Software Routers Research Articles

Simulation-Based Assessment of Hyperconnected Megacity Parcel Logistics

Background: The concept of Hyperconnected Megacity Parcel Logistics (HMPL) was introduced in 2018 and aims to enhance the efficiency, responsiveness, resilience, and sustainability of parcel movements in megacities. However, evaluating such fundamental solutions presents challenges and requires a comprehensive understanding of all stakeholders and decisions involved. Methods: This study introduces a discrete-event agent-based simulation platform that encompasses critical stakeholders and addresses various levels of decision-making. This platform provides an opportunity to evaluate key decisions within an HMPL structure. Results: To demonstrate the capability of the simulator, we assess the impact of package routing and consolidation strategies facilitated by HMPL compared to traditional practices. Preliminary findings suggest that increased interconnection among nodes in HMPL reduces transit times, thereby enabling tighter customer delivery services. However, examining different consolidation heuristics reveals potential trade-offs between handling and shipping costs under fixed shipment schedules, prompting further investigation into dynamic shipment services. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that the benefits of innovative approaches in a complex environment, such as parcel logistics, cannot be evaluated in isolation from other decisions. Accurate assessment of the ultimate outcomes and underlying trade-offs requires multi-faceted models that incorporate all key variables.

AN ENGINEERED SYSTEM FOR SOLID WASTE COLLECTION IN SAMARU, ZARIA, NIGERIA

Solid waste includes all materials that are firm and stable in shape including semisolid materials that are no longer considered of sufficient value to be retained in a given setting. Solid waste generation rates and patterns within the study area were mapped out through GPS, Google route software, AutoCAD, ArcGIS, GPS, Route optimization software, measuring tape, Marker, Containers of equal volume, Record book, Calculator, and Stopwatch. Eleven sacks were used to collect solid waste from eleven different households daily within three months of the wet and dry seasons of the year. The highest average volume of solid waste generated per household per week in Samaru was in the dry season =0.25 m3. The dry season witnesses a substantial volume of 0.206 m³ for garbage organic materials, constituting 66.45% of the total composition. In the wet season, this volume remains significant at 0.104 m³, accounting for 61.18% of the total composition. The highest percentage of organic materials (garbage) during both seasons suggests a need for improved organic waste management. The minimum allowable capacity of the solid waste collection containers for the designed system is 10 m3 considering a minimum of two containers per city block

Development of Wafer Level Package Platform for High Reliability Crossover MCUs

Fan in and fan out wafer level packages are primarily used in the industry for applications in handheld consumer electronic products. The key benefits of wafer level package (WLP) are small form factor, reduced cost, improved electrical and thermal performance. WLP investigated in this study are directly surface mounted on PCB and have no intermediate substrate. Direct mount of package on PCB, leads to significant CTE mismatch between the package and board which stresses the package solder joint, leading to cyclic fatigue induced solder joint cracking. To overcome the solder joint cracking, stiffer solder alloys have been evaluated. However, higher stiffness of the solder alloy shifts the cyclic stress induced failure, from the solder joint to the package metal interconnect layers. Moreover, WLP on advanced silicon node have fragile low-k and extremely low-k back end of line dielectric layers that also crack or delaminate in cyclic fatigue. In this work extensive WLP platform development has been done with following DOE variables; multi-layer package routing, dielectric materials, solder alloys, solder ball pitch and diameter. Developed packages passed and outperformed the following product reliability qualification conditions: high temperature storage life (150°C, 2000 hours), highly accelerated stress test (110°C / 85%RH / Bias, 528 hours), application level temperature cycling ((-40 °C to 125 °C, 600 cycles), board level temperature cycling (-40 °C to 125 °C, 500 cycles) and board level drop test (1500g/0.5ms, 30 drops). Excellent reliability, functional performance, and successful chip package integration was achieved for WLP for crossover MCU products.

National Beef Quality Audit-2022 Phase 1: face-to-face and digital interviews.

