The transmission of realtime audio data across digital networks is subject to strict quality of service requirements. These networks need to be able to guarantee network resources (e.g., bandwidth), ensure timely and deterministic data delivery, and provide time synchronisation mechanisms to ensure successful transmission of this data. Two open standards-based networking technologies, namely IEEE 1394 and the recently standardised Ethernet AVB, provide distinct methods for achieving these goals. Audio devices that are compatible with IEEE 1394 networks exist, and audio devices that are compatible with Ethernet AVB networks are starting to come onto the market. There is a need for mechanisms to provide compatibility between the audio devices that reside on these disparate networks such that existing IEEE 1394 audio devices are able to communicate with Ethernet AVB audio devices, and vice versa. The audio devices that reside on these networks may be remotely controlled by a diverse set of incompatible command and control protocols. It is desirable to have a common network-neutral method of control over the various parameters of the devices that reside on these networks. As part of this study, two Ethernet AVB systems were developed. One system acts as an Ethernet AVB audio endpoint device and another system acts as an audio gateway between IEEE 1394 and Ethernet AVB networks. These systems, along with existing IEEE 1394 audio devices, were used to demonstrate the ability to transfer audio data between the networking technologies. Each of the devices is remotely controllable via a network neutral command and control protocol, XFN. The IEEE 1394 and Ethernet AVB devices are used to demonstrate the use of the XFN protocol to allow for network neutral connection management to take place between IEEE 1394 and Ethernet AVB networks. User control over these diverse devices is achieved via the use of a graphical patchbay application, which aims to provide a consistent user interface to a diverse range of devices.

Discusses the development of WebSAT (Web-based systems administration tool), a computer network tool that allows systems administrators to create and delete accounts, disable and enable existing accounts, manage disk space conveniently, monitor the status of all network printers, and monitor network security. The WebSAT application was implemented using PHP, a server-side embedded scripting language, with a MySQL database.

Thesis (MAcc (Accountancy))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / The successful implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System can help an organisation to redefine its business processes and enhance its competitive advantage. An ERP System Implementation is a transformation project, which changes the way an organisation thinks and acts about its business. An ERP System implementation is also a complex endeavour, and as such, it requires rigorous risk management. The understanding and management of risks relevant to ERP System Implementation Projects are critical in order to ensure that the project delivers on its objectives within the specified budget and timelines, and eventually realises the envisaged business benefits. The purpose of this study is to discuss how key risks relevant to ERP System Implementation Projects could be addressed by applying project management disciplines derived from the PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environment) project management methodology. This methodology was developed by the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom. This study also provides a framework that could be applied at the outset and during an ERP System Implementation Project by business management, to understand the risks (“what could go wrong?”) and project management disciplines that should be applied to address these risks (“what must go right?”). This framework was derived by: • Identifying key risks relevant to ERP System Implementation Projects; • Mapping these key risks onto SAP Implementation phases to highlight where these risks could materialise in the SAP Implementation process; • Then mapping these key risks across PRINCE2 project management processes and SAP Implementation phases by creating the SAP Implementation Key Risks Map; and finally • Providing a detailed description of how to apply PRINCE2 project management disciplines to address each risk in the SAP Implementation Key Risks Map.

