On-chip Monitoring: A Light-Weight Interconnection Network Approach

Current nanometer technologies are subjected to several adverse effects that seriously impact the yield and performance of integrated circuits. Such is the case of within-die parameters uncertainties, varying workload conditions, aging, temperature, etc. Monitoring, calibration and dynamic adaptation have appeared as promising solutions to these issues and many kinds of monitors have been presented recently. In this scenario, where systems with hundreds of monitors of different types have been proposed, the need for light-weight monitoring networks has become essential. In this work we present a light-weight network architecture based on digitization resource sharing of nodes that require a time-to-digital conversion. Our proposal employs a single wire interface, shared among all the nodes in the network, and quantizes the time domain to perform the access multiplexing and transmit the information. It supposes a 16% improvement in area and power consumption compared to traditional approaches.

A Simplified Energy Consumption Model for Fibre-Based Next Generation Access Networks

Presentación realizada en el PhD Seminar del ITS 2011 en Budapest. ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) currently account for 2% of total carbon emissions. However, although modern standards require strict measures to reduce energy consumption across all industrial and services sectors, the ICT sector also faces an increase in services and bandwidth demand. The deployment of Next Generation Networks (NGN) will be the answer to this new demand; more specifically, Next Generation Access Networks (NGANs) will provide higher bandwidth access to users. Several policy and cost analyses are being carried out to understand the risks and opportunities of new deployments, but the question of what role energy consumption plays in NGANs seems off the table. Thus, this paper proposes a model to analyse the energy consumption of the main fibre-based NGAN architectures: Fibre To The House (FTTH), in both Passive Optical Network (PON) and Point-to-Point (PtP) variations, and FTTx/VDSL. The aim of this analysis is to provide deeper insight on the impact of new deployments on the energy consumption of the ICT sector and the effects of energy consumption on the life-cycle cost of NGANs. The paper also presents an energy consumption comparison of the presented architectures, particularised to the specific geographic and demographic distribution of users of Spain but easily extendable to other countries.

