ONVisor: Towards a scalable and flexible SDN‐based network virtualization platform on ONOS

Network virtualization (NV) technologies have attracted a lot of attention as an essential solution for future networking infrastructure. The NV enables multiple tenants to share the same physical infrastructure and to create independent virtual networks (VNs) by decoupling the physical network in terms of topology, address, and control functions. One feasible way to realize full NV involves considering solutions based on the software‐defined networking (SDN) paradigm using its programmability. The SDN contributes many benefits to both network operations and management including programmability, agility, elasticity, and flexibility. There are several SDN‐based NV solutions; however, they suffered from a lack of scalability, high availability. Also, they have high latency between control and data plane because of proxy‐based architecture. In this thesis, we introduce a new NV platform, named Open Network Hypervisor (ONVisor). The design objectives include, among the features, (1) multitenancy, (2) scalability, (3) flexibility, (4) isolated VNs, and (5) VN federation. ONVisor was designed and implemented by extending Open Network Operating System, an open‐source SDN controller. The main features of ONVisor are (1) isolated control and data plane per VN, (2) support of distributed operations, (3) extensible translators, (4) on‐platform VN application development and execution, and (5) support of heterogenous SDN data‐plane implementations. Several experiments are conducted on various test scenarios in different test environments in terms of control and data plane performance compared to nonvirtualized SDN network. The results show that ONVisor can provide VNs a little bit lower control plane performance and similar data plane performance.     

Coexistence of OFDM‐Based IMT‐Advanced and FM Broadcasting Systems

Coexistence analysis is extremely important in examining the possibility for spectrum sharing between orthogonal frequency‐division multiplexing (OFDM)‐based international mobile telecommunications (IMT)‐Advanced and other wireless services. In this letter, a new closed form method is derived based on power spectral density analysis in order to analyze the coexistence of OFDM‐based IMT‐Advanced systems and broadcasting frequency modulation (FM) systems. The proposed method evaluates more exact interference power of IMT‐Advanced systems in FM broadcasting systems than the advanced minimum coupling loss (A‐MCL) method. Numerical results show that the interference power is 1.3 dB and 3 dB less than that obtained using the A‐MCL method at cochannel and adjacent channel, respectively. This reduces the minimum separation distance between the two systems, which eventually saves spectrum resources.     

REGIONAL 3D MODELLING OF THE PERMO‐CARBONIFEROUS AL KHLATA FORMATION IN THE RIMA AREA,EASTERN FLANK OF THE SOUTH OMAN SALT BASIN

The glaciogenic Al Khlata Formation (Late Carboniferous – Early Permian) contains important reservoir and seal intervals in oil fields in southern Oman. Here we describe a 3D regional geological model of the Al Khlata Formation and the underlying Misfar Group in a 1750 km² area in the Eastern Flank of the South Oman Salt Basin. The Misfar Group (Devonian‐Carboniferous?) was included in the model because it also contains glaciogenic facies in the study area. The 3D model is based on wireline logs from 42 wells, palynological zonation in 31 wells, cores from three wells, and a 2011 3D seismic dataset from which three horizons (top‐Huqf, top‐Rahab Shale and top‐Gharif) were interpreted throughout the study area. The combined Al Khlata and Misfar interval varies in thickness in the area from 20 to 730 m over relatively short distances. These large variations in thickness were due to the creation of accommodation in mini‐basins resulting from the removal of underlying Infracambrian salt at the basin margin. In places, some of the available accommodation was occupied by Cambrian sandstones of the Nimr Group and Haima Supergroup, influencing the location and thickness of the Al Khlata mini‐basins. These local depocentres vary in scale, shape and orientation relative to the present‐day salt edge: some are ovoid in plan‐view, others more linear and parallel to the salt edge, and one takes the form of a narrow graben almost perpendicular to the salt edge. By the Early Permian, towards the end of Al Khlata time, deposits become more blanket‐like and uniform, indicating an external or more regional control on base level. Four key lithofacies have been distinguished from wireline logs and were populated zone‐by‐zone through the geological model: sandstone (reservoir), shale (seal), and sandy and silty diamictite. Sandstones are most common towards the base of the Misfar – Al Khlata interval and shales towards the top. The Rahab Shale (Early Permian) at the top of the Al Khlata Formation forms an important seal for oil fields in South Oman, often in combination with seals in overlying intervals. The Rahab Shale was the first widespread seal to be deposited which may have trapped oil migrating from the South Oman Salt Basin during the Palaeozoic. The most common lithofacies in the Misfar – Al Khlata interval in the modelled area is diamictite (60%), which is normally considered to be a waste‐rock lithology. However thick silty diamictites of sufficient extent can seal hydrocarbon accumulations, and some sandy diamictites have the potential to be unconventional reservoir rocks. Even after 50 years of exploration and production of oil from the Al Khlata Formation, there remains potential for further discoveries and overlooked pay zones due to its heterogeneous character and the occurrence of intra‐formational seals.     

