Intelligent context-aware services based on internet of things architectures

La Internet de las Cosas (IoT), como parte de la Futura Internet, se ha convertido en la actualidad en uno de los principales temas de investigación; en parte gracias a la atención que la sociedad está poniendo en el desarrollo de determinado tipo de servicios (telemetría, generación inteligente de energía, telesanidad, etc.) y por las recientes previsiones económicas que sitúan a algunos actores, como los operadores de telecomunicaciones (que se encuentran desesperadamente buscando nuevas oportunidades), al frente empujando algunas tecnologías interrelacionadas como las comunicaciones Máquina a Máquina (M2M). En este contexto, un importante número de actividades de investigación a nivel mundial se están realizando en distintas facetas: comunicaciones de redes de sensores, procesado de información, almacenamiento de grandes cantidades de datos (big--‐data), semántica, arquitecturas de servicio, etc. Todas ellas, de forma independiente, están llegando a un nivel de madurez que permiten vislumbrar la realización de la Internet de las Cosas más que como un sueño, como una realidad tangible. Sin embargo, los servicios anteriormente mencionados no pueden esperar a desarrollarse hasta que las actividades de investigación obtengan soluciones holísticas completas. Es importante proporcionar resultados intermedios que eviten soluciones verticales realizadas para desarrollos particulares. En este trabajo, nos hemos focalizado en la creación de una plataforma de servicios que pretende facilitar, por una parte la integración de redes de sensores y actuadores heterogéneas y geográficamente distribuidas, y por otra lado el desarrollo de servicios horizontales utilizando dichas redes y la información que proporcionan. Este habilitador se utilizará para el desarrollo de servicios y para la experimentación en la Internet de las Cosas. Previo a la definición de la plataforma, se ha realizado un importante estudio focalizando no sólo trabajos y proyectos de investigación, sino también actividades de estandarización. Los resultados se pueden resumir en las siguientes aseveraciones: a) Los modelos de datos definidos por el grupo “Sensor Web Enablement” (SWE™) del “Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®)” representan hoy en día la solución más completa para describir las redes de sensores y actuadores así como las observaciones. b) Las interfaces OGC, a pesar de las limitaciones que requieren cambios y extensiones, podrían ser utilizadas como las bases para acceder a sensores y datos. c) Las redes de nueva generación (NGN) ofrecen un buen sustrato que facilita la integración de redes de sensores y el desarrollo de servicios. En consecuencia, una nueva plataforma de Servicios, llamada Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN), se ha definido en esta Tesis tratando de contribuir a rellenar los huecos previamente mencionados. Los puntos más destacados de la plataforma USN son: a) Desde un punto de vista arquitectónico, sigue una aproximación de dos niveles (Habilitador y Gateway) similar a otros habilitadores que utilizan las NGN (como el OMA Presence). b) Los modelos de datos están basado en los estándares del OGC SWE. iv c) Está integrado en las NGN pero puede ser utilizado sin ellas utilizando infraestructuras IP abiertas. d) Las principales funciones son: Descubrimiento de sensores, Almacenamiento de observaciones, Publicacion--‐subscripcion--‐notificación, ejecución remota homogénea, seguridad, gestión de diccionarios de datos, facilidades de monitorización, utilidades de conversión de protocolos, interacciones síncronas y asíncronas, soporte para el “streaming” y arbitrado básico de recursos. Para demostrar las funcionalidades que la Plataforma USN propuesta pueden ofrecer a los futuros escenarios de la Internet de las Cosas, se presentan resultados experimentales de tres pruebas de concepto (telemetría, “Smart Places” y monitorización medioambiental) reales a pequeña escala y un estudio sobre semántica (sistema de información vehicular). Además, se está utilizando actualmente como Habilitador para desarrollar tanto experimentación como servicios reales en el proyecto Europeo SmartSantander (que aspira a integrar alrededor de 20.000 dispositivos IoT). v Abstract Internet of Things, as part of the Future Internet, has become one of the main research topics nowadays; in part thanks to the pressure the society is putting on the development of a particular kind of services (Smart metering, Smart Grids, eHealth, etc.), and by the recent business forecasts that situate some players, like Telecom Operators (which are desperately seeking for new opportunities), at the forefront pushing for some interrelated technologies like Machine--‐to--‐Machine (M2M) communications. Under this context, an important number of research activities are currently taking place worldwide at different levels: sensor network communications, information processing, big--‐ data storage, semantics, service level architectures, etc. All of them, isolated, are arriving to a level of maturity that envision the achievement of Internet of Things (IoT) more than a dream, a tangible goal. However, the aforementioned services cannot wait to be developed until the holistic research actions bring complete solutions. It is important to come out with intermediate results that avoid vertical solutions tailored for particular deployments. In the present work, we focus on the creation of a Service--‐level platform intended to facilitate, from one side the integration of heterogeneous and geographically disperse Sensors and Actuator Networks (SANs), and from the other the development of horizontal services using them and the information they provide. This enabler will be used for horizontal service development and for IoT experimentation. Prior to the definition of the platform, we have realized an important study targeting not just research works and projects, but also standardization topics. The results can be summarized in the following assertions: a) Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE™) data models today represent the most complete solution to describe SANs and observations. b) OGC interfaces, despite the limitations that require changes and extensions, could be used as the bases for accessing sensors and data. c) Next Generation Networks (NGN) offer a good substrate that facilitates the integration of SANs and the development of services. Consequently a new Service Layer platform, called Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN), has been defined in this Thesis trying to contribute to fill in the previous gaps. The main highlights of the proposed USN Platform are: a) From an architectural point of view, it follows a two--‐layer approach (Enabler and Gateway) similar to other enablers that run on top of NGN (like the OMA Presence). b) Data models and interfaces are based on the OGC SWE standards. c) It is integrated in NGN but it can be used without it over open IP infrastructures. d) Main functions are: Sensor Discovery, Observation Storage, Publish--‐Subscribe--‐Notify, homogeneous remote execution, security, data dictionaries handling, monitoring facilities, authorization support, protocol conversion utilities, synchronous and asynchronous interactions, streaming support and basic resource arbitration. vi In order to demonstrate the functionalities that the proposed USN Platform can offer to future IoT scenarios, some experimental results have been addressed in three real--‐life small--‐scale proofs--‐of concepts (Smart Metering, Smart Places and Environmental monitoring) and a study for semantics (in--‐vehicle information system). Furthermore we also present the current use of the proposed USN Platform as an Enabler to develop experimentation and real services in the SmartSantander EU project (that aims at integrating around 20.000 IoT devices).