The National Beef Quality Audit (NBQA) has been conducted regularly since 1991 to assess and benchmark quality in the U.S. beef industry, with the most recent iteration conducted in 2022. The goal of NBQA Phase I is to evaluate what needs to be managed to improve beef quality anddemand. Interviews (n = 130) of industry personnel were conducted with the aid of routing software. In total, packers (n = 24), retailers (n = 20), further processors (n = 26), foodservice (n = 18), and allied government agencies and trade organizations (n = 42) were interviewed. Interviews were routed in software based on interviewee involvement in either the fed steer and heifer market cow and bull sectors, or both. Interviews were structured to elicit random responses in the order of determining "must-have" criteria (quality factors that are required to make a purchase), best/worst ranking (of quality factors based on importance), how interviewees defined quality terms, a strength, weakness, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis, general beef industry questions, and sustainability goals (the latter four being open-ended). Quality factors were 1) visual characteristics, 2) cattle genetics, 3) food safety, 4) eating satisfaction, 5) animal well-being, 6) weight and size, and 7) lean, fat, and bone. Best/worst analysis revealed that "food safety" was the most (P < 0.05) important factor in beef purchasing decisions for all market sectors and frequently was described as "everything" and "a way of business." Culture surrounding food safety changed compared to previous NBQAs with interviewees no longer considering food safety as a purchasing criterion, but rather as a market expectation. The SWOT analysis indicated that "eating quality of U.S. beef" was the greatest strength, and cited that educating both consumers and producers on beef production would benefit the industry. Irrespective of whether companies' products were fed or market cow/bull beef, respondents said that they believed "environmental concerns" were among the major threats to the industry. Perceived image of the beef industry in the market sectors has improved since NBQA-2016 for both fed cattle and market cow/bull beef.

Developing a Novel Hierarchical VPLS Architecture Using Q-in-Q Tunneling in Router and Switch Design

Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS) is an ethernet-based Virtual Private Network (VPN) service that provides multipoint-to-multipoint Layer 2 VPN service, where each site is geographically dispersed across a Wide Area Network (WAN). The adaptability and scalability of VPLS are limited despite the fact that they provide a flexible solution for connecting geographically dispersed sites. Furthermore, the construction of tunnels connecting customer locations that are separated by great distances adds a substantial amount of latency to the user traffic transportation. To address these issues, a novel Hierarchical VPLS (H-VPLS) architecture has been developed using 802.1Q tunneling (also known as Q-in-Q) on high-speed and commodity routers to satisfy the additional requirements of new VPLS applications. The Vector Packet Processing (VPP) performs as the router’s data plane, and FRRouting (FRR), an open-source network routing software suite, acts as the router’s control plane. The router is designed to seamlessly forward VPLS packets using the Request For Comments (RFCs) 4762, 4446, 4447, 4448, and 4385 from The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) integrated with VPP. In addition, the Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) is used for Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) Pseudo-Wire (PW) signaling in FRR. The proposed mechanism has been implemented on a software-based router in the Linux environment and tested for its functionality, signaling, and control plane processes. The router is also implemented on commodity hardware for testing the functionality of VPLS in the real world. Finally, the analysis of the results verifies the efficiency of the proposed mechanism in terms of throughput, latency, and packet loss ratio.

Online Videos Regarding Relevant Postoperative Patient Information and Postoperative Rehabilitation After Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair Provide Poor Information Quality, Accuracy, and Reliability