Funcionalidades de eficiência energética vêm sendo integradas a protocolos e sistemas de gerenciamento de redes. Várias dessas funcionalidades afetam a rede de diferentes modos, acarretando compromissos. Podem afetar a confiabilidade e a disponibilidade da rede ao colocarem equipamentos e enlaces em modo dormente; e podem afetar o tempo de vida dos equipamentos ao alterarem seu modo de utilização. Os resultados da integração dessas funcionalidades à rede podem ser avaliados por emulação, que provê informação sobre como algum mecanismo de roteamento em particular, fruto dessa integração, agiria em diferentes condições de rede. Preparar um ambiente de experimentação que trate das interações entre diferentes funções da rede, considerando as funcionalidades de eficiência energética, traz alguns desafios. Uma combinação de emulação e implementação das principais funcionalidades de eficiência energética provê uma visão mais próxima sobre o que pode ocorrer em implantações reais de sistemas de gerenciamento energeticamente eficiente. Esta dissertação discute (i) como se avaliarem os compromissos existentes no emprego de técnicas de eficiência energética, mostrando também como o tempo de vida de equipamentos pode ser alterado e como a confiabilidade e disponibilidade da rede podem ser degradadas, e discute (ii) requisitos para o desenvolvimento de um ambiente de experimentação para avaliação de tais técnicas. O ambiente é baseado em roteadores implementados por software, para emulação de funcionalidades ainda não disponíveis, mas desejadas, de equipamentos de rede. Após a experimentação do protótipo de um sistema de gerenciamento de redes orientado por política de eficiência energética, aplicam-se os métodos de avaliação dos compromissos ocasionados por este sistema. / Energy efficiency features are being integrated in network protocols and management systems. Many of such features affect the network in different ways, thus yielding tradeoffs. They can affect the reliability and availability of the network when they put devices or links into sleep mode, and they can affect the lifetime of the devices as a result of the new operating pattern. The effects of integrating these features to the network can be assessed through emulation, which can provide insight on how a particular routing mechanism would perform in different network conditions. In addition, building an experimentation environment that is able to comprehensively account for interactions between different network functions taking into account energy efficiency features is challenging. A combination of emulation and implementation of major energy efficiency features provides a view closer to what may happen in a real deployment of energy-efficient management systems. This dissertation discusses (i) how to evaluate the tradeoffs existing between the use of energy-efficiency techniques and the lifetime of devices and with the reliability and availability of the network, and (ii) requirements for the development of a testbed to evaluate such techniques. The testbed is based on software routers, so to emulate future and desired network equipment functionalities. After experiments with the prototype of a sustainability-oriented network management system based on policies, an evaluation about the tradeoffs brought by such system to the network is performed.

Native Multicast plays an important role in distributing and managing delivery of some of the most popular Internet applications, such as IPTV and media delivery. However, due to patchy support and the existence of multiple approaches for Native Multicast, the support for Native Multicast is fragmented into isolated areas termed Multicast Islands. This renders Native Multicast unfit to be used as an Internet wide application. Instead, Application Layer Multicast, which does not have such network requirements but is more expensive in terms of bandwidth and overhead, can be used to connect the native multicast islands. This thesis proposes Opportunistic Native Multicast (ONM) which employs Application LayerMulticast (ALM), on top of a DHT-based P2P overlay network, and Automatic Multicast Tunnelling (AMT) to connect these islands. ALM will be used for discovery and initiating the AMT tunnels. The tunnels will encapsulate the traffic going between islands' Primary Nodes (PNs). AMT was used for its added benefits such as security and being better at traffic shaping and Quality Of Service (QoS). While different approaches for connecting multicast islands exists, the system proposed in the thesis was designed with the following characteristics in mind: scalability, availability, interoperability, self-adaptation and efficiency. Importantly, by utilising AMT tunnels, this approach has unique properties that improve network security and management.

