http://hdl.handle.net/2117/3916 2013-05-24T09:52:59Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/18788 Title: Power management in sensing subsystem of wireless multimedia sensor networks Authors: Alaei, Mohammad; Barceló Ordinas, José María Abstract: A wireless sensor network consists of sensor nodes deployed over a geographical area for monitoring physical phenomena like temperature, humidity, vibrations, seismic events, and so on. Typically, a sensor node is a tiny device that includes three basic components: a sensing subsystem for data acquisition from the physical surrounding environment, a processing subsystem for local data processing and storage, and a wireless communication subsystem for data transmission. In addition, a power source supplies the energy needed by the device to perform the programmed task. This power source often consists of a battery with a limited energy budget. In addition, it is usually impossible or inconvenient to recharge the battery, because nodes are deployed in a hostile or unpractical environment. On the other hand, the sensor network should have a lifetime long enough to fulfill the application requirements. Accordingly, energy conservation in nodes and maximization of network lifetime are commonly recognized as a key challenge in the design and implementation of WSNs. Experimental measurements have shown that generally data transmission is very expensive in terms of energy consumption, while data processing consumes significantly less (Raghunathan et al., 2002). The energy cost of transmitting a single bit of information is approximately the same as that needed for processing a thousand operations in a typical sensor node (Pottie & Kaiser, 2000). The energy consumption of the sensing subsystem depends on the specific sensor type. In some cases of scalar sensors, it is negligible with respect to the energy consumed by the processing and, above all, the communication subsystems. In other cases, the energy expenditure for data sensing may be comparable to, or even greater (in the case of multimedia sensing) than the energy needed for data transmission. In general, energy-saving techniques focus on two subsystems: the communication subsystem (i.e., energy management is taken into account in the operations of each single node, as well as in the design of networking protocols), and the sensing subsystem (i.e., techniques are used to reduce the amount or frequency of energy-expensive samples). 2013-04-15T10:50:13Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/18784 Title: Implementing mobile applications with the MIPAMS content management platform Authors: Maroñas Borras, Xavier; Llorente Viejo, Silvia; Rodríguez Luna, Eva; Delgado Mercè, Jaime Abstract: New mobile devices (pda’s, tablets) permit the implementation of new business models as they are always connected and provide multimedia capabilities for capturing images, videos, music or even conversations. Together with an architecture for the secure management and distribution of multimedia content called MIPAMS, we propose a mobile business model with the implementation of a mobile application based on iOS (Apple operating system for mobile devices) for publishing added value content captured with a mobile device. 2013-04-15T09:14:52Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/18201 Title: RSU deployment for content dissemination and downloading in intelligent transportation systems Authors: Reineri, Massimo; Casetti, Claudio; Chiasserini, Carla-Fabiana; Fiore, Marco; Trullols Cruces, Óscar; Barceló Ordinas, José María 2013-03-12T10:50:20Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/18011 Title: Las comunicaciones móviles en los edificios inteligentes Authors: Reyes Muñoz, María Angélica Abstract: Este trabajo presenta una plataforma de red móvil aplicada a los entornos de edificios inteligentes. En primer lugar, los edificios inteligentes han sido definidos como “aquellos que utilizan la tecnología computacional para gestionar de manera autónoma todos los servicios que ofrece un entorno de un edificio tales como optimizar el confort del usuario, el consumo de energía y la seguridad” [Callaghan 00].Desde el punto de vista de las telecomunicaciones específicamente desde el punto de vista de las comunicaciones móviles es muy importante para los edificios inteligentes considerar la comunicación entre sistemas autónomos inteligentes, dispositivos personales inteligentes, gestión de sistemas de información, dispositivos móviles, etc. 2013-02-27T16:31:39Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/16935 Title: Cómo formar ingenieros en informática en la competencia sostenibilidad y compromiso social Authors: Franquesa, David; Cruz Díaz, Josep Llorenç; Álvarez Martínez, Carlos; Sánchez Carracedo, Fermín; Fernández Jiménez, Agustín; López Álvarez, David Abstract: In addition to he technical skills, the new trends in engineering education include the so-called professional skills. These skills are usually hard to teach and to evaluate, and some of them are difficult to include in technical subjects. In this paper, we analyze the "Sustainability and Social Responsibility" skill, an we present several techniques to develop it, both at the comprehension and the application levels according to the Bloom taxonomy. Besides, we also analyze the main requirements in an Educational Institution in order to implement this skill. / En los nuevos planes de estudios hay que desarrollar competencias que resultan novedosas: prácticamente no han sido trabajadas con anterioridad. Cómo enseñarlas y cómo evaluarlas es una preocupación para los diseñadores de los nuevos planes. Este artículo analiza la competencia "Sostenibilidad y Compromiso Social", explicando técnicas para desarrollarla tanto a nivel de comprensión como al de aplicación, según la taxonomía de Bloom, y analiza las condiciones que deben darse en un centro para poder implementar estas técnicas en las asignaturas de su plan de estudios. 