Reliability Analysis of a Communication Network with Multimode Components

This paper presents a model to calculate the reliability of communication networks with multimode components. Previous research on network reliability has focused on models in which each component may be in one of two modes, namely, operative or failed. In reality, a component may undergo degradations in performance before a complete outage, and will therefore operate in more than two modes. Traditional network reliability measures, such as the probability that a pair of nodes is connected, are not meaningful in a multimode model. Therefore, the mean message delay of the network is defined as the performance measure. An exact calculation of this reliability measure is not feasible due to the large number of network states, corresponding to network components being in different modes. We have developed an approximation method to calculate this reliability measure. This method requires us to work with the states of the network in order of decreasing probability. An algorithm ORDER-Mis developed to generate these states in the proper order.     

Robust load balancing under traffic uncertainty��tractable models and efficient algorithms

Routing configurations that have been optimized for a nominal traffic scenario often display significant performance degradation when they are subjected to real network traffic. These degradations are due to the inherent sensitivity of classical optimization techniques to changes in model parameters combined with the significant traffic variations caused by demand fluctuations, component failures and network reconfigurations. In this paper, we review important sources for traffic variations in data networks and describe tractable models for capturing the associated traffic uncertainty. We demonstrate how robust routing settings with guaranteed performance for all foreseen traffic variations can be effectively computed via memory efficient iterative techniques and polynomial-time algorithms. The techniques are illustrated on real data from operational IP networks.     

多域光网络中一种支持区分可靠性的通路保护算法

区分可靠性的通路保护方案既能为光网络中具有不同可靠性需求的业务提供有效的故障保护,又能优化网络资源的利用,是一种高效的生存性机制。但目前此类问题的研究主要是集中于传统的单域光网络中,所得的研究成果无法直接运用于具有多域特点的下一代光网络中。针对这一问题,在对以往通路保护算法进行改进的基础上提出了一种适用于多域光网络中的支持区分可靠性的通路保护算法,并对其性能进行了计算机仿真研究。仿真结果表明,该算法不仅能满足多域光网络中不同业务的可靠性需求,而且能提高网络资源的利用率、降低业务连接的阻塞率。     

Traffic models in broadband networks

Traffic models are at the heart of any performance evaluation of telecommunications networks. An accurate estimation of network performance is critical for the success of broadband networks. Such networks need to guarantee an acceptable quality of service (QoS) level to the users. Therefore, traffic models need to be accurate and able to capture the statistical characteristics of the actual traffic. We survey and examine traffic models that are currently used in the literature. Traditional short-range and non-traditional long-range dependent traffic models are presented. The number of parameters needed, parameter estimation, analytical tractability, and ability of traffic models to capture marginal distribution and auto-correlation structure of the actual traffic are discussed     

A General Neural Network Model for Estimating Telecommunications Network Reliability

This paper puts forth a new encoding method for using neural network models to estimate the reliability of telecommunications networks with identical link reliabilities. Neural estimation is computationally speedy, and can be used during network design optimization by an iterative algorithm such as tabu search, or simulated annealing. Two significant drawbacks of previous approaches to using neural networks to model system reliability are the long vector length of the inputs required to represent the network link architecture, and the specificity of the neural network model to a certain system size. Our encoding method overcomes both of these drawbacks with a compact, general set of inputs that adequately describe the likely network reliability. We computationally demonstrate both the precision of the neural network estimate of reliability, and the ability of the neural network model to generalize to a variety of network sizes, including application to three actual large scale communications networks.      

WDM网络中动态流量的资源效率疏导策略

为了解决波分复用(WDM)网状网络中的动态流量疏导问题,基于收发器节约辅助图模型,提出了一种资源效率疏导策略.它同时考虑收发器和波长链路两种网络资源的有效利用,根据当前的网络状态动态改变疏导策略,使网络不会由于某一种资源的缺乏而导致阻塞所有流量,避免了另一种资源因富余而造成的浪费,从而两种资源都能得到充分利用.在辅助图模型中,根据两种资源的可用数目比值,对各条边设置不同的权值函数,可轻易地实现该策略.仿真结果证明,不管是收发器资源受限还是波长资源受限,该策略都能取得较好的性能,降低了网络的阻塞率.     

