Emulation Environment Research Articles

A methodology to select and adjust quantum noise models through emulators: benchmarking against real backends

Currently, access to quantum processors is costly in terms of time, and power. There are quantum simulators and emulators on the market that offer alternatives for evaluating the behavior of a real quantum processor. However, these emulation environments present accuracy deviations from real devices, mainly because of difficult-to-model error sources. In this study, a methodology is proposed that allows the selection of noise models and adjustment of their parameters, considering the nature of the backends (technology, topology, vendor, model, etc.). The proposed methodology is illustrated using a small superconducting example based on the ibm_perth backend (seven qubits) and a comparison between the quantum emulators Qaptiva and Qiskit, where six different noise models are applied, achieving a fidelity deviation of 0.686% at best with respect to the real device.

Data Synthesis Is Going Mobile—On Community-Driven Dataset Generation for Android Devices

Personal electronic devices such as smartphones and smartwatches have become indispensable daily companions, collecting a multitude of personal and sensitive data. As a result, they are of paramount importance in digital forensic examinations. However, there is a lack of publicly available and ready-to-use digital forensic datasets, especially in mobile forensics. This work presents a concept and an open-source proof-of-concept implementation, which simplifies and automates the creation of mobile forensic datasets within the scope of the Android operating system. In contrast to previous approaches, which populate the most common databases of an Android device, our concept is based on community-driven playbooks and makes use of interaction with the actual smartphone GUI. Hence, we are able to generate coherent and realistic traces as they occur in real-world human usage. Our proof-of-concept implementation is based on the standard Android emulation environment and borrows tools from the user interface testing community. Our evaluation shows that our approach actually generates realistic Android datasets. For instance, we can generate traces that cannot be simulated by gestures (e.g., changing the GPS position or triggering incoming phone calls). Recording the actual data synthesis process allows users to either create and share their own playbooks (i.e., the exact instructions for the data synthesis process rather than having to share the full image) or reproduce Android images with different scenarios using playbooks previously created and shared by the community.

Hardware-in-the-Loop Emulation of a SEPIC Multiplier Converter in a Photovoltaic System

This article presents the development and execution of a Single-Ended Primary-Inductor Converter (SEPIC) multiplier within a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) emulation environment tailored for photovoltaic (PV) applications. Utilizing the advanced capabilities of the dSPACE 1104 platform, this work establishes a dynamic data exchange mechanism between a variable voltage power supply and the SEPIC multiplier converter, enhancing the efficiency of solar energy harnessing. The proposed emulation model was crafted to simulate real-world solar energy capture, facilitating the evaluation of control strategies under laboratory conditions. By emulating realistic operational scenarios, this approach significantly accelerates the innovation cycle for PV system technologies, enabling faster validation and refinement of emerging solutions. The SEPIC multiplier converter is a new topology based on the traditional SEPIC with the capability of producing a larger output voltage in a scalable manner. This initiative sets a new benchmark for conducting PV system research, offering a blend of precision and flexibility in testing supervisory strategies, thereby streamlining the path toward technological advancements in solar energy utilization.

Multimedia-Based Scout Semaphore Code Learning Mobile Application

This research aims to analyze how to design a mobile application that can present information about multimedia-based learning that is easy to understand and use for students. The data collection methodology used is a literature study. Making applications based on storyboards, flowcharts, navigation structures, or object diagrams originating from the design stage. All multimedia objects or elements are created and combined into a single application. At this stage, we use software such as Adobe Flash CS4, Adobe Device Central CS4, Adobe Photoshop CS2, and Adobe Audition 1.5. The author provides testing, which was carried out in 2 stages: the first stage was carried out in the emulator environment, and the second stage was applied to the actual device, namely cellphone media. Based on research results, it shows that with a busy level of routine and high mobility, cellphones are a complex and sophisticated technological device, inseparable from everyday life because, apart from being a communication tool, they also have multimedia features that can be used to help implement methods. learning. It becomes easier for users to learn lessons outside of study hours. The use of Flash Lite makes this multimedia-based mobile application more interesting and interactive.