2012-11-16T11:04:58Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/16285 Title: A survey of sustainability promotion experiences: the IPSO Project Authors: García Almiñana, Jordi; García-Almiñana, Daniel; Esteban Álvarez, Francisco; Pujadas Garriga, Marta; Navallas Ramos, Francisco Javier; Miralles Marsa, Ramon Abstract: Purpose: This chapter presents the first results of an international survey taken through the IPSO project initiative. The objective of this survey is to identify the experiences of other universities about initiatives to enhance the recognition, support and incentives for teaching and researching in Sustainable Human Development. In addition, the study envisages the identification of staff motivation mechanisms in those universities for an increasing integration of the sustainable development at the academic work. Design/methodology/approach: The survey was sent to approximately 150 universities from all over the world. The form had fourteen short questions, but included some requested open comments and links in order to facilitate an exploratory analysis of the web pages and a deep study of the different areas tackled by the document. Findings: It was possible to observe that many universities are performing a good job on promoting sustainability. Although most initiatives developed by universities are related to incentives, this does not mean that incentives are more important than the adoption of criteria or recognition policies. Incentives are easier to implement than strategies that require a deeper change. However, to be effective, they should be part of a clear and global strategic university policy. Originality/value: This work aims to initiate or improve the dialogue between the existing sustainability initiatives at the universities interested in this topic, providing useful information for a debate about measures and incentives for the teaching and research activities. 2012-07-18T09:35:36Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/16267 Title: Enhancing electronic contracts with semantics: the case of multimedia content distribution Authors: Rodríguez Doncel, Víctor; Delgado Mercè, Jaime Abstract: Multimedia content can be digitally distributed to end users or in B2B transactions. While B2C distribution has been extensively carried out by digital platforms governed by digital licenses, B2B multimedia content exchange has received less attention. The digital licenses for end users have been expressed either in proprietary formats or in standard Rights Expression Languages and they can be seen as the electronic replacement of distribution contracts and end user licenses. However RELs fail to replace the rest of the contracts agreed along the complete Intellectual Property value chain. To represent their corresponding electronic counterpart licenses, an schema based on the Media Value Chain Ontology is presented here. It has been conceived to deal with a broader set of parties, to handle typical clauses found in the audiovisual market contracts, and to govern every transaction performed on IP objects. Contract clauses are modelled as deontic logic propositions, and an event-based system is described to allow a DRM system the execution of the contract. 2012-07-17T09:55:05Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/13867 Title: Rights management in architectures for distributed multimedia content applications Authors: Delgado Mercè, Jaime; Torres Padrosa, Víctor; Llorente Viejo, Silvia; Rodríguez Luna, Eva Abstract: There are several initiatives working in the definition and implementation of distributed architectures that enable the development of distributed multimedia applications on top of them, while offering Digital Rights Management (DRM) features. In this chapter, the main features of the MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM) (ISO/IEC, http://mxm.wg11.sc29.org, 2010) and the new Advanced IPTV terminal (AIT) (ISO/IEC, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29/WG11 N11230, 2010), which together will form a future second edition of the MXM standard (renamed to Multimedia Service Platform Technologies) are presented. On the other hand, the DMAG’s (Distributed Multimedia Applications Group (DMAG), http://dmag.ac.upc.edu, 2010) Multimedia Information Protection and Management System (MIPAMS) (Torres et al., Springer, Heidelberg, 2006) is also presented, highlighting the common ground and differences between MIPAMS and the standards. A set of usage scenarios is also proposed to show how MIPAMS enables the development of applications, on top of it, which deal with the needs of content creators, distributors and consumers according to different business models. 