Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Next-generation network (NGN)'

ITC/USA 2005 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-First Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2005 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
In NGN, the open interfaces and the IP protocol make the hazard of security aspect increased accordingly. Thereby, it is a very important premise for NGN network operation to afford a good secure media stream communication. In this paper, we will present a secure media stream communication for NGN. Then we will discuss the three parts of the media stream secure communication——media stream source authentication, secret key negotiation and distribution; media stream encryption/decryption in detail. It can effectively realize media stream end-to-end secure communication. Meanwhile, it also makes use of the expanding of former protocol during the secret key negotiation process.

L’émergence et l’évolution des réseaux de nouvelles génération (NGN) a soulevé plusieurs défis surtout en termes d’hétérogénéité, de mobilité et de sécurité. En effet, l’utilisateur est capable, dans un tel environnement, d’avoir accès à plusieurs réseaux, à travers différents terminaux, avec un choix vaste de services fournis par différents fournisseurs. De plus, les utilisateurs finaux demandent à être constamment connectés n’importe où, n’importe quand et n’importe comment. Ils désirent également avoir un accès sécurisé à leurs services à travers une session dynamique, seamless et continue selon leurs préférences et la QoS demandée. Dans ce contexte, la sécurité représente une composante majeure. Face à cette session user-centric sécurisée, plusieurs défis se posent. L’environnement est de plus en plus ouvert, de multiples services ne sont pas connus d’avance et nous avons une diversité de communications entre les services et les utilisateurs. L’hétérogénéité des ressources (terminaux, réseaux et services) impliquées dans la session de l’utilisateur accentue la complexité des tâches de sécurité. Les différentes déclinaisons de mobilité (mobilité de l’utilisateur, mobilité du terminal, mobilité du réseau et mobilité du service) modifient la session user-centric que l’on veut unique, sécurisée et seamless avec la délivrance d’un service continu
The emergence and evolution of Next Generation Networks (NGN) have raised several challenges mainly in terms of heterogeneity, mobility and security. In fact, the user is able, in such environment, to have access to many networks, via multiple devices, with a vast choice of services offered by different providers. Furthermore, end-users claim to be constantly connected anywhere, anytime and anyhow. Besides, they want to have a secure access to their services through a dynamic, seamless and continuous session according to their preferences and the desired QoS. In this context, security represents an important concern. In fact, this user-centric session should obviously be secured. However, many challenges arise. In such environment, system boundaries, which were well delimited, become increasingly open. Indeed, there are multiple services which are unknown in advance and multiple communications between services and with users. Besides, heterogeneity of involved resources (terminals, networks and services) in the user session increases the complexity of security tasks. In addition, the different types of mobility (user, terminal, network and service mobility) affect the user-centric session that should be unique, secure and seamless and ensure continuity of services

The concept of Next Generation Network NGN (Next Generation Network), which uses TCP / IP technology as a basis for building multiservice networks, gives the operator great opportunities to organize a virtually unlimited number of services. But at the same time it sets new challenges in terms of creating and implementing new methods of traffic service. The struggle for resources affects the quality of service for all types of traffic, including IPTV traffic. The modern model of differentiated service provides for the division of traffic into classes with giving them different priorities in service. The problem of establishing priorities for different types of traffic was solved by the method of reducing individual quality indicators to a generalized value function of the additive type using weights.

L’émergence et l’évolution des réseaux de nouvelles génération (NGN) a soulevé plusieurs défis surtout en termes d’hétérogénéité, de mobilité et de sécurité. En effet, l’utilisateur est capable, dans un tel environnement, d’avoir accès à plusieurs réseaux, à travers différents terminaux, avec un choix vaste de services fournis par différents fournisseurs. De plus, les utilisateurs finaux demandent à être constamment connectés n’importe où, n’importe quand et n’importe comment. Ils désirent également avoir un accès sécurisé à leurs services à travers une session dynamique, seamless et continue selon leurs préférences et la QoS demandée. Dans ce contexte, la sécurité représente une composante majeure. Face à cette session user-centric sécurisée, plusieurs défis se posent. L’environnement est de plus en plus ouvert, de multiples services ne sont pas connus d’avance et nous avons une diversité de communications entre les services et les utilisateurs. L’hétérogénéité des ressources (terminaux, réseaux et services) impliquées dans la session de l’utilisateur accentue la complexité des tâches de sécurité. Les différentes déclinaisons de mobilité (mobilité de l’utilisateur, mobilité du terminal, mobilité du réseau et mobilité du service) modifient la session user-centric que l’on veut unique, sécurisée et seamless avec la délivrance d’un service continu
The emergence and evolution of Next Generation Networks (NGN) have raised several challenges mainly in terms of heterogeneity, mobility and security. In fact, the user is able, in such environment, to have access to many networks, via multiple devices, with a vast choice of services offered by different providers. Furthermore, end-users claim to be constantly connected anywhere, anytime and anyhow. Besides, they want to have a secure access to their services through a dynamic, seamless and continuous session according to their preferences and the desired QoS. In this context, security represents an important concern. In fact, this user-centric session should obviously be secured. However, many challenges arise. In such environment, system boundaries, which were well delimited, become increasingly open. Indeed, there are multiple services which are unknown in advance and multiple communications between services and with users. Besides, heterogeneity of involved resources (terminals, networks and services) in the user session increases the complexity of security tasks. In addition, the different types of mobility (user, terminal, network and service mobility) affect the user-centric session that should be unique, secure and seamless and ensure continuity of services

Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) est un réseau conceptuel construit sur des réseaux physiques existantes. Il se sert des données détectées et fournit des services de connaissances à quiconque, n'importe où et à tout moment, et où l'information est générée en utilisant la sensibilité au contexte. Dispositifs et USN portables intelligents émergent rapidement en offrant de nombreux services fiables facilitant la vie des gens. Ces petits terminaux et terminaux très utiles besoin d'un substrat de communication globale pour fournir un service complet de l'utilisateur final global. En 2010, ITU -T a fourni les exigences pour supporter des applications et services USN dans le Next Generation Network (NGN) de l'environnement d'exploiter les avantages du réseau de base. L'un des principaux marchés prometteurs pour l'application et les services USN est la e- santé. Il fournit le suivi des patients en continu et permet une grande amélioration dans les services médicaux. D'autre part, des Véhicules Ad-hoc NETwork (VANET) est une technologie émergente qui permet une communication intelligente entre les véhicules mobiles. Intégrer VANET avec USN a un grand potentiel pour améliorer la sécurité routière et la fluidité du trafic. La plupart des applications VANET sont appliqués en temps réel et ils sont sensibles à retarder, en particulier ceux liés à la sécurité et à la santé. Dans ce travail, nous proposons d'utiliser l'IP Multimédia Subsystem (IMS) comme une sous- couche de contrôle de service dans l'environnement USN fournir un substrat mondiale pour un service complet de bout en bout. De plus, nous vous proposons d'intégrer VANETs avec USN pour des applications et des installations riches plus, ce qui facilitera la vie des humains. Nous avons commencé à étudier les défis sur la route pour atteindre cet objectif
Ubiquités Sensor Network (USN) is a conceptual network built over existing physical networks. It makes use of sensed data and provides knowledge services to anyone, anywhere and at anytime, and where the information is generated by using context awareness. Smart wearable devices and USNs are emerging rapidly providing many reliable services facilitating people life. Those very useful small end terminals and devices require a global communication substrate to provide a comprehensive global end user service. In 2010, the ITU-T provided the requirements to support USN applications and services in the Next Génération Network (NGN) environment to exploit the advantages of the core network. One of the main promising markets for the USN application and services is the e-Health. It provides continuous patients’ monitoring and enables a great improvement in medical services. On the other hand, Vehicular Ad-Hoc NETwork (VANET) is an emerging technology, which provides intelligent communication between mobile vehicles. Integrating VANET with USN has a great potential to improve road safety and traffic efficiency. Most VANET applications are applied in real time and they are sensitive to delay, especially those related to safety and health. In this work, we propose to use IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as a service controller sub-layer in the USN environment providing a global substrate for a comprehensive end-to-end service. Moreover, we propose to integrate VANETs with USN for more rich applications and facilities, which will ease the life of humans. We started studying the challenges on the road to achieve this goal

Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) est un réseau conceptuel construit sur des réseaux physiques existantes. Il se sert des données détectées et fournit des services de connaissances à quiconque, n'importe où et à tout moment, et où l'information est générée en utilisant la sensibilité au contexte. Dispositifs et USN portables intelligents émergent rapidement en offrant de nombreux services fiables facilitant la vie des gens. Ces petits terminaux et terminaux très utiles besoin d'un substrat de communication globale pour fournir un service complet de l'utilisateur final global. En 2010, ITU -T a fourni les exigences pour supporter des applications et services USN dans le Next Generation Network (NGN) de l'environnement d'exploiter les avantages du réseau de base. L'un des principaux marchés prometteurs pour l'application et les services USN est la e- santé. Il fournit le suivi des patients en continu et permet une grande amélioration dans les services médicaux. D'autre part, des Véhicules Ad-hoc NETwork (VANET) est une technologie émergente qui permet une communication intelligente entre les véhicules mobiles. Intégrer VANET avec USN a un grand potentiel pour améliorer la sécurité routière et la fluidité du trafic. La plupart des applications VANET sont appliqués en temps réel et ils sont sensibles à retarder, en particulier ceux liés à la sécurité et à la santé. Dans ce travail, nous proposons d'utiliser l'IP Multimédia Subsystem (IMS) comme une sous- couche de contrôle de service dans l'environnement USN fournir un substrat mondiale pour un service complet de bout en bout. De plus, nous vous proposons d'intégrer VANETs avec USN pour des applications et des installations riches plus, ce qui facilitera la vie des humains. Nous avons commencé à étudier les défis sur la route pour atteindre cet objectif
Ubiquités Sensor Network (USN) is a conceptual network built over existing physical networks. It makes use of sensed data and provides knowledge services to anyone, anywhere and at anytime, and where the information is generated by using context awareness. Smart wearable devices and USNs are emerging rapidly providing many reliable services facilitating people life. Those very useful small end terminals and devices require a global communication substrate to provide a comprehensive global end user service. In 2010, the ITU-T provided the requirements to support USN applications and services in the Next Génération Network (NGN) environment to exploit the advantages of the core network. One of the main promising markets for the USN application and services is the e-Health. It provides continuous patients’ monitoring and enables a great improvement in medical services. On the other hand, Vehicular Ad-Hoc NETwork (VANET) is an emerging technology, which provides intelligent communication between mobile vehicles. Integrating VANET with USN has a great potential to improve road safety and traffic efficiency. Most VANET applications are applied in real time and they are sensitive to delay, especially those related to safety and health. In this work, we propose to use IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as a service controller sub-layer in the USN environment providing a global substrate for a comprehensive end-to-end service. Moreover, we propose to integrate VANETs with USN for more rich applications and facilities, which will ease the life of humans. We started studying the challenges on the road to achieve this goal

La capacité à assurer la mobilité sans couture avec une E2E QoS sera capitale pour la réussite du NGN (Next Generation Network). Pour ce faire, les verrous à lever que nous avons relevés dans cette thèse se positionnent à l’interconnexion de trois domaines, à savoir : les mobilités, l’hétérogénéité et les préférences utilisateur. Notre première proposition d’ordres organisationnel et fonctionnel, pour laquelle nous préconisons la convergence des trois plans (user, contrôle et gestion) et les fonctionnalités associées. Ainsi nous obtenons une QoS dynamique pour satisfaire l’approche orientée «User-Centric ». Afin de mettre en œuvre la E2E QoS incluant la personnalisation dans la session «User-Centric», nous avons proposé une «Signalisation dynamique d’E2E QoS», qui est d’ordre protocolaire, sur le niveau de service afin de parvenir à la fourniture des services demandés par l’user et de se conformer au SLA. Pour couvrir tout impact de mobilité, nous avons ensuite proposé un « E2E Session Binding cross layer » au sein de notre architecture à quatre niveaux de visibilité (Equipement, Réseau, Service et User). Par le binding nous assurons la cohérence des informations entre les quatre niveaux de visibilité. Au-delà du binding, notre contribution sur la dimension informationnelle a porté sur les profils impliqués dans chaque étape du cycle de vie du service incluant les critères de QoS, les quels fournissent une image générique des composants du système de l'utilisateur et de toutes les ressources ambiantes. Finalement, nous montrons la faisabilité de nos contributions à travers des expérimentations sur notre plate-forme
The ability to provide seamless mobility with E2E QoS will be critical to the success of NGN (Next Generation Network). For this aim, the research of this thesis is positioned at the interconnection of three areas: mobility, heterogeneity and user preferences. Our first proposal is in organizational and functional levels, for which we advocate the convergence of three levels in the network (user, control and management) and associated functionality. Thus we get a dynamic QoS-oriented approach in order to satisfy the "User-Centric". For implementing the E2E QoS including personalization in the "User-Centric” session, we proposed a “dynamic E2E QoS Signalling” in the service layer. The proposal provides an end-to-end provisioning among the service components with information on four levels (equipment, access network, core network and service). Considering any impact of mobility, we proposed also a “cross layer E2E Session Binding” in our architecture for ensuring information consistency among the four levels of visibility. Meanwhile, our contribution in the informational dimension focused on the profiles involved in each stage of service life cycle including the QoS criteria, which provide a generic image of the components of the user's system and all environmental resources. Finally, we presented the feasibility of our proposals through the experiments on our platform

