Abstract: Network Service Chaining (NSC) is a service concept which promises increased flexibility and cost-efficiency for future carrier networks. The two recent developments, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN), are opportunities for service providers to simplify the service chaining and provisioning process and reduce the cost (in CAPEX and OPEX) while introducing new services as well. One of the challenging tasks regarding NFV-based services is to efficiently map them to the components of a physical network based on the services specifications/constraints. In this paper, we propose an efficient cost-effective algorithm to map NSCs composed of Network Functions (NF) to the network infrastructure while taking possible decompositions of NFs into account. NF decomposition refers to converting an abstract NF to more refined NFs interconnected in form of a graph with the same external interfaces as the higher-level NF. The proposed algorithm tries to minimize the cost of the mapping based on the NSCs requirements and infrastructure capabilities by making a reasonable selection of the NFs decompositions. Our experimental evaluations show that the proposed scheme increases the acceptance ratio significantly while decreasing the mapping cost in the long run, compared to schemes in which NF decompositions are selected randomly.

Abstract: This article presents an efficient optical service chaining architecture for network function virtualization in data centers. Service chaining (i.e., steering traffic through a sequence of network functions) is one emerging application of software-defined networking. However, existing schemes steer traffic solely in the packet domain, which is well suited for fine-grained (e.g., peruser level) flows carrying a relatively small volume of traffic. This article discusses how packet-based schemes do not yield sufficient efficiency for large/aggregated flows steered through high-capacity core network functions. It introduces an optical steering domain into the operator's data centers for NFV service chaining at a coarse-grained traffic level using wavelength switching. Performance evaluation shows that the optical steering domain can achieve significant power savings compared to using packet technologies as flow rates and the number of vNFs per service chain grow.

Abstract: The resource-constrained project scheduling problem with minimum and maximum time lags (RCPSP/max) is a general model for resource scheduling in many real-world problems (such as manufacturing and construction engineering). We consider RCPSP/max problems where the durations of activities are stochastic and resources can have unforeseen breakdowns. Given a level of allowable risk, $$\alpha $$?, our mechanisms aim to compute the minimum robust makespan execution strategy. Robust makespan for an execution strategy is any makespan value that has a risk less than $$\alpha $$?. The risk for a makespan value, $$M$$M given an execution strategy, is the probability that a schedule instantiated from the execution strategy will not finish before $$M$$M given the uncertainty over durations and resources. We make three key contributions: (a) firstly, we provide an analytical evaluation of resource breakdowns and repairs on executions of activities; (b) we then incorporate such information into a local search framework and generate execution strategies that can absorb resource and durational uncertainties; and (c) finally, to improve robustness of resulting strategies, we propose resource breakdown aware chaining procedure with three different metrics. This chaining procedure computes resource allocations by predicting the effect of breakdowns on robustness of generated strategies. Experiments show effectiveness of our proposed methods in providing more robust execution strategies under uncertainty.

Abstract: Diseases Ear, Nose and Throathas become adisease that issuffered by the world community. ENT disease progression and higher, it is not accompanied by anumber of experts. In this case, an analysis should be doneto speed up the process of diagnosis. The refore it is necessary to use the expert system is a computer application that behaves like an expert. Expert system capable of solving problems that typically can only be solved by an expert using the knowledge base, facts and reasoning techniques. In this analysis using aforward chaining inference engine. In this approach, starting from the information entered and then draws conclusions, tracking the forefind facts in accordance with the IF-THEN rules. Based on the test system accuracy rate forward chaining method to detect ENT disease that is 100%, which according to the data obtained from the ENT specialist to determine disease based on symptoms exist.

Abstract: We develop a theory for the design of process flexibility in a multi-period production system. We propose and formalize a notion of "effective chaining" termed the Generalized Chaining Condition (GCC), which includes the chaining structure put forth by \cite{JG95} as a special case. We show that any partial flexibility structure that satisfies GCC is near-optimal under a class of policies called the Max-Weight policies, i.e., gaining nearly as much benefit as a fully flexible system. Furthermore, we show that GCC can be satisfied using very sparse flexibility structures, and we provide an efficient algorithm for finding such structures. Our numerical study confirms insights from our theoretical results. The goal of this paper is to make progress towards the better understanding of the key design principles of process flexibility structures in a multi-period environment, the study of which has been limited due to its inherent complexity.

