Evolvable Internet Architecture

When it comes to the future Internet research, making improvement in the existing architecture so that it meets different types of requirements becomes the key topic. Professor Xu Ke and his group from Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology (TNList), Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University have set out together to find a solution to this problem.

The team has been able to develop a novel evolvable Internet architecture framework under the evolvability constraint, the manageability constraint and economic adaptability constraint. According to them, the network layer can be used to develop the evolvable architecture under these design constraints. Their teamwork has been published SCIENCE CHINA Information Sciences.2014, Vol 57(11), with the title, "Towards evolvable internet architecture-design constraints and models analysis".

The total concept: 

With nearly 1/3 of the total world’s population having access to internet, it has become one of the strongest and the global means of communication. However, in a deeper sense, internet is no longer a communication channel but now it has been extended to become a communication and data processing storage area. Looking at the changes it is difficult for the existing Internet architecture to adapt.

Even though there are corresponding researches about future Internet research depending on the dirty-slate approach and the clean-slate approach, for more than years the two mainstream architecture development ideas have been conducted in many countries but still these approaches cannot fully solve the current Internet architectures problem efficiently.

As far as the dirty-slate approach is concerned, it can only solve a small range of local issues on the Internet but it also makes the internet architecture evolve into a complex and cumbersome structure. But when it comes to the clean-slate approach, there is serious deployment and transition issues, which becomes totally uncontrollable in the current architecture.

The evolvable Internet architecture combines the advantages of both the clean-slate approach and dirty-slate approach also ensures that the core principal is not hampered.

The evolvable architecture is more flexible when compared to the dirty-slate approach. Even the evolvable architecture becomes more stable when compared to the clean-slate approach. There are three different types of layers in the evolvable architecture.

Apart from ensuring that the construction of the evolvable architecture is in conformity with the design principles, three constraints are required during the development stages. They are the economic adaptability constraint, evolvability constraint, and the management constraint. This is all about the next generation of the internet.

The development and history: 

The collaborative efforts from many researchers from different institutes and universities are behind the discovery and development of this evolvable architecture. This project got the support from a grant from 973 Project of China (Grant Nos. 2009CB320501 & 2012CB315803), NSFC Project (Grant No. 61170292 & 61161140454), New Generation Broadband Wireless Mobile Communication Network of the National Science and Technology Major Projects (Grant No. 2012ZX03005001), 863 Project of China (Grant No. 2013AA013302), EU MARIE CURIE ACTIONS EVANS (Grant No. PIRSES-GA-2010-269323), and the National Science and Technology Support Program (Grant No. 2011BAK08B05-02).

Large-Scale Power Plants Based On Thermoelectric Effects

Large Scale Energy Plants – Generate Electricity Efficiently

New study shows that large scale energy plants using thermoelectric effects like temperature differences in ocean water can generate electricity efficiently at lower costs than solar power plants. According to researchers, these ocean based plants could resemble huge barges which float in tropical oceans that generate electricity using shallow water warmed by the sun to heat cold water which is brought up from the depths.

A paper which had been published in the New Journal of Physics and authored by Liping Liu, Associate Professor of Rutgers University,has analysed the feasibility of these types of floating power plants. Liu has informed Phys.org that the function is regarding the new notion of big scale green power plants which make financial use of the biggest accessible as well as sustainable power reservoir on the earth. It is due to the heating of the sun on the water surface to a temperature which in tropical regions would be 20 K greater than water 600 m deep.

 The surface water, usually acts as a giant storage tank of solar power. He further explains that the thermoelectric energy plants could perform by harvesting power of ocean waves and pump cold water from some of hundred meters deep up through a long channel.

Heat Exchanger – Electric Generator

When the cold water reaches the surface it enters a heat exchanger and is heated by the surface water on the outside where the heat exchangers acts like a electric generator since its tubes are made of thermoelectric material which can transfer heat through its walls and can convert temperature variations in electrical energy.

The ocean based thermoelectric energy plant has a few advantages where for a single, the fuel or temperature differences, are cost free, simply accessible and unlimited. Moreover, the plant does not take up much space on land and have no moving solid parts with low maintenance fees. Besides this, the approach is green since it does not have any emissions.

