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At least 631 records · Page 35

Intelligent network slicing and policy-based routing engine

One or more aspects of the present disclosure are directed to network optimization solutions provided as software agents (applications) executed on network nodes in a heterogenous multi-vendor environment to provide cross-layer network optimization and ensure availability of network resources to meet associated Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS). In one aspect, a network slicing engine is configured to receive at least one request from at least one network endpoint for access to the heterogeneous multi-vendor network for data transmission; receive information on state of operation of a plurality of communication links between the plurality of nodes; determine a set of data transmission routes for the request; assign a network slice for serving the request; determine, from the set of data transmission routes, an end-to-end route for the network slice; and send network traffic associated with the request using the network slice and over the end-to-end route.

Mody, Apurva N.↗

Estimation of Commodity Origin-Destination Matrices and Flows: The Network Tomography of U.S. Wheat Shipments

This study proceeds from the belief that an examination of railroads and railcar flows provides important insights into economic geography and to the economics of transportation. The flows of wheat in the United States are examined using rail carload waybill survey data in order to model the network routes likely taken from origin to destination, a characterization of the flows themselves, and modeling the flows through the comparison of standard gravity models with two relatively new gravity estimation methodologies suggested in the network analysis literature. The analysis covers Wheat flows through the U.S. for the years 2013 through 2015. Rail flows are highly conducive to the emergence of high volume corridors, a primary hypothetical relationship described by Taaffe, Morrill and Gould (1963). Hubs are expected to develop in market centers with sufficient traffic, as in a Christaller (1966) system, where market centers above a certain size have terminal facilities, or serve as primary interchange points. Centers of different sizes may also have more than one load center thereby concentrating and attracting more flows (o’Kelly, 1998). Implications are for commodity production and processing locations to develop concentrations of flows and the development of identifiable commodity-specific components of the national rail network. As the railroad nodes are structured in relation to the railroad network, the origin and destination nodes take the form of an irregular lattice (Besag 1974). One implication of this irregular lattice network is the probable presence of network autocorrelation in the flows: the constraints of network connectivity assure flows are not open between the terminals, but travel to and from distinct neighbors on the network. In addition, the network terminal structure can be expected to follow a hierarchical central place ordering. Evidence of such an ordering may be determined by examining the clustering and concentration of flows at nodes and, by association, particular network links serving those nodes (Fujita and Thisse 2002; Hesse and Rodrigue 2004; Nierat 1997). The presence of hierarchies implies economies of scale are being realized which leads to a centralizing or agglomerating effect (Fujita and Thisse, 2002 and Brakman et al, 2001). Thus the transportation sector will also develop an associated central place hierarchy with its own associated network of flows and flow concentrations.

Peterson, Steven↗

Anomaly analysis and visualization for dynamic networks through spatiotemporal graph segmentations

With recent technology advance in Internet of Things (IoT) that involves human, sensors, and mobile devices, networks are not only growing much larger but more complex and dynamic in nature. The spatiotemporal dynamics of networks are represented by both topological changes and temporal shifts of attribute information associated with network components. Understanding the pattern and trend of dynamic networks is increasingly important. While data mining approaches are generally useful in analyzing the statistical properties of networks, there has been recent trend to consider bringing human into the loop, and to examine how feedback from visualizations of large-scale dynamic networks can further improve data mining and machine learning. Traditional visualization methods based on animation and sequences of snapshot graphs are also limited by human cognitive capability. Here, we present a dynamic network analysis and visualization (DNAV) tool which explores the spatiotemporal dimensions of graph components. In particular, nodes and edges are augmented with spatiotemporal segmentation based on both topological and attribute dynamics (e.g., time and locations of connectivity). To further facilitate analysis of large dynamic networks, DNAV includes statistical dynamic overviews alongside graph views, as well as data filtering modules for scalable analysis. Using case studies on public datasets, we demonstrate the effectiveness of DNAV in understanding and analyzing anomalies in dynamic networks such as computer communication networks.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

