Systematic network coding with overlap for IoT scenarios

The presence of IoT in current networking scenarios is more relevant every day. IoT covers a wide range of applications, ranging from wearable devices to vehicular communications. With the consolidation of Industry 4.0, IIoT (Industrial IoT) environments are becoming more common. Communications in these scenarios are mostly wireless, and due to the lossy nature of wireless communications, the loss of information becomes an intrinsic problem. However, loss recovery schemes increase the delay that characterizes any communication. On the other hand, both reliability (robustness) and low delay are crucial requirements for some applications in IIoT. An interesting strategy to improve both of them is the use of Network Coding techniques, which have shown promising results, in terms of increasing reliability and performance. This work focuses on a possible new coding approach, based on systematic network coding scheme with overlapping generations. We perform a thorough analysis of its behavior. Based on the results, we draw out a number of conclusions for practical implementations in wireless networks, focusing our interest in IIoT environments.The authors are grateful for the funding of the Industrial Doctorates Program from the University of Cantabria (Call 2018). This work has been partially supported by the Basque Government through the Elkartek program under the DIGITAL project (Grant agreement no. KK-2019/00095), as well as by the Spanish Government (MINECO, MCIU, AEI, FEDER) by means of the projects ADVICE: Dynamic provisioning of connectivity in high density 5G wireless scenarios (TEC2015-71329-C2-1-R) and FIERCE: Future Internet Enabled Resilient Cities (RTI2018-093475-A-100)

Analysis of optical neural stimulation effects on neural networks affected by neurodegenerative diseases

The number of people in risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease increases as the life expectancy grows due to medical advances. Multiple techniques have been developed to improve patient’s condition, from pharmacological to invasive electrodes approaches, but no definite cure has yet been discovered. In this work Optical Neural Stimulation (ONS) has been studied. ONS stimulates noninvasively the outer regions of the brain, mainly the neocortex. The relationship between the stimulation parameters and the therapeutic response is not totally clear. In order to find optimal ONS parameters to treat a particular neurodegenerative disease, mathematical modeling is necessary. Neural networks models have been employed to study the neural spiking activity change induced by ONS. Healthy and pathological neocortical networks have been considered to study the required stimulation to restore the normal activity. The network consisted of a group of interconnected neurons, which were assigned 2D spatial coordinates. The optical stimulation spatial profile was assumed to be Gaussian. The stimulation effects were modeled as synaptic current increases in the affected neurons, proportional to the stimulation fluence. Pathological networks were defined as the healthy ones with some neurons being inactivated, which presented no synaptic conductance. Neurons’ electrical activity was also studied in the frequency domain, focusing specially on the changes of the spectral bands corresponding to brain waves. The complete model could be used to determine the optimal ONS parameters in order to achieve the specific neural spiking patterns or the required local neural activity increase to treat particular neurodegenerative pathologies.This work has been partially supported by the project MAT2012-38664-C02-01 of the Spanish Ministery of Economy and Competitiveness and by San Cándido Foundation

Laser dosimetry planning tool for colonoscopic tumor resection

Gastrointestinal tumoral pathologies are quite common nowadays. Diseases such as gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) or actinic proctitis may require endoscopic surgery. Argon Plasma Coagulated (APC) or radiofrequency are usually employed. However, they present disadvantages, such as the reduced treated area, magnetic resonance incompatibility, or an uncontrolled ablation depth. Optical surgery could avoid these problems and contribute to a better and controlled treatment result, either ablative or coagulative, in a minimally invasive, non-contact and non-ionizing way. The treatment area could also be increased by adequate optical fiber probe design. In this work laser surgery is analyzed for resection of colonic tumors. A Monte Carlo model is employed to study optical propagation, and an optical ablation approach allows the estimation of the resected volume. The ablation approach is based on plasma-induced ablation, particularly taking into account the freeelectron density generated in the tissue by the pulsed optical source. Several wavelengths, radii and malignant tissue types are considered, either healthy, adenomatous or even coagulated tissues. Optimum source parameters as a function of tumor geometry can be estimated for treatment planning.This work has been partially supported by the project MAT2012-38664-C02-01 of the Spanish Ministery of Economy and Competitiveness and by San Cándido Foundation