A framework for building distributed social network websites

Las redes son la esencia de comunidades y sociedades humanas; constituyen el entramado en el que nos relacionamos y determinan cómo lo hacemos, cómo se disemina la información o incluso cómo las cosas se llevan a cabo. Pero el protagonismo de las redes va más allá del que adquiere en las redes sociales. Se encuentran en el seno de múltiples estructuras que conocemos, desde las interaciones entre las proteínas dentro de una célula hasta la interconexión de los routers de internet. Las redes sociales están presentes en internet desde sus principios, en el correo electrónico por tomar un ejemplo. Dentro de cada cliente de correo se manejan listas contactos que agregadas constituyen una red social. Sin embargo, ha sido con la aparición de los sitios web de redes sociales cuando este tipo de aplicaciones web han llegado a la conciencia general. Las redes sociales se han situado entre los sitios más populares y con más tráfico de la web. Páginas como Facebook o Twitter manejan cifras asombrosas en cuanto a número de usuarios activos, de tráfico o de tiempo invertido en el sitio. Pero las funcionalidades de red social no están restringidas a las redes sociales orientadas a contactos, aquellas enfocadas a construir tu lista de contactos e interactuar con ellos. Existen otros ejemplos de sitios que aprovechan las redes sociales para aumentar la actividad de los usuarios y su involucración alrededor de algún tipo de contenido. Estos ejemplos van desde una de las redes sociales más antiguas, Flickr, orientada al intercambio de fotografías, hasta Github, la red social de código libre más popular hoy en día. No es una casualidad que la popularidad de estos sitios web venga de la mano de sus funcionalidades de red social. El escenario es más rico aún, ya que los sitios de redes sociales interaccionan entre ellos, compartiendo y exportando listas de contactos, servicios de autenticación y proporcionando un valioso canal para publicitar la actividad de los usuarios en otros sitios web. Esta funcionalidad es reciente y aún les queda un paso hasta que las redes sociales superen su condición de bunkers y lleguen a un estado de verdadera interoperabilidad entre ellas, tal como funcionan hoy en día el correo electrónico o la mensajería instantánea. Este trabajo muestra una tecnología que permite construir sitios web con características de red social distribuída. En primer lugar, se presenta una tecnología para la construcción de un componente intermedio que permite proporcionar cualquier característica de gestión de contenidos al popular marco de desarrollo web modelo-vista-controlador (MVC) Ruby on Rails. Esta técnica constituye una herramienta para desarrolladores que les permita abstraerse de las complejidades de la gestión de contenidos y enfocarse en las particularidades de los propios contenidos. Esta técnica se usará también para proporcionar las características de red social. Se describe una nueva métrica de reusabilidad de código para demostrar la validez del componente intermedio en marcos MVC. En segundo lugar, se analizan las características de los sitios web de redes sociales más populares, con el objetivo de encontrar los patrones comunes que aparecen en ellos. Este análisis servirá como base para definir los requisitos que debe cumplir un marco para construir redes sociales. A continuación se propone una arquitectura de referencia que proporcione este tipo de características. Dicha arquitectura ha sido implementada en un componente, Social Stream, y probada en varias redes sociales, tanto orientadas a contactos como a contenido, en el contexto de una asociación vecinal tanto como en proyectos de investigación financiados por la UE. Ha sido la base de varios proyectos fin de carrera. Además, ha sido publicado como código libre, obteniendo una comunidad creciente y está siendo usado más allá del ámbito de este trabajo. Dicha arquitectura ha permitido la definición de un nuevo modelo de control de acceso social que supera varias limitaciones presentes en los modelos de control de acceso para redes sociales. Más aún, se han analizado casos de estudio de sitios de red social distribuídos, reuniendo un conjunto de caraterísticas que debe cumplir un marco para construir redes sociales distribuídas. Por último, se ha extendido la arquitectura del marco para dar cabida a las características de redes sociales distribuídas. Su implementación ha sido validada en proyectos de investigación financiados por la UE. Abstract Networks are the substance of human communities and societies; they constitute the structural framework on which we relate to each other and determine the way we do it, the way information is diseminated or even the way people get things done. But network prominence goes beyond the importance it acquires in social networks. Networks are found within numerous known structures, from protein interactions inside a cell to router connections on the internet. Social networks are present on the internet since its beginnings, in emails for example. Inside every email client, there are contact lists that added together constitute a social network. However, it has been with the emergence of social network sites (SNS) when these kinds of web applications have reached general awareness. SNS are now among the most popular sites in the web and with the higher traffic. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter hold astonishing figures of active users, traffic and time invested into the sites. Nevertheless, SNS functionalities are not restricted to contact-oriented social networks, those that are focused on building your own list of contacts and interacting with them. There are other examples of sites that leverage social networking to foster user activity and engagement around other types of content. Examples go from early SNS such as Flickr, the photography related networking site, to Github, the most popular social network repository nowadays. It is not an accident that the popularity of these websites comes hand-in-hand with their social network capabilities The scenario is even richer, due to the fact that SNS interact with each other, sharing and exporting contact lists and authentication as well as providing a valuable channel to publize user activity in other sites. These interactions are very recent and they are still finding their way to the point where SNS overcome their condition of data silos to a stage of full interoperability between sites, in the same way email and instant messaging networks work today. This work introduces a technology that allows to rapidly build any kind of distributed social network website. It first introduces a new technique to create middleware that can provide any kind of content management feature to a popular model-view-controller (MVC) web development framework, Ruby on Rails. It provides developers with tools that allow them to abstract from the complexities related with content management and focus on the development of specific content. This same technique is also used to provide the framework with social network features. Additionally, it describes a new metric of code reuse to assert the validity of the kind of middleware that is emerging in MVC frameworks. Secondly, the characteristics of top popular SNS are analysed in order to find the common patterns shown in them. This analysis is the ground for defining the requirements of a framework for building social network websites. Next, a reference architecture for supporting the features found in the analysis is proposed. This architecture has been implemented in a software component, called Social Stream, and tested in several social networks, both contact- and content-oriented, in local neighbourhood associations and EU-founded research projects. It has also been the ground for several Master’s theses. It has been released as a free and open source software that has obtained a growing community and that is now being used beyond the scope of this work. The social architecture has enabled the definition of a new social-based access control model that overcomes some of the limitations currenly present in access control models for social networks. Furthermore, paradigms and case studies in distributed SNS have been analysed, gathering a set of features for distributed social networking. Finally the architecture of the framework has been extended to support distributed SNS capabilities. Its implementation has also been validated in EU-founded research projects.

