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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 361 records · Page 20

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2020

Remote Hardware-in-the-Loop Approach for Microgrid Controller Evaluation

Utilities have been installing microgrids because of the increased resilience and reliability advantages they may provide to the distribution system. A microgrid controller is a critical component in microgrids. It is of great benefit to derisk the installation of microgrid controllers before field deployment. Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing is used by controller developers and utilities to evaluate the controllers under stressful conditions. In this work, a microgrid control function developed by the Synchrophasor Grid Monitoring and Automation (SyGMA) laboratory at the University of California, San Diego is tested in a remote HIL (RHIL) setup. The digital real-time simulation of the detailed microgrid system was operated at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Energy Systems Integration Facility. Under such RHIL setup, successful controller operation is contingent on understanding and characterizing the communications channel and in particular network latencies. The novelty of this paper is the proposed use of a RHIL setup that leverages existing power system communications protocols to evaluate the controller in conjunction with the simulation capabilities of a remote facility. The work presented here will provide the complete setup of the HIL evaluation platform, the details of the communications protocols used by the setup for data transfer between the two organizations, test cases developed to evaluate the controller, and the results from the experiments.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2024

Options for Upgrading Low-Voltage Spot Network Protection to Increase DER Interconnection Capacity

Existing standards and policies for interconnecting distributed energy resources (DERs) into low voltage spot networks severely limits the amount of DER installed on those networks to avoid negative impacts on protection systems. This report investigates options for upgrading the protection systems of spot networks to allow for additional DER installations beyond the normal limits (i.e., no reverse power flows allowed onto the MV system). Eight potential upgrade options are discussed that span various methods for new network protector algorithms, hardware upgrades, and the addition of communication. Each method has tradeoffs in terms of accuracy of detecting faults, requirements to upgrade equipment in the spot networks, need for communication, and sensitivity to false trips—all of which are explored in this report.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2023

CommAwareNet: Towards Communication‐Aware Smart Facilities: Designing an Energy‐Efficient High‐Data‐Rate and Reliable Hybrid THz/VLC Comm. Arch. Reinforced with Intelligent Surfaces for Future Network

This project will develop foundations for energy-efficient, high-data-rate, and reliable communication links for next-generation advanced wireless technologies. The Internet of Everything is emerging as a major technology that can establish a massively connected network among both human-type users and machine-type devices. Particularly, massive machine-type communication is becoming the dominant communication paradigm for numerous emerging areas, including data center networking and wireless backhaul, healthcare (e-health), manufacturing (industry 4.0), utilities, transportation (connected cars and public safety), and virtual or augmented reality for human-machine interaction applications. The rising demand for high data rates, especially in indoor scenarios and densely populated outdoor environments, will eventually overload conventional RF-based technologies. This project aims to conduct fundamental research to design, optimize, and validate a communication-aware, energy-efficient, and reliable network (CommAwareNet) architecture for future smart facilities and environments that require unprecedented high throughput needs for massive numbers of the machine- and human-type users. The scientific and technical merit of this work lies in the research required to bring the proposed transformative CommAwareNet solution into fully functional and practical architecture.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2022

Grid-Interactive Electric Vehicle and Building Coordination Using Coupled Distributed Control: Preprint

As an increasing number of controllable devices are introduced onto the grid, they can individually provide ancillary services in support of grid stability. However, the goals of each device differ due to their type and individual objectives, causing instances where they may conflict. To reduce the chances of these devices contributing to grid instability, these devices must effectively communicate in a cooperative manner to both meet their own needs while providing services to the grid. Previous work demonstrates that the NALD (Network Lasso-ADMM - Limited Communication - DMPC) algorithm allows coordination between two subsystems that use different control algorithms (building and charging stations) to provide services to the grid and individually optimize their performance in a specific scenario. The ideal NALD algorithm should be generalized to allow plug-and-play capabilities across devices of differing characteristics. This paper takes a step toward generalizability by updating the electric vehicle charging objective and re-defining the communication scheme compared to prior work to generalize the coordination and, as a result, improve the performance of the NALD algorithm.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,ENERGY CONSERVATION, C↗

DOE OSTI2022

A Systems Engineering Analysis of National Ignition Facility Industrial Controls Systems and Safety Interlock Systems Remote Input/Output Networking Migration from ControlNet to EtherNet/IP

