Towards distributed architecture for collaborative cloud services in community networks

Internet and communication technologies have lowered the costs for communities to collaborate, leading to new services like user-generated content and social computing, and through collaboration, collectively built infrastructures like community networks have also emerged. Community networks get formed when individuals and local organisations from a geographic area team up to create and run a community-owned IP network to satisfy the community’s demand for ICT, such as facilitating Internet access and providing services of local interest. The consolidation of today’s cloud technologies offers now the possibility of collectively built community clouds, building upon user-generated content and user-provided networks towards an ecosystem of cloud services. To address the limitation and enhance utility of community networks, we propose a collaborative distributed architecture for building a community cloud system that employs resources contributed by the members of the community network for provisioning infrastructure and software services. Such architecture needs to be tailored to the specific social, economic and technical characteristics of the community networks for community clouds to be successful and sustainable. By real deployments of clouds in community networks and evaluation of application performance, we show that community clouds are feasible. Our result may encourage collaborative innovative cloud-based services made possible with the resources of a community.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

A broker based consumption mechanism for social clouds

The new consumption without ownership paradigm is leading towards a “rental economy” where people can now rent and use various services from third-parties within a market of “shared” resources. The elimination of ownership has increased the marginal utility of consumption and reduced the risks associated with permanent ownership. In the absence of ownership the consumption in the global marketplace has become more dynamic and has positively impacted various economic and social sectors. The concept of “consumption without ownership” can also be used in the area of cloud computing where the interaction between clients and providers generally involves the use of data storage and computational resources. Although a number of commercial providers are currently on the market, it is often beneficial for a user to consider capability from a number of different ones. This would prevent vendor lock-in and more economic choice for a user. Based on this observation, work on “Social Clouds” has involved using social relationships formed between individuals and institutions to establish Peer-2-Peer resource sharing networks, enabling market forces to determine how demand for resources can be met by a number of different (often individually owned) providers. In this paper we identify how trading and consumption within such a network could be enhanced by the dynamic emergence (or identification) of brokers – based on their social position in the network (based on connectivity metrics within a social network). We investigate how offering financial incentives to such brokers, once discovered, could help improve the number of trades that could take place with a network, thereby increasing consumption. A social score algorithm is described and simulated with PeerSim to validate our approach. We also compare the approach to a distributed dominating set algorithm – the closest approximation to our approach

Cloud provider capacity augmentation through automated resource bartering

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Growing interest in Cloud Computing places a heavy workload on cloud providers which is becoming increasingly difficult for them to manage with their primary data centre infrastructures. Resource scarcity can make providers vulnerable to significant reputational damage and it often forces customers to select services from the larger, more established companies, sometimes at a higher price. Funding limitations, however, commonly prevent emerging and even established providers from making a continual investment in hardware speculatively assuming a certain level of growth in demand. As an alternative, they may opt to use the current inter-cloud resource sharing systems which mainly rely on monetary payments and thus put pressure on already stretched cash flows. To address such issues, a new multi-agent based Cloud Resource Bartering System (CRBS) is implemented in this work that fosters the management and bartering of pooled resources without requiring costly financial transactions between IAAS cloud providers. Agents in CRBS collaborate to facilitate bartering among providers which not only strengthens their trading relationships but also enables them to handle surges in demand with their primary setup. Unlike existing systems, CRBS assigns resources by considering resource urgency which comparatively improves customers’ satisfaction and the resource utilization rate by more than 50%. The evaluation results verify that our system assists providers to timely acquire the additional resources and to maintain sustainable service delivery. We conclude that the existence of such a system is economically beneficial for cloud providers and enables them to adapt to fluctuating workloads

