Roberto Minerva

Self-optimized cognitive network of networks

Future processing, storage and communication services will be highly pervasive: people, smart objects, machines and the surrounding space (all embedding devices such as with sensors, RFID tags, etc.) will define a highly decentralized cyber environment of resources interconnected by dynamic Networks of Networks. As communications will extend to cover any combination of “people, machines and things”, future networks will be increasingly complex and heterogeneous, yet always endorsed with the challenging task of ensuring end-to-end QoS. This paper proposes groundwork for an advanced cognitive networking paradigm exploitable in future wired and wireless infrastructures: a Decentralised Cognitive Plane to allow for cross-layer, cross-node and cross-network domain self-management, self-control and self-optimization, whilst being compatible with legacy management and control.

Autonomic nature-inspired eco-systems

Computing and storage powers are progressively embedded in all sort of electronic devices interconnected by ubiquitous communications. This creates pervasive and complex environments fostering the development and evolution of services eco-systems. Autonomic technologies coupled with additional bio-inspired principles can provide strong elements for facing such challenge. This paper aims at looking inside the black box of an autonomic bio-inspired eco-system. Specifically, a model of autonomic component is elaborated allowing the evolution of eco-systems enabled by means of self-awareness and self-organization. This approach goes beyond a traditional mechanistic one, where concepts derived from biology are applied to explain what happens in an eco-system: in fact, behaviour and evolution of a service eco-system are engineered by programming the components. This model has been implemented and experimentally validated within the EU project CASCADAS, so some validation results as also reported. Moreover, the paper analyses a use case concerning a decentralized server farm, being considered part of a complex eco-system.

If the Web is the platform, then what is the SDP?

The richness of functions and the availability of data make the Web the real service platform. Telecomm Operators are using an old approach to a new All-IP infrastructure. This enables the WebCos to become the major Service Providers of next generation networks. TelCos should instead use the Web APIs and the cloud computing infrastructure to build services. They should also provide interworking functions between NGN and the old infrastructure as Enablers in order to leverage their assets. Finally TelCos should open up data interfaces and by starting immediately data mining their data bases.

Guest Editorial Special Issue on World Forum on Internet-of-Things Conference 2014

The articles in this special section were presented at the IEEE World Forum (WF) on IoT held in Seoul, Korea, from March 6–8, 2015.

Analysis of design patterns for composite telco services

The adoption of IT-based interfaces to monitor and control telco capabilities is a consolidated approach. In such a scenario the end-users design composite services that orchestrate functions implemented through one or more resources managed by telecom operators. In addition to the issues that have to be faced to support the design of composite services in general, in this case it is also necessary to face issues that are specific to the telco domain. In fact, telco services strongly rely on the processing of asynchronous events generated by resources; moreover, they usually handle large and dynamic sets of concurrent processes that execute long-running transactions each of which includes interactions between the composite service and the telco capabilities. The complexity of the telco domain suggests to define a set of patterns to ease the development of composite services. The goal of this paper is to propose such patterns and to show how they can be implemented both as plain Java objects and as BPEL processes. The pattern based approach is illustrated by means of a service which takes advantage of the combined use of multiple patterns. Moreover, the paper suggests some improvements on the definition of the interfaces and on the reference model for the development of composite services.

Technological Evolution of the ICT Sector

We have not reached the cusp of technology evolution yet. Fresh innovations are lined up for disrupting established ‘‘mainstream’’ technologies. Exploring technology evolution provides clues to the next wave of transformation and strategic decisions. Data centers technologies demonstrate how service ‘‘factories’’ can merge client–server front end, with an elaborate distributed computing and cloud behind, but also illustrate that the technological gap between Webco and Telco offerings is increasing due to web agility and DIY attitudes.

The Inner Circle: How to exploit autonomic overlays of virtual resources for creating service ecosystems

An approach based on overlay networking can lead to a novel P2P Service Platform (PSP) that Operators can fruitfully use to compete with Web Companies. The merits and the strengths of the approach are highlighted respect to the de-perimeterization of services. Critical points of overlay networking are tackled by the integration of technologies like autonomic, virtualization, cognition and negotiation frameworks. These enhancements make the PSP proposition reliable, effective and viable. The PSP is able to support the Inner Circle concept: i.e., the ability to integrate infrastructural and permanent resources with more temporary and dynamic associated nodes. Eventually some usage scenarios are discussed for showing how a PSP and the Inner Circle concept can support and nourish new ecosystems of services.

Internet of Things: Part 3

The Internet of Things (IoT) is seen as a set of vertical application domains that share a limited number of common basic functionalities. In this view, consumer-centric solutions, platforms, data management, and business models have to be developed and consolidated in order to deploy effective solutions in the specific fields. The availability of low-cost general-purpose processing and storage systems with sensing/actuation capabilities coupled with communication capabilities are broadening the possibilities of IoT, leading to open systems that will be highly programmable and virtualized, and will support large numbers of application programming interfaces (APIs). IoT emerges as a set of integrated technologies — new exciting solutions and services that are set to change the way people live and produce goods. IoT is viewed by many as a fruitful technological sector in order to generate revenues. IoT covers a large wealth of consumer-centric technologies, and it is applicable to an even larger set of application domains. Innovation will be nurtured and driven by the possibilities offered by the combination of increased technological capabilities, new business models, and the rise of new ecosystems. The articles in this special section focus on several promising approaches to sensors, actuators, and new consumer devices. New communication capabilities (from short-range to LPWAN to 4G and 5G networks, with NB-IoT).

Internet of Things: Part 1 [Guest editorial]

The articles in this special section are devoted to the topic of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is seen as a set of vertical application domains that share a limited number of common basic functionalities. In this view, consumer-centric solutions, platforms, data management, and business models have to be developed and consolidated in order to deploy effective solutions in the specific fields. The availability of low-cost general-purpose processing and storage systems with sensing/actuation capabilities coupled with communication capabilities are broadening the possibilities of IoT leading to open systems that will be highly programmable and virtualized, and will support large numbers of application programming interfaces. These articles address several promising approaches to sensors, actuators, and new consumer devices. New communication capabilities,from short-range to low-power WAN (LPWAN) to fourth generation (4G) and 5G networks, with narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). In addition, there are new communication protocols and the exploitation of NFV/SDN for better communications. New solutions are needed for large distributed systems. New business models, ecosystems, and consumer-centric aspects need to be addressed, including IoT application development, utilization of semantics, and security, privacy, and trust. This section presents information from a wide range of perspectives in different industrial and research communities of IoT.

Which way to QoS in future networks: Distributed or centralized decision logic ?

The paper proposes the introduction of a Network Operating System, based on autonomic and cognitive capabilities, in order to improve manageability, QoS provision, and flexibility of future communication and processing infrastructures. The Network Operating System exploits a logically decentralized control logic through three planes: Network Control Plane, Resource Control Plane and Knowledge Plane. On one side the Network Operating System adopts the self-organization concepts towards the orchestration of virtualized resources hooked in “Network of Networks”; on the other side it interacts with a 0-Touch Management System, which is in charge of actuating lighter management functions which are still requesting human intervention. Paper concludes by elaborating about what a proper level of decentralization of control logic could be.