Architecture for orchestration of M2M services

The past few years, miniaturization has allowed usto imbue computers into everyday devices. This in turn hasenabled these devices to communicate with each other, and in doing so, allows us to collect a wealth of information, moreaccurately and with greater availability than ever before. Thisphenomenon is known as the Internet of Things. It allows smart environments to truly behave in an intelligent manner by using information collected from the devices mentioned above. However, it’s necessary to model how the gathered data will influence the behavior of a smart environment. This open problem can be approached as a machine to machine (M2M) orchestration.In this paper we present a new architecture for M2Morchestration. This new architecture will be based around aplatform that creates orchestration processes through a graphical interface. Through this interface a business process execution language (BPEL) service will be made and deployed on an enterprise service bus (ESB). Alongside this, we are also developing a collection of services that will be used for the purposes of implementing a smart environment

Dynamic Interdomain Network Slicing for verticals in the 5Growth project

Proceedings of: IEEE Conference on Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks (NFV-SDN), 9-11 Nov. 2021, Heraklion, Greece.This paper proposes and validates a Interdomain Network Slicing framework for verticals, allowing them to directly participate in the establishment and control of end-to-end Communication Services deployment across multiple inter-operator domains. The framework progresses the means made available by different standards and research initiatives to enhance service requesting and provisioning interfaces for the stakeholders involved, namely operators and verticals. The framework is validated under two different use cases, showcasing effective end-to-end service instantiation and a first assessment towards dynamic service modification capability.This work has been supported by EC H2020 5GPPP 5Growth project (Grant 856709)

Novel homozygous OSGEP gene pathogenic variants in two unrelated patients with Galloway-Mowat syndrome : case report and review of the literature

Galloway-Mowat syndrome (GAMOS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by early-onset nephrotic syndrome and microcephaly with brain anomalies. WDR73 pathogenic variants were described as the first genetic cause of GAMOS and, very recently, four novel causative genes, OSGEP, LAGE3, TP53RK, and TPRKB, have been identified. We present the clinical and genetic characteristics of two unrelated infants with clinical suspicion of GAMOS who were born from consanguineous parents. Both patients showed a similar clinical presentation, with early-onset nephrotic syndrome, microcephaly, brain atrophy, developmental delay, axial hypotonia, and early fatality. We identified two novel likely disease-causing variants in the OSGEP gene. These two cases, in conjunction with the findings of a literature review, indicate that OSGEP pathogenic variants are associated with an earlier onset of nephrotic syndrome and shorter life expectancy than WDR73 pathogenic variants. Our findings expand the spectrum of pathogenic variants in the OSGEP gene and, taken in conjunction with the results of the literature review, suggest that the OSGEP gene should be considered the main known monogenic cause of GAMOS. Early genetic diagnosis of GAMOS is of paramount importance for genetic counseling and family planning

An SFC-enabled approach for processing SSL/TLS encrypted traffic in future enterprise networks

In this paper, we propose an architecture based on NFV and SDN which allows to balance traffic analysis techniques using a Classifier. It steers flows to the appropriate Service Function Chaining (to open traffic or not) according to network requirements (such as, effectiveness, flexibility, scalability, performance, and privacy). The SSL/TLS traffic processing is carried-out by the centerpiece of this work, the SFC-enabled MITM. A Proof-of-Concept was conducted (focusing on our SFC-enabled MITM) which showed that functionalities lost due to encryption (Content Optimization, Caching, Network Anti-virus, and Content Filter) were recovered when processing opened traffic within its Service Function Chains. We also evaluated its impact on performance. The results show that cipher suite overhead plays a role but can be mitigated, the Classifier can alleviate the performance overhead of different traffic analysis techniques, network functions have lower impact to performance, and Service Function Chaining length influences page load time.publishe

Orchestrating an SFC-enabled SSL/TLS traffic processing architecture using MANO

The heterogeneity of 5G requirements commands more complex network architectures, imposing the need for network orchestration. ETSI NFV MANO is the standard which defines a common framework for vendors and operators to integrate their orchestration efforts. In this paper, we evaluated how an ETSI NFV MANO compliant orchestrator (OSM) fares while orchestrating an SFC-enabled SSL/TLS encrypted traffic processing architecture, which supports both edge and cloud deployments. A quantitative evaluation was carried-out, which assessed the responsiveness and overheads of OSM, as well as the actual functionality of our SSL/TLS processing architecture (with edge computing components). A qualitative evaluation was also carried-out, providing insight into the maturity of the current OSM release, what works well, what requires workarounds, and the actual limitations. A demonstration of the architecture evaluated in this work was accepted as a contribution to the ETSI OSM PoC Framework.publishe

