Distributed Failure Restoration for Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Tactical Communication Networks

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (A TM) is an attractive choice for future military communication systems because it can provide high throughput and support multi-service applications. Furthermore its use is consistent with the 'off the shelf technology policy that is currently operated by the Defence Engineering Research Agency of Great Britain. However, A TM has been developed as a civil standard and is designed to operate in network infrastructures with very low failure rates. In contrast, tactical networks are much less reliable. Indeed tactical networks operate on the premise that failures, particularly node failures, are expected. Hence, efficient, automatic failure restoration schemes are essential if an A TM based tactical network is to remain operational. The main objective of this research is the proposal and verification of one or more new restoration algorithms that meet the specific requirements of tactical networks. The aspects of ATM networks that influence restoration algorithms' implementation are discussed. In particular, the features of A TM networks such as the concept of Virtual Paths Virtual Channels and OAM (Operation And Maintenance) mechanisms that facilitate implementation of efficient restoration techniques. The unique characteristics of tactical networks and their impact on restoration are also presented. A significant part of the research was the study and evaluation of existing approaches to failure restoration in civil networks. A critical analysis of the suitability of these approaches to the tactical environment shows no one restoration algorithm fully meets the requirements of tactical networks. Consequently, two restoration algorithms for tactical A TM networks, DRA-TN (Dynamic Restoration Algorithm for Tactical Networks) and PPR-TN (Pre-planned Restoration Algorithm for Tactical Networks), are proposed and described in detail. Since the primary concern of restoration in tactical networks is the recovery of high priority connections the proposed algorithms attempt to restore high-priority connections by disrupting low-priority calls. Also, a number of additional mechanisms are proposed to reduce the use of bandwidth, which is a scarce resource in tactical networks. It is next argued that software simulation is the most appropriate method to prove the consistency of the proposed algorithms, assess their performance and test them on different network topologies as well as traffic and failure conditions. For this reason a simulation software package was designed and built specifically to model the proposed restoration algorithms. The design of the package is presented in detail and the most important implementation issues are discussed. The proposed restoration algorithms are modelled on three network topologies under various traffic loads, and their performance compared against the performance of known algorithms proposed for civil networks. It is shown that DRA-TN and PPR-TN provide better restoration of higher priority traffic. Furthermore, as the traffic load increases the relative performance of the DRA-TN and PPR-TN algorithms increases. The DRA-TN and PPR-TN algorithms are also compared and their advantages and disadvantages noted. Also, recommendations are given about the applicability of the proposed algorithms, and some practical implementation issues are discussed. The number of problems that need further study are briefly described.Defence Engineering Research Agency of Great Britai

Neighborhood Failure Localization in All-Optical Networks via Monitoring Trails

Shared protection, such as failure dependent protection (FDP), is well recognized for its outstanding capacity efficiency in all-optical mesh networks, at the expense of lengthy restoration time due to multi-hop signaling mechanisms for failure localization, notification, and device configuration. This paper investigates a novel monitoring trail (m-trail) scenario, called Global Neighborhood Failure Localization (G-NFL), that aims to enable any shared protection scheme, including FDP, for achieving all-optical and ultra-fast failure restoration. We firstly define neighborhood of a node, which is a set of links whose failure states should be known to the node in restoration of the corresponding working lightpaths (W-LPs). By assuming every node can obtain the on-off status of traversing m-trails and W-LPs via lambda monitoring, the proposed G-NFL problem routes a set of m-trails such that each node can localize any failure in its neighborhood. Bound analysis is performed on the minimum bandwidth required for m-trails under the proposed G-NFL problem. Then a simple yet efficient heuristic approach is presented. Extensive simulation is conducted to verify the proposed G-NFL scenario under a number of different definitions of nodal neighborhood which concern the extent of dependency between the monitoring plane and data plane. The effect of reusing the spare capacity by FDP for supporting m-trails is examined. We conclude that the proposed G-NFL scenario enables a general shared protection scheme, toward signaling-free and ultra-fast failure restoration like p-Cycle, while achieving optimal capacity efficiency as FDP

Monitoring pit and fissures using transparent sealant and fluorescence intraoral camera, 12 months follow up

The aim of this in vivo study is to report on the combined use of a fluorescence intraoral camera and transparent sealant for the clinical monitoring of pits and fissures. 96 permanent molars with a ICDAS II code 0, 1, or 2, (in 48 patients aged 12–14) were registered at the First Observation Unit (Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences Department), Sapienza University, Rome. Clinically selected teeth were double-checked using a VistaCam iX Proof (Durr Dental AG) and sealed with a transparent sealant (ControlSeal, VOCO GmbH), following the established indications for use if a pit and fissure condition was confirmed within the camera’s internal cutoff point of 1.5 (“early enamel demineralization”). Clinical followup was performed using VistaCam at 6 and 12 months to assess sealant retention and any demineralization trend. At baseline, 57.4% of the registered teeth were sound, both visually and when using the fluorescence camera, 42.6% presented an early demineralization (<1.5 with VistaCam and ICDAS II 1- 2). Subsequent VistaCam assessment of surfaces underlying the transparent sealant totally confirmed initial evaluations. Complete sealant retention rated 95% at 6 months, and 91% at 12 months. No case of complete detachment was observed. At the 12-month follow-up, VistaCam measurements resulted stable in the whole sample, except for one permanent molar, which presented a demineralization increment and partial sealant retention. Visual and fluorescence assessments were consistent and feasible. Incomplete sealant retention occurred in 5% of cases at 6 months and 9% of cases at 12 months and was probably due to procedure imperfections. The combined use of transparent sealant and a fluorescence camera shows clinical effectiveness and diagnostic efficacy for occlusal surface monitoring