Cooperative Cruise Control for Intelligent Connected Vehicles: A Bargaining Game Approach

Intelligent transportation systems (ITSs) are at the forefront of advancements in transportation, offering enhanced efficiency, safety, and environmental friendliness. To enable ITSs, autonomous systems play a pivotal role, contributing to the development of autonomous driving, data-driven modeling, and multiagent control strategies to establish sustainable and coordinated traffic management. The integration of networked and automated vehicles has garnered significant attention as a potential solution for alleviating traffic congestion and improving fuel economy, achieved through global route optimization and cooperative driving. This study focuses on a predictive control perspective to address the cooperative cruise control problem. Online decision making is employed during the driving process, utilizing information gathered from the network. By employing bargaining games to establish an operating agreement among vehicles, we formalize a synchronization approach based on predictive control theory. Ultimately, these findings are put to the test in an emulation environment within a hardware-in-the-loop system. The results revealed that the proposed cruise control successfully achieved convergence toward the desired reference signal. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in achieving synchronized platoon behavior and correct bargaining outcomes. These findings underscore the effectiveness and potential of DMPC with bargaining games in coordinating and optimizing vehicular networks. This paves the way for future research and development in this promising area.

Exploring ab initio machine synthesis of quantum circuits

Gate-level quantum circuits are often derived manually from higher level algorithms. While this suffices for small implementations and demonstrations, ultimately automatic circuit design will be required to realise complex algorithms using hardware-specific operations and connectivity. Therefore, ab initio creation of circuits within a machine, either a classical computer or a hybrid quantum–classical device, is of key importance. We explore a range of established and novel techniques for the synthesis of new circuit structures, the optimisation of parameterised circuits, and the efficient removal of low-value gates via the quantum geometric tensor. Using these techniques we tackle the tasks of automatic encoding of unitary processes and translation (recompilation) of a circuit from one form to another. Using emulated quantum computers with various noise-free gate sets we provide simple examples involving up to 10 qubits, corresponding to 20 qubits in the augmented space we use. Further applications of specific relevance to chemistry modelling are considered in a sister paper, ‘Exploiting subspace constraints and ab initio variational methods for quantum chemistry’. The emulation environments used were QuEST, QuESTlink and pyQuEST. All resources will be made openly accessible and are currently available upon request.

Exploiting subspace constraints and ab initio variational methods for quantum chemistry

Variational methods offer a highly promising route to exploiting quantum computers for chemistry tasks. Here we employ methods described in a sister paper to the present report, entitled exploring ab initio machine synthesis of quantum circuits, in order to solve problems using adaptively evolving quantum circuits. Consistent with prior authors we find that this approach can outperform human-designed circuits such as the coupled-cluster or hardware-efficient ansätze, and we make comparisons for larger instances up to 14 qubits Moreover we introduce a novel approach to constraining the circuit evolution in the physically relevant subspace, finding that this greatly improves performance and compactness of the circuits. We consider both static and dynamics properties of molecular systems. The emulation environment used is QuESTlink all resources are open source and linked from this paper.

ESCALB: An effective slave controller allocation-based load balancing scheme for multi-domain SDN-enabled-IoT networks

In software-defined networking (SDN), several controllers improve the reliability as well as the scalability of networks such as the Internet-of-Things (IoT), with the distributed control plan. To achieve optimal results in IoT networks, an SDN can be employed to reduce the complexity associated with IoT and provide an improved quality-of-service (QoS). With time, it is likely expected that the demand for IoT will rise, and a large number of sensors will be connected, which can generate huge network traffic. With these possibilities, the SDN controllers processing capacity will be surpassed by the traffic sent by the IoT sensors. To handle this kind of challenge, and achieve promising results, a dynamic slave controller allocation with a premeditated mechanism can play a pivotal role to accomplish the task management and migration plan. Following this, we proposed an efficient slave controller allocation-based load balancing approach for a multi-domain SDN-enabled IoT network, which aims to transfer switches to a controller with idle resources effectively. Among several slave controllers for selecting a target controller, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) strategy, i.e., an analytical network process (ANP) has been used in our approach to enrich communication metrics and maintain high-standard QoS statistics. Moreover, switch migration is modeled with knapsack 0/1 problem to achieve maximum utilization of the slave controllers. Our proposed scheme enabled with a flexible decision-making process for selecting controllers with varying resources. The results demonstrated with emulation environment show the effectiveness of the ESCALB.

QoS-aware congestion control with online learning

In emerging applications such as industrial control and autonomous driving, end-to-end deterministic quality of service (QoS) transmission guarantee has become an urgent problem to be solved. Internet congestion control algorithms are essential to the performance of applications. However, existing congestion control schemes follow the best-effort principle of data transmission without the perception of application QoS requirements. To enable data delivery within application QoS constraints, we leverage an online learning mechanism to design Crimson, a novel congestion control algorithm in which each sender continuously observes the gap between current performance and pre-defined QoS. Crimson can change rates adaptively that satisfy application QoS requirements as a result. Across many emulation environments and real-world experiments, our proposed scheme can efficiently balance the different trade-offs between throughput, delay and loss rate. Crimson also achieves consistent performance over a wide range of QoS constraints under diverse network scenarios.

