Secondary Service Providers Research Articles

Cost Minimization for Energy-Constrained Partial Offloading in Cognitive Capacity Harvesting Networks

In this article, we investigate how to provide computation offloading service for secondary users (SUs) in cognitive capacity harvesting networks. In particular, standing on the secondary service provider (SSP)’s point of view, we consider the partial offloading and minimize the total cost of the SSP while satisfying the energy and delay constraints of SUs. We optimize all the related variables comprehensively, including the partial offloading factor, the transmit power, the cognitive radio (CR) router selection, the offloading spectrum block selection, and the computing resource allocation in both SUs and CR routers. We formulate the considered problem as a mixed integer nonlinear programming. We theoretically show that when the selections of the offloading CR router and offloading spectrum block for SUs are given, the optimal computing frequency in SUs and CR routers can be determined by the transmit powers and partial offloading ratios. Based on this, the considered problem is decomposed into a transmit power and partial offloading ratio optimization subproblem, an offloading spectrum block selection subproblem, and a CR router selection subproblem. For the three subproblems, differential evolution, more complex task first, and coalition game algorithms are proposed to solve them, respectively. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms can greatly improve the system performance.

Data-Driven Spectrum Trading with Secondary Users’ Differential Privacy Preservation

Spectrum trading benefits both secondary users (SUs) and primary users (PUs), while it poses great challenges to maximize PUs' revenue, since SUs' demands are uncertain and individual SU's traffic portfolio contains private information. In this paper, we propose a data-driven spectrum trading scheme which maximizes PUs' revenue and preserves SUs' demand differential privacy. Briefly, we introduce a novel network architecture consisting of the primary service provider (PSP), the secondary service provider (SSP) and the secondary traffic estimator and database (STED). Under the proposed architecture, PSP aggregates available spectrum from PUs, and sells the spectrum to SSP at fixed wholesale price, directly to SUs at spot price, or both. The PSP has to accurately estimate SUs' demands. To estimate SUs' demand, the STED exploits data-driven approach to choose sampled SUs to construct the reference distribution of SUs' demands, and utilizes reference distribution to estimate the demand distribution of all SUs. Moreover, the STED adds noises to preserve the demand differential privacy of sampled SUs before it answers the demand estimation queries from the PSP. With the estimated SUs' demand, we formulate the revenue maximization problem into a risk-averse optimization, develop feasible solutions, and verify its effectiveness through both theoretical proof and simulations.

Spectrum Sharing with Vehicular Communication in Cognitive Small-Cell Networks

An increasing number of vehicles make spectrum resources face serious challenges in vehicular cognitive small-cell networks. The means of spectrum sharing can greatly alleviate this pressure. In this paper, we introduce a supermodular game theoretic approach to analyze the problem of spectrum sharing. The small-cell BS (primary service provider, PSP) and the vehicle (secondary service provider, SSP) can share the spectrum, where the PSP can sell idle spectrum resources to the SSP. This is taken as a spectrum trading market, and a Bertrand competition model is considered to depict this phenomenon. Different PSPs compete with each other to maximize their individual profits. The Bertrand competition model can be proved as a supermodular game, and the corresponding Nash equilibrium (NE) solution is provided as the optimal price solution. Hence, an improved genetic simulated annealing algorithm is designed to achieve NE. Simulation results demonstrate that the NE point for the price of the primary service provider exists. The change of the exogenous variable is also analyzed on the equilibrium point.

Two-Tier Architecture for Spectrum Auction in SDN-Enabled Cloud Radio Access Network