Blockchain supported BIM data provenance for construction projects

The management of construction projects requires adequate techniques to support the continual exchange of information across disciplines. Recent advances in Building Information Modelling (BIM) have exposed new ways for process and data integration with open data formats, process mapping, and terminology. In construction projects where multiple disciplines produce and share BIM data, mechanisms for defining information priority, provenance and suitability become necessary in order to have consistent and traceable use of data. This includes objects or collection of attributes for data objects that are associated with a discipline or organisation including clear identification of the transaction that has introduced the information. Blockchain can be used to record metadata of BIM objects such as the issuing discipline, object version and responsibility/ liability associated with the data. Blockchain can offer the capability to apply levels of “trust” to individual BIM objects and a more secured framework of collaboration across stakeholders. This paper proposes a Blockchain-based BIM data provenance model to support information exchange in construction projects. By testing the solution in a real-world bridge construction scenario, it has been shown that the approach can recognise the levels of competence and can improve the process of BIM implementation. The proposed approach gives stakeholders more confidence when sharing their BIM data, reduces costs, and improves risk contingencies in construction projects. The paper provides a cost analysis to evidence the implications of using Blockchain for BIM data provenance through an experimental framework supported by an Ethereum public test network. A front-end web page has also been created to facilitate interaction with smart contracts and to monitor the BIM data provenance process

Leveraging BIM and blockchain for digital twins

The digitalization of the construction industry has been supported recently with various building information modelling (BIM) methods applied to lifecycle stages. This has enabled the transition towards an improved management of information required in the development of different construction project tasks. In a digital construction context, traceability of models and collaboration across disciplines is required especially when dealing with sensitive data and critical infrastructures. Blockchain technology has the potential to advance the automation of processes in the construction industry by offering a higher level of data traceability, incentivising participation, and ensuring transparency with projects. This paper presents how BIM and Blockchain can be utilised to facilitate the establishment and implementation of Digital Twins for construction projects. A highway construction case study is used for demonstrating the implementation of smart contracts for managing tasks and processes across different disciplines involved in a construction project

The Evolving Governance of REDD+

Peer reviewe

The 45th Australasian Universities Building Education Association Conference: Global Challenges in a Disrupted World: Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Approaches in the Built Environment, Book of Abstracts, 23 - 25 November 2022

This is the book of abstract of the 45th Australasian Universities Building Education Association (AUBEA) conference, which will be hosted by Western Sydney University in November 2022. The conference is organised by the School of Engineering, Design, and Built Environment in collaboration with the Centre for Smart Modern Construction, Western Sydney University. This year’s conference theme is “Global Challenges in a Disrupted World: Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Approaches in the Built Environment”, and expects to publish over a hundred double-blind peer review papers under the proceedings

The Elements of Big Data Value

This open access book presents the foundations of the Big Data research and innovation ecosystem and the associated enablers that facilitate delivering value from data for business and society. It provides insights into the key elements for research and innovation, technical architectures, business models, skills, and best practices to support the creation of data-driven solutions and organizations. The book is a compilation of selected high-quality chapters covering best practices, technologies, experiences, and practical recommendations on research and innovation for big data. The contributions are grouped into four parts: · Part I: Ecosystem Elements of Big Data Value focuses on establishing the big data value ecosystem using a holistic approach to make it attractive and valuable to all stakeholders. · Part II: Research and Innovation Elements of Big Data Value details the key technical and capability challenges to be addressed for delivering big data value. · Part III: Business, Policy, and Societal Elements of Big Data Value investigates the need to make more efficient use of big data and understanding that data is an asset that has significant potential for the economy and society. · Part IV: Emerging Elements of Big Data Value explores the critical elements to maximizing the future potential of big data value. Overall, readers are provided with insights which can support them in creating data-driven solutions, organizations, and productive data ecosystems. The material represents the results of a collective effort undertaken by the European data community as part of the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the European Commission and the Big Data Value Association (BDVA) to boost data-driven digital transformation

The White/Wiphala Paper on Indigenous Peoples’ food systems

Our life depends on nature and we contribute to nature through nurturing. This symbiotic relationship is something all of us are beginning to understand more and more. Since millennia, Indigenous Peoples have been protecting their environment and biodiversity. Today scientists are telling us that 80 percent of the remaining world’s biodiversity is in our lands and territories. We didn’t know this. Our ancestors did not know about biodiversity, ecology, ecosystem services or CO2 trapping, but they knew that protecting the ecosystems, environment and biodiversity were essential for our wellbeing and sustainability. Our elders, mothers and fathers taught us this as a way to exhibit good behaviour in the community