The ControlNet industrial communications protocol and modules used in the Industrial Control System (ICS) and Safety Interlock System (SIS) at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) are no longer necessary and the ICS and SIS would be better served by migrating the communications structure to use EtherNet/Industrial Protocol (IP) and EtherNet bridge modules instead. By the admission of the vendor of ControlNet hardware, Rockwell Automation, in literature by Bill Petro [1], “Moving forward, customers will be able to optimize their asset utilization better using EtherNet/IP protocol than with ControlNet.” The NIF is one of the key elements of the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). The NIF contains the systems and provides the operational capacity to perform ICF, high energy density (HED), and discovery science experiments utilizing 192 individual beamlines, a host of diagnostics, and all the industrial systems required to facilitate these beamlines and diagnostics. The industrial systems are governed by the ICS and SIS, with the ICS providing control and the SIS providing monitoring and permissives. Construction on the NIF began in 1997 and was certified complete in 2009 and, as a result, the ICS and SIS were developed during this time using the tools that were available then. This includes the communications structure and protocols for these systems, much of which was, and still is, ControlNet. ControlNet, particularly during the time that the ICS and SIS were being built, has several attractive features. ControlNet hardware is exclusive to Rockwell Automation, which was the automation hardware chosen for the ICS and SIS. One feature that could be considered an advantage or a disadvantage depending on the communication needs of the system is that ControlNet also utilizes no active network components, excluding repeaters which are not always necessary. According to the architect of the ICS system at the NIF, Gordon Lau, one of the most attractive features of the ControlNet protocol during development of the ICS and SIS was that it is deterministic, providing timing of data transfer that is executed exactly as it is defined by the developer.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2025

Traffic Shaping to Traffic Engineering in Time-Sensitive OT Network

Modern industrial automation systems increasingly depend on network infrastructures for time-critical communication, driving the need for solutions that guarantee timely and reliable data delivery. IEEE 802.1 Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) holds significant promise for converging Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) networks, enabling interoperability and supporting the coexistence of mixed-critical traffic crucial for Industry 4.0 and IIoT. To achieve deterministic communication, TSN employs various traffic shapers such as the Time-Aware Shaper (TAS), Asynchronous Traffic Shaper (ATS), and Credit-Based Shaper (CBS). However, the effective deployment of TSN in industrial automation faces several challenges. These include the non-trivial mapping of diverse industrial traffic types to specific shapers, the complexity of optimizing shaper configurations. We present a model for effective traffic engineering within TSN enabled OT Network. Our experiments also demonstrate how shaping of certain traffic types get affected in absence of precise time synchronization and propose possible solutions based on experiment results. Based on our experimental results we provide recommendations on how traffic type assignments should be done and which traffic shaping mechanisms should be used for a particular traffic type.

Sarker, Taposh Kumer [University of Texas at El Pa↗

DOE OSTI2026

Multi-Agent Control Planes for Quantum Networks: A Scalable Architecture for Autonomous Quantum Internet Management

Quantum networks are expected to enable distributed quantum computing, secure communication, and global entanglement distribution. However, operating such networks presents significant challenges, including stochastic quantum processes, fragile entanglement resources, dynamic topology, and cross-layer control requirements. Current quantum network control architectures largely rely on centralized or hierarchical controllers inspired by classical software-defined networking (SDN). While effective for small testbeds, these approaches face scalability, latency, and reliability limitations as quantum networks grow. This paper proposes a multi-agent control plane architecture for quantum networks. In this design, intelligent software agents operate at quantum nodes, repeaters, and orchestration layers, collectively managing entanglement generation, routing, purification, and scheduling. The distributed intelligence of the agent system allows the network to adapt dynamically to quantum hardware variability and environmental noise. We argue that multi-agent systems provide significant advantages over centralized control approaches, including scalability, resilience, local autonomy, and real-time adaptation. The paper discusses architectural design principles, agent coordination mechanisms, and research challenges in deploying multi-agent control planes for the emerging quantum Internet.

Alnajjar, Anees [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000237101601)↗

DOE OSTI2021

Icypaw

The Intermode Communication Protocol Wrapper, or Icypaw, structures and facilitates communication between endpoints in a network. It is used to connect various independent software and hardware components into one loosely organized system controllable from one or more locations. The code uses the MQTT protocol to communicate and enhances it with a useful framework. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. SAND2021-8293 O