On the evaluation and selection of network-level traffic control policies: Perimeter control, TUC, and their combination

Perimeter control (PC) of urban traffic networks can be effective in increasing network-wide efficiency. PC operates on the border of a protected region of a traffic network. Most studies thus far considered fixed-time plans for the inner part of these regions. A few studies have shown that combining PC with locally actuated or decentralized traffic control systems may have positive effects on traffic performance, including better-defined Network Macroscopic Fundamental Diagrams (NMFDs), increased network throughput, and reduced delays. The Traffic-responsive Urban Control (TUC) is a real-time network-wide traffic control system with particular design characteristics, such as the balancing of link's occupancies and an inherent gating feature. These characteristics suggest that TUC may enhance the traffic network performance when combined with PC whilst improving the resulting NMFDs and network throughput and delays. Here, in this work, we investigate the effect of feedback perimeter control (FPC), TUC, and their combination on the NMFD and on the traffic conditions of general traffic and public transport in the microsimulation of a realistic model of the Christchurch Central Business District in New Zealand. We perform a thorough investigation of practical aspects of both control strategies and their combination, including parameter tuning and infrastructure requirements, and how they may affect the control system choice. Results show higher throughput and less hysteresis on the NMFDs, particularly when TUC is involved. PC provides benefits concentrated in the protected region which can greatly benefit public transportation if there is an overlap with the transit network. The combination of TUC and FPC boosts network-wide throughput.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Space Link Extension Protocol Emulation for High-Throughput, High-Latency Network Connections

New space missions require higher data rates and new protocols to meet these requirements. These high data rate space communication links push the limitations of not only the space communication links, but of the ground communication networks and protocols which forward user data to remote ground stations (GS) for transmission. The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, (CCSDS) Space Link Extension (SLE) standard protocol is one protocol that has been proposed for use by the NASA Space Network (SN) Ground Segment Sustainment (SGSS) program. New protocol implementations must be carefully tested to ensure that they provide the required functionality, especially because of the remote nature of spacecraft. The SLE protocol standard has been tested in the NASA Glenn Research Center's SCENIC Emulation Lab in order to observe its operation under realistic network delay conditions. More specifically, the delay between then NASA Integrated Services Network (NISN) and spacecraft has been emulated. The round trip time (RTT) delay for the continental NISN network has been shown to be up to 120ms; as such the SLE protocol was tested with network delays ranging from 0ms to 200ms. Both a base network condition and an SLE connection were tested with these RTT delays, and the reaction of both network tests to the delay conditions were recorded. Throughput for both of these links was set at 1.2Gbps. The results will show that, in the presence of realistic network delay, the SLE link throughput is significantly reduced while the base network throughput however remained at the 1.2Gbps specification. The decrease in SLE throughput has been attributed to the implementation's use of blocking calls. The decrease in throughput is not acceptable for high data rate links, as the link requires constant data a flow in order for spacecraft and ground radios to stay synchronized, unless significant data is queued a the ground station. In cases where queuing the data is not an option, such as during real time transmissions, the SLE implementation cannot support high data rate communication.

Computer Networking↗

False Positive and False Negative Effects on Network Attacks

Robustness against attacks serves as evidence for complex network structures and failure mechanisms that lie behind them. Most often, due to detection capability limitation or good disguises, attacks on networks are subject to false positives and false negatives, meaning that functional nodes may be falsely regarded as compromised by the attacker and vice versa. In this work, we initiate a study of false positive/negative effects on network robustness against three fundamental types of attack strategies, namely, random attacks (RA), localized attacks (LA), and targeted attack (TA). By developing a general mathematical framework based upon the percolation model, we investigate analytically and by numerical simulations of attack robustness with false positive/negative rate (FPR/FNR) on three benchmark models including Erdős-Rényi (ER) networks, random regular (RR) networks, and scale-free (SF) networks. We show that ER networks are equivalently robust against RA and LA only when FPR equals zero or the initial network is intact. We find several interesting crossovers in RR and SF networks when FPR is taken into consideration. By defining the cost of attack, we observe diminishing marginal attack efficiency for RA, LA, and TA. Our finding highlights the potential risk of underestimating or ignoring FPR in understanding attack robustness. The results may provide insights into ways of enhancing robustness of network architecture and improve the level of protection of critical infrastructures.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Development of a topology analysis tool for fifth-generation district heating and cooling networks

