Mobile Network Evolution – “The Return of the Pipe”

The mobile network evolution from second generation to third generation systems has opened possibilities for inclusion of new technologies both in the network infrastructure as well as on the radio access. Within this paper, we concentrate on the evolution of the network infrastructure towards a future mobile network that balances the demand for increased flexibility with the necessity of limiting system complexity. Based on existing architectures, to lower complexity such as layered architecture for the core network and mobile packet backbone, we describe one possible evolution path for the control layer. Our approach is a step towards a control space that includes packetpipe control functions for a multitude of packetpipes. Such control function needs to be supported in the heterogeneous networks of today and the future.     

Carbon pricing and the diffusion of renewable power generation in Eastern Europe: A linear programming approach

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the costs for reducing CO₂ emissions in the power-generating sectors in Croatia, the European part of Russia, Macedonia, Serbia and the Ukraine in 2020 by using a linear programming model. The model takes into account the impact of technology learning and is based on the underlying assumptions of the so-called RAINS model frequently used to assess the potential and the costs for reducing air pollution in Europe. The results based on an exogenously given 15 percent reduction target for CO₂ emissions show that the marginal cost for switching from a carbon-intense fuel to either a low-carbon or to a renewable energy source differs significantly among the countries. The marginal costs range from 4 to 90€ per ton CO₂, and are mainly due to country differences in the availability of renewables, existing technologies and costs. The results also indicate that although it is clear that the Eastern European countries are not homogeneous in terms of CO₂ abatement potential and costs, no general conclusions can be made of the region. This may have important implications for future JI/CDM activities. For instance, risk factors such as policy uncertainty and institutional obstacles may become crucial in determining the future allocation of JI/CDM projects across the region.     

Coherency stresses,composition and dislocation interactions for θ″ precipitates in age-hardened Al-Cu

Precipitate and matrix coherency stresses were calculated from tetragonal crystal structure data for θ″ precipitates (GP II zones) in age-hardened Al-Cu. It was assumed that the tetragonal structures were due to biaxial elastic strains in otherwise cubic phases. The assumption was strongly supported by the calculation of a θ″ phase cubic lattice parameter of 3.955å from the elasticity analysis, which agreed extremely well with the lattice parameter of 3.96 ± 0.01A found for a metastable face-centered cubic Al-17.3 at. pct Cu sample made by splat quenching. Thus, a composition very close to 17 at. pct Cu was indicated for the θ″ precipitate. Additional tetragonal lattice parameter data indicated θ″ precipitates contained less than 17 at. pct Cu for early stages of aging and more than 17 at. pct Cu for late stages of aging. Calculated dislocation radii of curvature agreed with the shape of dislocations observed in a transmission electron micrograph of an Al-Cu sample containing θ″ precipitates. The calculated radii were larger than observed, however, which was attributed to uncertainties in the accuracy of the dislocation line tension used for the calculation and to possible uncertainties in the observed radii.     

Using Write Caches to Improve Performance of Cache Coherence Protocols in Shared-Memory Multiprocessors

Write-invalidate protocols suffer from memory-access penalties due to coherence misses. While write-update or hybrid update/invalidate protocols can reduce coherence misses, the update traffic can increase memory-system contention. We show in this paper that update-based cache protocols can perform significantly better than write-invalidate protocols by incorporating a write cache in each processing node. Because it is legal to delay the propagation of modifications of a block until the next synchronization under relaxed memory consistency models, a write cache can significantly reduce traffic by exploiting locality in write accesses. By concentrating on a cache-coherent NUMA architecture, we study the implementation aspects of augmenting a write-invalidate, a write-update and two hybrid update/invalidate protocols with write caches. Through detailed architectural simulations using five benchmark programs, we find that write caches, with only a few blocks each, help write-invalidate protocols to cut the false-sharing miss rate and hybrid update/invalidate protocols to keep other copies, including the memory copy, clean at an acceptable write traffic level. Overall, the memory-access penalty associated with coherence misses is drastically reduced.     

A microstructural investigation of the bcc to A15 phase transition in sputter-deposited Nb3Al superconductors

The bcc to A15 phase transition in sputter-deposited Nb₃Al (Cb₃Al) superconductors was studied using transmission electron microscopy. Four distinct microstructures were observed for the sputter-deposited and isochronally heat treated samples. Heat treatments were for 24 h at temperatures between 500 and 700°C. Deposition at 10°C produced the bcc phase with a small grain size of 1000Å. The bcc grains contained a high density of dislocations and fine precipitates. Coarse precipitates were found in the bcc grains and at the grain boundaries after heat treatment between 500 and 600°C. At 650°C, the A15 phase was detected in the presence of the bcc phase; the nucleation of the A15 phase originated at the grain boundary. Finally, a homogeneous microstructure of A15 phase resulted from heat treatment at 700°C. The A15 phase had a small, but defect free grain of 2500A. It is believed that such microstructures of A15 phase could have enhanced superconducting critical current (J_c) and critical temperature (T_c).     