Van Der Wall, JayW.↗

DOE OSTI2026

Constant Overhead Entanglement Distillation via Scrambling

High-fidelity quantum entanglement enables key quantum networking capabilities such as secure communication and distributed quantum computing, but long-distance entanglement distribution is limited by noise and loss. Entanglement distillation protocols address this problem by extracting high-fidelity Bell pairs from multiple noisy ones. The primary objective is minimizing the resource overhead: the number of noisy input pairs needed to distill each high-fidelity output pair. While protocols achieving optimal overhead are known in theory, they often require complex decoding operations that make practical implementation challenging. We circumvent this challenge by introducing protocols that use quantum scrambling—the spreading of quantum information under chaotic dynamics—through random Clifford operations. Based on this scrambling mechanism, our protocol maintains asymptotically constant overhead, independent of the desired output error rate $\bar{𝜖}$ , and can be implemented with shallow quantum circuits of depth 𝑂⁡(poly log log⁡ $\bar{𝜖}$ −1 ) and memory 𝑂⁡(poly log⁡ $\bar{𝜖}$ −1 ). Our protocol remains effective even with noisy quantum gates. By incorporating error correction, our protocol achieves state-of-the-art performance: starting with pairs of 10% initial infidelity, we require only seven noisy inputs per output pair to distill a single Bell pair with infidelity $\bar{𝜖}$ =10 −12 , substantially outperforming existing schemes. We demonstrate the utility of our protocols for quantum repeater networks.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2023

Redox-enabled electronic interrogation and feedback control of hierarchical and networked biological systems

Abstract Microelectronic devices can directly communicate with biology, as electronic information can be transmitted via redox reactions within biological systems. By engineering biology’s native redox networks, we enable electronic interrogation and control of biological systems at several hierarchical levels: proteins, cells, and cell consortia. First, electro-biofabrication facilitates on-device biological component assembly. Then, electrode-actuated redox data transmission and redox-linked synthetic biology allows programming of enzyme activity and closed-loop electrogenetic control of cellular function. Specifically, horseradish peroxidase is assembled onto interdigitated electrodes where electrode-generated hydrogen peroxide controls its activity. E. coli ’s stress response regulon, oxyRS , is rewired to enable algorithm-based feedback control of gene expression, including an eCRISPR module that switches cell-cell quorum sensing communication from one autoinducer to another—creating an electronically controlled ‘bilingual’ cell. Then, these disparate redox-guided devices are wirelessly connected, enabling real-time communication and user-based control. We suggest these methodologies will help us to better understand and develop sophisticated control for biology.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Distributed Macroscopic Traffic Simulation with Open Traffic Models

This paper presents OTM-MPI, an extension of the Open Traffic Models platform (OTM) for running macroscopic traffic simulations in high-performance computing environments. OTM-MPI represents the first open-source, distributed-memory, macroscopic simulation model developed for modern high performance parallel machines and large networks. Macroscopic simulations are appropriate for studying regional traffic scenarios when aggregate trends are of interest, rather than individual vehicle traces. They are also appropriate for studying the routing behavior of classes of vehicles, such as app-informed vehicles. The network partitioning was performed with METIS. Inter-process communication was done with MPI (message-passing interface). Results are provided for two networks: one realistic network which was obtained from Open Street Maps for Chattanooga, TN, and another larger synthetic grid network. The software recorded a speedups of 198x using 256 cores for Chattanooga, and 475x with 1,024 cores for the synthetic network.

macro-scopic traffic simulation↗

DOE OSTI2021

Communication system and method for applying security for a time sensitive network

A method includes identifying power connections between plural components of a time sensitive network (TSN) that are interconnected via a predetermined connection plan. The method also includes determining a topology of the components of the TSN based on the power connections. Also, the method includes scheduling flows for the TSN based on the topology determined based on the power connections.

Bush, Stephen Francis↗

DOE OSTI2026

Firmware Tampering Detection in Heavy-Duty Vehicles through J1939 CAN Analysis

Modern heavy-duty vehicles rely on complex networks of Electronic Control Units (ECUs) that communicate using the J1939 protocol. While this system makes it easier to update and configure vehicle components, it also opens the door to serious cybersecurity risks if not properly secured. This work investigates the potential for firmware tampering through the J1939 communication protocol, which enables ECU configuration and reprogramming over the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus. By monitoring CAN traffic during legitimate maintenance operations and reverse-engineering OEM diagnostic software, we identified common and proprietary J1939 message identifiers, authentication patterns, and vulnerabilities within Unified Diagnostic Services (UDS). These findings demonstrate that inadequate authentication mechanisms can allow malicious actors to alter ECU firmware or disable safety functions, posing severe operational and safety risks. Our analysis contributes to the development of vehicle intrusion detection systems capable of recognizing abnormal reprogramming activity and future firmware fingerprinting methods to verify software integrity across ECUs. This work highlights the importance of standardizing secure firmware authentication across manufacturers to strengthen cyber resilience in heavy-duty vehicle systems.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