Funcionalidades de eficiência energética vêm sendo integradas a protocolos e sistemas de gerenciamento de redes. Várias dessas funcionalidades afetam a rede de diferentes modos, acarretando compromissos. Podem afetar a confiabilidade e a disponibilidade da rede ao colocarem equipamentos e enlaces em modo dormente; e podem afetar o tempo de vida dos equipamentos ao alterarem seu modo de utilização. Os resultados da integração dessas funcionalidades à rede podem ser avaliados por emulação, que provê informação sobre como algum mecanismo de roteamento em particular, fruto dessa integração, agiria em diferentes condições de rede. Preparar um ambiente de experimentação que trate das interações entre diferentes funções da rede, considerando as funcionalidades de eficiência energética, traz alguns desafios. Uma combinação de emulação e implementação das principais funcionalidades de eficiência energética provê uma visão mais próxima sobre o que pode ocorrer em implantações reais de sistemas de gerenciamento energeticamente eficiente. Esta dissertação discute (i) como se avaliarem os compromissos existentes no emprego de técnicas de eficiência energética, mostrando também como o tempo de vida de equipamentos pode ser alterado e como a confiabilidade e disponibilidade da rede podem ser degradadas, e discute (ii) requisitos para o desenvolvimento de um ambiente de experimentação para avaliação de tais técnicas. O ambiente é baseado em roteadores implementados por software, para emulação de funcionalidades ainda não disponíveis, mas desejadas, de equipamentos de rede. Após a experimentação do protótipo de um sistema de gerenciamento de redes orientado por política de eficiência energética, aplicam-se os métodos de avaliação dos compromissos ocasionados por este sistema. / Energy efficiency features are being integrated in network protocols and management systems. Many of such features affect the network in different ways, thus yielding tradeoffs. They can affect the reliability and availability of the network when they put devices or links into sleep mode, and they can affect the lifetime of the devices as a result of the new operating pattern. The effects of integrating these features to the network can be assessed through emulation, which can provide insight on how a particular routing mechanism would perform in different network conditions. In addition, building an experimentation environment that is able to comprehensively account for interactions between different network functions taking into account energy efficiency features is challenging. A combination of emulation and implementation of major energy efficiency features provides a view closer to what may happen in a real deployment of energy-efficient management systems. This dissertation discusses (i) how to evaluate the tradeoffs existing between the use of energy-efficiency techniques and the lifetime of devices and with the reliability and availability of the network, and (ii) requirements for the development of a testbed to evaluate such techniques. The testbed is based on software routers, so to emulate future and desired network equipment functionalities. After experiments with the prototype of a sustainability-oriented network management system based on policies, an evaluation about the tradeoffs brought by such system to the network is performed.

In this thesis we develop integer programming approaches for solving network flow problems with equal-split restrictions. Such problems arise in traffic engineering of internet protocol networks. Equal-split structure is used in protocols like OSPF and IS-IS that allow flow to be split among the multiple shortest paths. Equal-split assumptions also arise in peer-to-peer networks and road optimization problems. All the previous work on this problem has been focused on developing heuristic methods for the specific applications. We are the first ones to study the problem as a general network flow problem and provide a polyhedral study. First we consider a general multi-commodity network flow problem with equal split restrictions. This problem is NP-hard in general. We perform a polyhedral study on mixed integer linear programming formulation for this problem. Valid inequalities are obtained, and are incorporated within a branch-and-cut framework to solve the problem. We provide fast separation schemes for most of the families of valid inequalities. Computational results are presented to show the effectiveness of cutting plane families. Next, we consider the OSPF weight setting problem. We propose an integer programming formulation for this problem. A decomposition based approach to solve the problem is presented next. Valid inequalities, exploiting the structure, are obtained for this problem. We also propose heuristic methods to get good starting solutions for the problem. The proposed cutting planes and heuristic methods are integrated within a branch-and-cut framework to solve the problem. We present computational experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach to obtain solutions with tight optimality gaps as compared with default CPLEX. Finally, we consider an equal split flow problem on bipartite graphs. We present an integer programming formulation for this problem that models the equal-split in a different way than the multi-commodity network flow problem discussed before. Valid inequalities and heuristic methods for this problem are proposed, and are integrated within the branch-and-cut framework. We present computational experiments demonstrating the effectiveness of our solution strategy. We present an alternate formulation for the problem with some favorable polyhedral properties. Lastly, a computational comparison between the two formulations is presented.

