Self-stabilizing algorithm for high service availability in spite of concurrent topology changes in ad hoc mobile networks

Mobile nodes in ad hoc networks move freely and run out of battery power so quickly, which leads to frequent network partitioning. Network partitioning considerably reduces service availability when the server node is not in the same partition as the client nodes. In order to provide a continuous service availability for all mobile nodes, we propose a self-stabilizing algorithm that can tolerate multiple concurrent topological changes and can incur a cost of one server per long-lived connected component. By using (1) the time interval-based computations concept that distinguishes between disjoint and concurrent computations, and (2) Markov chain model, the proposed algorithm can within a finite time converge to a legitimate state even if topological changes occur during the convergence time. Our simulation results show that the algorithm can ensure very high service availability, and each node has a strong path to the server of its network component over 98% of the time.     

Efficient data aggregation with in-network integrity control for WSN

Energy is a scarce resource in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). Some studies show that more than 70% of energy is consumed in data transmission in WSN. Since most of the time, the sensed information is redundant due to geographically collocated sensors, most of this energy can be saved through data aggregation. Furthermore, data aggregation improves bandwidth usage and reduces collisions due to interference. Unfortunately, while aggregation eliminates redundancy, it makes data integrity verification more complicated since the received data is unique.     

On eliminating packet droppers in MANET: A modular solution

In this paper we deal with misbehaving nodes in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) that drop packets supposed to be relayed, whose purpose may be either saving their resources or launching a DoS attack. We propose a new solution to monitor, detect, and safely isolate such misbehaving nodes, structured around five modules: (i) The monitor, responsible for controlling the forwarding of packets, (ii) the detector, which is in charge of detecting the misbehaving of monitored nodes, (iii) the isolator, basically responsible for isolating misbehaving nodes detected by the detector, (iv) the investigator, which investigates accusations before testifying when the node has not enough experience with the accused, and (v) finally the witness module that responds to witness requests of the isolator. These modules are based on new approaches, aiming at improving the efficiency in detecting and isolating misbehaving nodes with a minimum overhead. We describe these modules in details, and their interactions as well. We also mathematically analyze our solution and assess its performance by simulation, and compare it with the watchdog, which is a monitoring technique employed by almost all the current solutions.     

A full 34 factorial experimental design for efficiency optimization of an unglazed transpired solar collector prototype

The goal of this study was to model and optimize the thermal performance of an unglazed transpired solar collector (UTC) prototype using a full factorial experiment with four factors (hole diameter, absorber coating, irradiation and mass flow rate) at three levels. A quadratic polynomial model for efficiency was shown to explain 95.47% of the variance of thermal output. Residuals analysis and analysis of variance were used to validate the best-fit model. Finally, the model was optimized using response surface representations. An optimal combination of levels of the four parameters was obtained to provide a collector efficiency of 70–80%. The chosen experimental methodology provided accurate characterization of the parameters that have the greatest impact on UTC performance.     

Context-aware adaptation of multimedia documents for consistent presentations

We propose in this paper a context-aware adaptation technique for SMIL encoded multimedia documents. Our approach is mainly dedicated to run in compile-time but we discuss also how it can be used in runtime. Our algorithm aims at improving the execution of a multimedia presentation. This is achieved by scheduling object pre-fetchings in the presentation while monitoring bandwidth and memory space availabilities. For this effect, a request pattern computed from the temporal graph of the SMIL specification is exploited in order to apply an optimal policy to select which objects should be pre-fetched, real time delivered or discarded, even. The algorithm can be used as a tool to evaluate and to monitor the QoS of a presentation. At compile time, it makes it possible to assess whether the QoS of a presentation can be guaranteed after enforcing specific context-oriented adaptations. At authoring stage, this algorithm can be used, for instance, to produce different alternative sub-codes, such that each one is adapted to run in a specific context. In runtime, the algorithm can provide a mechanism to monitor the elastic time computation in case of a mismatch occurrence. In order to advocate our proposal, some experimentation results performed on a simulation platform are reported.     

A comprehensive review of solar facades. Opaque solar facades

In antiquity, people already knew the principles of solar architecture, designing their houses to the south to take advantage of the sun in all seasons. Today, solar architecture is undergoing a true revolution because of the development, among other things, of special facades involved in the processes of heating, ventilation, thermal isolation, shading, electricity generation and lighting of homes: these are called “solar facades”. This paper aims to review the remarkable developments that have occurred during the first decade of this century in this field.     