Abstract: Network functions (eg, firewalls, load balancers, etc) are traditionally implemented in hardware appliances and provide services to traffic flows Since these functions are traditionally hardware-based, they make service innovation difficult in today's scenario of rapidly-increasing and evolving service demands Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is seen as a key enabler for service innovation as it virtualizes these network functions that can be therefore located more flexibly in the network In this paper, we analyze network resource consumption in a Network-enabled Cloud (NeC) where the cloud-computing paradigm also comprises of network nodes in addition to the data center, by employing service chaining of Virtual Network Functions (VNF) Using an Integer Linear Program formulation, we study different NeC scenarios having varying number of network nodes Our results indicate that scenarios with distributed NFV capability (as in NeC) can reduce network resource consumption

Abstract: Service function chaining (SFC) enables the creation of composite network services that consist of an ordered set of service functions. For scalable and fault-tolerant SFC services, multiple service function instances should be deployed across networks and incoming flows should be distributed to multiple service function instances appropriately. In this paper, we formulate the flow distribution problem in SFC under resource constraints and evaluate its optimal solution in a realistic network topology generated by the GT-ITM topology generator. Simulation results reveal that the optimal solution can reduce the total flow latency significantly.

Abstract: We consider the problem of online nonparametric regression with arbitrary deterministic sequences. Using ideas from the chaining technique, we design an algorithm that achieves a Dudley-type regret bound similar to the one obtained in a non-constructive fashion by Rakhlin and Sridharan (2014). Our regret bound is expressed in terms of the metric entropy in the sup norm, which yields optimal guarantees when the metric and sequential entropies are of the same order of magnitude. In particular our algorithm is the first one that achieves optimal rates for online regression over H{o}lder balls. In addition we show for this example how to adapt our chaining algorithm to get a reasonable computational efficiency with similar regret guarantees (up to a log factor).

Abstract: This document provides reference framework for Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) for Service Function Chaining (SFC).

Abstract: Reducing car use and promoting public transport in the cross border area of Luxembourg has become a priority for sustainable development of the Greater region. In this study, the author analyzes daily mobility mode choice behavior of these cross border workers, in particular, focusing on their multimodal mode choices (e.g. park and ride mode choice) and on their trip chaining behavior. A rule-based approach based on Bayesian networks is proposed to capture the non-linear effects of related determinants/constraints on individuals’ mode choice behavior. The result shows the proposed Bayesian network has a competitive performance compared with classical discrete choice models with reasonable good corrected prediction rates.

Abstract: Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is gaining a lot of interest as a flexible and cost-effective solution for replacing hardware-based, vendor-dependent middle-boxes with software-based appliances running in a cloud-like network environment. The NFV paradigm is then fundamental to bring the required programmatic capabilities to 5G transport networks. This paper discusses the practical issues of implementing dynamic chaining of virtual network functions running as virtual machines in the industry-standard OpenStack cloud platform. In particular, the focus is on the complexity of the underlying virtual network infrastructure and the design principles of a suitable SDN controller.

Abstract: Service function chaining provides a new service deployment model that delivers the traffic along the predefined logical paths of service functions with no regard of network topologies or transport mechanisms. The traffic path of service functions needs to be recovered at failure of the service functions but it may incur a signaling delay among control-plane and data-plane components. In order to shorten the delay of the path recovery at the failure, we propose a self-recovery scheme that temporally recovers the traffic path from the failure by shifting the responsibility of a service function in failure to another service function with data-plane signaling.