Fifth generation district heating and cooling networks are characterized by supply temperatures in the ambient range of 15-25 degrees C, which not only reduces heat loss but also allows for integrating various kinds of low-temperature waste heat sources. The ability of these networks to absorb waste heat that is normally unrecoverable makes them an attractive solution for the future energy supply of urban areas. To enhance the adoption of these networks, this paper describes the development of a software tool to analyze the feasibility of fifth-generation of district heating and cooling systems in both new and existing districts. The research attempts to answer the question: 'Which buildings should be connected to a low-temperature hydraulic network given both the incremental benefits and costs relative to the scenario of decentralized (dedicated) heating and cooling systems for each building?' Therefore, all possible network layouts of the buildings are considered where the heating and cooling demands of each building are met by the fifth-generation of district heating and cooling network. For the heating and cooling load characterization of the buildings, reduced-order models are used while renewable energy and waste heat sources are included in the network. The focus of the research lies in the development of a hydraulic model for flexible use in the urban energy modeling and the optimization of the fifth-generation of district heating and cooling network topology for a given urban district. This research displays simulation results that quantify the performance of the fifth-generation of district heating and cooling network based on various output metrics, including primary energy usage, carbon dioxide emissions, and network implementation cost.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Feasibility of critical infrastructure protection using network functions for programmable and decoupled ICS policy enforcement over WAN

Industrial control systems (ICS) represent a major component of our critical infrastructure. With the increasing need for more control and monitoring of such systems, ICS have seen an increase in connectivity to wide area networks (WAN) exposing aging equipment to rapidly evolving cybersecurity threats. Furthermore, the ICS data requires a reliability measure from the networks for critical functions for infrastructure monitoring and control. Especially when remote plant sites are involved such as pipelines, energy distribution networks, and transportation, WAN transport impairments most often provide a best effort delivery with no strict reliability guarantees. Network functions can provide a vendor agnostic, programmable critical infrastructure protection with a single maintenance, policy determination, and reliability assurance surface. A network function (NF) can be utilized for policy enforcement over the communication between remote entities and the main control office. This paper presents the research on transparent integration with existing ICS without disrupting communications, resulting in minimal downtime while decoupling the fast paced evolution of defensive security measures from the upgrade cycle of expensive long term hardware. We report our measurements on the resource requirements and overhead in the network for successful NF insertion under a wide variety of network impairments (network packet delay, reordering, and loss). Our paired NF implementation provides a policy enforcement platform extensible to cover myriad cybersecurity-related communication goals, including packet signing for verification, encryption for data privacy, packet filtering and data diode operation (i.e. protecting against eavesdropping, packet injection, and denial-of-service). Furthermore, bundling communication specifications into packet flows allows for tunability in applying policies as coarse- or fine-grained as the needs of the operator. We report on network function resource requirements in the form of required queue depth and network utilization overhead to inform the decision making against hardware cost constraints.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Systematic network assessment of the carcinogenic activities of cadmium

