IMU: A Content Replacement Policy for CCN, Based on Immature Content Selection

In-network caching is the essential part of Content-Centric Networking (CCN). The main aim of a CCN caching module is data distribution within the network. Each CCN node can cache content according to its placement policy. Therefore, it is fully equipped to meet the requirements of future networks demands. The placement strategy decides to cache the content at the optimized location and minimize content redundancy within the network. When cache capacity is full, the content eviction policy decides which content should stay in the cache and which content should be evicted. Hence, network performance and cache hit ratio almost equally depend on the content placement and replacement policies. Content eviction policies have diverse requirements due to limited cache capacity, higher request rates, and the rapid change of cache states. Many replacement policies follow the concept of low or high popularity and data freshness for content eviction. However, when content loses its popularity after becoming very popular in a certain period, it remains in the cache space. Moreover, content is evicted from the cache space before it becomes popular. To handle the above-mentioned issue, we introduced the concept of maturity/immaturity of the content. The proposed policy, named Immature Used (IMU), finds the content maturity index by using the content arrival time and its frequency within a specific time frame. Also, it determines the maturity level through a maturity classifier. In the case of a full cache, the least immature content is evicted from the cache space. We performed extensive simulations in the simulator (Icarus) to evaluate the performance (cache hit ratio, path stretch, latency, and link load) of the proposed policy with different well-known cache replacement policies in CCN. The obtained results, with varying popularity and cache sizes, indicate that our proposed policy can achieve up to 14.31% more cache hits, 5.91% reduced latency, 3.82% improved path stretch, and 9.53% decreased link load, compared to the recently proposed technique. Moreover, the proposed policy performed significantly better compared to other baseline approaches.

Killing Processes or Killing Flash? Escaping from the Dilemma Using Lightweight, Compression-Aware Swap for Mobile Devices

Android apps become increasingly memory-demanding as software vendors add more and more new features to their apps. In the mean time, Android users often launch multiple apps and conveniently switch back and forth among the apps. Although running multiple apps imposes a high pressure on memory management, virtual-memory swap, an essential feature to improve the degree of multitasking, is disabled in fear of premature retirement of flash-based storage devices. Instead, Android employs a termination-based, process-level memory reclaiming method. We observed that process killing is, unfortunately, not effective in memory reclaiming and is highly negative to user experience. In this study, we advocate re-thinking using swap in Android for improved user experience with managed write stress on flash storage. Based on a series of empirical analyses of swap activities, we propose an enhanced page replacement policy and a page-compressing frontswap module. The proposed page replacement policy jointly considers page activeness and compressibility to boost the compression ratio of swap writes. A sampled-based method for page compressibility prediction is introduced so that decisions on page replacement can be made without compressing every page. We also design a frontswap module that strategically organizes compressed pages in the swap space for reducing the overhead of swap I/O operations. Experimental results showed that compared with process killing, our method improved the app launching time and energy consumption by 58% and 19%, respectively; compared with the original swap, our approach reduced the swap write stress by 65%.

Modeling cache performance for embedded systems

This paper presents a cache performance model for embedded systems. The need for efficient cache design in embedded systems has led to the exploration of various methods of design for optimal cache configurations for embedded processor. Better users’ experiences are realized by improving performance parameters of embedded systems. This work presents a cache hit rate estimation model for embedded systems that can be used to explore optimal cache configurations using Bourneli’s binomial cumulative probability based on application of reuse distance profiles. The model presented was evaluated using three mibench benchmarks which are bitcount, basicmath and FFT for 4kb, 8kb, 16kb, 32kb and 64kb sizes of cache under 2-way, 4-ways, 8-ways and 16-ways set associative configurations, all using least recently-used (LRU) replacement policy. The results were compared with the results obtained using sim-cheetah from simplescalar simulators suite. The mean errors for bitcount, basicmath, and FFT benchmarks are 0.0263%, 2.4476%, and 1.9000% respectively. Therefore, the mean error for the three benchmarks is equal to 1.4579%. The margin of errors in the results was below 5% and within the acceptable limits showing that the model can be used to estimate hit rates of cache and to explore cache design options.

