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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 1,045 records · Page 58

Apparatus and method for data communication in an energy distribution network

A system for communicating information on an energy distribution network is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a local supervisor on a communication network, wherein the local supervisor can collect data from one or more energy generation/monitoring devices. The system also includes a command center on the communication network, wherein the command center can generate one or more commands for controlling the one or more energy generation devices. The local supervisor can periodically transmit a data signal indicative of the data to the command center via a first channel of the communication network at a first interval. The local supervisor can also periodically transmit a request for a command to the command center via a second channel of the communication network at a second interval shorter than the first interval. This channel configuration provides effective data communication without a significant increase in the use of network resources.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION OF OPTICAL SWITCH MATRIX PERFORMANCE IN COMPUTER NETWORKS

In this paper, we present application of a Discrete Event Simulator (DES) for performance modeling of optical switching devices in computer networks. Network simulators are valuable tools in situations where one cannot investigate the system directly. This situation may arise if the system under study does not exist yet or the cost of studying the system directly is prohibitive. Most available network simulators are based on the paradigm of discrete-event-based simulation. As computer networks become increasingly larger and more complex, sophisticated DES tool chains have become available for both commercial and academic research. Some well-known simulators are NS2, NS3, OPNET, and OMNEST. For this research, we have applied OMNEST for the purpose of simulating multi-wavelength performance of optical switch matrices in computer interconnection networks. Our results suggest that the application of DES to computer interconnection networks provides valuable insight in device performance and aids in topology and system optimization.

Imam, Neena↗

Datasets for radiation network algorithm development and testing

Domestic Nuclear Detection Office s (DNDO) Intelligence Radiation Sensors Systems (IRSS) program supported the development of networks of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) radiation counters for detecting, localizing, and identifying low-level radiation sources. Under this program, a series of indoor and outdoor tests were conducted with multiple source strengths and types, different background profiles, and various types of source and detector movements. Following the tests, network algorithms were replayed in various re-constructed scenarios using sub-networks. These measurements and algorithm traces together provide a rich collection of highly valuable datasets for testing the current and next generation radiation network algorithms, including the ones (to be) developed by broader R&D communities such as distributed detection, information fusion, and sensor networks. From this multiple TeraByte IRSS database, we distilled out and packaged the first batch of canonical datasets for public release. They include measurements from ten indoor and two outdoor tests which represent increasingly challenging baseline scenarios for robustly testing radiation network algorithms.

Rao, Nageswara S↗

Hiding Critical Targets in Smart Grid Networks

With the integration of advanced communication technologies, the power grid is expected to greatly enhance efficiency and reliability of future power systems. However, since most electrical devices in power grid substations are connected via communication networks, cyber security of these communication networks becomes a critical issue. Real-World incidents such as Stuxnet have shown the feasibility of compromising a device in the power grid network to further launch more sophisticated attacks. To deal with security attacks of this spirit, this paper aims to hide critical targets from compromised internal nodes and hence protect them from further attacks launched by those compromised nodes. In particular, we consider substation networks and propose to add carefully-controlled dummy traffic to a substation network to make critical target nodes indistinguishable from other nodes in network traffic patterns. This paper describes the design and evaluation of such a scheme. Evaluations show that the scheme can effectively protect critical nodes with acceptable communication cost.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Advance Reservation Access Control Using Software-Defined Networking and Tokens

Advance reservation systems allow users to reserve dedicated bandwidth connection resources from an advanced high-speed network. A common use case for such systems is data transfers in distributed science environments in which a user wants exclusive access to the reservation. However, current advance network reservation methods cannot ensure exclusive access of a network reservation to the specific flow for which the user made the reservation. We present here a novel network architecture that addresses this limitation and ensures that a reservation is used only by the intended flow. We achieve this by leveraging software-defined networking (SDN) and token-based authorization. We use SDN to orchestrate and automate the reservation of networking resources, end-to-end and across multiple administrativedomains, and tokens to create a strong binding between the user or application that requested the reservation and the flows provisioned by SDN.

Kettimuthu, R.↗

Providing full point-to-point communications among compute nodes of an operational group in a global combining network of a parallel computer

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for providing full point-to-point communications among compute nodes of an operational group in a global combining network of a parallel computer, each compute node connected to each adjacent compute node in the global combining network through a link, that include: receiving a network packet in a compute node, the network packet specifying a destination compute node; selecting, in dependence upon the destination compute node, at least one of the links for the compute node along which to forward the network packet toward the destination compute node; and forwarding the network packet along the selected link to the adjacent compute node connected to the compute node through the selected link.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Superdense coding for quantum networking environments

Quantum networks provide a versatile infrastructure for communication, computing, and sensing with quantum information. Novel sources and detectors for transmitting and receiving quantum states are critical elements in the development and eventual deployment of robust quantum networks. Alongside performance, the compatibility of quantum network devices with modern networking infrastructure is an important requirement for deployment. We present results on the integration of quantum communication using superdense coding transmitted over optical fiber links into network environments. Our approach takes advantage of a novel complete Bell-state measurement setup that relies on hyper-entanglement in the temporal and polarization degrees of freedom for a two-photon state emitted from a quantum light source. Using linear optics and common single-photon detectors, we record a single-qubit channel capacity of 1.665±0.018. We then demonstrate a full experimental implementation of hybrid, quantum-classical communication protocol for image transfer applications. Our devices integrate with existing fiber optical network and software-defined transmitters and receivers as part of a modular design to provide an extensible quantum communication system that can adapt to future quantum technology goals.

