Stochastic spectrum handoff protocols for partially observable cognitive radio networks

Recent studies have been conducted to indicate the ineffective usage of licensed bands due to static spectrum allocation. In order to improve spectrum utilization, cognitive radio (CR) is therefore suggested to dynamically exploit the opportunistic primary frequency spectrums. How to provide efficient spectrum handoff has been considered a crucial issue in the CR networks. Existing spectrum handoff algorithms assume that all the channels can be correctly sensed by the CR users in order to perform appropriate spectrum handoff process. However, this assumption is impractical since excessive time will be required for the CR user to sense the entire spectrum space. In this paper, the partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) is applied to estimate the network information by partially sensing the frequency spectrums. A POMDP-based spectrum handoff (POSH) scheme is proposed to determine the optimal target channel for spectrum handoff according to the partially observable channel state information. Moreover, a POMDP-based multi-user spectrum handoff (M-POSH) protocol is proposed to exploit the POMDP policy into multi-user CR networks by distributing CR users to frequency spectrum bins opportunistically. By adopting the policies resulted from the POSH and M-POSH algorithms for target channel selection, minimal waiting time at each occurrence of spectrum handoff can be achieved which will be feasible for multimedia applications. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed spectrum handoff protocols can effectively minimize the required waiting time for spectrum handoff in the CR networks.     

Availability analysis under multiple link failures in WDM networks with shared-link connections

In optical Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks, different protection schemes have been proposed in the literature, namely, dedicated protection and shared protection. Shared protection techniques significantly reduce the required spare capacity by providing the same level of availability as dedicated protection. However, current mission critical applications (which heavily depend on the availability of communication resources) require connection availability in the order of 99.999% or higher, which corresponds to a downtime of almost 5 min a year on the average. Therefore, in order to satisfy a connection serviceavailability requirement defined by the users Service Level Agreement in a cost-effective and resource-efficient way, network operators need a systematic mechanism to evaluate the network availability under multiple failure scenario to ensure that current network configuration can meet the required availability degree; otherwise, a network upgrade is required. Unfortunately, under multiple failure scenario, traditional availability analysis techniques based on reliability block diagrams are not suitable for survivable networks with shared spare capacity. Therefore, a new concept is proposed to facilitate the calculations of network availability. In this paper, we propose an analytical model for evaluating the availability of a WDM network with shared-link connections under multiple link failures. The analytical model is also verified using Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed model significantly contributes to the related areas by providing network operators with a quantitative tool to evaluate the system availability and, thus, the expected survivability degree of WDM optical networks with shared connections under multiple link failures.     

Maintenance strategy optimization using a continuous-state partially observable semi-Markov decision process

Due to the limitation of current condition monitoring technologies, the estimates of asset health states may contain some uncertainties. A maintenance strategy ignoring this uncertainty of asset health state can cause additional costs or downtime. The partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) is a commonly used approach to derive optimal maintenance strategies when asset health inspections are imperfect. However, existing applications of the POMDP to maintenance decision-making largely adopt the discrete time and state assumptions. The discrete-time assumption requires the health state transitions and maintenance activities only happen at discrete epochs, which cannot model the failure time accurately and is not cost-effective. The discrete health state assumption, on the other hand, may not be elaborate enough to improve the effectiveness of maintenance. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a continuous state partially observable semi-Markov decision process (POSMDP). An algorithm that combines the Monte Carlo-based density projection method and the policy iteration is developed to solve the POSMDP. Different types of maintenance activities (i.e., inspections, replacement, and imperfect maintenance) are considered in this paper. The next maintenance action and the corresponding waiting durations are optimized jointly to minimize the long-run expected cost per unit time and availability. The result of simulation studies shows that the proposed maintenance optimization approach is more cost-effective than maintenance strategies derived by another two approximate methods, when regular inspection intervals are adopted. The simulation study also shows that the maintenance cost can be further reduced by developing maintenance strategies with state-dependent maintenance intervals using the POSMDP. In addition, during the simulation studies the proposed POSMDP shows the ability to adopt a cost-effective strategy structure when multiple types of maintenance activities are involved.     

