Network function virtualization (NFV) technology significantly changes the traditional communication network environments by providing network functions as virtual network functions (VNFs) on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers. Moreover, for using VNFs in a pre-determined sequence to provide each network service, service chaining is essential. A VNF can provide multiple service chains with the corresponding network function, reducing the number of VNFs. However, VNFs might be the source or the target of a cyberattack. If the node where the VNF is installed is attacked, the VNF would also be easily attacked because of its security vulnerabilities. Contrarily, a malicious VNF may attack the node where it is installed, and other VNFs installed on the node may also be attacked. Few studies have been done on the security of VNFs and nodes for service chaining. This study proposes a service chain construction with security-level management. The security-level management concept is introduced to built many service chains. Moreover, the cost optimization problem for service chaining is formulated and the heuristic algorithm is proposed. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method under certain network topologies using numerical examples.

The Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) algorithm is gaining interest for its potential use in near-term quantum devices. In the VQE algorithm, parameterized quantum circuits (PQCs) are employed to prepare quantum states, which are then utilized to compute the expectation value of a given Hamiltonian. Designing efficient PQCs is crucial for improving convergence speed. In this study, we introduce problem-specific PQCs tailored for optimization problems by dynamically generating PQCs that incorporate problem constraints. This approach reduces a search space by focusing on unitary transformations that benefit the VQE algorithm, and accelerate convergence. Our experimental results demonstrate that the convergence speed of our proposed PQCs outperforms state-of-the-art PQCs, highlighting the potential of problem-specific PQCs in optimization problems.

Annealing machines such as quantum annealing machines and semiconductor-based annealing machines have been attracting attention as an efficient computing alternative for solving combinatorial optimization problems. They solve original combinatorial optimization problems by transforming them into a data structure called an Ising model. At that time, the bit-widths of the coefficients of the Ising model have to be kept within the range that an annealing machine can deal with. However, by reducing the Ising-model bit-widths, its minimum energy state, or ground state, may become different from that of the original one, and hence the targeted combinatorial optimization problem cannot be well solved. This paper proposes an effective method for reducing Ising model's bit-widths. The proposed method is composed of two processes: First, given an Ising model with large coefficient bit-widths, the shift method is applied to reduce its bit-widths roughly. Second, the spin-adding method is applied to further reduce its bit-widths to those that annealing machines can deal with. Without adding too many extra spins, we efficiently reduce the coefficient bit-widths of the original Ising model. Furthermore, the ground state before and after reducing the coefficient bit-widths is not much changed in most of the practical cases. Experimental evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, compared to existing methods.

Service chaining is attracting attention as a promising technology for providing a variety of network services by applying virtual network functions (VNFs) that can be instantiated on commercial off-the-shelf servers. The data transmission for each service chain has to satisfy the quality of service (QoS) requirements in terms of the loss probability and transmission delay, and hence the amount of resources for each VNF is expected to be sufficient for satisfying the QoS. However, the increase in the amount of VNF resources results in a high cost for improving the QoS. To reduce the cost of utilizing a VNF, sharing VNF instances through multiple service chains is an effective approach. However, the number of packets arriving at the VNF instance is increased, resulting in a degradation of the QoS. It is therefore important to select VNF instances shared by multiple service chains and to determine the amount of resources for the selected VNFs. In this paper, we propose a cost-effective service chain construction with a VNF sharing model. In the proposed method, each VNF is modeled as an M/M/1/K queueing model to evaluate the relationship between the amount of resources and the loss probability. The proposed method determines the VNF sharing, the VNF placement, the amount of resources for each VNF, and the transmission route of each service chain. For the optimization problem, these are applied according to our proposed heuristic algorithm. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method through a simulation. From the numerical examples, we show the effectiveness of the proposed method under certain network topologies.

