Search

Task scheduling algorithms are crucial for optimizing the utilization of computing resources. This work proposes a unique approach for improving task execution in real-time systems using an enhanced Round Robin scheduling algorithm variant incorporating dynamic time quantum and priority. The proposed algorithm adjusts the time slice allocated to each task based on execution time and priority, resulting in more efficient resource utilization. We also prioritize higher-priority tasks and execute them as soon as they arrive in the ready queue, ensuring the timely completion of critical tasks. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm using a set of real-world tasks and compare it with traditional Round Robin scheduling. The results show that our proposed approach significantly improves task execution time and resource utilization compared to conventional Round Robin scheduling. Our approach offers a promising solution for optimizing task execution in real-time systems. The combination of dynamic time quantum and priorities adds a unique element to the existing literature in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passive technologies, including intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS), are gaining traction thanks to their ability to enhance communication systems while maintaining minimal cost and low complexity. They can assist a wireless sensor network (WSN) by achieving low power requirements for sensors and aid communication needs in many applications, for instance, environmental monitoring. In this paper, we propose an IRS-equipped WSN which describes sensors equipped with IRSs instead of active radio frequency (RF) electronics. The IRS sensor node (ISN) intercepts a dedicated signal from a power source such as a base station (BS) and modulates the transmission of that signal to an intended recipient. In order to enable multiple sensors to transmit to the receiver, we study opportunistic scheduling (OS) utilizing multi-sensor diversity while considering blind IRS operation, and compare it with round-robin (RR), proportional fairness (PF), and a theoretical upper bound. We study the effect of the choice of the number of IRS elements N and number of ISNs L on the average throughput of the system under OS. Finally, we provide pertinent comparisons for the different scheduling schemes and IRS configurations under relevant system performance metrics, highlighting different scenarios in which each scheme performs better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing is a massive amount of dynamic ad distributed resources that are delivered on request to clients over the Internet. Typical centralized cloud computing models may have difficulty dealing with challenges caused by IoT applications, such as network failure, latency, and capacity constraints. One of the introduced methods to solve these challenges is fog computing which makes the cloud closer to IoT devices. A system for dynamic congestion management brokerage is presented in this paper. With this proposed system, the IoT quality of service (QoS) requirements as defined by the service-level agreement (SLA) can be met as the massive amount of cloud requests come from the fog broker layer. In addition, a forwarding policy is introduced which helps the cloud service broker to select and forward the high-priority requests to the appropriate cloud resources from fog brokers and cloud users. This proposed idea is influenced by the weighted fair queuing (WFQ) Cisco queuing mechanism to simplify the management and control of the congestion that may possibly take place at the cloud service broker side. The system proposed in this paper is evaluated using iFogSim and CloudSim tools, and the results demonstrate that it improves IoT (QoS) compliance, while also avoiding cloud SLA violations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries worldwide have introduced a limit for solid particles larger than 23 nm for the type approval of vehicles before their circulation in the market. However, for some vehicles, in particular for port fuel injection engines (gasoline and gas engines) a high fraction of particles resides below 23 nm. For this reason, a methodology for counting solid particles larger than 10 nm was developed in the Particle Measurement Programme (PMP) group of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). There are no studies assessing the reproducibility of the new methodology across different laboratories. In this study we compared the reproducibility of the new 10 nm methodology to the current 23 nm methodology. A light-duty gasoline direct injection vehicle and two reference solid particle number measurement systems were circulated in seven European and two Asian laboratories which were also measuring with their own systems fulfilling the current 23 nm methodology. The hot and cold start emission of the vehicle covered a range of 1 to 15 × 1012 #/km with the ratio of sub-23 nm particles to the >23 nm emissions being 10–50%. In most cases the differences between the three measurement systems were ±10%. In general, the reproducibility of the new methodology was at the same levels (around 14%) as with the current methodology (on average 17%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing has emerged as the primary choice for developers in developing applications that require high-performance computing. Virtualization technology has helped in the distribution of resources to multiple users. Increased use of cloud infrastructure has led to the challenge of developing a load balancing mechanism to provide optimized use of resources and better performance. Round robin and least connections load balancing algorithms have been developed to allocate user requests across a cluster of servers in the cloud in a time-bound manner. In this paper, we have applied the round robin and least connections approach of load balancing to HAProxy, virtual machine clusters and web servers. The experimental results are visualized and summarized using Apache Jmeter and a further comparative study of round robin and least