A New Multidisciplinary Home Care Telemedicine System to Monitor Stable Chronic Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Patients: A Randomized Study

BACKGROUND: Antiretroviral therapy has changed the natural history of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in developed countries, where it has become a chronic disease. This clinical scenario requires a new approach to simplify follow-up appointments and facilitate access to healthcare professionals. METHODOLOGY: We developed a new internet-based home care model covering the entire management of chronic HIV-infected patients. This was called Virtual Hospital. We report the results of a prospective randomised study performed over two years, comparing standard care received by HIV-infected patients with Virtual Hospital care. HIV-infected patients with access to a computer and broadband were randomised to be monitored either through Virtual Hospital (Arm I) or through standard care at the day hospital (Arm II). After one year of follow up, patients switched their care to the other arm. Virtual Hospital offered four main services: Virtual Consultations, Telepharmacy, Virtual Library and Virtual Community. A technical and clinical evaluation of Virtual Hospital was carried out. FINDINGS: Of the 83 randomised patients, 42 were monitored during the first year through Virtual Hospital (Arm I) and 41 through standard care (Arm II). Baseline characteristics of patients were similar in the two arms. The level of technical satisfaction with the virtual system was high: 85% of patients considered that Virtual Hospital improved their access to clinical data and they felt comfortable with the videoconference system. Neither clinical parameters [level of CD4+ T lymphocytes, proportion of patients with an undetectable level of viral load (p = 0.21) and compliance levels >90% (p = 0.58)] nor the evaluation of quality of life or psychological questionnaires changed significantly between the two types of care. CONCLUSIONS: Virtual Hospital is a feasible and safe tool for the multidisciplinary home care of chronic HIV patients. Telemedicine should be considered as an appropriate support service for the management of chronic HIV infection. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical-Trials.gov: NCT01117675.

Estudio de los parámetros necesarios para establecer las medidas de actuación por tipos de buques en situaciones de emergencia después de un accidente

