In forthcoming sensor networks, a multitude of sensor nodes deployed over a large geographical area for monitoring traffic, climate, etc. are expected to become an inevitable infrastructure. Clustering algorithms play an important role in aggregating a large volume of data that are produced continuously by the huge number of sensor nodes. In such networks, equal-sized multi-hop clusters which include an equal number of nodes are useful for efficiency and resiliency. In addition, scalability is important in such large-scale networks. In this paper, we mathematically design a decentralized equal-sized clustering algorithm using a partial differential equation based on the Fourier transform technique, and then design its protocol by discretizing the equation. We evaluated through simulations the equality of cluster sizes and the resiliency against packet loss and node failure in two-dimensional perturbed grid topologies.

In the near future, decentralized network systems consisting of a huge number of sensor nodes are expected to play an important role. In such a network, each node should control itself by means of a local interaction algorithm. Although such local interaction algorithms improve system reliability, how to design a local interaction algorithm has become an issue. In this paper, we describe a local interaction algorithm in a partial differential equation (or PDE) and propose a new design method whereby a PDE is derived from the solution we desire. The solution is considered as a pattern of nodes' control values over the network each of which is used to control the node's behavior. As a result, nodes collectively provide network functions such as clustering, collision and congestion avoidance. In this paper, we focus on a periodic pattern comprising sinusoidal waves and derive the PDE whose solution exhibits such a pattern by exploiting the Fourier method.

To efficiently monitor the link performance in an OpenFlow network with a single measurement box (referred to a “beacon”), this paper presents a measurement scheme that calculates a set of measurement paths from the beacon to cover all links in the network based on the controllable feature of individual measurement paths in the OpenFlow network and comprehensively estimates the performance of all the physical links from round-trip active measurements. The scheme has a novel feature that minimize the maximum number of exclusive flow-entries for active measurements on OpenFlow switches by utilizing common packet header values in the probing packets to aggregate multiple entries into a single entry to save the resources in OpenFlow switches and controller. We demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of our solution through simulations and emulation scenarios.

According to the wide spread of mobile computer terminals, it is required to connect them to remote networks and to allow them to communicate with home computers and Internet servers. There are some mechanisms studied on the IP terminal mobility, including DHCP which assigns IP addresses dynamically and Mobile-IP which supports seemless mobility. However, there are some problems identified for those methods on compatibility with existing IP terminals, route optimization and compatibility with firewall systems. So we have proposed a virtual subnetwork system which can accommodate existing IP routers and terminals without any modifications, and which selects an optimal route for the communication with networks other than the home network. This paper describes the mechanism and the results of implementation of our system.

Recently, it is required to transfer continuous media over networks without QoS guarantee. In these networks, network congestion will cause transmission delay variance which degrades the quality of continuous media itself. This paper proposes a new protocol using a congestion control with two level rate control in the data transfer level and the coding level. It introduces a TCP-like congestion control mechanism to the rate control of data transfer level, which can detect the QoS change quickly, and adjust the coding rate of continuous media with time interval long enough for its quality. The performance evaluation through software simulation with multiplexing continuous media traffics and TCP traffics shows that the proposed protocol works effectively in the case of network congestion.

Most of current real time video retrieval systems use video transfer protocols such that servers simply transmit video packets in the same rate as clients play them. If any packets are corrupted during transmission, they will be lost and cannot be recovered by retransmission. In video retrieval systems, however, teh video data are stored in servers and clients can prefetch them prior to playing. So, it might be possible for the video retrieval systems to make corrupted video packets retransmitted before the play-out dead line. But the application of existing reliable protocols causes problems such that, if a packet does not arrive before the dead line due to retransmission, the packets following it will not be delivered to the upper layer even if they have already arrived. In this paper, we discuss how to apply reliable protocols to real time video retrieval systems and propose an new real time video transfer protocol over ATM network, which provides the video data prefetch, the flow control for video buffer, the selective retransmission with skipping function for video packets late for the play-out dead line, and the resynchronization function for video buffer. We have implemented an experimental system using our protocol and evaluated the performance. The results of performance evaluation shows that the proposed protocol decreases the number of unplayed video data largely when transmission errors are inserted in an ATM network.

This paper presents a realization of our IP based realtime VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometer) observation testbed with the highest sensitivity in the world. Today's rapid deployment of high-speed wide area networks will give a major breakthrough in VLBI astronomy in terms of its observational sensitivity and immediateness. VLBI requires huge amount of data transfer from several radio telescopes located separately each other for calculating cross-correlation. High-speed networks can be applied to such data transfer instead of conventional magnetical tape recording and physical transportation, which cause a serious performance bottleneck. We have newly designed and implemented a special component named gigabit network access node, which can exchange 2.048 Gbps telescope data through a 2.488 Gbps OC-48c/STM-16c SONET/SDH link. We have also constructed the world's first multi-gigabit-rate VLBI observation testbed using actual high-speed wide area optical networks and successfully conducted several real observations.