Neighborhood Failure Localization in All-Optical Networks via Monitoring Trails

Shared protection, such as failure dependent protection (FDP), is well recognized for its outstanding capacity efficiency in all-optical mesh networks, at the expense of lengthy restoration time due to multi-hop signaling mechanisms for failure localization, notification, and device configuration. This paper investigates a novel monitoring trail (m-trail) scenario, called Global Neighborhood Failure Localization (G-NFL), that aims to enable any shared protection scheme, including FDP, for achieving all-optical and ultra-fast failure restoration. We firstly define neighborhood of a node, which is a set of links whose failure states should be known to the node in restoration of the corresponding working lightpaths (W-LPs). By assuming every node can obtain the on-off status of traversing m-trails and W-LPs via lambda monitoring, the proposed G-NFL problem routes a set of m-trails such that each node can localize any failure in its neighborhood. Bound analysis is performed on the minimum bandwidth required for m-trails under the proposed G-NFL problem. Then a simple yet efficient heuristic approach is presented. Extensive simulation is conducted to verify the proposed G-NFL scenario under a number of different definitions of nodal neighborhood which concern the extent of dependency between the monitoring plane and data plane. The effect of reusing the spare capacity by FDP for supporting m-trails is examined. We conclude that the proposed G-NFL scenario enables a general shared protection scheme, toward signaling-free and ultra-fast failure restoration like p-Cycle, while achieving optimal capacity efficiency as FDP

Link failure protection and restoration in WDM optical networks

In a wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) optical network, the failure of fiber links may cause the failure of multiple optical channels, thereby leading to large data loss. Therefore the survivable WDM optical networks where the affected traffic under link failure can be restored, have been a matter of much concern. On the other hand, network operators want options that are more than just survivable, but more flexible and more efficient in the use of capacity. In this thesis, we propose our cost-effective approaches to survive link failures in WDM optical networks. Dynamic establishment of restorable connections in WDM networks is an important problem that has received much study. Existing algorithms use either path-based method or link-based method to protect a dynamic connection; the former suffers slow restoration speed while the latter requires complicated online backup path computation. We propose a new dynamic restorable connection establishment algorithm using p-cycle protection. For a given connection request, our algorithm first computes a working path and then computes a set of p-cycles to protect the links on the working path so that the connection can survive any single link failure. The key advantage of the proposed algorithm over the link-based method is that it enables faster failure restoration while requires much simpler online computation for connection establishment. Tree-based schemes offer several advantages such as scalability, failure impact restriction and distributed processing. We present a new tree-based link protection scheme to improve the hierarchical protection tree (p-tree) scheme [31] for single link failure in mesh networks, which achieves 100% restorability in an arbitrary 2-connected network. To minimize the total spare capacity for single link failure protection, an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation is provided. We also develop a fast double-link failure restoration scheme by message signaling to take advantage of the scalable and distributed processing capability of tree structure

Online Assignment Algorithms for Dynamic Bipartite Graphs

This paper analyzes the problem of assigning weights to edges incrementally in a dynamic complete bipartite graph consisting of producer and consumer nodes. The objective is to minimize the overall cost while satisfying certain constraints. The cost and constraints are functions of attributes of the edges, nodes and online service requests. Novelty of this work is that it models real-time distributed resource allocation using an approach to solve this theoretical problem. This paper studies variants of this assignment problem where the edges, producers and consumers can disappear and reappear or their attributes can change over time. Primal-Dual algorithms are used for solving these problems and their competitive ratios are evaluated

Wind power compensation is not for the birds : an opinion from an environmental economist

This article advocates for better implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) framework as applied to wind power development, with a particular focus on improving compensatory restoration scaling. If properly enforced, the environmental impacts hierarchy "avoid - minimize - compensate" provides the regulated community with incentives to prevent wildlife and habitat impacts in sensitive areas and, if necessary, compensate for residual impacts through restoration or conservation projects. Given the increase in legislation requiring resource-based environmental compensation, methods for scaling an appropriate quantity and quality of resources is of increasing relevance. I argue that Equivalency Analysis (EA) represents a transparent and quantitative approach for scaling compensation in the case of wind power development. Herein, I identify the economic underpinnings of environmental compensation legislation and identify weaknesses in current scaling approaches within wind power development. I demonstrate how the recently-completed REMEDE Toolkit, which provides guidance on EA, can inform an improved scaling approach and summarize a case study involving raptor collisions with turbines that illustrates the EA approach. Finally, I stress the need for further contributions from the field of restoration ecology. The success of ex ante compensation in internalizing the environmental costs of wind development depends on the effective implementation of the environmental impacts hierarchy, which must effectively encourage avoidance and minimization over environmental restoration and repair