Management And Security Of Multi-Cloud Applications

Single cloud management platform technology has reached maturity and is quite successful in information technology applications. Enterprises and application service providers are increasingly adopting a multi-cloud strategy to reduce the risk of cloud service provider lock-in and cloud blackouts and, at the same time, get the benefits like competitive pricing, the flexibility of resource provisioning and better points of presence. Another class of applications that are getting cloud service providers increasingly interested in is the carriers\u27 virtualized network services. However, virtualized carrier services require high levels of availability and performance and impose stringent requirements on cloud services. They necessitate the use of multi-cloud management and innovative techniques for placement and performance management. We consider two classes of distributed applications – the virtual network services and the next generation of healthcare – that would benefit immensely from deployment over multiple clouds. This thesis deals with the design and development of new processes and algorithms to enable these classes of applications. We have evolved a method for optimization of multi-cloud platforms that will pave the way for obtaining optimized placement for both classes of services. The approach that we have followed for placement itself is predictive cost optimized latency controlled virtual resource placement for both types of applications. To improve the availability of virtual network services, we have made innovative use of the machine and deep learning for developing a framework for fault detection and localization. Finally, to secure patient data flowing through the wide expanse of sensors, cloud hierarchy, virtualized network, and visualization domain, we have evolved hierarchical autoencoder models for data in motion between the IoT domain and the multi-cloud domain and within the multi-cloud hierarchy

Evaluating Byzantine-Based Blockchain Consensus Algorithms for Sarawak’s Digitalized Pepper Value Chain

A chosen network structure of Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), a Byzantine-based consensus algorithm, is proposed to minimize some of the identified pain points faced by the pepper stakeholders. Byzantine-based consensus algorithms are used to achieve the same agreement on a single data value, including transactions and block state, and to maintain system continuity even when several nodes have failed to respond or transmit inconsistent messages in the blockchain network

Plant-Wide Diagnosis: Cause-and-Effect Analysis Using Process Connectivity and Directionality Information

Production plants used in modern process industry must produce products that meet stringent environmental, quality and profitability constraints. In such integrated plants, non-linearity and strong process dynamic interactions among process units complicate root-cause diagnosis of plant-wide disturbances because disturbances may propagate to units at some distance away from the primary source of the upset. Similarly, implemented advanced process control strategies, backup and recovery systems, use of recycle streams and heat integration may hamper detection and diagnostic efforts. It is important to track down the root-cause of a plant-wide disturbance because once corrective action is taken at the source, secondary propagated effects can be quickly eliminated with minimum effort and reduced down time with the resultant positive impact on process efficiency, productivity and profitability. In order to diagnose the root-cause of disturbances that manifest plant-wide, it is crucial to incorporate and utilize knowledge about the overall process topology or interrelated physical structure of the plant, such as is contained in Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs). Traditionally, process control engineers have intuitively referred to the physical structure of the plant by visual inspection and manual tracing of fault propagation paths within the process structures, such as the process drawings on printed P&IDs, in order to make logical conclusions based on the results from data-driven analysis. This manual approach, however, is prone to various sources of errors and can quickly become complicated in real processes. The aim of this thesis, therefore, is to establish innovative techniques for the electronic capture and manipulation of process schematic information from large plants such as refineries in order to provide an automated means of diagnosing plant-wide performance problems. This report also describes the design and implementation of a computer application program that integrates: (i) process connectivity and directionality information from intelligent P&IDs (ii) results from data-driven cause-and-effect analysis of process measurements and (iii) process know-how to aid process control engineers and plant operators gain process insight. This work explored process intelligent P&IDs, created with AVEVA® P&ID, a Computer Aided Design (CAD) tool, and exported as an ISO 15926 compliant platform and vendor independent text-based XML description of the plant. The XML output was processed by a software tool developed in Microsoft® .NET environment in this research project to computationally generate connectivity matrix that shows plant items and their connections. The connectivity matrix produced can be exported to Excel® spreadsheet application as a basis for other application and has served as precursor to other research work. The final version of the developed software tool links statistical results of cause-and-effect analysis of process data with the connectivity matrix to simplify and gain insights into the cause and effect analysis using the connectivity information. Process knowhow and understanding is incorporated to generate logical conclusions. The thesis presents a case study in an atmospheric crude heating unit as an illustrative example to drive home key concepts and also describes an industrial case study involving refinery operations. In the industrial case study, in addition to confirming the root-cause candidate, the developed software tool was set the task to determine the physical sequence of fault propagation path within the plant. This was then compared with the hypothesis about disturbance propagation sequence generated by pure data-driven method. The results show a high degree of overlap which helps to validate statistical data-driven technique and easily identify any spurious results from the data-driven multivariable analysis. This significantly increase control engineers confidence in data-driven method being used for root-cause diagnosis. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the approach and presents ideas for further development of the methods