The demand for mobile services is growing aberrantly, which provides both challenges and opportunities for wireless networks. Wireless network virtualization is suggested as a key progression path for enhancing the capacity and resource utilization in the forthcoming fifth-generation mobile networks. In this paper, a software-defined network (SDN) enabled cloud radio access network (C-RAN) framework is proposed for enabling spectrum auction with a two-tier architecture support. In Tier-I, several remote radio heads (RRHs) are introduced to act as the secondary service providers to provide services to its small cell users (SUEs) by exploiting the purchased underutilized or idle resources from the primary service provider in Tier-II. Specifically, in order to maintain quality-of-service requirements of the SUEs, the revenue maximization problem for the RRHs is formulated by considering the user association, band assignment, interference management, and budget allowance. In Tier-II, an SDN-enabled spectrum auction mechanism is proposed for maximizing the social welfare based on the SUEs’ service requirements of all participating RRHs from Tier-I. In this auction mechanism, the bipartite graph is utilized to determine the socially optimal winners and the price charging scheme is proposed inspired by the well-known Vickrey–Clarke–Groves auction method. Simulation results reveal the performance and the benefits of the proposed SDN-enabled spectrum auction mechanism under different scenarios.

Practice and challenges in provision of guidance and counselling services in secondary schools of South Gondar, Ethiopia

The main purpose of the study was to assess the provision of guidance and counselling service in South Godar secondary schools. It was designed to study the types of service provided by service providers in South Gondar secondary schools and to investigate the attitude and awareness of Guidance & Counselling Committee (GCC) members, teachers, principals and students towards the usefulness of guidance and counselling services/programme. The study was conducted using a descriptive survey design from five secondary schools using questionnaires and interview as data gathering instruments. The total number of sampled respondents was 173, of which 100 (students) selected by simple random sampling, five school principals, 49 teachers, 19 GCC members/service providers were selected using comprehensive sampling technique. Statistical data analysis techniques were used to analyse the data and thematic analysis, i.e., qualitative analysis, was used to interpret interview and open-ended questionnaires. The study revealed that most of the secondary school service providers were provided behavioural and academic counselling and educational counselling for their students in their respective schools. The study also indicated that positive attitude and promising awareness towards guidance and counselling service among the four category respondents.
 Keywords: Challenges, counselling guidance, practice and secondary school.

Implementation and evaluation of a driving cessation intervention to improve community mobility and wellbeing outcomes for people living with dementia: study protocol of the \u2018CarFreeMe\u2019 for people with dementia program

BackgroundGiving up driving is a pivotal life event and universal challenge for people living with dementia and their families, and a complex area of clinical practice for health professionals who monitor driving cessation. The best outcomes are for individuals to plan for and eventually cease driving, however with insufficient support programs in place, many avoid the issue until it is reaches a crisis point. This program of research investigates a comprehensive support- and education-based intervention targeted at people living with dementia and their care partners who are managing driving cessation. The primary aim of this research is to determine the effectiveness of the program through a cluster randomized controlled trial.Methods/designThe intervention (CarFreeMe) is an intensive program delivered by a trained health professional that addresses practical and emotional needs relevant to driving cessation. The seven module program is person-centred, covering awareness raising, adjustment, and practical support that is individualized according to geographic location and the particular goals and preferences of participants. A cluster randomized controlled trial will evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Evaluation will take place pre-intervention, immediately following, and three months post-intervention. Clusters are randomized to either intervention or usual treatment. Participants within clusters will be recruited via primary and secondary care clinics, community agencies, service providers, local media, social media, support groups, and word of mouth. The primary outcome measure for persons with dementia and their care partners is lifespace, collected via (i) smartphone GPS technology and (ii) self-reported number of episodes away from home (during the past week). Secondary outcomes include safe alternative transport status, wellbeing, depression, anxiety, and self-efficacy, which will be collected from dyads. Caregiving strain will be collected from care partner/family member only. A process evaluation of the intervention will also be undertaken.DiscussionThere is an urgent need for therapeutic approaches to supporting people living with dementia and their families to negotiate the complex decision making involved in deciding to change their approach to driving. The driving cessation intervention may fill an important gap in service delivery to people living with dementia who are adjusting to life without driving.Trial registrationAustralian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12618000388213, 15 March 2018.

