key enablers for the network device configuration space. This thesis presents the design and implementation specification of the first Ontology-Based Information Extraction (OBIE) System from the CLI of network devices for the automation and abstraction of device configurations. Moreover, the so-called semantic overload of IP addresses---wherein addresses are both identifiers and locators of a node at the same time---is one of the main constraints over mobility of network hosts, multi-homing and scalability of the routing system. In light of this, numerous approaches have emerged in an effort to decouple the semantics of the network addressing scheme. In this thesis, we approach this issue from two perspectives, namely, a non-disruptive (i.e., evolutionary) solution to the current Internet and a clean-slate approach for Future Internet. In the first scenario, we analyze the Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol (LISP) as it is currently one of the strongest solutions to the semantic overload issue. However, its adoption is hindered by existing problems in the proposed mapping systems. Herein, we propose the LISP Redundancy Protocol (LRP) aimed to complement the LISP framework and strengthen feasibility of deployment, while at the same time, minimize mapping table size, latency time and maximize reachability in the network. In the second scenario, we explore TARIFA a Next Generation Internet architecture and introduce a novel service-centric addressing scheme which aims to overcome the issues related to routing and semantic overload of IP addresses.A pesar de los numerosos esfuerzos de estandarización, los problemas de semántica continúan en efecto en muchas subáreas de networking. La inabilidad de intercambiar data sin ambiguedad entre sistemas es un problema que limita la interoperabilidad semántica. En esta tesis, abordamos los problemas de semántica en dos áreas: (i) la gestión de configuración y (ii) arquitecturas de direccionamiento. El hecho que hace el estudio en estas áreas de interés, es que los problemas de semántica datan desde los inicios del Internet. Sin embargo, mientras las redes continúan creciendo en tamaño y complejidad, los mecanismos desplegados dejan de ser escalabales y prácticos. Una de las tareas más complejas y esenciales en la gestión de redes es la configuración de equipos. La falta de mecanismos estándar para la modificación y control de la configuración de equipos ha llevado al uso continuado y extendido de interfaces por líneas de comando (CLI). Desafortunadamente, las CLIs son generalmente, específicos por fabricante y dispositivo. En el contexto de redes heterogéneas--es decir, redes típicamente compuestas por múltiples dispositivos de distintos fabricantes--el uso de varias CLIs trae consigo serios problemas de operación, administración y gestión. En consecuencia, los administradores de red se ven forzados a adquirir experiencia en el manejo específico de múltiples tecnologías y además, a mantenerse continuamente actualizados en la medida en que nuevas funcionalidades o tecnologías emergen, o bien con actualizaciones de sistemas operativos. En general, la utilización de mecanismos propietarios no permite compartir conocimientos de forma consistente a lo largo de plataformas heterogéneas, ni reutilizar configuraciones con el objetivo de alcanzar la completa automatización de tareas de configuración--que son típicamente requeridas en el área de gestión autonómica. Debido a esta heterogeneidad, las CLIs suelen proporcionar una función de ayuda que fundamentalmente aporta información para la interpretación semántica del entorno de configuración de un fabricante. La gran cantidad de información que un administrador debe aprender y manejar, hace de la extracción de información y otras formas de análisis de lenguaje natural del campo de Inteligencia Artificial, potenciales herramientas para la configuración de equipos en entornos heterogéneos. Esta tesis presenta el diseño y especificaciones de implementación del primer sistema de extracción de información basada en ontologías desde el CLI de dispositivos de red, para la automatización y abstracción de configuraciones. Por otra parte, la denominada sobrecarga semántica de direcciones IP--en donde, las direcciones son identificadores y localizadores al mismo tiempo--es una de las principales limitaciones sobre mobilidad, multi-homing y escalabilidad del sistema de enrutamiento. Por esta razón, numerosas propuestas han emergido en un esfuerzo por desacoplar la semántica del esquema de direccionamiento de las redes actuales. En esta tesis, abordamos este problema desde dos perspectivas, la primera de ellas una aproximación no-disruptiva (es decir, evolucionaria) al problema del Internet actual y la segunda, una nueva propuesta en torno a futuras arquitecturas del Internet. En el primer escenario, analizamos el protocolo LISP (del inglés, Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol) ya que es en efecto, una de las soluciones con mayor potencial para la resolucion del problema de semántica. Sin embargo, su adopción está limitada por problemas en los sistemas de mapeo propuestos. En esta tesis, proponemos LRP (del inglés, LISP Redundancy Protocol) un protocolo destinado a complementar LISP e incrementar la factibilidad de despliegue, a la vez que, reduce el tamaño de las tablas de mapeo, tiempo de latencia y maximiza accesibilidad. En el segundo escenario, exploramos TARIFA una arquitectura de red de nueva generación e introducimos un novedoso esquema de direccionamiento orientado a servicios