Small scale thermoelectric generators are presently used commercially for applications like microelectronics, energy generation in remote areas and automobiles. In these cases, the conversion efficiency is an important aspect since the fuel accounts for biggest part of the price.

Commercial devices have conversion efficiency of about five to ten percent of the Carnot efficiency together with state of the art devices targeting efficiencies of about twenty percent though investigation is on its way to completion of additional strengthening the efficiency and there are limits of how higher it could go.

Fuel without Cost/Unlimited Supply

Liu, in the new paper, has showed that the significant scale thermoelectric power plants need not operate at exceptional high efficiencies in order to be economically competitive as alternative, but would depend on engineering uncomplicated structures like laminated composite for mass production support.

Improvements have been aimed on conversion capacity when compared to efficiency and can be improved with regards to orders of magnitude. Since the fuel is available at no cost together with unlimited supply, large scale thermoelectric energy plants could cope up with their size to what they may lack in efficiency.

The cost of creating electricity differs by supply and according to US Department of Power, the yearly expenses of one megawatt of electricity in 2016 is estimated at about $83 million for standard coal plants when compared to $1,84 million for photovoltaic power plants.

NASA Explores Inflatable Spacecraft Technology

At NASA’s Langley Research Centre located in Hampton, engineers have been devising a way to land astronauts on Mars which according to them seems that a simple thing like a child’s toy design would help to solve the problem. The progress is on, in the development of an inflatable heat shield which looks like a super-sized version of a stacking of doughnuts which an infant normally plays with.

The engineers are of the belief that a lightweight, inflatable heat shield could help to slow the craft to enter a Martian atmosphere which is much thinner to the Earth’s atmosphere. Landing safely in a large spacecraft on the Red planet is one of the many challenges faced as they are keen on sending humans, deep into space later this century.

This designed inflatable heat shield will enable the spacecraft to reach high altitude southern plains of Mars as well as other areas which otherwise would not be accessible under the prevailing technology. According to the experts, the rockets cannot be used to land a large spacecraft on Mars as done on the moon. Moreover, parachutes too would be of no use for a large spacecraft to send humans to the planet Mars.

Rings Filled with Nitrogen/Covered with Thermal Blanket

The inflatable rings would be the most appropriate option which would be filled with nitrogen and then covered with thermal blanket and once deployed to land, the rings could sit atop the spacecraft which resembles to some extent like a giant mushroom.

According to the senior engineer at Langley for advanced entry, descent and landing systems, Neil Cheatwood, he states that they are trying not to use propulsion if not required and will make use of that atmosphere as much as possible since it would mean that they will not have to carry the fuel with them. NASA’s leaders accept that getting humans to and from Mars safely, as early as 2030 would be very challenging. The scientists’ agency also agree that they should design new in-space propulsion systems with advanced spacesuits, long term living habitats abroad spacecraft as well as communication systems for deep space.

Work in Progress and Ready for Operational Use - By2016

This experiments needs to be tested on how second generation inflatable spacecraft technology would perform on re-entry in the Earth’s atmosphere. The testing is important since NASA officials are of the belief that an inflatable heat shield could be helpful for the astronauts to land on Mars and return with larger loads of supplies from the International Space Station and the experiment is scheduled on the next Antares rocket in 2016.

This new technology would be needed to land the astronauts on Mars since the kind of spacecraft which land humans would be larger than that which had landed on the planet earlier. The present heat shield technology is too much on the larger side with regards to weight which means that it cannot land anything larger than the rover which had been sent previously. Since the Viking program in the 1970s, NASA had relied on parachute based deceleration on Mars.

Work on the inflatable technology by the engineers at Langley has been going on for about a decade and is probably close to being ready for operational use.

Giant DDoS Kicks Of North Korea Off The Internet

North Korea was unceremoniously knocked off the internet by DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack. This attack has come into limelight soon after the “proportional response” to the Sony Pictures hack promised by the government of the United States of America. According to the rumors, the attack was supposedly carried out by North Korea and this is what even the FBI believes. On one side if this attack was carried out by the US government, it will become too obvious, so it is safe to believe that this attack would have been carried out by some disgruntled hack-activists such as Lizard Squad or Anonymous. At present, internet has been restored in North Korea but the outage lasted for about 9 hours and 31 minutes.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS): 

While there might be some people who are not aware about DDoS, but is no longer unusual for a service to get knocked off by the same. In the last couple of months, both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live have encountered outage issues. But it is quite surprising for an entire country to get knocked off like this. But all this makes sense given to the poor internet connectivity in North Korea.