Using configuration management and product line software paradigms to support the experimentation process in software engineering.

There is no empirical evidence whatsoever to support most of the beliefs on which software construction is based. We do not yet know the adequacy, limits, qualities, costs and risks of the technologies used to develop software. Experimentation helps to check and convert beliefs and opinions into facts. This research is concerned with the replication area. Replication is a key component for gathering empirical evidence on software development that can be used in industry to build better software more efficiently. Replication has not been an easy thing to do in software engineering (SE) because the experimental paradigm applied to software development is still immature. Nowadays, a replication is executed mostly using a traditional replication package. But traditional replication packages do not appear, for some reason, to have been as effective as expected for transferring information among researchers in SE experimentation. The trouble spot appears to be the replication setup, caused by version management problems with materials, instruments, documents, etc. This has proved to be an obstacle to obtaining enough details about the experiment to be able to reproduce it as exactly as possible. We address the problem of information exchange among experimenters by developing a schema to characterize replications. We will adapt configuration management and product line ideas to support the experimentation process. This will enable researchers to make systematic decisions based on explicit knowledge rather than assumptions about replications. This research will output a replication support web environment. This environment will not only archive but also manage experimental materials flexibly enough to allow both similar and differentiated replications with massive experimental data storage. The platform should be accessible to several research groups working together on the same families of experiments.

A scalable approach for content based image retrieval in cloud datacenter

The emergence of cloud datacenters enhances the capability of online data storage. Since massive data is stored in datacenters, it is necessary to effectively locate and access interest data in such a distributed system. However, traditional search techniques only allow users to search images over exact-match keywords through a centralized index. These techniques cannot satisfy the requirements of content based image retrieval (CBIR). In this paper, we propose a scalable image retrieval framework which can efficiently support content similarity search and semantic search in the distributed environment. Its key idea is to integrate image feature vectors into distributed hash tables (DHTs) by exploiting the property of locality sensitive hashing (LSH). Thus, images with similar content are most likely gathered into the same node without the knowledge of any global information. For searching semantically close images, the relevance feedback is adopted in our system to overcome the gap between low-level features and high-level features. We show that our approach yields high recall rate with good load balance and only requires a few number of hops.

