Search

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are becoming increasingly popular in medical Image Segmentation. Among them, U-Net is a widely used model that can lead to cutting-edge results for 2D biomedical Image Segmentation. However, U-Net performance can be influenced by many factors, such as the size of the training dataset, the performance metrics used, the quality of the images and, in particular, the shape and size of the organ to be segmented. This could entail a loss of robustness of the U-Net-based models. In this paper, the performance of the considered networks is determined by using the publicly available images from the 3D-IRCADb-01 dataset. Different organs with different features are considered. Experimental results show that the U-Net-based segmentation performance decreases when organs with sparse binary masks are considered. The solution proposed in this paper, based on automated zooming of the parts of interest, allows improving the performance of the segmentation model by up to 20% in terms of Dice coefficient metric, when very sparse segmentation images are used, without affecting the cost of the learning process.

Molecular communications (MC) broadly defines information exchange using (bio-)chemical signals over multiple scales. The research in this area addresses various fields where MC plays an important role. Notable examples include 1) the modeling of living systems, which aims to gain new insights into biological systems; 2) their interface with the outer world, aiming to develop techniques to control biological systems; and 3) synthetic MC, focusing on the design, analysis, and implementation of human-made MC systems at different scales.

This paper shows a flexible orchestration solution for deploying Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) services in 5G and beyond networks. This solution is based on the concepts of federation and hierarchy of orchestration functions. The federated approach is leveraged to cope with the differentiated complexity operation when multiple network operators are considered, whereas the hierarchical approach addresses the issue of jointly orchestrating multiple edge platforms in the network of a single operator. In this complex orchestration architecture, the main contribution of this paper consists of the design and implementation of an Abstraction and Adaptation Layer (AAL) for edge clouds, a new component enabling a truly cooperative and coordinated orchestration between different edge systems, characterized by appreciable experimental performance in terms of latency.

In deliverable D5.9, the user manual of the final 5G EVE testing and validation methodology and framework is presented. This user manual provides details on the step-by-step procedure to design, prepare, instantiate, execute and validate an experiment and further collect insights from the performance diagnosis process. Deliverable D5.9 is structured as follows: in the main body of the deliverable the overall approach and all the procedures are explained in brief with appropriate references to the Annex. In the Annexe these procedures are explained in detail following a step-by-step user manual fashion. Deliverable D5.9 covers all the 5G EVE testing and validation processes including: Appropriate procedures to be followed to design, prepare and execute an experiment on the 5G EVE platform. Validation procedures presenting the steps necessary for the validation of the experiment’s KPIs. Diagnostics procedures, presenting the steps required for the activation and utilisation of the 5G EVE performance diagnosis tool.

The particle motion in diffusion-based molecular communication systems is typically modeled by using Brownian processes. In particular, this model is used to characterize the propagation of signal molecules after their release from the transmitter. This motion cannot include directionality in the propagating signal and translates into omnidirectional broadcast communications. In order to make such molecular communications system suitable for supporting communications protocols at the molecular scales, we propose to improve the receiver capabilities by introducing a form of directionality while receiving biological signals. Inspired by the directionality introduced in electromagnetic communications by means of directional antennas, we designed a nanomachine receiver having directionality properties. Our aim is to increase the average concentration of signal molecules, also referred to as carriers, in the area around the receiver surface. In this way, it is possible to increase the signal strength at the receiver. For this purpose, we propose to use a purely reflecting shell to be placed at a configurable distance from the receiver surface. The shape of the shell can be modeled as either a spherical cap or a cylinder with an empty basis. The presence of this surface causes a number of signal molecules to remain trapped in a region close to the receiver surface for a sufficiently long time. In this way, the probability of assimilating additional carriers by the compliant receptors present on the receiver surface increases. By means of an extensive simulation campaign, we identified the most suitable configuration able to provide a significant advantage with respect to those not adopting the proposed solution. The resulting approach can be regarded as an enabler of protocols for diffusive molecular communications taking advantage of directionality properties at the receiver site. It can result in an increased communication range or in improved capabilities of discriminating signals of coexisting molecular communication systems.