Performance analysis of opportunistic spectrum access based on partially observable Markov decision process

To maximize the throughout of AD hoc system with opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) among multiple secondary users is analyzed. Two distributed learning and allocation schemes are studied by using greedy and random approach, which can maximize the cognitive system throughput or equivalently minimize the total regret in distributed learning and allocation. The simulation results show that the performance of OSA in AD hoc system are affected by package arrival rate and the number of second users. When the second users are less than six, or the package arrival rate is less than 0.06, the throughput of greedy approach is higher than that of random approach, and greedy approach is recommended to be adopted in the design of OSA in AD hoc system.     

Output canonical form for observable and unobservable systems

A method of transforming a system to an output canonical form is presented in the letter. The procedure given is applicable to both observable and unobservable systems. When the system is not observable, the canonical form displays separately the observable and unobservable subsystems.     

Stochastic analysis of systems with primary and secondary failures

This paper presents the stochastic analysis of repairable systems involving primary as well as secondary failures. To this end, two models are considered. The first model represents a system with two identical warm standbys. The failure rates of units and the system are constant and independent while the repair times are arbitrarily distributed. The second system modeled consists of three repairable regions. The system operates normally if all three regions are operating, otherwise it operates at a derated level unless all three regions fail. The failure rates and repair times of the regions are constant and independent. The first model is analyzed using the supplemental variable technique while the second model is analyzed using the regenerative point technique in the Markov renewal process. Various expressions including system availability, system reliability and mean time to system failure are obtained.     

Availability analysis of transit systems

This paper presents two mathematical models of repairable transit systems. State probability equations for both models are developed.     

Reliability of 3-state device systems with simultaneous failures

This work is concerned with computing the reliability of redundant systems of three-state (e.g., good, failed-open or failed-short) devices. Allowing for multiple failures, formulas are presented for calculating the reliability of a parallel-series system or a series-parallel system which is formed from three-state, non-DFM (dual failure-mode) devices, and which might require multiple paths to function. The words series and parallel are used in the layout-diagram sense. The formulation encompasses cases which have been analyzed by complex methods in numerous papers on the reliability of three-state DFM device systems. The effects of dominant failure-modes on the relationship between reliability of a series system and that of a parallel system, and on the relationship between the reliability of a parallel-series system and that of series-parallel system are presented     

BDD-based reliability analysis of phased-mission systems with multimode failures

This paper proposes a new algorithm (DEP-BDD) based on binary decision diagram (BDD) for reliability analysis of phased-mission systems (PMS) with multimode failures. DEP-BDD is a BDD-based combinatorial model which can be used to deal with more than one kind of dependences by applying dependence algebra, which is a generalization of phase algebra that handles more complex dependences. The nature of the BDD contributes the efficiency and low computational complexity of this algorithm. Two examples are analysed to illustrate the applications and advantages of our approach.     

Run-time management of systems with partially reconfigurable FPGAs

Partial reconfiguration (PR) of FPGAs can be used to dynamically extend and adapt the functionality of computing systems by swapping in and out HW tasks. To coordinate the on-demand task execution, we propose and implement a Run-Time System Manager (RTSM) for scheduling software (SW) tasks on available processor(s) and hardware (HW) tasks on any number of reconfigurable regions (RRs) of a partially reconfigurable FPGA. Fed with the initial partitioning of the application into tasks, the corresponding task graph, and the available task mappings, the RTSM controls system operation considering the status of each task and region (e.g. busy, idle, scheduled for reconfiguration/execution, etc). Our RTSM supports task reuse and configuration prefetching to minimize reconfigurations, task movement among regions to efficiently manage the FPGA area, and region reservation for future reconfiguration and execution. We validate the correctness and portability of our RTSM executing an image processing application on two Xilinx-based platforms: ZedBoard and XUPV5. We also perform a more extensive evaluation of its features using a simulation framework, and find that – despite the technology limitations – our approach can give promising results in terms of scheduling quality. Since our RTSM supports also the scheduling of parallel SW tasks, we use it to manage the execution of the entire parallel Edge Detection application on a desktop; we compare the application execution time with that using the OpenMP framework and find that with our RTSM execution is 2.4 times faster than the unoptimized OpenMP version. When processor affinity optimization is enabled for OpenMP, our RTMS and the OpenMP are on par, indicating that the scheduling efficiency of our RTSM is competitive to this state-of-the-art scheduler, while supporting in addition the management of HW tasks.     

