Convergence of Probability Measures. By P. Billingsley. Chichester, Sussex, Wiley, 1968. xii, 253 p. 9 1/4“. 117s.

Convergence of Probability Measures

Social Network Analysis

The Internet has led to the creation of a digital society, where (almost) everything is connected and is accessible from anywhere. However, despite their widespread adoption, traditional IP networks are complex and very hard to manage. It is both difficult to configure the network according to predefined policies, and to reconfigure it to respond to faults, load, and changes. To make matters even more difficult, current networks are also vertically integrated: the control and data planes are bundled together. Software-defined networking (SDN) is an emerging paradigm that promises to change this state of affairs, by breaking vertical integration, separating the network's control logic from the underlying routers and switches, promoting (logical) centralization of network control, and introducing the ability to program the network. The separation of concerns, introduced between the definition of network policies, their implementation in switching hardware, and the forwarding of traffic, is key to the desired flexibility: by breaking the network control problem into tractable pieces, SDN makes it easier to create and introduce new abstractions in networking, simplifying network management and facilitating network evolution. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey on SDN. We start by introducing the motivation for SDN, explain its main concepts and how it differs from traditional networking, its roots, and the standardization activities regarding this novel paradigm. Next, we present the key building blocks of an SDN infrastructure using a bottom-up, layered approach. We provide an in-depth analysis of the hardware infrastructure, southbound and northbound application programming interfaces (APIs), network virtualization layers, network operating systems (SDN controllers), network programming languages, and network applications. We also look at cross-layer problems such as debugging and troubleshooting. In an effort to anticipate the future evolution of this new paradigm, we discuss the main ongoing research efforts and challenges of SDN. In particular, we address the design of switches and control platforms—with a focus on aspects such as resiliency, scalability, performance, security, and dependability—as well as new opportunities for carrier transport networks and cloud providers. Last but not least, we analyze the position of SDN as a key enabler of a software-defined environment.

https://publications.uni.lu/bitstream/10993/20596/1/survey_on_SDN.pdf

Software-Defined Networking: A Comprehensive Survey

Infectious Diseases Society of America.

The structure and dynamics of multilayer networks

/pdf/incremental-sdn-deployment-in-enterprise-networks-5az9t3xoec.pdf

Incremental SDN deployment in enterprise networks

BACKGROUND
Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common malignant disease in men. Novel treatment options are needed for patients after development of metastatic, hormone-refractory disease or for those who have failed a local treatment. The prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) is expressed in >80% of primary PCa samples and bone metastases. Its expression is increased both in androgen-dependent and independent prostate tumors, particularly in carcinomas of high stages and Gleason scores. Therefore, PSCA is an attractive target for immunotherapy of PCa by retargeting of T cells to tumor cells.

METHODS
A series of different bispecific antibody formats for retargeting of T cells to tumor cells were described but, only very limited data obtained by side by side comparison of the different antibody formats are available. We established two novel bispecific antibodies in different formats. The functionality of both constructs was analyzed by FACS and chromium release assays. In parallel, the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines was determined by ELISA.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Irrespective of the underlying antibody format, both novel bispecific antibodies cause an efficient killing of PSCA-positive tumor cells by pre- and non-pre-activated T cells. Killing and release of pro-inflammatory cytokines requires an antigen specific cross-linkage of the T cells with the target cells. Prostate 71: 998–1011, 2011. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Retargeting of T cells to prostate stem cell antigen expressing tumor cells: Comparison of different antibody formats

Today, a large fraction of Internet traffic is originated by Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). To cope with increasing demand for content, CDNs have deployed massively distributed infrastructures. These deployments pose challenges for CDNs as they have to dynamically map end-users to appropriate servers without being full+y aware of the network conditions within an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or the end-user location. On the other hand, ISPs struggle to cope with rapid traffic shifts caused by the dynamic server selection policies of the CDNs.The challenges that CDNs and ISPs face separately can be turned into an opportunity for collaboration. We argue that it is sufficient for CDNs and ISPs to coordinate only in server selection, not routing, in order to perform traffic engineering. To this end, we propose Content-aware Traffic Engineering (CaTE), which dynamically adapts server selection for content hosted by CDNs using ISP recommendations on small time scales. CaTE relies on the observation that by selecting an appropriate server among those available to deliver the content, the path of the traffic in the network can be influenced in a desired way. We present the design and implementation of a prototype to realize CaTE, and show how CDNs and ISPs can jointly take advantage of the already deployed distributed hosting infrastructures and path diversity, as well as the ISP detailed view of the network status without revealing sensitive operational information. By relying on tier-1 ISP traces, we show that CaTE allows CDNs to enhance the end-user experience while enabling an ISP to achieve several traffic engineering goals.

/pdf/enabling-content-aware-traffic-engineering-13cwxdih7c.pdf

Enabling content-aware traffic engineering

Recent treatments of leukemias with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) expressing T cells underline their impressive therapeutic potential. However, once adoptively transferred into patients, there is little scope left to shut them down after elimination of tumor cells or in case adverse side effects occur. This becomes of special relevance if they are directed against commonly expressed tumor associated antigens (TAAs) such as receptors of the ErbB family. To overcome this limitation, we recently established a modular CAR platform technology termed UniCAR. UniCARs are not directed against TAAs but instead against a unique peptide epitope on engineered recombinant targeting modules (TMs), which guide them to the target. In the absence of a TM UniCAR T cells are inactive. Thus an interruption of any UniCAR activity requires an elimination of unbound TM and the TM complexed with UniCAR T cells. Elimination of the latter one requires a disassembly of the UniCAR-TM complexes. Here, we describe a first na...

A novel nanobody-based target module for retargeting of T lymphocytes to EGFR-expressing cancer cells via the modular UniCAR platform.

During the last few years, more and more of the medium-to-large Internet eXchange Points (IXP) around the world have started to operate a route server and offer its use as a free value-added service to their members. This service has greatly simplified inter-domain routing for those members and has made it easy for them to peer with possibly hundreds of networks at those IXPs from the get-go. In this paper, we report on an empirical analysis that is based on a unique collection of IXP-provided datasets from two different European IXPs that operate a route server and gave us access to a wealth of route server-specific BGP data. Both IXPs also made the traffic datasets that they routinely collect from their public switching infrastructures available to us. Using this information, we perform a first-of-its-kind study that correlates a detailed control plane view with a rich data plane view to reason about the different peering options available at these IXPs and how some of the major Internet players make use of them. In the process, we highlight the important role that the IXPs' route servers play for inter-domain routing in today's Internet and demonstrate the benefits of studying IXP peerings in a manner that is not agnostic but fully aware of traffic. We conclude with a discussion of some of the ramifications of our findings for both network researchers and operators.

http://conferences.sigcomm.org/imc/2014/papers/p31.pdf

Anja Feldmann

Papers

Incremental SDN deployment in enterprise networks

Retargeting of T cells to prostate stem cell antigen expressing tumor cells: Comparison of different antibody formats

Enabling content-aware traffic engineering

A novel nanobody-based target module for retargeting of T lymphocytes to EGFR-expressing cancer cells via the modular UniCAR platform.

Peering at Peerings: On the Role of IXP Route Servers