Generador de exámenes de test aleatorio

En este documento se detalla, la planificación y elaboración de un paquete que respeta el estándar S4 de programación en lenguaje R. El paquete consiste en una serie de métodos y clases para la generación de exámenes tipos test y soluciones a partir de un archivo xls, que hace las funciones de una base de datos. El diseño propuesto está orientado a objetos y desarrolla un conjunto de clases que representan los contenidos de una prueba de evaluación tipo test: enunciados, peguntas y respuestas. Se ha realizado una implementación sencilla de un prototipo con las funciones básicas necesarias para generar los tests. Además se ha generado la documentación necesaria para crear el paquete, esto significa que cada método tiene una página de ayuda, que se podrá consultar desde un terminal con R, dicha documentación incluye ejemplos de ejecución de cada método.---ABSTRACT---In this document is detailed the elaboration and development of a package that meets the standard S4 of programming language R. This package consists of a group of methods and classes used for the generation of test exams and their solutions starting from a xls format file wich plays the role of a data base at the same time. These classes have been grouped in a way that the user could have a complete and easy vision of them. This division has been done by using data storage and functions whose tasks are more or less the same. Furthermore, the necessary documentation to create this package has also been generated, that means that every method has a help page wich can be called from a R terminal if necessary. This documentation has examples of the execution of every method.

Optimization of multidimensional cross-section tables for few-group core calculations

Multigroup diffusion codes for three dimensional LWR core analysis use as input data pre-generated homogenized few group cross sections and discontinuity factors for certain combinations of state variables, such as temperatures or densities. The simplest way of compiling those data are tabulated libraries, where a grid covering the domain of state variables is defined and the homogenized cross sections are computed at the grid points. Then, during the core calculation, an interpolation algorithm is used to compute the cross sections from the table values. Since interpolation errors depend on the distance between the grid points, a determined refinement of the mesh is required to reach a target accuracy, which could lead to large data storage volume and a large number of lattice transport calculations. In this paper, a simple and effective procedure to optimize the distribution of grid points for tabulated libraries is presented. Optimality is considered in the sense of building a non-uniform point distribution with the minimum number of grid points for each state variable satisfying a given target accuracy in k-effective. The procedure consists of determining the sensitivity coefficients of k-effective to cross sections using perturbation theory; and estimating the interpolation errors committed with different mesh steps for each state variable. These results allow evaluating the influence of interpolation errors of each cross section on k-effective for any combination of state variables, and estimating the optimal distance between grid points.