The recent research activities on molecular communications systems highlighted impressive potentials for realizing new services in many fields. They include biomedical systems, nanotechnologies, food production and many others. Since the nature of such areas may be extremely different, in terms of geometrical scale, information delivery media, and related technologies, the proposed molecular communication systems include different reception techniques, adapted to the operating environment. In this survey, we focus on systems based on diffusion of signaling molecules, and analyze the main components running in a receiver, namely the reception process and the information decoding mechanism. For each of them, we review the most popular techniques proposed in literature, and discuss the feasibility of using these models to realize receivers based on living cells. In more detail, for the reception process, we discuss the matching between literature models and real reception mechanism. As for the information decoding mechanism, we review and critically discuss its possible implementation through transcriptional elements, which is the main way of implementing processing elements in living cells, highlighting feasibility in term of complexity and decoding time.

Molecular communications (MolCom) has been established as one of the novel interdisciplinary research themes with strong impact on science and technology in the last five years. For this reason, in 2016 the European Project CIRCLE (Coordinating European Research on Molecular Communications) started organizing an annual event, named Workshop on Molecular Communications , to encourage strategic development of molecular communications research in Europe with a focus on broadening the reach of the community into adjacent disciplines, such as synthetic biology, systems biology, pharmacology, inter/intra cellular communications, chemical networks, and communications engineering. The third edition of the Workshop on Molecular Communications was organized by the IDLab—Department of Information Technology of the Ghent University—IMEC on April 4–6, 2018. The workshop has provided the research community with an opportunity to meet and share their research, vision and experience in the area of molecular communications across different disciplines. In addition to invited talks and tutorials, the technical program committee accepted 19 extended abstracts for oral presentation. Among them, a total of four papers were selected for publication in this special section of IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience after a subsequent IEEE independent peer review process. Moreover, three additional papers were selected to be included in the special issue among those submitted to it through the open call, totaling seven accepted papers for this special issue. The Guest editors sincerely thank all the participants for their appreciated contributions.

This deliverable contributes to a concrete step forward in the 5G EVE end-to-end facility implementation, by providing details about how tools described in D4.1[1] and firstly integrated together in D4.2 [2] are further improved in order to deliver advanced automation capabilities to the overall facility for the preparation and configuration of an experiment. The focus of this deliverable is represented by the chains of data models trans-formation that allow converting high-level templates presented to the vertical users (the blueprints) into low-level configuration files and actionable items. Since such transformation process happens in the background, within the portal backend, in a completely automatic fashion, it allows simplifying the interaction of vertical users with the 5G EVE end-to-end facility, without sacrificing flexibility and possibilities for experiment per-sonalization. Towards that goal, this document specifies how some of the key components in the 5G EVE Portal, namely the Experiment Blueprint Builder, the Portal Catalogue, the Experiment Lifecycle Manager, and the Experiment Execution Manager, already sketched in D4.1 and D4.2, closely interact in order to provide this level of automation in the definition and configuration of an experiment, including not only functional aspects of the experiment, but also configurations related to collection of metrics and validation of key performance indicators. In this document we introduce an additional component, called Experiment Network Service De-scriptor Composer, which provides a high level of automation in one of the most critical steps of an experiment preparation, that is the building of a ETSI-compliant network service descriptor to be fed into the InterWorking Framework, i.e. the component in the 5G EVE infrastructure that directly interfaces with different site facilities. While in the first release of the portal such a step was carried out manually during the experiment definition phase, now it becomes completely automatic and it is no longer needed to be performed by the vertical users, thus lowering the usability bar of the 5G EVE facilities as well as the possibility of mistakes in an error-prone procedure. All these activities are carried out in the framework of the Task T4.3 and are integrated into those described in T4.1 and prototyped in T4.2.

