Predictable service overlay networks: Predictability through adaptive monitoring and efficient overlay construction and management

Providing bounded communication among participating nodes is significant for distributed systems. Internet-based applications suffer with lower performance due to absence of bounded latency. We describe PSON, an overlay network solution to this challenging problem. PSON has two components. The monitoring component, SyncProbe, utilizes efficient and adaptive monitoring techniques to measure latency, detect packet loss, and provide real-time estimates of maximum expected latency along paths of an Internet substrate. The QoSMap component constructs and manages overlay such that it yields application-level QoS and provides resilience against network failures. A distinctive feature of QoSMap is construction of QoS-compliant backup paths which facilitate in overlay management and operation during the period when primary overlay paths violate QoS. We evaluate PSON on PlanetLab to provide predictable communication for applications with different topology and QoS requirement. Our experiments confirm the effectiveness of PSON in providing an inexpensive and efficient application-layer solution to Internet’s unpredictable behavior.     

Heuristic algorithms for two-dimensional uplink burst construction in IEEE 802.16 networks

Many burst construction algorithms have been proposed for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). However, none meets the burst structure characteristics required by the IEEE 802.16 standard. In this study, two heuristic algorithms, Best Corner Oriented (BCO) and Best Subchannel Oriented (BSO), are proposed to provide high throughput for uplink burst construction in IEEE 802.16 networks. The BCO maintains all available slots as a continuous area and attempts to construct each burst from one of the two ending slots of this area. The BSO, however, constructs each burst in its best quality subchannels to adopt a better modulation coding scheme (MCS). The simulation results under a heavy load indicate that BSO and BCO achieve 2 and 1.5 times, respectively, the throughput achieved by Raster, the conventional algorithm. However, the superior performance of BSO is achieved at the expense of increased time complexity.     

User-configurable semantic home automation

The ideas of smart home and home automation have been proposed for many years. However, when discussing homes of the future, related studies have usually focused on deploying various smart appliances (or devices) within a home environment and employing those appliances automatically by pre-defined procedures. The difficulties of supporting user-configurable automation are due to the complexity of various dynamic home environments. Moreover, within their home domains, users usually think semantically; for example, “I want to turn off all the lights on the second floor”. This paper proposes a semantic home automation system, USHAS (User-configurable Semantic Home Automation System), which adopts Web Service and WSBPEL for executing automated process; OWL and OWL-S for defining home environments and service ontology; and a self-defined markup language, SHPL (Semantic Home Process Language), for describing semantic processes.     

Cyberphysical systems security applied to telesurgical robotics

Researchers in telesurgical robotics and security collaborated to develop the Secure ITP, a security enhancement to the Interoperable Telesurgery Protocol (ITP). The ITP defines the structure for communication between telesurgery robots and controllers and has been adopted and tested by fourteen research groups in telesurgical robotics. The Secure ITP uses open source software tools and follows guidelines in Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) documents published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to create asecurity enhancement prototype for demonstration purposes and tofacilitate the development of new security technologies which addressthe stringent requirements of telesurgery.     

Using standards to integrate soft real-time components into dynamic distributed architectures

A pervasive application domain today is one in which independently developed real-time components participate in a dynamic and decentralized way from distributed environments. Several challenges arise from this domain, related with participant heterogeneity, transient behavior, scalability or quality of service. The use of standards is important here, where a multidiscipline approach is required. We propose ServiceDDS, a framework that combines different standard technologies to solve the problems related with the integration of components into the described environment. ServiceDDS is based on DDS to support dynamic distributed interactions, XMPP to provide Web access, and RTSJ for real-time performance.     

A wind-flutter energy converter for powering wireless sensors

This paper describes a low-speed wind energy harvesting system that transfers aerodynamically induced flutter energy into electrical energy. A random airflow generates mechanical vibrations due to the fluid-structure interaction between a flexible belt and the airflow. An electromagnetic resonator with copper coils and a permanent magnet is designed to efficiently harvest electrical energy from the induced mechanical vibrations. Different groups of springs are compared at various wind conditions to maximize the power output. Typically ∼7 mW of electrical energy can be obtained at ∼3 m/s wind speed with a 1 m long belt. A power conditioning circuit with a charge pump and a DC-DC converter is used to convert the generated voltage into a stable 3.3 V DC for consumption. It is demonstrated that this generator can be used to drive a commercial wireless temperature sensor.     

Experimental study on the package of high-g accelerometer

In this paper, the effect of the package die adhesive and package shell on the performances of silicon based MEMS high-g accelerometers was reported. Using Raman spectroscopy, the residual stress caused by different package die adhesive thickness and different package shell material was characterized. It can be concluded from the testing results that: with thicker die adhesive, the residual stress increment was much smaller; the piezoresistance variation caused by this residual stress was much smaller; and the temperature shift of the output voltage was much smaller. Comparing with the ceramic package, the stainless steel package has bigger sensitivity and bigger anti-overload ability.     

Real-time mechanoluminescence sensing of the amplitude and duration of impact stress

The present paper reports the real-time sensing of the amplitude and duration of impact stress using mechanoluminescence (ML) of the films such as ZnS:Mn and SrAl₂O₄:Eu. After the impact of a small ball from a low height onto the film, initially the elastico mechanoluminescence (EML) intensity increases with time, attains a peak value and then it decreases with time, initially at a fast rate and later on at a slow rate. The fast decay time of the EML intensity is related to the rate constant for the rise of impact stress and the slow decay time of EML is equal to the lifetime of electrons in the shallow traps lying in the normal piezoelectric region of the crystals, which get filled during the detrapping of thermally stable traps at the time of the increase of pressure. Both the peaks of EML intensity and total EML intensity increase linearly with the height through which the ball is dropped onto the films. The EML spectra are similar to the corresponding photoluminescence and electroluminescence spectra. On the basis of the localized piezoelectrically induced electron detrapping model, expressions are derived for different parameters of the impact stress-induced EML of the films, whereby a good agreement is found between the experimental and theoretical results. As the EML intensity depends on the impact stress, the impact stress can be sensed by measuring the EML intensity. Furthermore, the duration of stress is related to the time t_m corresponding to the peak of the EML intensity versus time curve; hence, the pulse duration of the impact stress can be monitored by measuring the value of time t_m.     

Sensitivity optimization of surface plasmon sensors for detection of intermediate layers

A sensitivity optimization method for the detection of an intermediate layer using a surface plasmon sensor is presented. The dependence of detection sensitivity on distance from the metal surface and the average refractive index over the sensing region are considered. Based on the calculated results, the sensitivity for detecting an intermediate layer in a multilayered sample is determined by varying the refractive index and thickness of each layer. It is shown that, in particular cases, controlling the refractive index and thickness increases the detection sensitivity. The proposed method is useful for designing multilayered samples.