Aujourd'hui, le marché des services est devenu de plus en plus concurrentiel. Les exigences des clients pour des offres de service en adéquation avec leurs usages et leurs préférences conduisent les fournisseurs à proposer de nouveaux services qui répondent à ce nouveau besoin pour se démarquer des concurrents et attirer de nouveaux clients. Avec la convergence des réseaux et celle des services de nouvelle génération (NGN/NGS), de nouveaux services sont apparus. Les utilisateurs sont nomades et veulent utiliser leurs services de différentes manières n'importe où, n'importe quand et par n'importe quel type de terminal, et cela avec une continuité de service et une qualité de service de bout en bout. Ainsi, fournir des services personnalisés aux clients dans un environnement hétérogène et mobile devient un challenge pour les opérateurs et les fournisseurs de service pour améliorer le retour sur investissement (ROI) et le délai de mise sur le marché (TTM). Nos réflexions à propos de la fourniture des services personnalisés selon les besoins fonctionnels et non-fonctionnels (QoS) des usagers, nous ont conduits à identifier les besoins du nouveau contexte NGN/NGS défini par l'intersection de ces trois éléments "user-centric, mobilité et QoS". Comment piloter dynamiquement la QoS de bout en bout pour une session unique "user-centric"? Comment assurer le " service Delivery" dans un contexte de mobilité et d'ubiquité? Ces nouveaux besoins, nous ont motivé à proposer des solutions à travers trois contributions principales qui prennent en considération la vision utilisateur et opérateur. Notre première contribution porte sur le modèle organisationnel. Nous proposons une nouvelle organisation avec un maximum de flexibilité, d'adaptabilité et d'autogestion, qui permet de piloter la QoS à chaque niveau de l'architecture (équipement, réseau et service). Dans cette organisation nous avons défini des acteurs et le rôle que joue chacun d'eux par rapport à la prise de décision au cours de la session de l'utilisateur, et cela pour maintenir la QoS de bout en bout dans un environnement qui est totalement hétérogène et mobile.Notre deuxième contribution traite du composant de service autonomique. Avec la complexité de la personnalisation des services dans un contexte hétérogène et mobile et le besoin de satisfaire la QoS de bout en bout, les ressources services doivent être prises en compte au même titre que les ressources réseaux. Donc, un degré élevé d'autosuffisance, d'autogestion et d'automatisation est demandé dans la ressource service (composant de service) pour améliorer le service delivery. Pour cela, nous proposons un composant de service autonomique "ASC: Autonomic Service Component" basé sur un agent de QoS intégré qui s'autocontrôle et s'autogère pour adapter dynamiquement ses ressources en réponse à un changement de situations au cours de la session de l'utilisateur. Notre troisième proposition couvre le modèle protocolaire. La session de services personnalisés nécessite des interactions plus flexibles au niveau service pour avoir une session unique avec une continuité de service. Nous proposons un protocole de signalisation SIP+ qui permet la négociation de la QOS des services personnalisés dès la phase d'initialisation de la session et de la renégociation de la QoS pendant l'usage, pour maintenir le service avec la QoS requise à travers une session unique.De façon plus concrète, nous présentons nos expérimentations à travers un scenario et une plate-forme de démonstration qui nous permet de tester la faisabilité et la performance de nos contributions. Les apports et les perspectives de cette thèse sont consignés en conclusion.

La capacité à assurer la mobilité sans couture avec une E2E QoS sera capitale pour la réussite du NGN (Next Generation Network). Pour ce faire, les verrous à lever que nous avons relevés dans cette thèse se positionnent à l'interconnexion de trois domaines, à savoir : les mobilités, l'hétérogénéité et les préférences utilisateur. Notre première proposition d'ordres organisationnel et fonctionnel, pour laquelle nous préconisons la convergence des trois plans (user, contrôle et gestion) et les fonctionnalités associées. Ainsi nous obtenons une QoS dynamique pour satisfaire l'approche orientée "User-Centric ". Afin de mettre en œuvre la E2E QoS incluant la personnalisation dans la session "User-Centric", nous avons proposé une "Signalisation dynamique d'E2E QoS", qui est d'ordre protocolaire, sur le niveau de service afin de parvenir à la fourniture des services demandés par l'user et de se conformer au SLA. Pour couvrir tout impact de mobilité, nous avons ensuite proposé un " cross layer E2E Session Binding" au sein de notre architecture à quatre niveaux de visibilité (Equipement, Réseau, Service et User). Par le binding nous assurons la cohérence des informations entre les quatre niveaux de visibilité. Au-delà du binding, notre contribution sur la dimension informationnelle a porté sur les profils impliqués dans chaque étape du cycle de vie du service incluant les critères de QoS, les quels fournissent une image générique des composants du système de l'utilisateur et de toutes les ressources ambiantes. Finalement, nous montrons la faisabilité de nos contributions à travers des expérimentations sur notre plate-forme.

Aujourd’hui, le marché des services est devenu de plus en plus concurrentiel. Les exigences des clients pour des offres de service en adéquation avec leurs usages et leurs préférences conduisent les fournisseurs à proposer de nouveaux services qui répondent à ce nouveau besoin pour se démarquer des concurrents et attirer de nouveaux clients. Avec la convergence des réseaux et celle des services de nouvelle génération (NGN/NGS), de nouveaux services sont apparus. Les utilisateurs sont nomades et veulent utiliser leurs services de différentes manières n’importe où, n’importe quand et par n’importe quel type de terminal, et cela avec une continuité de service et une qualité de service de bout en bout. Ainsi, fournir des services personnalisés aux clients dans un environnement hétérogène et mobile devient un challenge pour les opérateurs et les fournisseurs de service pour améliorer le retour sur investissement (ROI) et le délai de mise sur le marché (TTM). Nos réflexions à propos de la fourniture des services personnalisés selon les besoins fonctionnels et non-fonctionnels (QoS) des usagers, nous ont conduits à identifier les besoins du nouveau contexte NGN/NGS défini par l’intersection de ces trois éléments «user-centric, mobilité et QoS». Comment piloter dynamiquement la QoS de bout en bout pour une session unique «user-centric»? Comment assurer le « service Delivery» dans un contexte de mobilité et d’ubiquité? Ces nouveaux besoins, nous ont motivé à proposer des solutions à travers trois contributions principales qui prennent en considération la vision utilisateur et opérateur. Notre première contribution porte sur le modèle organisationnel. Nous proposons une nouvelle organisation avec un maximum de flexibilité, d’adaptabilité et d’autogestion, qui permet de piloter la QoS à chaque niveau de l’architecture (équipement, réseau et service). Dans cette organisation nous avons défini des acteurs et le rôle que joue chacun d’eux par rapport à la prise de décision au cours de la session de l’utilisateur, et cela pour maintenir la QoS de bout en bout dans un environnement qui est totalement hétérogène et mobile.Notre deuxième contribution traite du composant de service autonomique. Avec la complexité de la personnalisation des services dans un contexte hétérogène et mobile et le besoin de satisfaire la QoS de bout en bout, les ressources services doivent être prises en compte au même titre que les ressources réseaux. Donc, un degré élevé d’autosuffisance, d’autogestion et d’automatisation est demandé dans la ressource service (composant de service) pour améliorer le service delivery. Pour cela, nous proposons un composant de service autonomique «ASC: Autonomic Service Component» basé sur un agent de QoS intégré qui s’autocontrôle et s’autogère pour adapter dynamiquement ses ressources en réponse à un changement de situations au cours de la session de l’utilisateur. Notre troisième proposition couvre le modèle protocolaire. La session de services personnalisés nécessite des interactions plus flexibles au niveau service pour avoir une session unique avec une continuité de service. Nous proposons un protocole de signalisation SIP+ qui permet la négociation de la QOS des services personnalisés dès la phase d’initialisation de la session et de la renégociation de la QoS pendant l’usage, pour maintenir le service avec la QoS requise à travers une session unique.De façon plus concrète, nous présentons nos expérimentations à travers un scenario et une plate-forme de démonstration qui nous permet de tester la faisabilité et la performance de nos contributions. Les apports et les perspectives de cette thèse sont consignés en conclusion
Nowadays, the services market has become increasingly competitive. Customer requirements for service offerings in line with their uses and preferences led providers to offer new services to meet this new need and to stand out from competitors and attract new customers. With the success of the network and service convergence (NGN / NGS), new services have emerged. A mobile user desires to access his services anywhere, anytime and on any type of terminal.Thus, providing customized services to clients while ensuring the service continuity and the end-to-end quality of service in a heterogeneous and mobile environment became a challenge for mobile operators and service providers to improve the return on investment (ROI) and time-to-market (TTM). Our thinking about the provision of customized services according to the functional and non-functional (QoS) needs of the users has led us to identify the needs of the new context NGN / NGS defined by the intersection of these three elements "user-centric, mobility and QoS". How to dynamically control the end-to-end QoS for a single "user-centric" session? How to ensure the "Service Delivery" in the context of mobility and ubiquity? These new needs have led us to propose solutions through three main contributions that take into account the user and the operator vision. Our first contribution concerns the organizational model. We have proposed a new organization with a maximum of flexibility, adaptability and self-management which allows the control of the QoS at each level of the architecture (equipment, network and service). In this organization, we have defined actors and the role of each one in relation to the decision-making process during the user session in order to maintain the end-to-end QoS in an environment that is totally heterogeneous and mobile. Our second contribution addresses the autonomic service component. With the complexity of services personalization in a heterogeneous and mobile context and the need to satisfy the end to end QoS, services and network resources must be taken into account. Therefore, a high degree of self-sufficiency, self-management and automation is required in the resource service to improve the service delivery. We have therefore proposed an autonomic service component based on an integrated QoS-agent which is self-controlled and self-managed to dynamically adapt its resources in response to changing situations during the user’s session. Our third proposal covers the model protocol. The personalized services session requires more flexible interactions at the service level in order to obtain a single session with service continuity. We have proposed a signalling protocol SIP + that allows the negotiation of the QoS of personalized services at the session initialization phase and the renegotiation of the QoS during the utilization to maintain the service with the required QoS through a unique session. More concretely, we have presented our experiments through a scenario and demonstration platform that allows us to test the feasibility and the performance of our contributions. The contributions and perspectives of this thesis are stated in the conclusion

