Maria João Barros

The SELFNET approach for autonomic management in an NFV/SDN networking paradigm

To meet the challenging key performance indicators of the fifth generation (5G) system, the network infrastructure becomes more heterogeneous and complex. This will bring a high pressure on the reduction of OPEX and the improvement of the user experience. Hence, shifting todays manual and semi-automatic network management into an autonomic and intelligent framework will play a vital role in the upcoming 5G system. Based on the cutting-edge technologies, such as Software-Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization, a novel management framework upon the software-defined and Virtualized Network is proposed by EU H2020 SELFNET project. In the paper, the reference architecture of SELFNET, which is divided into Infrastructure Layer, Virtualized Network Layer, SON Control Layer, SON Autonomic Layer, NFV Orchestration and Management Layer, and Access Layer, will be presented.

SELFNET Framework self-healing capabilities for 5G mobile networks

Nowadays, mobile networks are complex sets of heterogeneous equipments that use proprietary management applications, resulting in a huge expenditure, a large effort and a time-consuming process to manage all network elements by means of currently manual or semi-automatical approaches. With the emergency of new technologies, such software-defined networking, network function virtualization, and cloud computing, the current configurable networks are capable of becoming programmable, which will facilitate advanced autonomous network management. This article presents capabilities of a novel framework proposed by the SELFNET project that enables highly autonomic management functionalities. It focuses on the proposed self-healing use case that can be applied to reactively or preventively deal with the detected or predicted network failures. The SELFNET can provide the upcoming 5G system: an autonomic management framework, which brings a remarkable reduction upon operational expenditure and a substantial improvement of quality-of-experienceQoE in terms of reliability, availability, service continuity and security. Copyright

Norms and standards in modular medical architectures

Recent Internet of Things (IoT) research has been aiming at interoperability of devices and the integration of sensor networks. The Future Internet - Private Public Partnership (FI-PPP) has created a whole array of different purpose-oriented modules with defined specifications, better known as Generic Enablers. This article gives an overview of legal, ethical and technical norms and standards to be considered when planning, developing and implementing modular medical architectures, integrating the Internet of Things (IoT) and Generic Enablers (GEs) in cutting edge, latest generation medical data networks.

TRESCIMO: European union and South African Smart City contextual dimensions

Cities increasingly face challenges related to pollution, efficient use of resources (e.g. water, energy) and ensuring a good quality of life for its citizens. Solutions built on existing and emerging technologies such as Cloud computing, Internet of Things, Machine-to-Machine and data analytics can improve on or create services able to address these challenges. These solutions are seen as contributors in creating a Smart City. In Europe Smart Cities have been implemented, while South Africa has only recently started with Smart City initiatives. Current thinking has been to replicate international Smart City instances in South Africa. However, an open question is raised if this is an optimal strategy as differences in context might impact on the delivery of services. This paper extracts and compares contextual differences between Europe and South Africa, and based on those insights analyse whether full European solutions will deliver on the promise of a South African Smart City. Furthermore the question is raised if insights into a South African Smart City can strengthen European initiatives. A need for inter-continental automated testing facilities such as those developed by TRESCIMO is identified through which integrated experiments can be conducted to provide insight and answers.

Spoken Language Interface for Mobile Devices

In this paper, we present a set of optimizations for a spoken language interface for mobile devices that can improve the recognition accuracy and user interaction experience. A comparison between a speech and a graphical interface, when used to accomplish the same task, is provided. The implications of developing a spoken language interface and integrating speech recognition and text-to-speech modules for European Portuguese in a mobile device, are also discussed. The paper focuses in the speech recognition module and in an algorithm for name matching optimization that provides the user with a more comfortable interaction with the device. Usability evaluation trials have shown that spoken language interfaces can provide an easier and more efficient use of the device, especially within a community of users less experienced in handling mobile devices.

Future mode of operations for 5G The SELFNET approach enabled by SDN/NFV

The 5G infrastructure initiative in Europe115G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership, [Online]. Available here: https://5g-ppp.eu/ has agreed a number of challenging key performance indicators (KPIs) to significantly enhance the user experience and support a number of use cases with very demanding requirements on the network infrastructure. At the same time there is high pressure on the reduction of the operational expenditure (OPEX). A contribution to meeting the KPIs and to reduce OPEX is to evolve the management of the network into a fully autonomic and intelligent framework. Based on advanced technologies, such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), the EU H2020 project SELFNET (https://selfnet-5g.eu/) is proposing an advanced network management framework to achieve these objectives. Autonomic network management framework to achieve self-organizing capabilities.Machine-based, human-assisted network management paradigm.Leverage on NFV, SDN, SON and Cloud Computing standards & interfaces.

Phonetically transcribed speech corpus designed for context based european portuguese TTS

This paper presents a speech corpus for European Portuguese (EP), designed for context based text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis systems. The speech corpus is intended for small footprint engines and is composed by one sentence dedicated to each sequence of two phonemes of the language, incorporating as many language contexts as possible at diphone and word levels. The speech corpus is presented in three forms: its orthographic sentences, its phonetic transcriptions considering the words coarticulation, typical phenomenon in EP and its phonetic transcriptions considering the words coarticulation and the vocalic reduction effects, which is another typical phenomenon of EP language. The paper describes the corpus and presents the results in total number of phonemes and their distribution in the word and the sentence, and the total number of diphones, considering and not considering the vocalic reduction for the phonetic transcription.