La “Actuación en la Crisis”, objetivo principal de esta tesis, trata de establecer y concretar los procedimientos y apoyos desde tierra y a bordo de los buques, tanto técnicos como operacionales, a seguir por el Capitán y tripulación de un buque después de un accidente, en especial cuando el buque tiene un riesgo importante de hundimiento o necesidad de abandono. La aparición de este concepto es relativamente reciente, es decir desde el año 1995, después de los estudios y propuestas realizados, por el Panel de Expertos de IMO, como consecuencia del hundimiento del buque de pasaje y carga rodada, Estonia, en el que perdieron la vida más de 850 personas a finales de Septiembre de 1994. Entre las propuestas recomendadas y aceptadas por los gobiernos en la Conferencia Internacional SOLAS 1995, figuraba este concepto novedoso, que luego fue adoptado de una forma generalizada para todos los tipos de buques, que hasta entonces sólo disponían de documentos dispersos y a veces contradictorios para la actuación en estos momentos de peligro, que dio lugar a un profundo tratamiento de este problema, que iba a afectar a los buques, tanto en los conceptos y parámetros de proyecto, como a la propia operación del buque. La tesis desarrolla los fundamentos, estado del arte, implantación y consecuencias sobre la configuración y explotación del buque, que han dado lugar a una serie de documentos, que se han incluido en diversos Convenios Internacionales, Códigos y otros documentos de obligada aplicación en la industria naval generados en IMO (SOLAS, Retorno Seguro a Puerto, Plano y Libro de Control de Averías, ISM). La consecuencia más novedosa e interesante de este concepto ha sido la necesidad de disponer cada compañía explotadora del buque, de un servicio importante de “apoyo en la crisis”, que ha dado lugar a implantar un “servicio de emergencia especial”, disponible las 24 horas del día y 365 de año que ofrecen las Sociedades de Clasificación. El know-how de los accidentes que tratan estos servicios, hacen que se puedan establecer ciertas recomendaciones, que se centran, en que el buque tenga, por sus propios medios, una posibilidad de aumentar el KM después de una avería, la garantía de la resistencia estructural adecuada y el aumento del tiempo de hundimiento o el tiempo de mantenimiento a flote (otro tipo de averías vinculadas con la maquinaria, equipo o protección y lucha contra incendios, no son objeto de tesis). Las conclusiones obtenidas, son objeto de discusión especialmente en IACS e IMO, con el fin de establecer las aplicaciones pertinentes, que permitan dar al buque una mayor seguridad. Como objetivo principal de esta tesis es establecer estos puntos de mejora consecuencia de esta actuación en la crisis, con la aportación de varias soluciones que mejorarían los problemas mencionados para los tres tipos de buques que consideramos más importantes (pasaje, petroleros y bulkcarriers) La tesis recorre, desde el principio en 1995, la evolución de esta actuación en la crisis, hasta el momento actual., los puntos básicos que se establecen, que van muy de la mano de la llamada “cultura de seguridad”, objetivo nacido durante los años 90, con el fin de implantar una filosofía distinta para abordar el tratamiento de la seguridad del buque, a la que se venía aplicando hasta el momento, en donde se contemplaba tratar el tema de forma singular y específica para cada caso. La nueva filosofía, trataba de analizar el problema, desde un aspecto global y por tanto horizontal, realizando un estudio exhaustivo de las consecuencias que tendría la aplicación de una nueva medida correctora, en los restantes equipos y sistemas del buque., relativos al proyecto, configuración, operación y explotación del buque. Se describen de manera sucinta las profundas investigaciones a que dio lugar todo lo anterior, estando muchas de ellas, vinculadas a grandes proyectos europeos. La mayor parte de estos proyectos fueron subvencionados por la Comunidad Económica Europea durante la primera década del siglo actual. Dentro de estas investigaciones, donde hay que destacar la participación de todos los agentes del sector marítimo europeo, se hacen imprescindibles la utilización de dos herramientas novedosas para nuestro sector, como son el “Estudio de Riesgos” y la “Evaluación de la Seguridad”, más conocida técnicamente por su nombre ingles “Safety Assessment”, cuyos principios también son incluidos en la tesis. Además se especifican las bases sobre las que se establecen la estabilidad intacta y en averías, con nuevos conceptos, no tratados nunca hasta entonces, como la “altura crítica de agua en cubierta” para la cual el buque se hundiría sin remisión, “estado de la mar” en la que se puede encontrar el buque averiado, el cálculo del tiempo de hundimiento, u otros aspectos como el corrimiento de la carga, o bien el tratamiento de los problemas dinámicos en el nuevo “Código de Estabilidad Intacta”. Con respecto a la resistencia estructural, especialmente el estudio de la “resistencia estructural después de la avería”, que tiene en cuenta el estado de la mar en la que se encontraría el buque afectado. Se analizan los tipos de buques mencionados uno por uno y se sacan, como aportación fundamental de esta tesis, separadamente, las acciones y propuestas a aplicar a estos buques. En primer lugar, las relativas al proyecto y configuración del buque y en segundo lugar, las de operación, explotación y mantenimiento, con el fin de acometer, con garantías de éxito, la respuesta a la ayuda en emergencia y la solución a la difícil situación que pueden tener lugar en condiciones extremas. Para ver el efecto de algunas de las propuestas que se incluyen, se realizan y aplican concretamente, a un buque de pasaje de carga rodada, a un petrolero y a un bulkcarrier, para demostrar el mejor comportamiento de estos buques en situación de emergencia. Para ello se han