Les récentes avancées technologiques permettent désormais la fabrication de terminaux mobiles de plus en plus compacts et dotés de plusieurs interfaces réseaux. Le nouveau modèle de consommation de médias se résume par le concept "Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device" et impose donc de nouvelles exigences en termes de déploiement de services ubiquitaires. Cependant la conception et le developpement de réseaux ubiquitaires et convergents de nouvelles générations soulèvent un certain nombre de défis techniques. Les standards actuels ainsi que les solutions commerciales pourraient être affectés par le manque de considération du contexte utilisateur. Le ressenti de l'utilisateur concernant certains services multimédia tels que la VoIP et l'IPTV dépend fortement des capacités du terminal et des conditions du réseau d'accès. Cela incite les réseaux de nouvelles générations à fournir des services ubiquitaires adaptés à l'environnement de l'utilisateur optimisant par la même occasion ses resources. L'IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) est une architecture de nouvelle génération qui centralise l'accès aux services et permet la convergence des réseaux fixe/mobile. Néanmoins, l'évolution de l'IMS est nécessaire sur les points suivants :- l'introduction de la sensibilité au contexte utilisateur et de la PQoS (Perceived QoS) : L'architecture IMS ne prend pas en compte l'environnement de l'utilisateur, ses préférences et ne dispose pas d'un méchanisme de gestion de PQOS. Pour s'assurer de la qualité fournit à l'utilisateur final, des informations sur l'environnement de l'utilisateur ainsi que ses préférences doivent transiter en cœur de réseau afin d'y être analysés. Ce traitement aboutit au lancement du service qui sera adapté et optimisé aux conditions observées. De plus pour le service d'IPTV, les caractéristiques spatio-temporelles de la vidéo influent de manière importante sur la PQoS observée côté utilisateur. L'adaptation des services multimédias en fonction de l'évolution du contexte utilisateur et de la nature de la vidéo diffusée assure une qualité d'expérience à l'utilisateur et optimise par la même occasion l'utilisation des ressources en cœur de réseau.- une solution de mobilité efficace pour les services conversationnels tels que la VoIP : Les dernières publications 3GPP fournissent deux solutions de mobilité: le LTE propose MIP comme solution de mobilité alors que l'IMS définit une mobilité basée sur le protocole applicatif SIP. Ces standards définissent le système de signalisation mais ne s'avancent pas sur la gestion du flux média lors du changement d'interface réseau. La deuxième section introduit une étude comparative détaillée des solutions de mobilité dans les NGNs.Notre première contribution est la spécification de l'architecture globale de notre plateforme IMS sensible au contexte utilisateur réalisée au sein du projet Européen ADAMANTIUM. Nous détaillons tout d'abord le serveur MCMS intelligent placé dans la couche application de l'IMS. Cet élément récolte les informations de qualité de services à différents équipements réseaux et prend la décision d'une action sur l'un de ces équipements. Ensuite nous définissons un profil utilisateur permettant de décrire son environnement et de le diffuser en coeur de réseau. Une étude sur la prédiction de satisfaction utilisateur en fonction des paramètres spatio-temporels de la vidéo a été réalisée afin de connaître le débit idéal pour une PQoS désirée.Notre deuxième contribution est l'introduction d'une solution de mobilité adaptée aux services conversationnels (VoIP) tenant compte du contexte utilisateur. Notre solution s'intègre à l'architecture IMS existante de façon transparente et permet de réduire le temps de latence du handover. Notre solution duplique les paquets de VoIP sur les deux interfaces actives pendant le temps de la transition. Parallèlement, un nouvel algorithme de gestion de mémoire tampon améliore la qualité d'expérience pour le service de VoIP
The latest advances in technology have already defied Moore’s law. Thanks to research and industry, hand-held devices are composed of high processing embedded systems enabling the consumption of high quality services. Furthermore, recent trends in communication drive users to consume media Anytime, Anywhere on Any Device via multiple wired and wireless network interfaces. This creates new demands for ubiquitous and high quality service provision management. However, defining and developing the next generation of ubiquitous and converged networks raise a number of challenges. Currently, telecommunication standards do not consider context-awareness aspects for network management and service provisioning. The experience felt by the end-user consuming for instance Voice over IP (VoIP) or Internet Protocol TeleVision (IPTV) services varies depending mainly on user preferences, device context and network resources. It is commonly held that Next Generation Network (NGN) should deliver personalized and effective ubiquitous services to the end user’s Mobile Node (MN) while optimizing the network resources at the network operator side. IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a standardized NGN framework that unifies service access and allows fixed/mobile network convergence. Nevertheless IMS technology still suffers from a number of confining factors that are addressed in this thesis; amongst them are two main issues :The lack of context-awareness and Perceived-QoS (PQoS):-The existing IMS infrastructure does not take into account the environment of the user ,his preferences , and does not provide any PQoS aware management mechanism within its service provisioning control system. In order to ensure that the service satisfies the consumer, this information need to be sent to the core network for analysis. In order to maximize the end-user satisfaction while optimizing network resources, the combination of a user-centric network management and adaptive services according to the user’s environment and network conditions are considered. Moreover, video content dynamics are also considered as they significantly impact on the deduced perceptual quality of IPTV services. -The lack of efficient mobility mechanism for conversational services like VoIP :The latest releases of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) provide two types of mobility solutions. Long-Term Evolution (LTE) uses Mobile IP (MIP) and IMS uses Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) mobility. These standards are focusing on signaling but none of them define how the media should be scheduled in multi-homed devices. The second section introduces a detailed study of existing mobility solutions in NGNs. Our first contribution is the specification of the global context-aware IMS architecture proposed within the European project ADAptative Management of mediA distributioN based on saTisfaction orIented User Modeling (ADAMANTIUM). We introduce the innovative Multimedia Content Management System (MCMS) located in the application layer of IMS. This server combines the collected monitoring information from different network equipments with the data of the user profile and takes adaptation actions if necessary. Then, we introduce the User Profile (UP) management within the User Equipment (UE) describing the end-user’s context and facilitating the diffusion of the end-user environment towards the IMS core network. In order to optimize the network usage, a PQoS prediction mechanism gives the optimal video bit-rate according to the video content dynamics. Our second contribution in this thesis is an efficient mobility solution for VoIP service within IMS using and taking advantage of user context. Our solution uses packet duplication on both active interfaces during handover process. In order to leverage this mechanism, a new jitter buffer algorithm is proposed at MN side to improve the user’s quality of experience. Furthermore, our mobility solution integrates easily to the existing IMS platform

Within recent years, the concept of Next Generation Networks (NGN) has become widely accepted within the telecommunication area, in parallel with the migration of telecommunication networks from traditional circuit-switched technologies such as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) towards packet-switched NGN. In this context, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), originally developed for Internet use only, has emerged as the major signalling protocol for multimedia sessions in IP (Internet Protocol) based NGN. One of the traditional limitations of IP when faced with the challenges of real-time communications is the lack of quality support at the network layer. In line with NGN specification work, international standardisation bodies have defined a sophisticated QoS (Quality of Service) architecture for NGN, controlling IP transport resources and conventional IP QoS mechanisms through centralised higher layer network elements via cross-layer signalling. Being able to centrally control QoS conditions for any media session in NGN without the imperative of a cross-layer approach would result in a feasible and less complex NGN architecture. Especially the demand for additional network elements would be decreased, resulting in the reduction of system and operational costs in both, service and transport infrastructure. This thesis proposes a novel framework for QoS optimisation for media sessions in SIP-based NGN without the need for cross-layer signalling. One key contribution of the framework is the approach to identify and logically group media sessions that encounter similar QoS conditions, which is performed by applying pattern recognition and clustering techniques. Based on this novel methodology, the framework provides functions and mechanisms for comprehensive resource-saving QoS estimation, adaptation of QoS conditions, and support of Call Admission Control. The framework can be integrated with any arbitrary SIP-IP-based real-time communication infrastructure, since it does not require access to any particular QoS control or monitoring functionalities provided within the IP transport network. The proposed framework concept has been deployed and validated in a prototypical simulation environment. Simulation results show MOS (Mean Opinion Score) improvement rates between 53 and 66 percent without any active control of transport network resources. Overall, the proposed framework comes as an effective concept for central controlled QoS optimisation in NGN without the need for cross-layer signalling. As such, by either being run stand-alone or combined with conventional QoS control mechanisms, the framework provides a comprehensive basis for both the reduction of complexity and mitigation of issues coming along with QoS provision in NGN.

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) est un protocole de signalisation conçu pour le contrôle de session multimédia dans un réseau IP. Le protocole SIP est déjà largement adopté par l’industrie pour les services convergents de prochaine génération qui incluent notamment voix, vidéo, jeux, information de Présence, Chat, conférences multimédia. L’IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) constitue l’évolution majeure du Cœur de Réseau UMTS permettant l'utilisation du protocole SIP en adéquation avec les contraintes des réseaux mobiles. L’objet de cette thèse est d’analyser les obstacles existants au déploiement de services multimédia basés sur le protocole SIP dans les réseaux fixes et mobiles et de proposer des solutions aux verrous correspondants. Les études menées se décomposent en deux principaux volets : d’une part on analyse l’architecture multimédia SIP définie par l’IP Multimédia Subsystem afin de le mutualiser à partir d’accès hétérogènes (xDSL, câble, 3G). D’autre part on analyse les aspects relatifs aux architectures de service, en particulier : mécanismes de déclenchement, gestion des interactions entre services ou entre primitives, prise en compte des caractéristiques des terminaux dans la logique de service et commande de média. Pour chacun de ces domaines nous proposons les modifications protocolaires et d’architecture ainsi que les mécanismes correspondants. Le but de ces évolutions est de permettre - ou de faciliter- la mise en œuvre de services convergents et innovants dans les réseaux fixes et mobiles.

Em NGN (Next Generation Networks), os usuários podem se conectar em diferentes tecnologias de rede e desejam, além de uma comunicação transparente, novos serviços personalizados. Neste sentido, este trabalho explora informações de contexto em NGN. O principal objetivo é capturar as informações de contexto envolvidas no momento da utilização da rede sem fio, na escolha do novo ponto de acesso e no procedimento do handover. Este contexto capturado é aplicado para serviços cientes de contexto. A proposta é validada por meio de dois cenários, o primeiro é um mashup que exibe as redes sem fio disponíveis de um determinado local e o segundo um protótipo gerenciador de conexões para atender as preferências do usuário. Adicionalmente, são realizadas duas avaliações do impacto do uso de contexto em handovers. Para tanto, foi implantado um testbed NGN com o protocolo Mobile IP
In the NGN (Next Generation Networks) users can connect their Internet devices to different network technologies. In addition to a seamless communication, users desire new and personalized services. In this sense, this thesis exploits the context-aware information in NGN environments. The main propose is to capture the context information about the time involved by the use of wireless link for selecting the target access point and on the handover procedure. This context information is applied to the context-aware services. The propose is validated through two scenarios: the first is a mashup that shows the availability of wireless networks in a particular location, and the second is a prototype of a connection manager to attend user´s preferences. In addition, two evaluations are accomplished on the impact by the use of context information over handovers. Thus, an NGN testbed is deployed with Mobile IP protocol

Next Generation Networks are constantly evolving towards solutions that allow the operator to provide advanced multimedia applications with QoS guarantees in heterogeneous, multi-domain and multi-services networks. Other than the unquestionable advantages inherent the ability to simultaneously handle traffic flows at different QoS levels, these architectures require management systems to efficiently perform quality guarantees and network resource utilization. These issues have been addressed in this thesis. DiffServ-aware Traffic Engineering (DS-TE) has been considered as reference architecture for the deployment of the quality management systems. It represents the most advanced technology to accomplish either network scalability and service granularity goals. On the basis of DS-TE features, a methodology for traffic and network resource management has been defined. It provides some rules for QoS service characterization and allows to implement Traffic Engineering policies with a class-based approach. A set of basic parameters for quality evaluation has been defined, that are the Key Performance Indicators; some mathematical model to derive the statistical nature of traffic have been analyzed and an algorithm to improve the fulfillment of quality of service targets and to optimize network resource utilization. It is aimed at reducing the complexity inherent the setting of some of the key parameters in the NGN architectures. Multidomain scenarios with technologies different from DS-TE have been also evaluated, defining some methodologies for network interoperability. Simulations with Opnet Modeler confirmed the efficacy of the proposed system in computing network configurations with QoS targets. With regard to QoS performance at the application level, video streaming applications in wireless domains have been particularly addressed. A rate control algorithm to adjust the rate on a per-window basis has been defined, making use of a short-term prediction of the network delay to keep the probability of playback buffer starvation lower than a desired threshold during each window. Finally, a framework for mutual authentication in web applications has been proposed and evaluated. It integrates an IBA password technique with a challenge-response scheme based on a shared secret key for image scrambling. The wireless environment is mainly addressed by the proposed system, which tries to overcome the severe constraints on security, data transmission capability and user friendliness imposed by such environment.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have revolutionised research into nature and diversity of genomes and transcriptomes. Since the initial description of these technology platforms over a decade ago, massively parallel RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has driven many advances in the characterization and quantification of transcriptomes. RNA-seq is a powerful gene expression profiling technology enabling transcript discovery and provides a far more precise measure of the levels of transcripts and their isoforms than other methods e.g. microarray. However, the analysis of RNA-seq data remains a significant challenge for many biologists. The data generated is large and the tools for its assembly, analysis and visualisation are still under development. Assemblies of reads can be inspected using tools such as the Integrative Genomics Viewer (IGV) where visualisation of results involves ‘stacking’ the reads onto a reference genome. Whilst sufficient for many needs, when the underlying variance of the genome or transcript assemblies is complex, this visualisation method can be limiting; errors in assembly can be difficult to spot and visualisation of splicing events may be challenging. Data visualisation is increasingly recognised as an essential component of genomic and transcriptomic data analysis, enabling large and complex datasets to be better understood. An approach that has been gaining traction in biological research is based on the application of network visualisation and analysis methods. Networks consist of nodes connected by edges (lines), where nodes usually represent an entity and edge a relationship between them. These are now widely used for plotting experimentally or computationally derived relationships between genes and proteins. The overall aim of this PhD project was to explore the use of network-based visualisation in the analysis and interpretation of RNA-seq data. In chapter 2, I describe the development of a data pipeline that has been designed to go from ‘raw’ RNA-seq data to a file format which supports data visualisation as a ‘DNA assembly graph’. In DNA assembly graphs, nodes represent sequence reads and edges denote a homology between reads above a defined threshold. Following the mapping of reads to a reference sequence and defining which reads a map to a given loci, pairwise sequence alignments are performed between reads using MegaBLAST. This provides a weighted similarity score that is used to define edges between reads. Visualisation of the resulting networks is then carried out using BioLayout Express3D that can render large networks in 3-D, thereby allowing a better appreciation of the often-complex network structure. This pipeline has formed the basis for my subsequent work on the exploring and analysing alternative splicing in human RNA-seq data. In the second half of this chapter, I provide a series of tutorials aimed at different types of users allowing them to perform such analyses. The first tutorial is aimed at computational novices who might want to generate networks using a web-browser and pre-prepared data. Other tutorials are designed for use by more advanced users who can access the code for the pipeline through GitHub or via an Amazon Machine Image (AMI). In chapter 3, the utility of network-based visualisations of RNA-seq data is explored using data processed through the pipeline described in Chapter 2. The aim of the work described in this chapter was to better understand the basic principles and challenges associated with network visualisation of RNA-seq data, in particular how it could be used to visualise transcript structure and splice-variation. These analyses were performed on data generated from four samples of human fibroblasts taken at different time points during their entry into cell division. One of the first challenges encountered was the fact that the existing network layout algorithm (Fruchterman- Reingold) implemented within BioLayout Express3D did not result in an optimal layout of the unusual graph structures produced by these analyses. Following the implementation of the more advanced layout algorithm FMMM within the tool, network structure could be far better appreciated. Using this layout method, the majority of genes sequenced to an adequate depth assemble into networks with a linear ‘corkscrew’ appearance and when representing single isoform transcripts add little to existing views of these data. However, in a small number of cases (~5%), the networks generated from transcripts expressed in human fibroblasts possess more complex structures, with ‘loops’, ‘knots’ and multiple ends being observed. In a majority of cases examined, these loops were associated with alternative splicing events, a fact confirmed by RT-PCR analyses. Other DNA assembly networks representing the mRNAs for genes such as MKI67 showed knot-like structures, which was found to be due to the presence of repetitive sequence within an exon of the gene. In another case, CENPO the unusual structure observed was due to reads derived from an overlapping gene of ADCY3 gene present on the opposite strand with reads being wrongly mapped to CENPO. Finally, I explored the use of a network reduction strategy as an approach to visualising highly expressed genes such as GAPDH and TUBA1C. Having successfully demonstrated the utility of networks in analysing transcript isoforms in data derived from a single cell type I set out to explore its utility in analysing transcript variation in tissue data where multiple isoforms expressed by different cells within the tissue might be present in a given sample. In chapter 4, I explore the analysis of transcript variation in an RNA-seq dataset derived from human tissue. The first half of this chapter describes the quality control of these data again using a network-based approach but this time based the correlation in expression between genes and samples. Of the 95 samples derived from 27 human tissues, 77 passed the quality control. A network was constructed using a correlation threshold of r ≥ 0.9, which comprised 6,109 nodes (genes) and 1,091,477 edges (correlations) and clustered. Subsequently, the profile and gene content of each cluster was examined and enrichment of GO terms analysed. In the second half of this chapter, the aim was to detect and analyse alternative splicing events between different tissues using the rMATS tool. By using a false-discovery rate (FDR) cut-off of < 0.01, I found that in comparisons of brain vs. heart, brain vs. liver and heart vs. liver, the program reported 4,992, 4,804 and 3,990 splicing events, respectively. Of these events, only 78 splicing events (52 genes) with more than 50% of exon inclusion level and expression level more than FPKM 30. To further explore the sometimes-complex structure of transcripts diversity derived from tissue, RNAseq assembly networks for KLC1, SORBS2, GUK1, and TPM1 were explored. Each of these networks showed different types of alternative splicing events and it was sometimes difficult to determine the isoforms expressed between tissues using other approaches. For instance, there is an issue in visualising the read assembly of long genes such as KLC1 and SORBS2, using a Sashimi plots or even Vials, just because of the number of exons and the size of their genomic loci. In another case of GUK1, tissue-specific isoform expression was observed when a network of three tissues was combined. Arguably the most complex analysis is the network of TPM1 where the uniquification step was employed for this highly expressed gene. In chapter 5, I perform a usability testing for NGS Graph Generator web application and visualising RNA-seq assemblies as a network using BioLayout Express3D. This test was important to ensure that the application is well received and utilised by the user.
Almost all participants of this usability test agree that this application would encourage biologists to visualise and understand the alternative splicing together with existing tools. The participants agreed that Sashimi plots rather difficult to view and visualise and perhaps would lose something interesting features. However, there were also reviews of this application that need improvements such as the capability to analyse big network in a short time, side-by-side analysis of network with Sashimi plot and Ensembl. Additional information of the network would be necessary to improve the understanding of the alternative splicing. In conclusion, this work demonstrates the utility of network visualisation of RNAseq data, where the unusual structure of these networks can be used to identify issues in assembly, repetitive sequences within transcripts and splice variation. As such, this approach has the potential to significantly improve our understanding of transcript complexity. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that network-based visualisation provides a new and complementary approach to characterise alternative splicing from RNA-seq data and has the potential to be useful for the analysis and interpretation of other kinds of sequencing data.