Comparison of key findings relating to care coordination in children with three complex conditions: A MOCHA study

Introduction: Children and adolescents with complex care needs CNN living in the community require the care of a variety of primary and secondary healthcare service providers. Conducted as part of a large ongoing EU Horizon 2020 funded project Models of Child Health Appraised MOCHA, the aim of this study was to provide a contemporary account of the approaches to the integration of care at the acute/community interface for children with CNN. Methods: Utilising a mixed-methods design, 30 European countries were surveyed, using a local country agent – an expert in child health. Each survey consisted of a vignette and open and closed-ended questions adapted from the Standards for Systems of Care for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs 1and the Eurobarometer Survey 2. Vignettes were developed based on three clinical exemplars: Long-term Ventilation LTV, Intractable Epilepsy, and Traumatic Brain Injury TBI. Categorical data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Textual data were analysed using thematic network analysis 3. This abstract presents a comparison of the key quantitative findings pertaining to care coordination across the three exemplar conditions. Results: Twenty-three countries 76.7% provided categorical data that could be analysed in relation to care coordination for all three exemplars. Of these countries, ten 43.5% reported they had no mechanisms policies and/or procedures to promote care coordination for children assisted with LTV. A smaller proportion of countries 39.1%, n=9 indicated that they did not have care coordination mechanisms for children with intractable epilepsy or adolescents with TBI. Personalised care plans are developed in consolation with parents/guardians of children assisted with LTV 82.6%, n=19 or with intractable epilepsy 73.9%, n=17 in the majority of countries. The parents/guardians of adolescents with TBI were included in the development of personalised care plans in a smaller proportion of countries 52.2%, n=12. Discussion: It is likely that there is no one-size-fits-all” approach to facilitating optimum care for children with CCN, given the diverse nature of conditions represented within this cohort. Complex conditions with a higher prevalence may have specific facilitators at the acute/community interface that are not reflective of rarer conditions Conclusions: The results suggest that there are limited mechanisms in place to support the provision of coordinated care for children/adolescents with the three exemplar conditions across 23 European countries. Lessons learned: This study was reliant on data from a large number of informants being collated by local agents across the 30 MOCHA countries. This process was assisted by the development and utilisation of a glossary of terms in each survey, which ensured uniform comprehension of the included terms. Limitations: The response rate for returning surveys pertaining to all three exemplar conditions was 76.7%, which was lower than expected. This may have been due to the comparative length of each survey, which was required to build a comprehensive representation of care for children with the three exemplar conditions at the acute/community interface. Suggestions for future research: Further research should consider geographical variations in the integration of care for children with CCN within countries.

Economic-Robust Transmission Opportunity Auction for D2D Communications in Cognitive Mesh Assisted Cellular Networks

Device-to-device (D2D) communications can potentially alleviate cellular network congestion by utilizing local available links, and have attracted intensive attention recently. Cognitive radio (CR) allows users to opportunistically access unused licensed spectrums. It thus serves as a great candidate technology for D2D communications, but has not been widely employed in cellular networks due to hardware development limitations. In this paper, we propose a new architecture, called cognitive mesh assisted cellular network (CMCN), in which several secondary service providers (SSPs) deploy CR routers to facilitate D2D communications among wireless users. To address the competition among the SSPs, we further construct a secondary spectrum auction market. Although a few works have studied spectrum auctions, most of them are designed for single-hop communications, and it is usually not clear whom a winning user communicates with. Uncertain spectrum availability is not considered in previous schemes either. In this paper, we propose a transmission opportunity auction scheme, called TOA, which can address these problems. Extensive simulations are conducted to validate the efficiency of the CMCN architecture and that of the TOA scheme.

Perception and Attitude of Healthcare Professionals in the Context of Effective Implementation of Health Management Information System (HMIS) in Indian Health Industry

The goal of study is to examine the perception and attitude of healthcare professionals in the context of effective implementation of Health Management Information System (HMIS) in Indian health industry. The study is taken up in all 22 districts of Punjab state. The respondents are healthcare professionals who are categorized into Primary healthcare service providers and secondary healthcare service providers on the basis of their working area like primary healthcare centres and secondary healthcare centres/hospitals of Punjab State. The study indicates that the effective implementation of HMIS will help the healthcare professionals in providing effective and efficient healthcare services to the patients. Effective implementation of HMIS will help in proper patient handling that will increase patient satisfaction. The healthcare professionals at primary healthcare centres are facing different type of challenges/issues and opportunities in comparison to the secondary healthcare centres. The study suggests that the Government need to work for the effective implementation of HMIS. HMIS can be effectively implemented by providing sufficient computer hardware, network connectivity, sufficient HMIS manpower and regular capacity building programs for healthcare professionals. This study will improve system efficiency due to removal of duplication of work and increase in health data accuracy levels and completeness level.

