Deutsche Telekom

About: Deutsche Telekom is a company organization based out in Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Telecommunications network & Terminal (electronics). The organization has 3473 authors who have published 5208 publications receiving 65429 citations. The organization is also known as: DTAG & German Telecom.

Hardware-software integrated approaches to defend against software cache-based side channel attacks

Abstract: Software cache-based side channel attacks present serious threats to modern computer systems. Using caches as a side channel, these attacks are able to derive secret keys used in cryptographic operations through legitimate activities. Among existing countermeasures, software solutions are typically application specific and incur substantial performance overhead. Recent hardware proposals including the Partition-Locked cache (PLcache) and Random-Permutation cache (RPcache) [23], although very effective in reducing performance overhead while enhancing the security level, may still be vulnerable to advanced cache attacks. In this paper, we propose three hardware-software approaches to defend against software cache-based attacks - they present different tradeoffs between hardware complexity and performance overhead. First, we propose to use preloading to secure the PLcache. Second, we leverage informing loads, which is a lightweight architectural support originally proposed to improve memory performance, to protect the RPcache. Third, we propose novel software permutation to replace the random permutation hardware in the RPcache. This way, regular caches can be protected with hardware support for informing loads. In our experiments, we analyze various processor models for their vulnerability to cache attacks and demonstrate that even to the processor model that is most vulnerable to cache attacks, our proposed software-hardware integrated schemes provide strong security protection.

Application of amplitude histograms to monitor performance of optical channels

Abstract: A novel method for performance monitoring of transparent optical systems, based on the evaluation of amplitude histograms generated by asynchronous sampling, is investigated experimentally. The method was found to detect signal degradations due to noise, crosstalk or pulse distortion with a high sensitivity.

Coordinated Multipoint Trials in the Downlink

Abstract: Coordinated multi-point (CoMP) is a new class of transmission schemes for interference reduction in the next generation of mobile networks. We have implemented and tested a distributed CoMP transmission approach in the downlink of an LTE-Advanced trial system operating in real time over 20 MHz bandwidth. Enabling features such as network synchronization, celland user-specific pilots, feedback of multicell channel state information and synchronous data exchange between the base stations have been implemented. Interferencelimited transmission experiments have been conducted using optimum combining with interference-aware link adaptation and cross-wise interference cancellation between the cells. The benefits of CoMP transmission have been studied over multi-cell channels recorded in an urban macro-cell scenario.

Laws of order: expensive synchronization in concurrent algorithms cannot be eliminated

Abstract: Building correct and efficient concurrent algorithms is known to be a difficult problem of fundamental importance. To achieve efficiency, designers try to remove unnecessary and costly synchronization. However, not only is this manual trial-and-error process ad-hoc, time consuming and error-prone, but it often leaves designers pondering the question of: is it inherently impossible to eliminate certain synchronization, or is it that I was unable to eliminate it on this attempt and I should keep trying?In this paper we respond to this question. We prove that it is impossible to build concurrent implementations of classic and ubiquitous specifications such as sets, queues, stacks, mutual exclusion and read-modify-write operations, that completely eliminate the use of expensive synchronization.We prove that one cannot avoid the use of either: i) read-after-write (RAW), where a write to shared variable A is followed by a read to a different shared variable B without a write to B in between, or ii) atomic write-after-read (AWAR), where an atomic operation reads and then writes to shared locations. Unfortunately, enforcing RAW or AWAR is expensive on all current mainstream processors. To enforce RAW, memory ordering--also called fence or barrier--instructions must be used. To enforce AWAR, atomic instructions such as compare-and-swap are required. However, these instructions are typically substantially slower than regular instructions.Although algorithm designers frequently struggle to avoid RAW and AWAR, their attempts are often futile. Our result characterizes the cases where avoiding RAW and AWAR is impossible. On the flip side, our result can be used to guide designers towards new algorithms where RAW and AWAR can be eliminated.

HoverFlow: expanding the design space of around-device interaction

Abstract: In this paper we explore the design space of around-device interaction (ADI). This approach seeks to expand the interaction possibilities of mobile and wearable devices beyond the confines of the physical device itself to include the space around it. This enables rich 3D input, comprising coarse movement-based gestures, as well as static position-based gestures. ADI can help to solve occlusion problems and scales down to very small devices. We present a novel around-device interaction interface that allows mobile devices to track coarse hand gestures performed above the device's screen. Our prototype uses infrared proximity sensors to track hand and finger positions in the device's proximity. We present an algorithm for detecting hand gestures and provide a rough overview of the design space of ADI-based interfaces.