Cloud Virtual Network Embedding: Profit, Power and Acceptance

In this paper, we investigate maximizing the profit achieved by infrastructure providers (InPs) from embedding virtual network requests (VNRs) in IP/WDM core networks with clouds. We develop a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model to study the impact of maximizing the profit on the power consumption and acceptance of VNRs. The results show that higher acceptance rates do not necessarily lead to higher profit due to the high cost associated with accepting some of the requests. The results also show that minimum power consumption can be achieved while maintaining the maximum profit

Energy Efficient Cloud Networks

Cloud computing is expected to be a major factor that will dominate the future Internet service model. This paper summarizes our work on energy efficiency for cloud networks. We develop a framework for studying the energy efficiency of four cloud services in IP over WDM networks: cloud content delivery, storage as a service (StaaS), and virtual machines (VMS) placement for processing applications and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).Our approach is based on the co-optimization of both external network related factors such as whether to geographically centralize or distribute the clouds, the influence of users’ demand distribution, content popularity, access frequency and renewable energy availability and internal capability factors such as the number of servers, switches and routers as well as the amount of storage demanded in each cloud. Our investigation of the different energy efficient approaches is backed with Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) models and real time heuristic

Energy Efficient Core Networks with Clouds

The popularity of cloud based applications stemming from the high volume of connected mobile devices has led to a huge increase in Internet traffic. In order to enable easy access to cloud applications, infrastructure providers have invested in geographically distributed databases and servers. However, intelligent and energy efficient high capacity transport networks with near ubiquitous connectivity are needed to adequately and sustainably serve these requirements. In this thesis, network virtualisation has been identified as a potential networking paradigm that can contribute to network agility and energy efficiency improvements in core networks with clouds. The work first introduces a new virtual network embedding core network architecture with clouds and a compute and bandwidth resource provisioning mechanism aimed at reducing power consumption in core networks and data centres. Further, quality of service measures in compute and bandwidth resource provisioning such as delay and customer location have been investigated and their impact on energy efficiency established. Data centre location optimisation for energy efficiency in virtual network embedding infrastructure has been investigated by developing a MILP model that selects optimal data centre locations in the core network. The work also introduces an optical OFDM based physical layer in virtual network embedding to optimise power consumption and optical spectrum utilization. In addition, virtual network embedding schemes aimed at profit maximization for cloud infrastructure providers as well greenhouse gas emission reduction in cloud infrastructure networks have been investigated. GreenTouch, a consortium of industrial and academic experts on energy efficiency in ICTs, has adopted the work in this thesis as one of the measures of improving energy efficiency in core networks

African indigenous churches and polygamy in the context of HIV and AIDS : the case of the Mutima church in Zambia.

Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.Women in the Mutima Church in Zambia have for some years had the highest HIV rate in the church, but because this is one of the African Indigenous Churches (AICs), not much is known about the behavioural and other risk factors that predispose these women to the virus. One of the reasons is that some members of the Mutima Church cannot make their own decisions when getting married. The church founder makes marital decisions for some of the church members. This problem raises serious questions for HIV health practitioners, activists and some of the church members. Informed by some of the Mutima Church members that HIV testing in their church is not considered a norm, this dissertation demonstrates theological teachings on polygamy and HIV and Aids employed by the church founder. In this dissertation, some church members from the Mutima Church were asked to describe and explain what polygamy and HIV and Aids meant to them and how they theologically perceived and understood them. While the major results indicate that polygamy in the Mutima Church contributes to the spread of HIV and Aids, the other new research findings are that the Mutima Church members' theological understanding on polygamy is that it is a blessing from God; and that HIV and Aids is a punishment from God. These responses are analysed and discussed in this dissertation

An investigation of talent management and staff retention at the Bank of Zambia

There is no question that effective talent management requires a well-defined process. Talent management includes all talent processes needed to optimise people within an organization. The processes include: attracting, recruiting targeted selection, performance management, succession planning, talent reviews, development planning and support, career development, and workforce planning. The hired employees should be developed to mould into the organization culture so that they support the vision and mission of the organization. Retention of key employee is critical to the long term success of business as it ensures customer satisfaction, product sales, and satisfied co-workers, reporting staff, effective succession planning and a deeply embedded organisational knowledge and learning culture. iii The research problem in this study was to investigate how successfully Talent Management and Employee Retention strategies been implemented at the Bank of Zambia. To achieve this objective a comprehensive study was undertaken on talent management and employee retention. The study involved conducting a literature survey to understand the processes that are necessary for implementation of talent management and employee retention in an organization. An empirical study was later conducted to investigate whether the processes of talent management and employee retention have been successfully implemented at the Bank of Zambia. The survey was compared to the literature review to determine whether the Bank of Zambia complied with the findings in the literature review. The main findings from this research are that for talent management to be successful, the initial step of planning right from the strategic point of aligning to talent goals to business goals through to succession planning should be well conducted. This process needed special attention. As much as the empirical study showed a case of progress towards engagement, there was concern raised regarding job security. Some employees perceived that they were insecure in their job. Compensation and rewards were also perceived to lack equity in their distribution and that promotion and career progression were below expectation for may employees The final observation from the investigation was that the organizational culture was not well adopted by respondents. . Employees perceived that the culture did not support innovation and the rewards system did not provide incentives for better performance

Green virtual network embedding in optical OFDM cloud networks

Network virtualization has been identified as the mainstay of the current and future success of cloud computing networks. In this work, we study Virtual Network Embedding (VNE) over Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (O-OFDM) networks as a means of allocating resources in a cloud computing network environment. We investigate two approaches to embed virtual networks in IP over O-OFDM networks: power minimized O-OFDM networks and spectrum minimized O-OFDM networks. The results show that the virtual network embedding in both power and spectrum minimized IP over O-OFDM networks outperform VNE in a 100 Gb/s IP over WDM network with average power savings of 63% and 17%, respectively

Energy Efficient Survivable IP over WDM Networks with Network Coding

In this work we investigate the use of network coding in 1+1 survivable IP over WDM networks by encoding the protection paths of multiple flow with each other at intermediate nodes. We study the energy efficiency of this scheme through MILP, and a heuristic with five operating options. We evaluate the MILP and the heuristics on typical and regular network topologies. Our results show that implementing network coding can produce savings up to 37% on the ring topology and 23% considering typical topologies. We also study the impact of varying the demand volumes on the network coding performanc

Bounds for Energy-Efficient Survivable IP over WDM Networks with Network Coding

In this work, we establish analytic bounds for the energy efficiency of 1+1 survivable IP over WDM networks using network coding. The analytic bounds are shown to be in close agreement with our previously reported results. They provide verification of the MILP and heuristics proposed previously, in addition to an efficient, compact means to evaluate network results and allow the performance of large networks to be determined easily

Energy Efficiency Measures for Future Core Networks

We summarize the various techniques developed by the GreenTouch consortium over the past 5 years to minimize core network power consumption. Adopting GreenTouch techniques can potentially improve the energy efficiency by 316x in a 2020 reference network compared to the state of the art in 2010

Malaria in HIV-Infected Children Receiving HIV Protease-Inhibitor- Compared with Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor-Based Antiretroviral Therapy, IMPAACT P1068s, Substudy to P1060

HIV and malaria geographically overlap. HIV protease inhibitors kill malaria parasites in vitro and in vivo, but further evaluation in clinical studies is needed