Adaptive Emulation Framework for Multi-Architecture IoT Firmware Testing

Internet of things (IoT) devices are being increasingly used in numerous areas. However, the low priority on security and various IoT types have made these devices vulnerable to attacks. To prevent this, recent studies have analyzed firmware in an emulation environment that does not require actual devices and is efficient for repeated experiments. However, these studies focused only on major firmware architectures and rarely considered exotic firmware. In addition, because of the diversity of firmware, the emulation success rate is not high in terms of large-scale analyses. In this study, we propose the adaptive emulation framework for multi-architecture (AEMA). In the field of automated emulation frameworks for IoT firmware testing, AEMA considers the following issues: (1) limited compatibility for exotic firmware architectures, (2) emulation instability when configuring an automated environment, and (3) shallow testing range resulting from structured inputs. To tackle these problems, AEMA can emulate not only major firmware architectures but also exotic firmware architectures not previously considered, such as Xtensa, ColdFire, and reduced instruction set computer (RISC) version five, by implementing a minority emulator. Moreover, we applied the emulation arbitration technique and input keyword extraction technique for emulation stability and efficient test case generation. We compared AEMA with other existing frameworks in terms of emulation success rates and fuzz testing. As a result, AEMA succeeded in emulating 864 out of 1,083 overall experimental firmware and detected vulnerabilities at least twice as fast as the experimental group. Furthermore, AEMA found a 0-day vulnerability in real-world IoT devices within 24 h.

Preliminary Evaluation of PTV Margins for Online Adaptive Radiation Therapy of the Prostatic Fossa

In modern trials, traditional planning target volume (PTV) margins for postoperative prostate radiation therapy have been large (7-10 mm) to account for both daily changes in patient positioning and target deformation. With daily adaptive radiation therapy, these interfractional changes could be minimized, potentially reducing the margins required for treatment and improving adjacent normal-tissue dosimetry. A single-center retrospective study was conducted from March 2021 to November 2021. Patients receiving conventionally fractionated postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) for prostate cancer with pretreatment and posttreatment cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging (pre-CBCT and post-CBCT, respectively) were included (248 paired images). Pretreatment and posttreatment clinical target volumes (pre-CTVs and post-CTVs) were contoured by a single observer on all CBCTs and verified by a second observer. Motion was calculated from pre-CTV to that of the post-CTV, and predicted margins were calculated with van Herk's formula. Adequate coverage of the proposed planning target volume (PTV) margin expansions (pre-PTV) were verified by determining overlap with post-CTV. In a smaller cohort (25 paired images), dosimetric changes with the proposed online adaptive margins were compared with conventional plans in the Ethos emulator environment. The estimated margins predicted to achieve ≥95% CTV coverage for 90% of the population were 1.6 mm, 2.0 mm, and 2.2 mm (x-, y-, and z -xes, respectively), with 95% of the absolute region of interest displacement being within 1.9 mm, 2.8 mm, and 2.1 mm. After symmetrically expanding all pre-CTVs by 3 mm, the percentage of paired images achieving ≥95% CTV coverage was 97.1%. When comparing adaptive plans (3-mm margins) with scheduled plans (7-mm margins), rectum dosimetry significantly improved, with an average relative reduction in V40Gy[cc] of 59.2% and V65Gy[cc] of 79.5% (where V40Gy and V65Gy are defined as the volumes receiving 40 Gy and 65 Gy or higher dose, respectively). Online daily adaptive radiation therapy could significantly decrease PTV margins for prostatic PORT and improve rectal dosimetry, with a symmetrical expansion of 3 mm achieving excellent coverage in this cohort. These results need to be validated in a larger prospective cohort.

Evolving objective function for improved variational quantum optimization

A promising approach to useful computational quantum advantage is to use variational quantum algorithms for optimization problems. Crucial for the performance of these algorithms is to ensure that the algorithm converges with high probability to a near-optimal solution in a small time. In Barkoutsos et al. [Quantum 4, 256 (2020)], an alternative class of objective functions, called conditional value at risk (CVaR), was introduced and it was shown that they perform better than standard objective functions. Here we extend that work by introducing an evolving objective function, which we call ascending-CVaR and that can be used for any optimization problem. We test our proposed objective function in an emulation environment, using as case studies three different optimization problems: MaxCut, number partitioning, and portfolio optimization. We examine multiple instances of different sizes and analyze the performance using the variational quantum eigensolver with hardware-efficient ansatz and the quantum approximate optimization algorithm. We show that ascending-CVaR in all cases performs better than standard objective functions or the constant CVaR of Barkoutsos et al. [Quantum 4, 256 (2020)] and that it can be used as a heuristic for avoiding suboptimal minima. Our proposal achieves higher overlap with the ideal state in all problems, whether we consider easy or hard instances---on average, it gives up to ten times greater overlap at portfolio optimization and number partitioning, while it gives an 80% improvement at MaxCut. In the hard instances we consider, for the number partitioning problem, standard objective functions fail to find the correct solution in almost all cases, CVaR finds the correct solution at 60% of the cases, while ascending-CVaR finds the correct solution in 95% of the cases.

