Network Infrastructure Configuration

The nine papers in this special issue focus on network infrastructure configuration and some of the problems encountered in the areas of specification, diagnosis, repair, synthesis, and anonymization

Towards transnational feminist queer methodologies

This article introduces the possibilities of transnational feminist queer research as seeking to conceptualise the transnational as a methodology composed of a series of flows that can augment feminist and queer research. Transnational feminist queer methodologies can contest long-standing configurations of power between researcher and researched, subject and object, academics and activists across places, typically those which are embedded in the hierarchies of the Global North/Global South. Beginning with charting our roots in, and routes through, the diverse arenas of transnational, feminist, participatory and queer methodologies, the article uses a transcribed and edited conversation between members of the Liveable Lives research team in Kolkata and Brighton, to start an exploration of transnational feminist queer methodologies. Understanding the difficult, yet constructive moments of collaborative work and dialogue, we argue for engagements with the multiplicities of ‘many-many' lives that recognise local specificities, and the complexities of lives within transnational research, avoiding creating a currency of comparison between places. We seek to work toward methodologies that take seriously the politics of place, namely by creating research that answers the same question in different places, using methods that are created in context and may not be ‘comparable'. Using a dialogue across the boundaries of activism/academia, as well as across geographical locations, the article contends that there are potentials, as well as challenges, in thinking ourselves through transnational research praxis. This seeks complexities and spatial nuances within as well as between places

Towards ubiquitous internet multicast : convergence mechanisms and data transfer reliability

Ph.D.Mostafa Amma

Multicast Server Architectures for Supporting IP Multicast over ATM

The Multicast Address Resolution Server protocol has been proposed as a mechanism for supporting IP multicast over ATM networks. Two basic techniques exist for the intra-subnet multicasting of IP packets over ATM networks. Both the approaches are based on the use of a Multicast Address Resolution Server (MARS). One approach makes use of a mesh of point-to-multipoint Virtual Circuits (VC Mesh) each of which is rooted at a multicast source, while the other uses a shared point-to-multipoint tree rooted at a Multicast Server (MCS). In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a MARS client and an MCS. We present a framework for comparing the VC Mesh and MCS approaches using experimental, simulation and analytical techniques. Finally we present three protocols for the usage of multiple MCSs per IP multicast group, a technique required for groups with large number of senders and group members. Keywords: IP Multicast, Multicast Server Architectures, Network Protocols, ..

Single Connection Emulation (SCE): An Architecture for Providing a Reliable Multicast Transport Service

We present a novel architecture for providing a reliable multicast transport service over existing protocol stacks. These protocol stacks ordinarily support reliable unicast transport layer connections over a network layer which is capable of providing an unreliable multicasting service. We propose the addition of a new Single Connection Emulation (SCE) sublayer between the unicast transport layer and the multicast network layer. This added layer mimics the single destination network layer interface to the transport layer and interfaces with the multicast network layer to provide the necessary multicast function ality. The new architecture also enables interactions between applications and the SCE, thus allowing the applications to control the semantics of the reliable multicast connection. We discuss the design issues that need to be considered when such a sublayer is to be introduced. We also discuss an implementation of this new approach using the TCP/IP protocol stack.and present some preliminary experimental results

AMRoute: Adhoc Multicast Routing Protocol

The Adhoc Multicast Routing Protocol (AMRoute) presents a novel approach for robust IP Multicast in mobile adhoc networks by exploiting user-multicast trees and dynamic logical cores. It creates a bidirectional, shared tree for data distribution using only group senders and receivers as tree nodes. Unicast tunnels are used as tree links to connect neighbors on the user-multicast tree.Thus, AMRoute does not need to be supported by network nodes that are not interested/capable of multicast, and group state cost is incurred only by group senders and receivers. Also, the use of tunnels as tree links implies that tree structure does not need to change even in case of a dynamic network topology, which reduces the signaling traffic and packet loss. Thus AMRoute does not need to track network dynamics; the underlying unicast protocol is solely responsible for this function. AMRoute does not require a specific unicast routing protocol; therefore, it can operate seamlessly over separate dom..