Haematuria increases progression of advanced proteinuric kidney disease

Background Haematuria has been traditionally considered as a benign hallmark of some glomerular diseases; however new studies show that haematuria may decrease renal function. Objective To determine the influence of haematuria on the rate of chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression in 71 proteinuric patients with advanced CKD (baseline eGFR <30 mL/min) during 12 months of follow-up. Results The mean rate of decline in eGFR was higher in patients with both haematuria and proteinuria (haemoproteinuria, HP, n=31) than in patients with proteinuria alone (P patients, n=40) (-3.8±8.9 vs 0.9±9.5 mL/min/1.73m2/year, p<0.05, respectively). The deleterious effect of haematuria on rate of decline in eGFR was observed in patients <65 years (-6.8±9.9 (HP) vs. 0.1±11.7 (P) mL/min/1.73m2/year, p65 years (-1.2±6.8 (HP) vs. 1.5±7.7 (P) mL/min/1.73m2/year). Furthermore, the harmful effect of haematuria on eGFR slope was found patients with proteinuria >0.5 g/24 h (-5.8±6.4 (HP) vs. -1.37± 7.9 (P) mL/min/1.73m2/year, p<0.05), whereas no significant differences were found in patients with proteinuria < 0.5 g/24 h (-0.62±7.4 (HP) vs. 3.4±11.1 (P) mL/min/1.73m2/year). Multivariate analysis reported that presence of haematuria was significantly and independently associated with eGFR deterioration after adjusting for traditional risk factors, including age, serum phosphate, mean proteinuria and mean serum PTH (β=-4.316, p=0.025) Conclusions The presence of haematuria is closely associated with a faster decrease in renal function in advanced proteinuric CKD patients, especially in younger CKD patients with high proteinuria levels; therefore this high risk subgroup of patients would benefit of intensive medical surveillance and treatmentThis work was supported by grants from FIS (Programa Miguel Servet: CP10/00479, PI13/ 00802 and PI14/00883) and Spanish Society of Nephrology to Juan Antonio Moreno. Fundacion Lilly, FRIAT (Fundación Renal Iñigo Alvarez de Toledo) and ISCIII fund PI14/00386 to Jesus Egid

On the application of contextual IoT service discovery in Information Centric Networks

The continuous flow of technological developments in communications and electronic industries has led to the growing expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT). By leveraging the capabilities of smart networked devices and integrating them into existing industrial, leisure and communication applications, the IoT is expected to positively impact both economy and society, reducing the gap between the physical and digital worlds. Therefore, several efforts have been dedicated to the development of networking solutions addressing the diversity of challenges associated with such a vision. In this context, the integration of Information Centric Networking (ICN) concepts into the core of IoT is a research area gaining momentum and involving both research and industry actors. The massive amount of heterogeneous devices, as well as the data they produce, is a significant challenge for a wide-scale adoption of the IoT. In this paper we propose a service discovery mechanism, based on Named Data Networking (NDN), that leverages the use of a semantic matching mechanism for achieving a flexible discovery process. The development of appropriate service discovery mechanisms enriched with semantic capabilities for understanding and processing context information is a key feature for turning raw data into useful knowledge and ensuring the interoperability among different devices and applications. We assessed the performance of our solution through the implementation and deployment of a proof-of-concept prototype. Obtained results illustrate the potential of integrating semantic and ICN mechanisms to enable a flexible service discovery in IoT scenarios

The CPLEAR detector at CERN

The CPLEAR collaboration has constructed a detector at CERN for an extensive programme of CP-, T- and CPT-symmetry studies using ${\rm K}^0$ and $\bar{\rm K}^0$ produced by the annihilation of $\bar{\rm p}$'s in a hydrogen gas target. The ${\rm K}^0$ and $\bar{\rm K}^0$ are identified by their companion products of the annihilation ${\rm K}^{\pm} \pi^{\mp}$ which are tracked with multiwire proportional chambers, drift chambers and streamer tubes. Particle identification is carried out with a liquid Cherenkov detector for fast separation of pions and kaons and with scintillators which allow the measurement of time of flight and energy loss. Photons are measured with a lead/gas sampling electromagnetic calorimeter. The required antiproton annihilation modes are selected by fast online processors using the tracking chamber and particle identification information. All the detectors are mounted in a 0.44 T uniform field of an axial solenoid of diameter 2 m and length 3.6 m to form a magnetic spectrometer capable of full on-line reconstruction and selection of events. The design, operating parameters and performance of the sub-detectors are described.

TOTP Moving Target Defense for sensitive network services

Edge computing is crucial for many of the new 5G business vertical use-cases, such as Industry 4.0 robots, safety-critical communications, and highly-efficient smart grids. However, the tighter integration of such impactful businesses into previously core network operations raises significant security, trustworthiness, and reliability issues. A business vertical must not compromise the Edge platform to other business verticals. Likewise, the vertical Network Services (NSs) entrusted to the Edge should not be compromisable by adversary action. Inspired by the existing Internet Services Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) systems, we propose a Moving Target Defense (MTD) mechanism that protects sensitive NSs using a port mutation akin to a seamless Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP) authentication. Our architecture leverages Software-Defined Networking (SDN) to perform the mutations, having the option of working exclusively as a Virtual Network Function (VNF) that can be instantiated on-demand, or in conjunction with OpenFlow hardware-accelerated switches for smarter resource usage. The straightforward Proof-of-Concept implementation showed the approach was viable, with good forwarding plane performance (exceeding the current Network Interface Controllers capabilities), and effective at stopping the unauthorized interactions with the NS being protected. Because the TOTP approach depends on time and there is commonly occurring jitter (e.g., network), the Threat Detection must make a trade-off between minimizing false-positives (too many alarms) and having false-negatives (attempts that go unreported). We have struck a balance that reduces the probability of a rogue probe reaching the NS to nearly 0.0045%, while the probability of stopping an attack but not generating the alarm is approximately 2%. Future work, such as adaptive delay compensation or the use of AI/ML, may further improve the effectiveness of the solution.This work has been supported by the EU Commission through the 5GROWTH project (grant agreement no. 856709) and the European Regional Development Fund through the Portugal 2020 program CENTRO 2020 [Project SOCA (CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000010)]