Humble, Travis↗

Recurrent Neural Network Language Models for Open Vocabulary Event-Level Cyber Anomaly Detection

Automated analysis methods are crucial aids for monitoring and defending a network to protect the sensitive or confidential data it hosts. This work introduces a flexible, powerful, and unsupervised approach to detecting anomalous behavior in computer and network logs; one that largely eliminates domain-dependent feature engineering employed by existing methods. By treating system logs as threads of interleaved ``sentences'' (event log lines) to train online unsupervised neural network language models, our approach provides an adaptive model of normal network behavior. We compare the effectiveness of both standard and bidirectional recurrent neural network language models at detecting malicious activity within network log data. Extending these models, we introduce a tiered recurrent architecture, which provides context by modeling sequences of users' actions over time. Compared to isolation forests and Principal Components Analysis (PCA), two popular anomaly detection algorithms, we observe superior performance on the Los Alamos National Laboratory Cyber Security dataset. For log-line-level predictions, our best performing character-based model provides test set anomaly scores ranking red team events in the 98th percentile on average, and yields 0.97 area under the receiver operator characteristic curve, demonstrating the strong fine-grained anomaly detection performance of this approach on open vocabulary logging sources.

Cyber Analysis, Deep Learning, language analysis, ↗

Multistage matching network and related techniques

Multistage matching networks and analytical frameworks for improving and/or optimizing the networks is provided. In one example, a framework relaxes the resistive constraint on the input and load impedances of the stages of a multistage matching network and allows them to be complex. Based on this framework, the design of multistage matching networks can be improved or optimized, such as using a method of Lagrange multipliers. A design optimization approach, for example, can be used to predict an optimum distribution of gains and impedance characteristics among the stages of a multistage matching network. The efficiency of matching networks designed using this example approach is compared with a conventional design approach, and it is shown that significant efficiency improvements are possible.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Heterogeneous network topology management and control

In one aspect, the present disclosure may provide devices or systems configured to receive indications of geographic areas, each corresponding to distribution networks, and determine whether the distribution networks overlap. The processor(s) may also be configured to receive parameter value(s) obtained by a device within one distribution network at a location within an overlapping area, and cause device(s) within another distribution network to modify operation based on the parameter value(s). In another aspect, the present disclosure may provide devices that include a voltage sensor to measure a voltage of a power distribution network at a power consumption location that corresponds to the device. The device may be configured to provide at least one cable service to the power consumption location via a cable television (CATV) distribution network and output an indication the measured voltage value.

Cruickshank, III, Robert Fraser↗

Development of Automated Pipeline for Time-Resolved Link-Wise Vehicular Energy Consumption in the Chattanooga, TN Road Network

The Department of Energy (DOE) has shown strong interest in detecting energy inefficiencies in regional road networks, so as to derive energy consumed at a high spatial temporal resolution. We have developed a workflow to automate the estimation of time-resolved vehicular energy consumption over each link in a road network of interest. The road network used in the current work is centered around the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee and its bordering regions. Utilizing the most mature road network for the Chattanooga, TN region, vehicle speed & count data from TomTom in conjunction with machine learning methods, we have developed an automated pipeline to estimate energy consumption for every link in the network. The first step in the pipeline is ingesting vehicle probe counts and speed estimates from TomTom API. In the next step, the probe counts, speed profiles and other exogenous data (i.e. road types, weather data, ground-truth volume counts and more) were used as input to a supervised learning algorithm to estimate the number of vehicles throughout the entire region for each road segment. These volume estimates were then mapped to a unified road network that contained additional important information such as percentage change in gradient across a link, number of lanes and link lengths that are features in pre-trained single vehicle energy-consumption models available with the RouteE software developed at NREL. The per vehicle energy consumption on each road link predicted using appropriate RouteE vehicular models were multiplied by the volume estimate for the corresponding link over a given time period to predict energy consumed per link for the time interval of interest. Currently, work is underway to improve both the RouteE per vehicle energy estimate and the volume estimates derived from TomTom probe counts. We have also explored the correlation of the link-wise energy estimates with the features of the pre-trained RouteE machine learning model in order to gain insight into what factors contribute most to the link-wise energy consumption.

ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION,↗

Self-regulating power management for a neural network system

A neural network runs a known input data set using an error free power setting and using an error prone power setting. The differences in the outputs of the neural network using the two different power settings determine a high level error rate associated with the output of the neural network using the error prone power setting. If the high level error rate is excessive, the error prone power setting is adjusted to reduce errors by changing voltage and/or clock frequency utilized by the neural network system. If the high level error rate is within bounds, the error prone power setting can remain allowing the neural network to operate with an acceptable error tolerance and improved efficiency. The error tolerance can be specified by the neural network application.

