M. Tech. Information Networks / This dissertation reports on a prototype implementation of an architecture that seamlessly integrates Wireless Body Area Networks with Web services for ubiquitous healthcare service provisioning. The prototype ubiquitous monitoring system proactively collects body physiological signals of remote patients to recommend diagnostic services. The technologies that are based upon Wireless Body Area Networks and Web services can provide ubiquitous accessibility to variety of services by allowing distributed healthcare resources to be massively reused. This contributes to improving quality of healthcare services and shields individuals from physically moving to locations where healthcare services are provided, except in a critical situation. In addition, the technology can reduce costs of healthcare services by allowing individuals to remotely access services to support their healthcare. Especially our system is designed for ubiquitous monitoring of elderly and patients in recovery (or rehabilitation). The Wireless Body Area Networks - Web services architecture is at crossroad of embedded engineering of hardware, software and networking protocols. Testing of the prototype was carried out on enthusiastic volunteers and it has shown to be an efficient, reliable and support state-of-art service provisioning of ubiquitous healthcare monitoring in health sector.

No abstract / Thesis (M.Sc.-Electronic Engineering)-University of Natal, 1992.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has recently released routing standards that allow deployment of TCP/IP local area networks (LANs) onboard a moving vehicle and yet maintain permanent connectivity of the onboard LAN to the Internet via a vehicular mobile router. This recent development opens up new opportunities for providing efficient mobile computing for users on the move, especially for commuters traveling on public transports. Supporting real-time communications, e.g. IP Telephony, on-line video on demand, etc., over such onboard mobile networks is the main motivation of this thesis. Due to the volatility of the wireless bandwidth available to connect the moving LAN to the Internet at different locations of the trip, supporting on-line services that require bandwidth guarantees becomes a challenging task. The main problem investigated is how to provide bandwidth guarantee efficiently, effectively, and in a scalable manner in the context of moving onboard networks. To achieve the goal, a systematic approach is taken that involves (i) designing a signalling protocol that allows transparent bandwidth reservation for the aggregate demand of all onboard users in the vehicle, and (ii) proposing effective aggregation and bandwidth reservation policies that aim to maximize the chances of successful reservation and minimize the bandwidth and processing overhead in critical network elements. Mathematical models are derived to evaluate the performance of proposed solutions. These models are validated using discrete event simulation. One important conclusion reached is that onboard mobile communication provides significant aggregation and centralized management opportunities that must be exploited to provide a scalable solution to the bandwidth guarantee problem in mobile communications. The techniques proposed and analyzed in this thesis to exploit such aggregation opportunities constitute the original contribution to knowledge.

Thesis (Master').

Thesis (M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, Sept. 2004. / Thesis Advisor(s): Douglas E. Brinkley. Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-118). Also available online.

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Carleton University, 1999. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M. Sc. (Computer Science))--Rhodes University, 2006.