To evaluate the information quality, accuracy, and reliability of YouTube videos regarding relevant postoperative patient information and postoperative rehabilitation after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. By use of The Onion Router (TOR) software and predefined search terms, 102 videos were assessed. Four scoring systems were used to evaluate included videos: (1) Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria score; (2) Global Quality Score (GQS); (3) DISCERN score; and (4) a newly developed score, the Rotator Cuff Score (RCS). The RCS (0-30 points) was built based on the latest published evidence and guidelines from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Videos that scored up to 9 points were regarded as poor-quality videos. Most of the included videos provided poor information quality, accuracy, and reliability. Videos that were uploaded by medically trained professionals showed significantly better results for all scores compared with commercial or personal-testimony videos (JAMA benchmark criteria score, P < .001; GQS, P < .001; DISCERN score, P= .001; and RCS, P= .001). Multivariate linear regression showed that the involvement of medically trained professionals was a significant predictor of better results for all scores (JAMA benchmark criteria score, β= 1.496 [P < .001]; GQS, β= 1.105 [P < .001]; DISCERN score, β= 11.234 [P < .001]; and RCS, β= 5.017 [P < .001]). Surprisingly, the like ratio was significantly higher for videos that were uploaded by non-medically trained individuals (P= .041). The average information quality, accuracy, and reliability of YouTube videos regarding relevant postoperative patient information and postoperative rehabilitation after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair are poor. Videos from medically trained professionals provide significantly higher information quality; however, even these videos lack important information for a better understanding of arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. Because of the lack of a peer-review process, available videos on YouTube regarding relevant postoperative patient information and postoperative rehabilitation after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair are of low quality, accuracy, and reliability. However, patients increasingly visit YouTube to gather medical knowledge. Physicians should enlighten patients about these findings and should be able to provide alternative sources of high-quality information.

A model for optimal bus routes packaging in a competitive contracting environment: A case study of Tehran

Transit authorities often prefer to outsource the bus routes to the private sector through a competitive tendering or negotiation procedure. A major challenge for decision-makers in this area is the optimal arrangement of routes among contracts which directly impacts the operating costs, labor costs, vehicle resources, level of competition between private operators, required subsidy, contract price, and system efficiency. Therefore, this study proposes a new model to find optimal route packages considering the parameters including package size, package revenue, the geographic distribution of routes, and terminal locations. The methodology relies on a genetic algorithm equipped with innovative methods, making it applicable to large-scale urban networks. We programmed both the model and the solution approach in C++ programming language and applied them to the city of Tehran as a real case study, which involved 169 routes and 2,215 bus fleets. In the main scenario, 10 packages were identified and compared with the current packages. The results demonstrated a 7.6% reduction in revenue deviation among the packages, indicating improved balance. Additionally, the routes within each package exhibited geographical concentration, aligning with the common terminal approach. By applying the proposed methodology to the bus network in Tehran, the study highlights the potential of the model in outsourcing bus routes to the private sector in similar real-world practices. It is worth noting that the Tehran Bus Organization has utilized the proposed packages derived from this study in their recent tender processes. Evaluation of the new packages' effectiveness demonstrated a notable decrease of 17% in average bid prices. This reduction directly corresponds to a decrease in operating costs and the required subsidy.

Assessing the potential of cycling growth in Toronto, Canada

Cycling is seen as a desirable modal choice due to the environmental, economic and social benefits to individuals and cities. While North American cities have expanded their targeted infrastructure and programs, cycling still is a marginal mode compared to modal shares observed in western Europe. In an effort to promote a more sustainable transport future, the City of Toronto has highlighted two key policy objectives in the City’s Official Plan for 2050: (i) to ensure that all residents are within one kilometer of a designated cycling route, and (ii) 75% of trips under 5 km are walked or cycled. This paper evaluates the potential for cycling in Toronto considering different cycling vehicles, areas, trip purposes and demographics, and how these change given the presence of cycling infrastructure. Using travel survey data and routing software, we propose a method to analyze the Trip Completion Potential (TCP) of cycling, defined as the rate of completable trips within a 30-minute travel time cutoff and the changes in value given different Levels of Traffic Stress (LTS). Overall, our analysis found that cycling can be a viable transport option for short and medium-length trips for many individuals and trip purposes. However, both the urban form and provision of a convenient cycling network play a vital role, especially in suburban areas, as seen in the decrease in TCP of cycling at different LTS levels. We conclude our analysis by proposing some key guidelines to achieve the objectives defined by the City of Toronto in an equitable manner.