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is the next generation of telecommunication systems. The system is based on an IP network and uses technologies from the Internet. The IMS system is designed to evolve from a telephone system into a general information and communication system. It is meant to include television, Video on Demand (VoD), interactive services etc, etc. It is designed to simplify the implementation of newservices in telecom networks. This report investigates security aspects of VoD services when merging an IP Television (IPTV) system with IMS. The investigation covers security functions in IMS, transitionsolutions for authentication of the Set-Top-Box (STB) in IMS, and identifies problems inthe integration of IPTV and IMS. The report concludes that IMS has good solid Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) functions that will provide security and billing functionality. One problemis found in the media control between the STB and the streaming server. This interface lacked specification at the time of investigation, and some problems have been identified. These problems have to be solved before a system can be brought into service and beregarded as secure.

Next Generation Networks (NGNs) aim to provide a unified network infrastructure to offer multimedia data and telecommunication services through IP convergence. NGNs utilize multiple broadband, QoS-enabled transport technologies, creating a converged packet-switched network infrastructure, where service-related functions are separated from the transport functions. This requires significant changes in the way how networks are managed to handle the complexity and heterogeneity of NGNs. This thesis proposes a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based management framework that integrates heterogeneous management systems in a loose coupling manner. The key benefit of the proposed management architecture is the reduction of the complexity through service and data integration. A network management middleware layer that merges low level management functionality with higher level management operations to resolve the problem of heterogeneity was proposed. A prototype was implemented using Web Services and a testbed was developed using trouble ticket systems as the management application to demonstrate the functionality of the proposed framework. Test results show the correcting functioning of the system. It also concludes that the proposed framework fulfils the principles behind the SOA philosophy.

Computational biology currently faces challenges in a big data world with thousands of data samples across multiple disease types including cancer. The challenging problem is how to extract biologically meaningful information from large-scale genomic data. Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) can now produce high quality data at DNA and RNA levels. However, in cells there exist a lot of non-specific (background) signals that affect the detection accuracy of true (foreground) signals. In this dissertation work, under Bayesian framework, we aim to develop and apply approaches to learn the distribution of genomic signals in each type of NGS data for reliable identification of specific foreground signals. We propose a novel Bayesian approach (ChIP-BIT) to reliably detect transcription factor (TF) binding sites (TFBSs) within promoter or enhancer regions by jointly analyzing the sample and input ChIP-seq data for one specific TF. Specifically, a Gaussian mixture model is used to capture both binding and background signals in the sample data; and background signals are modeled by a local Gaussian distribution that is accurately estimated from the input data. An Expectation-Maximization algorithm is used to learn the model parameters according to the distributions on binding signal intensity and binding locations. Extensive simulation studies and experimental validation both demonstrate that ChIP-BIT has a significantly improved performance on TFBS detection over conventional methods, particularly on weak binding signal detection. To infer cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) of multiple TFs, we propose to develop a Bayesian integration approach, namely BICORN, to integrate ChIP-seq and RNA-seq data of the same tissue. Each TFBS identified from ChIP-seq data can be either a functional binding event mediating target gene transcription or a non-functional binding. The functional bindings of a set of TFs usually work together as a CRM to regulate the transcription processes of a group of genes. We develop a Gibbs sampling approach to learn the distribution of CRMs (a joint distribution of multiple TFs) based on their functional bindings and target gene expression. The robustness of BICORN has been validated on simulated regulatory network and gene expression data with respect to different noise settings. BICORN is further applied to breast cancer MCF-7 ChIP-seq and RNA-seq data to identify CRMs functional in promoter or enhancer regions. In tumor cells, the normal regulatory mechanism may be interrupted by genome mutations, especially those somatic mutations that uniquely occur in tumor cells. Focused on a specific type of genome mutation, structural variation (SV), we develop a novel pattern-based probabilistic approach, namely PSSV, to identify somatic SVs from whole genome sequencing (WGS) data. PSSV features a mixture model with hidden states representing different mutation patterns; PSSV can thus differentiate heterozygous and homozygous SVs in each sample, enabling the identification of those somatic SVs with a heterozygous status in the normal sample and a homozygous status in the tumor sample. Simulation studies demonstrate that PSSV outperforms existing tools. PSSV has been successfully applied to breast cancer patient WGS data for identifying somatic SVs of key factors associated with breast cancer development. In this dissertation research, we demonstrate the advantage of the proposed distributional learning-based approaches over conventional methods for NGS data analysis. Distributional learning is a very powerful approach to gain biological insights from high quality NGS data. Successful applications of the proposed Bayesian methods to breast cancer NGS data shed light on underlying molecular mechanisms of breast cancer, enabling biologists or clinicians to identify major cancer drivers and develop new therapeutics for cancer treatment.
Ph. D.

A NGN is a telecommunication network that differs from classical dedicated networks because of its capability to provide voice, video, data and cellular services on the same infrastructure (Quadruple-Play). The ITU-T standardization body has defined the NGN architecture in three different and well-defined strata: the transport stratum which takes care of maintaining end-to-end connectivity, the service stratum that is responsible for enabling the creation and the delivery of services, and finally the application stratum where applications can be created and executed. The most important separation in this architecture is relative to transport and service stratum. The aim is to enable the flexibility to add, maintain and remove services without any impact on the transport layer; to enable the flexibility to add, maintain and remove transport technologies without any impact on the access to service, application, content and information; and finally the efficient cohesistence of multiple terminals, access technologies and core transport technologies. The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a paradigm often used in systems deployment and integration for organizing and utilizing distributed capabilities under the control of different ownership domains. In this thesis, the SOA technologies in network architetures are surveyed following the NGN functional architecture as defined by the ITU-T. Within each stratum, the main logical functions that have been the subject of investigation according to a service-oriented approach have been highlighted. Moreover, a new definition of the NGN transport stratum functionalities according to the SOA paradigm is proposed; an implementation of the relevant services interfaces to analyze this approach with experimental results shows some insight on the potentialities of the proposed strategy. Within NGN architectures research topic, especially in IP-based network architectures, Traffic Engineering (TE) is referred to as a set of policies and algorithms aimed at balancing network traffic load so as to improve network resource utilization and guarantee the service specific end-to-end QoS. DS-TE technology extends TE functionalities to a per-class basis implementation by introducing a higher level of traffic classification which associates to each class type (CT) a constraint on bandwidth utilization. These constraints are set by defining and configuring a bandwidth constraint (BC) model whih drives resource utilization aiming to higher load balancing, higher QoS performance and lower call blocking rate. Default TE implementations relies on a centralized approach to bandwidth and routing management, that require external management entities which periodically collect network status information and provide management actions. However, due to increasing network complexity, it is desiderable that nodes automatically discover their environment, self-configure and update to adapt to changes. In this thesis the bandwidth management problem is approached adopting an autonomic and distributed approach. Each node has a self-management module, which monitors the unreserved bandwidth in adjacent nodes and adjusts the local bandwidth constraints so as to reduce the differences in the unreserved bandwidth of neighbor nodes. With this distributed and autonomic algorithm, BC are dinamically modified to drive routing decision toward the traffic balancing respecting the QoS constraints for each class-type traffic requests. Finally, Video on Demand (VoD) is a service that provides a video whenever the customer requests it. Realizing a VoD system by means of the Internet network requires architectures tailored to video features such as guaranteed bandwidths and constrained transmission delays: these are hard to be provided in the traditional Internet architecture that is not designed to provide an adequate quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) to the final user. Typical VoD solutions can be grouped in four categories: centralized, proxy-based, Content Delivery Network(CDN) and Hybrid architectures. Hybrid architectures combine the employment of a centralized server with that of a Peer-to-peer (P2P) network. This approach can effectively reduce the server load and avoid network congestions close to the server site because the peers support the delivery of the video to other peers using a cache-and-relay strategy making use of their upload bandwidth. Anyway, in a peer-to-peer network each peer is free to join and leave the network without notice, bringing to the phenomena of peer churns. These dynamics are dangerous for VoD architectures, affecting the integrity and retainability of the service. In this thesis, a study aimed to evaluate the impact of the peer churn on the system performance is proposed. Starting from important relationships between system parameters such as playback buffer length, peer request rate, peer average lifetime and server upload rate, four different analytic models are proposed.

