Definition and Performance Evaluation of Network Services Deployed Over a Differentiated Services Network

A vital requirement for next generation IP networks is the provision of services with differentiated behavior and characteristics. The basic reason for that is the need to provide Quality of Service (QoS) to the different types of user traffic produced by applications that are different in nature and behavior, analogously to the IP network services. The Differentiated Services (DiffServ) paradigm is still one of the major outcomes of the research community toward the provision of QoS to individual customer needs and applications. This paper addresses the definition and deployment of specific network services in a DiffServ environment. We reuse and extend the fundamental concepts of the Expedited Forwarding and Assured Forwarding per hop behaviors in order to define four new network services, apart from the well known Best Effort one, which introduce a specific traffic handling implementation along with an Admission Control methodology. These are analyzed and simulated in the paper in order to evaluate their performance and confirm the correctness of their fundamental principles.     

Improving the performance of focused web crawlers

This work addresses issues related to the design and implementation of focused crawlers. Several variants of state-of-the-art crawlers relying on web page content and link information for estimating the relevance of web pages to a given topic are proposed. Particular emphasis is given to crawlers capable of learning not only the content of relevant pages (as classic crawlers do) but also paths leading to relevant pages. A novel learning crawler inspired by a previously proposed Hidden Markov Model (HMM) crawler is described as well. The crawlers have been implemented using the same baseline implementation (only the priority assignment function differs in each crawler) providing an unbiased evaluation framework for a comparative analysis of their performance. All crawlers achieve their maximum performance when a combination of web page content and (link) anchor text is used for assigning download priorities to web pages. Furthermore, the new HMM crawler improved the performance of the original HMM crawler and also outperforms classic focused crawlers in searching for specialized topics.     

Contents of Volume 28

Volume Contents

Contents of Volume 28     

Stochastic Models and Adaptive Algorithms for Energy Balance in Sensor Networks

We consider the important problem of energy balanced data propagation in wireless sensor networks and we extend and generalize previous works by allowing adaptive energy assignment. We consider the data gathering problem where data are generated by the sensors and must be routed toward a unique sink. Sensors route data by either sending the data directly to the sink or in a multi-hop fashion by delivering the data to a neighbouring sensor. Direct and neighbouring transmissions require different levels of energy consumption. Basically, the protocols balance the energy consumption among the sensors by computing the adequate ratios of direct and neighbouring transmissions. An abstract model of energy dissipation as a random walk is proposed, along with rigorous performance analysis techniques. Two efficient distributed algorithms are presented and analyzed, by both rigorous means and simulation. The first one is easy to implement and fast to execute. The protocol assumes that sensors know a-priori the rate of data they generate. The sink collects and processes all these information in order to compute the relevant value of the protocol parameter. This value is transmitted to the sensors which individually compute their optimal ratios of direct and neighbouring transmissions. The second protocol avoids the necessary a-priori knowledge of the data rate generated by sensors by inferring the relevant information from the observation of the data paths. Furthermore, this algorithm is based on stochastic estimation methods and is adaptive to environmental changes.     

Parameterized energy–latency trade-offs for data propagation in sensor networks

We study the problem of greedy, single path data propagation in wireless sensor networks, aiming mainly to minimize the energy dissipation. In particular, we first mathematically analyze and experimentally evaluate the energy efficiency and latency of three characteristic protocols, each one selecting the next hop node with respect to a different criterion (minimum projection, minimum angle and minimum distance to the destination). Our analytic and simulation findings suggest that any single criterion does not simultaneously satisfy both energy efficiency and low latency. Towards parameterized energy–latency trade-offs we provide as well hybrid combinations of the two criteria (direction and proximity to the sink). Our hybrid protocols achieve significant performance gains and allow fine-tuning of desired performance. Also, they have nice energy balance properties, and can prolong the network lifetime.     

Characteristics and Catalytic Properties of Pd/SiO2 Synthesized by One-step Flame Spray Pyrolysis in Liquid-phase Hydrogenation of 1-Heptyne

In this study, Pd/SiO₂ catalysts with 0.5–10 wt.% Pd loadings were prepared by one-step flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) and characterized by N₂ physisorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), CO chemisorption, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The average cluster/particles size of Pd as revealed by TEM were ca. 0.5–3 nm. The turnover frequencies (TOFs) of the flame-made catalysts decreased from 66.2 to 4.3 per s as Pd loading increased from 0.5 to 10 wt.%, suggesting that the catalytic activity was dependent on Pd particle/cluster size. However, there were no appreciable influences on 1-heptene selectivity. The flame-made Pd/SiO₂ showed better properties than the conventional prepared catalysts. Their advantages are not only the presence of large pores that facilitates diffusion of the reactants and products, but also the high-catalytic activity of as-synthesized catalysts so that further pretreatment is not necessary.     

