Abstract: Recent literature has emphasized the importance of transport costs and infrastructure in explaining trade, access to markets, and increases in per capita income. For most Latin American countries transport costs are a greater barrier to U.S. markets than import tariffs. The authors investigate the determinants of the costs of shipping to the United States using a large database (more than 300,000 observations a year) on shipments of products at the six-digit level of the Harmonized System of classification from different ports around the world. They find that distance and containerization matter. They find that the efficiency of ports is also important. Improving the efficiency of a port from the 25th to the 75th percentile reduces shipping costs by 12 percent. (On average, having bad ports is equivalent to being 60 percent farther away from markets.) Inefficient ports also increase handling costs, which are part of shipping costs. Finally, the authors try to explain variations in port efficiency. They find that the variations are linked to excessive regulation, the prevalence of organized crime, and the general condition of the country's infrastructure.

Abstract: (4) Access Bridges In setting the structure and cross-sectional dimensions of access bridges in the performance verifi cation of piled piers, it is necessary to appropriately consider the conditions of use of the concerned piers, in order that the piled pier can be safely and efficiently used. Also, in setting the structure and cross-sectional dimensions of access bridges in the performance verifi cation of piled piers, it is necessary to appropriately consider the amount of relative deformation between the main structure of the piled pier and the earth-retaining section, and also the allowable horizontal displacement of the access bridge.

Abstract: Container ports in Japan are not experiencing rapid cargo handling growth. Recently, however, a reorganization of port use is taking place due to a variety of factors like growing container ship size, diversified Asian shipping routes, increasing import cargo and the Great Hanshin earthquake in Kobe in 1995. This paper analyzes the operational efficiency of eight major international container ports using a “window” application of data envelopment analysis for the period between 1990 and 1999. The paper shows a distinction between ports with timely development and sound demand growth and those with deferred re–planning and slow demand recovery. The Port of Tokyo has successfully redeveloped to receive large–sized container vessels and is observing increased and well–balanced incoming and outgoing traffic, and hence remains DEA efficient in our analysis. The Port of Kobe still needs to implement further measures to attract new users and previous users due to the Great Hanshin earthquake. The BCC model of the DEA takes into account small–scale operations of Yokkaichi and Shimizu Ports, and appraises their recent increasing demand for Asian routes. The appropriate design of window length is also proposed in the study.

Abstract: A selection system and method to receive an indication of a security format from a network and to select one of a plurality of security format conversions based on the received indication is described. The indication may be an indication of a wireless security format such as WTLS used by a wireless access device or a wired security format such as SSL used by a wired access device and the security format conversion selected based on the indication may be to another secured format or a plain data format. The indication may include an indication of a port and an indication of a security feature that is supported by the access device.

Abstract: A system and method for managing the allocation of Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) timeslots in a network switch. The network switch may use a TDM cycle comprising multiple timeslots to manage shared resources and to schedule data ingress and egress through the ports of the current configuration, wherein each port is assigned one or more timeslots. The network switch may be reprogrammed to support one of multiple timeslot assignment schemes for one of multiple port configurations. The network switch may support configurations with varying numbers of ports, e.g. 8- and 16-port configurations. A network switch may also support configurations where two or more ports are combined to form one port, for example, a 2 Gbs Fibre Channel port. To meet the requirements of the various configurations, the timeslot assignment scheme may be reprogrammed to meet the scheduling requirements of each of the possible port configurations.

Abstract: This paper analyses some of the implications of the emergence of dedicated container terminals (DCT) in the past 10 years. It presents a general overview of DCTs and stresses, through the use of a generalised port cost function, that one of the main factors that could explain this development is the increasing gap between the objectives of ports and those of shipping lines. The main implications of a DCT, from a port viewpoint, are analysed next through the employment of a simple queuing model. It is shown that under certain assumptions, a carrier with exclusive access to facilities and the port providing them could both benefit through such a strategy. At the same time, the model underlines that eventual losses would be born mainly by those carriers who, as a result, can now use only a restricted number of servers (berths). The paper shows that such losses could be even higher in the presence of direct (club effect) or indirect (hardware/software paradigm) externalities and that the choice of DCT is similar to the access pricing of a bottleneck in a network industry. Finally, the paper develops a hypothetical pricing rule (Efficient Component Pricing Rule) that could be used to internalise such external effects.

Abstract: Communication between a first device having a non-routable address behind a network address translation type of device (translator), and a second device, according to a protocol in which the first device embeds its non-routable address and a communication port within protocol data sent to the second device. Translation assigns an apparent origin and apparent port for the protocol data different from the non-routable address and embedded port. The second device is configured to identify the embedded non-routable data and utilize the apparent origin and apparent port.

