Visual understanding industrial workflows under uncertainty on distributed service oriented architectures

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an evolution of distributed computing based on the request/reply design paradigm for synchronous and asynchronous applications. In such architectures, application developers or system integrators can build scenarios by composing one or more services without knowing the services’ underlying implementations. In this paper, we adopt a SOA framework for on-line scheduling complex industrial workflows. The proposed SOA consists of three main layers; the input layer, the benchmarking layer, the prediction layer and the scheduler. The main innovation of our SOA architecture is the prediction layer that supports computer vision tools able to visually observe how an industrial workflow is actually executed. This way, we can automatically estimate the actual execution time for a process. In particular a new self-initialized visual tracker algorithm is proposed in this paper to robustly trace workers’ trajectory in a plant via visual observations. Then, part-to-whole curve matching is presented so as to find correspondences among the traced curve and the ideal one and thus improving scheduler efficiency. The input layer interoperably describes industrial operations using the XPDL (an XML-based) format. The benchmarker evaluates much faster than real-time and in an off-line mode how long it takes for an industrial workflow to be executed on a given resource guaranteeing an almost real-time implementation of the video processing algorithms on the plant. The last component of the proposed SOA is the scheduler with the goal to assign the workflows to the available resources. In this paper, a Maximum Benefit First (MBF) scheduler is presented which maximizes the total gain received by the industry when completing execution of all the beneficial operations with minimum violations of their delivery deadlines (that is with the minimum compensations). Experiments have been conducted on a real-world industrial plant of Nissan Iberica automobile construction indicating the efficiency of the proposed system.     

Enterprise cloud service architectures

As a new computing paradigm, cloud computing has received a lot of attention from enterprises and has being integrated or applied to enterprise architectures. This paper surveys the state of the art of enterprise cloud service architectures. Specifically, this paper discusses enterprise cloud service architectural requirements, design approaches, architectural styles, emerging cloud service platforms, applications and related challenges in an enterprise context. This paper also identifies research trends and opportunities for researchers and practitioners in this fast moving field.     

Time synchronization for VoIP quality of service

Various approaches seek to optimize the quality of service of VoIP applications. We propose a system that uses synchronized time to combine the useful characteristics of both fixed and adaptive buffer strategies, thereby improving VoIP quality of service. Using a combination of global positioning system (GPS) technologies and the network time protocol (NTP), hosts can learn the precise end-to-end delay for each packet. This information can benefit both domestic and business Internet telephony users. We outline our proposed system and discuss issues arising from the use of synchronized time     

Mobile service oriented architectures for NN-queries

The ever-increasing number of mobile device users has also raised the users’ expectation of mobile services accordingly. This phenomenon has given pressures to the mobile service providers to improve their services in order to stay competitive in the market. The service oriented approach is seen to be a promising scheme for mobile services. This paper presents mobile service oriented architectures for Nearest-Neighbor (NN) queries that are classified into five categories, namely (i) intermittent query mobile services, (ii) continuous query mobile services, (iii) context-aware mobile services, (iv) continuous moving object query mobile services, and (v) data broadcast mobile services. These services incorporate query, location and context-aware services, ontological context model, and broadcast. The proposed architectures are concerned with mobile services for clients on the move requesting services based on their current location, which is arguably the most important feature in a wireless environment. Furthermore, we also discuss the Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirement for mobile services in which request latency time is one of the most important parameters to consider. Some analytical models for query latency measurement are presented and the results are compared with the simulation experiments.     