Implementing fully homomorphic encryption schemes in FPGA-based systems

LLas nuevas tecnologías orientadas a la nube, el internet de las cosas o las tendencias "as a service" se basan en el almacenamiento y procesamiento de datos en servidores remotos. Para garantizar la seguridad en la comunicación de dichos datos al servidor remoto, y en el manejo de los mismos en dicho servidor, se hace uso de diferentes esquemas criptográficos. Tradicionalmente, dichos sistemas criptográficos se centran en encriptar los datos mientras no sea necesario procesarlos (es decir, durante la comunicación y almacenamiento de los mismos). Sin embargo, una vez es necesario procesar dichos datos encriptados (en el servidor remoto), es necesario desencriptarlos, momento en el cual un intruso en dicho servidor podría a acceder a datos sensibles de usuarios del mismo. Es más, este enfoque tradicional necesita que el servidor sea capaz de desencriptar dichos datos, teniendo que confiar en la integridad de dicho servidor de no comprometer los datos. Como posible solución a estos problemas, surgen los esquemas de encriptación homomórficos completos. Un esquema homomórfico completo no requiere desencriptar los datos para operar con ellos, sino que es capaz de realizar las operaciones sobre los datos encriptados, manteniendo un homomorfismo entre el mensaje cifrado y el mensaje plano. De esta manera, cualquier intruso en el sistema no podría robar más que textos cifrados, siendo imposible un robo de los datos sensibles sin un robo de las claves de cifrado. Sin embargo, los esquemas de encriptación homomórfica son, actualmente, drás-ticamente lentos comparados con otros esquemas de encriptación clásicos. Una op¬eración en el anillo del texto plano puede conllevar numerosas operaciones en el anillo del texto encriptado. Por esta razón, están surgiendo distintos planteamientos sobre como acelerar estos esquemas para un uso práctico. Una de las propuestas para acelerar los esquemas homomórficos consiste en el uso de High-Performance Computing (HPC) usando FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays). Una FPGA es un dispositivo semiconductor que contiene bloques de lógica cuya interconexión y funcionalidad puede ser reprogramada. Al compilar para FPGAs, se genera un circuito hardware específico para el algorithmo proporcionado, en lugar de hacer uso de instrucciones en una máquina universal, lo que supone una gran ventaja con respecto a CPUs. Las FPGAs tienen, por tanto, claras difrencias con respecto a CPUs: -Arquitectura en pipeline: permite la obtención de outputs sucesivos en tiempo constante -Posibilidad de tener multiples pipes para computación concurrente/paralela. Así, en este proyecto: -Se realizan diferentes implementaciones de esquemas homomórficos en sistemas basados en FPGAs. -Se analizan y estudian las ventajas y desventajas de los esquemas criptográficos en sistemas basados en FPGAs, comparando con proyectos relacionados. -Se comparan las implementaciones con trabajos relacionados New cloud-based technologies, the internet of things or "as a service" trends are based in data storage and processing in a remote server. In order to guarantee a secure communication and handling of data, cryptographic schemes are used. Tradi¬tionally, these cryptographic schemes focus on guaranteeing the security of data while storing and transferring it, not while operating with it. Therefore, once the server has to operate with that encrypted data, it first decrypts it, exposing unencrypted data to intruders in the server. Moreover, the whole traditional scheme is based on the assumption the server is reliable, giving it enough credentials to decipher data to process it. As a possible solution for this issues, fully homomorphic encryption(FHE) schemes is introduced. A fully homomorphic scheme does not require data decryption to operate, but rather operates over the cyphertext ring, keeping an homomorphism between the cyphertext ring and the plaintext ring. As a result, an outsider could only obtain encrypted data, making it impossible to retrieve the actual sensitive data without its associated cypher keys. However, using homomorphic encryption(HE) schemes impacts performance dras-tically, slowing it down. One operation in the plaintext space can lead to several operations in the cyphertext space. Because of this, different approaches address the problem of speeding up these schemes in order to become practical. One of these approaches consists in the use of High-Performance Computing (HPC) using FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array). An FPGA is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing - hence "field-programmable". Compiling into FPGA means generating a circuit (hardware) specific for that algorithm, instead of having an universal machine and generating a set of machine instructions. FPGAs have, thus, clear differences compared to CPUs: - Pipeline architecture, which allows obtaining successive outputs in constant time. -Possibility of having multiple pipes for concurrent/parallel computation. Thereby, In this project: -We present different implementations of FHE schemes in FPGA-based systems. -We analyse and study advantages and drawbacks of the implemented FHE schemes, compared to related work.

Reutilização de baterias automotivas como fonte alternativa de energia.