Quantifying the Performance of Cloud-Oriented Container Orchestrators on Emulated Tactical Networks

Kubernetes is the de facto industry standard for orchestrating containerized applications in clouds. Performance analyses of Kubernetes are often conducted in resource-rich environments on the enterprise or data center level. At the tactical edge domain, network resources are scarce and therefore at the opposite end of the spectrum when compared to resources available to enterprises or data centers. Computing resources (e.g., mobile or edge devices) are typically interconnected via wireless communications links that are characterized by limited bandwidth, low reliability, high latency, and frequent disconnections. This experience article describes lessons learned in constructing a suitable emulation environment for experimentation, and our findings and recommendations for running Kubernetes in tactical networks.

A game model design using test bed for Malware analysis training

PurposeThis article aims to provide an interactive model for hands on training of malware analysis. Cyberwar games are the highly stylized representation of cyber conflicts in a simulation model. Game models are helpful in understanding the phenomenon of cyber attacks as well as to evolve new techniques of detection. Cyber security trainings are generally very challenging. Cyber test beds make such trainings easy both for trainees and trainers. However, it is not feasible for each organization to build a network for the sole purpose of hands-on training for employees. Therefore, it is desirable to build an interactive environment that is interesting and free of cost as well.Design/methodology/approachAfter exploring existing cyberwar games and their techniques, limitation and strengths, this paper presents a design to merge the cyber attacks into a unique model of war game for detection and analysis of malware. This research designs a malware analysis testbed using online free resources. The authors have used the platform of Cyber Defense Technology Experimental Research (DETER). This study proposed model of a testbed that supports malware reverse engineering scenarios, exercise logs and analysis to develop reverse engineering tactics.FindingsThe proposed cyber testbed is an automated system that can be used as a platform to train cyber warriors. A few features of the proposed testbed are as follows: testbed provides real or seemingly real malware communication with the real world. It includes automated decisions for the detection of malicious behavior without human intervention. The author gives a design to develop free of cost mechanism for remote learning of highly technical cyber security areas, and this simulation is for malware analysis.Originality/valueCyberwar games are built for strengthening offensive and defensive capabilities in cyberspace. For this purpose, many simulations, as well as emulation platforms, can be found. Some are free and open-source, whereas others are commercial and quite expensive. Existing testbeds have limitations in respect of cyberwar games for creating innovative scenarios. Existing literature does not offer any attack and response scenario developed for malware detection through some existing open-source and online simulation or emulation environments. This research includes an analysis of the existing platforms as well as the design of a new model for malware analysis and training.

SCOPE and EaaSI: Software Emulation and the Future of Architectural History

SCOPE and EaaSI: Software Emulation and the Future of Architectural History

A PROGRAMMABLE DSP CORE DESIGN FOR SPEECH/AUDIO CODEC SOC

A novel programmable DSP core, called LASP24 (Low-cost Application-driven Speech Processor, with 24-bit data width), is developed. It is targeted as a wide-range platform of multimedia applications. The processor core is optimized to efficiently perform fundamental operations for speech/audio signal processing such as vector and matrix operations, and it can be easily embedded into the SOC platform. The design is fabricated with the UMC 0.18 m standard-cell technology in the total area of 6.5 mm2, and it can operate at 100 MHz. It has also been demonstrated that the MELP speech coding and the sound reverberation method could be executed in real-time on the LASP24 operating at 80 Mhz. The assembler and emulator environment have also been developed for designers to verify their algorithms.