Minimum Time Sailing Boat Path Algorithm

An iterative procedure to solve the nonlinear problem of fastest-path sailing vessel routing in an environment with variable winds and currents is proposed. In the routing of a sailing vessel, the primary control variable is the pointing (heading) of the vessel (assuming that the sails are chosen and trimmed optimally). Sailing vessel routing is highly nonlinear when considering environmental factors, such as winds and currents, and the behavior of the boat, given the weather conditions (i.e., polar diagrams that predict how fast one can sail, given the vessel's pointing relative to the true wind and the wind speed). The key algorithmic contribution of this article is a fastest-path algorithm for graphs with nonconvex edge costs that depend on weather, current, and boat polars. An illustrative scenario, with idealized weather attributes, and a real-world scenario, with parameters generated by numerical weather and current prediction models, are simulated and tested to compare the proposed algorithm against open-source routing software validated by active sailors. Preliminary results from the simulation setups tested are as follows: 1) the proposed sailing boat path algorithm is comparable to the open-source software available; and 2) exploiting the often unused but significant impactor of surface currents and incorporating leeway into sailing boat path planning enables higher fidelity guidance and faster (i.e., shorter time) routes, in comparing against the freely available baseline.

LossDetection: Real-Time Packet Loss Monitoring System for Sampled Traffic Data

Packet loss is common in networks, which leads to network quality of service degradation. Packet loss is an essential and concerning symptom when the quality of service is degraded. Therefore, real-time passive packet loss detection is conducive to estimating network services. Existing passive packet loss detection methods mainly study the packet loss for TCP using header information from full traffic. However, it cannot infer packet loss status for UDP due to its limited header information and is too costly to perform full acquisition in real networks. To address these problems, we propose a framework called LossDetection based on packet sampling and Feature-Sketch to detect packet loss in real time for both TCP and UDP. The result shows that our methodology can detect packet loss with an accuracy of 98%-100% at a sampling rate of 1/16. Furthermore, our extensive evaluation demonstrates that LossDetection is easy to implement in a software router and achieves low memory and detection latency while providing real-time information about packet loss.

Software-Defined Networks and Named Data Networks in Vehicular Ad Hoc Network Routing: Comparative Study and Future Directions

Routing protocols are an essential component of vehicular ad hoc networks. Software-defined networks and name data networks are new aspects of routing that are coming to the fore as Vehicular Ad Hoc Network technology evolves. Data Network-based VANET routing protocols and Software Defined Network-based VANET routing protocols have been developed in recent research. These newly developed protocols must be part of VANET routing protocol surveys. The taxonomy of traditional routing protocols must take these innovations into account. To the best of our knowledge, no such taxonomy exists at the moment. We present a new taxonomy of routing protocols based on the additional routing aspects of Software-Defined Networks and Named Data Networks. All traditional routing protocols are kept in a single category. This research work aims to update the existing taxonomy of routing protocols with the newly adopted aspects of research in routing. Advanced routing schemes are selected for the survey from each category to evaluate new research results in VANET routing. This article also describes future directions for VANET/ITS routing research.

CrowdExpress: A Probabilistic Framework for On-Time Crowdsourced Package Deliveries

Most of current urban logistic systems fail to strike a nice trade-off between speed and cost. An express logistic service often implies a high delivery cost. Crowdsourced logistics is a promising solution to alleviating such contradiction. In this article, we propose a new form of crowdsourced logistics that organizes passengers and packages in a shared room, i.e., using taxis that are already transporting passengers as package hitchhikers to achieve on-time deliveries. It is well-recognized that taxi drivers are good at delivering passengers to their destinations efficiently. As a result, the proposed new urban logistics system has potentials to lower the cost and accelerate package deliveries simultaneously. Specifically, we propose a probabilistic framework containing two phases called CrowdExpress for the on-time package express service. In the first phase, we mine the historical taxi GPS trajectory data <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">offline</i> to build the package transport network. In the second phase, we develop an <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">online</i> taxi scheduling algorithm to adaptively discover the path with the maximum arriving-on-time probability “on-the-fly” upon real-time passenger-sending requests, and direct the package routing accordingly. Finally, we evaluate the system using the real-world taxi data generated by over 19,000 taxis in a month in the city of New York, US. Results show that around 9,500 packages can be successfully delivered daily on time with the success rate over 94 percent.