Optimal backpressure routing for wireless networks with multi-receiver diversity

We consider the problem of optimal scheduling and routing in an ad-hoc wireless network with multiple traffic streams and time varying channel reliability. Each packet transmission can be overheard by a subset of receiver nodes, with a transmission success probability that may vary from receiver to receiver and may also vary with time. We develop a simple backpressure routing algorithm that maximizes network throughput and expends an average power that can be pushed arbitrarily close to the minimum average power required for network stability, with a corresponding tradeoff in network delay. When channels are orthogonal, the algorithm can be implemented in a distributed manner using only local link error probability information, and supports a “blind transmission” mode (where error probabilities are not required) in special cases when the power metric is neglected and when there is only a single destination for all traffic streams. For networks with general inter-channel interference, we present a distributed algorithm with constant-factor optimality guarantees.     

Hierarchical Tree Alternative Path (HTAP) algorithm for congestion control in wireless sensor networks

Recent advances in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have lead to applications with increased traffic demands. Research is evolving from applications where performance is not considered as a crucial factor, to applications where performance is a critical factor. There are many cases in the fields of automation, health monitoring, and disaster response that demand wireless sensor networks where performance assurances are vital, especially for parameters like power, delay, and reliability. Due to the nature of these networks the higher amount of traffic is observed when the monitored event takes place. Exactly at this instance, there is a higher probability of congestion appearance in the network. Congestion in WSNs is tackled by the employment of two methods: either by reducing the load (“traffic control”), or by increasing the resources (“resource control”). In this paper we present the Hierarchical Tree Alternative Path (HTAP) algorithm, a “resource control” algorithm that attempts, through simple steps and minor computations, to mitigate congestion in wireless sensor networks by creating dynamic alternative paths to the sink. HTAP is evaluated in several scenarios in comparison with another “resource control” algorithm (TARA), as well as with a “traffic control” algorithm (SenTCP), and also the case where no congestion control exists in the network (“no CC”). Results show that HTAP is a simple and efficient algorithm capable of dealing successfully with congestion in WSNs, while preserving the performance characteristics of the network.     

IPoverWDM光网络中基于滑动调度业务模型的节能业务量疏导算法研究(英文)

In this paper,we investigate on the problem of energy-efficient traffic grooming under sliding scheduled traffic model for IP over WDM optical networks,so as to minimize the total energy consumption of the core network.We present a two-layer auxiliary graph model and propose a new energyefficient traffic grooming heuristic named Two-Dimension Green Traffic Grooming(TDGTG) algorithm,which takes both space and time factors into consideration for network energy efficiency.We compare our proposed TDGTG algorithm with the previous traffic grooming algorithms for scheduled traffic model in terms of total energy consumption and blocking probability.The simulation results in three typical carrier topologies show the efficiency of our proposed TDGTD algorithm.     

Software reliability estimations for telecommunications products

Reliability of software used in telecommunications networks is a crucial determinant of network performance. Software reliability (SR) estimation is an important element of a network product's reliability management. In particular, SR estimation can guide the product's system testing process and releasability decisions. SR estimation is performed using an appropriate SR estimation model. However, the art of SR estimation is still evolving. There are many available SR estimation models to select from, with different models being appropriate for different applications. Although there is no “ultimate” and “universal” SR model on the horizon (and there may not be one in the foreseeable future), methods have been developed for selecting a trustworthy SR model for each application. The present authors have been analyzing and adapting these methods for applicability to network software. Their results indicate that there already exist methods for SR model selection which are practical to use for telecommunications software. If utilized, these methods can promote significant improvements in SR management. The paper presents the results to date     