The Nurse Navigator: An Innovative Role to Optimise Patient Transitions Across Primary and Secondary Care Settings

Introduction: The Gold Coast Integrated Care (GCIC) Programme is aimed at maintaining safe, high quality and readily accessible transitions between care settings for people with complex and co-morbid conditions. We have found that the programme goal of optimising care transitions between primary and secondary services can be partially achieved through service coordination; however many patients require assistance in navigating services in a way that ensures timely, effective, adequate and patient-centred care. Practice Change: The GCIC programme incorporates a unique and innovative nurse navigator role to achieve successful patient navigation through care transitions. Aim and Theory of Change: The nurse navigator role aims to bridge the service gap between primary and secondary services by positioning a nurse in each of the general practices involved in the GCIC programme. The nurses undertake holistic patient assessments; risk management strategies; rapid response to patient needs identified through primary or secondary care service providers, multidisciplinary team members in the GCIC Coordination Centre or patients themselves; maintenance of patient information systems including a shared care record and disease registers accessible to all caregivers; coordination, liaison and patient-centred decision making; health promotion for patient health literacy and self-care, and ensuring the adequacy of collaborative structures and processes through referrals and brokerage services. Using the Transtheoretical Stages of Change Model the research team is tracking the evolution and actions of the nurse navigator role from precontemplation (preparation for the role), contemplation (collaboration between the nurses and general practitioners), preparation for change (tailoring their services to practice needs and the integration programme), actions to achieve integration (as described above) and maintenance (issues involved in sustaining the role.) Targeted Population and Stakeholders: patients with complex and co-morbid conditions, general practitioners, hospital and health service providers. Timeline: The initial 12 month evaluation of the nurse navigator role. Highlights: (innovation, impact and outcomes). The role is an innovation of the GCIC programme and as such, evaluative data is being analysed annually to demonstrate patterns of nurse navigator responses to patient need, changes to referral pathways directly related to the role, the use and efficacy of information systems, and the usefulness of risk management strategies in optimising patient transitions. Sustainability and Transferability: Evaluation data will indicate the extent to which this innovation can be transferred beyond the initial program and setting to regional and national services.

Investigation of Pricing Issue Using Different Game Models in Cognitive Radio Network

Cognitive radio (CR) is wireless communication system that aims to introduce service to unlicensed users or secondary users (SUs) without harming operation of licensed users or primary users (PUs). Hence, the idea behind CR is to exploit unused resources of PUs at time or frequency at which PUs is not effected. Spectrum utilization can be accomplished by sharing of spectrum holes from (PUs) or primary service providers (PSPs) to (SUs) or secondary service provider (SSPs). Actually, spectrum sharing is considered as trading process in which spectrum seller charge free spectrum holes for spectrum buyers whom willing to buy spectrum for specified taxation called price. In this paper, pricing or (taxation) issue will be investigated through two different pricing schemes, namely, market-equilibrium and Bertrand competitive market. In market-equilibrium, the pricing depends on satisfying spectrum demand from SSPs/SUs by spectrum supply of PSPs. It is solved and analyzed in simplified way that reduces computational. Moreover, effect of bandwidth requirement of PUs on spectrum sharing will be studied. In Bertrand competitive market, PSPs tries to accomplish highest gain or payoff regarding to others by manipulating in price. In addition, genetic algorithm (GA) will be proposed with Bertrand competitive model to optimize pricing process to unique Nash Equilibrium by convergence with reducing abrupt change in price. GA improves best response strategy selection through reproduction process. Also, it reduces average pricing charged to SSP/SUs and this considered as attractive parameter for more spectrum selling and more gain to PSPs comparing round-robin algorithm.