Atualmente um dos principais objetivos na área de pesquisa tecnológica é o desenvolvimento de soluções em favor do Meio Ambiente. Este trabalho tem por objetivo demonstrar a reutilização e consequentemente o aumento da vida útil de uma bateria Chumbo-Ácido, comumente instaladas em veículos automóveis, bem como beneficiar locais e usuários remotos onde o investimento na instalação de linhas de transmissão se torna inviável geográfica e economicamente, utilizando a luz solar como fonte de energia. No entanto a parte mais suscetível a falhas são as próprias baterias, justamente pela vida útil delas serem pequenas (em torno de 3 anos para a bateria automotiva) em comparação com o restante do sistema. Considerando uma unidade que já foi usada anteriormente, a possibilidade de falhas é ainda maior. A fim de diagnosticar e evitar que uma simples bateria possa prejudicar o funcionamento do sistema como um todo, o projeto considera a geração de energia elétrica por células fotovoltaicas e também contempla um sistema microcontrolado para leitura de dados utilizando o microcontrolador ATmega/Arduino, leitura de corrente por sensores de efeito hall da Allegro Systems, relés nas baterias para abertura e fechamento delas no circuito e um sistema de alerta para o usuário final de qual bateria está em falha e que precisa ser reparada e/ou trocada. Esse projeto foi montado na Ilha dos Arvoredos SP, distante da costa continental em aproximadamente 2,0km. Foram instaladas células solares e um banco de baterias, a fim de estudar o comportamento das baterias. O programa pôde diagnosticar e isolar uma das baterias que estava apresentando defeito, a fim de se evitar que a mesma viesse a prejudicar o sistema como um todo. Por conta da dificuldade de locomoção imposta pela geografia, foi escolhido o cartão SD para o armazenamento dos dados obtidos pelo Arduino. Posteriormente os dados foram compilados e analisados. A partir dos resultados apresentados podemos concluir que é possível usar baterias novas e baterias usadas em um mesmo sistema, de tal forma que se alguma das baterias apresentar uma falha o sistema por si só isolará a unidade.

Documentation

In order to become better prepared to support Research Data Management (RDM) practices in sciences and engineering, Queen’s University Library, together with the University Research Services, conducted a research study of all ranks of faculty members, as well as postdoctoral fellows and graduate students at the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science, Departments of Chemistry, Computer Science, Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy, School of Environmental Studies, and Geography & Planning in the Faculty of Arts and Science.

LTPP beyond FY 2009 : what needs to be done?

"This report summarizes the current status of the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program and its major activities -- data collection, data storage, data analysis, and product development. It describes the work that will be needed beyond 2009 to realize the full potential of the world's most comprehensive pavement performance database and the benefits that will be accrued by capitalizing on the investment that has been made"--p. [2] of cover.

A novel grid computing approach for probabilistic small signal analysis

Grid computing is an advanced technique for collaboratively solving complicated scientific problems using geographically and organisational dispersed computational, data storage and other recourses. Application of grid computing could provide significant benefits to all aspects of power system that involves using computers. Based on our previous research, this paper presents a novel grid computing approach for probabilistic small signal stability (PSSS) analysis in electric power systems with uncertainties. A prototype computing grid is successfully implemented in our research lab to carry out PSSS analysis on two benchmark systems. Comparing to traditional computing techniques, the gird computing has given better performances for PSSS analysis in terms of computing capacity, speed, accuracy and stability. In addition, a computing grid framework for power system analysis has been proposed based on the recent study.

CORD an object model supporting statistical summary information for management decision making

Information systems have developed to the stage that there is plenty of data available in most organisations but there are still major problems in turning that data into information for management decision making. This thesis argues that the link between decision support information and transaction processing data should be through a common object model which reflects the real world of the organisation and encompasses the artefacts of the information system. The CORD (Collections, Objects, Roles and Domains) model is developed which is richer in appropriate modelling abstractions than current Object Models. A flexible Object Prototyping tool based on a Semantic Data Storage Manager has been developed which enables a variety of models to be stored and experimented with. A statistical summary table model COST (Collections of Objects Statistical Table) has been developed within CORD and is shown to be adequate to meet the modelling needs of Decision Support and Executive Information Systems. The COST model is supported by a statistical table creator and editor COSTed which is also built on top of the Object Prototyper and uses the CORD model to manage its metadata.

A rationale for the optimisation by computer methods of the efficient use of metals and materials

The aim of the research project was to gain d complete and accurate accounting of the needs and deficiencies of materials selection and design data, with particular attention given to the feasibility of a computerised materials selection system that would include application analysis, property data and screening techniques. The project also investigates and integrates the three major aspects of materials resources, materials selection and materials recycling. Consideration of the materials resource base suggests that, though our discovery potential has increased, geologic availability is the ultimate determinant and several metals may well become scarce at the same time, thus compounding the problem of substitution. With around 2- to 20- million units of engineering materials data, the use of a computer is the only logical answer for scientific selection of materials. The system developed at Aston is used for data storage, mathematical computation and output. The system enables programs to be run in batch and interactive (on-line) mode. The program with modification can also handle such variables as quantity of mineral resources, energy cost of materials and depletion and utilisation rates of strateqic materials. The work also carries out an in-depth study of copper recycling in the U.K. and concludes that, somewhere in the region of 2 million tonnes of copper is missing from the recycling cycle. It also sets out guidelines on product design and conservation policies from the recyclability point of view.

