Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2008. / Description based on contents viewed Oct. 7, 2008; title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-81).

Thesis (MScEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Linux operating system and shared Ethernet are alternative technologies with the potential to reduce both the development time and costs of satellites as well as the supporting infrastructure. Modular satellites, ground stations and rapid proto typing testbeds also have a common requirement for distributed real-time computation. The identified technologies were investigated to determine whether this requirement could also be met. Various real-time extensions and modifications are currently available for the Linux operating system. A suitable open source real-time extension called Real-Time Application Interface (RTAI) was selected for the implementation of an experimental distributed real-time system. Experimental results showed that the RTAI operating system could deliver deterministic realtime performance, but only in the absence of non-real-time load. Shared Ethernet is currently the most popular and widely used commercial networking technology. However, Ethernet wasn't developed to provide real-time performance. Several methods have been proposed in literature to modify Ethernet for real-time communications. A token passing protocol was found to be an effective and least intrusive solution. The Real-Time Token (RTToken) protocol was designed to guarantee predictable network access to communicating real-time tasks. The protocol passes a token between nodes in a predetermined order and nodes are assigned fixed token holding times. Experimental results proved that the protocol offered predictable network access with bounded jitter. An experimental distributed real-time system was implemented, which included the extension of the RTAI operating system with the RTToken protocol, as a loadable kernel module. Real-time tasks communicated using connectionless Internet protocols. The Real-Time networking (RTnet) subsystem of RTAI supported these protocols. Under collision-free conditions consistent transmission delays with bounded jitter was measured. The integrated RTToken protocol provided guaranteed and bounded network access to communicating real-time tasks, with limit overheads. Tests exhibited errors in some of the RTAI functionality. Overall the investigated technologies showed promise in being able to meet the distributed real-time requirements of various applications, including those found in the satellite environment. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Linux bedryfstelsel en gedeelde Ethernet is geïdentifiseer as potensiële tegnologieë vir satelliet bedryf wat besparings in koste en vinniger ontwikkeling te weeg kan bring. Modulêr ontwerpte satelliete, grondstasies en ontwikkeling platforms het 'n gemeenskaplike behoefte vir verspreide intydse verwerking. Verskillende tegnologieë is ondersoek om te bepaal of aan die vereiste ook voldoen kan word. Verskeie intydse uitbreidings en modifikasies is huidiglik beskikbaar vir die Linux bedryfstelsel. Die "Real-Time Application Interface" (RTAI) bedryfstelsel is geïdentifiseer as 'n geskikte intydse uitbreiding vir die implementering van 'n eksperimentele verspreide intydse stelsel. Eksperimentele resultate het getoon dat die RTAI bedryfstelsel deterministies en intyds kan opereer, maar dan moet dit geskied in die afwesigheid van 'n nie-intydse verwerkingslas. Gedeelde Ethernet is 'n kommersiële network tegnologie wat tans algemeen beskikbaar is. Die tegnologie is egter nie ontwerp vir intydse uitvoering nie. Verskeie metodes is in die literatuur voorgestelom Ethernet te modifiseer vir intydse kommunikasie. Hierdie ondersoek het getoon dat 'n teken-aangee protokol die mees effektiewe oplossing is en waarvan die implementering min inbreuk maak. Die "Real-Time Token" (RTToken) protokol is ontwerp om voorspelbare netwerk toegang tot kommunikerende intydse take te verseker. Die protokol stuur 'n teken tussen nodusse in 'n voorafbepaalde volgorde. Nodusse word ook vaste teken hou-tye geallokeer. Eksperimentele resultate het aangedui dat die protokol deterministiese netwerk toegang kan verseker met begrensde variasies. 'n Eksperimentele verspreide intydse stelsel is geïmplementeer. Dit het ingesluit die uitbreiding van die RTAI bedryfstelsel met die RTToken protokol; verpak as 'n laaibare bedryfstelsel module. Intydse take kan kommunikeer met verbindinglose protokolle wat deur die "Real-Time networking" (RTnet) substelsel van RTAI ondersteun word. Onder ideale toestande is konstante transmissie vertragings met begrensde variasies gemeet. Die integrasie van die RTToken protokol het botsinglose netwerk toegang aan kommunikerende take verseker, met beperkte oorhoofse koste as teenprestasie. Eksperimente het enkele foute in die funksionaliteit van RTAI uitgewys. In die algemeen het die voorgestelde tegnologieë getoon dat dit potensiaal het vir verskeie verspreide intydse toepassings in toekomstige satelliet en ook ander omgewings.