connections is also depicted. Experimental setup and results show that the round robin algorithm performs better as compared to the least connections algorithm in all measuring parameters of load balancer in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimizing time cost in time-shared operating system is the main aim of the researchers interested in CPU scheduling. CPU scheduling is the basic job within any operating system. Scheduling criteria (e.g., waiting time, turnaround time and number of context switches (NCS)) are used to compare CPU scheduling algorithms. Round robin (RR) is the most common preemptive scheduling policy used in time-shared operating systems. In this paper, a modified version of the RR algorithm is introduced to combine the advantageous of favor short process and low scheduling overhead of RR for the sake of minimizing average waiting time, turnaround time and NCS. The proposed work starts by clustering the processes into clusters where each cluster contains processes that are similar in attributes (e.g., CPU service period, weights and number of allocations to CPU). Every process in a cluster is assigned the same time slice depending on the weight of its cluster and its CPU service period. The authors performed comparative study of the proposed approach and popular scheduling algorithms on nine groups of processes vary in their attributes. The evaluation was measured in terms of waiting time, turnaround time, and NCS. The experiments showed that the proposed approach gives better results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Repeatability and reproducibility of the PEMS measurement method. The recently introduced Real Driving Emissions (RDE) light-duty vehicle emissions regulation requires testing with Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS) during type approval and in-service conformity. The studies on the accuracy of PEMS today are limited. An inter-laboratory correlation exercise with PEMS took place in Italy in 2017. Eight laboratories measured exhaust emissions from a Golden Euro 6 gasoline vehicle with a Golden PEMS installed in it, along with the individual lab's own PEMS, following the regulated laboratory method (bags from the dilution tunnel). The data of the exercise were used to estimate the repeatability and reproducibility of the methodology with PEMS. The statistical analysis estimated reproducibility of 2.9% (bags) to 5.5% (lab PEMS) for CO2, 20–25% for CO (all methods), 23–31% for NOx (all methods), and 29% (tunnel, Golden PEMS) to 39% (lab PEMS) for particle number. The mean differences of the PEMS to the regulated method were ±1.5 g/km (or ±1%) for CO2, <16 mg/km (or <5%) for CO, <4 mg/km (or <11%) for NOx and 1 × 1011 particles/km (40%) for particle number. The results of this study confirm the satisfactory performance of PEMS and the permissible tolerances introduced in RDE regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Round Robin based Intermittent Periodic Transmit (RR-IPT) has been proposed which achieves highly efficient multi-hop relays in multi-hop wireless backhaul networks (MWBN) where relay nodes are 2-dimensionally deployed. This paper newly investigates multi-channel packet scheduling and forwarding scheme for RR-IPT. Downlink traffic is forwarded by RR-IPT via one of the channels, while uplink traffic and part of downlink are accommodated in the other channel. By comparing IPT and carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) for uplink/downlink packet forwarding channel, IPT is more effective in reducing packet loss rate whereas CSMA/CA is better in terms of system throughput and packet delay improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a software and hardware solution for real time condition monitoring applications. The proposed device, called XpertTrack, exchanges data through the GPRS protocol over a GSM network and monitories temperature and vibrations of critical merchandise during commercial shipments anywhere on the globe. Another feature of this real time tracker is to provide GPS and GSM positioning with a precision of 10 m or less. In order to interpret the condition of the merchandise, the data acquisition, analysis and visualization are done with 0.1 °C accuracy for the temperature sensor, and 10 levels of shock sensitivity for the acceleration sensor. In addition to this, the architecture allows increasing the number and the types of sensors, so that companies can use this flexible solution to monitor a large percentage of their fleet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The status of metrology for the characterization of thermoelectric generator modules (TEM) is investigated in this work by an international round robin (RR) test including twelve laboratories from nine countries on three continents. Measurements have been performed with three samples of a Bi2Te3-based commercial TEM type, which has prevailed over three competing types during previous tests on the short- and long-term stability. A comparison of temperature-dependent results is provided up to 200 °C hot side temperature for the maximum power output Pmax, the incident heat flow Q ˙ In (at maximum efficiency conditions), and the maximum efficiency ηmax. Data evaluation from all RR participants reveals maximum standard deviations for these measurands of 27.2% (Pmax), 59.2% ( Q ˙ In ), and 25.9% (ηmax). A comparison between RR data sets and reference data from manufacturer specifications shows high deviations of up to 46%, too. These deviations reflect the absence of measurement guidelines and reference samples and confirm the need for improvements in the standardization of TEM metrology. Accordingly, the results of the RR are presented against the background of our own investigations on the uncertainty budgets for the determination of the abovementioned TEM properties using inhouse-developed characterization facilities, which comprise reference and absolute measurement techniques for the determination of heat flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the round robin testing campaign carried out on a floating