Efficient Communication Infrastructure Research Articles

Network on Chip and Its Low Power Techniques

The advent of Network-On-Chip (NoC) architecture has significantly revolutionized the design of complex System-On-Chip (SoC) systems by providing scalable and efficient communication infrastructures. NoC architectures offer advantages such as high bandwidth; low latency and better scalability compared with traditional bus-based communication architectures. However, the ever-increasing demand for higher performance and lower power consumption poses significant challenges for NoC designers. This article reviews the basic architectures and design issues of NoCs with SoCs and further extended with research challenges and low power techniques. Key Words: Network-On-Chip, System-On-Chip, latency and scalability

Next‐generation energy‐efficient optical networking: DQ‐RGK algorithm for dynamic quality of service and adaptive resource allocation

SummaryIn green optical networking, designing an adaptive energy‐saving scheme plays a vital role, in optimizing energy consumption by dynamically adjusting resources based on network traffic and environmental conditions, to a more sustainable and efficient optical communication infrastructure. Traditional methods in optical networking face challenges such as static resource allocation, limited adaptability, inefficient power usage, environmental insensitivity, and scalability issues. Therefore this article proposed a novel method named Dynamic Quality of Service based Random update Genghis Khan (DQ‐RGK) algorithm, the proposed model can tackle the abovementioned complexities. In this study, cluster head dynamic placement is utilized to optimize the network's performance by adapting the placement of cluster heads to the current topology, load distribution, and energy levels in the network nodes. Additionally, Dynamic Quality of Service (QoS) is employed to respond dynamically to changes in network conditions, adapting to varying traffic patterns and resource availability. In this work, the Genghis Khan Shark optimization with a random update strategy is implemented for hyperparameter optimization to enhance the performance of the DQ‐RGK method. The DQ‐RGK adjusts the parameters of QoS in real‐time, and this ensures that network resources based on the requirements changed and priorities of applications, which ultimately optimizes performance and enhances user experience. By dynamically assigning and reallocating resources based on the current demand the algorithm enhances overall network efficiency and reduces energy consumption. Then, this work analyzes the experimental results, where some evaluation measures estimate the DQ‐RGK method's performance. Routing efficiency, latency, scalability, spectral efficiency, Packet Delivery Ratio, throughput, network lifetime, energy consumption, jitter, and energy consumption are the measures employed by the DQ‐RGK model. In The results, other routing models that do not provide efficiency are utilized, a comparison of these other routing models is represented in results. The overall DQ‐RGK model's effectiveness is represented in the experimental results and its effectiveness is greater among other methods.

소규모 폐쇄 환경에서 스몰 셀을 연계한 이동통신 전파환경 개선방안

This paper proposes a plan to improve the reception radio environment of the mobile terminal and maintain a constant reception electric field by using small cells in a small closed environment. In order to configure an efficient communication infrastructure for small cells, both ends of wireless transmission and reception of an Ethernet-based wireless video recording system are connected using an L2 switch. The small cell connected to the receiving side L2 switch shares the wireless network section of the wireless video recording system and connects to the transmitting side L2 switch. After that, when it is normally linked to FMS, a management system for small cells, through the Internet network, the output of small cells is checked. In order to verify the results, a proposed network is formed on the elevator inside the building with a poor radio wave environment, and the radio wave environment is measured before and after the small cell application in the section where the elevator operates. As a result, the main parameters of the radio wave environment in all sections of the elevator are improved, as well as a constant receiving electric field strength within the moving elevator.

Quantum Key Distribution for V2I communications with software‐defined networking

AbstractThe evolution of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) promises improvements in our travel experience and the potential to enhance road safety and reduce environmental impact. This will be utilising highly diverse traffic environments that enable several advanced mobility applications. A secure, efficient, reliable, and resilient communications infrastructure is required to support developments in these CAV systems. Next generation of telecommunication networks will seamlessly integrate terrestrial, satellite, and airborne networks into a single wireless system satisfying the requirements of trustworthy future transport systems. Given the increasing importance of CAVs, coupled with their attractiveness as a cyber‐attack for threat agents (e.g., disruption of transportation systems by nation states), security is paramount. Future communications systems offer an opportunity to integrate Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) into vehicular environments, protecting against advances in quantum computation that render many of the classical algorithms that underpin Public Key Infrastructure obsolete. This paper proposes a method for the integration of QKD in V2I networks to enable secure data communication. Quantum Key Distribution is used in the end‐to‐end path of vehicle‐to‐infrastructure (V2I) networks. Furthermore, an overarching Software‐Defined Network, with integrated QKD, is introduced. We have investigated the security performance of QKD in a V2I network over an urban environment.

