State management in coreless mobile networks

The number of mobile Internet users has skyrocketed and with the advent of the Internet of things we are reaching the limits of the current telecommunications standard 4G. The improvements and goals set for the next standard, 5G, are not trivial and research is in progress to reach them. Improvements across all involved technology fields is needed. In this thesis we present a novel mobile network architecture-coreless mobile networks- and develop state management concepts, which we base on the analysis of the current 4G/LTE architecture. The coreless mobile network focuses on the redesign of the state management in mobile networks, more precisely, removal of state from 4G core network entities into an eternal ubiquitous data store. The architecture follows trends in current research, particularly network function virtualisation, software defined networking and mobile edge computing. The new network architecture requires a data storage solution that is capable of functioning as the state store in the mobile network environment. Thus, we present an overview of promising data stores and evaluate their suitability. Further in this thesis we present the results of benchmarking the Apache Geode data store, as an example of a state management solution that could be leveraged in realising the coreless mobile network architecture. We discovered that the Apache Geode data store is, depending on configuration, capable of delivering the data model, consistency, high availability, scaling, throughput and latency that are required in our proposed architecture. ACM Computing Classification System (CCS): - Information systems ~ Distributed storage - Information systems ~ Hierarchical storage management - Networks ~ Middle boxes / network appliances - Networks ~ Mobile network

NoSQL stores for coreless mobile networks

The goals of 5G networks — low latency, high bandwidth, and support for fast mobility — are non-trivial and they demand improvements across all involved technology fields. Researchers are therefore exploring approaches that leverage on network function virtualization and software-defined networking for meeting the demands of verticals expected to use 5G networks. One approach which appears promising is the concept of a coreless mobile network where the key network functions are placed at the edge of the network. In this article we focus on management of the user-context state in a coreless mobile network, and posit that these network functions can use a NoSQL data store for maintaining the user-context and other state variables. We first present an overview of promising NoSQL data stores and evaluate their suitability. We then present the results of benchmarking the Apache Geode data store as an example of a state management solution which could serve a coreless mobile network. During our tests we observe that the Apache Geode data store is, subject to its configuration, capable of delivering the data model, consistency, and high availability required by a coreless mobile network.Peer reviewe

Trends in food habits and their relation to socioeconomic status among Nordic adolescents 2001/2002-2009/2010

Background In the Nordic countries, substantial policy and intervention efforts have been made to increase adolescents' consumption of fruit and vegetables and to reduce their intake of sweets and soft drinks. Some initiatives have been formulated in a Nordic collaboration and implemented at national level. In recent years, social inequalities in food habits have been attracted particular governmental interest and several initiatives addressing the socioeconomic gradient in food habits have been highlighted. However, few internationally published studies have evaluated how trends in adolescents' food habits develop in the context of Nordic nutrition policy, or have compared differences between the Nordic countries. Methods The study was based on Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish cross-sectional data from the international Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study, collected via three nationally representative and comparable questionnaire surveys in 2001/2002, 2005/2006 and 2009/2010. Food habits were identified by students' consumption of fruit, vegetables, sweets and sugar sweetened soft drink. Socioeconomic status (SES) was measured with the Family Affluence Scale (FAS). Multilevel logistic regression was used to analyze the data. Results Trends in fruit consumption developed differently across countries, characterized by an increase in Denmark and Norway and more stable trends in Sweden and Finland. Vegetable consumption increased particularly in Denmark and to a lesser extent in Norway, whereas Sweden and Finland displayed stable trends. Decreased trends were observed for sweet and soft drink consumption and were similar in Norway, Sweden and Finland. Sweet consumption decreased across all survey years, whereas soft drink consumption decreased between 2001/2002–2005/2006 and was stable thereafter. Denmark displayed an increase between 2001/2002–2005/2006 followed by a similar decrease between 2005/2006–2009/2010 for both sweet and soft drink consumption. Socioeconomic inequalities in fruit and vegetable consumption were observed in all countries, with no cross-country differences, and no changes over time. Small but not significant cross-country variation was identified for SES inequalities in sweet consumption. Reduced SES inequalities were observed in Sweden between 2005/2006 and 2009/2010. SES was not associated with soft drink consumption in this study population, with the exception of Denmark for the survey year 2009/2010. Conclusion Different trends resulted in increased country differences in food habits during the time of observations. In survey year 2009/2010, Danish students reported a higher intake of fruit and vegetable consumption than their counterparts in the other Nordic countries. Finnish students reported the lowest frequency of sweets and soft drink consumption. Despite the positive dietary trends documented in the present study, the majority of Nordic adolescents are far from meeting national dietary recommendations. Our findings underline the need for more comprehensive initiatives targeting young people's food habits as well as a more deliberate and focused action to close gaps in social inequalities that affect food choices

OR (95% CI) for the association between family affluence and daily consumptions by country and survey year, adjusted for gender.

<p>OR (95% CI) for the association between family affluence and daily consumptions by country and survey year, adjusted for gender.</p

Response rate.

<p>Response rate.</p