This paper considers the scenario of a targeted drug delivery system, which consists of deploying a number of biological nanomachines close to a biological target (e.g., a tumor), able to deliver drug molecules in the diseased area. Suitably located transmitters are designed to release a continuous flow of drug molecules in the surrounding environment, where they diffuse and reach the target. These molecules are received when they chemically react with compliant receptors deployed on the receiver surface. In these conditions, if the release rate is relatively high and the drug absorption time is significant, congestion may happen, essentially at the receiver site. This phenomenon limits the drug absorption rate and makes the signal transmission ineffective, with an undesired diffusion of drug molecules elsewhere in the body. The original contribution of this paper consists of a theoretical analysis of the causes of congestion in diffusion-based molecular communications. For this purpose, it is proposed a reception model consisting of a set of pure loss queuing systems. The proposed model exhibits an excellent agreement with the results of a simulation campaign made by using the Biological and Nano-Scale communication simulator version 2 (BiNS2), a well-known simulator for molecular communications, whose reliability has been assessed through in vitro experiments. The obtained results can be used in rate control algorithms to optimally determine the optimal release rate of molecules in drug delivery applications.

Diffusion-based molecular communication (DMC) with interacting carrier molecules allow to explore a variety of new communication paradigms. However, simulating these interactions on a network scale is hard from an analytic point of view, and a computationally challenging task which may easily become a bottleneck. This paper studies different techniques that allow to detect which particles are interacting. Recursive and hierarchical grid based approaches are proposed and a multithreaded CPU and GPU implementation respectively are evaluated and compared to a state-of-the-art collision detection library and nanosimulator.

This paper provides a global picture about the deployment of networked processing services for genomic data sets. Many current research make an extensive use genomic data, which are massive and rapidly increasing over time. They are typically stored in remote databases, accessible by using Internet. For this reason, a significant issue for effectively handling genomic data through data networks consists of the available network services. A first contribution of this paper consists of identifying the still unexploited features of genomic data that could allow optimizing their networked management. The second and main contribution of this survey consists of a methodological classification of computing and networking alternatives which can be used to offer what we call the Genomic-as-a-Service (GaaS) paradigm. In more detail, we analyze the main genomic processing applications, and classify not only the main computing alternatives to run genomics workflows in either a local machine or a distributed cloud environment, but also the main software technologies available to develop genomic processing services. Since an analysis encompassing only the computing aspects would provide only a partial view of the issues for deploying GaaS system, we present also the main networking technologies that are available to efficiently support a GaaS solution. We first focus on existing service platforms, and analyze them in terms of service features, such as scalability, flexibility, and efficiency. Then, we present a taxonomy for both wide area and datacenter network technologies that may fit the GaaS requirements. It emerges that virtualization, both in computing and networking, is the key for a successful large-scale exploitation of genomic data, by pushing ahead the adoption of the GaaS paradigm. Finally, the paper illustrates a short and long-term vision on future research challenges in the field., Comment: Journal publication

The management of network infrastructures has become increasingly complex over time, which is mainly attributed to the introduction of new functionality to support emerging services and applications. To address this important issue, research efforts in the last few years focused on developing software-defined networking solutions. While initial work proposed centralized architectures, their scalability limitations have led researchers to investigate a distributed control plane. Controller placement algorithms and mechanisms for building a logically centralized network view are some examples of challenges addressed in this context. A critical issue that requires specific attention concerns the communication between distributed entities involved in decision-making processes. To this end, we propose SigMA, a signaling framework that supports communication between the different entities of a decentralized management and control system. We also define the communication primitives and interfaces involved in such a decentralized environment. The benefits of SigMA are illustrated through three realistic network resource management use cases with different communication requirements. Based on simulation, we demonstrate the flexibility and extensibility of our solution in satisfying these requirements, thus effectively supporting advanced decentralized decision-making processes.

