LCOGT Network Observatory Operations

We describe the operational capabilities of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network. We summarize our hardware and software for maintaining and monitoring network health. We focus on methodologies to utilize the automated system to monitor availability of sites, instruments and telescopes, to monitor performance, permit automatic recovery, and provide automatic error reporting. The same jTCS control system is used on telescopes of apertures 0.4m, 0.8m, 1m and 2m, and for multiple instruments on each. We describe our network operational model, including workloads, and illustrate our current tools, and operational performance indicators, including telemetry and metrics reporting from on-site reductions. The system was conceived and designed to establish effective, reliable autonomous operations, with automatic monitoring and recovery - minimizing human intervention while maintaining quality. We illustrate how far we have been able to achieve that.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Standardized Performance Measurement and Reporting in Emergency Departments (EDs)

Describes the RWJF-funded Urgent Matters Learning Network, a collaborative of six hospitals working to develop strategies to improve patient flow and reduce crowding. Outlines seven standardized performance measures they are piloting and reporting on

A Financial Analysis of Mobile Money Services

With limited reporting by mobile network operators (“MNOs”) on the financial performance of mobile money businesses, the paper develops a financial reporting framework to indentify (and quantify) operating costs associated with delivering mobile financial services to unbanked populations in emerging markets. The framework is based on a review of relevant literature and an analysis of the financial reporting of conventional money transfer businesses.Mobile money, M-PESA, financial analysis, mobile operators.

Reporting Score Distributions Makes a Difference: Performance Study of LSTM-networks for Sequence Tagging

In this paper we show that reporting a single performance score is insufficient to compare non-deterministic approaches. We demonstrate for common sequence tagging tasks that the seed value for the random number generator can result in statistically significant (p < 10^-4) differences for state-of-the-art systems. For two recent systems for NER, we observe an absolute difference of one percentage point F1-score depending on the selected seed value, making these systems perceived either as state-of-the-art or mediocre. Instead of publishing and reporting single performance scores, we propose to compare score distributions based on multiple executions. Based on the evaluation of 50.000 LSTM-networks for five sequence tagging tasks, we present network architectures that produce both superior performance as well as are more stable with respect to the remaining hyperparameters.Comment: Accepted at EMNLP 201

The balanced scorecard logic in the management control and reporting of small business company networks: a case study

The purpose of this paper is to assess and integrate the application of the balance scorecard (BSC) logic into business networks identifying functions and use that such performance measuring tool may undertake for SME’s collaborative development. Thus, the paper analyses a successful case study regarding an Italian network of small companies, evaluating how the multidimensional perspective of BSC can support strategic and operational network management as well as communication of financial and extra financial performance to stakeholders. The study consists of a qualitative method, proposing the application of BSC model for business networks from international literature. Several meetings and interviews as well as triangulation with primary and secondary documents have been conducted. The case study allows to recognize how BSC network logic can play a fundamental role on defining network mission, supporting management control as well as measuring and reporting the intangible assets formation along the network development lifecycle. This is the first time application of a BSC integrated framework for business networks composed of SMEs. The case study demonstrates operational value of BSC for SME’s collaborative development and success

System Analysis for the Huntsville Operation Support Center, Distributed Computer System

HOSC as a distributed computing system, is responsible for data acquisition and analysis during Space Shuttle operations. HOSC also provides computing services for Marshall Space Flight Center's nonmission activities. As mission and nonmission activities change, so do the support functions of HOSC change, demonstrating the need for some method of simulating activity at HOSC in various configurations. The simulation developed in this work primarily models the HYPERchannel network. The model simulates the activity of a steady state network, reporting statistics such as, transmitted bits, collision statistics, frame sequences transmitted, and average message delay. These statistics are used to evaluate such performance indicators as throughout, utilization, and delay. Thus the overall performance of the network is evaluated, as well as predicting possible overload conditions