Kegel, Andrew G.↗

Optimizing connectivity in reconfigurable networks

A method may include determining whether the topology of a network includes a direct path between a first endpoint and a second endpoint in the network. A direct path may be used to send a first type of traffic from the first endpoint to the second endpoint whereas any currently available path may be used to send a second type of traffic from the first endpoint to the second endpoint. If the topology of the network does not include a direct path, the first type of traffic may be buffered at the first endpoint until the topology of the network is reconfigured to include the direct path. The topology of the network may be reconfigured when at least one switch in the network reconfigures, for example, by switching from one interconnection to another interconnection pattern. Related systems and articles of manufacture are also provided.

Mellette, William↗

Self-regulating power management for a neural network system

A neural network runs a known input data set using an error free power setting and using an error prone power setting. The differences in the outputs of the neural network using the two different power settings determine a high level error rate associated with the output of the neural network using the error prone power setting. If the high level error rate is excessive, the error prone power setting is adjusted to reduce errors by changing voltage and/or clock frequency utilized by the neural network system. If the high level error rate is within bounds, the error prone power setting can remain allowing the neural network to operate with an acceptable error tolerance and improved efficiency. The error tolerance can be specified by the neural network application.

Kegel, Andrew G.↗

Runtime extension for neural network training with heterogeneous memory

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for managing buffers in a neural network implementation with heterogeneous memory are disclosed. A system includes a neural network coupled to a first memory and a second memory. The first memory is a relatively low-capacity, high-bandwidth memory while the second memory is a relatively high-capacity, low-bandwidth memory. During a forward propagation pass of the neural network, a run-time manager monitors the usage of the buffers for the various layers of the neural network. During a backward propagation pass of the neural network, the run-time manager determines how to move the buffers between the first and second memories based on the monitored buffer usage during the forward propagation pass. As a result, the run-time manager is able to reduce memory access latency for the layers of the neural network during the backward propagation pass.

Mappouras, Georgios↗

Nuclear criticality safety of pipes networks containing uranium - 14437

In nuclear facilities, the transfer of fissile material in solution, gas or powder forms between process stages requires many transfer lines (called 'pipes' in this paper) which may be laid out into bundles or networks. In Nuclear Criticality Safety evaluations, it is usual to assimilate such networks as a unique cylinder which area bounds the sum of the surface of pipes making up the network. However, even if this geometric simplification appears intuitively safe, it is not conservative in all cases. The aim of this paper is therefore to explore the validity and limitations associated to the assessment of pipes networks by a unique cylinder. This paper presents the impact on the k{sub eff} value of a detailed modeling of a pipes network compared to a unique cylinder. Variables of interest considered in such calculations are pipes diameter, composition, pitches and layout. Fissile media taken into account are uranium systems enriched from 5 % to 93.5 % in {sup 235}U. Then, the impact on reactivity of pipes material, such as stainless steel or plastic, is discussed and the minimal or maximal safe thickness of material has been determined. Finally, this paper provides guidance on the nuclear criticality safety assessment of pipes networks for uranium systems. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗

Hierarchical Resilience Planning for Networked Microgrids: A Case Study of Puerto Rico

Microgrids can be designed to enhance the energy resilience of communities and critical infrastructures, such as hospitals, data centers, and communication networks, which are vulnerable to frequent weather-related disruption. Coordinating multiple microgrids in a network can leverage the geographical diversity of load and generation resources while enabling resilient and cost-effective planning of the distribution system. Designing a networked microgrid is complex, involving intricate technical assessment, cost-benefit analysis, site-specific requirements, and the evaluation of existing resources. Therefore, this paper proposes a hierarchical resilience planning framework and performs an extensive techno-economic analysis for the design of a networked microgrid. Hierarchical resilience planning involves technology sizing at an individual community level to meet the critical load and satisfy resilience criteria, and resource optimization at networked microgrid level to provide a higher level of resilience and energy adequacy. A real-world case of Puerto Rico's cooperative microgrid “Microrred de la Montaña” is investigated considering localized electricity tariffs, site-specific demand profiles, solar generation, and existing hydro resources. Multiple optimization scenarios are developed based on the resiliency requirement to estimate the capacity of solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage (BES) to be installed at each substation. The results provide the optimal sizing for individual community and networked microgrid to withstand 1day and 3-day outages along with the criteria for critical load.

13 - HYDRO ENERGY↗

Sequence-Based Anomaly Detection in Critical Infrastructure Networks

United States critical infrastructure faces new cyber threats from adversarial nation-state actors in the form of malware-free attacks. Traditional cybersecurity techniques use rules-based methods to identify indicators of compromise on networks, often missing these sophisticated attacks. Our approach leverages multiple state of the art machine learning models in a pipeline to identify abnormal network events through sequential analysis. We combine both device and packet-level information into individual events to characterize anomalous network actions. The model is trained and tested on real network traffic from the Idaho National Lab High Performance Computing (HPC) with greater than 98% precision. It is capable of flagging malicious tactics used by adversaries in malware-free attacks, severe changes to the network, and abnormal user activity by network devices.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