Supramolecular Assembly of Aminoethylene‐Lipopeptide PMO Conjugates into RNA Splice‐Switching Nanomicelles

Phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMOs) are oligonucleotide analogs that can be used for therapeutic modulation of pre‐mRNA splicing. Similar to other classes of nucleic acid‐based therapeutics, PMOs require delivery systems for efficient transport to the intracellular target sites. Here, artificial peptides based on the oligo(ethylenamino) acid succinyl‐tetraethylenpentamine (Stp), hydrophobic modifications, and an azide group are presented, which are used for strain‐promoted azide‐alkyne cycloaddition conjugation with splice‐switching PMOs. By systematically varying the lead structure and formulation, it is determined that the type of contained fatty acid and supramolecular assembly have a critical impact on the delivery efficacy. A compound containing linolenic acid with three cis double bonds exhibits the highest splice‐switching activity and significantly increases functional protein expression in pLuc/705 reporter cells in vitro and after local administration in vivo. Structural and mechanistic studies reveal that the lipopeptide PMO conjugates form nanoparticles, which accelerate cellular uptake and that the content of unsaturated fatty acids enhances endosomal escape. In an in vitro Duchenne muscular dystrophy exon skipping model using H2K‐mdx52 dystrophic skeletal myotubes, the highly potent PMO conjugates mediate significant splice‐switching at very low nanomolar concentrations. The presented aminoethylene‐lipopeptides are thus a promising platform for the generation of PMO‐therapeutics with a favorable activity/toxicity profile.     

Analysis of malware propagation behavior in Social Internet of Things

Social Internet of Things (SIoT) is an evolution of the Internet of Things, where objects interact socially with each other in the sense that they can independently establish new relationships, offer, or discover services, in order to accomplish their tasks with minimum involvement of the user. This additional convenience comes at the expense of higher risk of speeding up malware propagation through the dynamically created relationships. Because of the undesirable effects of malware (eg, disruption of device operation), it is essential to understand their spreading behavior in order to minimize their negative impacts. In this paper, we analyze malware propagation behavior in SIoT and investigate different parameters that influence spreading of malware. Toward that end, a simulator has been developed to simulate the spreading process of malware in SIoT. Many propagation scenarios were analyzed using the proposed simulator. Simulation results show that adding more relationships in the SIoT or increasing the number of owned objects per user has increased malware spreading rate. For example, the time to infect all objects is faster by 45% when objects communicate through four relationships compared with the case when objects communicate through only two relationships in SIoT. We also investigated ways to restrict the malware spreading. Results show that preventing objects from establishing dynamic social relationship slows down the infection by 40% compared with the next best scenario (ie, blocking co‐location relationships), which means more time for vendors to patch up their products.     

Highly Efficient,Solution‐Processed,Single‐Layer,Electrophosphorescent Diodes and the Effect of Molecular Dipole Moment