2011-11-11T18:46:51Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/12917 Title: A HW/SW codesign-based reconfigurable environment for telecommunication network simulation Authors: Noguera, Juan José; Badia Sala, Rosa Maria; Domingo Pascual, Jordi; Solé Pareta, Josep Abstract: Sequential network simulation is a high time-consuming application, and with the emergence of global multihop networks and gigabit-per-second links is becoming a challenging problem. A new approach to this open problem is presented, based on HW/SW co-design. A complete modular and scalable reconfigurable system architecture is explained. Most important features of this simulation framework are: (1) efficient and flexible network simulation, and (2) transparent use of the reconfigurable system by telecommunication networks engineers because of the use of a high level network modeling language. 2011-07-11T11:14:56Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10848 Title: Performance impact of the grid middleware Authors: Carrera Pérez, David; Guitart Fernández, Jordi; Beltran Querol, Vicenç; Torres Viñals, Jordi; Ayguadé Parra, Eduard Abstract: The Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) defines a new vision of the Grid based on the use of Web Services (Grid Services). The standard interfaces, behaviors and schemes that are consistent with the OGSA specification are defined by the Open Grid Service Infrastructure (OGSI). Grid Services, as an extension of the Web Services, run on top of rich execution frameworks that make them accessible and interoperable with other applications. Two examples of these frameworks are Sun’s J2EE platform and Microsoft’s .NET. The Globus Project implements the OGSI Specification for the J2EE framework in the Globus Toolkit. As any J2EE application, the performance of the Globus Toolkit is constrained by the performance obtained by the J2EE execution stack This performance can be influenced by many points of the execution stack: operating system, JVM, middleware or the same grid service, without forgetting the processing overheads related to the parsing of the communication protocols. In the scope of this chapter, all this levels together will be referred to as the grid middleware. In order to avoid the grid middleware to become a performance bottleneck for a distributed grid-enabled application, grid nodes have to be tuned for an efficient execution of I/O intensive applications because they can receive a high volume of requests every second and have to deal with a big amount of invocations, message parsing operations and a continuous task of marshaling and unmarshalling service parameters. All the parameters of the system affecting these operations have to be tuned according with the expected system load intensity. A Grid node is connected to to other nodes through a network connection which is also a decisive factor to obtain a high performance for a grid application. If the inter-node data transmission time overlaps completely the processing time for a computational task, the benefits of the grid architecture will be lost. Additionally, in many situations the content exchanged between grid nodes can be considered confidential and should be protected from curious sights. But the cost of data encryption/decryption can be an important performance weak that must be taken into account. In this chapter we will study the process of receiving and executing a Grid job from the perspective of the underlying levels existing below the Grid application. We will analyze the different performance parameters that can influence in the performance of the Grid middleware and will show the general schema of tasks involved in the service of an execution request. 2010-12-30T12:40:45Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10774 Title: A performance overview of quality of service mechanisms in optical burst switching networks Authors: Klinkowski, Miroslaw; Careglio, Davide; Solé Pareta, Josep; Marciniak, Marian Abstract: This Chapter addresses the problem of quality of service (QoS) provisioning in optical burst switching (OBS) networks. OBS is a photonic network technology aiming at efficient transport of IP traffic. The lack of optical memories, however,makes the operation in such networks quite complicated, especially if one wants to guarantee a certain level of service quality. Indeed quality demanding applications such as, for instance, real-time voice and video transmissions, need for additionalmechanisms so that to preserve them from low priority data traffic. In this context the burst blocking probability metric is perhaps of the highest importance in OBS networks. In this Chapter we present a general classification of QoS provisioning methods considered for OBS networks.We study several QoS scenarios that are based on the most referenced QoS mechanisms and we confront their performance in the same evaluation scenario consisting of a single