Agile Manner Research Articles

A dynamic location management service for group applications in cellular networks

Mobile telephony is rapidly evolving with new services, and one-to-many group applications, such as Push to Talk over Cellular services, are expected to be more prevalent in the near future. The core issue that needs to be addressed in order for such services to be practical on a large scale is efficiency. Cellular providers are virtualizing network functions to introduce services in an agile and cost effective manner. Location management is a key control task in cellular network operations. We propose and develop an efficient group location management scheme as a virtualized network function for group cellular applications. The performance improvement is mainly achieved by the virtualized and separate group management architecture and an efficient dynamic group profiling algorithm. We conduct theoretical analyses of our scheme for signaling cost and performance gains under diverse traffic conditions. Furthermore, we carry out extensive evaluations using both real traces and synthetic human mobility data, and we validate the efficiency of the proposed scheme in both location updates and paging.

A Scalable Algorithm for the Placement of Service Function Chains

Network function virtualization (NFV) decouples software implementations of network functions from their hosts (or hardware). NFV exposes a new set of entities, the virtualized network functions (VNFs). The VNFs can be chained with other VNFs and physical network functions to realize network services. This flexibility introduced by NFV allows service providers to respond in an agile manner to variable service demands and changing business goals. In this context, the efficient establishment of service chains and their placement becomes essential to reduce capital and operational expenses and gain in service agility. This paper addresses the placement aspect of these service chains by finding the best locations and hosts for the VNFs and to steer traffic across these functions while respecting user requirements and maximizing provider revenue. We propose a novel eigendecomposition-based approach for the placement of virtual and physical network function chains in networks and cloud environments. A heuristic based on a custom greedy algorithm is also presented to compare performance and assess the capability of the eigendecomposition approach. The performance of both algorithms is compared to a multi-stage-based method from the state of the art that also addresses the chaining of network services. Performance evaluation results show that our matrix-based method, eigendecomposition of adjacency matrices, has reduced complexity and convergence times that essentially depend only on the physical graph sizes. Our proposal also outperforms the related work in provider’s revenue and acceptance rate.

SYSTEMS SECURITY ENGINEERING: WHOSE JOB IS IT ANYWAY?

ABSTRACTThis article delivers a look at current and evolving policy, guidance, and standards surrounding security activities in the systems engineering lifecycle. Emphasis is placed on systems security engineering (SSE) and how application of systems engineering concepts and processes in an agile manner (agile systems engineering) throughout the lifecycle is the way to deal with the dynamic and diverse world of cyber threats to a system (Dove 2014). This paper is a follow‐on to “Response to Cyber Security Demands for Agility” (Nejib‐Beyer 2014) published in the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) INSIGHT in 2014. The focus of that research was bringing attention to cyber security and the importance of other disciplines towards contributing to secure systems. Since that time many of these domains have further developed their own standards, processes, and guidance in the area of cyber security. What we require now is a way to take these domain‐focused concepts and integrate them into and across a systems lifecycle. The best way to achieve this is as part of the systems engineering function. Designing and building secure systems requires a seamless integration of security into systems engineering processes and agile methodologies adopted to constantly revisit, reevaluate, and re‐design as part of a risk management process. The framework that will be discussed in this paper will focus on taking currently evolving guidance in SSE and breaking that down into products and tools for systems engineers to easily determine the relationship and value between SSE and systems engineering. In addition, quick reference guides will further enhance and enable successful development and integration of SSE artifacts into systems engineering artifacts. One of the companion pieces needed in the existing SSE documentation is a mapping of work products/artifacts generated during the lifecycle/technical processes and the responsible and contributing parties. Critical to the success of the new guidance, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800‐160, Systems Security Engineering, is a clear accountability and acceptance of all disciplines on their contributions and influence towards developing a secure system. We present an SSE roles and responsibilities framework concept for consideration. The framework is an implementation tool to be used along with existing guidance in the area of SSE and systems engineering to clearly demonstrate that program protection is not the responsibility of any one person or discipline, it is the responsibility of an entire team of individuals planning, developing, deploying, operating & maintaining (O&M), and retiring a system. SSE is the “glue” that binds all of this together during the systems engineering lifecycle to enhance system security.

