On The Hourglass Model, The End-to-End Principle and Deployment Scalability

The hourglass model is a widely used as a means of describing the design of the Internet, and can be found in the introduction of many modern textbooks. It arguably also applies to the design of other successful spanning layers, notably the Unix operating system kernel interface, meaning the primitive system calls and the interactions between user processes and the kernel. The impressive success of the Internet has led to a wider interest in using the hourglass model in other layered systems, with the goal of achieving similar results. However, application of the hourglass model has often led to controversy, perhaps in part because the language in which it has been expressed has been informal, and arguments for its validity have not been precise. Making a start on formalizing such an argument is the goal of this paper

On The Hourglass Model, The End-to-End Principle and Deployment Scalability

The hourglass model is a widely used as a means of describing the design of the Internet, and can be found in the introduction of many modern textbooks. It arguably also applies to the design of other successful spanning layers, notably the Unix operating system kernel interface, meaning the primitive system calls and the interactions between user processes and the kernel. The impressive success of the Internet has led to a wider interest in using the hourglass model in other layered systems, with the goal of achieving similar results. However, application of the hourglass model has often led to controversy, perhaps in part because the language in which it has been expressed has been informal, and arguments for its validity have not been precise. Making a start on formalizing such an argument is the goal of this paper

The Beauty of Complex Designs

The increasing use of omics data in epidemiology enables many novel study designs, but also introduces challenges for data analysis. We describe the possibilities for systems epidemiological designs in the Norwegian Women and Cancer (NOWAC) study and show how the complexity of NOWAC enables many beautiful new study designs. We discuss the challenges of implementing designs and analyzing data. Finally, we propose a systems architecture for swift design and exploration of epidemiological studies

Using RAW as Control Plane for Wireless Deterministic Networks: Challenges Ahead

This paper provides extensive analysis of RAW (Reliable and Available Wireless) enhancements and solutions needed to manage industrial environments more effectively. Starting from the description of the industrial use case, an analysis of gaps and potential new extensions is performed. Namely, the need to (i) support multi-domain operation, at both technology and administrative levels; (ii) integrate RAW with edge architectures; and, (iii) the support for mobility support in RAW networks, are analysed. The identified gaps are indeed not yet tackled by the relevant standardisation development organisations, mainly the Internet Engineering Task Force, and are thus object of our future wor

Using RAW as control plane for wireless deterministic networks: challenges ahead

MobiHoc '23: Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth International Symposium on Theory, Algorithmic Foundations, and Protocol Design for Mobile Networks and Mobile Computing, 23-26 October 2023, Washington DC, USA.This paper provides an extensive analysis of Reliable and Available Wireless (RAW) enhancements and solutions needed to manage industrial environments more effectively. Starting from the description of a representative industrial use case, an analysis of gaps and promising new extensions is performed. Namely, the need to (i) support multi-domain operation, at both technology and administrative levels; (ii) integrate RAW with edge architectures; and, (iii) increase the mobility support in RAW networks. The identified gaps are indeed not yet tackled by the relevant standardization development organizations, mainly the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and are thus object of our future work.This work has been partially funded by the European Commission Horizon Europe SNS JU PREDICT-6G (GA 101095890) Project and the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the European Union-NextGenerationEU through the UNICO 5G I+D 6G-EDGEDT and 6G-DATADRIVEN

Exposed Buffer Architecture

The Internet stack is not a complete description of the resources and services needed to implement distributed applications, as it only accounts for communication services and the protocols that are defined to deliver them. This paper presents an account of the current distributed application architecture using a formal model of strictly layered systems, meaning that services in any layer can only depend on services in the layer immediately below it. By mapping a more complete Internet-based application stack that includes necessary storage and processing resources to this formal model, we are able to apply the Hourglass Theorem in order to compare alternative approaches in terms of their "deployment scalability." In particular, we contrast the current distributed application stack with Exposed Buffer Architecture, which has a converged spanning layer that allows for less-than-complete communication connectivity (exposing lower layer topology), but which also offers weak storage and processing services. This comparison shows that Exposed Buffer Architecture can have deployment scalability greater than the current distributed application stack while also providing minimally requisite storage and processing services