elegido un buque ejemplo para cada tipo, efectuándose los cálculos de estabilidad y resistencia longitudinal y comparar la situación, en la que quedaría el buque averiado, antes y después de la avería. La tesis se completa con una estadística real de buques averiados de cada uno de estos tres tipos, distinguiendo el tipo de incidente y el número de los buques que lo han sufrido, considerándose como más importantes los incidentes relacionados con varadas, colisiones y fuego resumiéndose lo más relevante de esta aportación también importante de esta tesis. ABSTRACT The "Response in an emergency" is the main objective of this thesis, it seeks to establish and define procedures for technical and operational support onboard and shore, to be followed by the captain and crew on of a ship after an accident, especially when the ship has a significant risk of sinking or a need to abandon it. The emergence of this concept is relatively recent, in 1995, after studies and proposals made by the Panel of Experts IMO, following the sinking of the “Estonia” vessel, where more than 850 people died in late September 1994. In the International Convention SOLAS 1995, among the recommended proposals and accepted regulations, this new concept was included, which was later adopted for all types of ships which until then had only scattered some documents, sometimes including contradictory actions in emergency situations. This led to a profound treatment of this problem, which would affect the vessels in both the concepts and design parameters, as to the proper operation of the vessel. The thesis develops the foundations, state of the art, implementation and consequences on the design and operation of the vessel, this has led to a series of Circulars and Regulations included in several International Codes and Conventions issued by IMO which are required to be complied with (SOLAS Safe Return to Port, Damage Control Plan and Booklet, ISM). The most novel and interesting consequence of this concept has been the need for every company operating the ship to have a shore based support service in emergency situations which has led to implement special emergency services offered by Class Societies which are available 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. The know-how of these services dealing with all types of accidents can establish certain recommendations, which focus on the ship capability to increase the KM after damage. It can also be determined adequate structural strength and the increase of the capsizing time or time afloat (other types of damages associated with the machinery, equipment or firefighting, are not the subject of this thesis). The conclusions are discussed especially in IACS and IMO, in order to establish appropriate applications to improve the security of the vessels. The main objective of this thesis is to establish actions to improve emergency actions, resulting from different responses in the crisis, with the contribution of several solutions that improve the problems mentioned for three types of ships that we consider most important (passenger vessels, tankers and bulk carriers) The thesis runs from the beginning in 1995 to date, the evolution of the response on the crisis. The basics established during the 90s with the "safety culture" in order to implement a different philosophy to address the treatment of the safety of the ship, which was being previously implemented, as something singular and specific to each case. The new philosophy tried to analyse the problem from a global perspective, doing an exhaustive study of the consequences of the implementation of the new regulation in the ship systems and equipment related to the design, configuration and operation of the vessel. Extensive investigations which led to the above are described, many of them being linked to major European projects. Most of these projects were funded by the European Union during the first decade of this century. Within these investigations, which it must be highlighted the participation of all players in the European maritime sector, a necessity to use two new tools for our industry, such as the "Risk Assessment" and "Safety Assessment" whose principles are also included in the thesis. The intact and damage stability principles are established including new concepts, never treated before, as the "critical height of water on deck" for which the ship would sink without remission, "sea state" where the damaged vessel can be found, calculation of capsizing time, or other aspects such cargo shifting or treatment of dynamic problems in the new Intact Stability Code in development. Regarding the structural strength, it has to be especially considered the study of the "residual strength after damage", which takes into account the state of the sea where the vessel damaged can be found. Ship types mentioned are analysed one by one, as a fundamental contribution of this thesis, different actions and proposals are established to apply to these types of vessels. First, those ones relating to the design and configuration of the vessel and also the ones related to the operation and maintenance in order to support successfully responses to emergency situations which may occur in extreme situations. Some of the proposals are applied specifically to a RoRo passenger ship, an oil tanker and a bulkcarrier, to demonstrate the improved performance of these vessels damaged. An example for each type vessel has been chosen, carrying out stability and longitudinal strength calculations comparing the situation of the ship before and after damage. The thesis is completed with incidents statics for each of these three types, distinguishing the type of incident and the number of ships having it. The most important incidents considered are the ones related to groundings, collisions and fire being this other relevant contribution of this thesis.