This article shows the usage and the experimental analysis of open source software packages for designing and implementing carrier-grade multimedia services. The shown implementation is based on the use of Java Call Control APIs for managing SIP sessions and MGCP connections. This JCC implementation has been integrated within an open source platform, Mobicents JSLEE. Mobicents is a runtime environment suitable for deploying services integrating voice, video, and messaging over different networks. An extensive experimental campaign has allowed suitable deployment strategies to be identified, depending on the service features. The main contribution of this article is to present these strategies, consisting of resource allocation and configuration in a virtualized environment. The results of our experiments are aimed at providing general guidance on configuring servers in a virtualized environment such as a cloud. They can also be helpful to address the server placement problem, which is beyond the scope of this article. An additional contribution of this article consists of a simple and effective model to predict the achievable server throughput, expressed in calls per second. For this purpose, we have measured the CPU time for processing SIP and MGCP messages, and estimated the maximum sustainable load of each virtual machine. In this way, we can preliminarily estimate the number of virtualized instances of the platform needed for handling a given workload with the desired quality of service.

The management of network infrastructures has become increasingly complex over time, which is mainly attributed to the introduction of new functionality to support emerging services and applications. To address this important issue, research efforts in the last few years focused on developing Software-Defined Networking solutions. While initial work proposed centralized architectures, their scalability limitations have led researchers to investigate a distributed control plane, with controller placement algorithms and mechanisms for building a logically centralized network view, being examples of challenges addressed. A critical issue that has not been adequately addressed concerns the communication between distributed decision-making entities to ensure configuration consistency. To this end, this paper proposes a signaling framework that can allow the exchange of information in distributed management and control scenarios. The benefits of the proposed framework are illustrated through a realistic network resource management use case. Based on simulation, we demonstrate the flexibility and extensibility of our solution in meeting the requirements of distributed decision-making processes.

Digital Cinema (DC) consists of integration of new advanced digital technologies in the context of the cinema system. As regards the transport of DC content towards theatres, Distributors may select the method that is both economically and technically sound. In this work, which is carried out within the framework of the IST Integrated Project Enhanced Digital CINEma (EDCINE), we deal with the network distribution service provided by a Network Service Provider, which becomes a new actor in the DC business. One of the main criticalities of the system is the very large size of the contents to be transferred towards theatres. From the operator's perspective, this criticality translates into the objective of optimising the usage of network resources while complying with quality of service (QoS) constraints. The goal of this paper is to present the system which is able to support the network delivery of DC contents, with a special focus on live event delivery. This service can consume a large amount of network bandwidth, not only because of the volume of transmitted data, but also due to the number of receivers, and thus multicast transmission proves to be very useful. Consequently, a key issue of the overall distribution system is the request-routing algorithm, the goal of which is to optimise the QoS-guaranteed delivery of a number of live streams in the backbone, each one of which is sent towards a set of theatres (QoS multicast routing). We consider the MultiProtocol Label Switching mechanism, which has emerged as an elegant solution to meet traffic engineering and resource reservation requirements in backbone networks, and focus especially on the overall request-routing procedure, the mathematical modelling of the problem, and relevant solving algorithms. Finally, we present the comparative performance evaluation of these algorithms by means of an extensive simulation campaign performed with the OMNeT++ simulation platform.

Given the high multi-disciplinarity of Molecular Communications (MolCom), researchers often face significant difficulties to understand each other. This impairment not only affect researchers with different backgrounds, but it also affects the different software tools. This paper motivates the development of the Molecular Communication Markup Language (MolComML). MolComML is proposed as an XML-based format to represent the considered elements, interactions, configuration and results of the experiments and simulations in the field of MolCom. MolComML is designed with the objective of converging all fields of research within Mol-Com to help the exchange of information. We overview its main functionality and define its basic composing elements.

Current proposals for combining service functions (SFs) do not address some critical management issues, such as the discovery of SF instances close to IP data paths. This information is crucial for deploying complex services both in large cloud networks, where SFs may be moved or replicated, and in the emerging fog/mobile edge computing systems. For this purpose, in this letter we propose the distributed off-path signaling protocol (OSP). We show the protocol functions and demonstrate its scalability and effectiveness by experimental results., Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Communications Letters