Inter-observer variation in masked and unmasked images for quality evaluation of clinical radiographs

PURPOSE: To investigate the influence of masking on the inter-observer variation in image quality evaluation of clinical radiographs of chest and lumbar spine. BACKGROUND: Inter-observer variation is a big problem in image quality evaluation since this variation is often much bigger than the variation in image quality between, for example, two radiographic systems. In this study, we have evaluated the effect of masking on the inter-observer variation. The idea of the masking was to force every observer to view exactly the same part of the image and to avoid the effect of the overall 'first impression' of the image. A discussion with a group of European expert radiologists before the study indicated that masking might be a good way to reduce the inter-observer variation. METHODS: Five chest and five lumbar spine radiographs were collected together with detailed information regarding exposure conditions. The radiographs were digitised with a high-performance scanner and five different manipulations were performed, simulating five different exposure conditions. The contrast, noise and spatial resolution were manipulated by this method. The images were printed onto the film and the individual masks were produced for each film, showing only the parts of the images that were necessary for the image quality evaluation. The quality of the images was evaluated on ordinary viewing boxes by a large group of experienced radiologists. The images were examined with and without the masks with a set of image criteria (if fulfilled, 1 point; and not fulfilled, 0 point), and the mean score was calculated for each simulated exposure condition. RESULTS: The results of this study indicate that-contrary to what was supposed-the inter-observer variation increased when the images were masked. In some cases, especially for chest, this increase was statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of this study, image masking in studies of fulfilment of image criteria cannot be recommended.     

Wireless LANs: From WarChalking to Open Access Networks

This work discusses the evolution of W-LANs from their current status of wireless termination of LAN services to a possible global infrastructure where the access networks become open to multiple operators and a vehicle of a win-win scenario, where both users and operators benefit from the new network architecture. The idea of Open Access Networks (OANs) can go beyond wireless HotSpots and be generalized to a generic shared access infrastructure that fosters service operators competition and drastically reduces the cost of last mile coverage.The general concept of Open Access Networks is detailed, highlighting its difference with the more traditional model of vertical integration of the access network into the global service. About the OANs development, it is shown how to support the quick and smooth evolution of the infrastructure toward a widespread and reliable communication support.Business models are discussed by mentioning the different actors, the market organization and the different organization forms.The final part of the paper is devoted to technical challenges such as access control, security, privacy, roaming, resource exploitation and service differentiation. As an example of how to tackle these problems, we discuss a pricing technique devoted to resource management and billing support.In addition we present a simulation on how the OAN concept can speed-up the deployment of broadband access in a real case.A preliminary version of this paper with the title “Global Growth of Open Access Networks: from WarChalking and Connection Sharing to Sustainable Business” was presented at WMASH 2003. Roberto Battiti received the Laurea degree from the University of Trento, Italy, in 1985 and the Ph.D. degree from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA, in 1990. He has been a consultant in the area of parallel computing and pattern recognition and since 1991 he has been a faculty member at the University of Trento, where he is now full professor of Computer Networks. His main research interests are heuristic algorithms for optimization problems, in particular reactive search algorithms for maximum clique, maximum satisfiability, graph coloring, networks and massively parallel architectures, code assignment in wireless and cellular networks, protocols for pricing and Quality of Service in wireless networks.Prof. R. Battiti is currently Dean of the international Graduate School in Information and Communication Technologies at Trento, Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Science, member of the advisory committee for the future Telecommunications Plan of the Autonomous Province of Trento. Prof. R. Battiti is associate editor of various scientific journals. He is the author of more than fifty scientific publications, including special issues dedicated to experimental algorithmics and wireless on-demand networks.R. Battiti is a member of IEEE Computer Society and ACM Sigmobile. Renato Lo Cigno is Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Telecommunications (DIT) of the University of Trento, Italy. He received a Dr. Ing. degree in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico di Torino in 1988. From 1989 to 2002 has been with the Telecommunication Research Group of the Electronics Department of Politecnico di Torino.From June 1998 to February 1999, he was at the CS Department at UCLA as Visiting Scholar under grant CNR 203.15.8. He is coauthor of more than 90 journal and conference papers in the area of communication networks and systems. His curent research interests are in performance evaluation of wired and wireless networks, modeling and simulation techniques, flow and congestion control, as well as network management and architecture. Renato Lo Cigno is member of the IEEE Communication Society and ACM Sigcomm. Mikalai Sabel received his master degree in radio physics from Belorussian State University in 2002. He is now pursuing his Ph.D. at the international Graduate School of Information and Communication Technologies at University of Trento, Italy. His research interest include wireless LANs, pricing and incentive engineering, IEEE802.11 MAC protocol. His current research is focused on optimization algorithms that can provide stability and maximum global welfare in a non-cooperative environment where singles tries to maximize their own benefit function. Experimentation of such schemes to pricing techniques and micro-payments in TLC networks provides the application environment of the fundamental research. Fredrik Orava is associate professor at KTH, Stockholm, Sweden. He conducts research into scalable (in terms of cost, capacity, number of users and devices etc.) communication system architectures and technologies. He has a MSc in engineering physics from Uppsala University and a PhD in computer systems also from Uppsala University. He previously held positions as researcher at the Swedish Institute for Computer Science (SICS); senior lecturer and manager of the telecommunications systems laboratory at the department for teleinformatics, KTH; acting professor in telecomunication systems at KTH; director for the Swedish Centre for Internet Technologies; and vice president of Dynarc AB with world wide responsibility for product management. Dynarc AB develops, manufactures and sells IP routers for optical IP networks. Bjorn Pehrson is a professor of telecommunication systems at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, since 1992, where he has also served as a department chairman and vice dean. He had his PhD from Uppsala University 1975 where he also served as senior lecturer and established a research group in computer and communication technology. During the period 1985-1992 he participated in the establishment of the Swedish Institute of Computer Science. Björn Pehrson research interests are currently focussed on open network topologies allowing different actors forming new value chains to build networks together based on different, sometimes very local business models. The results are applied in testbeds, especially in rural areas and in developing countries.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Microfluidic gradient-generating device for pharmacological profiling