How much energy will your NGN consume? A model for energy consumption in next generation access networks: The case of Spain

The contribution to global energy consumption of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector has increased considerably in the last decade, along with its growing relevance to the overall economy. This trend will continue due to the seemingly ever greater use of these technologies, with broadband data traffic generated by the usage of telecommunication networks as a primary component. In fact, in response to user demand, the telecommunications industry is initiating the deployment of next generation networks (NGNs). However, energy consumption is mostly absent from the debate on these deployments, in spite of the potential impact on both expenses and sustainability. In addition, consumers are unaware of the energy impact of their choices in ultra-broadband services. This paper focuses on forecasting energy consumption in the access part of NGNs by modelling the combined effect of the deployment of two different ultra-broadband technologies (FTTH-GPON and LTE), the evolution of traffic per user, and the energy consumption in each of the networks and user devices. Conclusions are presented on the levels of energy consumption, their cost and the impact of different network design parameters. The effect of technological developments, techno-economic and policy decisions on energy consumption is highlighted. On the consumer side, practical figures and comparisons across technologies are provided. Although the paper focuses on Spain, the analysis can be extended to similar countries.

AFRICA BUILD Portal: developing a social network of African health researchers and educators

One of the main outputs of the project is a collaborative platform which integrates a myriad of research and learning resources. This article presents the first prototype of this platform: the AFRICA BUILD Portal (ABP 1.0). The ABP is a Web 2.0 platform which facilitates the access, in a collaborative manner, to these resources. Through a usable web interface, the ABP has been designed to avoid, as much as possible, the connectivity problems of African institutions. In this paper, we suggest that the access to complex systems does not imply slow response rates, and that their development model guides the project to a natural technological transfer, adaptation and user acceptance. Finally, this platform aims to motivate research attitudes during the learning process and stimulate user?s collaborations.

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.

Ypres rally network

Along of this document the reader could find a suitable network design and solution for the Rally Championship of Ypres meeting all the requirements set by the organization of the rally. These requirements have brought many problems in accordance with the network standards, because the area where the boxes are located is pretty large nevertheless technologies to solve those problems are detailed in the project. It has been included different designs in the project, each one of them based on distinct characteristic as they could be efficient, performance… , and the most important, since the organization of the rally is non-profit , the budget. Nevertheless we didn’t dismiss the use of long-lasting devices, as CISCO devices, despite their price. Furthermore a configuration of routing/switching devices has been explained for those who will be commanded to implement this solution. This solution is design to supply internet access as well as video streaming to all boxes for what teams can follow the championship in live time. The maximum connection of internet service provider (ISP) is 160Mbps, this bandwidth has to be distributed for the boxes dynamically. Finally to ensure the network works out it has to be monitored, this is reachable by using network analysis tools which in this project Wireshark has been chosen. RESUMEN. A lo largo de este documento, el lector encontrara un posible diseño y una posible solución para la red local del circuito de Rally celebrado en Ypres, cumpliendo con todos los requisitos y especificaciones establecidos por la organización. Estos requisitos han causado problemas de conformidad con los estándares de la red, debido a que la zona donde se encuentran los Boxes de los equipos es bastante larga, sin embargo las tecnologías para resolver esos problemas se detallan en este proyecto. Se han incluido diferentes diseños, cada uno de ellos centrado en aspectos diferentes así como la eficacia, el rendimiento, el presupuesto, etc... Esta solución está diseñada para suministrar acceso a Internet, así como la transmisión dinámica de video a todos los equipos para que puedan seguir la competición en tiempo real. Finalmente para controlar y asegurar que la red funciona, será monitorizada mediante herramientas de análisis de redes (Wireshark).