In this paper, we present a communication protocol between a pair of biological nanomachines, transmitter and receiver, built upon molecular communications in an aqueous environment. In our proposal, the receiver, acting as a control node, sends a connection setup signal to the transmitter, which stokes molecules, to start molecule transmission. The molecules transmitted by the transmitter propagate in the environment and are absorbed by the receiver through its receptors. When the receiver absorbs the desired quantity of molecules, it releases a tear-down signal to notify the transmitter to stop the transmission. The proposed protocol implements a bidirectional communication by using a number of techniques originally designed for the TCP. In fact, the proposed protocol is connection-oriented, and uses the TCP-like probing to find a suitable transmission rate between transmitter and receiver so as to avoid receiver congestion. Unlike the TCP, however, explicit acknowledgments are not used, since they would degrade the communication throughput due to the large delay, a characteristic feature of molecular communications. Thus, the proposed protocol uses implicit acknowledgments, and feedback signals are sent by the receiver to throttle the transmission rate at the transmitter, i.e., explicit negative feedbacks. We also present the results of an extensive simulation campaign, used to validate the proposed protocol and to properly dimension the main protocol parameters., Comment: Accepted for publication, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 2014

In this paper, we propose a new gossip-based signaling dissemination method for the Next Steps in Signaling protocol family. In more detail, we propose to extend the General Internet Signaling Transport (GIST) protocol, so as to leverage these new dissemination capabilities from all NSIS Signaling Layer Protocol applications using its transport capabilities. The new GIST extension consists of two main procedures: a bootstrap procedure, during which new GIST-enabled nodes discover each other, and a service dissemination procedure, which is used to effectively disseminate signaling messages within an Autonomous System. To this aim, we defined three dissemination models, bubble, balloon, and hose, so as to fulfill requirements of different network and/or service management scenarios. An experimental campaign carried out on the GENI testbed shows the effectiveness of the proposed solution., Comment: Accepted for publication at IFIP/IEEE NOMS 2012, Maui, USA

In this paper we analyze the probability of consistency of sensor data distribution systems (SDDS), and determine suitable evaluation models. This problem is typically difficult, since a reliable model taking into account all parameters and processes which affect the system consistency is unavoidably very complex. The simplest candidate approach consists of modeling the state sojourn time, or holding time, as memoryless, and resorting to the well known solutions of Markovian processes. Nevertheless, it may happen that this approach does not fit with some working conditions. In particular, the correct modeling of the SDDS dynamics requires the introduction of a number of parameters, such as the packet transfer time or the packet loss probability, the value of which may determine the suitability of unsuitability of the Markovian model. Candidate alternative solutions include the Erlang phase-type approximation of nearly constant state holding time and a more refined model to account for overlapping events in semi-Markov processes., IEEE IWCMC 2013, Cagliari, Italy, June 2013

In this paper, we evaluate the suitability of the vehicular devices for supporting data storage and distribution applications. Vehicular storage systems have recently emerged as means for making the information related to the vehicular environment available to vehicular users. Information could either be collected by sensors mounted onboard vehicles or coming from the surrounding environment. Modeling a vehicular data storage and distribution system requires the introduction of a number of parameters, such as the vehicle concentration and transmission range, the value of which may determine the suitability or unsuitability of the vehicular environment for establishing a communication infrastructure with the desired quality. In this paper we show how to solve this problem by resorting to a Markovian model and some results achieved through its application., Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE LANMAN 2013

This paper shows an innovative solution for distributing dynamic sensor data by using distributed caches. Our proposal is based on the concepts of service modularization and virtualization of network nodes made available by the NetServ hosting environment, which has been defined and implemented with the aim of extending the functions of the network nodes. Through a lab experiment involving tens of nodes, we have demonstrated a significant performance improvements in term of traffic saving and download time in comparison with a legacy, Internet-based, approach. Beyond this performance improvements, the proposed solution holds also functional improvements, in terms of dynamic deployment and easy integration with services making use of sensor data., Accepted for publication in IEEE LANMAN 2013