We describe an on-chip microfluidic gradient-generating device that generates concentration gradients spanning nearly 5 orders of magnitude starting from a single concentration. The exiting stream of drugs held at different concentrations remains laminar in a recording chamber and can be presented as 24 discrete solutions to a cell-based sensor. The high-performance characteristics of the device are demonstrated by pharmacological screening of voltage-gated K+ channels (hERG) and ligand-gated GABA(A) receptors using scanning-probe patch-clamp measurements. Multiple data point dose-response curves and IC50 and EC50 values were rapidly obtained, typically in less than 30 min, through its combined functionality of gradient generation and open-volume laminar flow. The device facilitates rapid pharmacological profiling of ion channel and GPCR effectors and enables the acquisition of large numbers of data points with minute sample consumption and handling.     

Toward improved catalytic low-temperature NOx removal in diesel-powered vehicles

The potential of different catalytic after treatment techniques to meet future diesel emission standards, which are strongly shifted toward urban driving conditions including cold start, are critically discussed in this Account and evaluated for their suitability for commercial applications. The dominating techniques in this field are NO(x) storage, urea-selective catalytic reduction (SCR), and HC-SCR. Each of these techniques have significant disadvantages such as sulfur sensitiveness and regeneration requirements of NO(x)-storage materials, infrastructure issues and formation of ammonium nitrate (at low temperatures) for urea-SCR, and low-temperature activity of HC-SCR catalysts. Ways to overcome these disadvantages in commercial applications may involve optimized regeneration strategies, reactor modifications, flow reversal, closed-loop NO(x) feedback systems, nonthermal plasma, and/or hydrogen-assisted catalyses, etc.     

Brittle‐to‐Ductile Transition in Uniaxial Compression of Silicon Pillars at Room Temperature

Robust nanostructures for future devices will depend increasingly on their reliability. While great strides have been achieved for precisely evaluating electronic, magnetic, photonic, elasticity and strength properties, the same levels for fracture resistance have been lacking. Additionally, one of the self‐limiting features of materials by computational design is the knowledge that the atomistic potential is an appropriate one. A key property in establishing both of these goals is an experimentally‐determined effective surface energy or the work per unit fracture area. The difficulty with this property, which depends on extended defects such as dislocations, is measuring it accurately at the sub‐micrometer scale. In this Full Paper the discovery of an interesting size effect in compression tests on silicon pillars with sub‐micrometer diameters is presented: in uniaxial compression tests, pillars having a diameter exceeding a critical value develop cracks, whereas smaller pillars show ductility comparable to that of metals. The critical diameter is between 310 and 400 nm. To explain this transition a model based on dislocation shielding is proposed. For the first time, a quantitative method for evaluating the fracture toughness of such nanostructures is developed. This leads to the ability to propose plausible mechanisms for dislocation‐mediated fracture behavior in such small volumes.