O fluxo de informações na sociedade moderna a crescente e mais intenso a cada dia. Cada vez mais as ferramentas de tratamento da informação ou seja, os computadores, necessitam interconexão de forma a proporcionar acesso a dados importantes e serviços especializados. Neste contexto, as redes de computadores agem como catalizadores do processo de disseminação e tratamento da informação. A demanda por serviços distribuídos cresce a cada dia, fazendo com que as redes cresçam também. Muitas vezes este processo a rápido e desordenado, a entropia do sistema aumenta e seu controle torna-se uma tarefa árdua. Para que possa exercer maior controle sobre as redes de computadores o gerente da rede deve dispor de ferramentas (e métodos) de auxilio. Assim pode-se manter a prestação de serviços a que a rede se propõe. Em Gerencia de Redes, duas arquiteturas tem sido apontadas como "modelos" a serem adotados: a arquitetura OSI para gerencia de redes (OSINM) [DOT91] e a arquitetura INTERNET [SCH91]. Ambas arquiteturas consideram que os diferentes componentes inseridos no domínio de gerencia são capazes de emitir e decodificar mensagens de gerencia. Por outro lado, tem sido destacada a necessidade de gerenciar componentes que não suportam funções de gerencia ou que não possuem as mesmas funções de gerencia que o restante da rede, desta forma pretende-se que o sistema de gerencia da rede seja completo e confiável. O sistema especificado e prototipado se encaixa neste contexto pois orientado a gerencia de Redes Locais do tipo CSMA/CD que ainda não possuem funções de gerencia. Defende-se a ideia de que, a partir do tráfego gerado, pode-se inferir o perfil ou estado da rede, derivando ou antecipando os problemas da instalação que não poderiam ser detectados pelo administrador da rede de outra maneira [DOT90]. Assim sendo, uma estação da rede a escolhida para este trabalho. Esta estação captura o trafego da rede e o submete continuamente a um processo de analise que detecta as diversas situações anormais que podem ser verificadas nos padrões de trafego. As ocorrências de situações anormais, denominadas alarmes, são repassadas a um processo de diagnose. O processo de diagnose, contendo uma base de conhecimento em forma de regras e a descrição estrutural da rede, leva em conta estes alarmes para reconhecer o problema. Uma vez reconhecido o problema, formula-se um procedimento de cone* que a levado ao Gerente da Rede. O sistema foi especificado com o use de dois métodos formais: • Para especificar a interação, do sistema com o ambiente em que se insere foi usado o método CSP (Communicating Sequential Processes), proposto por Hoare em 1978 [H0A87] e reformulado também por Hoare em 1985 [H0A85]; • Para especificar o sistema em si, o funcionamento do processo de agregação de conhecimento, foi utilizado o método denotacional VDM (Vienna Development Method), [BJ078] e PON861. Para a construção do protótipo foram utilizadas as linguagens "C" e "PROLOG". Futuramente, quando inserido em um Domínio de Gerencia (segundo a terminologia OSI/ISO), este sistema poderá reportar os problemas que fogem ao escopo da base de conhecimento local para o Processo Gerente do Domínio que responder com os procedimentos de solução cabíveis a porção da rede gerenciada pelo sistema. / The information flow in the modern society becomes bigger and faster day by day. Aidding the task of information treating, the computers need to be interconnected in order to proportionate access to important data and specialized services. In this context, the computer networks are like catalyzers of the process of dissemination and treating of information. The demand for distributed services is increasing, making the computer networks increase too. Many times this growth is fast and disordered and the network control becomes a hard task. For achieving more control over the computer network, powerful tools and methods for problem solving must be provided to the Network Manager. With this, the services offered by the network can be kept running. In Network Management, two architectures have been pointed as "models" to be used: the OSI network management architecture (OSINM) [DOT91] and the INTERNET architecture [SCH91]. Both consider that every network component must be capable of sending and receiving management messages. However, there are many components that do not support management functions, or that have management functions that are distinct of the rest of the network. This different components must be managed because without this the management system would not be representative and trustworthy. The specified and prototyped system deals with the problem above boarded. It is oriented to the management of a CSMA/CD Local Area Networks that do not support management functions. The central idea is that, through traffic analysis, the network state can be obtained (or infered) and the problems arising in the network can be detected or even predicted. A network station is chosen to perform this task. This station gathers all traffic and submit it continuously to an analysis process that detects the different anormal situations over the network. The occurrences of anormal situations, called alarms, feeds a diagnosis process. This process has a knowledge base with rules and the structural description of the network, it uses this knowledge and the alarms to recognize the network problems. Once the problems are recognized, the system is ready for advise the possible corrections to the Network Manager. The system was specified using two formal methods: To specify the interaction of the system with the environment in which it is embeeded was used CSP (Communicating Sequential Processes), proposed by Hoare in 1978 [HOA87] and reformulated by Hoare too in 1985 [H0A85]; To specify the software, the way the knowledge aggregation task acts, was used the denotational method VDM (Vienna Development Method), [BJ078] and [JON86]. For the prototyping were used the languages "C" and PROLOG. In the future, when embeded in a Management Domain, this system will be capable of reporting the problems that are not treated by the local knowledge base (or that are not in the scope of the system) to the Management Process of the domain. The Management Process will give some advising and the local system will obey to it.

The idea of a free network is a myth of the past. Networking costs are expected to remain a burden to future IT budgets, no doubt raising questions regarding the payment of such services. Users do not normally pay to use local area networks, as companies tend to own their LANs. However, when wide area or international networks are considered, the situation is different. It is argued that in these cases the invoicing and payment system should be integral to the network's communication protocol. This implies changes to the networking protocol (to handle invoicing) as well as a new look at customary ideas of representing currency (to handle payment). In this dissertation, an invoicing and payment scheme that uses electronic cash and is implemented as part of the basic ATM protocols is discussed. The main advantages of this scheme can be summarized as a low administrative overhead and user privacy. / Computer Science / M. Sc. (Computer Science)