Combinación de Network Coding sistemático y solapamiento en escenarios IoT

Las aplicaciones de las arquitecturas IoT son cada vez más numerosas, y abarcan desde dispositivos wearables hasta comunicaciones en entornos vehiculares. Con la consolidación de la Industria 4.0, los entornos IIoT (Industrial IoT) son cada vez más comunes. Los enlaces inalámbricos sobre los que se sustentan son generalmente susceptibles a sufrir pérdidas en las transmisiones, y su recuperación puede incrementar notablemente el retardo. La fiabilidad (robustez), así como el retardo, son requisitos fundamentales en las comunicaciones IIoT. Una posible estrategia para mejorar el comportamiento de las comunicaciones es la utilización de técnicas Network Coding (codificación de red). Su utilización para la mejora del comportamiento de comunicaciones en entornos IIoT no ha recibido hasta la fecha suficiente atención, y no existe ninguna implementación que cuente con una amplia aceptación. En este trabajo se analiza una alternativa interesante para comunicaciones IIoT, basada en la combinación de un esquema Network Coding sistemático y una estrategia de solapamiento. Se lleva a cabo un análisis exhaustivo del comportamiento de esta solución, extendiendo notablemente los estudios previos, y se obtienen una serie de conclusiones prácticas de cara a su implementación.Los autores agradecen la financiación del Programa de Doctorados Industriales de la Universidad de Cantabria (Convocatoria 2018). Los autores agradecen asimismo la financiación por parte del Gobierno de País Vasco (programa Elkartek) a través del proyecto DIGITAL (KK-2019/00095) y la financiación por parte del Gobierno de España (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, FEDER) a través del proyecto ADVICE(TEC2015-71329-C2-1-R)

Even lower latency in IIoT: evaluation of QUIC in industrial IoT scenarios

In this paper we analyze the performance of QUIC as a transport alternative for Internet of Things (IoT) services based on the Message Queuing Telemetry Protocol (MQTT). QUIC is a novel protocol promoted by Google, and was originally conceived to tackle the limitations of the traditional Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), specifically aiming at the reduction of the latency caused by connection establishment. QUIC use in IoT environments is not widespread, and it is therefore interesting to characterize its performance when in over such scenarios. We used an emulation-based platform, where we integrated QUIC and MQTT (using GO-based implementations) and compared their combined performance with the that exhibited by the traditional TCP/TLS approach. We used Linux containers as end devices, and the ns-3 simulator to emulate different network technologies, such as WiFi, cellular, and satellite, and varying conditions. The results evince that QUIC is indeed an appropriate protocol to guarantee robust, secure, and low latency communications over IoT scenarios.The authors are grateful for the funding of the Industrial Doctorates Program from the University of Cantabria (Call 2020). This work has been partially supported by the Basque Government through the Elkartek program under the DIGITAL project (grant agreement number KK-2019/00095), and by the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, FEDER) by means of the project FIERCE: Future Internet Enabled Resilient smart CitiEs (RTI2018-093475-AI00)

And QUIC meets IoT: performance assessment of MQTT over QUIC

We study the performance of the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport Protocol (MQTT) over QUIC. QUIC has been recently proposed as a new transport protocol, and it is gaining relevance at a very fast pace, favored by the support of key players, such as Google. It overcomes some of the limitations of the more widespread alternative, TCP, especially regarding the overhead of connection establishment. However, its use for Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios is still under consideration. In this paper we integrate a GO-based implementation of the QUIC protocol with MQTT, and we compare the performance of this combination with that exhibited by the more traditional MQTT/TLS/TCP approach. We use Linux Containers and we emulate various wireless network technologies by means of the ns3 simulator. The results of an extensive measurement campaign, show that QUIC protocol can indeed yield good performances for typical IoT use cases.The authors are grateful for the funding of the Industrial Doctorates Program from the University of Cantabria (Call 2018). This work has been partially supported by the Basque Government through the Elkartek program under the DIGITAL project (Grant agreement no. KK-2019/00095), as well as by the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, FEDER) by means of the project FIERCE: Future Internet Enabled Resilient smart CitiEs (RTI2018-093475-AI00)

Application of superficial fluorescence to monitor the photodynamic process in skin tumors