In this paper, we study the number of failed components in a consecutive-k-out-of-n:G system. The distributions and expected values of the number of failed components when system is failed or working at a particular time t are evaluated. We also apply them to the optimization problems concerned with the optimal number of components and the optimal replacement time. Finally, we present the illustrative examples for the expected number of failed components and give the numerical results for the optimization problems.

The unit commitment problem (UCP) is the problem of deciding up/down and generation-level patterns of energy production units. Due to the expansion of distributed energy resources and the liberalization of energy trading in recent years, solving the distributed UCP (DUCP) is attracting the attention of researchers. Once an up/down pattern is determined, the generation-level pattern can be decided distributively using the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). However, ADMM does not guarantee convergence when deciding both up/down and generation-level patterns. In this paper, we propose a method to solve the DUCP using ADMM and constraint optimization programming. Numerical experiments show the efficacy of the proposed method.

For beyond 5G era, in network function virtualization (NFV) environments, service chaining can be utilized to provide the flexible network infrastructures needed to support the creation of various application services. In this paper, we propose a dynamic service chain construction based on model predictive control (MPC) to utilize network resources. In the proposed method, the number of data packets in the buffer at each node is modeled as a dynamical system for MPC. Then, we formulate an optimization problem with the predicted amount of traffic injecting into each service chain from users for the dynamical system. In the optimization problem, the transmission route of each service chain, the node where each VNF is placed, and the amount of resources for each VNF are determined simultaneously by using MPC so that the amount of resources allocated to VNFs and the number of VNF migrations are minimized. In addition, the performance of data transmission is also controlled by considering the maximum amount of data packets stored in buffers. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by simulation, and the effectiveness of the proposed method with different parameter values is investigated.

In an amusement park, an attraction-visiting route considering the waiting time and traveling time improves visitors' satisfaction and experience. We focus on Ising machines to solve the problem, which are recently expected to solve combinatorial optimization problems at high speed by mapping the problems to Ising models or quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) models. We propose a mapping of the visiting-route recommendation problem in amusement parks to a QUBO model for solving it using Ising machines. By using an actual Ising machine, we could obtain feasible solutions one order of magnitude faster with almost the same accuracy as the simulated annealing method for the visiting-route recommendation problem.

In network function virtualization (NFV) environments, service chaining is an emerging technology that enables network operators to provide network service dynamically and flexibly by using virtual network function (VNF). In the service chaining, a service chain is expected to be constructed based on VNF performances such as dependences among VNFs and traffic changing effects in VNFs. For achieving optimal data transmission services in NFV environments, we focus on the optimal service chain construction based on VNF performances so that both the maximum amount of traffic on links and the total number of VNF instances are decreased. In this paper, at first, an optimization problem is formulated for determining placements of VNFs and a route for each service chain. The service chains can be constructed by solving this optimization problem with an optimization software or meta-heuristic algorithm. Then, for the optimization problem, we propose a heuristic service chain construction algorithm. By using our proposed algorithm, the service chains can be constructed appropriately more quickly. We evaluate the performance of the proposed heuristic algorithm with simulation, and we investigate the effectiveness of the heuristic algorithm from the performance comparison. From some numerical examples, we show that the proposed heuristic algorithm is effective to decrease the amount of traffic and the number of VNF instances. Moreover, it is shown that our proposed heuristic algorithm can construct service chains quickly.

In this paper, in order to avoid the cascading failure by increasing the number of links in the physical network in D2D-based SNS, we propose an autonomous device placement algorithm. In this method, some relay devices are placed so as to increase the number of links in the physical network. Here, relay devices can be used only for relaying data and those are not SNS users. For example, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with D2D communication capability and base stations with D2D communication capability are used as the relay devices. In the proposed method, at first, an optimization problem for minimizing node resilience which is a performance metric in order to place relay devices. Then, we investigate how relay devices should be placed based on some approximate optimal solutions. From this investigation, we propose an autonomous relay device placement in the physical network. In our proposed algorithm, relay devices can be placed without the complete information on network topology. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method with simulation, and investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method. From numerical examples, we show the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.