wind turbine as part of the EU H2020 MaRINET2 project. A 1/60th scale model of a 10 MW floating platform was tested in wave basins in four different locations around Europe. The tests carried out in each facility included decay tests, tests in regular and irregular waves with and without wind thrust, and tests to characterise the mooring system as well as the model itself. For the tests in wind, only the thrust of the turbine was considered and it was fixed to pre-selected levels. Hence, this work focuses on the hydrodynamic responses of a semi-submersible floating foundation. It was found that the global surge stiffness was comparable across facilities, except in one case where different azimuth angles were used for the mooring lines. Heave and pitch had the same stiffness coefficient and periods for all basins. Response Amplitude Operators (RAOs) were used to compare the responses in waves from all facilities. The shape of the motion RAOs were globally similar for all basins except around some particular frequencies. As the results were non-linear around the resonance and cancellation frequencies, the differences between facilities were magnified at these frequencies. Surge motions were significantly impacted by reflections leading to large differences in these RAOs between all basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last years, the in-use emissions of vehicles are measured on the road with portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS). PEMS cannot measure as accurately as the laboratory grade equipment, and studies on their measurement uncertainty have continued since their appearance in the market. In this study we compared PEMS to laboratory grade equipment in Italian laboratories testing a diesel "Golden" (i.e., reference) vehicle for two consecutive years. The results showed equal means of PEMS and laboratory grade equipment for carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particle number (PN), with a variability of ±5 g/km for CO2, ±10 mg/km for NOx, and ±1 × 1011 p/km for PN, which further decreased in the second year. For carbon monoxide (CO), the PEMS were on average 5–20 mg/km higher than the bags (variability ±40 mg/km). The main conclusion of this study is that PEMS are accurate under controlled laboratory ambient conditions, without any indications of significant bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-healing concrete has the potential to optimise traditional design approaches; however, commercial uptake requires the ability to harmonize against standardized frameworks. Within EU SARCOS COST Action, different interlaboratory tests were executed on different self-healing techniques. This paper reports on the evaluation of the effectiveness of proposed experimental methodologies suited for self-healing concrete with expansive mineral additions. Concrete prisms and discs with MgO-based healing agents were produced and precracked. Water absorption and water flow tests were executed over a healing period spanning 6 months to assess the sealing efficiency, and the crack width reduction with time was monitored. High variability was reported for both reference (REF) and healing-addition (ADD) series affecting the reproducibility of cracking. However, within each lab, the crack width creation was repeatable. ADD reported larger crack widths. The latter influenced the observed healing making direct comparisons across labs prone to errors. Water absorption tests highlighted were susceptible to application errors. Concurrently, the potential of water flow tests as a facile method for assessment of healing performance was shown across all labs. Overall, the importance of repeatability and reproducibility of testing methods is highlighted in providing a sound basis for incorporation of self-healing concepts in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radar altimeters have been measuring ocean significant wave height for more than three decades, with their data used to record the severity of storms, the mixing of surface waters and the potential threats to offshore structures and low-lying land, and to improve operational wave forecasting. Understanding climate change and long-term planning for enhanced storm and flooding hazards are imposing more stringent requirements on the robustness, precision, and accuracy of the estimates than have hitherto been needed. Taking advantage of novel retracking algorithms, particularly developed for the coastal zone, the present work aims at establishing an objective baseline processing chain for wave height retrieval that can be adapted to all satellite missions. In order to determine the best performing retracking algorithm for both Low Resolution Mode and Delay-Doppler altimetry, an objective assessment is conducted in the framework of the European Space Agency Sea State Climate Change Initiative project. All algorithms process the same Level-1 input dataset covering a time-period of up to two years. As a reference for validation, an ERA5-based hindcast wave model as well as an in-situ buoy dataset from the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service In Situ Thematic Centre database are used. Five different metrics are evaluated: percentage and types of outliers, level of measurement noise, wave spectral variability, comparison against wave models, and comparison against in-situ data. The metrics are evaluated as a function of the distance to the nearest coast and the sea state. The results of the assessment show that all novel retracking algorithms perform better in the majority of the metrics than the baseline algorithms currently used for operational generation of the products. Nevertheless, the performance of the retrackers strongly differ depending on the coastal proximity and the sea state. Some retrackers show high correlations with the wave models and in-situ data but significantly under- or overestimate large-scale spectral variability. We propose a weighting scheme to select the most suitable retrackers for the Sea State Climate Change Initiative programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]