ECOOP: Applying Dynamic Coalition Formation to the Power Regulation Problem in Smart Grids

In this work, we focus on one particular area of the smart grid, namely, the challenges faced by distribution network operators in securing the balance between supply and demand in the intraday market, as a growing number of load‐controllable devices and small‐scale, intermittent generators coming from renewables are expected to pervade the system. We introduce a multiagent design to facilitate coordinating the various actors in the grid. The underpinning of our approach consists of an online cooperation scheme, ECOOP, where agents learn a prediction model regarding potential coalition partners and so can respond in an agile manner to situations that are occurring in the grid, by means of negotiating and formulating speculative solutions, with respect to the estimated behavior of the system. We provide a computational characterization for our solution in terms of complexity, as well as an empirical analysis against real consumption data sets, based on the macro‐model of the Australian energy market, showing a performance improvement of about 17%.

Agile Development of Various Computational Power Adaptive Web-Based Mobile-Learning Software Using Mobile Cloud Computing

Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) aims to improve all mobile applications such as m-learning systems. This study presents an innovative method to use web technology and software engineering's best practices to provide m-learning functionalities hosted in a MCC-learning system as service. Components hosted by MCC are used to empower developers to create m-learning systems in agile manner. The developed m-learning systems -as tenants of MCC-learning- provide cloud-quality services to their clients. The solution is a service-oriented and three-layered MCC system encompassing innovative m-learning components. To adapt e-contents sent to clients, a Device-Adaptive-Rendering component is used which takes platform, capability, physical and other contextual diversities of mobile devices into account. Using MCC increases the development speed and decreases the Lines Of Code (LOC) to build m-learning systems. Experiment outcomes demonstrate improvement in time taken by learners to answer the learning task questions and accuracy rates.

Reputation Management System for Fostering Trust in Collaborative and Cohesive Disaster Management

The best management of a disaster requires knowledge, skills and other resources not only for relief and rehabilitation but also for recovery and mitigation of its effects. These multifaceted goals cannot be achieved by a single organization and require collaborative efforts in an agile manner. Blind trust cannot be applied while selecting collaborators/team members/partners therefore good reputation of a collaborator is mandatory. Currently, various Information and Communication Technology based artifacts, for collaborative disaster management, have been developed; however, they do not employ trust and reputation as their key factor. In this paper, a framework of reputation based trust management system is proposed for the support of disaster management. The key features of framework are Meta model, Reputation Indicator Matrix and Computational algorithm, deployed using Service Oriented Architecture. To evaluate the efficacy of the artifact, a prototype is implemented. Furthermore, an industrial survey is carried out to get the feedback on the proposed framework. The results support that the proposed reputation management system provides significant support in collaborative disaster management by assisting in agile and smart decision making in all phases of disaster management cycle.

Statement by the Managing Director on the Work Program of the Executive Board - Executive Board Meeting, November 23, 2015

The Managing Director’s Global Policy Agenda (GPA) presented to the IMFC last month highlights the challenges associated with a rapidly changing and uncertain world. The limited room for policy maneuver and the need to adapt to new realities pose difficult trade-offs between supporting demand and current activity, reducing financial risks as financial conditions tighten, and implementing needed structural reforms to revive growth. Against this backdrop the GPA called to support growth today, invest in resilience and safeguard financial stability, improve the sustainability of the public finances, implement the structural reforms needed for sustainable and inclusive medium-term growth, and secure the effectiveness of the 2010 reforms. This document translates the policy priorities and strategic directions laid out in the Fall 2015 GPA and the IMFC communiqué into an Executive Board agenda for the next twelve months. The key focus of this agenda is to continue to refine and adapt the Fund’s core activities?surveillance, lending, and capacity building?to the challenges faced by member countries. The 2015 Work Program continues the implementation of the 2014 Triennial Surveillance Review (TSR) recommendations and underpins a broader effort of the Fund to respond to the needs of the membership in an even more agile, integrated, and member-focused manner.

