Compute- and Data-Intensive Networks: The Key to the Metaverse

The worlds of computing, communication, and storage have for a long time been treated separately, and even the recent trends of cloud computing, distributed computing, and mobile edge computing have not fundamentally changed the role of networks, still designed to move data between end users and pre-determined computation nodes, without true optimization of the end-to-end compute-communication process. However, the emergence of Metaverse applications, where users consume multimedia experiences that result from the real-time combination of distributed live sources and stored digital assets, has changed the requirements for, and possibilities of, systems that provide distributed caching, computation, and communication. We argue that the real-time interactive nature and high demands on data storage, streaming rates, and processing power of Metaverse applications will accelerate the merging of the cloud into the network, leading to highly-distributed tightly-integrated compute- and data-intensive networks becoming universal compute platforms for next-generation digital experiences. In this paper, we first describe the requirements of Metaverse applications and associated supporting infrastructure, including relevant use cases. We then outline a comprehensive cloud network flow mathematical framework, designed for the end-to-end optimization and control of such systems, and show numerical results illustrating its promising role for the efficient operation of Metaverse-ready networks

Nomadic fog storage

Mobile services incrementally demand for further processing and storage. However, mobile devices are known for their constrains in terms of processing, storage, and energy. Early proposals have addressed these aspects; by having mobile devices access remote clouds. But these proposals suffer from long latencies and backhaul bandwidth limitations in retrieving data. To mitigate these issues, edge clouds have been proposed. Using this paradigm, intermediate nodes are placed between the mobile devices and the remote cloud. These intermediate nodes should fulfill the end users’ resource requests, namely data and processing capability, and reduce the energy consumption on the mobile devices’ batteries. But then again, mobile traffic demand is increasing exponentially and there is a greater than ever evolution of mobile device’s available resources. This urges the use of mobile nodes’ extra capabilities for fulfilling the requisites imposed by new mobile applications. In this new scenario, the mobile devices should become both consumers and providers of the emerging services. The current work researches on this possibility by designing, implementing and testing a novel nomadic fog storage system that uses fog and mobile nodes to support the upcoming applications. In addition, a novel resource allocation algorithm has been developed that considers the available energy on mobile devices and the network topology. It also includes a replica management module based on data popularity. The comprehensive evaluation of the fog proposal has evidenced that it is responsive, offloads traffic from the backhaul links, and enables a fair energy depletion among mobiles nodes by storing content in neighbor nodes with higher battery autonomy.Os serviços móveis requerem cada vez mais poder de processamento e armazenamento. Contudo, os dispositivos móveis são conhecidos por serem limitados em termos de armazenamento, processamento e energia. Como solução, os dispositivos móveis começaram a aceder a estes recursos através de nuvens distantes. No entanto, estas sofrem de longas latências e limitações na largura de banda da rede, ao aceder aos recursos. Para resolver estas questões, foram propostas soluções de edge computing. Estas, colocam nós intermediários entre os dispositivos móveis e a nuvem remota, que são responsáveis por responder aos pedidos de recursos por parte dos utilizadores finais. Dados os avanços na tecnologia dos dispositivos móveis e o aumento da sua utilização, torna-se cada mais pertinente a utilização destes próprios dispositivos para fornecer os serviços da nuvem. Desta forma, o dispositivo móvel torna-se consumidor e fornecedor do serviço nuvem. O trabalho atual investiga esta vertente, implementado e testando um sistema que utiliza dispositivos móveis e nós no “fog”, para suportar os serviços móveis emergentes. Foi ainda implementado um algoritmo de alocação de recursos que considera os níveis de energia e a topologia da rede, bem como um módulo que gere a replicação de dados no sistema de acordo com a sua popularidade. Os resultados obtidos provam que o sistema é responsivo, alivia o tráfego nas ligações no core, e demonstra uma distribuição justa do consumo de energia no sistema através de uma disseminação eficaz de conteúdo nos nós da periferia da rede mais próximos dos nós consumidores

Systematizing Decentralization and Privacy: Lessons from 15 Years of Research and Deployments

Decentralized systems are a subset of distributed systems where multiple authorities control different components and no authority is fully trusted by all. This implies that any component in a decentralized system is potentially adversarial. We revise fifteen years of research on decentralization and privacy, and provide an overview of key systems, as well as key insights for designers of future systems. We show that decentralized designs can enhance privacy, integrity, and availability but also require careful trade-offs in terms of system complexity, properties provided, and degree of decentralization. These trade-offs need to be understood and navigated by designers. We argue that a combination of insights from cryptography, distributed systems, and mechanism design, aligned with the development of adequate incentives, are necessary to build scalable and successful privacy-preserving decentralized systems

Blockchain based application for circular economy

Over the last few years, web services have evolved enormously, from archaic text-only websites where only the web master can upload and update content, to the most modern applications such as social networks with video calls and real-time video streaming where all users interact and create new content. All these advances in the way services are built and how we interact with them have been made possible by major technological improvements and contributions, such as the increasing speed of access networks, the evolution from desktop to laptop computers, the emergence of pocket devices such as smartphones and the development of even more powerful wireless access networks, such as the evolution of mobile telephony standards. Despite all this evolution, technology has not stagnated and continues to evolve to provide us new ways to build services and interact with virtual worlds. In recent years, new technologies have appeared, and these technologies have produced a paradigm shift in the relationship we will have with web-based services, and some companies are even talking about the beginning of a fully immersive metaverse. In this thesis we will analyze some of these technologies, such as blockchain networks, their possible social implications and we will develop an application based on this technology following a circular economy framework.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::10 - Reducció de les Desigualtat