Modeling and analysis of systems with multimode components anddependent failures

A model for the reliability and performance analysis of systems where components can degrade in a statistically dependent manner is presented. This cause-based multimode model is based on the idea that deviations of components from the up state have underlying physical causes which can be explicitly identified and are statistically independent. The effects of several causes can be combined in a flexible manner. System reliability and performance measures can be computed approximately by considering the most probable states. Such states can be efficiently generated by algorithms developed for the earlier multimode, statistically independent failure model     

Availability analysis of systems with two types of repair facilities

This paper presents two mathematical models of repairable systems. Failed systems repair times are arbitrarily distributed. Two types of repair facilities are needed to repair a failed system. Laplace transforms of the state probability equations are developed.     

Availability modeling of energy management systems

Energy management system (EMS) computer architectures have changed significantly over the recent past increasing the difficulty and the need for a priori assessment of system performance and dependability. The old practice based on measurements is no longer acceptable because of the flexibility accrued with the deployment of the new distributed computer-based systems. The number of “what if” questions increased since EMS systems are now implemented using multiple workstations that can be interconnected in various different ways.In this paper we show how alternative configurations can be modeled and analyzed, before proposing and purchasing any equipment, with the assistance of Markov reward models. We review the concept of Markov reward models and show how they can be applied in the availability analysis of SCADA/EMS computer systems. The paper also presents a software tool that facilitates automatic generation and solution of large Markov reward models. The input language of this modeling tool uses a variation of stochastic Petri nets called stochastic reward nets, which are also reviewed. We believe this is the first time a detailed quantitative model of a SCADA/EMS computer system is proposed and solved in the general literature.     

Availability modelling of ring microcomputer systems

A model for the availability of ring systems has been derived using the frequency balancing approach.A computer program has been written to evaluate different microcomputer based architectures by taking into consideration various features such as bus interfaces, number of modules, repair, hardware and software failure interaction, recovery procedure.Isolation and self purging of faulty modules have been proved to be significant factors in the calculation.     

Availability of systems based on satellites with spatial diversityand HAPS

A new simple analytical procedure to calculate availability of systems based either on satellites or a high altitude platform station (HAPS) is introduced. The method is based on the statistical comparison of the angles involved in the links, elevations provided by the system and the masking angles of the surrounding skyline     

Availability of a complex system having shelf-life of the components and common-cause failures

In this paper, a complex system comprised of two types of component is considered. Type I consists of N components connected in series, whereas type II consists of components connected in standby redundancy. It is assumed that a standby component may also fail in its shelf-life. Further, the system experiences two modes of failure—the first due to change in performance characteristics and the second due to a common cause. The availability of such a system is investigated using supplementary variable techniques and Laplace transforms. Finally, a number of interesting particular cases are discussed.     

Multi-state device redundant systems with common-cause failures and one standby unit

This paper presents two mathematical models. Model I represents a two identical unit active redundant system whose units may fail in either of the two mutually exclusive failure modes. Similarly, model II represents a two non-identical unit active parallel system whose units either fail or survive. In addition, models I and II comprise the occurrence of common-cause failures and one standby unit. Systems are only repaired when all the system units fail (including the standby unit). System repair times are arbitrarily distributed. Laplace transforms of the state probability equations are developed.     

Reliability analysis of k-out-of-n systems with partially repairable multi-state components

In some environments the components might not fail fully, but can lead to degradation and the efficiency of the system may decreases. However, the degraded components can be restored back through a proper repair mechanism. In this paper, we present a model to perform reliability analysis of k-out-of-n systems assuming that components are subjected to three states such as good, degraded, and catastrophic failure. We also present expressions for reliability and mean time to failure (MTTF) of k-out-of-n systems. Simple reliability and MTTF expressions for the triple-modular redundant (TMR) system, and numerical examples are also presented in this study.     

Reliability modeling of TMR computer systems with repair and common mode failures

The effect of repair and common-mode failures on the reliability and mean up time of a TMR computer configuration is analyzed and shown to be significant.