Brian Lee

Containers and Clusters for Edge Cloud Architectures -- A Technology Review

Cloud technology is moving towards more distribution across multi-clouds and the inclusion of various devices, as evident through IoT and network integration in the context of edge cloud and fog computing. Generally, lightweight virtualisation solutions are beneficial for this architectural setting with smaller, but still virtualised devices to host application and platform services, and the logistics required to manage this. Containerisation is currently discussed as a lightweight virtualisation solution. In addition to having benefits over traditional virtual machines in the cloud in terms of size and flexibility, containers are specifically relevant for platform concerns typically dealt with Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) clouds such as application packaging and orchestration. For the edge cloud environment, application and service orchestration can help to manage and orchestrate applications through containers as an application packaging mechanism. We review edge cloud requirements and discuss the suitability container and cluster technology of that arise from having to facilitate applications through distributed multi-cloud platforms build from a range of networked nodes ranging from data centres to small devices, which we refer to here as edge cloud.

Subjective evaluation of olfactory and visual media synchronization

As a step towards enhancing users perceived multimedia quality levels beyond the level offered by the classic audiovisual systems, the authors present the results of an experimental study which looked at users perception of inter-stream synchronization between olfactory data (scent) and video (without relevant audio). The impact on users quality of experience (by considering enjoyment, relevance and reality) comparing synchronous with asynchronous presentation of olfactory and video media is analyzed and discussed. The aim is to empirically define the temporal boundaries within which users perceive olfactory data and video to be synchronized. The key analysis compares the user detection and perception of synchronization error. State of the art works have investigated temporal boundaries for olfactory data with audiovisual media, but no works document the integration of olfactory data and video (with no related audio). The results of this work show that the temporal boundaries for olfactory and video only are significantly different from olfactory, video and audio. The authors conclude that the absence of contextual audio reduces considerably the acceptable temporal boundary between the scent and video. The results also indicate that olfaction before video is more noticeable to users than olfaction after video and that users are more tolerable of olfactory data after video rather than olfactory data before video. In addition the results show the presence of two main synchronization regions. This work is a step towards the definition of synchronization specifications for multimedia applications based on olfactory and video media.

Standardizing a reference model and autonomic network architectures for the self-managing future internet

Research efforts at network design in the area of Autonomic Networking and Self-Managing Networks have reached a maturity level that forms a strong foundation toward standardization of architectural principles of the Self-Managing Future Internet. Therefore, an Industry Specification Group (ISG) on Autonomic network engineering for the self-managing Future Internet (AFI) has been established under the auspices of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Upon its creation, the main stakeholders agreed to harmonize the previous developments and the most recent trends in the very vital field of autonomic and self-managing networks. Particularly, the life cycle of AFI is structured by Work Items providing the foundation for ETSI Group Specifications. So far AFI has been focusing on scenarios, use cases, and requirements for the autonomic/selfmanaging Future Internet, as well as on architectural reference model for autonomic networking and self-management. Most recently, AFI has continued with a new Work Item on requirements analysis and specification of implementation-oriented solutions for autonomics and self-management. At the same time, as a part of the global ecosystem, AFI is establishing strategic liaisons with the standards developing organizations and research community.

Multiple-Scent Enhanced Multimedia Synchronization

This study looked at users perception of interstream synchronization between audiovisual media and two olfactory streams. The ability to detect skews and the perception and impact of skews on user Quality of Experience (QoE) is analyzed. The olfactory streams are presented with the same skews (i.e., delay) and with variable skews (i.e., jitter and mix of scents). This article reports the limits beyond which desynchronization reduces user-perceived quality levels. Also, a minimum gap between the presentations of consecutive scents is identified, necessary to ensuring enhanced user-perceived quality. There is no evidence (not considering scent type) that overlapping or mixing of scents increases user QoE levels for olfaction-enhanced multimedia.