Abstract: Machine-readable media, methods, and apparatus are described for flexibly establishing lanes of links. In some embodiments, any port of a device may be connected to another port of another device. Further, the device may determine interconnections of its ports to ports of other devices by issuing requests on its ports.

Abstract: Remote monitoring and control of a motorized vehicle (10) is performed using a communications and control hub (46) connected directly to an onboard diagnostic port (44) of the vehicle An auxiliary onboard diagnostic port (78) is provided to permit technicians to perform diagnostics on the vehicle All vehicle monitoring and control is effected without an auxiliary wiring harness The communications control hub is particularly useful for fleet management and dispatch systems

Abstract: In the near future, container ports will no longer be able to expand into the surrounding land and will thus be unable to meet the storage requirements due to the boom in world trade. A solution to this problem is to increase the container throughput of the port by reducing the amount of time necessary to load and unload a ship. This paper presents a distributed agent architecture to achieve this task. Under such architecture, an intelligent planning algorithm is continuously optimised by the dynamic and co-operative rescheduling of yard resources such as quay cranes and container vehicles.

Abstract: A route bypassing a root node is constructed in a network in which a spanning tree is formed. A received frame is sent out on a designated port as well as on a root port by using a designated-port data send-out function, provided that a transmitting port for the received frame is learned on the root port. When a frame is received on a blocking port, a transmitting port for a frame whose destination matches the source address of the received frame is temporarily learned on the blocking port by using a blocking-port learning function, on the condition that the destination of the received frame is already learned on some other port. When a frame whose destination matches the temporarily learned address is received, the temporary learning is changed to normal learning by using a temporarily learned address-based data transfer function.

Abstract: A centralized queue for a network printing system is provided for allowing clients of a network printer to make job requests and enter a spot in a job queue without transmitting the actual print job data to the network. More particularly, an imaging device protocol (IDP) is provided which operates independently of the network layers below and only requires that a transport protocol/port be bidirectional. A wide variety of heterogenous network protocols may be supported by IDP for placing all of the incoming print job information in a print queue regardless of the protocol. Print job information from both IDP and non-IDP protocol/ports may be placed in the print queue by emulating IDP on the non-IDP protocol/ports. As a result, job information for all of the print jobs attempting to access a busy printer may be stored in the print queue so that the print jobs can be printed by the printer with a fair arbitration once the network printer becomes available.

Abstract: A shared I/O subsystem having a plurality of ports, where each of the ports includes a plurality of address bits and first and second masks associated therewith The shared I/O subsystem receives a data packet from a first of the plurality of ports, selects from one or more tables the plurality of address bits and the first and second masks associated with the first port, applies an AND function to the address bits and the first mask associated with the first port, applies an OR function to the result of applying the AND function and the second mask associated with the first port, and selectively transmits the data packet to one or more of the ports in accordance with a result of applying the OR function

Abstract: The invention provides an arrangement and a method with dynamic port configuration of network equipment (20) for communication in a broadband network (10). A central managing database (26) in connection with a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server (24) is keeping templates with recordings of network equipment parameters for their physical port (21) settings and deployed services. Hence, enabling dynamic updating of port settings by conveying parameter recordings from the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server (24). The parameter settings are updated in the intermediate means (20).

Abstract: Methods for detecting assignment changes as well as address changes in address identifiers (particularly fibre channel - FC-2- address identifiers such as D ID, S ID) are disclosed. When such changes are detected, and a probe is in place monitoring at least a portion of a system (i.e., at least one port associated therewith), the detection of a change in address or port assignment triggers a command to map the change to ensure the user defined port name is always correct. The present invention is further directed to methods for monitoring a storage area network, in particular, at least one port associated therewith using user defined port names as a field in any data reported by the monitoring system. The invention is yet further directed to probes and monitoring systems that are capable of generating data that employ statistics or data referring to user-defined port names at least for purposes of archiving and/or viewing such data or statistics.

Abstract: Logical ports allow multiple customers to be connected to and to receive different services over a common physical port of a packet forwarding device. Such logical ports allow for customer separation and may be created based on VLAN ID and MPLS labels. In one embodiment, each service provided via a packet forwarding device is associated with a unique logical port. The logical port may span multiple physical ports.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for communicating data units (e.g., Internet Protocol or IP packets) between devices (22, 24, 36, 49) on one or more networks includes storing address and/or port translation information, and receiving a data unit having a source address and port and a destination address and port. Both the source and destination addresses and/or ports are translated, with the data unit containing the translated source and destination addresses and/or ports transmitted to a destination.