GIS- and ICPR-Based Approach to Sustainable Urban Drainage Practices: Case Study of a Development Site in Florida

Stormwater control is an urgent concern in cities where the increased impervious surface has disrupted natural hydrology, particularly causing a reduction in groundwater recharge which is the source of potable water supply for many communities. Water managers are increasingly turning towards infiltration-based stormwater management options (ISMOs) to help minimize flooding and mitigate the impact of urbanization on the local hydrologic systems. This paper offers a unique hydrologic and hydraulic (H&amp;H) modeling approach using the Geographic Information System (GIS) and Interconnected Pond and Channel Routing (ICPR) software to help quantify the associated flood stage and groundwater recharge benefits of using ISMOs. The proposed approach incorporated ICPR percolation links and utilization of the curve number and Green-Ampt infiltration methods into the case study design, as well as an analysis of the effectiveness of including low-impact development practices. This analysis shows a 13–36% reduction in stormwater volume leaving the proposed site when percolation links were utilized to account for percolation from the proposed ISMOs. These reduction provides an indirect estimate of groundwater recharge benefits. The conversion from impervious parking to a pervious one and inclusion of rainwater harvesting from the roof area resulted in a further reduction in peak stages ranging from 1.20 to 7.62 cm.

Implementation Paper on Personalized Travel Recommendation by Mining People Attributes

Abstract: The recommendation system has growth choices in recent years. The recommendation system is existing in many applications which gives online travel information for individual travel package. A new model named travel recommendation using data mining techniques which extracts the features like locations, travel seasons of various landscapes. Thus, it possesses the material of the travel packages and interests of tourists. Further extending E-TRAST model with the tourist-relation-area season topic model includes relationship with tourists. It includes mining significant tourist locations based on the user search trajectories of users on web and also derives a personalized travel algorithm recommendation system using travelogues and users contributed photos with metadata of this photo by comparing existing different technique. To suggest personalized POI sequence, first famous routes are stratified as per the similarity between user package and route package. Keywords: Travel package, recommender systems, cocktail, topic modeling, and collaborative filtering

Graph Based Personalized Travel Recommendation Using Data Mining Technique Collaborative Filtering Algorithm

Abstract: The recommendation system has growth choices in recent years. The recommendation system is exist in many applications which gives online travel information for individual travel package. A new model named travel recommendation using data mining techniques which extracts the features like locations, travel seasons of various landscapes. Thus it possesses the material of the travel packages and interests of tourists. Further extending E-TRAST model with the tourist-relation-area season topic model includes relationship with tourists. It includes mining significant tourist locations based on the user search trajectories of users on web and also derives a personalized travel algorithm recommendation system using travelogues and users contributed photos with metadata of this photo by comparing existing different technique. To suggest personalized POI sequence, first famous routes are stratified as per the similarity between user package and route package. Keywords: Travel package, recommender systems, cocktail, topic modeling, and collaborative filtering

Study of Hybrid Propulsion Systems for Lower Emissions and Fuel Saving on Merchant Ship during Voyage

The hybrid propulsion system is a vehicle propulsion system with two or more sources of propulsion such as diesel, batteries, and other renewable energy. The use of hybrid propulsion systems is not new, and they have been adopted worldwide. There are many applications for hybrid propulsion systems, from powering land-based vehicles to marine vessels. With the success of hybrid propulsion systems, many large vessels still rely on two-stroke engines for power generation. In this paper, the benefits and feasibility of using battery systems or hybridizing existing conventional two-stroke engines onboard large intercontinental vessels is studied and simulated. The merchant ship, a bulk carrier with 82,000 deadweight tonnage capacity, is used. The model vessel travels along a simulated route of up to 4000 nautical miles using weather routing software to generate data for estimating emissions with the help of widely adopted empirical formulas. A reduction of up to 3.4 tonnes of emissions and fuel consumption of not more than 1 tonne per kWh from peak shaving and boosting applications for a 12-day voyage were observed.

Impact of a Medical Clinic Relocation on Travel Time: A Tale of 2 Modes of Transportation.