Coal gasification stripped gas liquor (CGSGL) wastewater contains large quantities of complex organic and inorganic pollutants which include phenols, ammonia, hydantoins, furans, indoles, pyridines, phthalates and other monocyclic and polycyclic nitrogen-containing aromatics, as well as oxygen- and sulphur-containing heterocyclic compounds. The performance of most conventional aerobic systems for CGSGL wastewater is inadequate in reducing pollutants contributing to chemical oxygen demand (COD), phenols and ammonia due to the presence of toxic and inhibitory organic compounds. There is an ever-increasing scarcity of freshwater in South Africa, thus reclamation of wastewater for recycling is growing rapidly and the demand for higher effluent quality before being discharged or reused is also increasing. The selection of hybrid fixed-film bioreactor (HFFBR) systems in the detoxification of a complex mixture of compounds such as those found in CGSGL has not been investigated. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the detoxification of the CGSGL in a H-FFBR bioaugmented with a mixed-culture inoculum containing Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas plecoglossicida, Rhodococcus erythropolis, Rhodococcus qingshengii, Enterobacter cloacae, Enterobacter asburiae strains of bacteria, as well as the seaweed (Silvetia siliquosa) and diatoms. The results indicated a 45% and 79% reduction in COD and phenols, respectively, without bioaugmentation. The reduction in COD increased by 8% with inoculum PA1, 13% with inoculum PA2 and 7% with inoculum PA3. Inoculum PA1 was a blend of Pseudomonas, Enterobacter and Rhodococcus strains, inoculum PA2 was a blend of Pseudomonas putida iistrains and inoculum PA3 was a blend of Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas plecoglossicida strains. The results also indicated that a 70% carrier fill formed a dense biofilm, a 50% carrier fill formed a rippling biofilm and a 30% carrier fill formed a porous biofilm. The autotrophic nitrifying bacteria were out-competed by the heterotrophic bacteria of the genera Thauera, Pseudaminobacter, Pseudomonas and Diaphorobacter. Metagenomic sequencing data also indicated significant dissimilarities between the biofilm, suspended biomass, effluent and feed microbial populations. A large population (20% to 30%) of unclassified bacteria were also present, indicating the presence of novel bacteria that may play an important role in the treatment of the CGSGL wastewater. The artificial neural network (ANN) model developed in this study is a novel virtual tool for the prediction of COD and phenol removal from CGSGL wastewater treated in a bioaugmented H-FFBR. Knowledge extraction from the trained ANN model showed that significant nonlinearities exist between the H-FFBR operational parameters and the removal of COD and phenol. The predictive model thus increases knowledge of the process inputs and outputs and thus facilitates process control and optimisation to meet more stringent effluent discharge requirements.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
Chemical Engineering
PhD
Unrestricted

Este trabalho visa estudar e implementar a integração entre o domínio de comutação de circuitos e o IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) para suportar handovers verticais, ou seja, entre redes de acesso distintas, por exemplo, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) e WiFi, em especial no Serviço Voice Call Continuity (VCC). Entretanto muito pouco é especificado sobre a integração entre os domínios nas normas das diversas entidades de padronização que tratam sobre o assunto. Assim, apresenta-se uma proposta para essa integração, criando-se uma nova entidade funcional para realizá-la, o Call Data Storage Function (CDSF), que interage com os demais módulos do Serviço VCC e garante que algumas informações que devem ser trocadas entre os módulos não sejam perdidas, devido à conversão de protocolos de sinalização na interface entre tais domínios. O CDSF auxilia também no controle da alocação de endereços de referência utilizados no encaminhamento de chamadas de um domínio para o outro. São definidos os protocolos de acesso ao CDSF, bem como os métodos disponíveis. Em sua concepção, recorre-se a uma modelagem modular, que permite futuras melhorias, apenas por troca de módulos. Como estudos de caso para validar a proposta são apresentados cenários de chamadas que utilizam o Serviço VCC, passando pelo CDSF. Por fim, conclui-se que a integração entre os domínios é viável se a proposta deste trabalho for utilizada. Também se demonstra que a separação dos planos de controle dos planos de dados (de usuário) é uma das contribuições fundamentais da arquitetura NGN para o sucesso de suas implementações, como por exemplo o IMS.Além disso, destacam-se as vantagens que o Serviço VCC pode agregar ao IMS, contribuindo para sua adesão em menor prazo pelas operadoras de telecomunicações, dado que esse serviço contribui para a integração de redes, cada vez mais convergentes, agregando mobilidade e continuidade à sua utilização.
This work intends to study and implement the integration between the circuit switching domain and the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to support vertical handovers that are between different access networks, such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and WiFi. Therefore the specifications are incomplete about this topic in standards from the entities who works with this subject. Then, is presented a new proposal for this integration: a new functional entity to realize this integration: the Call Data Storage Function (CDSF), which interacts with other modules of VCC Service and guarantees that some information shared between modules are not lost, due to conversion of signalling protocols in the interface between domains. Besides that, CDSF helps in the control of allocation of reference address that are used to route calls from one domain to another. Access protocols to CDSF are defined and CDSF methods are exposed. The CDSF design uses a modular approach, which allows future improvements, just changing modules. As case studies to validate this work proposal, call scenarios are presented that uses the VCC Service, using CDSF. Finally, it is concluded that the integration between domains is viable if this work proposal is used. It is presented, as well, that the separation between control plans and data plans is one of the main contributions of NGN architecture to the success of its implementations, like IMS. Furthermore, it is exposed the advantages that VCC Service can aggregate to IMS, contributing for more rapidly adoption by telecommunications operators, considering that this service helps the networks integration, adding convergence, mobility and continuity.

[EN] Next-generation terrestrial broadcasting targets at enhancing spectral efficiency to overcome the challenges derived from the spectrum shortage as a result of the progressive allocation of frequencies - the so-called Digital Dividend - to satisfy the growing demands for wireless broadband capacity. Advances in both transmission standards and video coding are paramount to enable the progressive roll-out of high video quality services such as HDTV (High Definition Televison) or Ultra HDTV. The transition to the second generation European terrestrial standard DVB-T2 and the introduction of MPEG-4/AVC video coding already enables the transmission of 4-5 HDTV services per RF (Radio Frequency) channel. However, the impossibility to allocate higher bit-rate within the remaining spectrum could jeopardize the evolution of the DTT platforms in favour of other high-capacity systems such as the satellite or cable distribution platforms. Next steps are focused on the deployment of the recently released High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, which provides more than 50% coding gain with respect to AVC, with the next-generation terrestrial standards. This could ensure the competitiveness of the DTT. This dissertation addresses the use of multi-RF channel aggregation technologies to increase the spectral efficiency of future DTT networks. The core of the Thesis are two technologies: Time Frequency Slicing (TFS) and Channel Bonding (CB). TFS and CB consist in the transmission of the data of a TV service across multiple RF channels instead of using a single channel. CB spreads data of a service over multiple classical RF channels (RF-Mux). TFS spreads the data by time-slicing (slot-by-slot) across multiple RF channels which are sequentially recovered at the receiver by frequency hopping. Transmissions using these features can benefit from capacity and coverage gains. The first one comes from a more efficient statistical multiplexing (StatMux) for Variable Bit Rate (VBR) services due to a StatMux pool over a higher number of services. Furthermore, CB allows increasing service data rate with the number of bonded RF channels and also advantages when combined with SVC (Scalable Video Coding). The coverage gain comes from the increased RF performance due to the reception of the data of a service from different RF channels rather that a single one that could be, eventually, degraded. Robustness against interferences is also improved since the received signal does not depend on a unique potentially interfered RF channel. TFS was firstly introduced as an informative annex in DVB-T2 (not normative) and adopted in DVB-NGH (Next Generation Handheld). TFS and CB are proposed for inclusion in ATSC 3.0. However, they have never been implemented. The investigations carried out in this dissertation employ an information-theoretical approach to obtain their upper bounds, physical layer simulations to evaluate the performance in real systems and the analysis of field measurements that approach realistic conditions of the network deployments. The analysis report coverage gains about 4-5 dB with 4 RF channels and high capacity gains already with 2 RF channels. This dissertation also focuses on implementation aspects. Channel bonding receivers require one tuner per bonded RF channel. The implementation of TFS with a single tuner demands the fulfilment of several timing requirements. However, the use of just two tuners would still allow for a good performance with a cost-effective implementation by the reuse of existing chipsets or the sharing of existing architectures with dual tuner operation such as MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output).
[ES] La televisión digital terrestre (TDT) de última generación está orientada a una necesaria mejora de la eficiencia espectral con el fin de abordar los desafíos derivados de la escasez de espectro como resultado de la progresiva asignación de frecuencias - el llamado Dividendo Digital - para satisfacer la creciente demanda de capacidad para la banda ancha inalámbrica. Los avances tanto en los estándares de transmisión como de codificación de vídeo son de suma importancia para la progresiva puesta en marcha de servicios de alta calidad como la televisión de Ultra AD (Alta Definición). La transición al estándar europeo de segunda generación DVB-T2 y la introducción de la codificación de vídeo MPEG-4 / AVC ya permite la transmisión de 4-5 servicios de televisión de AD por canal RF (Radiofrecuencia). Sin embargo, la imposibilidad de asignar una mayor tasa de bit sobre el espectro restante podría poner en peligro la evolución de las plataformas de TDT en favor de otros sistemas de alta capacidad tales como el satélite o las distribuidoras de cable. El siguiente paso se centra en el despliegue del reciente estándar HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), que ofrece un 50% de ganancia de codificación con respecto a AVC, junto con los estándares terrestres de próxima generación, lo que podría garantizar la competitividad de la TDT en un futuro cercano. Esta tesis aborda el uso de tecnologías de agregación de canales RF que permitan incrementar la eficiencia espectral de las futuras redes. La tesis se centra en torno a dos tecnologías: Time Frequency Slicing (TFS) y Channel Bonding (CB). TFS y CB consisten en la transmisión de los datos de un servicio de televisión a través de múltiples canales RF en lugar de utilizar un solo canal. CB difunde los datos de un servicio a través de varios canales RF convencionales formando un RF-Mux. TFS difunde los datos a través de ranuras temporales en diferentes canales RF. Los datos son recuperados de forma secuencial en el receptor mediante saltos en frecuencia. La implementación de estas técnicas permite obtener ganancias en capacidad y cobertura. La primera de ellas proviene de una multiplexación estadística (StatMux) de servicios de tasa variable (VBR) más eficiente. Además, CB permite aumentar la tasa de pico de un servicio de forma proporcional al número de canales así como ventajas al combinarla con codificación de vídeo escalable. La ganancia en cobertura proviene de un mejor rendimiento RF debido a la recepción de los datos de un servicio desde diferentes canales en lugar uno sólo que podría estar degradado. Del mismo modo, es posible obtener una mayor robustez frente a interferencias ya que la recepción o no de un servicio no depende de si el canal que lo alberga está o no interferido. TFS fue introducido en primer lugar como un anexo informativo en DVB-T2 (no normativo) y posteriormente fue adoptado en DVB-NGH (Next Generation Handheld). TFS y CB han sido propuestos para su inclusión en ATSC 3.0. Aún así, nunca han sido implementados. Las investigaciones llevadas a cabo en esta Tesis emplean diversos enfoques basados en teoría de la información para obtener los límites de ganancia, en simulaciones de capa física para evaluar el rendimiento en sistemas reales y en el análisis de medidas de campo. Estos estudios reportan ganancias en cobertura en torno a 4-5 dB con 4 canales e importantes ganancias en capacidad aún con sólo 2 canales RF. Esta tesis también se centra en los aspectos de implementación. Los receptores para CB requieren un sintonizador por canal RF agregado. La implementación de TFS con un solo sintonizador exige el cumplimiento de varios requisito temporales. Sin embargo, el uso de dos sintonizadores permitiría un buen rendimiento con una implementación más rentable con la reutilización de los actuales chips o su introducción junto con las arquitecturas existentes que operan con un doble sintonizador tales como
[CAT] La televisió digital terrestre (TDT) d'última generació està orientada a una necessària millora de l'eficiència espectral a fi d'abordar els desafiaments derivats de l'escassetat d'espectre com a resultat de la progressiva assignació de freqüències - l'anomenat Dividend Digital - per a satisfer la creixent demanda de capacitat per a la banda ampla sense fil. Els avanços tant en els estàndards de transmissió com de codificació de vídeo són de la màxima importància per a la progressiva posada en marxa de serveis d'alta qualitat com la televisió d'Ultra AD (Alta Definició). La transició a l'estàndard europeu de segona generació DVB-T2 i la introducció de la codificació de vídeo MPEG-4/AVC ja permet la transmissió de 4-5 serveis de televisió d'AD per canal RF (Radiofreqüència). No obstant això, la impossibilitat d'assignar una major taxa de bit sobre l'espectre restant podria posar en perill l'evolució de les plataformes de TDT en favor d'altres sistemes d'alta capacitat com ara el satèl·lit o les distribuïdores de cable. El següent pas se centra en el desplegament del recent estàndard HEVC (High Efficiency Vídeo Coding), que oferix un 50% de guany de codificació respecte a AVC, junt amb els estàndards terrestres de pròxima generació, la qual cosa podria garantir la competitivitat de la TDT en un futur pròxim. Aquesta tesi aborda l'ús de tecnologies d'agregació de canals RF que permeten incrementar l'eficiència espectral de les futures xarxes. La tesi se centra entorn de dues tecnologies: Time Frequency Slicing (TFS) i Channel Bonding (CB). TFS i CB consistixen en la transmissió de les dades d'un servei de televisió a través de múltiples canals RF en compte d'utilitzar un sol canal. CB difon les dades d'un servei a través d'uns quants canals RF convencionals formant un RF-Mux. TFS difon les dades a través de ranures temporals en diferents canals RF. Les dades són recuperades de forma seqüencial en el receptor per mitjà de salts en freqüència. La implementació d'aquestes tècniques permet obtindre guanys en capacitat i cobertura. La primera d'elles prové d'una multiplexació estadística (StatMux) de serveis de taxa variable (VBR) més eficient. A més, CB permet augmentar la taxa de pic d'un servei de forma proporcional al nombre de canals així com avantatges al combinar-la amb codificació de vídeo escalable. El guany en cobertura prové d'un millor rendiment RF a causa de la recepció de les dades d'un servei des de diferents canals en lloc de només un que podria estar degradat. De la mateixa manera, és possible obtindre una major robustesa enfront d'interferències ja que la recepció o no d'un servei no depén de si el canal que l'allotja està o no interferit. TFS va ser introduït en primer lloc com un annex informatiu en DVB-T2 (no normatiu) i posteriorment va ser adoptat en DVB-NGH (Next Generation Handheld). TFS i CB han sigut proposades per a la seva inclusió en ATSC 3.0. Encara així, mai han sigut implementades. Les investigacions dutes a terme en esta Tesi empren diverses vessants basades en teoria de la informació per a obtindre els límits de guany, en simulacions de capa física per a avaluar el rendiment en sistemes reals i en l'anàlisi de mesures de camp. Aquestos estudis reporten guanys en cobertura entorn als 4-5 dB amb 4 canals i importants guanys en capacitat encara amb només 2 canals RF. Esta tesi també se centra en els aspectes d'implementació. Els receptors per a CB requerixen un sintonitzador per canal RF agregat. La implementació de TFS amb un sol sintonitzador exigix el compliment de diversos requisit temporals. No obstant això, l'ús de dos sintonitzadors permetria un bon rendiment amb una implementació més rendible amb la reutilització dels actuals xips o la seua introducció junt amb les arquitectures existents que operen amb un doble sintonitzador com ara MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output).
Giménez Gandia, JJ. (2015). Improved Spectrum Usage with Multi-RF Channel Aggregation Technologies for the Next-Generation Terrestrial Broadcasting [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/52520
TESIS

