There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Sensor networks with battery-powered nodes can seldom simultaneously meet the design goals of lifetime, cost, sensing reliability and sensing and transmission coverage. Energy-harvesting, converting ambient energy to electrical energy, has emerged as an alternative to power sensor nodes. By exploiting recharge opportunities and tuning performance parameters based on current and expected energy levels, energy harvesting sensor nodes have the potential to address the conflicting design goals of lifetime and performance. This paper surveys various aspects of energy harvesting sensor systems- architecture, energy sources and storage technologies and examples of harvesting-based nodes and applications. The study also discusses the implications of recharge opportunities on sensor node operation and design of sensor network solutions.

Energy Harvesting Sensor Nodes: Survey and Implications

A communication infrastructure is an essential part to the success of the emerging smart grid. A scalable and pervasive communication infrastructure is crucial in both construction and operation of a smart grid. In this paper, we present the background and motivation of communication infrastructures in smart grid systems. We also summarize major requirements that smart grid communications must meet. From the experience of several industrial trials on smart grid with communication infrastructures, we expect that the traditional carbon fuel based power plants can cooperate with emerging distributed renewable energy such as wind, solar, etc, to reduce the carbon fuel consumption and consequent green house gas such as carbon dioxide emission. The consumers can minimize their expense on energy by adjusting their intelligent home appliance operations to avoid the peak hours and utilize the renewable energy instead. We further explore the challenges for a communication infrastructure as the part of a complex smart grid system. Since a smart grid system might have over millions of consumers and devices, the demand of its reliability and security is extremely critical. Through a communication infrastructure, a smart grid can improve power reliability and quality to eliminate electricity blackout. Security is a challenging issue since the on-going smart grid systems facing increasing vulnerabilities as more and more automation, remote monitoring/controlling and supervision entities are interconnected.

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1315&context=electricalengineeringfacpub

A Survey on Smart Grid CommunicationInfrastructures: Motivations, Requirements andChallenges

Microsoft has promoted ASP.NET’s new web services more than almost any other part of the.NET Framework. But despite their efforts, confusion is still widespread about what a web service is and, more importantly, what it’s meant to accomplish. This chapter introduces web services and explains their role in Microsoft’s vision of the programmable web. Along the way, you’ll learn about the open standards plumbing that allows web services to work and removes some of the confusion surrounding technical terms like WSDL (Web Service Description Language), SOAP, and UDDI (universal description, discovery, and integration).

Web Services Architecture

Ad hoc networks are deployed in situations where no base station is available and a network has to be built impromptu. Since there is no wired backbone, each host is a router and a packet forwarder. Each node may be mobile, and topology changes frequently and unpredictably. Routing protocol development has received much attention because mobility management and efficient bandwidth and power usage are critical in ad hoc networks. No existing protocol however, considers the load as the main route selection criteria. This routing philosophy can lead to network congestion and create bottlenecks. We present dynamic load-aware routing (DLAR) protocol that considers intermediate node routing loads as the primary route selection metric. The protocol also monitors the congestion status of active routes and reconstructs the path when nodes of the route have their interface queue overloaded. We describe three DLAR algorithms and show their effectiveness by presenting and comparing simulation results with an ad hoc routing protocol that uses the shortest paths.

Dynamic load-aware routing in ad hoc networks

In the past few years, many researchers have studied elastic optical networks, which exhibit a dramatically improved transmission capacity compared with conventional optical networks. However, the transmission capacity per fiber will soon reach the physical limit for traditional single-mode fibers. Multicore fiber (MCF) is among the innovative fibers based on space-division multiplexing technology. MCF has multiple cores and achieves a far larger transmission capacity than traditional single-mode fibers. However, signals transmitted in these crowded multiple cores interfere with each other and are degraded. This degradation has a serious impact on the network resource management in elastic optical networks. Previous research indicates that the crosstalk effect of MCF is dependent on an arrangement of signals regarding the spectrum and core. Therefore, we approach the problem of the crosstalk in MCF with regard to the spectrum and core allocation, from the network perspective. First, this paper summarizes the related work regarding elastic optical networks and MCFs. Next, we propose an “on-demand” spectrum and core allocation method that reduces both the crosstalk and fragmentation in elastic optical networks with MCFs. This proposed method is based on two predefined policies related to the crosstalk and fragmentation. The first, the core prioritization policy, is based on the MCF's structure, and the other is a core classification policy based on the required bandwidth of the connections. The core prioritization policy realizes the core allocation that reduces crosstalk by avoiding filling adjacent cores. The core classification policy reduces the spectrum fragmentation by allocating a uniform bandwidth connection for each core. Finally, we evaluate the proposed method using computer simulations. The results indicate that the proposed method can, under various network conditions, improve both the crosstalk and blocking probability of the total network through our two policies.

