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The proliferation of 5G technology enables vertical industries to improve their day-to-day operations by leveraging enhanced Quality of Service (QoS). One of the key enablers for such 5G performance is network slicing, which allows telco operators to logically split the network into various virtualized networks, whose configuration and thus performance can be tailored to verticals and their low-latency and high throughput requirements. However, given the end-to-end perspective of 5G ecosystems where slicing needs to be applied to all network segments, including radio, edge, transport, and core, managing the deployment of slices is becoming excessively demanding. There are also various verticals with strict requirements that need to be fulfilled. Thus, in this paper, we focus on the solution for dynamic and quality-aware network slice management and orchestration, which is simultaneously orchestrating network slices that are deployed on top of the three 5G testbeds built for transport and logistics use cases. The slice orchestration system is dynamically interacting with the testbeds, while at the same time monitoring the real-time performance of allocated slices, which triggers decisions to either allocate new slices or reconfigure the existing ones. In this paper, we illustrate the scenarios where dynamic provisioning of slices is required in one of the testbeds while considering specific latency/throughput/location requirements coming from the verticals and their end users.

Vehicular Edge Computing (VEC) brings cloud infrastructure to the vehicular edge, resulting in better performances and avoiding network congestions. In this work-in-progress paper, the benefits of edge computing over cloud computing are discussed in a vehicular environment context, and they are leveraged by creating a Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) performance measurement framework. This measurement tool can follow vehicles by moving across different devices, enabling measurements on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) using edge computing. We already used this tool to evaluate latencies of both a stationary and driving vehicle, moving over the Smart Highway testbed in Antwerp, Belgium. When driving, smart-edge-following algorithms can be deployed to choose the nearest Road Side Unit (RSU) using broadcasted Cooperative Awareness Messages (CAMs) of the vehicle. While driving on the Smart Highway, the application monitors important performance metrics such as throughput, latency, packet loss, packet delivery rate and more. We compare short-range vehicular communications technologies on the Smart Highway (ITS-G5 and LTE-V2X PC5) against the cellular. Our preliminary results demonstrate the benefits in terms of latency by using short-range communications technologies in VEC applications. These results validate that moving applications to the edge is truly beneficial, since our results confirmed up to 90% lower latency using ITS-G5, up to 50% using LTE-V2X PC5. Future deployments of 5G in the Smart Highway are planned, which would further improve the performance edge computing technologies.

International audience; We propose here a standardised protocol to record and trace painted inscriptions, in order to minimise personal biases. DStretch®, a plug-in for ImageJ© specifically designed for the enhancement of digital images, allows reproducible and operator-independent results, improving objectivity in documenting rock art sites in remote and harsh environments. We provide two examples of its application to Ẓufār sites in Oman, and compare our results with previously published tracings. The improvement is so good that we envisage to apply the same method to a number of other sites, with a view to a reappraisal of the corpus of painted inscriptions of Ẓufār.

This paper presents a preliminary study testing whether beads can be effectively used as marker of cultural variability among the late Neolithic coastal communities of the Oman Peninsula. Stylistic, morphometric, and technological analysis identified intra- and inter-site variability in terms of shape, raw material, and size of the beads. The study of beads and bead making in the Neolithic coastal communities of Oman therefore testifies to the presence of rich patterns that can be used to infer diversity in productive and stylistic choices through time and space, as well as the complex dynamics of human interaction, knowledge exchange, and trade of goods.

International audience; Analysis of the fish bones from the 5th millennium BC settlement on Akab Island in Umm al-Qaiwain emirate in the United Arab Emirates provides evidence of open ocean fishing. The discovery of numerous bones of tuna, as well as the presence of shell fish hooks at the site, suggests that fishing was at least part of the time carried out from boats in the open sea, beyond the shallow waters of the local lagoon. Some fishing was also carried on in these sheltered waters, and analysis of the molluscan and crab remains indicates that mangrove areas were also exploited. Some comments are made concerning the presence of shell fish hooks at the site, as well as certain types of beads and jewellery, which reinforce the idea of a coherent regional cultural entity during the 5th–4th millennia within this region.