AALUMO: a user model ontology for ambient assisted living services supported in next-generation networks

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) services are emerging as context-awareness solutions to support elderly people?s autonomy. The context-aware paradigm makes applications more user-adaptive. In this way, context and user models expressed in ontologies are employed by applications to describe user and environment characteristics. The rapid advance of technology allows creating context server to relieve applications of context reasoning techniques. Specifically, the Next Generation Networks (NGN) provides by means of the presence service a framework to manage the current user's state as well as the user's profile information extracted from Internet and mobile context. This paper propose a user modeling ontology for AAL services which can be deployed in a NGN environment with the aim at adapting their functionalities to the elderly's context information and state.

How network operators can enhance ambient assisted living applications through next generation networks

Within the technological framework of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), consumers are currently requesting multimedia services with simplicity of use, reliability, security and service availability through mobile and fixed access. Network operators are proposing the Next Generation Networks (NGN) to address the challenges of providing both services and network convergence. Apart from these considerations, there is a need to provide social and healthcare assistance services in order to support the progressive aging in the elderly population. In order to achieve this objective, the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) initiative proposes ICT systems and services to promote autonomy and an independent life among the elderly. This paper describes the design and implementation of a group of services, called “service enablers”, which helps AAL applications to be supported in NGN. The presented enablers are identified to support the teleconsulting applications requirements in an NGN environment, involving the implementation of a virtual waiting room, a virtual whiteboard, a multimedia multiconference and a vital-signs monitoring presence status. A use case is defined and implemented to evaluate the developed enablers' performance.