As far as North Korea is concerned, the state owns the newspapers and TV stations making sure that there is no freedom of information. This clearly indicates the presence of dictatorship and absence of any dealings with democracy. The country has a very tight control over the flow of information.

History has proven that country is easily controllable when all the information/knowledge/dogma generates from a single known point. When it comes to regime of the country, even though internet has all possible required knowledge for humans, it still does not jibe well with the country. Most of the citizens of the country only use intranet and internet is left for higher ups. The country does not depend much on internet but whatever is available is provided by telecommunications giant China Unicom.

Quite frankly, it is very easy to DDoS North Korea. They have a single cable, which connects to the rest of internet. For DDoS a single, low-bandwidth link is trivial but as most of the people in North Korea do not have access to internet, DDoS was not able to achieve what it was meant for.

There are enough speculations doing around about the people or the organization behind the attack. Lizard Squad, seems to have taken the responsibility for the attack on North Korea as they have tweeted, both Xbox Live & other targets have a lot of capacity. They had previously DDoSed the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live services.

The company’s Twitter account has been suspended. Anonymous also has a history of DDoSes but they have openly condemned the whole Sony Pictures/North Korea/The Interview debacle. While we can remember the cyber attack on Sony and the retaliation, which was promised by the US government, such DDoS on North Korea doesn’t make any sense from their side as it hardly makes any impact. While on one side a small period of DDoS will not have any major impact but if it continues for a few weeks or month, it can create serious problems for the country.

Ford Auctions First 2015 Shelby GT350 Mustang, Proceeds Will Go to JDRF

1st model of Shelby GT 350 of Ford Mustang to be auctioned for charity 

The year 2014 has been an extraordinary year for the Ford, which is one of the most popular car manufacturing companies. The year has been accompanied by magnanimous car sales followed by accolades of glories for producing several prestigious premium class cars. The ultimate milestone of success has been laid by the company at the moment of 2014’s conclusion by stating to the media that the 1st model of Ford GT 350 Mustang of 2015 would be raised for an auction and the finances that will be collected in this process would be provided to a charity for their welfare.

Reason for selection of this particular model and the start of auction

Out of many prestigious models that have rolled out of the company so far, Ford Mustang has been chosen as a hot performance car by popular vote of the owner populace. However, a slight modification has been introduced in the previous model, and the new model is predicted to be a complete enthralling one. With an improved performance, Ford GT 350 Mustang has been anticipated to take over the market like wildfire. The car has been improvised with the latest suspension technology, and new engine has been introduced with improved brakes performance. Crafted with the skills of finest technicians, this model will raise the pride and prestige of the company to a complete new echelon of glory and innovation.

Unveiling of the model at the Los Angeles Auto Show have also revealed about the car’s special features. It has been incorporated with a 5.2 liter V8 tank that produces 500HP. The availability of such a high muscled car at an optimum price would ensure its domination over the automobile market in the recent future.

The first model would roll out from lot 3008 and would be raised for an auction on January 17th 2015 at Barrett Jackson Scottsdale Auction, and the money which would be raised in this process would be going for the welfare of Juvenile diabetes research.

Proceedings of the auction and the future collaboration

Over the few decades there exists mutual collaboration between Ford and Barrett Jackson Auction, which has significantly progressed over the time, owing to the huge profit both of these billionaire firms achieved from raising several priceless cars for auction.

There has been some expectancy that the bond will further strengthen with the rolling of the 1st model of Ford Mustang GT 350 for auction. The CEO of Barrett Jackson Auction, Craig Jackson has decided not to fix any initial price for the car, since it’s expected to raise an enviable sum of money owing to Ford’s stature. Ford has provided the flexibility of allowing their winner to choose color and package of GT 350 according to their free will.

Ford has been one promising company that has delivered excellent service for over decades, and it will continue to provide so. The first model of GT 350 rolled out of the company was in 1960, which made a significant milestone in steps of success of Ford. The latest model, all equipped with powerful brakes and suspension will surely make an impressive strike in the forthcoming automobile market.