The aim of this study was to quantify access disparities by examining the impact of a medical clinic relocation on travel time differences for patients using private cars versus public transit. Longitude and latitude of patient home addresses were extracted from electronic medical records for the 4 years before the clinic move. Using offline, open-source, and HIPAA-compliant routing software, roundtrip travel times were computed from each home address to the old and new clinic locations via car and bus. Mean roundtrip travel time by a car changed from 41.3 (IQR 16.1-80.7) to 45.4 (IQR 25.9-78.1) minutes, a 9.9% increase. Mean roundtrip travel time by public transit changed from 67.5 (IQR 51.5-100.2) to 120.8 (100.3-156.1) minutes, a 78.9% increase. Even clinic relocations that minimally impact car travel times can nevertheless yield substantial changes to those traveling by public transit. Clinics and health systems that wish to reduce barriers to accessing health care, especially among those already facing structural inequities, would benefit from utilizing the analytic approach described here.

Fusion of travel time data in Niayesh tunnel using Bayesian inference

As data collection costs decrease, transportation systems have shifted from systems requiring data to systems requiring data analysis. Since the accuracy of these data varies with the sources of data collection, acquiring higher-accuracy data from a combination of multiple sources is the main challenge of working with such data. Data fusion is a very efficient mechanism that can interconnect data from different sources to increase the accuracy of data in line with the purpose of the study. The main goal of this article is to get the most accurate travel time possible from multiple sources. Among the data fusion methods are the Kalman filter, Bayesian inference, artificial neural networks and Dumpster-Scheffer theory, from which the Bayesian inference is used and its results are investigated. It is proposed that by combining different data sources with different temporal and spatial coverage, the most accurate travel time with maximum spatial and temporal coverage would be achieved. The Niayesh tunnel in Tehran was selected as a case study, where extensive equipment for intelligent transportation systems is installed. In this study, considering the possibility of simultaneous access to multiple data sources at the same location, the following source, Google travel time data, Bluetooth travel time data and Inductive loop detectors, were fused. The improved travel time can increase the accuracy of travel time costs in transportation planning, information on variable message signs and routing software.

Stigmergic electronic gates and networks

Stigmergy is a communication method based on changing the surrounding environment according to reference feedbacks. It is typical within animal colonies that are able to process even complex information by releasing signals into the environment, which are subsequently received and processed by other elements of the colony. For example, ants searching for food leave traces of a pheromone, like Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumbs, along the way. When food is found, they return to the anthill reinforcing this pheromone trace as a signal and reminder to all the others. Similar techniques are used in routing software even if stigmergic hardware might be even more efficient, fast, and energy saving. Recently, a stigmergic photonic gate based on soliton waveguides has been proposed; this particular stigmergic hardware can switch the output ratio of the channels as a result of optical feedback. Based on these results, in this study, we analyze stigmergic electronic gates that can be addressed through external feedback, as the photonic ones do. We show that the nonlinear response of such gates must be based on quadratic saturating conductances driven by feedback signals. For this purpose, networks of stigmergic gates require two parallel and communicating current circuits: one to transmit information, and another for feedback signals to control the gate switching. We also show that by increasing the number of terminals per single gate, from 2 × 2 to 3 × 3 or higher, the overall power consumption can be reduced by a few orders of magnitude.

FlowFight: High performance–low memory top-[formula omitted] spreader detection

A recurring task in security monitoring/anomaly detection applications consists in finding the so-called top “spreaders” (“scanners”), for instance hosts which connect to a large number of distinct destinations or hit different ports. Estimating the top k scanners, and their cardinality, using the least amount of memory meanwhile running at multi-Gbps speed, is a non trivial task, as it requires to “remember” the destinations or ports already contacted in the past by each specific host. This paper proposes and assesses an innovative design, called FlowFight. As the name implies, our approach revolves on the idea of deploying a relatively small number of per-flow HyperLogLog approximate counters — only slightly superior to the target k — and involve the potentially huge number of concurrent flows in a sort of dynamic randomized “competition” for entering such set. The algorithm has been tested and integrated in a full-fledged software router such as Vector Packet Processor. Using either synthetic or real traffic traces, we show that FlowFight is able to estimate the top-k cardinality flows with an accuracy of more than 95%, while retaining a processing throughput of around 8 Mpps on a single core. We further show that FlowFight achieves same accuracy of the state of the art competitor SpreadSketch using 10x times less memory with 1.2x times higher throughput.