Internal Model Hop-by-hop Congestion Control for High-Speed Networks

This paper presents a hop-by-hop congestion control for highspeed networks. The control policy relies on the data exchange between adjacent nodes of the network (nearest-neighbour interaction). The novelty of this paper consists in the extensive use of Internal Model Control (IMC) to set the rates of the traffic flows. As a result, the proposed congestion control provides upper-bounds of the queue lengths in all the network buffers (overflow avoidance), avoids wasting the assigned capacity (full link utilisation) and guarantees the congestion recovery. Numerical simulations prove the effectiveness of the scheme

Wardrop Equilibrium in Discrete-Time Selfish Routing with Time-Varying Bounded Delays

This paper presents a multi-commodity, discrete- time, distributed and non-cooperative routing algorithm, which is proved to converge to an equilibrium in the presence of heterogeneous, unknown, time-varying but bounded delays. Under mild assumptions on the latency functions which describe the cost associated to the network paths, two algorithms are proposed: the former assumes that each commodity relies only on measurements of the latencies associated to its own paths; the latter assumes that each commodity has (at least indirectly) access to the measures of the latencies of all the network paths. Both algorithms are proven to drive the system state to an invariant set which approximates and contains the Wardrop equilibrium, defined as a network state in which no traffic flow over the network paths can improve its routing unilaterally, with the latter achieving a better reconstruction of the Wardrop equilibrium. Numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Dynamic distributed clustering in wireless sensor networks via Voronoi tessellation control

This paper presents two dynamic and distributed clustering algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Clustering approaches are used in WSNs to improve the network lifetime and scalability by balancing the workload among the clusters. Each cluster is managed by a cluster head (CH) node. The first algorithm requires the CH nodes to be mobile: by dynamically varying the CH node positions, the algorithm is proved to converge to a specific partition of the mission area, the generalised Voronoi tessellation, in which the loads of the CH nodes are balanced. Conversely, if the CH nodes are fixed, a weighted Voronoi clustering approach is proposed with the same load-balancing objective: a reinforcement learning approach is used to dynamically vary the mission space partition by controlling the weights of the Voronoi regions. Numerical simulations are provided to validate the approaches

Robust Adaptive Congestion Control for Next Generation Networks

This paper deals with the problem of congestion control in a next-generation heterogeneous network scenario. The algorithm runs in the 'edge' routers (the routers collecting the traffic between two different networks) with the aim of avoiding congestion in both the network and the edge routers. The proposed algorithm extends congestion control algorithms based on the Smith's principle: i) the controller, by exploiting on-line estimates via probe packets, adapts to the delay and rate variations; ii) the controller assures robust stability in the presence of time-varying delays

Control-Based Resource Management Procedures for Satellite Networks

This paper describes the resource management of a DVBRCS geostationary satellite network. The functional modules of the access layer aim at efficiently exploiting the link resources while assuring the contracted Quality of Service (QoS) to the traffic entering the satellite network. The main novelty is the integration between the Connection Admission Control and the Congestion Control procedures. Both them exploit the estimation of the traffic load, performed by a Kalman filter. The proposed solution has been analysed via computer simulations, which confirmed their effectiveness

Efficient and Risk-Aware Control of Electricity Distribution Grids

This article presents an economic model predictive control (EMPC) algorithm for reducing losses and increasing the resilience of medium-voltage electricity distribution grids characterized by high penetration of renewable energy sources and possibly subject to natural or malicious adverse events. The proposed control system optimizes grid operations through network reconfiguration, control of distributed energy storage systems (ESSs), and on-load tap changers. The core of the EMPC algorithm is a nonconvex optimization problem integrating the ESSs dynamics, the topological and power technical constraints of the grid, and the modeling of the cascading effects of potential adverse events. An equivalent (i.e., having the same optimal solution) proxy of the nonconvex problem is proposed to make the solution more tractable. Simulations performed on a 16-bus test distribution network validate the proposed control strategy

Multi-agent quality of experience control

In the framework of the Future Internet, the aim of the Quality of Experience (QoE) Control functionalities is to track the personalized desired QoE level of the applications. The paper proposes to perform such a task by dynamically selecting the most appropriate Classes of Service (among the ones supported by the network), this selection being driven by a novel heuristic Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) algorithm. The paper shows that such an approach offers the opportunity to cope with some practical implementation problems: in particular, it allows to face the so-called “curse of dimensionality” of MARL algorithms, thus achieving satisfactory performance results even in the presence of several hundreds of Agents

Approaches for Future Internet architecture design and Quality of Experience (QoE) Control

Researching a Future Internet capable of overcoming the current Internet limitations is a strategic investment. In this respect, this paper presents some concepts that can contribute to provide some guidelines to overcome the above-mentioned limitations. In the authors' vision, a key Future Internet target is to allow applications to transparently, efficiently and flexibly exploit the available network resources with the aim to match the users' expectations. Such expectations could be expressed in terms of a properly defined Quality of Experience (QoE). In this respect, this paper provides some approaches for coping with the QoE provision problem

Traffic Steering and Network Selection in 5G Networks based on Reinforcement Learning

This paper presents a controller for the problem of Network Selection in 5G Networks, based on Reinforcement Learning. The problem of Network Selection and Traffic Steering is modeled as a Markov Decision Process and a Q- Learning based control solution is designed to meet 5G requirements, such as Quality of Experience (QoE) maximization, Quality of Service (QoS) assurance and load balancing. Numerical simulations preliminarily validate the proposed approach on a simulated scenario considered in the European project H2020 5G-ALLSTAR

Attack-Surface Metrics, OSSTMM and Common Criteria Based Approach to “Composable Security” in Complex Systems

In recent studies on Complex Systems and Systems-of-Systems theory, a huge effort has been put to cope with behavioral problems, i.e. the possibility of controlling a desired overall or end-to-end behavior by acting on the individual elements that constitute the system itself. This problem is particularly important in the “SMART” environments, where the huge number of devices, their significant computational capabilities as well as their tight interconnection produce a complex architecture for which it is difficult to predict (and control) a desired behavior; furthermore, if the scenario is allowed to dynamically evolve through the modification of both topology and subsystems composition, then the control problem becomes a real challenge. In this perspective, the purpose of this paper is to cope with a specific class of control problems in complex systems, the “composability of security functionalities”, recently introduced by the European Funded research through the pSHIELD and nSHIELD projects (ARTEMIS-JU programme). In a nutshell, the objective of this research is to define a control framework that, given a target security level for a specific application scenario, is able to i) discover the system elements, ii) quantify the security level of each element as well as its contribution to the security of the overall system, and iii) compute the control action to be applied on such elements to reach the security target. The main innovations proposed by the authors are: i) the definition of a comprehensive methodology to quantify the security of a generic system independently from the technology and the environment and ii) the integration of the derived metrics into a closed-loop scheme that allows real-time control of the system. The solution described in this work moves from the proof-of-concepts performed in the early phase of the pSHIELD research and enrich es it through an innovative metric with a sound foundation, able to potentially cope with any kind of pplication scenarios (railways, automotive, manufacturing, ...)