Delay-efficient MAC protocol with traffic differentiation and run-time parameter adaptation for energy-constrained wireless sensor networks

This paper presents an asynchronous cascading wake-up MAC protocol for heterogeneous traffic gathering in low-power wireless sensor networks. It jointly considers energy/delay optimization and switches between two modes, according to the traffic type and delay requirements. The first mode is high duty cycle, where energy is traded-off for a reduced latency in presence of realtime traffic (RT). The second mode is low duty cycle, which is used for non-realtime traffic and gives more priority to energy saving. The proposed protocol, DuoMAC, has many features. First, it quietly adjusts the wake-up of a node according to (1) its parent’s wake-up time and, (2) its estimated load. Second, it incorporates a service differentiation through an improved contention window adaptation to meet delay requirements. A comprehensive analysis is provided in the paper to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol in comparison with some state-of-the-art energy-delay efficient duty-cycled MAC protocols, namely DMAC, LL-MAC, and Diff-MAC. The network lifetime and the maximum end-to-end packet latency are adequately modeled, and numerically analyzed. The results show that LL-MAC has the best performance in terms of energy saving, while DuoMAC outperforms all the protocols in terms of delay reduction. To balance the delay/energy objectives, a runtime parameter adaptation mechanism has been integrated to DuoMAC. The mechanism relies on a constrained optimization problem with energy minimization in the objective function, constrained by the delay required for RT. The proposed protocol has been implemented on real motes using MicaZ and TinyOS. Experimental results show that the protocol clearly outperforms LL-MAC in terms of latency reduction, and more importantly, that the runtime parameter adaptation provides additional reduction of the latency while further decreasing the energy cost.     

Struggling against selfishness and black hole attacks in MANETs

Since mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are infrastructureless and multi‐hop by nature, transmitting packets from any node to another usually relies on services provided by intermediate nodes. This reliance introduces a new vulnerability; one node could launch a Black Hole DoS attack by participating in the routing protocol and including itself in routes, then simply dropping packets it receives to forward. Another motivation for dropping packets in self‐organized MANETs is resource preservation. Some solutions for detecting and isolating packet droppers have been recently proposed, but almost all of them employ the promiscuous mode monitoring approach (watchdog (WD)) which suffers from many problems, especially when employing the power control technique. In this paper we propose a novel monitoring approach that overcomes some WD's shortcomings, and improves the efficiency in detection. To overcome false detections due to nodes mobility and channel conditions we propose a Bayesian technique for the judgment, allowing node redemption before judgment. Finally, we suggest a social‐based approach for the detection approval and isolation of guilty nodes. We analyze our solution and asses its performance by simulation. The results illustrate a large improvement of our monitoring solution in detection versus the WD, and an efficiency through our judgment and isolation techniques as well. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Expression of Kit in neurofibromin-deficient human Schwann cells: role in Schwann cell hyperplasia associated with type 1 neurofibromatosis

Type 1 Neurofibromatosis (NF1) is characterized by the formation of neurofibromas, benign tumors composed mainly of Schwann cells, which can turn malignant to form neurofibrosarcomas. Neurofibromin, the protein product of the Nf1 gene, is believed to act as a tumor suppressor, accelerating the conversion of the oncogene Ras to its inactive form. The absence of neurofibromin could therefore lead to higher Ras activity in Schwann cells, resulting in uncontrolled growth through a cascade of events not yet elucidated. We describe the abnormal expression of high levels of the Kit tyrosine kinase receptor in both NF1-derived Schwann cell lines and tissue, as compared to primary Schwann cells or schwannoma-derived cells. High levels of Kit expression in the neurofibrosarcoma-derived Schwann cells correlate with a decrease in neurofibromin expression. Using inhibitors of tyrosine kinase receptors, we found that proliferation of the neurofibrosarcoma-derived cells is dependent upon activation of a subclass of tyrosine-kinase receptors. The proliferation of these cells is not dependent upon an autocrine loop involving typical Schwann cell mitogens. Finally, the proliferation of the neurofibrosarcoma-derived Schwann cells can be increased by stimulation with Kit ligand. These data implicate Kit as one of the components leading to the Schwann cell hyperplasia observed in NF1.     

A distributed lightweight Redundancy aware Topology Control Protocol for wireless sensor networks

WSN consists of a large number of sensor nodes randomly deployed, and, in many cases, it is impossible to replace sensors when a node failure occurs. Thus, applications tend to deploy more nodes than necessary to cope with possible node failures and to increase the network lifetime, which leads to create some sensing and communication redundancy. However, sensors in the same region, may collect and forward the same information, which will waste more energy. In this paper, we propose a distributed Lightweight Redundancy aware Topology Control Protocol (LRTCP) for wireless sensor networks. It exploits the sensor redundancy in the same region by dividing the network into groups so that a connected backbone can be maintained by keeping a minimum of working nodes and turning off the redundant ones. LRTCP identifies equivalent nodes in terms of communication based on their redundancy degrees with respect of some eligibility rules. Simulation results indicate that, compared with existing distributed topology control algorithms, LRTCP improves network capacity and energy efficiency.