Measuring and Understanding Throughput of Network Topologies

High throughput is of particular interest in data center and HPC networks. Although myriad network topologies have been proposed, a broad head-to-head comparison across topologies and across traffic patterns is absent, and the right way to compare worst-case throughput performance is a subtle problem. In this paper, we develop a framework to benchmark the throughput of network topologies, using a two-pronged approach. First, we study performance on a variety of synthetic and experimentally-measured traffic matrices (TMs). Second, we show how to measure worst-case throughput by generating a near-worst-case TM for any given topology. We apply the framework to study the performance of these TMs in a wide range of network topologies, revealing insights into the performance of topologies with scaling, robustness of performance across TMs, and the effect of scattered workload placement. Our evaluation code is freely available

An Examination of Railroad Capacity and its Implications for Rail-Highway Intermodal Transportation

After many years of decline in market share, railroads are now experiencing an increasing demand for their services. Service intensive intermodal transportation seems to be an especially promising market area. Since the historic decline in traffic has been accompanied by a reduction in network infrastructure, however, the railroads\u27 ability to handle sizable traffic increases, at least in the short term, is in question. Since rail transportation is critical to the domestic economy of the nation, and is increasingly important in international logistics channels, shortfalls in railroad capacity are not desirable. The published literature on railroad capacity is relatively sparse, especially in comparison to the highway mode. Much of what is available pertains to individual network components such as lines or terminals. Evaluation of system capacity, considering the interactive effects of traffic flowing through a network of lines and terminals, has received less attention. A tool specifically designed for evaluating freight railroad system capacity issues could be a useful addition to the rail analyst\u27s toolbox. The research conducted in this study resulted in the formulation and application of RAILNET, a multicomrnodity, multicarrier network model for predicting equilibrium flows within a railroad network. Designed for strategic planning with a short term horizon, the model assumes fixed external demand. The predicted flows meet the conditions for Wardropian system equilibrium. At completion, the solution algorithm predicts the expected delay per train on each link, allowing the analyst to identify areas of congestion. Following completion of the model, it was applied to a case study examining the railroad network in the southeastern U.S. The public use version of the Interstate Commerce Commission\u27s Commodity Waybill Sample (CWS) provided flow data. The dissertation describes the procedure used to develop the case study and presents some results. The case points to major deficiencies in the CWS data which resulted in substantially less traffic in the network than is actually present. In general, given this limitation, the model behaved well and results appear reasonable, although not necessarily reflective of actual network conditions

Review of Optimization Problems in Wireless Sensor Networks

International audienc

The Adversarial Noise Threshold for Distributed Protocols

We consider the problem of implementing distributed protocols, despite adversarial channel errors, on synchronous-messaging networks with arbitrary topology. In our first result we show that any $n$-party $T$-round protocol on an undirected communication network $G$ can be compiled into a robust simulation protocol on a sparse ($\mathcal{O}(n)$ edges) subnetwork so that the simulation tolerates an adversarial error rate of $\Omega\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)$; the simulation has a round complexity of $\mathcal{O}\left(\frac{m \log n}{n} T\right)$, where $m$ is the number of edges in $G$. (So the simulation is work-preserving up to a $\log$ factor.) The adversary's error rate is within a constant factor of optimal. Given the error rate, the round complexity blowup is within a factor of $\mathcal{O}(k \log n)$ of optimal, where $k$ is the edge connectivity of $G$. We also determine that the maximum tolerable error rate on directed communication networks is $\Theta(1/s)$ where $s$ is the number of edges in a minimum equivalent digraph. Next we investigate adversarial per-edge error rates, where the adversary is given an error budget on each edge of the network. We determine the exact limit for tolerable per-edge error rates on an arbitrary directed graph. However, the construction that approaches this limit has exponential round complexity, so we give another compiler, which transforms $T$-round protocols into $\mathcal{O}(mT)$-round simulations, and prove that for polynomial-query black box compilers, the per-edge error rate tolerated by this last compiler is within a constant factor of optimal.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures. Fixes mistake in theorem 6 and various typo

Network coding for wireless communication networks

This special issue includes a collection of 19 outstanding research papers which cover a diversity of topics on the application of network coding in wireless communication networks.published_or_final_versio

On the multiple unicast capacity of 3-source, 3-terminal directed acyclic networks