Cadmium has been defined as type I carcinogen for humans, but the underlying mechanisms of its carcinogenic activity and its influence on protein-protein interactions in cells are not fully elucidated. The aim of the current study was to evaluate, systematically, the carcinogenic activity of cadmium with systems biology approaches. From a literature search of 209 studies that performed with cellular models, 208 proteins influenced by cadmium exposure were identified. All of these were assessed by Western blotting and were recognized as key nodes in network analyses. The protein-protein functional interaction networks were constructed with NetBox software and visualized with Cytoscape software. These cadmium-rewired genes were used to construct a scale-free, highly connected biological protein interaction network with 850 nodes and 8770 edges. Of the network, nine key modules were identified and 60 key signaling pathways, including the estrogen, RAS, PI3K-Akt, NF-κB, HIF-1α, Jak-STAT, and TGF-β signaling pathways, were significantly enriched. With breast cancer, colorectal and prostate cancer cellular models, we validated the key node genes in the network that had been previously reported or inferred form the network by Western blotting methods, including STAT3, JNK, p38, SMAD2/3, P65, AKT1, and HIF-1α. These results suggested the established network was robust and provided a systematic view of the carcinogenic activities of cadmium in human. - Highlights: • A cadmium-influenced network with 850 nodes and 8770 edges was established. • The cadmium-rewired gene network was scale-free and highly connected. • Nine modules were identified, and 60 key signaling pathways related to cadmium-induced carcinogenesis were found. • Key mediators in the network were validated in multiple cellular models.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Non-unimodal and non-concave relationships in the network Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram caused by hierarchical streets

Unimodal, concave relationships between average network productivity and accumulation or density aggregated across spatially compact regions of urban networks—so called network Macroscopic Fundamental Diagrams (MFDs)—have recently been shown to exist on homogeneous street networks. When present, MFD relationships facilitate the modeling of traffic congestion at a regional level and have led to the development of various regional traffic control strategies. However, real street networks are not homogeneous—they generally have a hierarchical structure where some streets (e.g., arterials) promote higher mobility than others (e.g., local roads). Here, this paper examines how the presence of hierarchical roadway structures may potentially cause non-unimodal patterns in a network's MFD. These are observed using three types of tools: analytical models of simple network structures, simulations of various idealized roadway networks, and empirical data. The impacts of street hierarchy depend on how vehicles use different roadway types to move within the network; i.e., their routing strategy. The findings suggest that the presence of roadway hierarchies may lead to MFDs that have non-unimodal or non-concave patterns on the free-flow branch when vehicles route themselves according to user equilibrium principles, which is closest to what would be observed in realistic situations. Such patterns are contrary to what is traditionally assumed in most MFD-based modeling frameworks. However, the unimodal and concave MFD should be expected under system optimal routing conditions that maximize network productivity for a given traffic state.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Evolved Gas Analysis–Mass Spectrometry Exposes Polymer Network Structures

Polymer network structures in epoxy thermosets play an important role in the final thermoset material properties. However, analytical characterization of these network structures is difficult due to their amorphous nature. In this work, the application of evolved gas analysis–mass spectrometry (EGA-MS) to characterize the polymer network structures of bisphenol A (BPA)-based thermosets is demonstrated. Analytical characterization of the polymer network structures is accomplished by monitoring the Product-Specific Kinetics (PSK) of BPA monomer formation during thermal degradation investigations. We relate observed differences in the activation energy (E a ) of BPA monomer formation to the local packing environment around the BPA monomer units within the polymer network. Variations in the local environment related to the polymer networks manifest qualitatively as broadening in the thermal profile of the BPA monomer evolution and quantitatively as changes in the activation energy (E a ). Three BPA thermoset formulations were investigated; two amine-cured thermoset with 4,4′-diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM) or poly(propylene glycol) bis(2-amino-propyl ether) (PPG400) and a homopolymerized thermoset via curing with Epikure 3253 catalyst (3253). Results revealed that the 3253 thermoset contained two distinct packing densities in the polymer network, while DDM and PPG400 thermosets had uniform distributions of packing densities. Results from the DDM thermoset revealed a gradually decreasing E a , while the apparent E a of PPG400 was consistent over the entire degradation. Furthermore, these differences in E a were concluded to stem from the flexibility of the corresponding polymer networks and the ability of the network components to rearrange and occupy formed voids. Due to the minimal sample required for analysis (100–200 μg), this EGA-MS technique has great potential for postproduction evaluation of composite parts to identify changes in the polymer networks from use and aging, which could signal compromised performance.