Inexpensive high availability solutions for the SIP-based VoIP service

In the era of IP-based service, people expect a simple, cheap, and competent Voice over IP (VoIP) service as an alternative of the traditional voice over PSTN. The introduction of the SIP protocol realizes the expectation. Following the cost saving spirit of VoIP, we focus on studying inexpensive high availability solutions for the SIP-based VoIP Service. In this paper, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) based and DN-LB based schemes are mainly compared in the paper. A P2P-based scheme enables an inexpensive high availability solution to the VoIP service by the shared computation resources form P2P nodes. Such a P2P-based solution may be appropriate for an individual VoIP user. However, a caller may take a large volume of messages to find out a callee via the proxy nodes in the P2P network. This inherent property of a P2P network may induce the message overhead and long call setup delay. Based on above, another inexpensive scheme, which is a probing-based name resolution solution, is proposed to achieve high availability and load balancing for the VoIP service. We tag the probing mechanism onto the open source project Domain Name Relay Daemon (DNRD) to become a domain name resolution based load balancer (DN-LB). With DN-LB, all request messages from clients can be fairly distributed to all failure-proof proxy servers in the server farm without using any additional costly intermediate network device and changing the standard SIP architecture. Such a DN-LB based solution may be a good choice for a VoIP service provider.     

一种基于SIP协议的VoIP服务质量保证

针对下一代网络中IP电话VoIP服务质量QoS的需求,对目前国内外各种QoS技术进行了分析研究,介绍了基于SIP协议的VoIP网络协议栈结构,提出了一种基于Q-SIP的VoIP网络服务器架构模型,并对其主要的功能模块进行了详细的阐述。     

A stock market trading framework based on deep learning architectures

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Market prediction has been a key interest for professionals around the world. Numerous modern technologies have been applied in addition to statistical models...     

The software quality challenges of service oriented architectures in e-commerce

Web Services technologies and their supporting collection of de facto standards are now reaching the point of maturity where they are appearing in production software systems. Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) using Web Services as an enabling technology are also being discussed widely in the IT press. However, despite the numerous and real advantages of these architectural patterns there are still many software quality challenges that remain unresolved. This is particularly true as we consider more advanced architectures that exploit the technology to its maximum advantage: utility computing and on-demand service discovery and composition, grid computing and multi-agent systems will only become pervasive once the software quality challenges of real-world industrial applications have been addressed. In this paper potential quality issues such as performance, reliability and availability are addressed in terms of the quality assurances that might need to be provided to consumers of services. Proposed XML-based Service Level Agreement (SLA) languages are reviewed as a means of providing these quality assurances in machine-readable ways. We also discuss how SLAs might be automatically negotiated to enable automated, on-demand service discovery and composition. The next section of this paper addresses quality issues from a service provider's perspective. The providers of such services will need to ensure that SLA commitments are met and this poses interesting problems in terms of application management. Network quality of service is currently addressed through such means as IntServ and DiffServ. Research proposals to introduce similar techniques at an application level are described. From the service consumer's perspective, interesting research proposals for proactively ensuring that good quality of service is obtained are also reviewed. These could be particularly important for creating confidence, from a consumer's perspective, in these architectures. Finally, the paper evaluates the challenges and suggests areas where further research is most urgently required. Shelly Saunders MSc, BSc (Hons), MBCS (CITP) is an e-commerce Technical Architect, currently employed by ACE Group, a global insurance and reinsurance company. She is also studying part-time for a PhD with the Southampton Institute. She has 12 years experience in the software development industry and has provided the architecture for numerous e-commerce sites for global blue-chip clients. She also has another 5 years experience as a research scientist in the optical communications industry. She holds three patents. Margaret Ross is Professor of Software Quality at Southampton Solent University, She is an active member of the BCS, being on various Boards, Committees, and Working Parties including the BCS Council, the Quality Specialist Group (Vice Chair and Secretary); BCSWomen Specialist Group (Committee member) and the BCS Ethics Expert Panel. She is a Fellow of the BCS and also a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Scientist. Geoff Staples is the Chairman of the BCS Quality Specialist Group and a member of the BCS TickIT Committee. Geoff has been active in various aspects of computing, particularly quality. Geoff has been the Conference Chair or for the BCS Quality Specialist Groups international SQM and INSPIRE conferences are for many years. He is a Fellow of the BCS and Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and also a Chartered Engineer Sean Wellington leads the Communications Engineering Subject Group (CESG) within the Faculty of Technology at Southampton Solent University. The group is responsible for programmes in computer systems and networks, web design, media technology and electronic engineering. Sean has a wide range of academic and research interests, including digital signal processing and multisensor fusion. He is an active member of the Institution of Electrical Engineering (Member 1993, Fellow 2002) and has served on numerous boards and committees.     