This paper proposes an optimization model under uncertain traffic demands to design the backup network to minimize the total capacity of a backup network to protect the primary network from multiple link failures, where the probability of link failure is specified. The hose uncertainty is adopted to express uncertain traffic demands. The probabilistic survivability guarantee is provided by determining both primary and backup network routing, simultaneously. Robust optimization is introduced to provide probabilistic survivability guarantees for different link capacities in the primary network model under the hose uncertainty. Robust optimization in the proposed model handles two uncertain items: uncertain failed primary link with different capacities and uncertain traffic demands. We formulate an optimization problem for the proposed model. Since it is difficult to directly solve it, we introduce a heuristic approach for the proposed model. By using the heuristic approach, we investigate how the probability of link failure affects both primary and backup network routing. Numerical results show that the proposed model yields a backup network with lower total capacity requirements than the conventional model for the link failure probabilities examined in this paper. The results indicate that the proposed model reduces the total capacity of the backup network compared to the conventional model under the hose uncertainty. The proposed model shares more effectively the backup resources to protect primary links by determining routing in both primary and backup networks.

Recently, new optimization machines based on non-silicon physical systems, such as quantum annealing machines, have been developed, and their commercialization has been started. These machines solve the problems by searching the state of the Ising spins, which minimizes the Ising Hamiltonian. Such a property of minimization of the Ising Hamiltonian can be applied to various combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, we introduce the coherent Ising machine (CIM), which can solve the problems in a milli-second order, and has higher performance than the quantum annealing machines especially on the problems with dense mutual connections in the corresponding Ising model. We explain how a target problem can be implemented on the CIM, based on the optimization scheme using the mutually connected neural networks. We apply the CIM to traveling salesman problems as an example benchmark, and show experimental results of the real machine of the CIM. We also apply the CIM to several combinatorial optimization problems in wireless communication systems, such as channel assignment problems. The CIM's ultra-fast optimization may enable a real-time optimization of various communication systems even in a dynamic communication environment.

This paper proposes an optimization approach that designs the backup network with the minimum total capacity to protect the primary network from random multiple link failures with link failure probability. In the conventional approach, the routing in the primary network is not considered as a factor in minimizing the total capacity of the backup network. Considering primary routing as a variable when deciding the backup network can reduce the total capacity in the backup network compared to the conventional approach. The optimization problem examined here employs robust optimization to provide probabilistic survivability guarantees for different link capacities in the primary network. The proposed approach formulates the optimization problem as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem with robust optimization. A heuristic implementation is introduced for the proposed approach as the MILP problem cannot be solved in practical time when the network size increases. Numerical results show that the proposed approach can achieve lower total capacity in the backup network than the conventional approach.

A consecutive-k-out-of-n:G system consists of n components which are arranged in a line and the system works if and only if at least k consecutive components work. This paper discusses the optimization problems for a consecutive-k-out-of-n:G system. We first focus on the optimal number of components at the system design phase. Then, we focus on the optimal replacement time at the system operation phase by considering a preventive replacement, which the system is replaced at the planned time or the time of system failure which occurs first. The expected cost rates of two optimization problems are considered as objective functions to be minimized. Finally, we give study cases for the proposed optimization problems and evaluate the feasibility of the policies.

In resource-constrained network function virtualization (NFV) environments, it is expected that data throughput for service chains is maintained by using virtual network functions (VNFs) effectively. In this paper, we formulate an optimization problem for maximizing the total data throughput in resource-constrained NFV environments. Moreover, based on our formulated optimization problem, we propose a heuristic service chain construction algorithm for maximizing the total data throughput. This algorithm also determines the placement of VNFs, the amount of resources for each VNF, and the transmission route for each service chain. It is expected that the heuristic algorithm can construct service chains more quickly than the meta-heuristic algorithm. We evaluate the performance of the proposed methods with simulations, and we investigate the effectiveness of our proposed heuristic algorithm through a performance comparison. Numerical examples show that our proposed methods can construct service chains so as to maximize the total data throughput regardless of the number of service chains, the amount of traffic, and network topologies.