Application of user-centered design in the development of an atomated/assisted testing system for self-service devices

Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are sensitive self-service systems that require important investments in security and testing. ATM certifications are testing processes for machines that integrate software components from different vendors and are performed before their deployment for public use. This project was originated from the need of optimization of the certification process in an ATM manufacturing company. The process identifies compatibility problems between software components through testing. It is composed by a huge number of manual user tasks that makes the process very expensive and error-prone. Moreover, it is not possible to fully automate the process as it requires human intervention for manipulating ATM peripherals. This project presented important challenges for the development team. First, this is a critical process, as all the ATM operations rely on the software under test. Second, the context of use of ATMs applications is vastly different from ordinary software. Third, ATMs’ useful lifetime is beyond 15 years and both new and old models need to be supported. Fourth, the know-how for efficient testing depends on each specialist and it is not explicitly documented. Fifth, the huge number of tests and their importance implies the need for user efficiency and accuracy. All these factors led us conclude that besides the technical challenges, the usability of the intended software solution was critical for the project success. This business context is the motivation of this Master Thesis project. Our proposal focused in the development process applied. By combining user-centered design (UCD) with agile development we ensured both the high priority of usability and the early mitigation of software development risks caused by all the technology constraints. We performed 23 development iterations and finally we were able to provide a working solution on time according to users’ expectations. The evaluation of the project was carried out through usability tests, where 4 real users participated in different tests in the real context of use. The results were positive, according to different metrics: error rate, efficiency, effectiveness, and user satisfaction. We discuss the problems found, the benefits and the lessons learned in the process. Finally, we measured the expected project benefits by comparing the effort required by the current and the new process (once the new software tool is adopted). The savings corresponded to 40% less effort (man-hours) per certification. Future work includes additional evaluation of product usability in a real scenario (with customers) and the measuring of benefits in terms of quality improvement.

Desing and Validation of a Light Inference System to Support Embedded Context Reasoning

Embedded context management in resource-constrained devices (e.g. mobile phones, autonomous sensors or smart objects) imposes special requirements in terms of lightness for data modelling and reasoning. In this paper, we explore the state-of-the-art on data representation and reasoning tools for embedded mobile reasoning and propose a light inference system (LIS) aiming at simplifying embedded inference processes offering a set of functionalities to avoid redundancy in context management operations. The system is part of a service-oriented mobile software framework, conceived to facilitate the creation of context-aware applications—it decouples sensor data acquisition and context processing from the application logic. LIS, composed of several modules, encapsulates existing lightweight tools for ontology data management and rule-based reasoning, and it is ready to run on Java-enabled handheld devices. Data management and reasoning processes are designed to handle a general ontology that enables communication among framework components. Both the applications running on top of the framework and the framework components themselves can configure the rule and query sets in order to retrieve the information they need from LIS. In order to test LIS features in a real application scenario, an ‘Activity Monitor’ has been designed and implemented: a personal health-persuasive application that provides feedback on the user’s lifestyle, combining data from physical and virtual sensors. In this case of use, LIS is used to timely evaluate the user’s activity level, to decide on the convenience of triggering notifications and to determine the best interface or channel to deliver these context-aware alerts.d

A Model-based Repository for Open Source Service and Component Integration.

Open source is a software development paradigm that has seen a huge rise in recent years. It reduces IT costs and time to market, while increasing security and reliability. However, the difficulty in integrating developments from different communities and stakeholders prevents this model from reaching its full potential. This is mainly due to the challenge of determining and locating the correct dependencies for a given software artifact. To solve this problem we propose the development of an extensible software component repository based upon models. This repository should be capable of solving the dependencies between several components and work with already existing repositories to access the needed artifacts transparently. This repository will also be easily expandable, enabling the creation of modules that support new kinds of dependencies or other existing repository technologies. The proposed solution will work with OSGi components and use OSGi itself.

Design and Validation of a Light Inference System to Support Embedded Context Reasoning

Embedded context management in resource-constrained devices (e.g. mobile phones, autonomous sensors or smart objects) imposes special requirements in terms of lightness for data modelling and reasoning. In this paper, we explore the state-of-the-art on data representation and reasoning tools for embedded mobile reasoning and propose a light inference system (LIS) aiming at simplifying embedded inference processes offering a set of functionalities to avoid redundancy in context management operations. The system is part of a service-oriented mobile software framework, conceived to facilitate the creation of context-aware applications?it decouples sensor data acquisition and context processing from the application logic. LIS, composed of several modules, encapsulates existing lightweight tools for ontology data management and rule-based reasoning, and it is ready to run on Java-enabled handheld devices. Data management and reasoning processes are designed to handle a general ontology that enables communication among framework components. Both the applications running on top of the framework and the framework components themselves can configure the rule and query sets in order to retrieve the information they need from LIS. In order to test LIS features in a real application scenario, an ?Activity Monitor? has been designed and implemented: a personal health-persuasive application that provides feedback on the user?s lifestyle, combining data from physical and virtual sensors. In this case of use, LIS is used to timely evaluate the user?s activity level, to decide on the convenience of triggering notifications and to determine the best interface or channel to deliver these context-aware alerts.