A reference requirements set for public service provision enterprise architectures

Electronic Government (eGov) is a political priority worldwide. One of the core objectives of eGov is the online public services provision (PSP). However, many of eGov PSP systems fail in realizing their objectives. Enterprise Architectures (EA) could contribute to overcome some of the relevant obstacles. The objective of this paper is to derive a reference requirements set for eGov PSP that can be used in EA development. Aiming at capitalizing on existing knowledge, we conduct a systematic literature review on eGov PSP systems requirements. This results in identifying a unified requirements set, i.e. 186 requirements, and stakeholders set, i.e. 19 stakeholders, for eGov PSP systems. Based on these findings, we determine 16 overview use cases demonstrating the basic functionality of such systems. Our findings are modeled using ArchiMate 2.0 notation. The identified requirements set can be used by virtually any public organization providing public services for developing its own EA. As a result, it can lead to the reduction of eGov PSP project failures, the decrease of software development costs and the improvement of its effectiveness and quality. Furthermore, it can be used as a basis to develop a complete reference EA for the eGov PSP domain.     

基于并联监控的VoIP业务阻断策略研究

VoIP技术的不断发展给传统电话业务带来了巨大冲击,电信运营商希望准确了解网络中存在哪些VoIP业务。针对VoIP业务的多协议以及串联控制模式的不足,研究了VoIP业务的并联控制技术,详细描述了并联控制原理及其业务阻断策略,实现了在不干扰网络服务质量的前提下对VoIP业务的控制。     

ADI公司CIC周年记——CIC打造中小客户优质服务平台

<正>ADI公司有一项非常重要的策略,那就是越来越重视中小客户(ADI称之为Core Market)。这些中小客户或者中小公司的数量非常多,而且都是ADI的忠诚客户。我们认为这些中小客户是ADI目标客户群中十分重要的组成部分,他们对ADI来说是非常重要的。ADI成立CIC     

A strategic approach to customer satisfaction in the telecommunication service market

As is the case in most other service industries, customer satisfaction is of paramount importance in the telecommunications industry. owever, customer satisfaction management in the telecommunication industry is difficult because of the diversity of services and customer segments that exist. This diversity makes it implausible to have a uniform customer satisfaction questionnaire that can be administered to all the different service/customer segment combination. Therefore, we first carried out a segmentation study to identify key customer segments for Korea Telecom, and then focused on one service/customer group in developing the questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed using the SERVPERF approach to measuring service satisfaction. We then developed a decision support system to manage and analyze the customer satisfaction data. The system consists of data input, tracking ability, and statistical modeling capabilities. The computer software was designed as an “open” decision support system that was intended to be used by a wide and general audience within Korea Telecom to review and make active use of customer satisfaction data.     

Enhancing VoIP service for ubiquitous communication in a campus WLAN with partial coverage

The IEEE 802.11 WLAN technology has become the de facto standard for wireless Internet access. The spotty coverage of WLAN access points, however, confines the applicability of many real-time services such as VoIP within the boundary of the WLAN service area. In this paper, we investigate the problem of enhancing VoIP service for ubiquitous communication in a WLAN with spotty service area. We consider a university campus that has an established infrastructure for supporting SIP-based VoIP service through either wired or wireless data networks. The campus WLAN service does not have 100% full coverage, and hence users cannot make untethered VoIP calls anywhere on campus. The goal of this paper is to overcome the limitations of such “dead spots” for motivating the use of campus IP telephony service. To proceed, we start with two approaches called one-hop extension and dual-mode communication. The first approach uses multi-hop relay to extend the WLAN coverage, while the second approach leverages the availability of dual-mode handsets for ubiquitous voice communication. We implement the two approaches, and evaluate their performance in the campus testbed environment. We find that while the two approaches can effectively allow voice communication in WLAN dead spots, they have one common problem as the potential lack of support for voice call continuity that can cause degradation of the speech quality to an active call. We adopt a cross-layer solution based on signal processing algorithms to address the problem, thus achieving seamless voice call continuity while enabling ubiquitous voice communication on campus. Testbed evaluation shows promising results for future research along the proposed direction.     