In Arabia, the emergence of the first maritime societies of the early Holocene used to be a theme unexplored by archaeology. For the first time, a glimpse of these 9th and 8th millennium BCE communities living on the Omani shores of the Arabian Sea has recently been possible thanks to data from the Natif 2 cave. These hunter-gatherers were selectively foraging the shallow waters of the coast, where small pelagic fish (anchovies and sardines) are abundant and easily captured. Sharks, sometimes up to two metres long, were also taken. This scenario of fishing in shallow waters, clarified in the case of the 9th and 8th millennia BCE, appears to be unusual and original in Arabia. Around 6500 BCE, a major social and economic change occurred: the appearance of the first pastoral Neolithic societies. Arabia then developed an alternative subsistence model in comparison to those of the Levant and the Near East. On the coast, the most favourable areas saw the settlement and anchoring of human groups. This precocious Neolithic expansion also affected the large island of Masirah; Archéologie des chasseurs-cueilleurs maritimes. De la fonction des habitats à l'organisation de l'espace littoral Archaeology of maritime hunter-gatherers. From settlement function to the organization of the coastal zone, En Arabie, l'émergence des premières sociétés maritimes de l'Holocène ancien est encore une thématique inexplorée par l'archéologie. Ces communautés, des IX e-VIII e millénaires avant notre ère, viennent d'être entrevues pour la première fois sur les rivages omanais de la mer d'Arabie, dans la grotte de Natif 2. Ces chasseurs-collecteurs opèrent un prélèvement dans les eaux peu profondes du rivage, où de petits poissons pélagiques (anchois, sardines) sont abondants et faciles à attraper. Les squales, parfois de plus de deux mètres sont aussi capturés. Ce scénario de pêche en eau peu profonde mis en évidence pour cette période ancienne, s'avère aujourd'hui original en Arabie. Vers 6500 avant notre ère s'opère un changement socioéconomique majeur : l'apparition des premières sociétés pastorales néolithiques. L'Arabie développe alors un modèle alternatif à ceux du Levant et du Proche-Orient. Sur le littoral, les zones les plus propices voient l'établissement, puis l'ancrage, de groupes humains. Cette expansion néolithique précoce touche aussi la grande île de Masirah, en revanche, le petit archipel des Kuria Muria n'est conquis que bien plus tard, au tournant des V e-IV e millénaires avant notre ère. Dès le VI e millénaire le littoral de l'Arabie du sud-est se couvre de puissants amas coquilliers. L'implantation de ces habitats est étroitement liée aux conditions paléogéographiques locales et micro-régionales. La proximité des anciens estuaires, lagunes et mangroves est particulièrement recherchée par les populations préhistoriques, dans une optique de complémentarité des biotopes. Le site de Suwayh SWY-1 est emblématique de cet attrait pour les milieux humides côtiers. Dès le VI e millénaire avant notre ère, le spectre de la faune marine capturée s'avère bien plus large que précédemment et touche une vaste gamme de poissons dont certains pélagiques, notamment le thon (Scombridae). Certains habitats comme Suwayh 1 semblent s'orienter vers une pêche spécialisée, celle du requin, de petites ou de grandes dimensions. En Arabie, les mammifères marins sont l'objet d'une pêche parfois assidue : le dauphin, mais aussi le dugong dans le golfe Arabo-persique. En revanche, les communautés d'Arabie ne chassent pas les grands cétacés, mais collectent leurs ossements sur les rivages Les toutes premières pêches aux perles fines dans l'Ancien Monde sont pratiquées dans les eaux du golfe et de la mer d'Arabie. Ces perles deviennent un des éléments constitutifs de l'identité culturelle des communautés d'Arabie. Les populations côtières omanaises développent aussi une culture matérielle propre, souvent dans des matériaux marins : racloir en Amiantis umbonella, ciseau en Cypraecassis Rufa, contenants en Lambis truncata sebae ou Scapharca inflata palliant l'absence de toute céramique. Au cours des VI e-IV e millénaires, le travail de la coquille marine est à son apogée en Arabie orientale. Toute une gamme d'hameçons en nacre est produite à partir de la nacre de l'huître perlière (Pinctada margaritifera). Certains sites du golfe et de la mer d'Arabie s'orientent vers la production de parures, généralement de petites perles discoïdes. L'habitat de Ra's Dah – île de Masirah – celui de l'île d'Akab et peut-être d'al-Hallaniyah réalisent un nombre de produits dont le volume excède les besoins de la communauté. Entre golfe et océan Indien, ces sociétés littorales partagent enfin des pratiques d'ordre spirituel associant certains ani-maux marins : la tortue marine et le dugong

International audience

We present the results of the geomorphological mapping of a region of the Dhofar (Sultanate of Oman) including two contrasting physiographic units sharing a common drainage system into the Arabian Sea: the Jebel Qara limestone massif and the coastal plain of Salalah. Neogene to Quaternary tectonic activity controlled the formation of an extensive system of faults and caused the uplift of the Jebel Qara, forming structural escarpments. The massif underwent karstification and subsequent linear erosion. Today the Jebel is cut by a dendritic net of dry valleys, occasionally dammed by calcareous tufa dams. The transition between the southern escarpment of the Jebel and the plain below displays flat alluvial fans, bordered by a strip of beachrock, coastal dunes, and coastal lagoons, located in correspondence to estuaries. Dramatic soil erosion is evident, linked to intense human-triggered zoogeomorphological processes started in the Mid-Late Holocene after the introduction of pastoral land-use.

We present the results of the geomorphological mapping of a region of the Dhofar (Sultanate of Oman) including two contrasting physiographic units sharing a common drainage system into the Arabian Sea: the Jebel Qara limestone massif and the coastal plain of Salalah. Neogene to Quaternary tectonic activity controlled the formation of an extensive system of faults and caused the uplift of the Jebel Qara, forming structural escarpments. The massif underwent karstification and subsequent linear erosion. Today the Jebel is cut by a dendritic net of dry valleys, occasionally dammed by calcareous tufa dams. The transition between the southern escarpment of the Jebel and the plain below displays flat alluvial fans, bordered by a strip of beachrock, coastal dunes, and coastal lagoons, located in correspondence to estuaries. Dramatic soil erosion is evident, linked to intense human-triggered zoogeomorphological processes started in the Mid-Late Holocene after the introduction of pastoral land-use.