Popularity based distribution schemes for P2P assisted streaming of VoD contents

The Video on Demand (VoD) service is becoming a dominant service in the telecommunication market due to the great convenience regarding the choice of content items and their independent viewing time. However, it comes with the downsides of high server storage and capacity demands because of the large variety of content items and the high amount of traffic generated for serving all requests. Storing part of the popular contents on the peers brings certain advantages but, it still has issues regarding the overall traffic in the core of the network and the scalability. Therefore, we propose a P2P assisted model for streaming VoD contents that takes advantage of the clients unused uplink and storage capacity to serve requests of other clients and we present popularity based schemes for distribution of both the popular and unpopular contents on the peers. The proposed model and the schemes prove to reduce the streaming traffic in the core of the network, improve the responsiveness of the system and increase its scalability.

P2P assisted streaming for low popularity VoD contents

The Video on Demand (VoD) service is becoming a dominant service in the telecommunication market due to the great convenience regarding the choice of content items and their independent viewing time. However, due to its high traffic demand nature, the VoD streaming systems are faced with the problem of huge amounts of traffic generated in the core of the network, especially for serving the requests for content items that are not in the top popularity range. Therefore, we propose a peer assisted VoD model that takes advantage of the clients unused uplink and storage capacity to serve requests for less popular items with the objective to keep the traffic on the periphery of the network, reduce the transport cost in the core of the network and make the system more scalable.

Contribution to flexible service coordination in mobile prosumer environments

Este trabajo de Tesis se desarrolla en el marco de los escenarios de ejecución distribuida de servicios móviles y contribuye a la definición y desarrollo del concepto de usuario prosumer. El usuario prosumer se caracteriza por utilizar su teléfono móvil para crear, proveer y ejecutar servicios. Este nuevo modelo de usuario contribuye al avance de la sociedad de la información, ya que el usuario prosumer se transforma de creador de contenidos a creador de servicios (estos últimos formados por contenidos y la lógica para acceder a ellos, procesarlos y representarlos). El objetivo general de este trabajo de Tesis es la provisión de un modelo de creación, distribución y ejecución de servicios para entorno móvil que permita a los usuarios no programadores (usuarios prosumer), pero expertos en un determinado dominio, crear y ejecutar sus propias aplicaciones y servicios. Para ello se definen, desarrollan e implementan metodologías, procesos, algoritmos y mecanismos adaptables a dominios específicos, para construir entornos de ejecución distribuida de servicios móviles para usuarios prosumer. La provisión de herramientas de creación adaptadas a usuarios no expertos es una tendencia actual que está siendo desarrollada en distintos trabajos de investigación. Sin embargo, no se ha propuesto una metodología de desarrollo de servicios que involucre al usuario prosumer en el proceso de diseño, desarrollo, implementación y validación de servicios. Este trabajo de Tesis realiza un estudio de las metodologías y tecnologías más innovadoras relacionadas con la co‐creación y utiliza este análisis para definir y validar una metodología que habilita al usuario para ser el responsable de la creación de servicios finales. Siendo los entornos móviles prosumer (mobile prosumer environments) una particularización de los entornos de ejecución distribuida de servicios móviles, en este trabajo se tesis se investiga en técnicas de adaptación, distribución, coordinación de servicios y acceso a recursos identificando como requisitos las problemáticas de este tipo de entornos y las características de los usuarios que participan en los mismos. Se contribuye a la adaptación de servicios definiendo un modelo de variabilidad que soporte la interdependencia entre las decisiones de personalización de los usuarios, incorporando mecanismos de guiado y detección de errores. La distribución de servicios se implementa utilizando técnicas de descomposición en árbol SPQR, cuantificando el impacto de separar cualquier servicio en distintos dominios. Considerando el plano de comunicaciones para la coordinación en la ejecución de servicios distribuidos hemos identificado varias problemáticas, como las pérdidas de enlace, conexiones, desconexiones y descubrimiento de participantes, que resolvemos utilizando técnicas de diseminación basadas en publicación subscripción y algoritmos Gossip. Para lograr una ejecución flexible de servicios distribuidos en entorno móvil, soportamos la adaptación a cambios en la disponibilidad de los recursos, proporcionando una infraestructura de comunicaciones para el acceso uniforme y eficiente a recursos. Se han realizado validaciones experimentales para evaluar la viabilidad de las soluciones propuestas, definiendo escenarios de aplicación relevantes (el nuevo universo inteligente, prosumerización de servicios en entornos hospitalarios y emergencias en la web de la cosas). Abstract This Thesis work is developed in the framework of distributed execution of mobile services and contributes to the definition and development of the concept of prosumer user. The prosumer user is characterized by using his mobile phone to create, provide and execute services. This new user model contributes to the advancement of the information society, as the prosumer is transformed from producer of content, to producer of services (consisting of content and logic to access them, process them and represent them). The overall goal of this Thesis work is to provide a model for creation, distribution and execution of services for the mobile environment that enables non‐programmers (prosumer users), but experts in a given domain, to create and execute their own applications and services. For this purpose I define, develop and implement methodologies, processes, algorithms and mechanisms, adapted to specific domains, to build distributed environments for the execution of mobile services for prosumer users. The provision of creation tools adapted to non‐expert users is a current trend that is being developed in different research works. However, it has not been proposed a service development methodology involving the prosumer user in the process of design, development, implementation and validation of services. This thesis work studies innovative methodologies and technologies related to the co‐creation and relies on this analysis to define and validate a methodological approach that enables the user to be responsible for creating final services. Being mobile prosumer environments a specific case of environments for distributed execution of mobile services, this Thesis work researches in service adaptation, distribution, coordination and resource access techniques, and identifies as requirements the challenges of such environments and characteristics of the participating users. I contribute to service adaptation by defining a variability model that supports the dependency of user personalization decisions, incorporating guiding and error detection mechanisms. Service distribution is implemented by using decomposition techniques based on SPQR trees, quantifying the impact of separating any service in different domains. Considering the communication level for the coordination of distributed service executions I have identified several problems, such as link losses, connections, disconnections and discovery of participants, which I solve using dissemination techniques based on publish‐subscribe communication models and Gossip algorithms. To achieve a flexible distributed service execution in mobile environments, I support adaptation to changes in the availability of resources, while providing a communication infrastructure for the uniform and efficient access to resources. Experimental validations have been conducted to assess the feasibility of the proposed solutions, defining relevant application scenarios (the new intelligent universe, service prosumerization in hospitals and emergency situations in the web of things).