Traffic routing and link dimensioning in the common channel signaling networks

Signaling can be defined as the exchange of information specifically concerned with the establishment and control of connections, and with network management, in a telecommunications network. It constitutes the command/control infrastructure of the modern telecommunications networks. The Common Channel Signaling (CCS) network not only forms the foundation for control and management in the modern telecommunications environments but also provides database transaction processing capability for special services such as the 800 Service and Alternate Billing Service (ABS). The CCS network is the backbone for providing the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) signaling, the Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) services, and the Personal Communications Service (PCS). It is therefore critical to provide adequate switching and transmission (link) capacities so that performance of CCS networks can be ensured. This paper describes a flexible link set dimensioning algorithm for supporting CCS network and traffic engineering. We first show that increasing a link set by one or more links may not always increase the link set capacity accordingly because of the current routing procedure defined in the Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) protocol. We then demonstrate a theorem that enables us to construct the number of all possible meaningful links in a CCS link set. Based on the theorem, an efficient and flexible procedure for implementing the link dimensioning algorithm in software is devised to support the mechanization of the CCS network planning traffic engineering functions. Finally, we show an approach to improve the CCS link utilization efficiency and its sufficient and necessary conditions.     

A novel generic graph model for traffic grooming in heterogeneous WDM mesh networks

As the operation of our fiber-optic backbone networks migrates from interconnected SONET rings to arbitrary mesh topology, traffic grooming on wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) mesh networks becomes an extremely important research problem. To address this problem, we propose a new generic graph model for traffic grooming in heterogeneous WDM mesh networks. The novelty of our model is that, by only manipulating the edges of the auxiliary graph created by our model and the weights of these edges, our model can achieve various objectives using different grooming policies, while taking into account various constraints such as transceivers, wavelengths, wavelength-conversion capabilities, and grooming capabilities. Based on the auxiliary graph, we develop an integrated traffic-grooming algorithm (IGABAG) and an integrated grooming procedure (INGPROC) which jointly solve several traffic-grooming subproblems by simply applying the shortest-path computation method. Different grooming policies can be represented by different weight-assignment functions, and the performance of these grooming policies are compared under both nonblocking scenario and blocking scenario. The IGABAG can be applied to both static and dynamic traffic grooming. In static grooming, the traffic-selection scheme is key to achieving good network performance. We propose several traffic-selection schemes based on this model and we evaluate their performance for different network topologies.     

Potential friendship discovery in social networks based on hybrid ensemble multiple collaborative filtering models in a 5G network environment

At present, 5G network technology is being applied to various social network modes, and it can provide technical and traffic support for social networks. Potential friendship discovery technology in 5G-enabled social networks is beneficial for users to make potential friends and expand their range of activities and social hierarchy, which is highly sought after in today's social networks and has great economic and application value. However, the sparsity of the dominant user association dataset in 5G-enabled social networks and the limitations of traditional collaborative filtering algorithms are two major challenges for the friend recommendation problem. Therefore, in order to overcome these problems regarding previous models, we propose a Hybrid Ensemble Multiple Collaborative Filtering Model (HEMCF) for discovering potential buddy relationships. The HEMCF model draws on a special autoencoder method that can effectively exploit the association matrix between friends and additional information to extract a hidden representation of users containing global structural information. Then, it uses the random walk-based graph embedding algorithm DeepWalk to extract another hidden representation of users in the buddy network containing local structural information. Finally, in the output module, the HEMCF model stacks and multiplies the two types of hidden representations of users to ensure that the information mentioned above is concentrated in the final output to generate the final prediction value. The magnitude of the prediction value represents the probability of the users being friends, with larger values representing a high probability of the two users being friends, and vice versa. Experimental results show that the proposed method boosts the accuracy of the relationship prediction over baselines on 3 real-world public datasets dramatically.     

