A Peer-to-Peer Network Framework Utilising the Public Mobile Telephone Network

P2P (Peer-to-Peer) technologies are well established and have now become accepted as a mainstream networking approach. However, the explosion of participating users has not been replicated within the mobile networking domain. Until recently the lack of suitable hardware and wireless network infrastructure to support P2P activities was perceived as contributing to the problem. This has changed with ready availability of handsets having ample processing resources utilising an almost ubiquitous mobile telephone network. Coupled with this has been a proliferation of software applications written for the more capable `smartphone' handsets. P2P systems have not naturally integrated and evolved into the mobile telephone ecosystem in a way that `client-server' operating techniques have. However as the number of clients for a particular mobile application increase, providing the `server side' data storage infrastructure becomes more onerous. P2P systems offer mobile telephone applications a way to circumvent this data storage issue by dispersing it across a network of the participating users handsets. The main goal of this work was to produce a P2P Application Framework that supports developers in creating mobile telephone applications that use distributed storage. Effort was assigned to determining appropriate design requirements for a mobile handset based P2P system. Some of these requirements are related to the limitations of the host hardware, such as power consumption. Others relate to the network upon which the handsets operate, such as connectivity. The thesis reviews current P2P technologies to assess which was viable to form the technology foundations for the framework. The aim was not to re-invent a P2P system design, rather to adopt an existing one for mobile operation. Built upon the foundations of a prototype application, the P2P framework resulting from modifications and enhancements grants access via a simple API (Applications Programmer Interface) to a subset of Nokia `smartphone' devices. Unhindered operation across all mobile telephone networks is possible through a proprietary application implementing NAT (Network Address Translation) traversal techniques. Recognising that handsets operate with limited resources, further optimisation of the P2P framework was also investigated. Energy consumption was a parameter chosen for further examination because of its impact on handset participation time. This work has proven that operating applications in conjunction with a P2P data storage framework, connected via the mobile telephone network, is technically feasible. It also shows that opportunity remains for further research to realise the full potential of this data storage technique

Survey of End-to-End Mobile Network Measurement Testbeds, Tools, and Services

Mobile (cellular) networks enable innovation, but can also stifle it and lead to user frustration when network performance falls below expectations. As mobile networks become the predominant method of Internet access, developer, research, network operator, and regulatory communities have taken an increased interest in measuring end-to-end mobile network performance to, among other goals, minimize negative impact on application responsiveness. In this survey we examine current approaches to end-to-end mobile network performance measurement, diagnosis, and application prototyping. We compare available tools and their shortcomings with respect to the needs of researchers, developers, regulators, and the public. We intend for this survey to provide a comprehensive view of currently active efforts and some auspicious directions for future work in mobile network measurement and mobile application performance evaluation.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials. arXiv does not format the URL references correctly. For a correctly formatted version of this paper go to http://www.cs.montana.edu/mwittie/publications/Goel14Survey.pd

Designing an open-source cloud-native MLOps pipeline

Deploying machine learning models is found to be a massive issue in the field. DevOps and Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) has proven to streamline and accelerate deployments in the field of software development. Creating CI/CD pipelines in software that includes elements of Machine Learning (MLOps) has unique problems, and trail-blazers in the field solve them with the use of proprietary tooling, often offered by cloud providers. In this thesis, we describe the elements of MLOps. We study what the requirements to automate the CI/CD of Machine Learning systems in the MLOps methodology. We study if it is feasible to create a state-of-the-art MLOps pipeline with existing open-source and cloud-native tooling in a cloud provider agnostic way. We designed an extendable and cloud-native pipeline covering most of the CI/CD needs of Machine Learning system. We motivated why Machine Learning systems should be included in the DevOps methodology. We studied what unique challenges machine learning brings to CI/CD pipelines, production environments and monitoring. We analyzed the pipeline’s design, architecture, and implementation details and its applicability and value to Machine Learning projects. We evaluate our solution as a promising MLOps pipeline, that manages to solve many issues of automating a reproducible Machine Learning project and its delivery to production. We designed it as a fully open-source solution that is relatively cloud provider agnostic. Configuring the pipeline to fit the client needs uses easy-to-use declarative configuration languages (YAML, JSON) that require minimal learning overhead

