Fault-tolerant secret key generation

Mobile nodes observing correlated data communicate using an insecure bidirectional switch to generate a secret key, which must remain concealed from the switch. We are interested in fault-tolerant secret key rates, i.e., the rates of secret key generated even if a subset of nodes drop out before the completion of the communication protocol. We formulate a new notion of fault-tolerant secret key capacity, and present an upper bound on it. This upper bound is shown to be tight when the random variables corresponding to the observations of nodes are exchangeable. Further, it is shown that one round of interaction achieves the fault-tolerant secret key capacity in this case. The upper bound is also tight for the case of a pairwise independent network model consisting of a complete graph, and can be attained by a noninteractive protocol.

A Reduced Device-Count Hybrid Multilevel Inverter Topology with single DC Source and Improved Fault Tolerance

A new hybrid multilevel power converter topology is presented in this paper. The proposed power converter topology uses only one DC source and floating capacitors charged to asymmetrical voltage levels, are used for generating different voltage levels. The SVPWM based control strategy used in this converter maintains the capacitor voltages at the required levels in the entire modulation range including the over-modulation region. For the voltage levels: nine and above, the number of components required in the proposed topology is significantly lower, compared to the conventional multilevel inverter topologies. The number of capacitors required in this topology reduces drastically compared to the conventional flying capacitor topology, when the number of levels in the inverter output increases. This topology has better fault tolerance, as it is capable of operating with reduced number of levels, in the entire modulation range, in the event of any failure in the H-bridges. The transient as well as the steady state performance of the nine-level version of the proposed topology is experimentally verified in the entire modulation range including the over-modulation region.

Micropillar and macropillar compression responses of magnesium single crystals oriented for single slip or extension twinning

Uniaxial compression experiments were conducted on two magnesium (Mg) single crystals whose crystallographic orientations facilitate the deformation either by basal slip or by extension twinning. Specimen size effects were examined by conducting experiments on mu m- and mm-sized samples. A marked specimen size effect was noticed, with micropillars exhibiting significantly higher flow stress than bulk samples. Further, it is observed that the twin nucleation stress exerts strong size dependence, with micropillars requiring substantially higher stress than the bulk samples. The flow curves obtained on the bulk samples are smooth whereas those obtained from micropillars exhibit intermittent and precipitous stress drops. Electron backscattered diffraction and microstructural analyses of the deformed samples reveal that the plastic deformation in basal slip oriented crystals occurs only by slip while twin oriented crystals deform by both slip and twinning modes. The twin oriented crystals exhibit a higher strain hardening during plastic deformation when compared to the single slip oriented crystals. The strain hardening rate, theta, of twin oriented crystals is considerably greater in micropillars compared to the bulk single crystals, suggesting the prevalence of different work hardening mechanisms at these different sample sizes. (C) 2013 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of the Flow Rule on the Bearing Capacity of Strip Foundations on Sand by the Upper-Bound Limit Analysis and Slip Lines

The influence of the flow rule on the bearing capacity of strip foundations placed on sand was investigated using a new kinematic approach of upper-bound limit analysis. The method of stress characteristics was first used to find the mechanism of the failure and to compute the stress field by using the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion. Once the failure mechanism had been established, the kinematics of the plastic deformation was established, based on the requirements of the upper-bound limit theorem. Both associated and nonassociated plastic flows were considered, and the bearing capacity was obtained by equating the rate of external plastic work to the rate of the internal energy dissipation for both smooth and rough base foundations. The results obtained from the analysis were compared with those available from the literature. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Energy based approach for the evaluation of damage under partial slip and gross sliding condition

Three possible contact conditions may prevail at a contact interface depending on the magnitude of normal and tangential loads, that is, stick condition, partial slip condition or gross sliding condition. Numerical techniques have been used to evaluate the stress field under partial slip and gross sliding condition. Cattaneo and Mindlin approach has been adapted to model partial slip condition. Shear strain energy density and normalized strain energy release rate have been evaluated at the surface and in the subsurface region. It is apparent from the present study that the shear strain energy density gives a fair prediction for the nucleation of damage, whereas the propagation of the crack is controlled by normalized strain energy release rate. Further, it has been observed that the intensity of damage strongly depends on coefficient of friction and contact conditions prevailing at the contact interface. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Temperature-dependent stability of stacking faults in Al, Cu and Ni: first-principles analysis

