Fernando Matos

A Framework for the establishment of inter-domain, on-demand VPNs

Virtual private networks (VPNs) are a popular and cost-effective means to build wide-area corporate networks, since they provide bandwidth, privacy and security for a fraction of the cost of private networks. However, establishing VPNs across different domains (inter-domain VPNs) is still a cumbersome task, requiring human- based negotiation between involved carriers, manual configuration of network equipment and inefficient exploitation procedures during the whole VPN life cycle. For these reasons, inter-domain VPNs are usually contracted in a long-term basis and thus appropriate only for a limited set of usage scenarios. In this paper we propose a framework for efficient provisioning of inter-domain VPNs, comprising a business layer for inter-carrier negotiation and orchestration, policy-based mechanisms for intra-domain resource management, and RFC 4364-based mechanisms for configuration of VPNs. This framework will allow ISPs to provide much more elastic VPN services, able to support not only traditional VPNs (contracted for long periods, for interconnection of corporate networks) but also a new class of more granular, on-demand VPNs for support of shorter-term services such as videoconference sessions or internet banking transaction.

QoS adaptation in inter-domain services

QoS adaptation is an important process in inter-domain service management, since it can guarantee the correct service provisioning when unexpected events occur. However, in inter-domain environments, the human interference and the manual-based operations hamper the deployment of expeditious mechanisms to adapt the QoS of the services. This paper presents an approach based on SOA principles to perform QoS adaptation in these environments. This approach allows providers to determine the new QoS parameters, renegotiate these parameters with other providers along the provisioning path, update their contracts and enforce the changes in the equipment configuration in an automatic and on-demand fashion. The QoS adaptation process can be caused by technical (QoS violations, infrastructure malfunctions) or business (financial problems) issues. In addition, if a provider configuration in the provisioning path already supports the new requirements, this provider is not affected by the adaptation, thus decreasing the processing time.

MUV-Bee: Using WSN to monitoring urban vehicles

The number of urban vehicles has increased in the past years causing innumerous problems such as traffic jams, accidents and pollution. One of the main solutions for this problem is to improve the quality of public transportation by making it more reliable, secure and efficient. In this paper, it is proposed a system for monitoring urban vehicles based on ZigBee technology, called MUV-Bee. Such system uses wireless communication to integrate the main server to public transportation buses and bus stops. Its several services provided to society allow a better quality of public transportation which make them more attractive.

A Multi-criteria Scoring Method based on Performance Indicators for Cloud Computing Provider Selection.

Cloud computing is a service model that allows hosting and on demand distribution of computing resources all around the world, via Internet. Thus, cloud computing has become a successful paradigm that has been adopted and incorporated into virtually all major known IT companies (e.g., Google, Amazon, Microsoft). Based on this success, a large number of new companies were competitively created as providers of cloud computing services. This fact hindered the clients’ ability to choose among those several cloud computing providers the most appropriate one to attend their requirements and computing needs. This work aims to specify a logical/mathematical multi-criteria scoring method able to select the most appropriate(s) cloud computing provider(s) to the user (customer), based on the analysis of performance indicator values desired by the customer and associated with every cloud computing provider that supports the demanded requirements. The method is a three stages algorithm that evaluates, scores, sorts and selects different cloud providers based on the utility of their performance indicators for each specific user of the method. An example of the method’s usage is given in order to illustrate its operation.

Provisioning of Inter-Domain QoS-Aware Services

Cooperation among service providers, network providers, and access providers in the Internet allows the creation of new services to offer to customers that are in other domains, thus increasing revenue. However, the Internet heterogeneous environment, where each provider has its own policies, infrastructure and business goals, hinders the deployment of more advanced communication services. This paper presents a Quality of Service (QoS) for Inter-Domain Services (QIDS) model that allows inter-domain QoS-aware services to be defined, configured, and adapted in a dynamic and on-demand fashion, among service providers. This is accomplished by: 1) the use of a common communication channel (business layer) where service providers publish and search for services, and interact with each other to contract and manage these services; 2) the templates to specify the business and technical characteristics of the services; 3) the automatic composition of services using service elements (smaller services) according to performance and service-specific QoS parameters; and 4) the creation and enforcement of configuration rules for the underlying infrastructure. A prototype was implemented to validate QIDS and performance tests were conducted on an inter-domain Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Virtual Private Network (VPN) scenario.

An Efficiency Frontier based Model for Cloud Computing Provider Selection and Ranking.

Cloud computing become a successful service model that allows hosting and distribution of computational resources all around the world, via Internet and on demand. This success leveraged and popularized its adoption into all major IT companies. Based on this success, a large number of new companies were competitively created as providers of cloud computing services. This fact can difficult the customer ability to choose among those several cloud providers the most appropriate one to attend their requirements and computing needs. Therefore, this work aims to propose a model capable of selecting and ranking cloud providers according the analysis on the most efficient ones using a popular Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), that calculates efficiency using Linear Programming (LP) techniques. To accomplish that, the efficiency modeling is based on the analysis of each Performance Indicator (PI) values desired by the customer and the available ones in the cloud provider database. An example of the method’s usage is given to illustrate the model operation, selection results and final provider ranking for five hypothetical customer requests and for ten providers.

A Trust Reputation Architecture for Virtual Organization Integration in Cloud Computing Environment.

Virtual Organization (VO) represents a prominent collaboration initiative, where a set of entities share competencies and risks attending a common goal. Moreover, their interactions can be supported in an Internet basis, using Cloud Computing (CC) resources. The VO and CC integration brings several benefits, such as: reduction of costs and maintenance, interoperability, among others. However, there are issues related to privacy, trust and security that need to be addressed. One of the issues observed is how much trust VO members put in the cloud provider (CP), particularly, in a scenario where VO members use the resources provided by a CP to made available their services and in order to interact with other members. Thus, the proposed reputation architecture intends to assist the decision-making processes present in the VO’s life-cycle reputing CP trust. The reputed trust is based on two sources: a) objective (Quality of Service (QoS) indicators) and b) subjective (feedback from users regarding those QoS indicators). The evaluation results show that the architecture is resilient to attacks on subjective trust during the reputation calculation. Also, it is possible to note that the proposed architecture presents an acceptable average time for each one operation, and a significant role during VO’s creation and operation.

A Survey on Bus Monitoring Systems

With the growing interest in Smart City using Internet of Things (IoT) the focus in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) has increased, and consequently has been used to monitor numerous environments, such as health, habitat control, houses and public transportation. Due this expansion, the numbers of technologies and researches on bus monitoring systems has increase. Thereby, this survey provides information about researches, used technologies, implementation, difficulties and problems on bus monitoring systems.

An IPSec Mediation Approach for Safe Establishment of Inter-domain VPNs

In this paper we propose a new solution to increase the security of BGP/MPLS IP VPNs established across multiple domains. In general, layer 3 VPNs already present a number of security risks when used in single domain scenarios, since they are vulnerable to attacks originated inside the provider backbone. In order to overcome these risks, IPSec tunnels are recommended. In multi-domain scenarios, however, the safe establishment of such IPSec tunnels is much more difficult, due to need to set up proper Security Associations in an open environment. The solution we present in this paper not only solves this problem but also improves the dynamic composition of multi-domain VPNs, thus reducing the effort and time required to provide such VPNs.