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis sought to design and implement a low-cost, portable, Free-Space Optics (FSO) communications device for Ethernet applications. Under some circumstances such a device would have utility at a Combat Operations Center (COC), a Field Artillery Position, or wherever else fiber optic cable is used in garrison or field. The design was based on commercial off the shelf components originally designed for fiber optic applications. Based on a 155 megabits per second (Mbps) media converter, the design used two fiber optic transceivers, coupled to collimating lenses to pass data over free-space. Sustained data rate of 100 Mbps was achieved with full network functionality on the optical bench with a low-power (0.5mW) laser diode transmitter without focusing optics on the receiver. The laser diode power(mounted on device), was measured with acceptable losses up to 300 ft during testing using a photodiode with focusing optics. The findings indicate that the system with proper collecting optics could be optimized for free-space communication at short to moderate ranges. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

The objective of this dissertation is to improve the service quality of broadband optical access networks by developing advanced link- and transport- layer protocols. Current access technologies represent a significant bottleneck in bandwidth and service quality between a high-speed residential/enterprise network and a largely overbuilt core network. Although it is believed that passive optical network (PON) will be the most promising solution to provide truly broadband connections to end users, a suit of protocols are required to provide quality of service (QoS). In this dissertation, we design a new reservation MAC scheme that arbitrates upstream transmission, prevents collisions, and varies bandwidth according to demand and priority. The new access scheme exploits both WDM and TDM to cater for both light and heavy bandwidth requirements. Next, we introduce delta compression as an efficient method for fast content download. In the third part of this dissertation, we enhance the transport performance of Ethernet services by addressing the throughput optimization issue at the edge of the network. A novel SLA-aware transport control scheme is proposed to utilize reserved bandwidth more efficiently using a shifted additive increase multiplicative decrease (AIMD) algorithm, and to detect congestion more accurately based on hypothesis test. The performance of the proposed scheme is compared with traditional TCP through theoretical analyses and simulations.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Modern technology is making virtual environments a part of daily life. However, some constraints about the usage of virtual environments, such as the need for high performance and well-configured computers, prevent users from accessing virtual environments in some places other than special computer rooms. Mobile devices may be used to solve this limitation in a virtual environment. The remote-control approach to access virtual worlds on the Internet or on a corporate network is a new concept that opens new doors to users. First step of this approach is already in use, such as games implemented for mobile devices using the screen of a mobile device as display, and has given satisfying results for some users. This research will take the user, who not only wants to be mobile but also does not want to sacrifice high resolution textures and complex models, closer to his/her goal. Mobile devices provide mobility to the user, but sacrifice not only the reality of the virtual environments but also screen size, which is very important for visibility of complex virtual environments. The hybrid approach with wireless internet connection by using mobile devices as remote control gives the user the advantages of mobility over desktop PCs. On the other hand, the realism provided by high-quality PCs on the server side exceeds the capabilities of mobile devices. / Lieutenant Junior Grade, Turkish Navy

