Slicing-Based Artificial Intelligence Service Provisioning on the Network Edge: Balancing AI Service Performance and Resource Consumption of Data Management

Edge intelligence leverages computing resources on the network edge to provide artificial intelligence (AI) services close to network users. As it enables fast inference and distributed learning, edge intelligence is envisioned to be an important component of 6G networks. In this article, we investigate AI service provisioning for supporting edge intelligence. First, we present the features and requirements of AI services. Then we introduce AI service data management and customize network slicing for AI services. Specifically, we propose a novel resource-pooling method to regularize service data exchange within the network edge while allocating network resources for AI services. Using this method, network resources can be properly allocated to network slices to fulfill AI service requirements. A trace-driven case study demonstrates that the proposed method can allow network slicing to satisfy diverse AI service performance requirements via the flexible selection of resource-pooling policies. In this study, we illustrate the necessity, challenge, and potential of AI service provisioning on the network edge and provide insights into resource management for AI services

Network on Chip: a New Approach of QoS Metric Modeling Based on Calculus Theory

A NoC is composed by IP cores (Intellectual Propriety) and switches connected among themselves by communication channels. End-to-End Delay (EED) communication is accomplished by the exchange of data among IP cores. Often, the structure of particular messages is not adequate for the communication purposes. This leads to the concept of packet switching. In the context of NoCs, packets are composed by header, payload, and trailer. Packets are divided into small pieces called Flits. It appears of importance, to meet the required performance in NoC hardware resources. It should be specified in an earlier step of the system design. The main attention should be given to the choice of some network parameters such as the physical buffer size in the node. The EED and packet loss are some of the critical QoS metrics. Some real-time and multimedia applications bound up these parameters and require specific hardware resources and particular management approaches in the NoC switch. A traffic contract (SLA, Service Level Agreement) specifies the ability of a network or protocol to give guaranteed performance, throughput or latency bounds based on mutually agreed measures, usually by prioritizing traffic. A defined Quality of Service (QoS) may be required for some types of network real time traffic or multimedia applications. The main goal of this paper is, using the Network on Chip modeling architecture, to define a QoS metric. We focus on the network delay bound and packet losses. This approach is based on the Network Calculus theory, a mathematical model to represent the data flows behavior between IPs interconnected over NoC. We propose an approach of QoS-metric based on QoS-parameter prioritization factors for multi applications-service using calculus model

The relationship between ILL/document supply and journal subscriptions

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide insights into the relationship between ILL/ document supply and journal subscriptions and to assess recent trends in the ILL service. Design/methodology/Approach: This survey is based on data from the ILL service conducted over the five year period 2005-2009 through the Italian NILDE (Network for Inter-Library Document Exchange) network. Findings: This article bears out important previous findings that ILL is not used as a surrogate for journal subscriptions. This is supported by the analysis of a broad number of titles and over a wide time-range. On the contrary, analysis of data transactions, particularly of the most requested journals, can bring about positive effects on new title acquisitions and negotiations with publishers. This paper also shows, at least for Italy, an overall growth and vitality of ILL, in spite of the widespread availability of e-journals acquired through consortia purchasing. Originality/Value: An insight into the relationship between ILL and journal subscriptions in Italy, a country where few studies have been carried out, and none at all for such a large number of libraries and transactions

Big Data and Analysis of Data Transfers for International Research Networks Using NetSage

Modern science is increasingly data-driven and collaborative in nature. Many scientific disciplines, including genomics, high-energy physics, astronomy, and atmospheric science, produce petabytes of data that must be shared with collaborators all over the world. The National Science Foundation-supported International Research Network Connection (IRNC) links have been essential to enabling this collaboration, but as data sharing has increased, so has the amount of information being collected to understand network performance. New capabilities to measure and analyze the performance of international wide-area networks are essential to ensure end-users are able to take full advantage of such infrastructure for their big data applications. NetSage is a project to develop a unified, open, privacy-aware network measurement, and visualization service to address the needs of monitoring today's high-speed international research networks. NetSage collects data on both backbone links and exchange points, which can be as much as 1Tb per month. This puts a significant strain on hardware, not only in terms storage needs to hold multi-year historical data, but also in terms of processor and memory needs to analyze the data to understand network behaviors. This paper addresses the basic NetSage architecture, its current data collection and archiving approach, and details the constraints of dealing with this big data problem of handling vast amounts of monitoring data, while providing useful, extensible visualization to end users