This paper presents a software platform, named BiNS2, able to simulate diffusion-based molecular communications with drift inside blood vessels. The contribution of the paper is twofold. First a detailed description of the simulator is given, under the software engineering point of view, by highlighting the innovations and optimizations introduced. Their introduction into the previous version of the BiNS simulator was needed to provide to functions for simulating molecular signaling and communication potentials inside bounded spaces. The second contribution consists of the analysis, carried out by using BiNS2, of a specific communication process happening inside blood vessels, the atherogenesis, which is the initial phase of the formation of atherosclerotic plaques, due to the abnormal signaling between platelets and endothelium. From a communication point of view, platelets act as mobile transmitters, endothelial cells are fixed receivers, sticky to the vessel walls, and the transmitted signal is made of bursts of molecules emitted by platelets. The simulator allows evaluating the channel latency and the footprint on the vessel wall of the transmitted signal as a function of the transmitter distance from the vessels wall, the signal strength, and the receiver sensitivity., Submitted for publication to Nano Communication Networks, Elsevier

In this paper, we propose a novel abstraction layer for application service implementation compliant with the Java Call Control (JCC) specifications. It simplifies creation of multimedia services using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and the Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP). In order to show its effectiveness, we have implemented a JCC Resource Adaptor for a JAIN Service Logic Execution Environment (JSLEE), using the Mobicents application server, which is the only existing open source JSLEE implementation. Experimental results, obtained by implementing a complex VoIP service, show both a significant simplification of service implementation and improved performance over legacy solutions., Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Communications Magazine, Design and Implementation (D&I) Series

An analytical approach to set the parameters of a dual leaky bucket for the purposes of regulating a voice over IP call at the network ingress is presented. The analytical model is used to determine the theoretical packet loss as a function of the dual leaky bucket parameters for traffic generated by a G.726 codec, then the theoretical packet loss is compared with that measured using a real voice conversation taking place over a Linux system and using an implementation of the G.726. The results are found to be in excellent agreement.

In this paper we propose a solution for transmitting digital information within the cardiocirculatory system. In particular, we make use of a channel delivering burst of molecules, emitted by mobile transmitters, which diffuse in the blood towards fixed receivers, that are attached to the vessel walls. This communication scheme has been inspired by the real signaling between platelets and endothelial cells, the behavior of which has been investigated experimentally. We thus believe that our proposal can be successfully deployed in living bodies. On the basis of the results achieved through simulations on the communication system capabilities, we propose a simple but effective receiver scheme, and we outline the future research directions., Comment: First International Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking (BlackSeaCom 2013), Batumi, Georgia, July 3-5, 2013

Autonomic management capabilities of the Future Internet can be provided through a recently proposed service architecture called NetServ. It consists of the interconnection of programmable nodes which enable dynamic deployment and execution of network and application services. This paper shows how this architecture can be further improved by introducing the OpenFlow architecture and implementing the OpenFlow controller as a NetServ service, thus improving both the NetServ management performance and its flexibility. These achievements are demonstrated experimentally on the GENI environment, showing the platform self-protecting capabilities in case of a SIP DoS attack.

This article shows an autonomic management solution based on the recently defined programmable node architecture NetServ. The article starts with a general description of the classical network management requirements and their adaptation to the expected network evolution. After a description of the major issues characterizing the management of the expected Future Internet, the main autonomic management paradigms, and some recently introduced autonomic service platforms, we show and demonstrate the effectiveness of the NetServ architecture. Born as a means to deploy and execute networked services at runtime over programmable routers, NetServ has proved to be a suitable environment for hosting an autonomic management architecture.

Advanced mobility management is a key issue to provide nomadic users with QoS-enabled services, in the future Internet. To improve Mobile IP performance, a crucial role is played by the discovery and selection of the access router to handover to. This procedure is of great importance to enable other additional mobility-related protocols to speed up handover. This paper presents and evaluates a novel approach for carrying out this task, based on a fully distributed process, which also allows timely inter-technology handovers.

A design study of a Re-configurable Access Module for Mobile Computing Applications is described. After a presentation of its cross-layered architecture, Control Parameters (CPs) of the module are introduced. The set of CPs both describes the functional state of the communication process in relation to the time-varying transport facilities and provides, as input of suitable Algorithms, the control information to re-configure the whole protocol stack for facing modified working conditions. The paper also presents the structure of the simulator realized to demonstrate the feasibility of the design guidelines and to evaluate reconfigurability performances.

