NRPT: Improve Preparedness for Storm Events and Nuisance Flooding in the Norfolk Region

On June 18-20th, 2019, the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) and NOAA’s Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) co-sponsored a NOAA Regional Preparedness Training (NRPT) Workshop at Old Dominion University Tri-Cities Higher Education Center (Portsmouth, VA). The workshop, titled “Improve Preparedness for Storm Events and Nuisance Flooding in the Norfolk Region”, focused on preparedness, planning and response to extreme weather events and nuisance flooding. This was the fifth workshop in a series of DPP NRPTs. The overall goal of the Norfolk workshop was to provide focused discussion regarding lessons learned from local partners during the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season and build a common understanding of how storm events and nuisance flooding will be addressed when they threaten mission personnel, infrastructure or natural resources. The specific objectives were to: Establish networks with local partners to improve preparedness. Identify gaps and ways to improve regional preparedness. Increase coordination among participants to bolster regional preparedness. Determine ways to provide adequate information and communicate knowledge, so that (1) the public and response community will make informed decisions relative to personal protection and safety, and (2) responders and natural resource managers more effectively mitigate regional disaster impacts. A one-day Tools Café was held prior to the workshop, with presentations and subsequent hands-on demonstrations of national and regionally-specific preparedness and response tools that are currently available to responders or the public. The two-day workshop included plenary presentations from local and federal emergency responders outlining their day-to-day operations, continuity of operations during an emergency, tools used to make decisions, and lessons learned from previous events

Continuous Application Delivery in Hybrid Environments

The use of hybrid deployment models is becoming a standard since it provides many benefits regarding on-demand scalability, high availability, and reliability. However, the management of resources (application specifications and infrastructure details) in a hybrid environment is a complex task since interfaces vary depending on the ven dor. Therefore, continuous practices already established must be adjusted whenever new interfaces are to be supported. This work aims to explore how a deployment process can be improved regarding the adoption of hybrid environments at the host organization DevScope, producing a proof of concept capable of explaining how this improvement can be achieved. A Components-of-the-Shelf (COTS) approach is followed for developing the solution that relies on different technologies to achieve the expected results. The proof of concept consists of deploying the infrastructure that supports the new deployment process and the orchestration of the components to enable the delivery of applica tions to the environments. Terraform is used to define and deploy the infrastructure, and KubeVela is the technology used for managing applications. The implementation of the solution made it clear that managing applications in heterogeneous platforms is not easy. After some experimentation and answers to a prepared questionnaire regarding the new deployment process, it was possible to conclude that the solution still has a margin for improvement and that some technologies are projects still being actively improved. Although KubeVela is not polished enough, it was possible to verify that it is easily extendable and that more scenarios for specific applications can be added when needed. The obtained results are relevant for future studies and will contribute to a better understanding of how the delivery of multiple applications can be homogenized. It also helps to address other problems, such as oversimplification of deployments, losing important infrastructure-based details, and the associated learning curve to deploy a complex application.A utilização de estratégias híbridas de implantação está a crescer gradualmente, uma vez que proporciona muitos benefícios em termos de escalabilidade, alta disponibilidade e fiabilidade. No entanto, a gestão de recursos (especificações da aplicação e detalhes da infraestrutura) num ambiente híbrido é uma tarefa complexa, uma vez que as interfaces variam consoante o fornecedor, pelo que as práticas contínuas já estabelecidas devem ser ajustadas sempre que novas interfaces necessitam de ser suportadas. Este trabalho visa explorar a forma como o processo de implementação pode ser melhorado relativamente à adoção de ambientes híbridos na DevScope. Foi adoptada uma abordagem “Components-of-the-Shelf” (COTS) para desenvolver a solução, que se baseia em diferentes tecnologias para alcançar os resultados esperados. A prova de conceito consistiu na implementação da infraestrutura que suporta o novo processo de implementação e na preparação dos componentes para permitir a entrega de aplicações aos ambientes. O Terraform foi utilizado para definir e implementar a infraestrutura e a principal tecnologia utilizada para gerir as aplicações foi o KubeVela. A implementação da solução tornou mais claro que a gestão de aplicações em plataformas heterogéneas não é fácil. Após alguma experimentação e respostas a um questionário preparado sobre o novo processo de implementação, foi possível concluir que a solução ainda tem margem para melhorias e que algumas tecnologias são projectos que estão a ser ainda ativamente melhorados. Embora o KubeVela não esteja suficientemente polido, foi possível verificar que é facilmente extensível e que podem ser adicionados mais cenários para aplicações específicas quando necessário. Os resultados obtidos são relevantes para estudos futuros e contribuirão para uma melhor compreensão de como a entrega de várias aplicações pode ser homogeneizada. Também ajudarão a resolver outros problemas, como a simplificação excessiva das implementações, a perda de alguns pormenores importantes baseados na infraestrutura e a curva de aprendizagem associada à implementação de uma aplicação complexa