Degradation↗

Application of deep neural networks to improve diagnostic accuracy of rheumatoid arthritis using diffuse optical tomography

A set of deep neural network models for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) classification using a highway network, a convolutional neural network and a residual network is proposed based on the data of diffuse optical tomography (DOT) utilising near-infrared light, which ensures early diagnosis of pathophysiological changes resulting from inflammation. A numerical model of the finger is used to generate images to overcome the inherent problem of insufficient clinical DOT images available. The proposed deep neural network models are applied to automatically classify simulated DOT images of inflamed and non-inflamed joints and transfer learning is also used to improve the performance of the classification. The results demonstrate that all three deep neural network methods improve the diagnostic accuracy as compared to the widely applied support vector machine (SVM), especially for high inter-subject variability databases. In cases of distinct modelled severity of disease, residual network achieved the highest accuracy (> 99 %), and both of highway and convolutional neural networks reached 99 %, respectively. However, as the severity of the modelled disease is reduced, this accuracy is reduced to 75.2 % for residual networks. The results indicate that transfer learning can improve the performance of deep neural network methods on RA classification from DOT data and highlight their potential as a computer aided tool in DOT diagnostic systems. (paper)

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Throughput Estimation of Data Transport Networks From Digital Twin Measurements

Digital twins of networked infrastructures, known as Virtual Infrastructure Twins (VITs), are increasingly used for software development, pre-deployment testing, and design space exploration. While VITs avoid the costs and potential disruptions associated with experiments on operational networks, their throughput measurements are typically not sufficiently accurate for performance profiling of wide-area networks that they emulate. Here, machine learning (ML) methods are developed to transform these inaccurate VIT network throughput measurements to closely match in peak and overall profile of those from a physical testbed or production network. First, a micro kernel network reflecting a physical network is utilized to collect one-time measurements on a host to support this ML transformation. Then, a generic multi-modal ML method is developed to learn a map that transforms measurements from subsequent VITs on the same host to match past, current and follow-on testbed and cloud networks. ML generalization equations are derived to establish its correctness and probabilistically guarantee its generalization accuracy. Experimental results are presented for a variety of VIT hosts with target testbed and cloud networks; they include a case study of a four-site science ecosystem wherein inaccurate convex VIT measurement profiles are transformed into accurate concave profiles of target networks.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Hybrid PDES Simulation of HPC Networks Using Zombie Packets

Although high-fidelity network simulations have proven to be reliable and cost-effective tools to peer into architectural questions for high-performance computing (HPC) networks, they incur a high resource cost. The time spent in simulating a single millisecond of network traffic in the highest detail can take hours, even for static, well-behaved traffic patterns such as uniform random. Surrogate models offer a significant reduction in runtime, yet they cannot serve as complete replacements and should only be used when appropriate. Thus, there is a need for hybrid modeling, where high-fidelity simulation and surrogates run side-by-side. Here, we present a surrogate model for HPC networks in which: packets bypass the network, while the network state is left untouched, i.e., suspended. To bypass the network, we use historical data to estimate the arrival time at which every packet should be scheduled at; to suspend the network, all in-flight packets are scheduled to arrive at their destinations, and are kept in the system to awaken as zombies when switching back to high-fidelity. Speedup for a hybrid model is relative to the proportion of surrogate to high-fidelity. This light-weight surrogate obtained up to 76× speedup. Keeping the zombies in the network showed an increase in the accuracy of the high-fidelity simulation on restart when compared to restarting the network from an empty state.