Modeling and Control of Priority Queueing in Software Defined Networks via Machine Learning

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a new architectural paradigm that enables programmable control of a network to make it more flexible and easier to manage. SDN architectures decouple control and forwarding functionalities, and enable switches and routers to be remotely configurable/ programmable in run-time by a controller. Modeling and optimization of such modern heterogeneous network infrastructures are key factors to achieve better performance, e.g. in terms of traffic flow improvement while reducing bandwidth allocation. Identifying an accurate model of a network device in SDNs (e.g., a switch or a router) is crucial in order to apply advanced techniques such as Model Predictive Control (MPC). However, such a problem is very challenging due to non-linearities and unavailability of internal variables measurements in real devices. To this aim, a promising direction is given by an appropriate integration of System Identification and Machine Learning techniques to obtain predictive models using historical data collected from the network thanks to the SDN paradigm. In this paper we apply a novel data-driven methodology to learn accurate models of the dynamical input-output behavior of a network’s switch device by appropriately combining AutoRegressive eXogenous (ARX) model identification with Regression Trees (RTs) and Random Forests (RFs). The advantage of such model is that it can be directly used to apply MPC (which just requires Quadratic Programming to be solved) to optimally control the queues’ bandwidth of the switch ports within the SDN paradigm.We validate our approach on an experimental emulation setup using the Mininet network emulator environment and a real dataset obtained from measurements of an Italian Internet Service Provider (Sonicatel S.r.l.). To this aim, we first develop a model of a real network switch, then implement MPC using the RYU controller, and finally demonstrate the benefits of the proposed dynamic queueing control methodology in terms of packet losses reduction and bandwidth saving, i.e. in terms of improvement of the Quality of Service.

Análisis de herramientas que permitan el modelado de tráfico en redes SD

El presente trabajo consiste en el estudio de herramientas que permiten configurar un entorno de simulación o emulación de redes dentro de un mismo sistema facilitando de cierta forma plantear un escenario de red que cuenta con topologías y flujos de tráfico. Específicamente se enfocó en el modelado de tráfico en redes SDN (Redes Definidas por Software) que permite que un solo equipo administre una red en su totalidad, haciéndolo capaz de tolerar cambios en toda la estructura de la red sin necesidad de detener los servicios. Se realiza una investigación bibliográfica de fuentes de carácter documental sobre simuladores que permiten el modelado de redes para determinar la más adecuada; los instrumentos analizadas fueron: NS-3, EstiNet y MiniNet. Posteriormente de acuerdo a la información obtenida y el estudio del
 mismo, se realizó una tabla comparativa con los parámetros que distinguen a cada una, permitiendo de esta forma concluir de manera idónea la mejor opción para emulación de topologías en ambientes SDN.

Intelligent Service Orchestration in Edge Cloud Networks

The surge in data traffic is challenging for network infrastructure owners coping with stringent service requirements (e.g., high bandwidth, ultralow latency) as well as shrinking per-gigabyte revenues. Network softwarization and edge computing are powerful candidates to mitigate these issues. In parallel, there is an increasing demand for network virtualization and container-based services. In this study, we investigate the management of software defined networking (SDN)-based transport network and edge cloud service orchestration. To this end, we use a machine learning (ML)-based design to manage both transport and edge cloud resources of a mobile network effectively. To generate and use real-world data inside our ML platform, we use the Graphical Network Simulator-3 (GNS3) emulator environment. Our emulation results indicate that almost all of the trained ML models can accurately select the correct edge clouds (ECs) (i.e., with high test accuracy) under the considered two scenarios when transport and EC network parameters are considered in comparison to models trained via only transport or cloud-based parameters. At the end of the article, we also provide an evolved architecture where the proposed ML platform can be embedded in an end-to-end mobile network architecture and H2020 5Growth project's baseline management platform.

VIoLET

Internet of Things (IoT) deployments have been growing manifold, encompassing sensors, networks, edge, fog, and cloud resources. Despite the intense interest from researchers and practitioners, most do not have access to large-scale IoT testbeds for validation. Simulation environments that allow analytical modeling are a poor substitute for evaluating software platforms or application workloads in realistic computing environments. Here, we propose a virtual environment for validating Internet of Things at large scales (VIoLET), an emulator for defining and launching large-scale IoT deployments within cloud VMs. It allows users to declaratively specify container-based compute resources that match the performance of native IoT compute devices using Docker. These can be inter-connected by complex topologies on which bandwidth and latency rules are enforced. Users can configure synthetic sensors for data generation as well. We also incorporate models for CPU resource dynamism, and for failure and recovery of the underlying devices. We offer a detailed comparison of VIoLET’s compute and network performance between the virtual and physical deployments, evaluate its scaling with deployments with up to 1, 000 devices and 4, 000 device-cores, and validate its ability to model resource dynamism. Our extensive experiments show that the performance of the virtual IoT environment accurately matches the expected behavior, with deviations levels within what is seen in actual physical devices. It also scales to 1, 000s of devices and at a modest cloud computing costs of under 0.15% of the actual hardware cost, per hour of use, with minimal management effort. This IoT emulation environment fills an essential gap between IoT simulators and real deployments.