Semantic-Oriented Performance Monitoring of Distributed Applications

Monitoring services are an essential component of large-scale computing infrastructures due to providing information which can be used by humans as well as applications to closely follow the progress of computations, to evaluate the performance of ongoing computing, etc. However, the users are usually left alone with performance measurements as to the interpreting and detecting of execution flaws. In this paper we present an approach to the performance monitoring of distributed applications based on semantic information about the monitored objects involved in the application execution. This allows to automate the guidance on what to measure further to come to a source of performance flaws as well to enable reacting on interesting events, e.g. on exceeding SLA parameters. Our research comprises the implementation of a robust system with semantics, which is not biased to an underlying ``physical'' monitoring system, giving the end user the power of intelligent monitoring functionality as well as the independence of the heterogeneity of distributed infrastructures

Design and implementation of a 10 Gigabit Ethernet XAUI test systems

10 Gigabit Ethernet has been standardized (IEEE 802.3ae), and products based on this standard are being deployed to interconnect MANs, WANs, Storage Area Networks, and very high speed LANs. The XAUI portion of the standard is primarily concerned with short range (up to 50 cm) chip-to-chip communication across printed circuit board traces. The UNH-IOL 10 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium, an industry-supported organization, performs PHY layer testing on products using a test system that has been partially implemented on a Xilinx ML321 evaluation board using the Virtex II-Pro FPGA. A new implementation of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet XAUI test system on the existing ML321 evaluation board is presented in this thesis. The new design removes a number of limitations present in the original Xilinx test system, and it adds new features to the existing transmit and receive sub-systems that enable test engineers to expand the range of test cases and analyze them while simultaneously increasing the speed of testing. The new test system also eliminates the need for expensive test instruments

Resource allocation in disaggregated optical networks

The recently introduced disaggregation model is gaining interest due to its benefits when compared with traditional models.In essence, it consists on the separation of traditional hardware appliances (e.g. servers, network nodes) into commodity components, which then are mounted independently for their exploitation into customized physical infrastructures. Such an approach allows telecommunication operators and service providers to appropriately size their infrastructure and grow as needed. One of the main key benefits of the disaggregation model is the break of the vendor lock-in, pushing towards interoperability between equipment from different vendor with minimum standardization of software and hardware specifications, allowing operators to build the best solutions for their needs. Moreover, efficient scaling is also an important benefit introduced by the disaggregation approach. Due to these benefits, among others, the disaggregation model is gaining momentum and is being adopted into multiple fields and domains of nowadays telecom infrastructures. In this regard, the scenario under study of this master thesis focuses on disaggregated optical transport networks. Disaggregation allows for more open and customized optical networks, reducing both capital and operational expenditures for infrastructure owners.However, despite of these positive aspects, disaggregated optical networks face several challenges, beingthe degradation of the network performance when compared to traditional integrated solutions the most important one. In this regard, this thesis investigates the impact of disaggregation in optical networks and investigates regeneration as a potential solution to compensate the performances’ degradation. Under this premise, optimal solutions for regenerator placement, exploiting the inherent grooming capabilities of regenerators, are proposed and evaluatedIncomin