Quality of Service (QoS) in MPLS networks

Telecommunications networks have been always expanding and thanks to it, new services have appeared. The old mechanisms for carrying packets have become obsolete due to the new service requirements, which have begun working in real time. Real time traffic requires strict service guarantees. When this traffic is sent through the network, enough resources must be given in order to avoid delays and information losses. When browsing through the Internet and requesting web pages, data must be sent from a server to the user. If during the transmission there is any packet drop, the packet is sent again. For the end user, it does not matter if the webpage loads in one or two seconds more. But if the user is maintaining a conversation with a VoIP program, such as Skype, one or two seconds of delay in the conversation may be catastrophic, and none of them can understand the other. In order to provide support for this new services, the networks have to evolve. For this purpose MPLS and QoS were developed. MPLS is a packet carrying mechanism used in high performance telecommunication networks which directs and carries data using pre-established paths. Now, packets are forwarded on the basis of labels, making this process faster than routing the packets with the IP addresses. MPLS also supports Traffic Engineering (TE). This refers to the process of selecting the best paths for data traffic in order to balance the traffic load between the different links. In a network with multiple paths, routing algorithms calculate the shortest one, and most of the times all traffic is directed through it, causing overload and packet drops, without distributing the packets in the other paths that the network offers and do not have any traffic. But this is not enough in order to provide the real time traffic the guarantees it needs. In fact, those mechanisms improve the network, but they do not make changes in how the traffic is treated. That is why Quality of Service (QoS) was developed. Quality of service is the ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow. Traffic is distributed into different classes and each of them is treated differently, according to its Service Level Agreement (SLA). Traffic with the highest priority will have the preference over lower classes, but this does not mean it will monopolize all the resources. In order to achieve this goal, a set policies are defined to control and alter how the traffic flows. Possibilities are endless, and it depends in how the network must be structured. By using those mechanisms it is possible to provide the necessary guarantees to the real-time traffic, distributing it between categories inside the network and offering the best service for both real time data and non real time data. Las Redes de Telecomunicaciones siempre han estado en expansión y han propiciado la aparición de nuevos servicios. Los viejos mecanismos para transportar paquetes se han quedado obsoletos debido a las exigencias de los nuevos servicios, que han comenzado a operar en tiempo real. El tráfico en tiempo real requiere de unas estrictas garantías de servicio. Cuando este tráfico se envía a través de la red, necesita disponer de suficientes recursos para evitar retrasos y pérdidas de información. Cuando se navega por la red y se solicitan páginas web, los datos viajan desde un servidor hasta el usuario. Si durante la transmisión se pierde algún paquete, éste se vuelve a mandar de nuevo. Para el usuario final, no importa si la página tarda uno o dos segundos más en cargar. Ahora bien, si el usuario está manteniendo una conversación usando algún programa de VoIP (como por ejemplo Skype) uno o dos segundos de retardo en la conversación podrían ser catastróficos, y ninguno de los interlocutores sería capaz de entender al otro. Para poder dar soporte a estos nuevos servicios, las redes deben evolucionar. Para este propósito se han concebido MPLS y QoS MPLS es un mecanismo de transporte de paquetes que se usa en redes de telecomunicaciones de alto rendimiento que dirige y transporta los datos de acuerdo a caminos preestablecidos. Ahora los paquetes se encaminan en función de unas etiquetas, lo cual hace que sea mucho más rápido que encaminar los paquetes usando las direcciones IP. MPLS también soporta Ingeniería de Tráfico (TE). Consiste en seleccionar los mejores caminos para el tráfico de datos con el objetivo de balancear la carga entre los diferentes enlaces. En una red con múltiples caminos, los algoritmos de enrutamiento actuales calculan el camino más corto, y muchas veces el tráfico se dirige sólo por éste, saturando el canal, mientras que otras rutas se quedan completamente desocupadas. Ahora bien, esto no es suficiente para ofrecer al tráfico en tiempo real las garantías que necesita. De hecho, estos mecanismos mejoran la red, pero no realizan cambios a la hora de tratar el tráfico. Por esto es por lo que se ha desarrollado el concepto de Calidad de Servicio (QoS). La calidad de servicio es la capacidad para ofrecer diferentes prioridades a las diferentes aplicaciones, usuarios o flujos de datos, y para garantizar un cierto nivel de rendimiento en un flujo de datos. El tráfico se distribuye en diferentes clases y cada una de ellas se trata de forma diferente, de acuerdo a las especificaciones que se indiquen en su Contrato de Tráfico (SLA). EL tráfico con mayor prioridad tendrá preferencia sobre el resto, pero esto no significa que acapare la totalidad de los recursos. Para poder alcanzar estos objetivos se definen una serie de políticas para controlar y alterar el comportamiento del tráfico. Las posibilidades son inmensas dependiendo de cómo se quiera estructurar la red. Usando estos mecanismos se pueden proporcionar las garantías necesarias al tráfico en tiempo real, distribuyéndolo en categorías dentro de la red y ofreciendo el mejor servicio posible tanto a los datos en tiempo real como a los que no lo son.