We consider the multiple unicast problem with three source-terminal pairs over directed acyclic networks with unit-capacity edges. The three $s_i-t_i$ pairs wish to communicate at unit-rate via network coding. The connectivity between the $s_i - t_i$ pairs is quantified by means of a connectivity level vector, $[k_1 k_2 k_3]$ such that there exist $k_i$ edge-disjoint paths between $s_i$ and $t_i$. In this work we attempt to classify networks based on the connectivity level. It can be observed that unit-rate transmission can be supported by routing if $k_i \geq 3$, for all $i = 1, \dots, 3$. In this work, we consider, connectivity level vectors such that $\min_{i = 1, \dots, 3} k_i < 3$. We present either a constructive linear network coding scheme or an instance of a network that cannot support the desired unit-rate requirement, for all such connectivity level vectors except the vector $[1~2~4]$ (and its permutations). The benefits of our schemes extend to networks with higher and potentially different edge capacities. Specifically, our experimental results indicate that for networks where the different source-terminal paths have a significant overlap, our constructive unit-rate schemes can be packed along with routing to provide higher throughput as compared to a pure routing approach.Comment: To appear in the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networkin

An Achievable Region for the Double Unicast Problem Based on a Minimum Cut Analysis

We consider the multiple unicast problem under network coding over directed acyclic networks when there are two source-terminal pairs, s1 - t1 and s2 - t2. Current characterizations of the multiple unicast capacity region in this setting have a large number of inequalities, which makes them hard to explicitly evaluate. In this work we consider a slightly different problem. We assume that we only know certain minimum cut values for the network, e.g., mincut(Si, Tj), where Si ⊆ {si, s2} and Tj ⊆ {t1, t2} for different subsets Si and Tj. Based on these values, we propose an achievable rate region for this problem based on linear codes. Towards this end, we begin by defining a base region where both sources are multicast to both the terminals. Following this we enlarge the region by appropriately encoding the information at the source nodes, such that terminal ti is only guaranteed to decode information from the intended source si, while decoding a linear function of the other source. The rate region takes different forms depending upon the relationship of the different cut values in the network

OPTIMIZATION OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION HAZMATS AND REGULAR COMMODITIES

Transportation of dangerous goods has been receiving more attention in the realm of academic and scientific research during the last few decades as countries have been increasingly becoming industrialized throughout the world, thereby making Hazmats an integral part of our life style. However, the number of scholarly articles in this field is not as many as those of other areas in SCM. Considering the low-probability-and-high-consequence (LPHC) essence of transportation of Hazmats, on the one hand, and immense volume of shipments accounting for more than hundred tons in North America and Europe, on the other, we can safely state that the number of scholarly articles and dissertations have not been proportional to the significance of the subject of interest. On this ground, we conducted our research to contribute towards further developing the domain of Hazmats transportation, and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), in general terms. Transportation of Hazmats, from logistical standpoint, may include all modes of transport via air, marine, road and rail, as well as intermodal transportation systems. Although road shipment is predominant in most of the literature, railway transportation of Hazmats has proven to be a potentially significant means of transporting dangerous goods with respect to both economies of scale and risk of transportation; these factors, have not just given rise to more thoroughly investigation of intermodal transportation of Hazmats using road and rail networks, but has encouraged the competition between rail and road companies which may indeed have some inherent advantages compared to the other medium due to their infrastructural and technological backgrounds. Truck shipment has ostensibly proven to be providing more flexibility; trains, per contra, provide more reliability in terms of transport risk for conveying Hazmats in bulks. In this thesis, in consonance with the aforementioned motivation, we provide an introduction into the hazardous commodities shipment through rail network in the first chapter of the thesis. Providing relevant statistics on the volume of Hazmat goods, number of accidents, rate of incidents, and rate of fatalities and injuries due to the incidents involving Hazmats, will shed light onto the significance of the topic under study. As well, we review the most pertinent articles while putting more emphasis on the state-of-the-art papers, in chapter two. Following the discussion in chapter 3 and looking at the problem from carrier company’s perspective, a mixed integer quadratically constraint problem (MIQCP) is developed which seeks for the minimization of transportation cost under a set of constraints including those associating with Hazmats. Due to the complexity of the problem, the risk function has been piecewise linearized using a set of auxiliary variables, thereby resulting in an MIP problem. Further, considering the interests of both carrier companies and regulatory agencies, which are minimization of cost and risk, respectively, a multiobjective MINLP model is developed, which has been reduced to an MILP through piecewise linearization of the risk term in the objective function. For both single-objective and multiobjective formulations, model variants with bifurcated and nonbifurcated flows have been presented. Then, in chapter 4, we carry out experiments considering two main cases where the first case presents smaller instances of the problem and the second case focuses on a larger instance of the problem. Eventually, in chapter five, we conclude the dissertation with a summary of the overall discussion as well as presenting some comments on avenues of future work