Submitted by LIVIA MARIA GONÇALVES ROSSI null (liv.rossi@yahoo.com) on 2016-01-25T14:04:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_HCV Multi-region_LIVIA ROSSI.pdf: 6853283 bytes, checksum: d2ce231bc1292f9fa0469f971cf0856b (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Juliano Benedito Ferreira (julianoferreira@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-01-25T17:23:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 rossi_lmg_dr_sjrp.pdf: 6853283 bytes, checksum: d2ce231bc1292f9fa0469f971cf0856b (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-25T17:23:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 rossi_lmg_dr_sjrp.pdf: 6853283 bytes, checksum: d2ce231bc1292f9fa0469f971cf0856b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-01-18
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
O vírus da Hepatite C (HCV) afeta cerca de 3% da população mundial. A cada ano, 3-4 milhões de novos casos são diagnosticados. A identificação de redes transmissão é complexa devido ao longo período de incubação, à falta de sintomas na fase aguda da doença e à heterogeneidade do HCV, que dificulta o estabelecimento de vínculos entre casos relacionados. Uma ampla caracterização das populações intra-hospedeiros pode ser realizada de forma eficiente através do sequenciamento de nova geração (NGS). Com base neste contexto, o sequenciamento de múltiplas regiões subgenômicas é uma solução às limitações impostas pela rápida evolução molecular do HCV. Variantes virais das regiões HVR1 e NS5A de 16 pacientes cronicamente infectados com o HCV, genótipos 1a e 1b, foram sequenciadas com a técnica de NGS. Os pacientes 1-7 compartilhavam fatores de risco, pertencendo ao mesmo grupo de usuários de drogas injetáveis, porém o parentesco genético desses casos não pode ser estabelecido com base apenas no sequenciamento da HVR1 (distância nucleotídica mínima entre 16-23). A amplificação de um fragmento maior (~450 pb), correspondente a um segmento da região NS5A, aprimorou a relação epidemiológica entre os pacientes 1-5, onde as distancias genéticas mínimas foram consideravelmente menores (9-13). Os pacientes 6 e 7 não compartilharam sequências com os outros cinco pacientes dessa rede, apresentando populações virais mais homogêneas. Adicionalmente, Median Joining Networks foram construídas para melhor analisar a variabilidade genética intra-hospedeiro. Em geral, observou-se que as sequências derivadas da NS5A formaram comunidades mais homogêneas e menos divergentes geneticamente. Assim, a tecnologia NGS e o sequenciamento das regiões subgenômicas HVR1 e NS5A podem ajudar a restaurar elos perdidos quando somente a região HVR1 é analisada, aprimorando portanto, a resolução de estudos de associação genética entre populações de HCV.
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects approximately 3% of the world's population. Each year 3-4 million new cases are diagnosed. The identification of transmission networks is complicated due to the characteristic long incubation period, the lack of symptoms during the acute phase of the disease and the heterogeneity of HCV, making it challenging to link related cases to a common source of infection. Extensive characterization of intra-host populations can be reliably archived using next generation sequencing (NGS) approaches. Sequencing of multiple and longer subgenomic regions has been proposed as an alternative to overcome the limitations imposed by the rapid molecular evolution of the HCV HVR1. Thus, the NS5A and HVR1 regions of 16 chronically infected individuals, genotypes 1a and 1b, were sequenced using a NGS platform. Patients 1-7 shared risk factors and belonged to the same injection drug users network. However, genetic relatedness could not be established based on the HVR1 sequences (minimal nucleotide distance ranging from 16-23). Amplification and sequencing of a larger PCR fragment (~450 bp) targeting the NS5A region reestablished lost epidemiological links between patients 1-5. The minimum genetic distances in those patients were considerable smaller than the HVR1 counterparts (9-13). Patients 6 and 7 displayed a rather homogeneous viral population and were clearly not sharing any sequences with all other five patients in this network. Additionally, Median Joining Networks analysis was carried out to further analyze the intrahost genetic variability of all seven patients. Overall, NS5A sequences were significantly less diverse than their HVR1 equivalents. Thus, NGS technology and use of both HVR1 and NS5A sequences might help restored otherwise lost links when the HVR1 region alone is analyzed, improving the resolution of HCV genetic relatedness studies.
CAPES: 33004153079P9

Orientador: Paula Rahal
Resumo: O vírus da Hepatite C (HCV) afeta cerca de 3% da população mundial. A cada ano, 3-4 milhões de novos casos são diagnosticados. A identificação de redes transmissão é complexa devido ao longo período de incubação, à falta de sintomas na fase aguda da doença e à heterogeneidade do HCV, que dificulta o estabelecimento de vínculos entre casos relacionados. Uma ampla caracterização das populações intra-hospedeiros pode ser realizada de forma eficiente através do sequenciamento de nova geração (NGS). Com base neste contexto, o sequenciamento de múltiplas regiões subgenômicas é uma solução às limitações impostas pela rápida evolução molecular do HCV. Variantes virais das regiões HVR1 e NS5A de 16 pacientes cronicamente infectados com o HCV, genótipos 1a e 1b, foram sequenciadas com a técnica de NGS. Os pacientes 1-7 compartilhavam fatores de risco, pertencendo ao mesmo grupo de usuários de drogas injetáveis, porém o parentesco genético desses casos não pode ser estabelecido com base apenas no sequenciamento da HVR1 (distância nucleotídica mínima entre 16-23). A amplificação de um fragmento maior (~450 pb), correspondente a um segmento da região NS5A, aprimorou a relação epidemiológica entre os pacientes 1-5, onde as distancias genéticas mínimas foram consideravelmente menores (9-13). Os pacientes 6 e 7 não compartilharam sequências com os outros cinco pacientes dessa rede, apresentando populações virais mais homogêneas. Adicionalmente, Median Joining Networks foram construídas para ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo)
Abstract: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects approximately 3% of the world's population. Each year 3-4 million new cases are diagnosed. The identification of transmission networks is complicated due to the characteristic long incubation period, the lack of symptoms during the acute phase of the disease and the heterogeneity of HCV, making it challenging to link related cases to a common source of infection. Extensive characterization of intra-host populations can be reliably archived using next generation sequencing (NGS) approaches. Sequencing of multiple and longer subgenomic regions has been proposed as an alternative to overcome the limitations imposed by the rapid molecular evolution of the HCV HVR1. Thus, the NS5A and HVR1 regions of 16 chronically infected individuals, genotypes 1a and 1b, were sequenced using a NGS platform. Patients 1-7 shared risk factors and belonged to the same injection drug users network. However, genetic relatedness could not be established based on the HVR1 sequences (minimal nucleotide distance ranging from 16-23). Amplification and sequencing of a larger PCR fragment (~450 bp) targeting the NS5A region reestablished lost epidemiological links between patients 1-5. The minimum genetic distances in those patients were considerable smaller than the HVR1 counterparts (9-13). Patients 6 and 7 displayed a rather homogeneous viral population and were clearly not sharing any sequences with all other five patients in this network. Additionally, Median Joining... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)
Doutor

The subject of this research is to find a continuous solution, which allows the description, the creation, the provisioning, and the execution of value-added telecommunication services. This work proposes a framework for an easy and timesaving creation and provisioning of value-added telecommunication services in Next Generation Networks. As research method, feasibility, comparative methods are used in this study. Criteria and requirements for service description, service creation, service execution, and service provisioning, are defined and existing technologies are compared with each other and evaluated regarding these criteria and requirements. Extensions to the selected technologies are proposed and possibilities to combine these technologies are researched. From the results of the previous steps, a framework is defined which offers a continuous solution for the description, creation, provisioning and execution of value-added services. In order to test the proof of concept, this framework is prototypically implemented. For a qualitative analysis of the research targets and the proof of concept, an example service is created and executed within the framework prototype. Furthermore, in order to examine the validity of the quantitative aims and objectives of this research work, a second example service is created, and its characteristics are measured and analysed. The result of this research is a novel continuous approach for the creation of value-added telecommunication services. This research introduces new possibilities for the service description, service creation, service provisioning, and service execution through an extension of the common telecommunication real-time execution environment JAIN SLEE. Value-added services are described by using the business process execution language BPEL. This language facilitates a simple and fast service design. The service can automatically be composed from pre-defined and pre-deployed components.

In den letzten 20 Jahren haben sich in Sachsen mit ca. 60 Sendern die meisten privaten regionalen Fernsehsender der Bundesrepublik etabliert. Diese übernehmen dabei oft Aufgaben der Informationsversorgung, denen die öffentlich-rechtlichen Sender nur unzureichend nachkommen. Das InnoProfile Forschungsvorhaben sachsMedia fokussierte auf die existentielle und facettenreiche Umbruchschwelle kleiner und mittelständischer Unternehmen aus dem Bereich der regionalen Medienverbreitung. Besonders kritisch für die Medienbranche war der Übergang von analoger zu digitaler Fernsehausstrahlung im Jahr 2010. Die Forschungsinitiative sachsMedia nahm sich der zugrundeliegenden Problematiken an und bearbeitete grundlegende Forschungsfragen in den beiden Themenkomplexen Annotation & Retrieval und Mediendistribution. Der vorliegende Forschungsbericht fasst die erreichten Ergebnisse zusammen.

MSc thesis - Faculty of Engineering
Service creation in the Next Generation Network (NGN) is focused around software creation and borrows heavily from the Software Engineering community. In the NGN, telecommunication companies demand simple, rapid and economical service creation. The key to this type of service creation is software re-use. Software re-use is a conundrum where limited, dedicated solutions exists. These solutions include amongst others Enterprise JavaBeansTM (EJBs), design patterns and object-oriented programming. The Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture- Conformance And Testing (TINA-CAT) workgroup has done work on a functionality centric concept called RP-facets. This report proposes a redefinition of RP-facets, as Facets, for software re-use across the design and code level. We redefine Facets as functionality centric reusable components. A Facet is independent of the implementation language and the execution platform. Facets allow containment in a structured manner via a user defined Facet Hierarchy. Facets are resource, context and data agnostic. They also introduce a structured way to allow source code to be changed based on design level decisions. Also, possessing the ability to allow the simultaneous use of other reuse solutions and programming paradigms. Abstraction of detail from developers and platform migration can be achieved by using Facets. Facets are composed of a Generic definition and any number of Implementation definitions. The definitions are supported by an underlying informational model called meta-¼. Meta- ¼ is a model at the M3 meta-level that focuses on describing entities. Most of the Facet’s capabilities are enabled by the meta-¼ model. An environment for developing Facets is created, called the Facet Development Environment (FDE). The Facet Developer (FD) role is introduced to develop and maintain Facets. The FD verifies programmes from programmers to be included into the catalogue of Facets via the FDE. The FD interacts with service creation teams to determine which Facets can be used in the service they wish to develop. Facets prove their capability in targeted areas, yet lack in other categories. It is recommended that the underlying informational model should be revised to form a more robust and flexible entity describing model. In addition, a cataloging capability to easily find Facets with particular functionality should be appended to the capabilities of the facet. It is proposed, for future work, that a development environment be created that encompasses a process for using Facets to create services.