Olfaction-Enhanced Multimedia: A Survey of Application Domains, Displays, and Research Challenges

Recently, the concept of olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications has gained traction as a step toward further enhancing user quality of experience. The next generation of rich media services will be immersive and multisensory, with olfaction playing a key role. This survey reviews current olfactory-related research from a number of perspectives. It introduces and explains relevant olfactory psychophysical terminology, knowledge of which is necessary for working with olfaction as a media component. In addition, it reviews and highlights the use of, and potential for, olfaction across a number of application domains, namely health, tourism, education, and training. A taxonomy of research and development of olfactory displays is provided in terms of display type, scent generation mechanism, application area, and strengths/weaknesses. State of the art research works involving olfaction are discussed and associated research challenges are proposed.

Age and gender influence on perceived olfactory & visual media synchronization

Lately, significant efforts have being put into proposing various solutions for increasing multimedia viewers perceived quality levels. One innovative avenue is to enhance users quality of experience (QoE) by extending the classic audio-visual multimedia content to stimulate also other human senses such as olfaction, tactile, etc. In this context, this paper focuses on olfaction-enhanced multimedia content and presents the results of an experimental study which looked at user perception of inter-stream synchronization between olfactory data and video, whereby the audio used provides no contextual information. The study investigates how age and gender influence users perception of the temporal boundaries within which they perceive olfactory data and video to be synchronized. The impact on user QoE levels (considering sense of enjoyment, relevance and reality) during synchronous and asynchronous presentations of olfactory and video media is also analyzed and discussed. The results show that there are significant differences in terms of how users of various gender and age groups perceive the skew between olfaction and video content and in their QoE levels.

User-profile-based perceived olfactory and visual media synchronization

As a step towards enhancing users perceived multimedia quality levels, this article presents the results of a study which looked at users perception of inter-stream synchronization between scent and video. The ability to detect and the perception of and impact of skew on users quality of experience is analyzed considering users age, sex, and culture (user profile). The results indicate that skews beyond a certain level between olfaction and video have a negative impact on user-perceived experience. Olfaction before video is more noticeable to users than olfaction after video, and assessors are more tolerable of olfactory data presented after video.

The Impact of Scent Type on Olfaction-Enhanced Multimedia Quality of Experience

In the quest to increase user perceived quality of experience (QoE), the classic audio-visual content paradigm can be extended to include media components that stimulate other human senses. Among these, olfaction-enhanced multimedia has attracted significant attention, as it is both attractive from user point of view and challenging from research perspective. This paper presents the results of two subjective studies which analyzed user QoE of olfaction-enhanced multimedia. Diverse scent types and video content were considered. In particular, QoE levels were studied when one and two olfaction stimuli enhanced audiovisual media. The results presented show that scent type influences user QoE. Statistically significant differences between pleasant and unpleasant scent types existed. Also, in certain cases, users were prepared to forgive the presence of unpleasant scent types with respect to QoE. Finally, users reported a clear preference for olfaction presented after the video sequence with which the olfaction effect should be synchronized, as opposed to before the video sequence.

The influence of human factors on olfaction based mulsemedia quality of experience

With the aim to enrich users perceived multimedia experience, the authors present the results of an empirical study which looked at user perception of olfaction based mulsemedia. The goal is to evaluate the influence of users age and gender on user quality of experience (QoE) considering various scent types and categories (pleasant or not). The results present a complex relationship between these variables and how they influence user QoE. They indicate that different user groups report different perception of content level factors for olfaction based mulsemedia.

Towards secure provenance in the cloud: a survey

Provenance information are meta-data that summarize the history of the creation and the actions performed on an artefact e.g. data, process etc. Secure provenance is essential to improve data forensics, ensure accountability and increase the trust in the cloud. In this paper, we survey the existing cloud provenance management schemes and proposed security solutions. We investigate the current related security challenges resulting from the nature of the provenance model and the characteristics of the cloud and we finally identify potential research directions which we feel necessary t should be covered in order to build a secure cloud provenance for the next generation.