Analysis of service-oriented computing systems

La computación basada en servicios (Service-Oriented Computing, SOC) se estableció como un paradigma ampliamente aceptado para el desarollo de sistemas de software flexibles, distribuidos y adaptables, donde las composiciones de los servicios realizan las tareas más complejas o de nivel más alto, frecuentemente tareas inter-organizativas usando los servicios atómicos u otras composiciones de servicios. En tales sistemas, las propriedades de la calidad de servicio (Quality of Service, QoS), como la rapídez de procesamiento, coste, disponibilidad o seguridad, son críticas para la usabilidad de los servicios o sus composiciones en cualquier aplicación concreta. El análisis de estas propriedades se puede realizarse de una forma más precisa y rica en información si se utilizan las técnicas de análisis de programas, como el análisis de complejidad o de compartición de datos, que son capables de analizar simultáneamente tanto las estructuras de control como las de datos, dependencias y operaciones en una composición. El análisis de coste computacional para la composicion de servicios puede ayudar a una monitorización predictiva así como a una adaptación proactiva a través de una inferencia automática de coste computacional, usando los limites altos y bajos como funciones del valor o del tamaño de los mensajes de entrada. Tales funciones de coste se pueden usar para adaptación en la forma de selección de los candidatos entre los servicios que minimizan el coste total de la composición, basado en los datos reales que se pasan al servicio. Las funciones de coste también pueden ser combinadas con los parámetros extraídos empíricamente desde la infraestructura, para producir las funciones de los límites de QoS sobre los datos de entrada, cuales se pueden usar para previsar, en el momento de invocación, las violaciones de los compromisos al nivel de servicios (Service Level Agreements, SLA) potenciales or inminentes. En las composiciones críticas, una previsión continua de QoS bastante eficaz y precisa se puede basar en el modelado con restricciones de QoS desde la estructura de la composition, datos empiricos en tiempo de ejecución y (cuando estén disponibles) los resultados del análisis de complejidad. Este enfoque se puede aplicar a las orquestaciones de servicios con un control centralizado del flujo, así como a las coreografías con participantes multiples, siguiendo unas interacciones complejas que modifican su estado. El análisis del compartición de datos puede servir de apoyo para acciones de adaptación, como la paralelización, fragmentación y selección de los componentes, las cuales son basadas en dependencias funcionales y en el contenido de información en los mensajes, datos internos y las actividades de la composición, cuando se usan construcciones de control complejas, como bucles, bifurcaciones y flujos anidados. Tanto las dependencias funcionales como el contenido de información (descrito a través de algunos atributos definidos por el usuario) se pueden expresar usando una representación basada en la lógica de primer orden (claúsulas de Horn), y los resultados del análisis se pueden interpretar como modelos conceptuales basados en retículos. ABSTRACT Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) is a widely accepted paradigm for development of flexible, distributed and adaptable software systems, in which service compositions perform more complex, higher-level, often cross-organizational tasks using atomic services or other service compositions. In such systems, Quality of Service (QoS) properties, such as the performance, cost, availability or security, are critical for the usability of services and their compositions in concrete applications. Analysis of these properties can become more precise and richer in information, if it employs program analysis techniques, such as the complexity and sharing analyses, which are able to simultaneously take into account both the control and the data structures, dependencies, and operations in a composition. Computation cost analysis for service composition can support predictive monitoring and proactive adaptation by automatically inferring computation cost using the upper and lower bound functions of value or size of input messages. These cost functions can be used for adaptation by selecting service candidates that minimize total cost of the composition, based on the actual data that is passed to them. The cost functions can also be combined with the empirically collected infrastructural parameters to produce QoS bounds functions of input data that can be used to predict potential or imminent Service Level Agreement (SLA) violations at the moment of invocation. In mission-critical applications, an effective and accurate continuous QoS prediction, based on continuations, can be achieved by constraint modeling of composition QoS based on its structure, known data at runtime, and (when available) the results of complexity analysis. This approach can be applied to service orchestrations with centralized flow control, and choreographies with multiple participants with complex stateful interactions. Sharing analysis can support adaptation actions, such as parallelization, fragmentation, and component selection, which are based on functional dependencies and information content of the composition messages, internal data, and activities, in presence of complex control constructs, such as loops, branches, and sub-workflows. Both the functional dependencies and the information content (described using user-defined attributes) can be expressed using a first-order logic (Horn clause) representation, and the analysis results can be interpreted as a lattice-based conceptual models.

A knowledge based framework to support active aging at home based environments

Information and Communication Technologies can support Active Aging strategies in a scenario like the Smart Home. This paper details a person centered distributed framework, called TALISMAN+, whose aim is to promote personal autonomy by taking advantage of knowledge based technologies, sensors networks, mobile devices and internet. The proposed solution can support an elderly person to keep living alone at his house without being obliged to move to a residential center. The framework is composed by five subsystems: a reasoning module that is able to take local decisions at home in order to support active aging, a biomedical variables telemonitorisation platform running on a mobile device, a hybrid reasoning middleware aimed to assess cardiovascular risk in a remote way, a private vision based sensor subsystem, and a secure telematics solution that guarantees confidentiality for personal information. TALISMAN+ framework deployment is being evaluated at a real environment like the Accessible Digital Home.

A survey on service quality description

Quality of service (QoS) can be a critical element for achieving the business goals of a service provider, for the acceptance of a service by the user, or for guaranteeing service characteristics in a composition of services, where a service is defined as either a software or a software-support (i.e., infrastructural) service which is available on any type of network or electronic channel. The goal of this article is to compare the approaches to QoS description in the literature, where several models and metamodels are included. consider a large spectrum of models and metamodels to describe service quality, ranging from ontological approaches to define quality measures, metrics, and dimensions, to metamodels enabling the specification of quality-based service requirements and capabilities as well as of SLAs (Service-Level Agreements) and SLA templates for service provisioning. Our survey is performed by inspecting the characteristics of the available approaches to reveal which are the consolidated ones and which are the ones specific to given aspects and to analyze where the need for further research and investigation lies. The approaches here illustrated have been selected based on a systematic review of conference proceedings and journals spanning various research areas in computer science and engineering, including: distributed, information, and telecommunication systems, networks and security, and service-oriented and grid computing.