Software Defined Applications in Cellular and Optical Networks

abstract: Small wireless cells have the potential to overcome bottlenecks in wireless access through the sharing of spectrum resources. A novel access backhaul network architecture based on a Smart Gateway (Sm-GW) between the small cell base stations, e.g., LTE eNBs, and the conventional backhaul gateways, e.g., LTE Servicing/Packet Gateways (S/P-GWs) has been introduced to address the bottleneck. The Sm-GW flexibly schedules uplink transmissions for the eNBs. Based on software defined networking (SDN) a management mechanism that allows multiple operator to flexibly inter-operate via multiple Sm-GWs with a multitude of small cells has been proposed. This dissertation also comprehensively survey the studies that examine the SDN paradigm in optical networks. Along with the PHY functional split improvements, the performance of Distributed Converged Cable Access Platform (DCCAP) in the cable architectures especially for the Remote-PHY and Remote-MACPHY nodes has been evaluated. In the PHY functional split, in addition to the re-use of infrastructure with a common FFT module for multiple technologies, a novel cross functional split interaction to cache the repetitive QAM symbols across time at the remote node to reduce the transmission rate requirement of the fronthaul link has been proposed.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201

View on 5G Architecture: Version 2.0

The 5G Architecture Working Group as part of the 5GPPP Initiative is looking at capturing novel trends and key technological enablers for the realization of the 5G architecture. It also targets at presenting in a harmonized way the architectural concepts developed in various projects and initiatives (not limited to 5GPPP projects only) so as to provide a consolidated view on the technical directions for the architecture design in the 5G era. The first version of the white paper was released in July 2016, which captured novel trends and key technological enablers for the realization of the 5G architecture vision along with harmonized architectural concepts from 5GPPP Phase 1 projects and initiatives. Capitalizing on the architectural vision and framework set by the first version of the white paper, this Version 2.0 of the white paper presents the latest findings and analyses with a particular focus on the concept evaluations, and accordingly it presents the consolidated overall architecture design

Multi-Agent Systems

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains

Ecosystemic Evolution Feeded by Smart Systems

Information Society is advancing along a route of ecosystemic evolution. ICT and Internet advancements, together with the progression of the systemic approach for enhancement and application of Smart Systems, are grounding such an evolution. The needed approach is therefore expected to evolve by increasingly fitting into the basic requirements of a significant general enhancement of human and social well-being, within all spheres of life (public, private, professional). This implies enhancing and exploiting the net-living virtual space, to make it a virtuous beneficial integration of the real-life space. Meanwhile, contextual evolution of smart cities is aiming at strongly empowering that ecosystemic approach by enhancing and diffusing net-living benefits over our own lived territory, while also incisively targeting a new stable socio-economic local development, according to social, ecological, and economic sustainability requirements. This territorial focus matches with a new glocal vision, which enables a more effective diffusion of benefits in terms of well-being, thus moderating the current global vision primarily fed by a global-scale market development view. Basic technological advancements have thus to be pursued at the system-level. They include system architecting for virtualization of functions, data integration and sharing, flexible basic service composition, and end-service personalization viability, for the operation and interoperation of smart systems, supporting effective net-living advancements in all application fields. Increasing and basically mandatory importance must also be increasingly reserved for human–technical and social–technical factors, as well as to the associated need of empowering the cross-disciplinary approach for related research and innovation. The prospected eco-systemic impact also implies a social pro-active participation, as well as coping with possible negative effects of net-living in terms of social exclusion and isolation, which require incisive actions for a conformal socio-cultural development. In this concern, speed, continuity, and expected long-term duration of innovation processes, pushed by basic technological advancements, make ecosystemic requirements stricter. This evolution requires also a new approach, targeting development of the needed basic and vocational education for net-living, which is to be considered as an engine for the development of the related ‘new living know-how’, as well as of the conformal ‘new making know-how’