Exclusive Use Spectrum Access Trading Models in Cognitive Radio Networks: A Survey

Spectrum frequency is a valuable resource for wireless communication but very limited in its availability. Due to the extensive use and ever increasing demand of spectrum bands by wireless devices and newer applications, unlicensed band is becoming congested, while licensed bands are found mostly underutilized. To solve this problem of spectrum scarcity, cognitive radio (CR) devices can share licensed bands opportunistically in several ways. We analyze the three main dynamic sharing models (commons, shared-use, and exclusive-use) proposed in literature with extensive analysis of the exclusive-use model, which is the most promising as it provides benefits to both licensed and unlicensed users. In this model, CR-enabled service providers, also known as secondary service providers, can buy or lease spectrum from licensed, known as primary service providers, for both short and long duration and gain exclusive rights to access the spectrum. In this survey paper, exclusive-use trading approaches, namely, game theory, market equilibrium, and classical, hybrid and other models are reviewed extensively and their characteristics and differences are highlighted and compared. We also propose possible future research directions on exclusive-use CR model.

LYRIC: Local Recall-Based Dynamic Double Spectrum Auction Mechanism With Heterogeneous-Demand Secondary Users

In this paper, we investigate the problem of recall mechanism in a dynamic spectrum auction system. The licensed spectrum holders (SHs) can auction their idle channels to the secondary wireless service providers (SWSPs) for economic incentive. However, the primary user (PU) of an SH has higher priority than the SWSPs for the spectrum access. To deal with a sudden increase in PUs’ spectrum demands after auction and guarantee their quality of services (QoS), we propose a Local recall-based dYnamic double spectRum auctIon meChanism (LYRIC) for SHs’ spectrum auction operation. Different from the most existing approaches about spectrum recall-based spectrum auction, the proposed spectrum auction method for heterogeneous spectrum transaction takes account of the joint effect of heterogeneous demand , spectrum spatial reusability , and the economic efficiency . Simulation results show that the proposed LYRIC algorithm can improve the auction process of SHs, the channels utilization efficiency and the average buyers’ satisfactory level with guarantees on the QoS of PUs.

Cognitive Capacity Harvesting Networks: Architectural Evolution Toward Future Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive radio technologies enable users to opportunistically access unused licensed spectrum and are viewed as a promising way to deal with the current spectrum crisis. Over the last 15 years, cognitive radio technologies have been extensively studied from algorithmic design to practical implementation. One pressing and fundamental problem is how to integrate cognitive radios into current wireless networks to enhance network capacity and improve users’ experience. Unfortunately, existing solutions to cognitive radio networks (CRNs) suffer from many practical design issues. To foster further research activities in this direction, we attempt to provide a tutorial for CRN architecture design. Noticing that an effective architecture for CRNs is still lacking, in this tutorial, we systematically summarize the principles for CRN architecture design and present a novel flexible network architecture, termed cognitive capacity harvesting network (CCHN), to elaborate on how a CRN architecture can be designed. Unlike existing architectures, we introduce a new network entity, called secondary service provider, and deploy cognitive radio capability enabled routers, called cognitive radio routers, in order to effectively and efficiently manage resource harvesting and mobile traffic while enabling users without cognitive radios to access and enjoy CCHN services. Our analysis shows that our CCHN aligns well to industrial standardization activities and hence provides a viable approach to implementing future CRNs. We hope that our proposed design approach opens a new venue to future CRN research.

Users First: Service-Oriented Spectrum Auction With a Two-Tier Framework Support

Auction-based secondary spectrum market provides a platform for spectrum holders to share their under-utilized licensed bands with secondary users (SUs) for economic benefits. However, it is challenging for SUs to directly participate due to their limited battery power and capability in computation and communications. To shift complexity away from users, in this paper, we propose a novel multi-round service-oriented combinatorial spectrum auction with two-tier framework support. In Tier I, we introduce several secondary service providers (SSPs) to provide end-users with services by using purchased licensed bands even if the end-users do not have cognitive radio capability. When an SU submits its service request with certain bidding allowance to its SSP, the SSP will help find out which bands within its area are available and bid for the desired ones from the market in Tier II. Specifically, we formulate the bidding process at the SSP as an optimization problem by considering interference management, spectrum uncertainty, flow routing, and budget allowance. In Tier II, considering two possible manners of the seller, we propose two social-welfare-maximizing auction mechanisms accordingly, including the winner determination based on weighted conflict graph and the Vickrey-Clarke–Groves-styled price charging mechanism. Extensive simulations have been conducted and the results have demonstrated the higher revenue of the proposed scheme compared with the traditional commodity-oriented single-round truthful schemes.