DOE OSTI2021

The PetscSF Scalable Communication Layer

PetscSF, the communication component of the Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc), is designed to provide PETSc's communication infrastructure suitable for exascale computers that utilize GPUs and other accelerators. PetscSF provides a simple application programming interface (API) for managing common communication patterns in scientific computations by using a star-forest graph representation. PetscSF supports several implementations based on MPI and NVSHMEM, whose selection is based on the characteristics of the application or the target architecture. An efficient and portable model for network and intra-node communication is essential for implementing large-scale applications. The Message Passing Interface, which has been the de facto standard for distributed memory systems, has developed into a large complex API that does not yet provide high performance on the emerging heterogeneous CPU-GPU-based exascale systems. Here, we discuss the design of PetscSF, how it can overcome some difficulties of working directly with MPI on GPUs, and we demonstrate its performance, scalability, and novel features.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2024

Exploring the benefits of using co-packaged optics in data center and AI supercomputer networks: a simulation-based analysis [Invited]

We investigate the advantages of using co-packaged optics in next-generation data center and AI supercomputer networks. The increased escape bandwidth offered by co-packaged optics provides multiple possibilities for building 50T switches and beyond, expanding the opportunities in both the data center and supercomputing domains. Furthermore, this provides network architects with the opportunity to expand their design space and develop simplified networks with enhanced network locality properties. Co-packaging at the switch and server points enables networks with double capacity while reducing the switch count by 64% compared to state-of-the-art systems. We evaluate these concepts through discrete-event simulations using all-to-all and all-reduce traffic patterns that simulate collective communications commonly found in network-bound applications. Initially, we investigate the all-to-all overhead involved in distributing the virtual machines of the applications across multiple leaf switches and compare it to the scenario in which all VMs are placed under a single switch. Subsequently, we evaluate the performance of an AI supercomputing cluster by simulating both patterns for different message sizes, while also varying the number of participating nodes. The results suggest that networks with improved locality properties become increasingly important as the network stack operates at higher speeds; for a stack latency of 1.25 µs, placing the applications under multiple switches can result in up to 68% higher completion times than placing them under a single switch. For AI supercomputers, significant improvements are observed in the mean server throughput, reaching more than 90% for configurations involving 256 nodes and message sizes of at least 128 KiB.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Distributed fiber-optic sensor network for sensing the corrosion onset and quantification

Materials, methods of making, and methods of sensing liquid droplets with high spatial resolution as a signature of the on-set of corrosion using a hierarchical sensor network A hierarchical sensor network for sensing liquid droplets with high spatial resolution as a signature of the on-set of corrosion, including an interrogation system; and an intermediate sensor array layer in communication with the interrogation system. The network includes an interrogation system and an intermediate sensor array layer in communication with the interrogation system.

Ohodnicki, Paul R.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Communication host profiles

The present disclosure pertains to systems and methods for automating the configuration of communication hosts in a software defined network (SDN) associated with an electric power transmission and distribution system. The systems and methods presented herein may utilize communication host profiles to specify various repeatable attributes and customizable attributes that may be utilized to configure the communication host and the SDN. In one embodiment, a system may comprise a communication host profile subsystem configured to select a communication host profile associated with a communication host. The host communication profile subsystem may configure the communication host based on one or more repeatable attributes and on one or more customizable attributes specified in the host communication profile. A traffic routing system may further configure a plurality of communication flows in the SDN based on the communication host based on the host communication profile.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2025

Photophysics of O-band and transition metal color centers in monolithic silicon for quantum communications

Color centers in the O-band (1260–1360 nm) are crucial for realizing long-coherence quantum network nodes in memory-assisted quantum communications. However, only a limited number of O-band color centers have been thoroughly explored in silicon hosts as spin-photon interfaces. This study explores and compares two promising O-band color centers in silicon for high-fidelity spin-photon interfaces: T and *Cu (transition metal) centers. During T center generation process, we observed the formation and dissolution of other color centers, including the copper-silver related centers with a doublet line around 1312 nm (*Cu$^0_n$), near the optical fiber zero dispersion wavelength (around 1310 nm). We then investigated the photophysics of both T and *Cu centers, focusing on their emission spectra and spin properties. The *Cu$^0_0$ line under a 0.5 T magnetic field demonstrated a 25% broadening, potentially due to spin degeneracy, suggesting that this center can be a promising alternative to T centers.

42 ENGINEERING↗