The application of robotics to the turbine blade encapsulation process

A survey of the existing state-of-the-art of turbine blade manufacture highlights two operations that have not been automated namely that of loading of a turbine blade into an encapsulation die, and that of removing a machined blade from the encapsulation block. The automation of blade decapsulation has not been pursued. In order to develop a system to automate the loading of an encapsulation die a prototype mechanical handling robot has been designed together with a computer controlled encapsulation die. The robot has been designed as a mechanical handling robot of cylindrical geometry, suitable for use in a circular work cell. It is the prototype for a production model to be called `The Cybermate'. The prototype robot is mechanically complete but due to unforeseen circumstances the robot control system is not available (the development of the control system did not form a part of this project), hence it has not been possible to fully test and assess the robot mechanical design. Robot loading of the encapsulation die has thus been simulated. The research work with regard to the encapsulation die has focused on the development of computer controlled, hydraulically actuated, location pins. Such pins compensate for the inherent positional inaccuracy of the loading robot and reproduce the dexterity of the human operator. Each pin comprises a miniature hydraulic cylinder, controlled by a standard bidirectional flow control valve. The precision positional control is obtained through pulsing of the valves under software control, with positional feedback from an 8-bit transducer. A test-rig comprising one hydraulic location pin together with an opposing spring loaded pin has demonstrated that such a pin arrangement can be controlled with a repeatability of +/-.00045'. In addition this test-rig has demonstrated that such a pin arrangement can be used to gauge and compensate for the dimensional error of the component held between the pins, by offsetting the pin datum positions to allow for the component error. A gauging repeatability of +/- 0.00015' was demonstrated. This work has led to the design and manufacture of an encapsulation die comprising ten such pins and the associated computer software. All aspects of the control software except blade gauging and positional data storage have been demonstrated. Work is now required to achieve the accuracy of control demonstrated by the single pin test-rig, with each of the ten pins in the encapsulation die. This would allow trials of the complete loading cycle to take place.

Palette-colouring: a belief propagation approach

We consider a variation of the prototype combinatorial optimization problem known as graph colouring. Our optimization goal is to colour the vertices of a graph with a fixed number of colours, in a way to maximize the number of different colours present in the set of nearest neighbours of each given vertex. This problem, which we pictorially call palette-colouring, has been recently addressed as a basic example of a problem arising in the context of distributed data storage. Even though it has not been proved to be NP-complete, random search algorithms find the problem hard to solve. Heuristics based on a naive belief propagation algorithm are observed to work quite well in certain conditions. In this paper, we build upon the mentioned result, working out the correct belief propagation algorithm, which needs to take into account the many-body nature of the constraints present in this problem. This method improves the naive belief propagation approach at the cost of increased computational effort. We also investigate the emergence of a satisfiable-to-unsatisfiable 'phase transition' as a function of the vertex mean degree, for different ensembles of sparse random graphs in the large size ('thermodynamic') limit.

Spiral attractor created by vector solitons

Mode-locked lasers emitting a train of femtosecond pulses called dissipative solitons are an enabling technology for metrology, high-resolution spectroscopy, fibre optic communications, nano-optics and many other fields of science and applications. Recently, the vector nature of dissipative solitons has been exploited to demonstrate mode locked lasing with both locked and rapidly evolving states of polarisation. Here, for an erbium-doped fibre laser mode locked with carbon nanotubes, we demonstrate the first experimental and theoretical evidence of a new class of slowly evolving vector solitons characterized by a double-scroll chaotic polarisation attractor substantially different from Lorenz, Rössler and Ikeda strange attractors. The underlying physics comprises a long time scale coherent coupling of two polarisation modes. The observed phenomena, apart from the fundamental interest, provide a base for advances in secure communications, trapping and manipulation of atoms and nanoparticles, control of magnetisation in data storage devices and many other areas. © 2014 CIOMP. All rights reserved.