Strategies to increase connectivity and performance of VANETs: Analysis of route lifetime and routing protocol proposal

AbstractVehicular ad hoc networks aim to provide communication among vehicles, providing safety and entertainment to passengers. The performance of these networks is entirely dependent on the existence of routes and the time they remain established (the route lifetime). Several factors can influence route lifetime and network connectivity, for instance: speed, density, direction of movement, and radio transmission range. The investigation of route lifetime and what are the critical physical factors, can assist in building more appropriate protocols and applications, developing efficient mobile communication infrastructures. Therefore, this article proposes strategies to increase the performance of V2V vehicular networks, through the analysis of which factors most influence performance and the development of a new routing protocol, which based on these factors, is able to select the best routes. The simulations prove that the route lifetime increases in denser networks and when vehicle movement occurs in the same direction. Meanwhile, the route lifetime does not undergo significant changes depending on the speed of vehicles. Based on these results, the Improved Connectivity Ad Hoc On‐Demand Multipath Distance Vector (IC_AOMDV) protocol was developed which, without the use of any fixed infrastructure (eg, GPS), surpassed the classic AOMDV and AODV protocols in all metrics tested.

A low-power WNoC transceiver with a novel energy consumption management scheme for dependable IoT systems

Wireless network-on-chip architectures (WNoCs), by combining wired and wireless modules and links, provide fast and efficient communication infrastructures for complex on-chip systems such as various IoT and intelligent systems. The most challenging step of designing high-performance and energy-efficient WNoCs is the structure of transceivers. In fact, transceivers and wired routers are the most power-hungry elements in WNoCs; therefore, any cut-down of power consumption in transceivers and routers significantly reduce the power consumption of WNoCs. In this paper, a low-power transceiver for WNoC is designed and then, a high-performance and configurable energy consumption management scheme for the transceiver is proposed. In the designed transceiver, various strategies are employed at both circuit-level and also at architectural-level for reducing static and dynamic power consumption. The proposed energy management scheme controls the activity and tunes the voltage level of the power supply of each module, in a distributed and dynamic manner. The evaluation results demonstrate that a WNoC utilizing the proposed scheme provides lower energy consumption, less latency, and higher reliability and higher network throughput compared to both of relevant single-chip and multi-chip WNoC architectures, at the cost of negligible impact on silicon area.

Remote working in construction: assessing the affordance of digitisation

PurposeAs remote working becomes increasingly popular, remote working could unlock new ways of working through digitisation. However, the construction sector has been slow to adopt digitisation in its processes, making digitisation difficult to assess whether this affordance may be well received and the current capabilities of digitisation to achieve this effectively. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interest in remote working amongst construction sector personnel and to examine the factors affecting remote working through digitisation affordances.Design/methodology/approachBased on a case study of one of the largest contractor firms in the United Kingdom, an online questionnaire survey was used to collect responses from 125 construction professionals. Statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) was used to do basic statistical analysis on the results.FindingsThe findings show that there is a general appetite for remote working on a flexible basis where a mix of “on-site” and “off-site” arrangement was deemed practical. This could potentially unlock significant time and cost savings as well as productivity gains. The main factors affecting remote working were the availability of interconnected systems allowing efficient communication and digital infrastructure that enable automated processes.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited to a large contractor company and may not be appropriate for small and medium-sized companies. The findings may benefit organisations to evaluate the practical needs of ensuring effective remote working in the construction industry and unlocking efficiencies.Originality/valueThe paper adds value to understanding the affordances and constraints of digitisation for remote working from the perspective of construction professionals.

Cognitive Long‐range: Towards efficient public communication infrastructure for Internet of Things

SummaryThe most common Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios entail devices with limited energy resources and need to be connected to the Internet via wireless networks. This has driven the recent development of low‐power wide‐area networks (LPWANs) and the rise of the Long Range (LoRa) technology. The LoRa protocol has a simple modulation scheme that ensures low power consumption, high convergence, and resistance against interference. In most LPWAN technologies, several physical layer challenges arise, such as low data rates, spectral inefficiency, and increased interference. As a physical layer solution, the cognitive radio (CR) offers a possible way of resolving these challenges. CR allows wireless networks to operate without the need for a dedicated spectrum. Regarding the variety of end‐user requirements, developing a public communication network that can support such diverse and heterogeneous applications is necessary to reduce the implementation costs than developing a dedicated communication network for each application. This paper proposes a Cognitive LoRa (C‐LoRa) protocol that utilizes unlicensed and licensed frequencies as well as interference mitigation to improve the QoS of LoRa. To extract the priority list of traffic patterns, C‐LoRa incorporates the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) algorithm. The priority list enables real‐time applications to receive optimal spectrum allocation. C‐LoRa can be efficiently implemented as a public communication infrastructure for heterogeneous IoT devices. The addition of licensed channels improves the overall QoS and decreases the average waiting time in queues. The platform layer of C‐LoRa consists of a cognitive engine that sends traffic priority lists to cognitive spectrum allocators. The IoT application servers are connected to the cloud platform layer via SNMP, HTTP, and other desired protocols. Access gateways equipped with a cognitive spectrum allocator are always connected to a power supply and serve as a transparent bridge to the cognitive engine at the platform layer, converting RF packets to IP packets and vice versa.

