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Integration and full interoperability are challenging areas of research in wide area networks today. A European project, MUPBED, has recently concluded and achieved the main result of integrating and demonstrating technologies and network solutions that enable the operation of future European research infrastructures capable of supporting advanced applications. The achieved results are largely valid for any multidomain network scenario. The test network set up by the project is a prototype multidomain optical network able to provide connectivity on demand services across multiple domains directly driven by the applications. Rather than implementing ex novo a unified control plane and replacing existing equipment, the project approach has been to enable seamless interworking of different control planes by means of ASON/GMPLS and standardized network interfaces. This was done in accomplishment of the project target, which was to test and trial a common migration path toward the future European research network that should be followed by national research and education network operators, together with commercial operators. This article describes the main aspects of the MUPBED experience, which by its own peculiar nature provides deep insight into the most recent evolution of control-plane-enabled optical networking toward multidomain integration. Topics covered by the project and briefly related here include network architecture, applications, protocol and control software development, standardization issues, design, analysis and simulation, testing, measurement, and monitoring.

It is now evident to the research community that local computational resources cannot keep up in an economical way with the demands generated by some users/applications. Therefore, distributed computing and the concept of a computational grid are now emerging. Novel transport network concepts are needed to support such visions, and high-speed intelligent optical networking may be the required infrastructure that will enable global grids. Emerging utility grid applications like business continuity and disaster recovery have strong requirements on the dynamic optical networks connecting the distributed grid resources. Supporting grid networking with an intelligent optical network (ION) infrastructure will allow utility grid applications the necessary flexibility with the required QoS (e.g., high bandwidth, reliability, limited delay). Emerging QoS requirements, such as scalable recovery time, highly depend on the ION's signaling architecture. This article gives simple analytical models for the implementation options of optical control plane signaling, shows simulation models for different resilience strategies, and offers some illustrative numerical comparisons to support the aforementioned efforts. This research area is also discussed, among others, in the European research project Multi-Partner European Testbeds for Research Networking (MUPBED).

This paper gives an overview of the activities within the European research project MUPBED ("Multi-Partner European Test Beds for Research Networking"). Focus is on the networking activities within MUPBED, which aim at a pan-European field trial for latest transport networking and control plane technologies.

The cost of a multi-layer transport network comprising a WDM layer and an SDH/SONET/OTN layer is in many cases dominated by the number of electro-optical converters (transponders) in the network. An efficient method to estimate the transponder count required in multi-layer networks, consisting of opaque, transparent, or hybrid nodes, is proposed. The method is based on analytical approximations which take only a small number of characteristic network topology and traffic parameters as input and are therefore easy to apply to many network scenarios. It is shown that the approximations match the results achieved by optimisation algorithms with very good accuracy. This enables comparison of network architectures and transponder technologies in a very general way. As an example for the application to a relevant practical issue, the paper analyses cost efficiency of a 40G transponder deployment.

The paper presents the influence of different traffic characteristics (Poisson and non-Poisson) on WDM network performance under dynamic traffic conditions. The complex impact of limited wavelength conversion on the performance of routing strategies is shown.

The 2 patients presented here showed the typical signs of hypocomplementemic urticarial vasculitis syndrome (HUVS). During follow-up, there was an inverse correlation between anti-C1q autoantibody titer and C1q antigen concentration in serum in both patients over a period of 2 years. The first patient had nephritis characterized by immune deposits in glomeruli and around the tubules. The histological findings, C1q deposits, and presence of tubuloreticular inclusions in capillary endothelial cells suggested a disease process identical to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The second patient, after a lag phase of 2 years, fulfilled a fourth American College of Rheumatology criteria for SLE when she developed anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies. HUVS and SLE overlap, and the criteria for identifying HUVS as an entity distinct from SLE are lacking.

Complement factor I deficiency is known to be associated with recurrent pyogenic infections. The patient described here had recurrent attacks of otitis, sinusitis, and bronchopneumonia since childhood. At the age of 24 years, he had an acute episode of systemic vasculitis with purpura, but no nephritis. A factor I deficiency was diagnosed when he was 36 years old. Because of the uncontrolled activation of the alternative pathway of complement, several other components were depleted, in particular C3, which explained the predisposition for pyogenic infections. A progressive loss of renal function accompanied by proteinuria and hematuria started after the age of 40 years. Renal biopsy showed a focal segmental glomerulonephritis (GN) with glomerular deposits of immunoglobulins and complement C3 and C4 fragments. The glomerular podocytes showed an almost complete loss of complement receptor 1 (CR1; CD35). The expression of CR1 was very low on erythrocytes, as well. Thus, CR1, the most efficient cell-bound cofactor for the inactivation of C4b/C3b by factor I, appears to be consumed when factor I is missing. Although this is the first report of factor I deficiency associated with GN, it is unlikely that the development of the nephritis was fortuitous because GN has been found in many other diseases characterized by uncontrolled activation of the alternative pathway.

Various experiments have demonstrated that immune precipitates (IPs) are not solubilized by complement in the absence of alternative pathway function. To determine whether the characteristics of the IPs were responsible for these observations, we studied the solubilization (Sol) of IPs formed by bovine serum albumin (BSA)-rabbit antiBSA and tetanus toxoid (TT)-human antiTT. Sera deficient in properdin solubilized a fraction of BSA-antiBSA precipitates, although only when the IPs were formed in antibody excess. The same sera solubilized TT-antiTT precipitates with some delay but almost as efficiently as normal serum. Factor D-depleted serum solubilized a fraction of TT-antiTT precipitates too, indicating that Sol may proceed through activation of the classical pathway only. Thus, the requirements for complement-mediated Sol depend on the characteristics of the IPs and do not necessarily include alternative pathway function.