Exploring potential implementations of PCE in IoT world

The recently coined Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm leverages a large volume of heterogeneous Network Elements (NEs) demanding broad connectivity anywhere, anytime and anyhow, fueling the deployment of innovative Internet services, such as Cloud or Fog Computing, Data Center Networks (DCNs), Smart Cities or Smart Transportation. The proper deployment of these novel Internet services is imposing hard connectivity constraints, such as high transmission capacity, reliable communications, as well as an efficient control scheme capable of enabling an agile coordination of actions in large heterogeneous scenarios. In recent years, novel control schemes, such as the so-called Path Computation Element (PCE) has gained momentum in the network research community turning into real PCE implementations. Indeed, there is a wealth of studies assessing the PCE performance, clearly showing the potential benefits of decoupling routing control tasks from the forwarding nodes. Nevertheless, recognized the need for a control solution in IoT scenarios, there is not much published information analyzing PCE benefits in these IoT scenarios. In this paper, we distill how the PCE may gracefully provide for service composition in an agile manner, handling the specific constraints and requirements found in IoT scenarios. To this end, we propose a novel PCE strategy referred to as Service-Oriented PCE (SPCE), which enables network-aware service composition.

A vision for food, nutrition and health research

A vision for food, nutrition and health research

Context-aware service composition and delivery in NGSONs over SDN

NGSON is an IEEE sponsored effort to standardize an open service ecosystem where different stakeholders may cooperate to satisfy users' ever changing requirements by composing and delivering services dynamically across different service providers and network operators' domains. A main distinguishing feature of NGSON is context awareness, that is, the capability of collecting, processing, and using context information to drive the interactions of the NGSON overlay nodes with service and network operators' infrastructures for guaranteeing an optimal user experience. Recent advances in network control and management technologies, such as SDN, NFV, and service-oriented networking paradigms, are expected to make the network effectively able to cope with application service requirements in a more flexible, timely, and agile manner. In this article we discuss how NGSON, which already incorporates several aspects of virtualization, could take advantage of network virtualization mechanisms and programmable traffic steering capabilities to enhance and effectively support context-aware service composition along with adaptive service delivery. We propose an architectural model for NGSON that leverages these novel network service control capabilities and illustrate through a use case how this model could effectively be put into operation.

Multi-tier service differentiation by coordinated learning-based resource provisioning and admission control

Multiple Internet applications are often hosted in one datacenter, sharing underlying virtualized server resources. It is important to provide differentiated treatment to co-hosted applications and to improve overall system performance by efficient use of shared resources. Challenges arise due to multi-tier service architecture, virtualized server infrastructure, and highly dynamic and bursty workloads. We propose a coordinated admission control and adaptive resource provisioning approach for multi-tier service differentiation and performance improvement in a shared virtualized platform. We develop new model-independent reinforcement learning based techniques for virtual machine (VM) auto-configuration and session based admission control. Adaptive VM auto-configuration provides proportional service differentiation between co-located applications and improves application response time simultaneously. Admission control improves session throughput of the applications and minimizes resource wastage due to aborted sessions. A shared reward actualizes coordination between the two learning modules. For system agility and scalability, we integrate the reinforcement learning approach with cascade neural networks. We have implemented the integrated approach in a virtualized blade server system hosting RUBiS benchmark applications. Experimental results demonstrate that the new approach meets differentiation targets accurately and achieves performance improvement of applications at the same time. It reacts to dynamic and bursty workloads in an agile and scalable manner.

Taming Uncertainties in Real-Time Routing for Wireless Networked Sensing and Control

Real-time routing is a basic element of closed-loop, real-time sensing and control, but it is challenging due to dynamic, uncertain link/path delays. The probabilistic nature of link/path delays makes the basic problem of computing the probabilistic distribution of path delays NP-hard, yet quantifying probabilistic path delays is a basic element of real-time routing and may well have to be executed by resource-constrained devices in a distributed manner; the highly varying nature of link/path delays makes it necessary to adapt to in-situ delay conditions in real-time routing, but it has been observed that delay-based routing can lead to instability, estimation error, and low data delivery performance in general. To address these challenges, we propose the Multi-Timescale Estimation (MTE) method; by accurately estimating the mean and variance of per-packet transmission time and by adapting to fast-varying queueing in an accurate, agile manner, MTE enables accurate, agile, and efficient estimation of probabilistic path delay bounds in a distributed manner. Based on MTE, we propose the Multi-Timescale Adaptation (MTA) routing protocol; MTA integrates the stability of an ETX-based directed-acyclic-graph (DAG) with the agility of spatiotemporal data flow control within the DAG to ensure real-time data delivery in the presence of dynamics and uncertainties. We also address the challenges of implementing MTE and MTA in resource-constrained devices such as TelosB motes. We evaluate the performance of MTA using the NetEye and Indriya sensor network testbeds. We find that MTA significantly outperforms existing protocols, e.g., improving deadline success ratio by 89% and reducing transmission cost by a factor of 9.7 in the NetEye testbed.