An efficient and cost effective application mapping for network-on-chip using Andean condor algorithm

Advancement in very large scale integration (VLSI) technologies and the ever-shrinking size of the transistors have led the semiconductor designers to create a multiprocessor system on chips. Network on chip (NoC) provides an efficient and flexible communication infrastructure to these systems. One of the most prominent research problems in NoC is mapping the real-time application tasks to multiple cores. The aim is to map the cores, which require frequent and high-bandwidth communications close enough to increase the performance and decrease the chip’s power consumption. In this research, a nature-inspired Andean condor algorithm (ACA) is applied to the mapping problem of application tasks on multiple cores of NoC. Initially, a clustering-based technique provides the main algorithm a head-start for fast convergence, and then the main ACA is applied to achieve the optimal performance. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperformed state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of various performance metrics, such as communication cost, average packet latency, throughput and energy consumption. The proposed algorithm achieves up to 27.11% improvement in communication cost and provides 78.9% savings in computational overhead.

PageRank Implemented with the MPI Paradigm Running on a Many-Core Neuromorphic Platform

SpiNNaker is a neuromorphic hardware platform, especially designed for the simulation of Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs). To this end, the platform features massively parallel computation and an efficient communication infrastructure based on the transmission of small packets. The effectiveness of SpiNNaker in the parallel execution of the PageRank (PR) algorithm has been tested by the realization of a custom SNN implementation. In this work, we propose a PageRank implementation fully realized with the MPI programming paradigm ported to the SpiNNaker platform. We compare the scalability of the proposed program with the equivalent SNN implementation, and we leverage the characteristics of the PageRank algorithm to benchmark our implementation of MPI on SpiNNaker when faced with massive communication requirements. Experimental results show that the algorithm exhibits favorable scaling for a mid-sized execution context, while highlighting that the performance of MPI-PageRank on SpiNNaker is bounded by memory size and speed limitations on the current version of the hardware.

A Comprehensive Survey on Cyber-Physical Smart Grid Testbed Architectures: Requirements and Challenges

The integration of improved control techniques with advanced information technologies enables the rapid development of smart grids. The necessity of having an efficient, reliable, and flexible communication infrastructure is achieved by enabling real-time data exchange between numerous intelligent and traditional electrical grid elements. The performance and efficiency of the power grid are enhanced with the incorporation of communication networks, intelligent automation, advanced sensors, and information technologies. Although smart grid technologies bring about valuable economic, social, and environmental benefits, testing the combination of heterogeneous and co-existing Cyber-Physical-Smart Grids (CP-SGs) with conventional technologies presents many challenges. The examination for both hardware and software components of the Smart Grid (SG) system is essential prior to the deployment in real-time systems. This can take place by developing a prototype to mimic the real operational circumstances with adequate configurations and precision. Therefore, it is essential to summarize state-of-the-art technologies of industrial control system testbeds and evaluate new technologies and vulnerabilities with the motivation of stimulating discoveries and designs. In this paper, a comprehensive review of the advancement of CP-SGs with their corresponding testbeds including diverse testing paradigms has been performed. In particular, we broadly discuss CP-SG testbed architectures along with the associated functions and main vulnerabilities. The testbed requirements, constraints, and applications are also discussed. Finally, the trends and future research directions are highlighted and specified.