Energy—size reduction laws for ultrasonic fragmentation

The energy requirement is a key criterion for the selection and use of a grinding process. Ultrasonic dispersion is extensively used to disperse submicron agglomerated powders in liquid suspensions. Suspensions of silica agglomerates were ground with solids concentration up to 50% by weight. The fragmentation or grinding rate is inversely proportional to suspension volume. Starting from a semiempirical expression that relates fragmentation rate to particle size, suspension volume and ultrasonic power, energy consumption laws for both eroding and non-eroding powders are developed. Experimental results supporting the energy consumption laws are given. Lower power input for ultrasonication favors efficient energy use. For eroding powders (e.g. silica, zirconia) the energy expenditure per unit powder mass (specific energy) by ultrasonic grinding is lower than that of conventional grinding techniques. In contrast, it is slightly higher than ball milling for non-eroding powders (e.g. titania).     

Morphology and composition of spray-flame-made yttria-stabilized zirconia nanoparticles

Homogeneous yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) with 8-31?nm average crystallite and particle diameter containing 3-10?mol% yttria are made by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) of various yttrium and zirconium precursors at production rates up to 350?g?h(-1). Product particles are characterized by N(2) adsorption (BET), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The effect of liquid precursor composition on product particle morphology, composition and crystallinity is investigated. The yttria content does not affect the product primary particle and crystal sizes of homogeneous YSZ. These are determined, in turn, by the process enthalpy content and overall metal concentration. Flame-made YSZ nanoparticles of homogeneous composition and morphology are formed when using either only organometallic zirconium and yttrium precursors or 2-ethylhexanoic acid as solvent and inexpensive zirconium carbonate and yttrium nitrate hexahydrate as precursors. In contrast, and consistent with the literature, hollow or inhomogeneous YSZ particles are made when organometallic zirconium and yttrium nitrate precursors of high water content are employed, especially at high production rate. The ratio of XRD-determined small to large sizes for inhomogeneous crystalline particles is an effective quantitative measure of their degree of inhomogeneity. For such inhomogeneous particles nitrogen adsorption is not a reliable technique for the average grain size as it relies on integral properties of the particle size distribution.     

Challenges and opportunities in renovating public sector information by enabling linked data and analytics

Linked Data has become the current W3C recommended approach for publishing data on the World Wide Web as it is sharable, extensible, and easily re-usable. An ecosystem of linked data hubs in the Public Sector has the potential to offer significant benefits to its consumers (other public offices and ministries, as well as researchers, citizens and SMEs), such as increased accessibility and re-use value of their data through the use of web-scale identifiers and easy interlinking with datasets of other public data providers. The power and flexibility of the schema-defying Linked Data, however, is counterbalanced by inborn factors that diminish the potential for cost-effective and efficient adoption by the Public Sector. The paper analyzes these challenges in view of the current state-of-the-art in linked data technologies and proposes a technical framework that aims to hide the underlying complexity of linked data while maintaining and promoting the interlinking capabilities enabled by the Linked Data Paradigm. The paper presents the innovations behind our proposed solutions as well as their advantages, especially for the non-expert users.     

Design of filament–wound domes based on continuum theory and non-geodesic roving trajectories

In this paper the optimal shapes and fiber architectures of non-geodesics-based domes for pressure vessels are determined upon the condition of equal shell strains. Based on the continuum theory and the non-geodesic law, the system of differential equations governing the optimal meridian profiles is derived. A specific function is chosen to describe the slippage coefficient distribution for the desired non-geodesic path, in order to ensure C¹ continuity of the roving paths when passing the dome–cylinder conjunction. Next, the meridian profiles are determined for various material anisotropies; the related winding angle developments of non-geodesic trajectories are also presented. The performance factors of non-geodesics-based optimal domes are obtained using various slippage coefficients and polar opening radii. The results show that the structural efficiency of the dome improves with increasing slippage coefficient. It is concluded that the non-geodesics-based dome designed using the present method gains better performance than the one relying on geodesics.