A new family of highly soluble electrophosphorescent dopants based on a series of tris‐cyclometalated iridium(III) complexes (1–4) of 2‐(carbazol‐3‐yl)‐4/5‐R‐pyridine ligands with varying molecular dipole strengths have been synthesized. Highly efficient, solution‐processed, single‐layer, electrophosphorescent diodes utilizing these complexes have been prepared and characterized. The high triplet energy poly(9‐vinylcarbazole) PVK is used as a host polymer doped with 2‐(4‐biphenylyl)‐5‐(4‐tert‐butyl‐phenyl)‐1,3,4‐oxadiazole (PBD) for electron transport. Devices with a current efficiency of 40 cd A^?1 corresponding to an EQE of 12% can thus be achieved. The effect of the type and position of the substituent (electron‐withdrawing group (CF₃) and electron‐donating group (OMe)) on the molecular dipole moment of the complexes has been investigated. A correlation between the absorption strength of the singlet metal‐to‐ligand charge‐transfer (¹MLCT) transition and the luminance spectral red shift as a function of solvent polarity is observed. The strength of the transition dipole moments for complexes 1–4 has also been obtained from TD‐DFT computations, and is found to be consistent with the observed molecular dipole moments of these complexes. The relatively long lifetime of the excitons of the phosphorescence (microseconds) compared to the charge‐carrier scattering time (less than nanoseconds), allows the transition dipole moment to be considered as a “quasi permanent dipole”. Therefore, the carrier mobility is sufficiently affected by the long‐lived transition dipole moments of the phosphorescent molecules, which are randomly oriented in the medium. The dopant dipoles cause positional and energetic disorder because of the locally modified polarization energy. Furthermore, the electron‐withdrawing group CF₃ induces strong carrier dispersion that enhances the electron mobility. Therefore, the strong transition dipole moment in complexes 3 and 4 perturbs both electron and hole mobilities, yielding a reduction in exciton formation and an increase in the device dark current, thereby decreasing the device efficiency.     

Evaluation and testing of internet firewalls

In this article we propose a testing methodology for evaluating Internet firewalls and apply it to compare two popular firewalls. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One‐Step Hydrothermal Synthesis of 2D Hexagonal Nanoplates of α‐Fe2O3/Graphene Composites with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

There has been significant progress in the field of semiconductor photocatalysis, but it is still a challenge to fabricate low‐cost and high‐activity photocatalysts because of safety issues and non‐secondary pollution to the environment. Here, 2D hexagonal nanoplates of α‐Fe₂O₃/graphene composites with relatively good distribution are synthesized for the first time using a simple, one‐step, template‐free, hydrothermal method that achieves the effective reduction of the graphene oxide (GO) to graphene and intimate and large contact interfaces of the α‐Fe₂O₃ nanoplates with graphene. The α‐Fe₂O₃/graphene composites showed significantly enhancement in the photocatalytic activity compared with the pure α‐Fe₂O₃ nanoplates. At an optimal ratio of 5 wt% graphene, 98% of Rhodamine (RhB) is decomposed with 20 min of irradiation, and the rate constant of the composites is almost four times higher than that of pure α‐Fe₂O₃ nanoplates. The decisive factors in improving the photocatalytic performance are the intimate and large contact interfaces between 2D hexagonal α‐Fe₂O₃ nanoplates and graphene, in addition to the high electron withdrawing/storing ability and the highconductivity of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) formed during the hydrothermal reaction. The effective charge transfer from α‐Fe₂O₃ nanoplates to graphene sheets is demonstrated by the significant weakening of photoluminescence in α‐Fe₂O₃/graphene composites.     

A computationally efficient selected mapping technique for reducing PAPR of OFDM

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system, high value of peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is an operational problem that may cause non-linear distortion resulting in high bit error rate. Selected mapping (SLM) is a well known technique that shows good PAPR reduction capability but inflicts added computational overhead. In this paper, using Riemann sequence based SLM method, we applied reverse searching technique to find out low PAPR yielding phase sequences with significant reduction in computational complexity. Additionally, we explored side-information free transmission that achieves higher throughput but sacrifices PAPR reduction. Finally, to overcome this loss in PAPR reduction, we proposed application of Square-rooting companding technique over the output OFDM transmitted signal. Simulation results show that the proposed method is able to compensate the sacrifice in PAPR and achieved PAPR reduction of 8.9 dB with very low computational overhead.     

A Complete Separation of Hexane Isomers by a Functionalized Flexible Metal Organic Framework

The separation ability of branched alkane isomers (nHEX, 3MP, 22DMB) of the flexible and functionalized microporous iron(III) dicarboxylate MIL‐53(Fe)‐(CF₃)₂ solid is evaluated through a combination of breakthrough experiments (binary or ternary mixtures), adsorption isotherms, X‐ray diffraction temperature analysis, quasi‐elastic neutron scattering measurements and molecular dynamics simulations. A kinetically controlled molecular sieve separation between the di‐branched isomer of hexane 22DMB from a mixture of paraffins is achieved. The reported total separation between mono‐ and di‐branched alkanes which was neither predicted nor observed so far in any class of porous solids is spectacular and paves the way towards a potential unprecedented upgrading of the RON of gasoline.