A Components Oriented Method for Evaluation of E-government Information Systems Agility

Agility is simply defined as the ability of an entity (system, organization, human, etc.) to quickly accommodate unanticipated changes in order to face threats of its environment. The need for Agility within e-government is mainly due to the permanent changes in the environment (political, societal, economical, technological, etc.) which in turn cause changes in the governments’ regulations and laws that may affect public organization’s processes and systems. A change in one activity in a process or in one part of an e-government system may cause many problems in other parts of the same process or system. E-government information systems (e-GIS) in particular- present a higher degree of volatility in their environment, since requirement changes may stem from a number of sources including legislation changes, organizational reforms, end-user requirements, technological developments, interoperability and distribution concerns and so on. These changes impose from one hand, the need for continuous updating of e-GIS which are heterogeneous, distributed and fragmented to meet Front Office (citizens) and Back Office (internal organization) requirements. On the other hand the need for carrying these updates in agile manner ensuring overall consistency, since the success of egovernment projects depends strongly on the quality of their information systems. This paper deals with a practical method for the evaluation e-government information systems agility. This method is based on method engineering domain; and thus, it is built in the form of method components guiding the process of evaluation.

Coordination for fragmented loops and scopes in a distributed business process

As partner relationships become more dynamic and global boundaries give way to a more agile and dynamic environment, the ability to distribute one's processes in an agile manner becomes increasingly important. Such processes may need to be split not only along their explicit dependencies but also along more complex behavior such as recovery behavior and loops. The resulting process fragments can be distributed and wired together, recreating the execution semantics of the original process model. In earlier work, we presented BPEL fragmentation covering data and explicit control dependencies. We now extend the approach to handle fragmenting loops and scopes. Maintaining the focus on standards and maximizing extensibility of Web service runtimes and standards, the solution defines and uses two new coordination protocols that plug into the WS-Coordination framework. The approach uses the standards as much as is feasible and addresses the remaining required functionality by providing architected extensions. This results in layered approach that maximizes transparency and interoperability. After defining the fragmentation approach for scopes and loops, an implementation is presented that extends the Active Endpoints BPEL engine and a WS-Coordination system. A detailed example is used to illustrate how the protocols are used at runtime to enable the coordinator and the process fragments to recreate the behavior of the original, unsplit process model.

4.5.3 Niteworks: Systems thinking and methods within a collaboration paradigm

AbstractLike many complex enterprises, UK Defence is struggling with a series of frustrating organisational, system and technology problems, including: increasing scale and complexity, increasing need for continuous capability evolution and increasing need to optimise at the system of systems level. Within this context, Niteworks provides flexible decision support to address three priority areas: support to current operations; support to decision making by the Joint Capabilities Board (JCB), and; support to complex acquisition. This paper describes Niteworks' unique collaborative partnership construct that allows UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and industry engagement in a neutral, consensus‐based, yet agile manner to address a wide range of complex decision support activities. It details the enabling commercial arrangements, the underlying principles for success and a generic decision model. This approach, the ‘Niteworks Way‘, has been designed by applying systems engineering thinking and methods to the Defence Enterprise and Niteworks within it. The approach has been demonstrated to be flexible and responsive by addressing issues across the range of the UK Defence Enterprise. It has also delivered sizeable value to both UK MOD and industry, demonstrating that collaborations can work effectively and that both industry and the MOD can benefit from embracing new concepts and commercial arrangements.

O óbito e sua investigação: reflexões sobre alguns aspectos relevantes

This article addresses death and issues related to its investigation, as important components for Epidemiology/Public Health. It highlights aspects linked to the improvement of quality of investigation and surveillance of death, as well as the advance of scientific/epidemiological research in this area, analyzed in view of current legislation and ethical principles in Brazil. We discuss the problem related to knowing "whom the health information belongs to and which are the limits of its utilization", considering also the possibility of using identified databases. At the end, we suggest competent ways, as a "Term of Responsibility/Confidentiality" signed by the researcher in order to enable scientific/epidemiological research to continue in the country, in a more opportune and agile manner.