Incorporating weather uncertainty in demand forecasts for electricity market planning

A major component of electricity network planning is to ensure supply capability into the future, through generation and transmission development. Accurate forecasts of maximum demand are a crucial component of this process, with future weather conditions having a large impact on forecast accuracy. This article presents an improved methodology for the consideration of weather uncertainty in electricity demand forecasts. Case studies based on the Australian national electricity market are used to validate the proposed methodology.     

Integrated model of hot spring service quality perceptions under uncertainty

Integrating service quality perceptions from customer expectation and employee performance groups in subjective and objective functions are the main concern of service business today. However, to evaluate service quality criteria in linguistic preferences are difficult to present as exact numerical values. Hence, this study proposes a fuzzy extension of Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) in perceptions to address intertwined criteria by applying fuzzy set theory to evaluate the subjective and objective functions and applies extension of DEMATEL to evaluate the model for strategic goals. The empirical result shows that two groups of perceptions can be combined into a visual model to further develop the strategic concerns.     

Strategies to Keep Your VoIP Network Secure

As VoIP technology matures, more IT departments have made the jump to integrate VoIP into their enterprise communication systems. But, before an organization fully commits to the technology, it should perform a risk assessment, paying close attention to any security measures needed to protect these IP-based voice networks. For telephone systems where controlled access throughout the communications infrastructure isn't necessary, services that leverage machines on the public Internet could be a cost-effective choice. However, for systems where secured network control is critical, VoIP networks based on private enterprise infrastructures should be considered. This article focuses on the security measures associated with private-enterprise-based VoIP networks.     

基于MIDCOM协议的VoIP防火墙实现

本文介绍了一种新的VoIP防火墙的实现方案，该方案是由：MIDCOM协议设计的。使用该协议，能够解决以前特定的VoIP防火墙存在的许多技术难题，因而目前在VoIP服务网的架构中得到广泛的采用。     

A survey on fraud and service misuse in voice over IP (VoIP) networks

The migration from circuit-switched networks to packet-switched networks necessitates the investigation of related issues such as service delivery, QoS, security, and service fraud and misuse. The latter can be seen as a combination of accounting and security aspects. In traditional telecommunication networks, fraud accounts for annual losses at an average of 3%–5% of the operators’ revenue and still increasing at a rate of more than 10% yearly. It is also expected that in VoIP networks, the situation will be worse due to the lack of strong built-in security mechanisms, and the use of open standards. This paper discusses the fraud problem in VoIP networks and evaluates the related available solutions.     

基于VPN的安全VoIP述评

VoIP的高速发展,其安全性日益引起人们的关注,用VPN保证VoIP数据流的安全是一种合理的解决方案。综述了VPN保证VoIP通信安全的数据封装技术,并对VPN对VoIP服务质量的影响作了较深入的分析。     

Reengineering for service oriented architectures: A strategic decision model for integration versus migration

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a popular paradigm at present because it provides a standards-based conceptual framework for flexible and adaptable enterprise wide systems. This implies that most present systems need to be reengineered to become SOA compliant. However, SOA reengineering projects raise serious strategic as well as technical questions that require management oversight. This paper, based on practical experience with SOA projects, presents a decision model for SOA reengineering projects that combines strategic and technical factors with cost-benefit analysis for integration versus migration decisions. The paper identifies the key issues that need to be addressed in enterprise application reengineering projects for SOA, examines the strategic alternatives, explains how the alternatives can be evaluated based on architectural and cost-benefit considerations and illustrates the main ideas through a detailed case study.