A model for assessing and reporting network performance measurement in SANReN

The performance measurement of a service provider network is an important activity. It is required for the smooth operation of the network as well as for reporting and planning. SANReN is a service provider tasked with serving the research and education network of South Africa. It currently has no structure or process for determining network performance metrics to measure the performance of its network. The objective of this study is to determine, through a process or structure, which metrics are best suited to the SANReN environment. This study is conducted in 3 phases in order to discover and verify the solution to this problem. The phases are "Contextualisation", "Design",and "Verification". The "Contextualisation" phase includes the literature review. This provides the context for the problem area but also serves as a search function for the solution. This study adopts the design science research paradigm which requires the creation of an artefact. The "Design" phase involves the creation of the conceptual network performance measurement model. This is the artefact and a generalised model for determining the network performance metrics for an NREN. To prove the utility of the model it is implemented in the SANReN environment. This is done in the "Verification" phase. The network performance measurement model proposes a process to determine network performance metrics. This process includes getting NREN requirements and goals, defining the NRENs network design goals through these requirements, define network performance metrics from these goals, evaluating the NRENs monitoring capability, and measuring what is possible. This model provides a starting point for NRENs to determine network performance metrics tailored to its environment. This is done in the SANReN environment as a proof of concept. The utility of the model is shown through the implementation in the SANReN environment thus it can be said that it is generic.The tools that monitor the performance of the SANReN network are used to retrieve network performance data from. Through understanding the requirements, determining network design goals and performance metrics, and determining the gap the retrieving of results took place. These results are analysed and finally aggregated to provide information that feeds into SANReN reporting and planning processes. A template is provided to do the aggregation of metric results. This template provides the structure to enable metrics results aggregation but leaves the categories or labels for the reporting and planning sections blank. These categories are specific to each NREN. At this point SANReN has the aggregated information to use for planning and reporting. The model is verified and thus the study’s main research objective is satisfied

The development of metrica

Examining performance data over time can help operators identify underlying trends that would go unnoticed if the data was merely looked at in real time, then discarded. Network performance reporting management can lead to a more proactive style of network management. Metrica/NPR is a Network Performance Reporting application that provides network operators an integrated view of the performance of telecommunications networks for various technology including wireless, wireline and Internet Protocol (IP). Metrica/NPR helps operators improve their understanding of network behavior by managing, analyzing and reporting, performance statistics generated by the network. Metrica/NPR 3.3 is the latest release of Metrica/NPR product line produced by ADC in order to adopt the challenge of a continuously changing network environment. It is a significant release, which is for the first time being developed from ADC research and development (R&D) center in Kuala Lumpur. ADC Software Systems is an ISO9001:2000 certified company since June 1998 for its management system in product development and deployment. Quality management system, now called as business management system (BMS), is the primary process reference in product development. The development of Metrica/NPR 3.3 explores the internal part of ADC development process involved in producing a great software product, focusing on coding and testing, based on BMS. Besides the requirement of high set of programming technique and deep exploration on different operating system environment, this technical report explains the details aspect of the software development activities such as coding, testing, project management and configuration management

Cluster-based cooperative subcarrier sensing using antenna diversity-based weighted data fusion

Cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) is used in cognitive radio (CR) networks to improve the spectrum sensing performance in shadow fading environments. Moreover, clustering in CR networks is used to reduce reporting time and bandwidth overhead during CSS. Thus, cluster-based cooperative spectrum sensing (CBCSS) has manifested satisfactory spectrum sensing results in harsh environments under processing constraints. On the other hand, the antenna diversity of multiple input multiple output CR systems can be exploited to further improve the spectrum sensing performance. This paper presents the CBCSS performance in a CR network which is comprised of single- as well as multiple-antenna CR systems. We give theoretical analysis of CBCSS for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signal sensing and propose a novel fusion scheme at the fusion center which takes into account the receiver antenna diversity of the CRs present in the network. We introduce the concept of weighted data fusion in which the sensing results of different CRs are weighted proportional to the number of receiving antennas they are equipped with. Thus, the receiver diversity is used to the advantage of improving spectrum sensing performance in a CR cluster. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional CBCSS scheme

Superallocation and Cluster‐Based Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in 5G Cognitive Radio Network

Consequently, the research and development for the 5G systems have already been started. This chapter presents an overview of potential system network architecture and highlights a superallocation technique that could be employed in the 5G cognitive radio network (CRN). A superallocation scheme is proposed to enhance the sensing detection performance by rescheduling the sensing and reporting time slots in the 5G cognitive radio network with a cluster‐based cooperative spectrum sensing (CCSS). In the 4G CCSS scheme, first, all secondary users (SUs) detect the primary user (PU) signal during a rigid sensing time slot to check the availability of the spectrum band. Second, during the SU reporting time slot, the sensing results from the SUs are reported to the corresponding cluster heads (CHs). Finally, during CH reporting time slots, the CHs forward their hard decision to a fusion center (FC) through the common control channels for the global decision. However, the reporting time slots for the SUs and CHs do not contribute to the detection performance. In this chapter, a superallocation scheme that merges the reporting time slots of SUs and CHs by rescheduling the reporting time slots as a nonfixed sensing time slot for SUs to detect the PU signal promptly and more accurately is proposed. In this regard, SUs in each cluster can obtain a nonfixed sensing time slot depending on their reporting time slot order. The effectiveness of the proposed chapter that can achieve better detection performance under –28 to –10 dB environments and thus reduce reporting overhead is shown through simulations