Ultra wide band (UWB) radio is an interesting radio paradigm for the provision of wireless access to the Internet, in the short-range area. The UWB technology has the potential to combine reduced transceiver complexity with low power consumption, flexible configuration of the radio links and robustness with respect to multipath fading. The IST project WHYLESS.COM, funded by the European Union, is studying the potentiality of this technique for the development of an open mobile access network, i.e., an access network based on a versatile air interface, which, when combined with suitable IP-based operations, can provide an open platform to support QoS aware services. In this paper, we present a proposal for a network architecture where UWB radio access procedures are combined with a stateless IP QoS paradigm.

Fifth generation (5G) and beyond systems require flexible and efficient monitoring platforms to guarantee optimal key performance indicators (KPIs) in various scenarios. Their applicability in Edge computing environments requires lightweight monitoring solutions. This work evaluates different candidate technologies to implement a monitoring platform for 5G and beyond systems in these environments. For monitoring data plane technologies, we evaluate different virtualization technologies, including bare metal servers, virtual machines, and orchestrated containers. We show that containers not only offer superior flexibility and deployment agility, but also allow obtaining better throughput and latency. In addition, we explore the suitability of the Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) serverless paradigm for deploying the functions used to manage the monitoring platform. This is motivated by the event oriented nature of those functions, designed to set up the monitoring infrastructure for newly created services. When the FaaS warm start mode is used, the platform gives users the perception of resources that are always available. When a cold start mode is used, containers running the application"s modules are automatically destroyed when the application is not in use. Our analysis compares both of them with the standard deployment of microservices. The experimental results show that the cold start mode produces a significant latency increase, along with potential instabilities. For this reason, its usage is not recommended despite the potential savings of computing resources. Conversely, when the warm start mode is used for executing configuration tasks of monitoring infrastructure, it can provide similar execution times to a microservice-based deployment. In addition, the FaaS approach significantly simplifies the code logic in comparison with microservices, reducing lines of code to less than 38%, thus reducing development time. Thus, FaaS in warm start mode represents the best candidate technology to implements such management functions. This work has been supported by EC H2020 5GPPP projects 5G-EVE and 5GROWTH under grant agreements No. 815974 and 856709, respectively.

In recent years, progresses in nanotechnology have established the foundations for implementing nanomachines capable of carrying out simple but significant tasks. Under this stimulus, researchers have been proposing various solutions for realizing nanoscale communications, considering both electromagnetic and biological communications. Their aim is to extend the capabilities of nanodevices, so as to enable the execution of more complex tasks by means of mutual coordination, achievable through communications. However, although most of these proposals show how devices can communicate at the nanoscales, they leave in the background specific applications of these new technologies. Thus, this paper shows an overview of the actual and potential applications that can rely on a specific class of such communications techniques, commonly referred to as molecular communications. In particular, we focus on health-related applications. This decision is due to the rapidly increasing interests of research communities and companies to minimally invasive, biocompatible, and targeted health-care solutions. Molecular communication techniques have actually the potentials of becoming the main technology for implementing advanced medical solution. Hence, in this paper we provide a taxonomy of potential applications, illustrate them in some detail, along with the existing open challenges for them to be actually deployed, and draw future perspectives.

In this article, we design and demonstrate a signaling architecture for multicast and broadcast services over a laboratory-emulated worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) network. WiMAX is a broadband wireless access technology which includes different quality of service levels. Currently, a significant research effort focuses on data transmission optimization and mobility support for multicast and broadcast services. Our proposal is fully IP-based, and the relevant signaling architecture is modular in all its entities and extensible to other, non-WiMAX, IP access networks. We specifically address the non-trivial support of multicast services, which has been demonstrated through a prototype implementation of our proposal for an Internet protocol television (IPTV) service. This prototype has been implemented by using open source technologies and its signaling is orchestrated by a JAIN SLEE server. The results obtained show that the implemented system is scalable, can achieve both high signaling throughput and low service latency, and has a signaling overhead lower than similar IMS-based solutions.