IoT Applications Computing

The evolution of emerging and innovative technologies based on Industry 4.0 concepts are transforming society and industry into a fully digitized and networked globe. Sensing, communications, and computing embedded with ambient intelligence are at the heart of the Internet of Things (IoT), the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and Industry 4.0 technologies with expanding applications in manufacturing, transportation, health, building automation, agriculture, and the environment. It is expected that the emerging technology clusters of ambient intelligence computing will not only transform modern industry but also advance societal health and wellness, as well as and make the environment more sustainable. This book uses an interdisciplinary approach to explain the complex issue of scientific and technological innovations largely based on intelligent computing

Energy storage systems and grid code requirements for large-scale renewables integration in insular grids

This thesis addresses the topic of energy storage systems supporting increased penetration of renewables in insular systems. An overview of energy storage management, forecasting tools and demand side solutions is carried out, comparing the strategic utilization of storage and other competing strategies. Particular emphasis is given to energy storage systems on islands, as a new contribution to earlier studies, addressing their particular requirements, the most appropriate technologies and existing operating projects throughout the world. Several real-world case studies are presented and discussed in detail. Lead-acid battery design parameters are assessed for energy storage applications on insular grids, comparing different battery models. The wind curtailment mitigation effect by means of energy storage resources is also explored. Grid code requirements for large-scale integration of renewables are discussed in an island context, as another new contribution to earlier studies. The current trends on grid code formulation, towards an improved integration of distributed renewable resources in island systems, are addressed. Finally, modeling and control strategies with energy storage systems are addressed. An innovative energy management technique to be used in the day-ahead scheduling of insular systems with Vanadium Redox Flow battery is presented.Esta tese aborda a temática dos sistemas de armazenamento de energia visando o aumento da penetração de energias renováveis em sistemas insulares. Uma visão geral é apresentada acerca da gestão do armazenamento de energia, ferramentas de previsão e soluções do lado da procura de energia, comparando a utilização estratégica do armazenamento e outras estratégias concorrentes. É dada ênfase aos sistemas de armazenamento de energia em ilhas, como uma nova contribuição no estado da arte, abordando as suas necessidades específicas, as tecnologias mais adequadas e os projetos existentes e em funcionamento a nível mundial. Vários casos de estudos reais são apresentados e discutidos em detalhe. Parâmetros de projeto de baterias de chumbo-ácido são avaliados para aplicações de armazenamento de energia em redes insulares, comparando diferentes modelos de baterias. O efeito de redução do potencial de desperdício de energia do vento, recorrendo ao armazenamento de energia, também é perscrutado. As especificidades subjacentes aos códigos de rede para a integração em larga escala de energias renováveis são discutidas em contexto insular, sendo outra nova contribuição no estado da arte. As tendências atuais na elaboração de códigos de rede, no sentido de uma melhor integração da geração distribuída renovável em sistemas insulares, são abordadas. Finalmente, é estudada a modelação e as estratégias de controlo com sistemas de armazenamento de energia. Uma metodologia de gestão de energia inovadora é apresentada para a exploração de curto prazo de sistemas insulares com baterias de fluxo Vanádio Redox