Abstract: Named Entity Recognition, Question Answering, Information Retrieval, Machine Translation, etc. fall under the tasks that follow Natural Language Processing approaches wherein Sentiment Analysis uses Natural Language Processing as one of the means to find the subjective text indicating negative, positive or neutral polarity. The united approach of text mining and natural language processing, termed to be as Sentiment Analysis has gained huge heights due to the increased use of social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter to name a few. Sentiment Analysis is a growing field and nevertheless a lot of research is done in English when compared to Arabic language. Analysis of Sentiments helps companies, government and other organization to improvise their products and service based on the reviews or comments. This dissertation not only depicts the various challenges faced by Arabic Natural Language processing in the Sentiment Analysis task, but this dissertation presents an Innovative approach that explores the role of lexicalization for Arabic sentiment analysis. Sentiment Analysis in Arabic is hindered due to lack of resources, language in use with sentiment lexicons, pre-processing of dataset as a must and major concern is repeatedly following same approaches. One of the key solution found to resolve these problems include applying the extension of lexicon to include more words not restricted to Modern Standard Arabic. Secondly, avoiding pre-processing of dataset. Third, and the most important one, is investigating the development of an Arabic Sentiment Analysis system using a novel rule-based approach. This approach uses heuristics rules that is triggered based on end-to-end mechanism of a particular word in a manner that accurately classifies the tweets as positive or negative. The manner in which a series of abstraction occurs resulting in an end to end rule-based chaining approach. For each lexicon this chain specifically follows a chaining of rules (i.e. rule A chains with rule B and if required rule C and so on), with appropriate positioning and prioritization of rules. Expensive rules in terms of time and effort thus resulted in outstanding results. Experiments were conducted on two dataset. They are chosen for a number of good reasons, including their availability and successfully used by other researches, richness and sufficient to come to a conclusion, and provision with electronic resources such as lexicon. Two set of 4 experiments were done. The first set of experiment was done only with two rules – “equal to” and “within the text”. The second set of experiment was done with rule chaining mechanism. The results thus achieved with end to end rule chaining approach achieved 93.9% accuracy when tested on one dataset, which is considered the baseline, and 85.6% accuracy on OCA, the second dataset. A further comparison with the baseline showed huge increase in accuracy by 23.85%. SAR: Sentiment Analysis for Arabic

Abstract: Techniques for realizing service chaining, a corresponding apparatus and an SDN (Software Defined Network) controller are disclosed. The method includes temporarily modifying an original destination MAC (media access control) address of a packet and an original source MAC address the packet during the time the packet makes a hop from one middlebox to another. A restore operation is used to restore the original source and destination MAC addresses after the hop is made.

Abstract: Using the 2010 Swiss Microcensus on mobility and transportation, a new approach to characterizing tours is explored. Building on recent work by Ho & Mulley (2013), the authors elaborate upon their typology of tours, developed based not only on tour complexity, but also on the spatial distribution of destinations within tours. The authors' adapted typology is then applied to investigate the relationship between land use, tour type and mode use. The authors' results mirror previous findings that complexity should not be seen as a deterrent to transit use overall, but rather that the distribution of destinations found within a tour must be taken into account if one seeks to better understand complexity and chaining effects on mode use. While much research focuses on land use at the home location, the authors find that land use at destinations is a much better predictor of chaining trips in such a way as to maximize the likelihood of transit and walking both in simple and complex tours. Finally, a more complete definition is provided for “efficient trip chaining” within tours, allowing one to better understand how low-detour or short trips can be integrated in complex tours, allowing for more sustainable travel choices.

Abstract: With the widespread use of middleboxes in communication networks (e.g., for services such as Firewall, DPI, accounting, proxies, caching), additional processing beyond simple forwarding has become common. With the emergence of Network Function Virtualization (NFV), dynamically instantiating these functions becomes even more feasible. In addition, chaining such services for packet flows is key to efficiently delivering Internet services. In addition, Software Defined Networking (SDN) gives Internet Service Providers greater flexibility to provision such middlebox based services and route flows through them. However, with the dynamic instantiation of network functions, efficient and scalable use of these services requires separation of the services from their location. In this work, we implement and demonstrate an Information Centric Networking based solution that complements SDN for service chaining and provides benefits such as scalability, flexibility and reliability.

Abstract: A method for vNF chaining management includes receiving virtualized network function (vNF) information from a chaining client associated with a particular vNF. A service chaining catalog is updated based on the vNF information and chaining information is transmitted to peering vNFs of the particular vNF. The vNF information can indicate instantiation of a vNF and identify peering vNFs. Updates received from vNFs can be used to update the chaining catalog. Updated vNF information can then be sent to peering vNFs of the vNF which sent the update.

Abstract: We consider the problem of online nonparametric regression with arbitrary deterministic sequences. Using ideas from the chaining technique, we design an algorithm that achieves a Dudley-type regret bound similar to the one obtained in a non-constructive fashion by Rakhlin and Sridharan (2014). Our regret bound is expressed in terms of the metric entropy in the sup norm, which yields optimal guarantees when the metric and sequential entropies are of the same order of magnitude. In particular our algorithm is the first one that achieves optimal rates for online regression over Holder balls. In addition we show for this example how to adapt our chaining algorithm to get a reasonable computational efficiency with similar regret guarantees (up to a log factor).