Decision-enabled dynamic process management for networked enterprises

Enterprises in today’s networked economy face numerous information management challenges, both from a process management perspective as well as a decision support perspective. While there have been significant relevant advances in the areas of business process management as well as decision sciences, several open research issues exist. In this paper, we highlight the following key challenges. First, current process modeling and management techniques lack in providing a seamless integration of decision models and tools in existing business processes, which is critical to achieve organizational objectives. Second, given the dynamic nature of business processes in networked enterprises, process management approaches that enable organizations to react to business process changes in an agile manner are required. Third, current state-of-the-art decision model management techniques are not particularly amenable to distributed settings in networked enterprises, which limits the sharing and reuse of models in different contexts, including their utility within managing business processes. In this paper, we present a framework for decision-enabled dynamic process management that addresses these challenges. The framework builds on computational formalisms, including the structured modeling paradigm for representing decision models, and hierarchical task networks from the artificial intelligence (AI) planning area for process modeling. Within the framework, interleaved process planning (modeling), execution and monitoring for dynamic process management throughout the process lifecycle is proposed. A service-oriented architecture combined with advances from the semantic Web field for model management support within business processes is proposed.

Design agility through computer aided design

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report a research which is conducted to examine the power of computer aided design (CAD) in achieving agility in traditional organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe CAD model of the knob of an electronic switch was developed. This model was shown to the team of executives. The theoretical and practical knowledge provided by them were utilized to design new ten CAD models of the knob. The reactions of the executives about these new models were gathered and analyzed.FindingsThe creation of a CAD model of an existing product is found to be a useful input for evolving new models in an agile manner. It is found to be an easy task to gather the theoretical and practical knowledge for achieving design agility through the visualisation of CAD models.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is conducted on only one component manufactured by an electronic switches manufacturing organization. Although it appears to be a limitation of this paper, the nature of the design process carried out in this traditional organization mimics that of any other design practices carried out in the world. Hence, the contributions of this paper are applicable in traditional manufacturing environment.Practical implicationsThroughout the conduct of this research, the practitioners' views are gathered. Their views are favorable towards the successful usage of CAD model in achieving design agility.Originality/valueFor many years, CAD has been used for carrying out complex design projects. However, it appears that it has not been used in its simplest form to visualise and bring out new models electronically for achieving design agility. This simple approach is presented in this paper which may be used by both theorists and practitioners.

Robust Nonparametric Cyclic Correlation-Based Spectrum Sensing for Cognitive Radio

Cognitive radios sense the radio spectrum in order to find underutilized spectrum and then exploit it in an agile manner. Spectrum sensing has to be performed reliably in challenging propagation environments characterized by shadowing and fading effects as well as heavy-tailed noise distributions. In this paper, a robust computationally efficient nonparametric cyclic correlation estimator based on the multivariate (spatial) sign function is proposed. Nonparametric statistics provide additional robustness against heavy-tailed noise and when the noise statistics are not fully known. Asymptotic distribution of the spatial sign cyclic correlation estimator under the null hypothesis is established. Tests using constraint on false alarm rate are derived based on the estimated spatial sign cyclic correlation for single-user and collaborative spectrum sensing by multiple secondary users. Theoretical justification for detecting cyclostationary signals using the spatial sign cyclic correlation is provided. A sequential detection scheme for reducing the average detection time is proposed. Simulation experiments and theoretical results comparing the proposed method with cyclostationary spectrum sensing methods employing the conventional cyclic correlation estimator are presented. Simulations demonstrate the reliable and highly robust performance of the proposed nonparametric spectrum sensing method in both Gaussian and non-Gaussian noise environments.

TADS-ABC: a system for costing total agile design system

This paper has contributed a system to cost a model called total agile design system (TADS). Using TADS helps an organisation to design its products, processes and services to achieve agility by responding to the customers’ dynamic demands. After the description of TADS, a costing system named as TADS-ABC has been introduced in this paper. As the name implies, this system has been designed to cost TADS using activity based costing (ABC) principles. After highlighting the theory, the practical application of TADS-ABC has been illustrated by substituting the relevant data derived from a TADS implementation study. This implementation study was conducted in an electronics switches manufacturing company. After processing using TADS-ABC, the specific costs to be incurred towards TADS activities, agile criteria and evolving products in an agile manner in the above company could be arrived at. The experiences of conducting this research have been used to evolve a roadmap for successfully implementing TADS-ABC in contemporary organisations.