Augmented reality for high-throughput phenotyping

Master of ScienceDepartment of Computer ScienceMitchell NeilsenSmart glasses, like smart phones, have separate operating systems, and can execute many different kinds of software and games. Smart glasses can be used to add a schedule, map navigation, interact with friends, take photos and videos, and make video calls with friends through voice control. They can support wireless network access through a mobile communication network. Bluetooth is a radio technology that supports short-range communication between of the devices. It can exchange information between devices including mobile phones, wireless headsets, laptops, etc. Bluetooth technology can effectively simplify the communication between mobile devices. This thesis focuses on smart glasses applications for high-throughput phenotyping which requires a data monitor, data synchronization, Bluetooth service, and voice control between devices. On the Android side, the application, which is extended, is called Field Book. The new software called Field Book AR, includes a data monitor module and a Bluetooth server module to achieve data exchange with smart glasses. On the smart glasses side, the application is called DataReceiver. It receives voice commands from users and controls the actions of Field Book AR. Also, when Field Book detects data changing, it accepts new data and shows changes to the users

Intersectoral collaboration at a decentralized level:Information flows in child welfare and healthcare networks

BACKGROUND: As needs of families with social and behavioral health problems often exceed the expertise and possibilities of a single professional, service or organization, cross-service collaboration is indispensable to adequately meeting those needs. Despite the progressive focus on organizing integrated care, service fragmentation and service duplication remain persistent problems in child welfare and healthcare service delivery systems. A crucial factor to overcome these problems is information exchange between organizations. This study explores and compares the development over time of structures of information exchange in networks, concerning both material and knowledge-based information. METHODS: A comparative case study and social network analysis of three inter-organizational networks of child welfare and healthcare services in different-sized municipalities in the Netherlands. The research population consisted of organizations from various sectors participating in the networks. Data were collected at two moments in time with a mixed method: semi-structured interviews with network managers and an online questionnaire for all network members. Density and degree centralization were used to examine the information exchange structures. Ucinet was used to analyze the data, with use of the statistical tests: Compare Density Procedure and Quadratic Assignment Procedure. RESULTS: This study shows that different structures of information exchange can be distinguished, concerning both material and knowledge-based information. The overall connectedness of the studied structures of the networks are quite similar, but the way in which the involvement is structured turns out to be different between the networks. Over time, the overall connectedness of those structures appears to be stable, but the internal dynamics reveals a major change in relationships between organizations in the networks. CONCLUSIONS: Our study yields empirical evidence for the existence of and the differences between structures and dynamics of both material and knowledge-based information exchange relationships. With a loss of more than a half of the relations in a year, the relationships between the organizations in the network are not very stable over time. The contrast between major internal dynamics and the stable overall connectedness is an important point of concern for network managers and public officials, since this impermanence of relations means that long-term integrated care cannot be guaranteed

Transport service triads in supply networks

This doctoral thesis deals with the embeddedness of transport services in supply networks. The exchange of transport services depends on the exchange of goods since exchange of goods generates demand for transport services. The transport service triad is introduced to explore connections among business relationships involved in the exchange of goods and in the exchange of transport services. The transport service triad involves three firms and four generic roles: the buyer of goods, the supplier of goods, the buyer of transport services, and the supplier of transport services.The theoretical framework takes point of departure in the industrial network approach and in the literature on triads. The industrial network approach highlights three interrelated network layers – activities, resources, and actors – and is used to capture interdependencies in supply networks. The triad is the smallest unit of analysis to analyse connectedness among business relationships. The triad is used to explore embeddedness in and of triads. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to explore embeddedness in and of transport service triads in supply networks.A qualitative case study approach is used to explore how firms organise and manage interdependencies related to transport services in supply networks and implications of connectedness between business relationships. The empirical data stem from actors involved in transport service triads and adjacent actors relating to the transport service triad. The thesis builds on five appended papers. This thesis shows how triads in general, and the transport service triad in particular, are critical units of analysis to understand how business relationships are connected in supply networks. In addition, this thesis highlights various types of embeddedness. This thesis adds to our knowledge of (1) triads in supply networks, (2) the intricacies of a supply network context leaping from dyads to triads to the broader network, (3) how firms organise transport services and handle the interdependencies that exist in supply networks, (4) the implications of connected business relationships, and (5) consequences on transport performance

Adaptive data synchronization algorithm for IoT-oriented low-power wide-area networks

The Internet of Things (IoT) is by now very close to be realized, leading the world towards a new technological era where people’s lives and habits will be definitively revolutionized. Furthermore, the incoming 5G technology promises significant enhancements concerning the Quality of Service (QoS) in mobile communications. Having billions of devices simultaneously connected has opened new challenges about network management and data exchange rules that need to be tailored to the characteristics of the considered scenario. A large part of the IoT market is pointing to Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs) representing the infrastructure for several applications having energy saving as a mandatory goal besides other aspects of QoS. In this context, we propose a low-power IoT-oriented file synchronization protocol that, by dynamically optimizing the amount of data to be transferred, limits the device level of interaction within the network, therefore extending the battery life. This protocol can be adopted with different Layer 2 technologies and provides energy savings at the IoT device level that can be exploited by different applications