Abstract: The goal of this work in progress is to handle transactions of social applications by using their access classes. Basically, social users access simultaneously to a small piece of data owned by a user or a few ones. For instance, a new post of a Facebook user can create the reactions of most of his/her friends, and each of such reactions is related to the same data. Thus, grouping or chaining transactions that require the same access classes may reduce significantly the response time since several transactions are executed in one shot while ensuring consistency as well as minimizing the number of access to the persistent data storage. With this insight, we propose a middleware-based transaction scheduler that uses various strategies to chain transactions based on their access classes. The key novelties lie in (1) our distributed transaction scheduling devised on top of a ring to ensure communication when chaining transactions and (2) our ability to deal with multi-partitions transactions. The scheduling phase is based on Blockchain principle, which means in our context to record all transactions requiring the same access class into a master list in order to ensure consistency and to plan efficiently their processing. We designed and simulated our approach using SimJava and preliminary results show interesting and promising results.

Abstract: A new test control structure improves on constructing complex test sequences in a scripting language. The new test control structure iterates over two or more arbitrary values of a test attribute, such as a networking protocol parameter applied at OSI layers 2-7.

Abstract: System reliability becomes one of the major design concerns in nanoscale VLSI technologies. To cope with the increasing design complexity and the challenge of cost-efficient reliability improvement, modular and hierarchical optimizations are essential in the design space exploration. In this paper a novel scheduling and binding approach is proposed to investigate the potentials of reliability enhancement in high level synthesis. Inspired by the observation that the timing resource within individual clock cycle can be redistributed to maximize reliability, we propose a reliability-aware operation chaining technique, considering both the behavioral operation vulnerabilities and RTL reliability-cost tradeoffs in functional units. Using a characterized RTL component library regarding soft error, the experimental results show that compared to the traditional chaining, with the same timing constraint the proposed technique can generate the RTL with 3X reduction of the system failure rate, while introducing only 15% area and 16% power overhead.

Abstract: Examples of the disclosure enable the recalculation of device chaining in a user interface. In some examples, a first element representing a first hardware device is received at a design surface of a computing device user interface. A second element representing a second hardware device is received at the design surface. A selection of an output associated with the first element is received. A function that binds a property of the second element to a property of the output associated with the first element is automatically generated. Aspects of the disclosure enable the automatically generated function to be displayed at the design surface.

Abstract: Today the notion of Service Function Chaining (SFC) returns to the focus of technological development in the area of network management and design Researchers focus on exploiting the advantages of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) to bring SFC to a brand new level of fast and flexible, modern end-to-end service orchestration The core of SFC architecture is the orchestration algorithm, which has ultimate decision making responsibility over compute and networking resource reservation There are many sophisticated solutions for this task with long running times, so those cannot be executed real-time for every new request arriving within a few seconds There is a lack of very fast (meta)heuristic orchestration algorithms to deal with enormous amount of service request The goal of this paper is to demonstrate novel approaches to designing, evaluating and fine-tuning of real-time parameterizable orchestration algorithms for carrier grade networks

Abstract: Network operators seek more flexibility with solutions like Network Function Virtualization and Service Function Chain- ing (SFC). Thanks to these techniques operators can define on-the-fly which services have to be applied to which pack- ets. We propose to use IPv6 Segment Routing to support SFC and describe and evaluate the performance of our im- plementation in the Linux kernel.

Abstract: A chaining bit decoder of a computer processor receives an instruction stream. The chaining bit decoder selects a group of instructions from the instruction stream. The chaining bit decoder extracts a designated bit from each instruction of the instruction stream to produce a sequence of chaining bits. The chaining bit decoder decodes the sequence of chaining bits. The chaining bit decoder identifies zero or more instruction stream dependencies among the selected group of instructions in view of the decoded sequence of chaining bits. The chaining bit decoder outputs control signals to cause one or more pipelines stages of the processor to execute the selected group of instructions in view of the identified zero or more instruction stream dependencies among the group sequence of instructions.

Abstract: A method and apparatus supporting service function chaining in a communication network is provided. Service function chaining requires packets of a service to pass through a defined sequence of service nodes of the network. Traffic engineering support includes defining service segments, determining demands for each service segment, determining flow group conservation constraints using the determined demands, and determining a resource allocation for data links which respects the flow group conservation constraints along with a link capacity constraint. A service-based forwarding operation re-labels packets as they traverse each service segment, and forwards packets toward a destination service node of each service segment.