An ‘integrated health neighbourhood’ framework to optimise the use of EHR data

General practice should become the hub of integrated health neighbourhoods (IHNs), which involves sharing of information to ensure that medical homes are also part of learning organisations that use electronic...

Equilibrium in vacation queueing system with complementary services

This paper studies a queue with server vacations where customers need complementary services. The main service provider or the queue server may become absent for a random period of time called a vacation. More specifically, the server adopts a multiple vacation policy which means that the server keeps taking vacations until at least a customer waiting at the vacation completion instant. The secondary service provider offers an instantaneous service (no delay or no queue). The two services are complementary and a customer must receive both services if he or she joins the system. We investigate the equilibriums of such a system in a time-based fee model under competition and monopoly cases, respectively. Furthermore, a fixed or flat fee model is also analysed.

Resource Harvesting in Cognitive Wireless Computing Networks With Mobile Clouds and Virtualized Distributed Data Centers: Performance Limits

We consider a virtualized data center (VDC) consisting of a set of servers hosting a number of mobile terminals forming a mobile cloud and study the problem of optimal resource allocation in the presence of time varying workloads and uncertain channels. The channel uncertainty may be due to fading and/or uncertain link availability and reliability in cognitive wireless networks. The servers are processing certain applications delegated to them by the terminals, for either energy saving or due to the lack of necessary software at the terminal to process the applications. The control problem is to dynamically adjust resources according to channel and workload fluctuations in order to maximize the long-term average throughput and to minimize the energy cost of the overall system while maintaining network stability. We develop a unified VDC model for both cognitive and conventional wireless networks, carry out a unified stability analysis, and characterize the joint stability region for the unified VDC model. We also propose a new dynamic policy that supports every point in the network stability region, outperforms previously proposed network stabilizing policies without using the information of arrival statistics, and mitigates the mutual impact of primary and secondary service providers on each other.

Profit of Price with Supermodular Game for Spectrum Sharing in Cognitive Radio Using Genetic Algorithm

Cognitive radio is wireless communication system used for higher spectrum utilization for spectrum holes that are shared between primary (or licensed) users and secondary (or unlicensed) users. Primary service provider can sell unused holes for secondary service provider in which pricing is interested factor for market equilibrium. This process called spectrum trading. Pricing in spectrum sharing depends on spectrum demand from unlicensed users and requirements of primary users to gain payoff. In this paper, supermodular competitive game will be investigated considering Bertrand competition model among primary service providers, which is not clarified until now. In the competitive Bertrand game, the aim of spectrum trading process is to maximize the individual payoff or profit for each primary service provider. Moreover, genetic algorithm will be applied to demonstrate the effect of pricing in profit gained by primary service provider with optimizing profit function from abrupt changing in pricing and achieving market equilibrium.

FlexAuc: Serving Dynamic Demands in a Spectrum Trading Market With Flexible Auction

In secondary spectrum trading markets, auctions are widely used by spectrum holders (SHs) to redistribute their unused channels to secondary wireless service providers (WSPs). As sellers, the SHs design proper auction schemes to stimulate more participants and to maximize the revenue from the auction. As buyers, the WSPs determine the bidding strategies in the auction to better serve their end users. In this paper, we consider a three-layered spectrum trading market consisting of the SH, the WSPs, and the end users. We jointly study the strategies of the three parties. The SH determines the auction scheme and spectrum supplies to optimize its revenue. The WSPs have flexible bidding strategies in terms of both demands and valuations considering the strategies of the end users. For this market, we design a novel auction mechanism called FlexAuc to enable dynamic supplies and demands in the auction. We theoretically prove that FlexAuc not only maximizes the social welfare but also preserves other nice properties such as truthfulness and computational tractability.