RESUMEN: La monitorización no invasiva es uno de los elementos claves para analizar la activación del fotosensibilizador durante el proceso fotoquímico subyacente a la Terapia Fotodinámica (TFD) mediante su fluorescencia. Esta última se puede emplear también para discriminar el tejido patológico del sano. En este trabajo se analizan los patrones de fluorescencia superficial en tres tipos diferentes de cáncer de piel no melanoma, así como su respuesta al tratamiento fotodinámico, mediante un modelo dosimétrico para TFD con Metvix®. Los resultados obtenidos muestran diferencias incluso mayores del 50% en los patrones de fluorescencia a medida que progresa el tratamiento dependiendo del tipo de tejido maligno. Lo que demuestra la gran relevancia del medio biológico como factor dosimétrico adicional en el contexto fotodinámico. Estos resultados contribuyen al futuro de desarrollo de una terapia personalizada asistida mediante herramientas dosimétricas para interpretar las imágenes de fluorescencia obtenidas durante la monitorización del tratamiento y el fotodiagnóstico diferencial.ABSTRACT: Non-invasive treatment monitoring is one of the key elements to assess the photosensitizer activation during the photochemical process underlying Photodynamic Therapy (TFD) by its fluorescence. Furthermore the photosensitizer fluorescence can be employed to discriminate the pathological tissue from the healthy one. In this work the superficial fluorescence patterns in three different types of nonmelanoma skin cancer tumors and their photodynamic treatment response are analysed by a fluorescence based dosimetric model for PDT with topical Metvix®. Results show differences of even more than 50% in the fluorescence patterns as the treatment progresses depending on the malignant tissue type. They demonstrate the great relevance of the biological media as an additional dosimetric factor within the photodynamic context. These results contribute to the development of a future customized therapy with the assistance of dosimetric tools to interpret the fluorescence images obtained during the treatment monitoring as well as in differential photodiagnosis

Study of the optical stimulation effects on a neural network with neurodegenerative processes

RESUMEN: El riesgo de desarrollar una enfermedad neurodegenerativa aumenta con la edad. Con los avances médicos la esperanza de vida crece por lo que se hace necesario el desarrollo de técnicas de estimulación cerebral. Una de ellas es la Estimulación Neuronal Óptica (ENO) que estimula no invasivamente las regiones exteriores del cerebro. En este trabajo se realiza un estudio de la ENO y su posterior aplicación al tratamiento de dichas patologías. Con el fin de analizar sus efectos se modela una red neuronal con diferentes grados de patología. Los resultados muestran la distribución de la radiación óptica en el neocórtex y la actividad de una red neuronal patológica estimulada. El modelo completo presenta una gran versatilidad para determinar los parámetros óptimos de la ENO para alcanzar patrones de activación neuronal específicos para tratar patologías neurodegenerativas.ABSTRACT: Risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease increases at advanced age. Medical advances increase life expectancy, which is why it is necessary to develop brain stimulation techniques. One of them is Optical Neural Stimulation (ONS) that stimulates noninvasively the outer brain regions. In this work ONS and its application for treatment of these pathologies is studied. In order to analyze ONS effects, a neuronal network with different stages of neurodegenerative pathology has been modeled. The results show the optical radiation distribution in the neocortex and the activity of a stimulated pathological neural network. The complete model presents a wide functionality to determine the optimal ONS parameters in order to achieve the specific neural spiking patterns to treat particular neurodegenerative pathology

Robust QUIC: integrating practical coding in a low latency transport protocol

We introduce rQUIC, an integration of the QUIC protocol and a coding module. rQUIC has been designed to feature different coding/decoding schemes and is implemented in go language. We conducted an extensive measurement campaign to provide a thorough characterization of the proposed solution. We compared the performance of rQUIC with that of the original QUIC protocol for different underlying network conditions as well as different traffic patterns. Our results show that rQUIC not only yields a relevant performance gain (shorter delays), especially when network conditions worsen, but also ensures a more predictable behavior. For bulk transfer (long flows), the delay reduction almost reached 70% when the frame error rate was 5%, while under similar conditions, the gain for short flows (web navigation) was approximately 55%. In the case of video streaming, the QoE gain (p1203 metric) was, approximately, 50%.This work was supported in part by the Basque Government through the Elkartek Program under the Hodei-x Project under Agreement KK-2021/00049; in part by the Spanish Government through the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) through the Future Internet Enabled Resilient smart CitiEs (FIERCE) under Grant RTI2018-093475-AI00; and in part by the Industrial Doctorates Program of the University of Cantabria under Grant Call 2019

Study of brain stimulation techniques by neuronal response analysis

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