A network management architecture for robust packet routing in meshoptical access networks

We describe an architecture for an optical local area network (LAN) or metropolitan area network (MAN) access. The architecture allows for bandwidth sharing within a wavelength and is robust to both link and node failures. The architecture can be utilized with an arbitrary, link-redundant mesh network (node-redundancy is necessary only to handle all node failures), and assumes neither the use of a star topology nor the ability to embed such a topology within the physical mesh. Reservation of, bandwidth is performed in a centralized fashion at a (replicated) head end node, simplifying the implementation of complex sharing policies relative to implementation on a distributed set of routers. Unlike a router, however, the head end does not take any action on individual packets and, in particular, does not buffer packets. The architecture thus avoids the difficulties of processing packets in the optical domain while allowing for packetized shared access of wavelengths. We describe the route construction scheme and prove its ability to recover from single link and single node failures, outline a flexible medium access protocol and discuss the implications for implementing specific policies, and propose a simple implementation of the recovery protocol in terms of state machines for per-link devices     

On Noncoherent MIMO Channels in the Wideband Regime: Capacity and Reliability

We consider a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wideband Rayleigh block-fading channel where the channel state is unknown to both the transmitter and the receiver and there is only an average power constraint on the input. We compute the capacity and analyze its dependence on coherence length, number of antennas and receive signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) per degree of freedom. We establish conditions on the coherence length and number of antennas for the noncoherent channel to have a "near-coherent" performance in the wideband regime. We also propose a signaling scheme that is near-capacity achieving in this regime. We compute the error probability for this wideband noncoherent MIMO channel and study its dependence on SNR, number of transmit and receive antennas and coherence length. We show that error probability decays inversely with coherence length and exponentially with the product of the number of transmit and receive antennas. Moreover, channel outage dominates error probability in the wideband regime. We also show that the critical as well as cutoff rates are much smaller than channel capacity in this regime     

Determination of Deep Frying Soybean Oil Disposal Point by a Sensory Method

Measurements of degradation in frying oils are mainly based on physico-chemical properties. Total polar compounds (TPC) and free fatty acids (FFA) content in frying oils are used as a guide for discarding used oils. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a sensory method in detecting degradation in soybean oils used in potato chips deep frying. The sensory evaluation of oil samples was determined by a trained panel; after rigorous selection and training steps. Free fatty acid, TPC and Rancimat induction period (IP) were quantified in the same samples. The proposed sensory method was sensitive to small differences in rancidity. The selected and trained sensory panel discarded oil samples with 0.175% FFA as oleic acid, 18.92% TPC, and 0.20 h IP. According to the results achieved in this research sensorial trained panel response is sensitive and accurate in refusing deteriorated frying oils. Besides this, soybean oil can be used for deep frying procedures and safely discarded according to the panel response, although presenting up to 7% linolenic acid.     

Redundant trees for preplanned recovery in arbitraryvertex-redundant or edge-redundant graphs

We present a new algorithm which creates redundant trees on arbitrary node-redundant or link-redundant networks. These trees are such that any node is connected to the common root of the trees by at least one of the trees in case of node or link failure. Our scheme provides rapid preplanned recovery of communications with great flexibility in the topology design. Unlike previous algorithms, our algorithm can establish two redundant trees in the case of a node failing in the network. In the case of failure of a communications link, our algorithm provides a superset of the previously known trees     

High-reliability topological architectures for networks under stress

In this paper, we consider the design of a physical network topology that meets a high level of reliability using unreliable network elements. We are motivated by the use of networks and, in particular, all-optical networks, for high-reliability applications which involve unusual and catastrophic stresses. Our network model is one in which nodes are invulnerable and links are subject to failure - a good approximation for optical networks with passive nodes and vulnerable fiber under stress of disconnection - and we focus on statistically independent link failures with initial steps taken toward generalization to dependent link failures. Our reliability metrics are the all-terminal connectedness measure and the less commonly considered two-terminal connectedness measure. We compare in the low and high stress regimes, via analytical approximations and simulations, common commercial architectures designed for all-terminal reliability when links are very reliable with alternative architectures which are mindful of both of our reliability metrics and regimes of stress. We derive new results especially for one of these alternative architectures, Harary graphs, which have been shown to possess attractive reliability properties. Furthermore, we show that for independent link failures network design should be optimized with respect to reliability under high stress, as reliability under low stress is less sensitive to graph structure; and that under high stress, very high node degrees and small network diameters are required to achieve moderate reliability performance. Finally, in our discussion of correlated failure models, we show the danger in relying on an independent failure model and the need for the network architect to minimize component failure dependencies.     