Fault-Tolerant Application Mapping on Mesh-of-Tree based Network-on-Chip

Abstract Network-on-Chip (NoC) has been considered as an efficient communication infrastructure to support Multi-Processor System-on-Chip (MPSoC) design requirements for future generation computing. With the increased application requirements and rapid scale down in VLSI technology, the probability of forming thermal hotspots in the processing elements is relatively high which may lead to system failure. Therefore, efficient fault-tolerant techniques are required to improve the reliability of a system by addressing the failures that may occur at different component levels in NoC. This paper proposes fault-tolerant NoC design methodologies to address the core failures that may occur in an application. An Integer Linear Programming (ILP) based mathematical formulation and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based evolutionary approach have been proposed to perform fault-tolerant mapping using spare cores onto the Mesh-of-Tree (MoT) network. In the event of core failures, spare cores are used to enhance system reliability. Most of the approaches have fixed the position of spare core in the networks while performing fault-tolerant application-mapping onto NoCs. In contrast to fixing the position of spare core in MoT networks, flexibility is provided by our approaches ILP and PSO to place the spare core in the network. We have experimented with multimedia applications and synthetic applications generated using TGFF tool in static and dynamic environments. In static environment, the experiments are performed (a) by scaling the MoT network size with fixed router fault-percentage, (b) by varying the router fault-percentage in the MoT network, and (c) by considering multiple failed cores in the application. In dynamic environment, the experiments are carried out using cycle-accurate NoC simulator and performance parameters namely network latency, throughput, and power consumption are analyzed. The experimental results have shown significant improvements using our approach over the approaches proposed in the literature.

Methods of data aggregation for traffic reducing in SG commutation networks for security and SG data policy

The transformation of the outdated electrical grid into the Smart Grid (SG), which provides a two-way information flow between the various SG components, creates many problems in designing and developing efficient SG communication infrastructures for connecting various SG components. In addition to the currently used core networks and protocols, new wired and wireless approaches are planned for various SG components and applications deployment. The proposed SG communications infrastructure will have many interconnected systems with a variety of capabilities and management to provide end-to-end services to users, as well as among intelligent devices.

Multi agent‐based strategy protecting the loop‐based micro‐grid via intelligent electronic device‐assisted relays

Penetrating distributed generation units into the radial distribution networks has been making the protection schemes become ever so complex. The microgrid modes of operation have also increased this complexity. Moreover, the ‘loop-based microgrid’ concept has made it extremely difficult or even impossible to utilise the available radial protection schemes. Although redesigning a new protection structure solves the problem, there should be an affordable way for surviving today's protection systems; accordingly, this study equips the ordinary overcurrent relays with intelligent electronic devices to act as an agent within a multi-agent framework. Given these devices are equipped with an efficient communication infrastructure for industrial applications, named IEC 61850 standard, the proposed approach uses a communication-based strategy, named token, to securely protect the system without any conflict in relays’ operation. The simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed method for any DG's penetration, network configuration and fault location. This kind of flexible strategies can affordably differ the expensive protection system replacement in the future revolutionary network upgrades.

A high‐performance FPGA‐based multicrossbar prioritized network‐on‐chip

SummaryHigh performance system‐on‐chip (SoCs) designs have led to high‐density integrated circuits using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for rapid prototyping and reconfigurable digital circuits. Using FPGA reconfigurability, it is possible to design a configurable network‐on‐chip (NoC) for different applications. NoC architectures provide efficient communication infrastructures for implementing very large SoCs. In this article, we propose HiFMP, a high‐performance FPGA‐based multicrossbar prioritized NoC router. The aim followed by the proposed router is designing a low‐power NoC router with high performance in terms of energy‐efficiency, network throughput, area, and latency for efficient FPGA realization. HiFMP is a parameterizable router, and is effectively used for an FPGA‐based NoC with mesh topology. Performance evaluations include network‐level analysis and hardware exploration; the results demonstrate the effectiveness and high performance of HiFMP in terms of latency, throughput, power consumption, and area, comparing with the existing related architectures.

Designing efficient communication infrastructure in post-disaster situations with limited availability of network resources

In the aftermath of a large-scale disaster, such as an earthquake, existing telecommunication (e.g., cellular towers) and other public infrastructures (e.g., power lines, roads, etc.) are often severely damaged. This prevents the seamless exchange of situational awareness and rescue/relief based information between the volunteers, shelter points, and the coordination center. A temporary communication infrastructure utilizing smartphones, communication towers, drones, smart badges, etc., commonly referred to as network resources, can be formed, which promises to bridge the communication gap between various stakeholders in the disaster area and enable timely information exchange between them. However, the efficacy of such networks is often challenged by the limited availability of network resources in the disaster area. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose to design, develop, and test a novel strategy that intelligently deploys the limited network resources in the disaster area, and thus, creates an efficient temporary communication infrastructure in such resource-constrained post-disaster situations. We formulate the network resource deployment (ResDep) problem as an integer linear programming optimization problem and show that it is NP-Hard. Next, we propose a near-optimal polynomial-time heuristic solution for solving it. Our extensive simulation study on top of ONE simulator and proof-of-concept pilot deployment study, both based on our university, National Institute of Technology — Durgapur, India, reveal that the proposed heuristic performs nearly as well as that of the optimal solution (computed using Gurobi optimizer), and outperforms its variant and baseline approaches when compared in terms of end-to-end network latency and message delivery.