Transmissão de video melhorada com recurso a SDN em ambientes baseados em cloud

The great technological development of informatics has opened the way for provisioning various services and new online-based entertainment services, which have expanded significantly after the increase in social media applications and the number of users. This significant expansion has posed an additional challenge to Internet Service Providers (ISP)s in terms of management for network, equipment and the efficiency of service delivery. New notions and techniques have been developed to offer innovative solutions such as SDN for network management, virtualization for optimal resource utilization and others like cloud computing and network function virtualization. This dissertation aims to manage live video streaming in the network automatically by adding a design architecture to the virtual network environment that helps to filter video packets from the remaining ones into a certain tunnel and this tunnel will be handled as a higher priority to be able to provide better service for customers. With the dedicated architecture, side by side, a monitoring application integrated into the system was used to detect the video packets and notify the SDN server to the existence of the video through the networkOs grandes avanços tecnológicos em informática abriram o caminho para o fornecimento de vários serviços e novos aplicações de entretenimento baseadas na web, que expandiram significativamente com a explosão no número de aplicações e utilizadores das redes sociais. Esta expansão significativa colocou desafios adicionais aos fornecedores de serviços de rede, em termos de gestão de rede, equipamento e a eficácia do fornecimento de serviços. Novas noções e técnicas foram desenvolvidas para oferecer soluções inovadoras, tais como redes definidas por software (SDN) para a gestão de rede, virtualização para a optimização da utilização dos recursos e outros, tais como a computação em nuvem e as funções de rede virtualizadas. Esta dissertação pretende gerir automaticamente a emissão de vídeo ao vivo na rede, através da adição de uma arquitetura ao ambiente de rede virtualizado, que auxilie a filtragem de pacotes de vídeo dos do restante tráfego, para um túnel específico, que será gerido com uma prioridade maior, capaz de fornecer melhor serviço aos clientes. Além do desenho da arquitectura, scripts de Python foram usados para detectar os pacotes de vídeo e injetar novas regras no controlador SDN que monitoriza o tráfego ao longo da rede.Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e Telemátic

Towards Message Brokers for Generative AI: Survey, Challenges, and Opportunities

In today's digital world, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) such as Large Language Models (LLMs) is becoming increasingly prevalent, extending its reach across diverse applications. This surge in adoption has sparked a significant increase in demand for data-centric GenAI models, highlighting the necessity for robust data communication infrastructures. Central to this need are message brokers, which serve as essential channels for data transfer within various system components. This survey aims to delve into a comprehensive analysis of traditional and modern message brokers, offering a comparative study of prevalent platforms. Our study considers numerous criteria including, but not limited to, open-source availability, integrated monitoring tools, message prioritization mechanisms, capabilities for parallel processing, reliability, distribution and clustering functionalities, authentication processes, data persistence strategies, fault tolerance, and scalability. Furthermore, we explore the intrinsic constraints that the design and operation of each message broker might impose, recognizing that these limitations are crucial in understanding their real-world applicability. Finally, this study examines the enhancement of message broker mechanisms specifically for GenAI contexts, emphasizing the criticality of developing a versatile message broker framework. Such a framework would be poised for quick adaptation, catering to the dynamic and growing demands of GenAI in the foreseeable future. Through this dual-pronged approach, we intend to contribute a foundational compendium that can guide future innovations and infrastructural advancements in the realm of GenAI data communication.Comment: 20 pages, 181 references, 7 figures, 5 table

Migration of a cloud-based microservice platform to a container solution

Este trabajo presenta las labores realizadas durante 6 meses de prácticas en Gandi SAS, en el proyecto Caliopen. Caliopen es un proyecto open-source de mensajería orientado a respetar la privacidad de sus usuarios. El objetivo del trabajo es la administración y mejora de la plataforma de mensajería del proyecto, haciéndola evolucionar a una solución estable y escalable. La memoria describe el estudio y la implantación de una solución basada en Kubernetes para la nueva plataforma, desplegada en la plataforma de IaaS de Gandi. En el proceso también se describen las diferentes herramientas y utilidades desarrolladas, así como la solución implementada para monitorizar el sistema

Increasing service visibility for future, softwarised air traffic management data networks

Air Traffic Management (ATM) is at an exciting frontier. The volume of air traffic is reaching the safe limits of current infrastructure. Yet, demand for more air traffic continues. To meet capacity demands, ATM data networks are increasing in complexity with: greater infrastructure integration, higher availability and precision of services; and the introduction of unmanned systems. Official recommendations into previous disruptive outages have high-lighted the need for operators to have richer monitoring capabilities and operational systems visibility, on-demand, in response to challenges. The work presented in this thesis, helps ATM operators better understand and increase visibility into the behaviour of their services and infrastructure, with the primary aim to inform decision-making to reduce service disruption. This is achieved by combining a container-based NFV framework with Software- Defined Networking (SDN). The application of SDN+NFV in this work allows lightweight, chain-able monitoring and anomaly detection functions to be deployed on-demand, and the appropriate (sub)set of network traffic routed through these virtual network functions to provide timely, context-specific information. This container-based function deployment architecture, allows for punctual in-network processing through the instantiation of custom functionality, at appropriate locations. When accidents do occur, such as the crash of a UAV, the lessons learnt should be integrated into future systems. For one such incident, the accident investigation identified a telemetry precursor an hour prior. The function deployment architecture allows operators to extend and adapt their network infrastructure, to incorporate the latest monitoring recommendations. Furthermore, this work has examined relationships in application-level information and network layer data representing individual examples of a wide range of generalisable cases including: between the cyber and physical components of surveillance data, the rate of change in telemetry to determine abnormal aircraft surface movements, and the emerging behaviour of network flooding. Each of these examples provide valuable context-specific benefits to operators and a generalised basis from which further tools can be developed to enhance their understanding of their networks