碩士
國立東華大學
電子工程研究所
97
In the trend of future vehicular environment, mobile devices may need to cross over different servicing location of BS. At the same time, in order to maintain the network services, it's necessary to study on the integration of different networks, and how to integrate all the network technologies such as WiFi, WiMAX, and 3G, that is the key point. The vehicular user can have a roaming in different types of wireless communication technologies, handover in the duration of exchanging different networks, and providing the better continuous connections of application services in the environment of different networks. In this study, we aim at applying the main feature of NGN (Next Generation Network) to the vehicular network, and using IEEE 802.21 MIH standard to integrate different networks in the same platform. On the other hand, in the advanced development of every multimedia services, the needs of network bandwidth for vehicular user is increasing, and approaches to be better and high quality. In order to satisfy users’ high quality requirements, it is necessary to supply a QoS mechanism in such a heterogeneous wireless network environment. Especially for real-time services, it requires a high quality of guaranteed service. This study proposed an adaptive QoS management mechanism to aim at the concerned QoS parameters of different applications. Besides, with the environment of IEEE 802.21 MIH network, it can obtain the parameters of received signal strength to supply the best option of available networks in current accessible wireless networks. By means of above, it can achieve the purpose of high QoS so that the applications can fit most needs. In the simulation results, the proposed Management Module in this thesis spend much handover time by about 46.13% than the homogeneous network, but the throughput of the proposed Management Module is higher by about 27.1% than the homogeneous network. With the adaptive QoS management mechanism, the different real-time applications have successful performance improvement. The simulation results indicate that the proposed mechanism decreases jitter about 0.0787 milliseconds for VoIP (Voice over IP) and decreases 3.39% packet loss ratio for high definition video stream.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
國際企業管理組
96
Fiber optic transmission technology has been thriving in many countries in recent years. It has become the mainstream as the demand for bandwidth grows. Being the leading Telco in Taiwan, Chuanghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (CHT) has been aggressively deploying Next Generation Network (NGN). With CHT’s aggressive promotion and construction, NGN will have strong impacts on the broadband services and industry supply chain in Taiwan. However, under the restriction of political parties and military participation in media, CHT’s Multimedia-on-Demand (MOD) service faces relevant problems that will influence CHT’s fixed network business. Therefore, this thesis will explore the following issues: 1. The competitive strengths and weakness of marketing strategies of different media operators under HDTV influence; 2. with the combination of NGN and MOD services, product bundling and cross-platform integration, CHT’s breakthrough in the competition from cable operators, expansion of MOD market scale and obtain more cross-industry advantages.

Στόχος αυτής της εργασίας είναι να εισάγει τον αναγνώστη στις διεπαφές Parlay/OSA με απλό και συνοπτικό τρόπο. Οι διεπαφές Parlay/OSA είναι ένα σύνολο προγραμματιστικών διεπαφών που επιτρέπουν στους ανεξάρτητους προμηθευτές υπηρεσιών να δημιουργήσουν τηλεπικοινωνιακές υπηρεσίες. Οι διεπαφές περιλαμβάνουν εκτος των άλλων : το κομμάτι του ελέγχου της κλήσης, το κομμάτι της αλληλεπίδρασης με το χρήστη,το κομμάτι του εντοπισμού του χρήστη, καθώς και το κομμάτι της χρέωσης και τον λογιστικών πράξεων. Οι Parlay/OSA διεπαφές είναι πρότυπα των ETSI και 3GPP. Το πρώτο μέρος της εργασίας είναι μια εισαγωγή στο πληροφοριακό μοντέλο του Parlay/OSA. Στην συνέχεια αναλύουμε την λειτουργικότητα των API καθώς και τον τυπικό τρόπο λειτουργίας τους. Τέλος περιγράφονται δύο εφαρμογές όπου φαίνεται η χρήση και ο τρόπος λειτουργίας των διεπαφών.
The purpose of this thesis is to introduce the reader to the Parlay/OSA interfaces in a simple manner. Parlay/OSA interfaces are a set of programmable interfaces that enable third party service providers create telecommunication services. Parlay/Osa interfaces are ETSI and 3GPP models. The first part of this thesis is an introduction to Parlay/OSA APIs. After that, the APIs' functionality is described. Finally, two sample applications are described to show the use and functionality of the interfaces.

Το αντικείμενο αυτής της διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η μελέτη της δομής υπηρεσιών πάνω στα 0ίκτυα Επόμενης Γενιάς (Next Generation Networks, NGN). Συγκεκριμένα, περιγράφεται η αρχιτεκτονική IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) πάνω στην οποία βασίζεται η δομή των 0ικτύων Επόμενης Γενιάς. Στα πλαίσια της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας γίνεται αρχικά μια σύντομη αναφορά στο ιστορικό δημιουργίας του IMS, ενώ στην συνέχεια γίνεται μια εκτεταμένη περιγραφή του μοντέλου και του τρόπου λειτουργίας του IMS. Συγκεκριμένα, αναλύονται οι οντότητες και τα σημεία αναφοράς από τα οποία αποτελείται το IMS καθώς και τα πρωτόκολλα που χρησιμοποιεί. Στη συνέχεια γίνεται μία αναφορά στην ασφάλεια του IMS, όπου αναφέρονται πιθανοί κίνδυνοι και απειλές για το IMS καθώς και τρόποι αντιμετώπισής τους. Έπειτα, παρουσιάζονται και περιγράφονται αναλυτικά οι υπηρεσίες που μπορεί να προσφέρει το IMS στα πλαίσια των 0ικτύων Επόμενης Γενιάς. Τέλος, γίνεται παρουσίαση ενός παραδείγματος εφαρμογής της υπηρεσίας VoIP πάνω από την IMS αρχιτεκτονική. Για την υλοποίηση αυτού του παραδείγματος χρησιμοποιήθηκε το πρόγραμμα προσομοίωσης OPNET 10.0, ενώ συλλέχθηκαν αποτελέσματα σχετικά με τη συμπεριφορά του πρωτοκόλλου SIP και της υπηρεσίας VoIP σε IMS περιβάλλον.
The objective of this diploma thesis is the study of the service structure of Next Generation Networks (NGN). Especially, the IMS architecture (IP Multimedia Subsystem) is being described, which the NGN structure is based on. Initially, there is a quick reference to the history of the development of IMS, and continually an extensive description is being made about the model and the functional mode of IMS. Next, security aspects of IMS are being described, and continually there is a presentation about the services that IMS offers. Finally, an example is being presented regarding the application of VoIP service using the IMS architecture. For the configuration of this example, the simulation program OPNET 10.0 was used, while results were collected regarding the behavior of SIP protocol and VoIP service in the IMS environment.

Η διπλωματική ασχολείται με τα ετερογενή δίκτυα επόμενης γενιάς και με τα πρωτόκολλα ασφαλείας. Μελέτησα το σύνολο πρωτοκόλλων ΑΑΑ, τα οποία εξασφαλίζουν την πιστοποίηση, εξουσιοδότηση και τη λογιστική χρέωση, όπως παρατηρείται στα σύγχρονα δίκτυα. Κατόπιν, μελέτησα το σύστημα IMS, το οποίο εννοποιεί ασύρματα και σταθέρά δίκτυα μεταξύ τους, χρησιμιοποιώντας κοινά πρωτόκολλα που χρησιμοποιούνται στο μοντέλο TCP/IP (Internet). Τέλος, καταγράφονται συνηθισμένες επιθέσεις στην αρχιτεκτονική του IMS, με και χωρίς τη χρήση του SBC, που αποτελεί μία μονάδα ενίσχυσης ασφαλείας.
This project studies the heterogenous, next generation's networks and the security protocols that they use. The protocols AAA, which ensure the correct and safe authentication, authorization and accounting in these networks, have been studied. Thenwhile, I studied the IMS system, which unites wireless and wired networks, using comon protocols that are used in TCP/IP model(Internet). Finally, I present the results of a group of comon threats, with and without the use of the unit SBC, which is a unit that amplify the system's security.

Το αντικείμενο της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η μελέτη της αρχιτεκτονικής των Δικτύων Νέας Γενιάς (Next Generation Networks-NGN) με εστίαση στους μηχανισμούς του Επιπέδου Μετάδοσης και τις Λειτουργίες Τελικού Χρήστη. Συγκεκριμένα, περιγράφεται η αρχιτεκτονική IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) με τις αντίστοιχες λειτουργικές συνιστώσες και διεπαφές, ενώ στη συνέχεια παρατίθενται τα βήματα μετάβασης προς δίκτυα και προσβάσεις νέας γενιάς επιλεγμένων μεγάλων τηλεπικοινωνιακών Οργανισμών. Ακολούθως, γίνεται μια συνοπτική αναφορά στις λειτουργίες του επιπέδου μετάδοσης, ελέγχου μεταφοράς και διαχείρισης δικτύου και στη συνέχεια περιγράφεται λεπτομερώς η λειτουργική αρχιτεκτονική των κύριων λειτουργικών οντοτήτων του επιπέδου μετάδοσης (λειτουργίες ελέγχου προσάρτησης δικτύου-NACF, λειτουργίες ελέγχου διαχείρισης φορητότητας-MMCF, λειτουργίες ελέγχου πόρων –RACF, λειτουργίες μετάδοσης κορμού) και τα μοντέλα πληροφόρησης (ένδειξη δέσμευσης, πληροφορία απόκρισης πόρων μετάδοσης κ.α.) των επιμέρους στοιχείων των προαναφερθέντων δομικών οντοτήτων. Σε κάθε δομικό μοντέλο πληροφόρησης υπάρχει αναλυτική παρουσίαση των σημείων αναφοράς και ροών πληροφορίας που εμπλέκονται στη διαχείριση και έλεγχο φορητότητας, προσάρτησης δικτύου, διεργασίας μετάδοσης κορμού και πρόσβασης, αντιστοίχως. Στη συνέχεια, αναλύονται οι λειτουργίες τελικού χρήστη με ειδικότερη αναφορά στις λειτουργίες πύλης δικτύου (CPN) με τα επιμέρους λειτουργικά στοιχεία της, και τα δίκτυα που θα αποτελέσουν τον κορμό πάνω στον οποίο θα στηριχθεί η υλοποίηση της πρόσβασης των δικτύων νέας γενιάς. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, περιγράφονται οι τεχνολογίες πρόσβασης DSL (ADSL, ADSL2 και VDSL2) με τους υποκείμενους περιορισμούς του ρυθμού μετάδοσης (διαφωνία, εξασθένηση), Ethernet (EPON, P2P πάνω από χαλκό και οπτική ίνα), και PON (διασύνδεση P2MP με οπτικό διαμεριστή οπτικής ισχύος, GPON). Τέλος, αναλύονται οι καλωδιακές υποδομές που απαιτούνται για την ανάπτυξη των προσβάσεων νέας γενιάς (εύρος, διάρθρωση, πυκνότητα οπτικών ινών).
The theme of this particular thesis is the study of the Next Generation Networks –NGN architecture focusing on the functionalities of the Transport Stratum and the End User Functions. Specifically, it is described the IMS architecture (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and the related functional components, and then, it is listed the transition steps towards the next generation networks and access of selected Telecommunications Providers. Following, it is briefly outlined the functionalities of transport level, transport control and network management, as well, and subsequently, the functional architecture of the main entities of transport level (network attachment control functions –NACF, Mobility Management and Control Functions- MMCF, Resource and Admission Control Functions- RACF, Transport processing entities) and the information models (event registration reply, resource selection information reply etc) of the aforementioned functional components are being described, in detail. Each structural component is analytically presented with its reference points and information flows that are involved in the management as well as the control of mobility, network admission, transport core and access processing, respectively. Additionally, the end user functions are described, giving weighted reference to the customer premises gateway functions (CGF) and their individual entities, and the networks that will compose the core upon which the implementation of next generation access will be established. That is, different access types are presented such as DSL network (ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL2) with its transfer rate restrictions (i.e. attenuation), Ethernet network (EPON, P2P over copper and optical fiber) and PON (P2MP interconnection using optical power splitter ,GPON). Finally, it is analyzed the cable infrastructure needed for the development of the new generation access (optical fiber rate, structure, density).

