Arnold Bragg

The SILO Architecture for Services Integration, controL, and Optimization for the Future Internet

We propose a new internetworking architecture that represents a departure from current philosophy and practice, as a contribution to the ongoing debate regarding the future Internet. Building upon our experience with the design and prototyping of the just-in-time protocol suite, we outline a framework consisting of (1) building blocks of fine-grain functionality, (2) explicit support for combining elemental blocks to accomplish highly configurable complex communication tasks, and (3) control elements to facilitate (what is currently referred to as) cross-layer interactions. In this position paper, we take a holistic view of network design, allowing applications to work synergistically with the network architecture and physical layers to select the most appropriate functional blocks and tune their behavior so as to meet the applications needs within resource availability constraints. The proposed architecture is flexible and extensible so as to foster innovation and accommodate change, it supports a unified Internet, it allows for the integration of security and management features at any point in (what is now referred to as) the networking stack, and it is positioned to take advantage of hardware-based performance-enhancing techniques.

Potentially Avoidable Hospitalizations of Dually Eligible Medicare and Medicaid Beneficiaries from Nursing Facility and Home- and Community-Based Services Waiver Programs

Beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid are of increasing interest because of their clinical complexity and high costs. The objective of this study was to examine the incidence, costs, and factors associated with potentially avoidable hospitalizations (PAH) in this population.

The state of the Internet

Internet strategic inflection points (major turning points that change the way an industry operates) will change the face of IT in the new millennium. Your company will need to watch out for them!.

Just-in-time optical burst switching implementation in the ATDnet all-optical networking testbed

We describe: (i) the architecture of an optical burst switched (OBS) demonstration network overlaying the ATDnet transparent all-optical testbed, and (ii) experiments underway in the testbed. The OBS overlay uses a simple hardware-based protocol embedded in OBS network controllers to manage commercial off-the-shelf DWDM switches. Data paths are all-optical and completely transparent, and can carry analog or digital traffic in any format, data rate, and modulation scheme. Experiments with latency- and jitter-sensitive HDTV transmission, petabyte file transfers, and immersive real time visualization of satellite imagery over the OBS network are ongoing. Parallel research on transport protocols, QoS-aware routing protocols, adaptors for an OBS LAN, and network management architecture are applied as completed. This is the first just-in-time (JIT) OBS field trial known to the authors.

JumpStart deployments in ultra-high-performance optical networking testbeds

This article describes deployments of the JumpStart architecture and protocols in several ultra-high-performance optical networking testbeds. JumpStart interoperates with a variety of commercial optical switching gear, and supports operator-, user-, application-, and protocol-initiated ultra-fast lightpath provisioning. We briefly describe JumpStarts data and control plane architectures, and the functionality and performance of its edge and core components. We summarize results from JumpStart testbed demonstrations supporting ultra-fast lightpath provisioning for grids, high-performance file transfers, low-latency zero-jitter interactive visualization, and optical transport using optical burst switching.

Tabula Rasa: Pitfalls and Possibilities with Clean Slate Initiatives

If an IT system is so so hopelessly and fundamentally flawed that theres no practical way to address its deficiencies one by one, a clean slate initiative might be the only way out of the swamp. The key is to make sure the drivers are sound, the process is retrospective, the solution is robust, and expectations are realistic.

An Empirical Approach For Multilayer Traffic Modeling And Multimedia Traffic Modeling At Different Time Scales

We describe empirical approaches for multilayer traffic modeling — i.e., models that span several protocol layers — and for modeling multimedia traffic at various time scales.

Dynamic spectrum management - applying optical networking techniques to wireless DSA networks

We describe an enabling technology for spectrum management in wireless dynamic spectrum access (DSA) networks. The technology is based on an open architecture and protocols developed for optical networks, and deployed in an all-optical testbed that supports dynamic wavelength (i.e., optical spectrum) provisioning. We summarize the basic requirements for spectrum management in commercial-sector wireless DSA networks, and briefly describe candidate architecture vis-a-vis its signaling protocols, message structure, dynamic provisioning features, and performance. The architecture supports signaling times on the order of a microsecond, and can manage applications with spectrum holding times ranging from a few milliseconds to months

The Second Immutable Law of Security Administration

If security measures are too strict, users will find ways to circumvent them in order to do their jobs. Hence, systems can be lesssecure with stringent administrative policies than without them. IT Professionals editor in chief, Arnold W. Bragg, describes this conundrum in his final address to the magazines readers.

Celebrating IT Professional's 10-Year Anniversary

W elcome to IT Professional magazine’s 10th year. IT Pro is one of the IEEE Computer Society’s most widely read publications, and is especially popular with IT practitioners looking for solutions to today’s challenges. Our goal is the same as it was when we began this magazine 10 years ago: to help you keep up with the latest IT theories, research results, critical issues, products, and services. We’ll do so with articles, columns, and news briefs that provide highquality overviews and surveys of new technologies, trends, and best practices. As an example, we were among the first to warn readers about the impact of changes in US Daylight Saving Time on IT systems in our January/February 2007 issue— and we continue to publish reliable information and solutions on topics like dealing with serviceoriented architectures or minimizing security risks.