Algon: a framework for supporting comparison of distributed algorithm performance

Programmers often need to use distributed algorithms to add non-functional behaviour such as mutual exclusion, deadlock detection and termination, to a distributed application. They find the selection and implementation of these algorithms daunting. Consequently, they have no idea which algorithm will be best for their particular application. To address this difficulty the Algon framework provides a set of pre-coded distributed algorithms for programmers to choose from, and provides a special performance display tool to support choice between algorithms. The performance tool is discussed. The developer of a distributed application will be able to observe the performance of each of the available algorithms according to a set of of widely accepted and easily-understandable performance metrics and compare and contrast the behaviour of the algorithms to support an informed choice. The strength of the Algon framework is that it does not require a working knowledge of algorithmic theory or functionality in order for the developer to use the algorithms

Permission-based fault tolerant mutual exclusion algorithm for mobile Ad Hoc networks

This study focuses on resolving the problem of mutual exclusion in mobile ad hoc networks. A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a wireless network without fixed infrastructure. Nodes are mobile and topology of MANET changes very frequently and unpredictably. Due to these limitations, conventional mutual exclusion algorithms presented for distributed systems (DS) are not applicable for MANETs unless they attach to a mechanism for dynamic changes in their topology. Algorithms for mutual exclusion in DS are categorized into two main classes including token-based and permission-based algorithms. Token-based algorithms depend on circulation of a specific message known as token. The owner of the token has priority for entering the critical section. Token may lose during communications, because of link failure or failure of token host. However, the processes for token-loss detection and token regeneration are very complicated and time-consuming. Token-based algorithms are generally non-fault-tolerant (although some mechanisms are utilized to increase their level of fault-tolerance) because of common problem of single token as a single point of failure. On the contrary, permission-based algorithms utilize the permission of multiple nodes to guarantee mutual exclusion. It yields to high traffic when number of nodes is high. Moreover, the number of message transmissions and energy consumption increase in MANET by increasing the number of mobile nodes accompanied in every decision making cycle. The purpose of this study is to introduce a method of managing the critical section,named as Ancestral, having higher fault-tolerance than token-based and fewer message transmissions and traffic rather that permission-based algorithms. This method makes a tradeoff between token-based and permission-based. It does not utilize any token, that is similar to permission-based, and the latest node having the critical section influences the entrance of the next node to the critical section, that is similar to token-based algorithms. The algorithm based on ancestral is named as DAD algorithms and increases the availability of fully connected network between 2.86 to 59.83% and decreases the number of message transmissions from 4j-2 to 3j messages (j as number of nodes in partition). This method is then utilized as the basis of dynamic ancestral mutual exclusion algorithm for MANET which is named as MDA. This algorithm is presented and evaluated for different scenarios of mobility of nodes, failure, load and number of nodes. The results of study show that MDA algorithm guarantees mutual exclusion,dead lock freedom and starvation freedom. It improves the availability of CS to minimum 154.94% and 113.36% for low load and high load of CS requests respectively compared to other permission-based lgorithm.Furthermore, it improves response time up to 90.69% for high load and 75.21% for low load of CS requests. It degrades the number of messages from n to 2 messages in the best case and from 3n/2 to n in the worst case. MDA algorithm is resilient to transient partitioning of network that is normally occurs due to failure of nodes or links

The Meeting of Acquaintances: A Cost-efficient Authentication Scheme for Light-weight Objects with Transient Trust Level and Plurality Approach

Wireless sensor networks consist of a large number of distributed sensor nodes so that potential risks are becoming more and more unpredictable. The new entrants pose the potential risks when they move into the secure zone. To build a door wall that provides safe and secured for the system, many recent research works applied the initial authentication process. However, the majority of the previous articles only focused on the Central Authority (CA) since this leads to an increase in the computation cost and energy consumption for the specific cases on the Internet of Things (IoT). Hence, in this article, we will lessen the importance of these third parties through proposing an enhanced authentication mechanism that includes key management and evaluation based on the past interactions to assist the objects joining a secured area without any nearby CA. We refer to a mobility dataset from CRAWDAD collected at the University Politehnica of Bucharest and rebuild into a new random dataset larger than the old one. The new one is an input for a simulated authenticating algorithm to observe the communication cost and resource usage of devices. Our proposal helps the authenticating flexible, being strict with unknown devices into the secured zone. The threshold of maximum friends can modify based on the optimization of the symmetric-key algorithm to diminish communication costs (our experimental results compare to previous schemes less than 2000 bits) and raise flexibility in resource-constrained environments.Comment: 27 page

Maximizing Profit in Green Cellular Networks through Collaborative Games

In this paper, we deal with the problem of maximizing the profit of Network Operators (NOs) of green cellular networks in situations where Quality-of-Service (QoS) guarantees must be ensured to users, and Base Stations (BSs) can be shared among different operators. We show that if NOs cooperate among them, by mutually sharing their users and BSs, then each one of them can improve its net profit. By using a game-theoretic framework, we study the problem of forming stable coalitions among NOs. Furthermore, we propose a mathematical optimization model to allocate users to a set of BSs, in order to reduce costs and, at the same time, to meet user QoS for NOs inside the same coalition. Based on this, we propose an algorithm, based on cooperative game theory, that enables each operator to decide with whom to cooperate in order to maximize its profit. This algorithms adopts a distributed approach in which each NO autonomously makes its own decisions, and where the best solution arises without the need to synchronize them or to resort to a trusted third party. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated through a thorough experimental evaluation considering real-world traffic traces, and a set of realistic scenarios. The results we obtain indicate that our algorithm allows a population of NOs to significantly improve their profits thanks to the combination of energy reduction and satisfaction of QoS requirements.Comment: Added publisher info and citation notic