LARUS: an unmanned aircraft for the support of maritime rescue missions under heavy weather conditions

In maritime emergencies, the time until arrival at the scene of an accident is a decisive factor for a successful rescue operation. In this context, the research project LARUS aims to support the rescue forces at sea with unmanned aerial systems and thus to optimize the rescue process. This refers on the one hand to the localization of potential accident sites and on the other hand to informing the rescuers about the situation on site as well as the provision of an efficient communication infrastructure. For this purpose, the UAS is equipped with various sensors and communication media. To ensure a seamless rescue procedure, the aircraft must be capable of operating even under severe weather conditions. In this regard, the Institute of Flight System Dynamics is currently investigating measures to reduce the gust loads to make the UAS robust against challenging weather conditions. The integration of the LARUS aerial system into airspace using an active collision avoidance system is also an important research aspect. In addition, the adaptation of flight control to the expanded requirements and influencing factors as well as the implementation of international SAR search strategies for flight guidance are also the subject of development work.

Benchmarking a Many-Core Neuromorphic Platform With an MPI-Based DNA Sequence Matching Algorithm

SpiNNaker is a neuromorphic globally asynchronous locally synchronous (GALS) multi-core architecture designed for simulating a spiking neural network (SNN) in real-time. Several studies have shown that neuromorphic platforms allow flexible and efficient simulations of SNN by exploiting the efficient communication infrastructure optimised for transmitting small packets across the many cores of the platform. However, the effectiveness of neuromorphic platforms in executing massively parallel general-purpose algorithms, while promising, is still to be explored. In this paper, we present an implementation of a parallel DNA sequence matching algorithm implemented by using the MPI programming paradigm ported to the SpiNNaker platform. In our implementation, all cores available in the board are configured for executing in parallel an optimised version of the Boyer-Moore (BM) algorithm. Exploiting this application, we benchmarked the SpiNNaker platform in terms of scalability and synchronisation latency. Experimental results indicate that the SpiNNaker parallel architecture allows a linear performance increase with the number of used cores and shows better scalability compared to a general-purpose multi-core computing platform.

Efficient Event Notification Middleware for Smart Microgrids Over P2P Networks

Microgrids (MGs) are moving toward large-scale smart distributed networks which demand an efficient and reliable communication infrastructure to manage, control and monitor energy resources. With regard to this, publisher/subscriber event-based middleware has become relevant for large-scale distributed time applications because it allows decouple time and space between senders and receivers. Particularly the content publish/subscribe systems over structured peer-to-peer (P2P) networks has emerged to enhance scalability and dynamism of notification middleware systems. However, this type of systems use multicast routing schemes that still generate much network traffic and as a consequence an overload of the communication channel is produced. This results in inefficient network utilization and rapid depletion of network resources leading to unreliable operations, degradation of system performance and even instability of the MG. In this paper, a new content-based publish/subscribe notification middleware over structured P2P systems is proposed, such that smart MG communication requirements are met. This proposed system organizes the publications and subscriptions in a 1-D representation using the Hilbert space filling curve. Through this representation, innovative routing and matching algorithms are developed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed publisher/subscribe system significantly enhance efficiency of the system, network performance and the use of computational resources.

Bridge management system within the strategic roads as an element of smart city

A permanent increase of population in large urban centres - both in Poland and in the whole world - causes environmental pollution, demographic changes and, most of all, the growth of the traffic volume. A way to deal with all problems of cities is the performance of the Smart City conception, which allows to build intelligent solutions improving transport, energy technology, tourism and many other fields that constitute the economy. The basis of the operation should be an efficient communication infrastructure, because the dynamics of the economic development is significantly dependent on the efficiency and the reliability of the communication system. It can be also stated that the development of the transport networks, including those on highly urbanised areas, is essential to ensure proper functioning of economic and social life. Correctly conducted monitoring and the diagnostics of the bridges should help the road administration with managing these objects and with extending the lifetime period, so it should allow to optimise the completion period and the scope of possible renovation, repair or enforcement, and in the case of discovering that there are damages that endanger the safety of the construction, it should ensure justified removal from service.The article presents an example of the use of acoustic emission method for the assessment of the condition of My Thuan cable-stayed bridge by the Tien Giang river. The application of AE technique enables monitoring and following the processes occurring in the total volume of the structure, regardless of stress and deformations, but depending on the integrity of the construction, and this is of key importance for the durability of use and safe work of the bridge. Thanks to this, it enables the performance of the Smart Cities concept in relation to the intelligent infrastructure and ensuring a proper level of safety.