Next generation networks (NGNs) must integrate the services of current circuit-switched telephone networks and packet-switched data networks. This convergence towards a unified communication infrastructure necessitates from the high capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX) due to the coexistence of separate networks for voice and data. In the end, NGNs must offer the same services as these legacy networks and, therefore, they must provide a low-cost packet-switched solution with real-time transport capabilities for telephony and multimedia applications. In addition, NGNs must be fault-tolerant to guarantee user satisfaction and to support business-critical processes also in case of network failures. A key technology for the operation of NGNs is the Internet Protocol (IP) which evolved to a common and well accepted standard for networking in the Internet during the last 25 years. There are two basically different approaches to achieve QoS in IP networks. With capacity overprovisioning (CO), an IP network is equipped with sufficient bandwidth such that network congestion becomes very unlikely and QoS is maintained most of the time. The second option to achieve QoS in IP networks is admission control (AC). AC represents a network-inherent intelligence that admits real-time traffic flows to a single link or an entire network only if enough resources are available such that the requirements on packet loss and delay can be met. Otherwise, the request of a new flow is blocked. This work focuses on resource management and control mechanisms for NGNs, in particular on AC and associated bandwidth allocation methods. The first contribution consists of a new link-oriented AC method called experience-based admission control (EBAC) which is a hybrid approach dealing with the problems inherent to conventional AC mechanisms like parameter-based or measurement-based AC (PBAC/MBAC). PBAC provides good QoS but suffers from poor resource utilization and, vice versa, MBAC uses resources efficiently but is susceptible to QoS violations. Hence, EBAC aims at increasing the resource efficiency while maintaining the QoS which increases the revenues of ISPs and postpones their CAPEX for infrastructure upgrades. To show the advantages of EBAC, we first review today’s AC approaches and then develop the concept of EBAC. EBAC is a simple mechanism that safely overbooks the capacity of a single link to increase its resource utilization. We evaluate the performance of EBAC by its simulation under various traffic conditions. The second contribution concerns dynamic resource allocation in transport networks which implement a specific network admission control (NAC) architecture. In general, the performance of different NAC systems may be evaluated by conventional methods such as call blocking analysis which has often been applied in the context of multi-service asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. However, to yield more practical results than abstract blocking probabilities, we propose a new method to compare different AC approaches by their respective bandwidth requirements. To present our new method for comparing different AC systems, we first give an overview of network resource management (NRM) in general. Then we present the concept of adaptive bandwidth allocation (ABA) in capacity tunnels and illustrate the analytical performance evaluation framework to compare different AC systems by their capacity requirements. Different network characteristics influence the performance of ABA. Therefore, the impact of various traffic demand models and tunnel implementations, and the influence of resilience requirements is investigated. In conclusion, the resources in NGNs must be exclusively dedicated to admitted traffic to guarantee QoS. For that purpose, robust and efficient concepts for NRM are required to control the requested bandwidth with regard to the available transmission capacity. Sophisticated AC will be a key function for NRM in NGNs and, therefore, efficient resource management concepts like experience-based admission control and adaptive bandwidth allocation for admission-controlled capacity tunnels, as presented in this work are appealing for NGN solutions
In meiner Dissertation zum Thema “Performance Evaluation of Efficient Resource Management Concepts for Next Generation IP Networks” werden im Wesentlichen zwei miteinander verwobene Konzepte zur effizienten Nutzung von Übertragungsressourcen in zukünftigen IP Netzen untersucht. Das Management solcher Ressourcen ist zur Unterstützung qualitativ hochwertiger Netzdiensten (z.B. IP Telephonie, IP TV, etc.) in Zukunft unabdingbar. Gegenwärtig werden diese Dienste durch den Einsatz hoher Übertragungskapazitäten (engl. capacity overprovisioning) in den IP Breitbandnetzen ermöglicht. Um in Spitzenlastzeiten die Qualität der Dienste aufrecht zu erhalten, sind die Bandbreiten derart hoch angesetzt, dass unter normalen Umständen die Ressourcen nur sehr schwach ausgelastet sind (im Bereich zwischen 10 und 30 Prozent). Diese Überdimensionierungslösung ist einfach zu realisieren aber auch sehr kostenintensiv, ineffizient und vor allem nicht (zukunfts-)sicher, da bei ständig steigendem Bandbreitenbedarf, die Netzkapazitäten häufig angepasst werden müssen. Eine Effizienzsteigerung bei der Ressourcennutzung in heutigen Kommunikationsnetzen ist daher ein wichtiges Kriterium für die Wirtschaftlichkeit zukünftiger IP Netze. Erreicht werden kann dies mit den Mitteln der Netzzugangskontrolle (engl. admission control, kurz AC), welche bereits in verschiedenen Formen entwickelt, untersucht und teilweise auch in heutigen IP Netzen realisiert ist. Die AC stellt eine vergleichsweise komplexe Lösung zur Aufrechterhaltung der Dienstgüte in IP Netzen dar. Daher sind einfache und effiziente Mechanismen/Automatismen zur Durchführung der AC gefordert, um deren Einsatz an Stelle der Überdimensionierung zu rechtfertigen. Den zuvor genannten Forderungen nach effizienter Ressourcennutzung entsprechend stellt der erste Hauptbeitrag der Dissertation einen neuen Ansatz zur AC dar, die so genannte erfahrungsbasierte Netzzugangskontrolle (engl. experience-based admission control, kurz EBAC). Gegenüber den existierenden alternativen, d.h. parameter- oder mess-basierten Verfahren der AC zeichnet sich die EBAC durch effiziente Ressourcennutzung und begünstigt gleichzeitig die Aufrechterhaltung der Dienstgüte. Die genaue Funktionsweise der EBAC und die simulative Leistungsuntersuchung sind in der Dissertation nachzulesen. Der zweite Themenschwerpunkt der Dissertation greift eine tunnel-basierte Netzarchitektur auf und präsentiert mit deren Hilfe eine neue Methode zur Bewertung verschiedener Bandbreitenallokationsstrategien in Kombination mit AC. Die neue Bewertungsmethode wird zwar anhand einer speziellen tunnel-basierten AC untersucht, lässt sich aber auf alle Arten so genannter budget-basierter AC anwenden. Bei der konventionellen Leistungsbewertung verschiedener AC-Systeme dienen abstrakte Blockierungswahrscheinlichkeiten als Leistungsmaß. Im Gegensatz hierzu, bewertet die neue Methode die Leistung eines AC-Systems anhand des zugehörigen Bandbreitenbedarfs in Abhängigkeit verschiedener Einflussfaktoren, z.B. der avisierten Blockierwahrscheinlichkeit des AC-Systems, der Verkehrszusammensetzung, des Verkehrsvolumens, der Verkehrsdynamik und vor allem der angewandten Bandbreitenallokationsstrategie. In zukünftigen IP Netzen müssen die Ressourcen zur Datenübertragung besser verwaltet und kontrolliert werden. Zugelassener Verkehr mit hohen Dienstgüteanforderungen muss exklusiv Bandbreite zugewiesen werden, um die geforderte Dienstgüte garantieren zu können. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen werden robuste und effiziente Konzepte zum Management von Netzressourcen benötigt. Intelligenter Netzzugangskontrolle wird eine Schlüsselfunktion in zukünftigen IP Netzen zukommen. Die in dieser Dissertation vorgestellten, effizienten Ressourcenmanagementkonzepte „erfahrungsbasierte Netzzugangskontrolle“ und „adaptive Bandbreitenallokation in zugangskontrollierten Kapazitätstunnel“ tragen zum Erreichen dieses Ziels bei

Ο όρος ‘Δίκτυα Επόμενης Γενιάς’ αναφέρεται σε μελλοντικά δίκτυα πρωτοποριακής λογικής και δομής, προσανατολισμένα στην υποστήριξη σύγχρονων απαιτητικών εφαρμογών και στη βελτίωση της λειτουργικότητας της τερματικής συσκευής, όπως την αντιλαμβάνεται ο χρήστης. Πολύ σημαντικά στοιχεία της νέας τηλεπικοινωνιακής πραγματικότητας που επιφέρουν τα δίκτυα αυτά, και με τα οποία σχετίζεται άμεσα η παρούσα εργασία, είναι η διάθεση προώθησης της γενικευμένης κινητικότητας των ασύρματων χρηστών και η ενθάρρυνση της σύγκλισης επιμέρους τεχνολογιών διαφορετικών δικτύων και της δημιουργίας υβριδικών ετερογενών δικτύων, με στόχο την επίτευξη καλύτερης αξιοποίησης του φάσματος και βελτίωσης των ρυθμών μετάδοσης δεδομένων. Σκοπός της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η παρουσίαση της δομής και των λειτουργιών των Δικτύων Επόμενης Γενιάς, καθώς και ορισμένων υπαρχόντων τύπων ασύρματων δικτύων, η συνεργασία των οποίων θα μπορούσε να προσφέρει τα επιθυμητά πλεονεκτήματα. Δύο τέτοια είδη δικτύων είναι το δίκτυο κινητής τηλεφωνίας UMTS και τα τοπικά δίκτυα τεχνολογίας WLAN, τα οποία εξετάζονται ενδελεχώς ως προς τα χαρακτηριστικά τους και, κυρίως, ως προς τους μηχανισμούς διευθέτησης της περιαγωγής των χρηστών. Περιλαμβάνεται επίσης μία περιγραφή της λειτουργίας του Mobile IP, πρωτοκόλλου που θεωρείται ιδιαίτερα χρήσιμο για τη διαχείριση της κινητικότητας χρηστών ανάμεσα σε περιοχές εξυπηρέτησης διαφορετικών δικτύων. Η εργασία καταλήγει στη μοντελοποίηση των παραπάνω συστημάτων σε περιβάλλον εξομοίωσης, επιδιώκοντας την αξιολόγηση της αποτελεσματικότητας του ενδεχόμενου συνδυασμού των συστημάτων UMTS και WLAN και της χρησιμότητας του Mobile IP. Το λογισμικό που χρησιμοποιείται γι’ αυτόν το σκοπό είναι το OPNET Modeler ®, ένα πρόγραμμα που αναδεικνύεται τα τελευταία χρόνια σε εργαλείο όλο και περισσότερο πολύτιμο, τόσο σε ερευνητικό όσο και σε επιχειρησιακό επίπεδο.
The term ‘Next Generation Networks’ refers to future networks of revolutionary concept and structure, oriented to the support of demanding applications and the upgrade of the terminal device’s functionality, as perceived by the user. Some very important aspects of the new telecommunications reality that is brought on by these networks, and to which this project is directly related, is the intention of promoting generalized mobility for the wireless users and the encouragement of the convergence of distinct network technologies and of the foundation of new hybrid heterogeneous networks, in order to achieve better spectrum utilization and improvement of data transmission rates. The purpose of the current diploma thesis project is to present the structure and the functions of the Next Generation Networks, as well as of some existing types of wireless networks, the cooperation of which could provide the desirable advantages. Two such network types are the UMTS mobile telephony network and the local networks of WLAN technology, that are examined thoroughly towards their characteristics and, foremost, towards their roaming arrangement mechanisms. Also included is a description of the operation of Mobile IP, a protocol that is considered particularly convenient for the management of users’ mobility between service areas of different networks. The project concludes to the modeling of the above mentioned systems in a simulation environment, aiming to evaluate the efficiency of the prospective combination of the UMTS and WLAN systems and the utility of Mobile IP. The software used for this purpose is OPNET Modeler ®, a program that has emerged during the last years as an increasingly valuable research and business tool.

Οι οικονομικές και τεχνολογικές εξελίξεις των τελευταίων ετών, η απελευθέρωση της αγοράς, οι ισχυρές κατά απαίτηση πολυμεσικές υπηρεσίες καθώς και ο αυξημένος αριθμός χρηστών των κινητών δικτύων υποδεικνύουν την αναγκαιότητα της σύγκλισης των δύο δικτυακών τεχνολογιών (κινητή τηλεφωνία και internet) με στόχο την παροχή υπηρεσιών Internet στο περιβάλλον των κινητών επικοινωνιών. Η παραπάνω απαίτηση οδήγησε στην δημιουργία του δικτύου επόμενης γενιάς NGN. Η διπλωματική αυτή εργασία ασχολείται με την μελέτη της αρχιτεκτονικής του επιπέδου υπηρεσιών και την υποστήριξη Ποιότητας Υπηρεσίας (QoS) σε δίκτυα Νέας Γενιάς. Συγκεκριμένα δίνεται έμφαση στις λειτουργίες ελέγχου, σηματοδοσίας και λειτουργιών αρχιτεκτονικής του QoS σε επίπεδο υπηρεσιών. Αρχικά, ορίζουμε την έννοια “QoS” όσον αφορά την οπτική του δικτύου και το χρήστη. Περιγράφονται η αρχιτεκτονική του στρώματος υπηρεσιών του δικτύου καθώς και οι λειτουργίες ελέγχου πόρου και αποδοχής των κλήσεων, που αποτελούν σημαντικό μέρος της αρχιτεκτονικής του NGN. Στη συνέχεια παρουσιάζονται αρχιτεκτονικές που προορίζονται για την παροχή του QoS (IntServ, DiffServ), στη Συμφωνία Στάθμης Παρεχόμενης Υπηρεσίας (SLA), το πρωτόκολλο σηματοδοσίας COPS. Επίσης, δίνουμε έμφαση σε ορισμένες πτυχές (χρονοδρομολόγηση, διαχείριση ουρών) μίας QoS αρχιτεκτονικής, οι οποίες είναι ζωτικής σημασίας όσον αφορά την αποδοτική παροχή Ποιότητας Υπηρεσίας. Στη συνέχεια, με τη χρήση του εργαλείου προσομοίωσης OPNET, διεξάγουμε μια σειρά προσομοιώσεων σε ένα ATM και σε ένα NGN δίκτυο. Τέλος, παραθέτουμε και αναλύουμε τα αποτελέσματα των προαναφερθέντων πειραμάτων.
The concept of an NGN (Next Generation Network) has been introduced to take into consideration the new realities in the telecommunications industry, characterized by factors such as: competition among operators due to ongoing deregulation of markets, explosion of digital traffic, e.g.,increasing use of "the Internet", increasing demand for new multimedia services, increasing demand for a general mobility, convergence of networks and services, etc. This thesis has as subject the architecture of service stratum and presents an overview of standards functions defining the Quality of Service (QoS) in Next Generation Networks (NGNs). Several standards bodies define the QoS control architectures based on their scope of work. Specifically, emphasis is given to control functions, signalling and functional architecture of QoS in service stratum. Firstly, we define the meaning of QoS according to the view of the operator’s network and terminal users. The functional architecture of service stratum and especially the part of resource and admission control functions are described in the main body. Furthermore, architectures as IntServ and DiffServ, SLAs and COPS protocol are used as providers of the QoS. Scheduling and queuing management are necessary to optimize the QoS in NGN networks. In this project, we use OPNET simulator in two scenarios to determine construct and control ATM and NGN networks. Finally, collect the results of the experiments and analyze them.