O fluxo de informações na sociedade moderna a crescente e mais intenso a cada dia. Cada vez mais as ferramentas de tratamento da informação ou seja, os computadores, necessitam interconexão de forma a proporcionar acesso a dados importantes e serviços especializados. Neste contexto, as redes de computadores agem como catalizadores do processo de disseminação e tratamento da informação. A demanda por serviços distribuídos cresce a cada dia, fazendo com que as redes cresçam também. Muitas vezes este processo a rápido e desordenado, a entropia do sistema aumenta e seu controle torna-se uma tarefa árdua. Para que possa exercer maior controle sobre as redes de computadores o gerente da rede deve dispor de ferramentas (e métodos) de auxilio. Assim pode-se manter a prestação de serviços a que a rede se propõe. Em Gerencia de Redes, duas arquiteturas tem sido apontadas como "modelos" a serem adotados: a arquitetura OSI para gerencia de redes (OSINM) [DOT91] e a arquitetura INTERNET [SCH91]. Ambas arquiteturas consideram que os diferentes componentes inseridos no domínio de gerencia são capazes de emitir e decodificar mensagens de gerencia. Por outro lado, tem sido destacada a necessidade de gerenciar componentes que não suportam funções de gerencia ou que não possuem as mesmas funções de gerencia que o restante da rede, desta forma pretende-se que o sistema de gerencia da rede seja completo e confiável. O sistema especificado e prototipado se encaixa neste contexto pois orientado a gerencia de Redes Locais do tipo CSMA/CD que ainda não possuem funções de gerencia. Defende-se a ideia de que, a partir do tráfego gerado, pode-se inferir o perfil ou estado da rede, derivando ou antecipando os problemas da instalação que não poderiam ser detectados pelo administrador da rede de outra maneira [DOT90]. Assim sendo, uma estação da rede a escolhida para este trabalho. Esta estação captura o trafego da rede e o submete continuamente a um processo de analise que detecta as diversas situações anormais que podem ser verificadas nos padrões de trafego. As ocorrências de situações anormais, denominadas alarmes, são repassadas a um processo de diagnose. O processo de diagnose, contendo uma base de conhecimento em forma de regras e a descrição estrutural da rede, leva em conta estes alarmes para reconhecer o problema. Uma vez reconhecido o problema, formula-se um procedimento de cone* que a levado ao Gerente da Rede. O sistema foi especificado com o use de dois métodos formais: • Para especificar a interação, do sistema com o ambiente em que se insere foi usado o método CSP (Communicating Sequential Processes), proposto por Hoare em 1978 [H0A87] e reformulado também por Hoare em 1985 [H0A85]; • Para especificar o sistema em si, o funcionamento do processo de agregação de conhecimento, foi utilizado o método denotacional VDM (Vienna Development Method), [BJ078] e PON861. Para a construção do protótipo foram utilizadas as linguagens "C" e "PROLOG". Futuramente, quando inserido em um Domínio de Gerencia (segundo a terminologia OSI/ISO), este sistema poderá reportar os problemas que fogem ao escopo da base de conhecimento local para o Processo Gerente do Domínio que responder com os procedimentos de solução cabíveis a porção da rede gerenciada pelo sistema. / The information flow in the modern society becomes bigger and faster day by day. Aidding the task of information treating, the computers need to be interconnected in order to proportionate access to important data and specialized services. In this context, the computer networks are like catalyzers of the process of dissemination and treating of information. The demand for distributed services is increasing, making the computer networks increase too. Many times this growth is fast and disordered and the network control becomes a hard task. For achieving more control over the computer network, powerful tools and methods for problem solving must be provided to the Network Manager. With this, the services offered by the network can be kept running. In Network Management, two architectures have been pointed as "models" to be used: the OSI network management architecture (OSINM) [DOT91] and the INTERNET architecture [SCH91]. Both consider that every network component must be capable of sending and receiving management messages. However, there are many components that do not support management functions, or that have management functions that are distinct of the rest of the network. This different components must be managed because without this the management system would not be representative and trustworthy. The specified and prototyped system deals with the problem above boarded. It is oriented to the management of a CSMA/CD Local Area Networks that do not support management functions. The central idea is that, through traffic analysis, the network state can be obtained (or infered) and the problems arising in the network can be detected or even predicted. A network station is chosen to perform this task. This station gathers all traffic and submit it continuously to an analysis process that detects the different anormal situations over the network. The occurrences of anormal situations, called alarms, feeds a diagnosis process. This process has a knowledge base with rules and the structural description of the network, it uses this knowledge and the alarms to recognize the network problems. Once the problems are recognized, the system is ready for advise the possible corrections to the Network Manager. The system was specified using two formal methods: To specify the interaction of the system with the environment in which it is embeeded was used CSP (Communicating Sequential Processes), proposed by Hoare in 1978 [HOA87] and reformulated by Hoare too in 1985 [H0A85]; To specify the software, the way the knowledge aggregation task acts, was used the denotational method VDM (Vienna Development Method), [BJ078] and [JON86]. For the prototyping were used the languages "C" and PROLOG. In the future, when embeded in a Management Domain, this system will be capable of reporting the problems that are not treated by the local knowledge base (or that are not in the scope of the system) to the Management Process of the domain. The Management Process will give some advising and the local system will obey to it.