Understanding the characteristics of Internet traffic and designing an efficient RaptorQ-based data transport protocol for modern data centres

This thesis is the amalgamation of research on efficient data transport protocols for data centres and a comprehensive and systematic study of Internet traffic, which came as a result of the need to understand traffic patterns and workloads in modern computer networks. The first part of the thesis is on the development of efficient data transport pro- tocols for data centres. We study modern data transport protocols for data centres through large scale simulations using the OMNeT++ simulator. We developed and experimented with an OMNeT++ model of NDP. This has led to the identification of limitations of the state of the art and the formulation of research questions with respect to data transport protocols for modern data centres. The developed model includes an implementation of a Fat-tree topology and per-packet ECMP load bal- ancing. We discuss how we integrated the model with the INET Framework and validated it by running various experiments that test different model parameters and components. This work revealed limitations of NDP with respect to efficient one-to-many and many-to-one communication in data centres, which led to the de- velopment of SCDP, a novel and general-purpose data transport protocol for data centres that, in contrast to all other protocols proposed to date, natively supports one-to-many and many-to-one data communication, which is extremely common in modern data centres. SCDP does so without compromising on efficiency for short and long unicast flows. SCDP achieves this by integrating RaptorQ codes with receiver-driven data transport, in-network packet trimming and Multi-Level Feed- back Queuing (MLFQ); (1) RaptorQ codes enable efficient one-to-many and many- to-one data transport; (2) on top of RaptorQ codes, receiver- driven flow control, in combination with in-network packet trimming, enable efficient usage of network re- sources as well as multi-path transport and packet spraying for all transport modes. Incast and Outcast are eliminated; (3) the systematic nature of RaptorQ codes, in combination with MLFQ, enable fast, decoding-free completion of short flows. We extensively evaluated SCDP in a wide range of simulated scenarios with realistic data centre workloads. For one-to-many and many-to-one transport sessions, SCDP performs significantly better than NDP. For short and long unicast flows, SCDP performs equally well or better compared to NDP. In the second part of the thesis, we extensively study Internet traffic. Getting good statistical models of traffic on network links is a well-known, often-studied problem. A lot of attention has been given to correlation patterns and flow duration. The distribution of the amount of traffic per unit time is an equally important but less studied problem. We study a large number of traffic traces from many different networks including academic, commercial and residential networks using state-of-the-art statistical techniques. We show that the log-normal distribution is a better fit than the Gaussian distribution. We also investigate a second, heavy- tailed distribution and show that its performance is better than Gaussian but worse than log-normal. We examine anomalous traces which are a poor fit for all tested distributions and show that this is often due to traffic outages or links that hit maximum capacity. Stationarity tests showed that the traffic is stationary at some range of aggregation times. We demonstrate the utility of the log-normal distribution in two contexts: predicting the proportion of time traffic will exceed a given level (for link capacity estimation) and predicting 95th percentile pricing. We also show the log-normal distribution is a better predictor than Gaussian orWeibull distributions

MIS 301 Introduction to Computer Concepts

Course syllabus for MIS 301 Introduction to Computer Concepts Course description: This course will provide an introduction to the use of computers in business data processing including introductory concepts of computer technology. This will include hands-on experience with Microsoft package applications, focuses on the use of electronic spreadsheet, word processing, database and graphic software

A Quantitative analysis of the value added services produced by digital color printers as perceived by print buyers

This thesis project conducted a market research study of printers as well as print buyers. The digital printing presses that were used are the Xeikon, Indigo, GTO-DI, versus the conventional offset lithographic printing presses. A market analysis was conducted to determine how much a particular job would cost if it were to be printed on any of these presses. These figures are based on different quantities (printing volume) and different time frames (turnaround times). Samples from each press were presented to various print buyers with a questionnaire and scenarios. Based on the results, a break-even analysis between digital printing and offset lithography was conducted. The questionnaire determined how much more print buyers are willing to pay for quicker turn around and also when print buyers would choose digital over offset printing (i.e. type of work). These results clarify many questions regarding cost/benefit ratios for digital printing. Furthermore, this study assists managers of printing firms in their deliberation of the world of digital printing. This analysis provides them with a better vision of the future market for digital printing