We consider the problem of designing enterprise network security systems which are easy to manage, robust and flexible. This problem is challenging. Today, most approaches rely on host security, middleboxes, and complex interactions between many protocols. To solve this problem, we explore how new programmable networking paradigms can facilitate fine-grained network control. We present Resonance, a system for securing enterprise networks , where the network elements themselves en- force dynamic access control policies through state changes based on both flow-level information and real-time alerts. Resonance uses programmable switches to manipulate traffic at lower layers; these switches take actions (e.g., dropping or redirecting traffic) to enforce high-level security policies based on input from both higher-level security boxes and distributed monitoring and inference systems. Using our approach, administrators can create security applications by first identifying a state machine to represent different policy changes and then, translating these states into actual network policies. Earlier approaches in this direction (e.g., Ethane, Sane) have remained low-level requiring policies to be written in languages which are too detailed and are difficult for regular users and administrators to comprehend. As a result, significant effort is needed to package policies, events and network devices into a high-level application. Resonance abstracts out all the details through its state-machine based policy specification framework and presents security functions which are close to the end system and hence, more tractable. To demonstrate how well Resonance can be applied to existing systems, we consider two use cases. First relates to "Network Admission Control" problem. Georgia Tech dormitories currently use a system called START (Scanning Technology for Automated Registration, Repair, and Response Tasks) to authenticate and secure new hosts entering the network [23]. START uses a VLAN-based approach to isolate new hosts from authenticated hosts, along with a series of network device interactions. VLANs are notoriously difficult to use, requiring much hand-holding and manual configuration. Our interactions with the dorm network administrators have revealed that this existing system is not only difficult to manage and scale but also inflexible, allowing only coarse-grained access control. We implemented START by expressing its functions in the Resonance framework. The current system is deployed across three buildings in Georgia Tech with both wired as well as wireless connectivities. We present an evaluation of our system's scalability and performance. We consider dynamic rate limiting as the second use case for Resonance. We show how a network policy that relies on rate limiting and traffic shaping can easily be implemented using only a few state transitions. We plan to expand our deployment to more users and buildings and support more complex policies as an extension to our ongoing work. Main contributions of this thesis include design and implementation of a flexible access control model, evaluation studies of our system's scalability and performance, and a campus-wide testbed setup with a working version of Resonance running. Our preliminary evaluations suggest that Resonance is scalable and can be potentially deployed in production networks. Our work can provide a good platform for more advanced and powerful security techniques for enterprise networks.

Decisions to deploy IT systems on public Infrastructure-as-a-Service clouds can be complicated as evaluating the benefits, risks and costs of using such clouds is not straightforward. The aim of this project was to investigate the challenges that enterprises face when making system deployment decisions in public clouds, and to develop vendor-neutral tools to inform decision makers during this process. Three tools were developed to support decision makers: 1. Cloud Suitability Checklist: a simple list of questions to provide a rapid assessment of the suitability of public IaaS clouds for a specific IT system. 2. Benefits and Risks Assessment tool: a spreadsheet that includes the general benefits and risks of using public clouds; this provides a starting point for risk assessment and helps organisations start discussions about cloud adoption. 3. Elastic Cost Modelling: a tool that enables decision makers to model their system deployment options in public clouds and forecast their costs. These three tools collectively enable decision makers to investigate the benefits, risks and costs of using public clouds, and effectively support them in making system deployment decisions. Data was collected from five case studies and hundreds of users to evaluate the effectiveness of the tools. This data showed that the cost effectiveness of using public clouds is situation dependent rather than universally less expensive than traditional forms of IT provisioning. Running systems on the cloud using a traditional 'always on' approach can be less cost effective than on-premise servers, and the elastic nature of the cloud has to be considered if costs are to be reduced. Decision makers have to model the variations in resource usage and their systems' deployment options to obtain accurate cost estimates. Performing upfront cost modelling is beneficial as there can be significant cost differences between different cloud providers, and different deployment options within a single cloud. During such modelling exercises, the variations in a system's load (over time) must be taken into account to produce more accurate cost estimates, and the notion of elasticity patterns that is presented in this thesis provides one simple way to do this.

The proliferation of PALs (Public Access Locations) is fuelling the development of new standards, protocols, services, and applications for WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks). PALs are set up at public locations to meet continually changing, multiservice, multi-protocol user requirements. This research investigates the essential infrastructural requirements that will enable further proliferation of PALs, and consequently facilitate ubiquitous computing. Based on these requirements, an extensible architectural framework for PAL management systems that inherently facilitates the provisioning of multiple services and multiple protocols on PALs is derived. The ensuing framework, which is called Xobogel, is based on the microkernel architectural pattern, and the IPDR (Internet Protocol Data Record) specification. Xobogel takes into consideration and supports the implementation of diverse business models for PALs, in respect of distinct environmental factors. It also facilitates next-generation network service usage accounting through a simple, flexible, and extensible XML based usage record. The framework is subsequently validated for service element extensibility and simplicity through the design, implementation, and experimental deployment of SEHS (Small Extensible Hotspot System), a system based on the framework. The robustness and scalability of the framework is observed to be sufficient for SMME deployment, withstanding the stress testing experiments performed on SEHS. The range of service element and charging modules implemented confirm an acceptable level of flexibility and extensibility within the framework.