On-demand spectrum and core allocation for reducing crosstalk in multicore fibers in elastic optical networks

Elastic optical networks (EONs) are considered to be one of the promising future networks for spectrum flexibility. In conventional wavelength-division multiplexing networks, routing and wavelength assignment is one of the key issues, whereas the routing and spectrum assignment (RSA) problem considerably affects the network performance in EONs. In addition, the data-center traffic and mobile back-haul traffic keeps increasing. To deal with such increasing capacity of applications, space-division multiplexing (SDM) technologies such as multi-core fiber (MCF) and multi-mode fiber (MMF) have been intensively researched. From the network perspective, this paper focuses on the routing, spectrum, and core and/or mode assignment (RSCMA) problem for future SDM-EONs. Introducing MCF or MMF further complicates the RSA problem because the fiber core or mode dimension is newly expanded. In addition, physical impairment caused by MCF or MMF must be considered. In this paper, the target RSCMA problem is first divided into routing and SCMA problems, and a pre-computation method based on the K-shortest path is introduced as the routing solution. Next, we propose SCMA methods with efficiency and flexibility awareness, exploiting prioritized area concept and crosstalk awareness depending on whether MCF or MMF supports intercore/intermode crosstalk. Finally, the paper evaluates and compares the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms with that of representative algorithms.

Routing, Spectrum, and Core and/or Mode Assignment on Space-Division Multiplexing Optical Networks [Invited]

Elastic Optical Network (EON) is expected as one of future networks in terms of spectrum flexibility. While Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) problem is one of the key issues in traditional Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks, Routing and Spectrum Assignment (RSA) problem has much impact on network performance in EONs. On the other hand, Data-Center (DC) traffic and/or mobile back-haul traffic keep on increasing. To deal with such forthcoming huge capacity of applications, Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) technologies, such as Multi-Core Fiber (MCF) and few-mode fiber, are intensively researched. From network perspective, this paper focuses on Routing, Spectrum and Core Assignment (RSCA) problem for future SDM-EON. Introducing multi-core fibers makes RSA problem more complex because fiber-core dimension is newly expanded. In addition, physical impairment caused by MCF must be taken into account. In this paper, first, the target RSCA problem is divided into the routing and SCA problems, and K-shortest path based pre-computation method is introduced as the routing solution. Next, according to whether MCF has inter-core crosstalk or not, we propose SCA methods with crosstalk awareness and with prioritized area concept, respectively. Finally, the paper evaluates the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms compared with representative ones.

Routing, spectrum and core assignment for space division multiplexing elastic optical networks

The authors propose two multicast routing algorithms which distribute copy operation of packets over all nodes along the multicast path: a link-added type algorithm and a loop-constructed type algorithm. Both algorithms, at first, derive an approximate solution for minimum cast path, and then improve the solution to prevent concentration of packet copy operation at one switching node at a little sacrifice of total cost along the path. Computer simulation results show that too much copy operation per node can be avoided by these algorithms. Compared to the minimum cost solution of the tree-shaped multicast path, the solution of the proposed algorithms makes the average distance connecting a source-destination pair longer, but the sacrifice of total cost is verb small. These algorithms can be applied not only to packet networks but also asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. >

Multicast routing algorithm for nodal load balancing

An output port circuit is provided for a router apparatus which routes and transmits a received packet. Each flow is constituted by continuous packets and belongs to a bandwidth-guaranteed class or a best-effort class. A controller controls storage and reading of a packet into and from a storage unit. Upon allocating a basic volume that is a criterion of a memory size stored in the storage unit to each flow to which the packet to be transmitted belongs, the controller manages the basic volume of each flow of the packet belonging to the bandwidth-guaranteed class by individually allocating the basic volume by the memory size required by each flow, and manages the basic volume of each flow of the packets belonging to the best-effort class by collectively allocating the memory size obtained by subtracting a sum of respective basic volumes allocated to the bandwidth-guaranteed class from an entire memory size.

Hideki Tode

Papers

On-demand spectrum and core allocation for reducing crosstalk in multicore fibers in elastic optical networks

Routing, Spectrum, and Core and/or Mode Assignment on Space-Division Multiplexing Optical Networks [Invited]

Routing, spectrum and core assignment for space division multiplexing elastic optical networks

Multicast routing algorithm for nodal load balancing

Router apparatus provided with output port circuit including storage unit, and method of controlling output port circuit of router apparatus