In this thesis we study the key requirements and solutions for the feasibility and application of Ethernet-TCP/IP technology to the networks we termed Highly-Variable Real-Time Networks (HVRN). This particular class of networks poses exceptionally demanding requirements because their physical and logical topologies are both temporally and spatially variable. We devised and introduced specific mechanisms for applying Ethernet-TCP/IP to HVRNs with particular emphasis on effective and reliable modular connectivity. Using a railroad train as a reference, this work analyzes the unique requirements of HVRNs and focuses on the backbone architecture for such a system under Ethernet and TCP/IP. / Doctorat en sciences appliquées / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Orientador: Luiz Eduardo Buzato / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T08:23:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cason_Daniel_M.pdf: 1133475 bytes, checksum: 2c269ea2aec943999c502cd1944b09ae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Protocolos de Difusão Totalmente Ordenada (DTO) constituem o núcleo de diversas soluções que dão suporte ao desenvolvimento de aplicações distribuídas tolerantes a falhas. O longo período no qual este problema vem sendo objeto de pesquisa e a quantidade de algoritmos que foram para ele propostos atestam, não só a sua importância, mas também a dificuldade de se obter soluções eficientes para DTO. Este trabalho apresenta um novo algoritmo de DTO, que explora a sincronia e a confiabilidade inerentes ao ambiente dos aglomerados ou clusters de alto desempenho para construir uma solução bastante simples de Difusão Totalmente Ordenada, cujo desempenho experimental mostrou-se comparável ao obtido por soluções de DTO projetadas para modelos assíncronos de computação. O protocolo proposto destina-se ao modelo assíncrono temporizado de computação, aumentado com um mecanismo simples, baseado na difusão de pulsos, para sincronizá-la a execução dos processos. A hipótese que sustenta este mecanismo de sincronização é que os aglomerados modernos, dado que se controle a carga a eles aplicada, podem executar por períodos razoavelmente longos sem que ocorram falhas de processos e apresentando um comportamento bastante similar ao de sistemas síncronos. Dada esta hipótese, os processos que realizam Difusão Totalmente Ordenada tornam-se capazes de construir visões globais da computação distribuída, e a construção de visões globais, por sua vez, torna trivial a resolução de Difusão Totalmente Ordenada. O protocolo proposto tolera uma quantidade ilimitada de falhas de desempenho, que previnem o progresso da solução de DTO, mas que não levam à violação de suas propriedades de segurança, que são asseguradas na presença de assincronia e de falhas de processos. O protocolo foi implementado em Java e o seu desempenho foi avaliado em um aglomerado com máquinas interconectadas via Ethernet. A comparação dos resultados obtidos com os resultados de desempenho publicados para as principais soluções de DTO existentes nos permite afirmar que nossa solução representa um interessante compromisso entre desempenho experimental e simplicidade de projeto e implementação de soluções de Difusão Totalmente Ordenada. Além dos resultados de desempenho, esta pesquisa também revela que ainda há espaço para a exploração prática da interação entre sincronia e assincronia na engenharia de protocolos distribuídos / Abstract: Total order broadcast algorithms are at the core of several toolkits for the construction of fault-tolerant applications. The importance and the difficulty of finding efficient total order broadcast (TOB) algorithms is attested by the long period that such algorithms have been the object of intense research and by the large number of algorithms already proposed. This work presents a new algorithm for total order broadcast that takes advantage of the inherent reliability and timeliness of high performance clusters in its design. Experimental results show that the performance of this very simple TOB is on a par with the performance of TOBs designed for asynchronous computing models. The proposed protocol has been designed for the timed asynchronous computing model, enhanced with a simple pulse-based mechanism that is used to synchronize the processes' execution. The assumption behind the pulse-based synchronization is that modern clusters, given some workload conditioning, can maintain reasonably long failure-free execution periods in which they behave very much as synchronous system. This assumption allows the processes that engage in total order broadcasts to build a global view of their joint computation and this global view, in its turn, allows them to solve total order broadcast in a straightforward way. The protocol tolerates an unbounded number of timing failures, that can prevent its progress but have no impact on its safety, it is also safe in the in the presence of asynchrony, and processes failures. The protocol has been implemented in Java and tested on an Ethernet-based cluster. A comparison of the results obtained in the experiments with results published for other well-known TOBs allow us to conclude that our solution represents an interesting trade-o_ between performance and simplicity of design and implementation for total order broadcasts protocols. Beyond performance, this research seems to indicate that there is still room for the practical exploration of the interplay between synchronicity and asynchronicity in the engineering of distributed protocols / Mestrado / Ciência da Computação / Mestre em Ciência da Computação