Improving reliability through architecture partitioning intelecommunication networks

The paper presents a new switching architecture to improve telecommunications reliability. The architecture is partitioned depending on the type of network used, reliability requirements, and expected traffic in the network. The partition size depends on the network reliability, bandwidth, and traffic. A reliability model for a telecommunication architecture is used to partition the network and to improve end-to-end reliability. The model defines critical components in the networking architecture and their connections. The component connections permit the propagation of faults from the component in which the fault originates to the other components. This propagation can cause failures in the chain (or in the tree) of components. The partitioned architecture limits the propagation of faults, simplifies fault detection, and preserves reliability of the remaining partitions. Examples of different networks are used to show the applications of the model     

Cooperative load-balancing strategy based on N-hops routing algorithm of ad hoc network in heterogeneous overlapping networks

A major challenge of the heterogeneous wireless networks is how to jointly utilize the resources of different radio access technologies in an efficient manner. In this paper, system performance, such as the block probability and throughput, was investigated in communication hot spots overlapped by heterogeneous networks: cellular, WLAN, and WiMax networks. Two cooperative load-balancing strategies based on hops-limited routing algorithm of ad hoc network are proposed in order to raise the resource utilization of the whole overlapping heterogeneous networks. They both firstly make a decision whether to admit a new call or not based on common radio resource management strategies, and in overloaded condition, select certain traffic to transfer into targeted BS/AP according to minimum price strategy or minimum load BS/AP and nearest traffic strategy, which take into account these factors such as load index, number of hops, traffic prediction, cost, etc. An analytical model is used to compute the call block probability and throughput performance for two different traffic models. Simulation results show that the proposed load-balancing strategies can distribute traffics to the whole heterogeneous wireless networks, decrease the call block probability, improve system throughputs efficiently, and obviously outperform HM-MACA and HS-TC load-balancing strategies.     

VoIP reliability: a service provider's perspective

Voice over IP services offer important revenue-generating opportunities, as well as many technical challenges in providing high-quality services. Users have come to expect highly available telecommunications services with high-quality voice. Service providers need reliable high-performance networks to meet user expectations, and must be able to guarantee performance and reliability to their customers. In converged voice and data networks, the network infrastructure must deliver very high quality and availability for some customer needs, while also providing low-cost high-capacity bandwidth for other needs. The use of quality of service mechanisms to provide prioritization for various traffic types is a key element needed for voice and data network convergence. However, it is not sufficient if the underlying networks are unreliable. The focus of this article is to address the reliability aspects of VoIP services, including the underlying IP networks.     

A design technique for reliable networks under a nonuniform trafficdistribution

Many network-reliability analysis techniques define and compute a variety of reliability measures. Most techniques assume that network connectivity is the only determining factor in network reliability; and merely analyze an existing network structure but do not provide any methodology for reliable design. This paper presents a heuristic design algorithm to enhance the reliability of existing communication networks by modifying their topology. This algorithm improves the reliability of the least reliable node (reliability is the probability that messages transmitted from a given node reach their destination). To use this algorithm on large networks, a reliability analysis method is developed which determines approximate network reliability values in linear-time when an upper bound is placed upon the in-degree of all network nodes. The heuristic network design algorithm uses this approximate reliability analysis technique to place additional links. The goal of this link placement is to improve the reliability of the least-reliable node. The placement of additional links is a function of both the traffic distribution and the connectivity of the network. This process continues until either a desired level of network reliability is achieved or a maximum number of additional links has been added. A unique feature of this design strategy is that it has quadratic time-complexity when the maximum in-degree of all network nodes is limited     

Lightpath Rerouting Algorithm to enhance blocking performance in all-optical WDM network without wavelength conversion

In this paper, we have proposed an efficient wavelength rerouting algorithm for dynamic provisioning of lightpath. In wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) networks rerouting of lightpath can be used to improve throughput and to reduce blocking probability. We have proposed a Lightpath Rerouting Algorithm (LRRA) for dynamic traffic in WDM optical networks. The results have shown that LRRA can improve blocking performance of the network. In this paper, low complexity algorithm has been developed which is used for the calculation of blocking probability of network. The proposed algorithm has also been applied on the realistic network such as NSFnet for calculation and optimization of blocking probability of the network. The results have also shown that the proposed algorithm can be implemented to huge networks for good blocking performance of the network.