isolated node. Among all the mechanisms analysed, the best overall performance is achieved with a burst preemptive mechanism. Since the preemptive mechanism produces the problem of resources overbooking in the network we address this issue as well. 2010-12-28T10:18:06Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10773 Title: Performance issues in Optical Burst/Packet Switching Authors: Klinkowski, Miroslaw; Careglio, Davide; Aracil Rico, Javier; Azodolmolky, Siamak; García Haro, Juan; Gunreben, Sebastian; Hu, Guoqiang; Izal, Mikel; Kimsas, Andreas; Veiga Gontán, Javier; Tzanakaki, Anna; Tomkos, Ioannis; Spadaro, Salvatore; Scharf, Joachim; Perelló Muntan, Jordi; Pavón Mariño, Pablo; Morató, Daniel; Magaña, Eduardo; Köhn, Martin Abstract: This chapter summarises the activities on optical packet switching (OPS) and optical burst switching (OBS) carried out by the COST 291 partners in the last 4 years. It consists of an introduction, five sections with contributions on five different specific topics, and a final section dedicated to the conclusions. Each section contains an introductive state-of-the-art description of the specific topic and at least one contribution on that topic. The conclusions give some points on the current situation of the OPS/OBS paradigms. 2010-12-28T10:00:49Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10771 Title: Introduction to IP over WDM Authors: Spadaro, Salvatore; Careglio, Davide; Aracil Rico, Javier; Fernández Palacios, Juan; Jajszczyk, Andrzej; Larrabeiti, David; López, Victor; Masip Bruin, Xavier; Sánchez López, Sergio Abstract: The simple idea of having IP traffic directly transported over optical Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology (“Internet Protocol (IP) over WDM”) has been envisioned as the future for the telecommunication infrastructure. The key point in this infrastructure becomes the switching layer between ubiquitous IP-centric networks and WDM physical layer. An intense debate has been ongoing about which model to adopt, aiming at identifying the degree of optical transparency and the proper flexibility of optical interconnection. Expected migration of switching functions from electronic to optics will be gradual, and will take place in several phases. The first phase is presented in this chapter. It is characterised by the use of the wavelength as a switching granularity; the terms optical circuit switching (Optical Circuit Switching (OCS)), wavelength switching and wavelength routed network are commonly and indifferently used. 2010-12-28T09:39:34Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10750 Title: SLA-based resource management and allocation Authors: Guitart Fernández, Jordi; Macías Lloret, Mario; Rana, Omer; Wieder, Philipp; Yahyapour, Ramin; Ziegler, Wolfgang Abstract: The aim of the chapter is to describe how service-level agreements (SLAs) could be utilized to provide the basis for resource trading based on economic models. SLAs enable a service user to identify their requirements, and a provider to identify their capabilities. Subsequently, the terms in an SLA are necessary to ensure that mutually agreeable quality is being delivered by the provider according to the agreement. The use of service-level agreements (SLAs) in a resource management system to support Grid computing applications is described. To this end, we provide an architecture that supports the creation and management of SLAs. The architecture of the system, in terms of the components and their interactions, is first presented, followed by a description of the specific requirements for a marketoriented Grid economy. We use SLAs as a means to support reliable quality of service for Grid jobs. The creation of such an SLA requires planning and orchestration mechanisms. We will discuss these functionalities and also consider the economic aspects such as dynamic pricing and negotiation mechanisms. These mechanisms are necessary to enable SLA formation and use, and to ensure that an SLA is being adhered to during service provision. 2010-12-27T09:44:47Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10726 Title: Extended resource management using client classification and economic enhancements Authors: Püschel, Tim; Borissov, Nikolay; Neumann, Dirk; Macías Lloret, Mario; Guitart Fernández, Jordi; Torres Viñals, Jordi Abstract: Commercialization of computing resources will become more and more important as the transition from Grid computing in academic environments to commercial services based on concepts such as utility or Cloud computing progresses. This results in the necessity to not only base components on technical aspects, but also to include economical aspects in their design. This paper presents a framework that links technical and economical aspects to the management of computational resources. Economic enhancements like dynamic pricing and client classification are introduced based on a technical resource management environment and positioned within this resulting in a proposed architecture for an Economically Enhanced Resource Manager (EERM). The introduced approach is evaluated considering various economic design criteria and example scenarios. 2010-12-23T10:39:22Z