Philosophy and Perception of Beauty in Architecture

Definitions of beauty and space are as diverse as defined by the disciplines in which it plays a fundamental role; from science and philosophy to art and architecture, each field’s definition for the perception of the beauty of space is often simplified or reduced. This consequently denies us access new spaces whose definitions and perspectives, strategies and impacts on human perception of beauty of space are rarely considered in any cohesive manner. The debate, “Perception of beauty in Architecture and human perception of space”. The research tries to reflect upon new understanding to the meaning of beauty in architecture and thus access new definitions and understanding to the beauty perspectives, strategies and processes of perception beauty in architecture. Some works of architecture have remarkable aesthetic value. According to certain philosophers, part of this value derives from the appearance of such constructions to fulfill the function for which they were built. The research digs through the dilemma of form follows function and argues that one way of understanding the connection between function and aesthetic value resides in the concept of functional and beauty together not the idea of function vs. beauty; the paper attempts to offer a better way of understanding it

Evaluating modern data centre transport protocols in OMNeT++/INET

In this paper we present our work towards an evaluation platform for data centre transport protocols. We developed a simulation model for NDP1, a modern data transport protocol in data centres, a FatTree network topology and per-packet ECMP load balancing. We also developed a data centre environment that can be used to evaluate and compare data transport protocols, such as NDP and TCP. We describe how we integrated our model with the INET Framework and present example simulations to showcase the workings of the developed framework. For that, we ran a comprehensive set of experiments and studied different components and parameters of the developed models

Evaluation of energy performance of the most prevalent housing archetypes in Jordan

The residential sector is responsible for the consumption of 46% of the building’s total primary energy consumption in Jordan. Despite the Jordanian government’s commitment to significantly reduce national emissions by 2050, building Operational Carbon (OC) has been under-researched in the Jordanian context. This study aims to present the development of an archetypes-based housing stock model. The model is then used to evaluate the impact of a series of suggested refurbishment scenarios, to reduce the stock’s operational carbon impact. First, the most prevalent dwellings are identified and categorized into ‘archetypes’ based on the analysis of a housing survey database on Jordanian dwellings. Subsequently, the performance of these archetypes is evaluated in terms of OC. Finally, the improvement scenarios are investigated, and their impact on OC is evaluated

White Matter Microstructural Correlates of Cognitive and Motor Functioning Revealed via Multimodal Multivariate Analysis

Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience emphasise the importance of healthy white matter (WM) in optimal behavioural functioning. It is now widely accepted that brain connectivity via WM contributes to the emergence of behaviour. However, the association between the microstructure of these fibre and behaviour is poorly understood. This is due to indirect and overlapping methods of assessing microstructure, and the oversimplification approaches in assessing behaviour. Here, we used the Mahalanobis Distance (D2) to integrate 10 metrics of WM derived from multimodal neuroimaging that have strong ties to microstructure. The D2 was chosen because it measures the voxelwise distance between every subject and the average, while also accounting for the overlap between the metrics. To examine WM-behaviour associations, we used multivariate regression to examine the voxelwise correlates of 2 cognitive and 2 motor tasks, which allowed us to compare within and across domains in white matter. We observed that behaviour is organised in cognitive, motor, and integrative variables that are widespread in their associations with WM, from frontal to parietal regions. Our results highlight the complex nature of microstructure and behaviour, and show the need for multivariate modelling when examining brain-behaviour associations

A Statistical Analysis of the Energy Performance Characteristics for the Residential Building Stock in Jordan

The residential sector is responsible for the consumption of 46% of the building’s total primary energy consumption in Jordan. The Jordanian housing stock will need to be significantly improved to meet the government’s commitment to reduce national emissions by 2050. This research aims to examine the available statistical data on residential buildings, to help better understand the current state of housing stock in Jordan and pave the way to generate a national housing stock model, as well as to identify opportunities in improving the energy efficiency of these buildings. The study synthesised data from the Department of Statistics housing survey and the Jordan Green Building Council survey to investigate the Jordanian national housing stock. The aggregated data was examined using a descriptive statistical analysis method. The data was then merged to provide aggregated datasets with detailed building characteristics. The study successfully characterized residential buildings archetypes and identified a range of typical thermal performance-related building characteristics (e.g., envelope properties, HVAC systems, lighting systems, etc.). The findings of the statistical analysis can be useful for policymakers in Jordan to gain insights into the current state of the housing stock, identify trends and patterns, and make informed decisions and initiatives such as the improvement of regulatory building code requirements for energy efficiency

A Review of the Methodology Developed to Investigate CO₂ Emissions of the Housing Stock in Jordan

The dwellings make up 72% of buildings and consume around 40% of the primary energy in Jordan. Consequently, reducing carbon emissions from existing residential buildings is crucial. However, there are no mandatory and explicit terms in the building codes concerning carbon emissions. This paper aims to present a methodology suggesting refurbishment strategies to assess the feasibility of achieving Net-Zero carbon performance in the Jordanian housing stock. It can constitute a theoretical framework to identify intervention measures