We present comparative analysis of microscopic mechanisms relevant to plastic deformation of the face-centered cubic (FCC) metals Al, Cu, and Ni, through determination of the temperature-dependent free energies of intrinsic and unstable stacking faults along 1 (1) over bar 0] and 1 (2) over bar 1] on the (1 1 1) plane using first-principles density-functional-theory-based calculations. We show that vibrational contribution results in significant decrease in the free energy of barriers and intrinsic stacking faults (ISFs) of Al, Cu, and Ni with temperature, confirming an important role of thermal fluctuations in the stability of stacking faults (SFs) and deformation at elevated temperatures. In contrast to Al and Ni, the vibrational spectrum of the unstable stacking fault (USF1 (2) over bar 1]) in Cu reveals structural instabilities, indicating that the energy barrier (gamma(usf)) along the (1 1 1)1 (2) over bar 1] slip system in Cu, determined by typical first-principles calculations, is an overestimate, and its commonly used interpretation as the energy release rate needed for dislocation nucleation, as proposed by Rice (1992 J. Mech. Phys. Solids 40 239), should be taken with caution.

New insights into the development of microstructure and deformation texture in nickel-60 wt.% cobalt alloy

The present study investigates the critical role of deformation twinning and Bs-type shear bands in the evolution of deformation texture in a low stacking fault energy Ni-60Co alloy up to very large rolling strain (epsilon(t) approximate to 4). The alloy develops a strong brass-type rolling texture, and its formation is initiated at the early stages of deformation. Extensive twinning is observed at the intermediate stages of deformation, which causes significant texture reorientation towards alpha-fiber. A pseudo-in-situ electron back-scattered diffraction technique adopted to capture orientation changes within individual grains during the early stages suggests that twinning should be subsequently aided by crystallographic slip to attain alpha-fiber (< 1 1 0 >parallel to ND) orientations. Beyond 40% reduction, deformation is dominated by Bs-type shear bands, and the banding coincides with the evolution of < 1 1 1 >parallel to ND components. The volume fraction of shear bands is significant at higher strains, and crystallites within the bands preferentially show < 1 1 0 >parallel to ND components. The absence of the Cu {1 1 2}< 1 1 1 > component in the initial texture, and subsequently during rolling, indicates that, for the evolution of a brass-type texture, the presence of the Cu component is not a necessary condition. The final rolling texture is a synergistic effect of deformation twinning and shear banding. (C) 2014 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fault Attacks on Pairing-Based Protocols Revisited

Several papers have studied fault attacks on computing a pairing value e(P, Q), where P is a public point and Q is a secret point. In this paper, we observe that these attacks are in fact effective only on a small number of pairing-based protocols, and that too only when the protocols are implemented with specific symmetric pairings. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the fault attacks on a public-key encryption scheme, an identity-based encryption scheme, and an oblivious transfer protocol when implemented with a symmetric pairing derived from a supersingular elliptic curve with embedding degree 2.

Geomorphology reveals active decollement geometry in the central Himalayan seismic gap

The similar to 700-km-long ``central seismic gap'' is the most prominent segment of the Himalayan front not to have ruptured in a major earthquake during the last 200-500 yr. This prolonged seismic quiescence has led to the proposition that this region, with a population >10 million, is overdue for a great earthquake. Despite the region's recognized seismic risk, the geometry of faults likely to host large earthquakes remains poorly understood. Here, we place new constraints on the spatial distribution of rock uplift within the western similar to 400 km of the central seismic gap using topographic and river profile analyses together with basinwide erosion rate estimates from cosmogenic Be-10. The data sets show a distinctive physiographic transition at the base of the high Himalaya in the state of Uttarakhand, India, characterized by abrupt strike-normal increases in channel steepness and a tenfold increase in erosion rates. When combined with previously published geophysical imaging and seismicity data sets, we interpret the observed spatial distribution of erosion rates and channel steepness to reflect the landscape response to spatially variable rock uplift due to a structurally coherent ramp-flat system of the Main Himalayan Thrust. Although it remains unresolved whether the kinematics of the Main Himalayan Thrust ramp involve an emergent fault or duplex, the landscape and erosion rate patterns suggest that the decollement beneath the state of Uttarakhand provides a sufficiently large and coherent fault segment capable of hosting a great earthquake.

Fault Tolerance on Large Scale Systems using Adaptive Process Replication

Exascale systems of the future are predicted to have mean time between failures (MTBF) of less than one hour. At such low MTBFs, employing periodic checkpointing alone will result in low efficiency because of the high number of application failures resulting in large amount of lost work due to rollbacks. In such scenarios, it is highly necessary to have proactive fault tolerance mechanisms that can help avoid significant number of failures. In this work, we have developed a mechanism for proactive fault tolerance using partial replication of a set of application processes. Our fault tolerance framework adaptively changes the set of replicated processes periodically based on failure predictions to avoid failures. We have developed an MPI prototype implementation, PAREP-MPI that allows changing the replica set. We have shown that our strategy involving adaptive process replication significantly outperforms existing mechanisms providing up to 20 percent improvement in application efficiency even for exascale systems.