Architectural issues for robust optical access

Optical access networks are beginning to be deployed at the edge of the optical backbone network to support access by the high-end users that drive increased bandwidth demands. This development in the applications of optical networking poses new challenges in the areas of medium access, topology design, and network management. In particular, since optical access networks carry high volumes of critical traffic, the level of reliability and robustness traditionally reserved for core applications must be implemented in access networks. We survey access network architectures and outline the issues associated with providing reliability for these architectures. In the area of architecture design, two main approaches emerge. The first considers dedicated optical access networks, such as stars or folded buses, to implement optical access LANs and MANs. The second is overlay architectures, which use existing network infrastructure. Overlay architectures seek to replicate, on a smaller scale, logical topologies akin to those of backbone networks, or may instead create architectures specifically designed for access purposes     

Capacity of Time-Varying Channels With Causal Channel Side Information

We derive the capacity of time-varying channels with memory that have causal channel side information (CSI) at the sender and receiver. We obtain capacity of block-memoryless and asymptotically block-memoryless channels with block-memoryless or weakly decorrelating side information. Our coding theorems rely on causal generation of the codewords relative to the causal transmitter CSI. The CSI need not be perfect, and we consider the case where the transmitter and receiver have the same causal CSI as well as the case where the transmitter CSI is a deterministic function of the receiver CSI. For block-memoryless and asymptotically block-memoryless channels, our coding strategy averages mutual information density over multiple transmission blocks to achieve the maximum average mutual information. We apply the coding theorem associated with the block-memoryless channel to determine the capacity and optimal input distribution of intersymbol interference (ISI) time-varying channels with causal perfect CSI about the time-varying channel. The capacity of this channel cannot be found through traditional decomposition methods     

Channel Coherence in the Low-SNR Regime

Channel capacity in the limit of vanishing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) per degree of freedom is known to be linear in SNR for fading and nonfading channels, regardless of channel state information at the receiver (CSIR). It has recently been shown that the significant engineering difference between the coherent and the noncoherent fading channels, including the requirement of peaky signaling and the resulting spectral efficiency, is determined by how the capacity limit is approached as SNR tends to zero, or in other words, the sublinear term in the capacity expression. In this paper, we show that this sublinear term is determined by the channel coherence level, which we define to quantify the relation between the SNR and the channel coherence time. This allows us to trace a continuum between the case with perfect CSIR and the case with no CSIR at all. Using this approach, we also evaluate the performance of suboptimal training schemes     

Resilient Network Coding in the Presence of Byzantine Adversaries

Network coding substantially increases network throughput. But since it involves mixing of information inside the network, a single corrupted packet generated by a malicious node can end up contaminating all the information reaching a destination, preventing decoding. This paper introduces distributed polynomial-time rate-optimal network codes that work in the presence of Byzantine nodes. We present algorithms that target adversaries with different attacking capabilities. When the adversary can eavesdrop on all links and jam links, our first algorithm achieves a rate of , where is the network capacity. In contrast, when the adversary has limited eavesdropping capabilities, we provide algorithms that achieve the higher rate of . Our algorithms attain the optimal rate given the strength of the adversary. They are information-theoretically secure. They operate in a distributed manner, assume no knowledge of the topology, and can be designed and implemented in polynomial time. Furthermore, only the source and destination need to be modified; nonmalicious nodes inside the network are oblivious to the presence of adversaries and implement a classical distributed network code. Finally, our algorithms work over wired and wireless networks.     

Low-Complexity Approaches to Slepian–Wolf Near-Lossless Distributed Data Compression

This paper discusses the Slepian-Wolf problem of distributed near-lossless compression of correlated sources. We introduce practical new tools for communicating at all rates in the achievable region. The technique employs a simple "source-splitting" strategy that does not require common sources of randomness at the encoders and decoders. This approach allows for pipelined encoding and decoding so that the system operates with the complexity of a single user encoder and decoder. Moreover, when this splitting approach is used in conjunction with iterative decoding methods, it produces a significant simplification of the decoding process. We demonstrate this approach for synthetically generated data. Finally, we consider the Slepian-Wolf problem when linear codes are used as syndrome-formers and consider a linear programming relaxation to maximum-likelihood (ML) sequence decoding. We note that the fractional vertices of the relaxed polytope compete with the optimal solution in a manner analogous to that observed when the "min-sum" iterative decoding algorithm is applied. This relaxation exhibits the ML-certificate property: if an integral solution is found, it is the ML solution. For symmetric binary joint distributions, we show that selecting easily constructable "expander"-style low-density parity check codes (LDPCs) as syndrome-formers admits a positive error exponent and therefore provably good performance