Structural damage monitoring based on machine learning and bio-inspired computing

For a few decades, systems for supervising structures have become increasingly irnportant. In origin, the strategies had as a goal only the detection of damages. Furthermore, now monitor­ing the civil or military structures permanently and offering sufficient and relevant information helping make the right decisions. The SHM is applicable, carrying out preventive or corrective maintenance decisions, reducing the possibility of accidents, and promoting the reduction of costs that more extensive repairs imply when the damage is detected early. The current work focused on three elements of diagnosis of structural damage: detection, classification, and loca­tion, either in metaltic or cornposite material structures, given their wide use in air, land, rnar­itime transport vehicles, aerospace, wind turbines, civil and military infrastructure. This work used the tools offered by machine leaming and bio-inspired computing. Given the right results to solve complex problems and recognizing pattems. It also involves changes in temperature since it is one of the parameters that influence real environments' structures. Information of a statistical nature applied to recognizing pattems and reducing the size of the information was used with tools such as PCA (principal component analysis), thanks to the experience obtained in works developed by the CoDAlab research group. The document is divided into five parts. The first includes a general description of the problem, the objecti.-es, and the results obtained, in addition to a brief theoretical introduction. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 include articles published in different joumals. Chapter 5 shows the results and conclusions. Other contributions, such as a book chapter and sorne papers presented at conferences, are included in appendix A. Finally, appendix B presents a multiplexing system used to develop the experiments carried out in this work.Desde hace algunas décadas los sistemas para supervisar estructuras han tenido cada vez más relevancia. En esta evolución se ha pasado de estrategias que tenían como meta sólo la detec­ción de fallas a otras que buscan monitorizar permanentemente las estructuras bien sean éstas civiles o militares, ofreciendo información suficiente y pertinente que incide positivamente en el momento de tomar buenas decisiones, dentro de las cuales cabe destacar por ejemplo, las ori­entadas a realizar mantenimientos preventivos o correctivos si es del caso, reduciendo la posi­bilidad de accidentes, además de propiciar la disminución de costos que implican las repara­ciones más extensas cuando el daño se logra detectar de manera temprana. El presente trabajo se enfocó en tres elementos de diagnóstico de daños en estructuras, siendo estos en particular la detección, clasificación y localización, bien sea en estructuras metálicas o de material com­puesto, dado su amplio uso en vehículos de transporte aéreo, terrestre, marítimo, aeroespacial, aerogeneradores, infraestructura civil y militar. Se utilizaron las herramientas que ofrecen el aprendizaje automático (machine leaming) y la computación bio-inspirada, dados los buenos resultados que han ofrecido en la solución de problemas complejos y el reconocimiento de pa­trones. Involucrando cambios de temperatura dado que es uno de los parámetros a los que se ven enfrentadas las estructuras en ambientes reales. Se utilizó información de naturaleza estadística aplicada al reconocimiento de patrones y reducción del tamaño de la información con herramientas como el PCA (análisis de componentes principales), gracias a la experiencia lograda en trabajos desarrollados por el grupo de investigación CoDAlab. El documento está dividido en cinco capítulos. En el primerio se incluye una descripción general del problema, los objetivos y los resultados obtenidos, además de un breve introduc­ción teórica. Los Capítulos 2,3 y 4 incluyen los artículos publicados en diferentes revistas. En el Capítulo 5 se realiza una presentación de los resultados y conclusiones. En el Anexo A se incluyen otras contribuciones tales como un capítulo de libro y algunos trabajos presentados en conferencias. Finalmente en el anexo B se presenta el diseño de un sistema de multipliexación utilizado en el desarrollo de los experimentos realizados en el presente trabajo.Postprint (published version