Study of OLSR protocol with Network Simulator 2 over Linux

Until a few years ago, most of the network communications were based in the wire as the physical media, but due to the advances and the maturity of the wireless communications, this is changing. Nowadays wireless communications offers fast, secure, efficient and reliable connections. Mobile communications are in expansion, clearly driven by the use of smart phones and other mobile devices, the use of laptops, etc… Besides that point, the inversion in the installation and maintenance of the physical medium is much lower than in wired communications, not only because the air has no cost, but because the installation and maintenance of the wire require a high economic cost. Besides the economic cost we find that wire is a more vulnerable medium to external threats such as noise, sabotages, etc… There are two different types of wireless networks: those which the structure is part of the network itself and those which have a lack of structure or any centralization, in a way that the devices that form part of the network can connect themselves in a dynamic and random way, handling also the routing of every control and information messages, this kind of networks is known as Ad-hoc. In the present work we will proceed to study one of the multiple wireless protocols that allows mobile communications, it is Optimized Link State Routing, from now on, OLSR, it is an pro-active routing, standard mechanism that works in a distributed in order to stablish the connections among the different nodes that belong to a wireless network. Thanks to this protocol it is possible to get all the routing tables in all the devices correctly updated every moment through the periodical transmission of control messages and on this way allow a complete connectivity among the devices that are part of the network and also, allow access to other external networks such as virtual private networks o Internet. This protocol could be perfectly used in environments such as airports, malls, etc… The update of the routing tables in all the devices is got thanks to the periodical transmission of control messages and finally it will offer connectivity among all the devices and the corresponding external networks. For the study of OLSR protocol we will have the help of the network simulator “Network Simulator 2”, a freeware network simulator programmed in C++ based in discrete events. This simulator is used mainly in educational and research environments and allows a very extensive range of protocols, both, wired networks protocols and wireless network protocols, what is going to be really useful to proceed to the simulation of different configurations of networks and protocols. In the present work we will also study different simulations with Network Simulator 2, in different scenarios with different configurations, wired networks, and Ad-hoc networks, where we will study OLSR Protocol. RESUMEN. Hasta hace pocos años, la mayoría de las comunicaciones de red estaban basadas en el cable como medio físico pero debido al avance y madurez alcanzados en el campo de las comunicaciones inalámbricas esto está cambiando. Hoy día las comunicaciones inalámbricas nos ofrecen conexiones veloces, seguras, eficientes y fiables. Las comunicaciones móviles se encuentran en su momento de máxima expansión, claramente impulsadas por el uso de teléfonos y demás dispositivos móviles, el uso de portátiles, etc… Además la inversión a realizar en la instalación y el mantenimiento del medio físico en las comunicaciones móviles es muchísimo menor que en comunicaciones por cable, ya no sólo porque el aire no tenga coste alguno, sino porque la instalación y mantenimiento del cable precisan de un elevado coste económico por norma. Además del coste económico nos encontramos con que es un medio más vulnerable a amenazas externas tales como el ruido, escuchas no autorizadas, sabotajes, etc… Existen dos tipos de redes inalámbricas: las constituidas por una infraestructura que forma parte más o menos de la misma y las que carecen de estructura o centralización alguna, de modo que los dispositivos que forman parte de ella pueden conectarse de manera dinámica y arbitraria entre ellos, encargándose además del encaminamiento de todos los mensajes de control e información, a este tipo de redes se las conoce como redes Ad-hoc. En el presente Proyecto de Fin de Carrera se procederá al estudio de uno de los múltiples protocolos inalámbricos que permiten comunicaciones móviles, se trata del protocolo inalámbrico Optimized Link State Routing, de ahora en adelante OLSR, un mecanismo estándar de enrutamiento pro-activo, que trabaja de manera distribuida para establecer las conexiones entre los nodos que formen parte de las redes inalámbricas Ad-hoc, las cuales carecen de un nodo central y de una infraestructura pre-existente. Gracias a este protocolo es posible conseguir que todos los equipos mantengan en todo momento las tablas de ruta actualizadas correctamente mediante la transmisión periódica de mensajes de control y así permitir una completa conectividad entre todos los equipos que formen parte de la red y, a su vez, también permitir el acceso a otras redes externas tales como redes privadas virtuales o Internet. Este protocolo sería usado en entornos tales como aeropuertos La actualización de las tablas de enrutamiento de todos los equipos se conseguirá mediante la transmisión periódica de mensajes de control y así finalmente se podrá permitir conectividad entre todos los equipos y con las correspondientes redes externas. Para el estudio del protocolo OLSR contaremos con el simulador de redes Network Simulator 2, un simulador de redes freeware programado en C++ basado en eventos discretos. Este simulador es usado principalmente en ambientes educativos y de investigación y permite la simulación tanto de protocolos unicast como multicast. El campo donde más se utiliza es precisamente en el de la investigación de redes móviles Ad-hoc. El simulador Network Simulator 2 no sólo implementa el protocolo OLSR, sino que éste implementa una amplia gama de protocolos, tanto de redes cableadas como de redes inalámbricas, lo cual va a sernos de gran utilidad para proceder a la simulación de distintas configuraciones de redes y protocolos. En el presente Proyecto de Fin de Carrera se estudiarán también diversas simulaciones con el simulador NS2 en diferentes escenarios con diversas configuraciones; redes cableadas, redes inalámbricas Ad-hoc, donde se estudiará el protocolo antes mencionado: OLSR. Este Proyecto de Fin de Carrera consta de cuatro apartados distintos: Primeramente se realizará el estudio completo del protocolo OLSR, se verán los beneficios y contrapartidas que ofrece este protocolo inalámbrico. También se verán los distintos tipos de mensajes existentes en este protocolo y unos pequeños ejemplos del funcionamiento del protocolo OLSR. Seguidamente se hará una pequeña introducción al simulador de redes Network Simulator 2, veremos la historia de este simulador, y también se hará referencia a la herramienta extra NAM, la cual nos permitirá visualizar el intercambio de paquetes que se produce entre los diferentes dispositivos de nuestras simulaciones de forma intuitiva y amigable. Se hará mención a la plataforma MASIMUM, encargada de facilitar en un entorno académico software y documentación a sus alumnos con el fin de facilitarles la investigación y la simulación de redes y sensores Ad-hoc. Finalmente se verán dos ejemplos, uno en el que se realizará una simulación entre dos PCs en un entorno Ethernet y otro ejemplo en el que se realizará una simulación inalámbrica entre cinco dispositivos móviles mediante el protocolo a estudiar, OLSR.