An area-efficient FPGA-based annealing processor that is based on Ising model is proposed. The proposed processor eliminates random number generators (RNGs) and temperature schedulers, which are the key components in the conventional annealing processors and occupying a large portion of the design. Instead, a shift-register-based spin flipping scheme successfully helps the Ising model from stucking in the local optimum solutions. An FPGA implementation and software-based evaluation on max-cut problems of 2D-grid torus structure demonstrate that our annealing processor solves the problems 10-104 times faster than conventional optimization algorithms to obtain the solution of equal accuracy.

Many real world optimization problems involving sets of agents can be modeled as Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (DCOPs). A DCOP is defined as a set of variables taking values from finite domains, and a set of constraints that yield costs based on the variables' values. Agents are in charge of the variables and must communicate to find a solution minimizing the sum of costs over all constraints. Many applications of DCOPs include multiple criteria. For example, mobile sensor networks must optimize the quality of the measurements and the quality of communication between the agents. This introduces trade-offs between solutions that are compared using the concept of Pareto dominance. Multi-Objective Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (MO-DCOPs) are used to model such problems where the goal is to find the set of Pareto optimal solutions. This set being exponential in the number of variables, it is important to consider fast approximation algorithms for MO-DCOPs. The bounded multi-objective max-sum (B-MOMS) algorithm is the first and only existing approximation algorithm for MO-DCOPs and is suited for solving a less-constrained problem. In this paper, we propose a novel approximation MO-DCOP algorithm called Distributed Pareto Local Search (DPLS) that uses a local search approach to find an approximation of the set of Pareto optimal solutions. DPLS provides a distributed version of an existing centralized algorithm by complying with the communication limitations and the privacy concerns of multi-agent systems. Experiments on a multi-objective extension of the graph-coloring problem show that DPLS finds significantly better solutions than B-MOMS for problems with medium to high constraint density while requiring a similar runtime.

Pseudo-Boolean (PB) problems are Integer Linear Problem restricted to 0-1 variables. This paper discusses on acceleration techniques of PB-solvers that employ SAT-solving of combined CNFs each of which is produced from each PB-constraint via a binary decision diagram (BDD). Specifically, we show (i) an efficient construction of a reduced ordered BDD (ROBDD) from a constraint in band form l ≤ ≤ h, (ii) a CNF coding that produces two clauses for some nodes in an ROBDD obtained by (i), and (iii) an incremental SAT-solving of the binary/alternative search for minimizing values of a given goal function. We implemented the proposed constructions and report on experimental results.

Metaheuristic methods have been studied for combinational optimization problems for some time. Recently, a Consultant-Guided Search (CGS) has been proposed as a metaheuristic method for the Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP). This approach is an algorithm in which a virtual person called a client creates a solution based on consultation with a virtual person called a consultant. In this research, we propose a parallel algorithm which uses the Ant Colony System (ACS) to create a solution with a consultant in a Consultant-Guided Search, and calculate an approximation solution for the TSP. Finally, we execute a computer experiment using the benchmark problems (TSPLIB). Our algorithm provides a solution with less than 2% error rate for problem instances using less than 2000 cities.

We propose an improved design of a neuron circuit, using coupled SQUIDs gates, for a superconducting neural network. An activation function with step-like input vs. output characteristics is desirable for a neuron circuit to solve a combinatorial optimization problem. The proposed neuron circuit is composed of two coupled SQUIDs gates with a cascade connection, in order to obtain such characteristics. The designed neuron circuit is fabricated by a 2.5kA/cm2 Nb/AlOx/Nb process. The operation of a fabricated neuron circuit is experimentally demonstrated. Network performance of a neural network using proposed neuron circuits is also estimated by numerical dynamic simulations.