Abstract: A network switch for network communications is disclosed The switch includes a first data port interface, supporting at least one data port transmitting and receiving data at a first data rate and a second data port interface, supporting at least one data port transmitting and receiving data at a second data rate A memory management unit for communicating data from at least one of the first data port interface and the second data port interface and a memory is also included The switch uses a communication channel for communicating data and messaging information between the first data port interface, the second data port interface, and the memory management unit The switch also has a plurality of lookup tables, including an address resolution lookup table, a VLAN table and module port table The network switch has a unique module identifier and of the first data port interface and the second data port interface is configured to determine forwarding information from a header for an incoming data packet received at a port of the one data port interface The port interfaces are configured to determine the forwarding information from the header and to determine a destination module identifier for a destination port for the data packet from the module port table

Abstract: Recent literature has emphasized the importance of transport costs and infrastructure in explaining trade, access to markets, and increases in per capita income. For most Latin American countries, transport costs are a greater barrier to U. S. markets than import tariffs. We investigate the determinants of shipping costs to the U. S. with a large database of more than 300,000 observations per year on shipments of products at the six-digit HS level from different ports around the world. Distance and containerization matter. In addition, we find that efficiency of ports is an important determinant of shipping costs. Improving port efficiency from the 25th to the 75th percentile reduces shipping costs by 12 percent. (Bad ports are equivalent to being 60 percent farther away from markets for the average country. ) Inefficient ports also increase handling costs, which are one of the components of shipping costs. We try to explain variations in port efficiency and find that they are linked to excessive regulation, the prevalence of organized crime, and the general condition of the country’s infrastructure. Finally, we present a number of success stories in Latin America to show that private involvement in port management leads to efficiency and lower costs whenever it is accompanied by labor reform, and when monopoly power is reduced through either regulation or competition.

Abstract: The invention uses a three phase IKE protocol main mode negotiation to implement a port float algorithm that permits UDP encapsulated ESP traffic to traverse an IPSec-aware NAT. The NAT is connected to a plurality of client computers on a private network and provides an interface between the client computers and a server connected to a public network. In a first phase, a client and the server determine whether both are capable of sending UDP encapsulated ESP packets. In a second phase, the client and server conduct NAT discovery and determine whether the client, server, or both operate behind a NAT. In a third phase, the client and server initiate a port float algorithm, moving a destination UDP port specified in IKE packets from a first port value to a second port value. The server maintains a data structure that allows the server to identify the client sending IKE packets after exiting the second phase and entering the third phase.

Abstract: A method for fast protection in a fault-tolerant network includes coupling an edge switch in a network to one or more access switches via at least first and second redundant links, respectively connected to first and second ports of the edge switch. The first port is placed in an active state, while the second port is placed in a blocking state, so that communication traffic is conveyed over the first link, and each of the switches builds a respective database for use in forwarding the traffic. Responsive to a failure associated with the first link, the second port is placed in the active state and the first port is placed in the blocking state. Dummy traffic is then sent from the edge switch over the second link to the one or more access switches, so as to cause each of the one or more access switches to modify its respective database responsive to the second port being in the active state.

Abstract: An electronic device (100) having a multi-mode acoustic system (120) and a method (500) for radiating sound waves are described herein The acoustic system (120) generally includes a transducer (530), a first port (510), and a second port (520) The first and second ports (510, 520) may be acoustically coupled to the transducer (530) The second port (520) may be acoustically symmetric relative to the first port (510) such that output from the second port (520) is substantially identical to output from the first port (510)

Abstract: A long run multioutput cost function for the infrastructure services of Spanish ports is estimated using 286 observations on 26 ports during 11 years. Cargo specific marginal costs and the degree of economies of scale and scope are calculated up to a port level. Results show that liquid bulk and non-containerised general cargo present the lowest and largest marginal cost, respectively. Increasing returns to scale are present in general and for each and every port. A scope analysis indicates that port specialisation is not appropriate from the viewpoint of infrastructure.

Abstract: A data storage library and method of operation are disclosed wherein access at least to part of at least one robotic mechanism from the data storage library's exterior is permitted Access is accomplished through a service port in the library's housing Access to the storage cells, and thus the data cartridges sitting therein, from the library's exterior is blocked Blocking access to the storage cells may be provided by a geometry of the service port itself, or by a combination of a door and the robotic mechanism being serviced filling the opening created by the service port For robotic mechanisms operating on a track, part of the track may be routed through the service port to bring the robotic mechanisms to the exterior of the library for maintenance purposes