Time scales of the stick-slip dynamics of the peeling of an adhesive tape

The stick-slip dynamics of the peeling of an adhesive tape is characterized by bifurcations that have been experimentally well studied. In this work, we investigate the time scale in which the the stick-slips happen leading to the bifurcations. This is fundamental to understanding the triboluminescence and acoustic emissions associated with the bifurcations. We establish a relationship between the time scale of the bifurcations and the inherent mathematical structure of the peeling dynamics by studying a characteristic time quantity associated with the dynamics.

A mobile robot with a two-degree-of-freedom suspension for traversing uneven terrain with minimal slip: Modeling, simulation and experiments

It is known in literature that a wheeled mobile robot (WMR) with fixed length axle will slip on an uneven terrain. One way to avoid wheel slip is to use a torus-shaped wheel with lateral tilt capability which allows the distance between the wheel-ground contact points to change even with a fixed length axle. Such an arrangement needs a two degree-of-freedom (DOF) suspension for the vertical and lateral tilting motion of the wheel. In this paper modeling, simulation, design and experimentation with a three-wheeled mobile robot, with torus-shaped wheels and a novel two DOF suspension allowing independent lateral tilt and vertical motion, is presented. The suspension is based on a four-bar mechanism and is called the double four-bar (D4Bar) suspension. Numerical simulations show that the three-wheeled mobile robot can traverse uneven terrain with low wheel slip. Experiments with a prototype three-wheeled mobile robot moving on a constructed uneven terrain along a straight line, a circular arc and a path representing a lane change, also illustrate the low slip capability of the three-wheeled mobile robot with the D4Bar suspension. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Fast and Fault-Tolerant Distributed Algorithm for Near-Optimal TDMA Scheduling in WSNs

The time division multiple access (TDMA) based channel access mechanisms perform better than the contention based channel access mechanisms, in terms of channel utilization, reliability and power consumption, specially for high data rate applications in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Most of the existing distributed TDMA scheduling techniques can be classified as either static or dynamic. The primary purpose of static TDMA scheduling algorithms is to improve the channel utilization by generating a schedule of smaller length. But, they usually take longer time to schedule, and hence, are not suitable for WSNs, in which the network topology changes dynamically. On the other hand, dynamic TDMA scheduling algorithms generate a schedule quickly, but they are not efficient in terms of generated schedule length. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme for TDMA scheduling in WSNs, which can generate a compact schedule similar to static scheduling algorithms, while its runtime performance can be matched with those of dynamic scheduling algorithms. Furthermore, the proposed distributed TDMA scheduling algorithm has the capability to trade-off schedule length with the time required to generate the schedule. This would allow the developers of WSNs, to tune the performance, as per the requirement of prevalent WSN applications, and the requirement to perform re-scheduling. Finally, the proposed TDMA scheduling is fault-tolerant to packet loss due to erroneous wireless channel. The algorithm has been simulated using the Castalia simulator to compare its performance with those of others in terms of generated schedule length and the time required to generate the TDMA schedule. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm generates a compact schedule in a very less time.

Role of upward leaders in modifying the induced currents in solitary down-conductors during a nearby lightning strike to ground

Electromagnetic field produced by a lightning strike to ground causes significant induction to tall objects in the vicinity. The frequency of occurrence of such nearby ground strikes can be higher than the number of direct strikes. Therefore, a complete knowledge on these induced currents is of practical relevance. However, limited efforts towards the characterisation of such induced currents in tall down-conductors could be seen in the literature. Due to the intensification of the background field caused by the descending stepped leader, tall towers/down-conductors can launch upward leaders of significant length. The nonlinearity in the conductance of upward leader and the surrounding corona sheath can alter the characteristics of the induced currents. Preliminary aspects of this phenomenon have been studied by the author previously and the present work aims to perform a detailed investigation on the role of upward leaders in modifying the characteristics of the induced currents. A consistent model for the upward leader, which covers all the essential electrical aspects of the phenomena, is employed. A first order arc model for representing the conductance of upward leader and a field dependant quadratic conductivity model for the corona sheath is employed. The initial gradient in the upward leader and the field produced by the return stroke forms the excitation. The dynamic electromagnetic response is determined by solving the wave equation using thin-wire time-domain formulation. Simulations are carried out initially to ascertain the role of individual parameters, including the length of the upward leader. Based on the simulation results, it is shown that the upward leader enhances the induced current, and when significant in length, can alter the waveshape of induced current from bipolar oscillatory to unipolar. The duration of the induced current is governed by the length of upward leader, which in turn is dependant on the return stroke current and the effective length of the down-conductor. If the current during the upward leader developmental phase is considered along with that after the stroke termination to ground, it would present a bipolar current pulse. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.