HPC networks↗

State-based network similarity visualization

We introduce an approach for the interactive visual analysis of weighted, dynamic networks. These networks arise in areas such as computational neuroscience, sociology, and biology. Network analysis remains challenging due to complex time-varying network behavior. For example, edges disappear/reappear, communities grow/vanish, or overall network topology changes. Our technique, TimeSum, detects the important topological changes in graph data to abstract the dynamic network and visualize one summary representation for each temporal phase, a state. We define a network state as a graph with similar topology over a specific time interval. To enable a holistic comparison of networks, we use a difference network to depict edge and community changes. Here, we present case studies to demonstrate that our methods are effective and useful for extracting and exploring complex dynamic behavior of networks.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Application of Frequency of Detection Methods in Design and Optimization of the INL Site Ambient Air Monitoring Network

This report presents an evaluation of a hypothetical INL Site monitoring network and the existing INL air monitoring network using frequency of detection methods. The hypothetical network was designed to address the requirement in 40 CFR Part 61, Subpart H (2006) that “emissions of radionuclides to ambient air from U.S. DOE facilities shall not exceed those amounts that would cause any member of the public to receive in any year an effective dose equivalent exceeding 10 mrem/year.” To meet the requirement for monitoring only, “radionuclide releases that would result in an effective dose of 10% of the standard shall be readily detectable and distinguishable from background.” Thus, the hypothetical network consists of air samplers placed at residence locations that surround INL and at other locations where onsite livestock grazing takes place. Two exposure scenarios were used in this evaluation: a resident scenario and a shepherd/rancher scenario. The resident was assumed to be continuously present at their residence while the shepherd/rancher was assumed to be present 24-hours at a fixed location on the grazing allotment. Important radionuclides were identified from annual INL radionuclide National Emission Standards for Hazardous Pollutants reports. Important radionuclides were defined as those that potentially contribute 1% or greater to the annual total dose at the radionuclide National Emission Standards for Hazardous Pollutants maximally exposed individual location and include H-3, Am-241, Pu-238, Pu 239, Cs-137, Sr-90, and I-131. For this evaluation, the network performance objective was set at achieving a frequency of detection greater than or equal to 95%. Results indicated that the hypothetical network for the resident scenario met all performance objectives for H-3 and I-131 and most performance objectives for Cs-137 and Sr-90. However, all actinides failed to meet the performance objectives for most sources. The shepherd/rancher scenario showed that air samplers placed around the facilities every 22.5 degrees were very effective in detecting releases, but this arrangement is not practical or cost effective. However, it was shown that a few air samplers placed in the prevailing wind direction around each facility could achieve the performance objective of a frequency of detection greater than or equal to 95% for the shepherd/rancher scenario. The results also indicate some of the current sampler locations have little or no impact on the network frequency of detection and could be removed from the network with no appreciable deterioration of performance. Results show that with some slight modifications to the existing network (i.e., additional samplers added north and south of the Materials and Fuels Complex and ineffective samplers removed), the network would achieve performance objectives for all sources for both the resident and shepherd/rancher scenario.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Identifying the Critical Links in Road Transportation Networks: Centrality-based approach utilizing structural properties

Surface transportation road networks share structural properties similar to other complex networks (e.g., social networks, information networks, biological networks, and so on). This research investigates the structural properties of road networks for any possible correlation with the traffic characteristics such as link flows those determined independently. Additionally, we define a criticality index for the links of the road network that identifies the relative importance in the network. We tested our hypotheses with two sample road networks. Results show that, correlation exists between the link flows and centrality measures of a link of the road (dual graph approach is followed) and the criticality index is found to be effective for one test network to identify the vulnerable nodes.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Converging voice and data over mission-critical networks

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Deep Space Network ?? DSN - is an international network of antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting missions. This paper describes the ground communications network of the DSN and ways network infrastructure costs are being reduced by the introduction of new technology. Fundamentally, the DSN ground network architecture is a star network, and the hub is at JPL in Pasadena, California. Communications to customer sites are designed to minimize NASA costs and may be either shared IP backbone networks or dedicated circuits. One of the primary features of the network is its ability to support real-time data, voice, and video communications among antenna stations, an automated multi-mission operations systems facility at JPL (AMMOS), and mission operations centers (MOCs) at NASA and non-NASA facilities. Funding for advanced engineering to reduce ground network infrastructure costs was provided by the NASA Office of Space Science.

ground communications networks Internet voice VOIP↗