It's flexible and reconfigurable yet simple for programmers to use, notably for building dynamic distributed applications operating on the Net.

The case for reflective middleware

The expansion of new technologies is expected to offer economic growth in the wired and wireless technological networking environment, while at the same time, it will offer a wide variety of services and give the possibility for utilizing technologies for the benefit of many subscribers. The Pricing Schemes are designed to offer profitable business to the Wireless Service Providers (WSPs), as well as, to create favorable services for the mobile subscribers and eventually to get charged according to their services usage. In this paper, the Pricing Schemes are classified, based on their ability to adapt to the needs of the WSPs and their subscribers during the entire service period, into Static-based Pricing and Dynamic-based Pricing Schemes. The Pricing Schemes are also analyzed in detail and are further classified according to the factors involved in the price calculation of a service, i.e. the Service Level Agreement (SLA), the subscription type, the negotiation capabilities between WSPs and their subscribers, the network capacity, the available bandwidth and frequency spectrum, the network hops, and the Base Stations (BSs). The affected elements by the pricing network are also discussed, together with the performance evaluation of the presented pricing schemes.

A Survey of Pricing Schemes in Wireless Networks

A method and apparatus for producing an electronic circuit which allows a device to be connected to a bus, such as a system bus in a computer. The invention accepts user specified parameters for configuring a device adapter which interfaces the device to the bus, and thereafter generates a customized device adapter based on such user specified parameters. By using a common design macro, which is programmable, a user can easily specify and generate custom device adapters for a plurality of dissimilar devices to be connected to the bus. A resulting adapter architecture allows for multiple, dissimilar devices to interface to a computer bus with a single device adapter integrated circuit or card.

Multi-device adapter card for computer

A method, apparatus and system for a scalable high capacity switch architecture involves a switching controller for use with a plurality of switching controllers in a switching system. Each switching controller has provisions for receiving a data packet, provisions for determining a destination of the data packet, provisions for determining whether any other switching controller in the system intends to transmit to the determined destination of the data packet and provisions for transmitting the received data packet to the determined destination when no other switching controllers intend to transmit to the determined destination.

Scalable high capacity switch architecture method, apparatus and system

An object of the present invention is to improve the transmission
efficiency and reduce circuit size in error compensating techniques
where bit errors occurring during transmission are compensated for by
retransmission. Transmission equipment get sequence number(s) from control
information and sequence numbers which follows from the sequence
number which correspond to newest data packet amongst the sequence
numbers, and transmits data packet corresponding to these sequence
numbers at a predetermined timing. On the other hand, reception
equipment receives data packet from the transmission equipment, and
manages the sequence numbers of not yet received data packets. The
reception equipment then sends back sequence number(s) of
predetermined number. which is smaller number than the maximum number
of data packets which is sent from transmission equipment at a
predetermined timing. which correspond to not yet received data packet
as control information for each predetermined timing.

Error compensating method and apparatus and medium storing an error compensation program

Most research in network pricing focuses on improving QoS for a single network. These approaches are not easily extensible to a set of interconnected networks, as the inter-ISP negotiations would be unwieldy. Our approach is to provide a general QoS-aware networking service. We first introduce the concept of QoS-Transit Services: transit services with QoS guarantees, where dynamic pricing is used to regulate demand on the associated links. After reviewing the structure of the Internet, and the locations of bottlenecks, we describe an architecture for delivering QoS across multiple networks using QoS-Transit Services. We describe the charging and routing frameworks, and detail how billing, metering, and policing can be achieved. Furthermore, we address security considerations, and discuss compatibilities with current network protocols. Finally, since we cannot expect all ISPs to offer QoS-Transit Services, we describe the concept of Overlay ISPs: ISPs who provide QoS-Transit Services by controlling an overlay network.

A Framework for Quality of Service Control Through Pricing Mechanisms

The authors present the overall structure of DAME, which is an expert system capable of configuring and designing customized microprocessor-based systems from original specifications. DAME is organized as a hierarchy of design levels, each of which refines the design provided by the previous level, following established practices in the field of hardware design. The general structure of DAME is presented, as well as the authors' approach in modeling the behavior of the various signals associated with the components used for the design of microprocessor-based systems. >

DAME: a rule based designer of microprocessor based systems

The authors discuss the component model and interface design procedure for data transfer in DAME (Design Automation of Microprocessor based systems, using an Expert system approach), a system in development that will be capable of producing the complete design from an original system specification, such as the type of application, cost, processing requirements, and power consumption. Signal connecting microprocessor components are used to transfer information between the components. Several different types of information were found to be involved in data transfer. The model developed for data transfer treats each of the information exchanges as a primitive. Each information primitive consists of the timing information of signals involved and the state information about the exact state of these signals during the information exchange. In DAME, design decisions are made by a set of rules that manipulates the information exchange primitives to obtain the final interface design. >

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel2/3220/9155/00407310.pdf

Data transfer interface design in DAME

The fundamental characteristic of traffic propagation in ATM environments is the high ratio of propagation delay to cell transmission delay and this leads to a very difficult problem in congestion control. During congestion, many data cells may be lost. In this paper, we introduce a new protocol for high speed transmission systems based on selective repeat protocol. It regulates the flow of data with minimum number of control cells. In addition, it is able to adapt itself to work efficiently during congestion. The analysis of the throughput and the number of the control cells in normal and congestion states is presented.

A new protocol for flow control in ATM networks

An overview is presented of the design philosophy followed in DAME. It is postulated that systems are composed of interconnected components whose properties are represented as collections of instantiations of standard templates. This gives the opportunity to design with reference to these standards and as a result use very few and generic rules. A specific example of the design of the bus arbitration subsystem is presented to illustrate the approach. >

E.G. Manning

Papers

A Framework for Quality of Service Control Through Pricing Mechanisms

DAME: a rule based designer of microprocessor based systems

Data transfer interface design in DAME

A new protocol for flow control in ATM networks

Generic design rules for the design of microprocessor based systems in DAME: bus arbitration subsystem