Dopamine Autoreceptor Regulation of a Hypothalamic Dopaminergic Network

Open Access funded by European Research Council Acknowledgments The authors thank Drs. Gilberto Fisone, Jessica Ausborn, Abdel El Manira, Gilad Silberberg, and members of the C.B. laboratory for advice, as well as Paul Williams for expert help with the graphical abstract. This study was supported by a Starting Investigator Grant from the ERC (ENDOSWITCH 261286), the Swedish Research Council (2010-3250), Novo Nordisk Fonden, and the Strategic Research Programme in Diabetes at Karolinska Institutet.

Interlibrary loan in primary access libraries: challenging the traditional view

Introduction: Primary access libraries serve as the foundation of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) interlibrary loan (ILL) hierarchy, yet few published reports directly address the important role these libraries play in the ILL system. This may reflect the traditional view that small, primary access libraries are largely users of ILL, rather than important contributors to the effectiveness and efficiency of the national ILL system.

Breaking down complex saproxylic communities: understanding sub-networks structure and implications to network robustness

Saproxylic insect communities inhabiting tree hollow microhabitats correspond with large food webs which simultaneously are constituted by multiple types of plant-animal and animal-animal interactions, according to the use of trophic resources (wood- and insect-dependent sub-networks), or to trophic habits or interaction types (xylophagous, saprophagous, xylomycetophagous, predators and commensals). We quantitatively assessed which properties of specialised networks were present in a complex networks involving different interacting types such as saproxylic community, and how they can be organised in trophic food webs. The architecture, interacting patterns and food web composition were evaluated along sub-networks, analysing their implications to network robustness from random and directed extinction simulations. A structure of large and cohesive modules with weakly connected nodes was observed throughout saproxylic sub-networks, composing the main food webs constituting this community. Insect-dependent sub-networks were more modular than wood-dependent sub-networks. Wood-dependent sub-networks presented higher species degree, connectance, links, linkage density, interaction strength, and were less specialised and more aggregated than insect-dependent sub-networks. These attributes defined high network robustness in wood-dependent sub-networks. Finally, our results emphasise the relevance of modularity, differences among interacting types and interrelations among them in modelling the structure of saproxylic communities and in determining their stability.

Fair Access to Energy Resources, Market Transfers and Climate Change in the WTO

This paper addresses the issues of dual pricing and export restrictions in the energy sector, stressing the comparability of their economic and climate change impacts. It assesses whether WTO disciplines relevant and applicable to such practices are well-equipped to ensure fair access to energy resources. It finds that relevant GATT disciplines are overall deficient in the case of dual pricing and export taxes, while the landscape of WTO-plus obligations generally consisting of a network of narrowly tailored commitments. It discusses possible avenues to address such practices under the ASCM to the extent that they distort domestic energy prices and subsidize consumption of cheap fossil fuels

The development of UTCS/NETSIM/ICG: an integrated urban traffic control system - network simulation - interactive computer graphics program. Final report.

Transportation Department, Office of University Research, Washington, D.C.

Linkage of the 1999-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys to traffic indicators from the National Highway Planning Network /

Mode of access: Internet.

Ground-water quality and geochemistry of Las Vegas Valley, Clark County, Nevada, 1981-83 : implementation of a monitoring network /

Mode of access: Internet.