Mobility Markov Chain & Matrix based Location-Aware Cache Replacement Policy in Mobile Environment

In the location aware services, past mobile device cache invalidation-replacement practises used are ineffective if the client travel route varies rapidly. In addition, in terms of storage expense, previous cache invalidation-replacement policies indicate high storage overhead. These limitations of past policies are inspiration for this research work. The paper describes the models to solve the aforementioned challenges using two different approaches separately for predicting the future path for the user movement. In the first approach, the most prevalent Sequential Pattern Mining & Clustering (SPMC) technique is used to pre-process the user's movement trajectory and find out the pattern that appears frequently. In the second approach, frequent patterns are forwarded into the Mobility Markov Chain & Matrix-(MMCM) algorithm leading to a reduction in the size of candidate sets and, therefore, efficiency enhancement of mining sequence patterns. Analytical results show significant caching performance improvement compared to previous caching policies.

Catalyst Replacement Policy on Multienzymatic Systems: Theoretical Study in the One-Pot Sequential Batch Production of Lactofructose Syrup

One-pot systems are an interesting proposal to carry out multi-enzymatic reactions, though this strategy implies establishing an optimal balance between the activity and operability of the involved enzymes. This is crucial for enzymes with marked differences in their operational stability, such as one-pot production of lactofructose syrup from cheese whey permeate, which involves two enzymes—β-galactosidase (β-gal) and glucose isomerase (GI). The aim of this work was to study the behavior of one-pot sequential batch production of lactofructose syrup considering both enzymes immobilized individually, in order to evaluate and design a strategy of replacement of the catalysts according to their stabilities. To this end, the modelling and simulation of the process was carried out, considering simultaneously the kinetics of both reactions and the kinetics of inactivation of both enzymes. For the latter, it was also considered the modulating effect that sugars present in the medium may have on the stability of β-gal, which is the less stable enzyme. At the simulated reaction conditions of 40 °C, pH 7, and 0.46 (IUGI/IUβ-gal), the results showed that considering the stability of β-gal under non-reactive conditions, meaning in absence of the effect of modulation, it is necessary to carry out four replacements of β-gal for each cycle of use of GI. On the other hand, when considering the modulation caused by the sugars on the β-gal stability, the productivity increases up to 23% in the case of the highest modulation factor studied (η = 0.8). This work shows the feasibility of conducting a one-pot operation with immobilized enzymes of quite different operational stability, and that a proper strategy of biocatalyst replacement increases the productivity of the process.

Adequacy Evaluation of an Islanded Microgrid

The reliability of power converters has been extensively examined in terms of component- and converter level. However, in case of multiple generation units, the evaluation of the performance of power systems requires system-level modeling. This paper aims to merge the prior art of reliability modeling of power converters with the adequacy evaluation of power systems through an extensive design and evaluation analysis of a microgrid based case study. The methodology proposed in the paper integrates the device-level analysis into the domain of the conventional power system reliability analysis while outlining the steps needed to deal with non-exponential distributed failures of power electronic-based generation units. A replacement policy of the power electronic-based units is adopted by means of evaluating the system risk of not supplying system loads, and, finally, an approach on how to ensure a desired replacement frequency is outlined.

Reliability Analysis of Two Unit Standby Model with Controlled and Uncontrolled Failure of Unit and Replacement Facility Available in the System

Planning a highly reliable and efficient system has always been a primary interest for reliability engineers by devising the powerful design strategy and employing effective repair and replacement policy. Keeping in view this, the basic aim of this paper is to analyze the reliability of a system which comprised of two units A and B in which unit A is functional and B is held standby. Unit A after failure may be controlled or uncontrolled. The failed unit undergoes for repair in the controlled unit. If the repair of a unit is not controlled then it is replaced by a new one. Upon the breakdown of operational unit A, unit B come becomes active instantaneously. Unit B after failure is repaired by regular repairmen. System failure takes place when both the units quit serving. The unit serves as good as a fresh after preventive repair and replacement policy. The regenerative point technique has been used to obtain the expression for several reliability measures. Finally, the graphical behavior of MTSF and profit of the present model has been observed for arbitrary values of parameters and costs.