Shazirawati Mohd Puzi, Shaharuddin Salleh, Ruzana Ishak and Stephan Olariu
The purpose of this paper is to model an important aspect of the problem of sensor information integration that arises in wireless communications, where N sensors try to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to model an important aspect of the problem of sensor information integration that arises in wireless communications, where N sensors try to communicate with a receiver using a single un‐shareable radio channel. If several sensors transmit at the same time, their transmissions collide at the receiver resulting in garbled messages and the need for re‐transmission. This is highly undesirable since the sensors are energy‐constrained and the radio interface is known to be the most significant source of energy expenditure. Consequently, it is of paramount importance to design arbitration protocols that are highly efficient in stamping out collisions and that are, at the same time, as lightweight as possible.
Design/methodology/approach
The receiver advertises a time division multiple access (TDMA) frame consisting of n slots, numbered from 1 to n, where n is an application‐dependent parameter. Each sensor generates uniformly at random, and independently of other sensor, an integer i between 1 and n and transmits in the i‐th slot of the TDMA frame. If two or more sensors are transmitting in the same slot their messages will be lost to collision. Similarly, slots that carry no transmission are wasted. The authors model the arbitration strategy discussed above as a Bose‐Einstein occupancy problem where N indistinguishable balls are thrown at random into n distinguishable bins and all distinguishable outcomes are considered to be equally likely.
Findings
In this paper the authors present a distributed probabilistic mechanism that aims to arbitrate between several competing requests by various sensors for the radio channel. The mechanism is simple, energy‐efficient and does not rely on the existence of unique sensor identifiers (IDs).
Originality/value
The Bose‐Einstein occupancy model presented in this paper will help the receiver to tailor an appropriate number of timeslots in TDMA frame during the integration process, such that collisions are minimized, and hence integration between sensors can be done effectively.
Details
Keywords
Stephan Olariu, Ismail Khalil and Mahmoud Abuelela
The past decade has witnessed a growing interest in vehicular networking and its myriad applications. The initial view of practitioners and researchers was that radio‐equipped…
Abstract
Purpose
The past decade has witnessed a growing interest in vehicular networking and its myriad applications. The initial view of practitioners and researchers was that radio‐equipped vehicles can keep the drivers informed about potential safety risks and can enhance their awareness of road conditions and traffic‐related events. This conceptual paper seeks to put forth a novel vision, namely that advances in vehicular networks, embedded devices, and cloud computing can be used to set up what are known as vehicular clouds (VCs).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper suggests that VCs are technologically feasible and that they are likely to have a significant societal impact.
Findings
The paper argues that at least in some of its manifestations, the ideas behind VCs are eminently implementable under present day technology. It is also expected that, once adopted and championed by municipalities and third‐party infrastructure providers, VCs will redefine the way in which pervasive computing and its myriad applications is thought of.
Research limitations/implications
This is a new concept for which a small‐scale prototype is being built. No large‐scale prototype exists at the moment.
Practical implications
VCs are a novel concept motivated by the realization of the fact that, most of the time, the tremendous amount of computing and communication resources available in vehicles is underutilized. Putting these resources to work in a meaningful way should have a significant societal impact.
Social implications
The main goal of this paper is to introduce and promote the concept of VCs, a non‐trivial extension, along several dimensions, of the by‐now “classic” cloud computing. The paper shows that the concept of VCs is feasible as of today – at least in some of its manifestations – and that it can have a significant societal impact in the years to come.
Originality/value
The idea of a VC is novel and so are the potential applications that are discussed in the paper.
Details
Keywords
Andreas Jede and Frank Teuteberg
There are cloud computing (CC) services available for various applications within supply chain management (SCM) processes and related enterprise information systems (ISs). These…
Abstract
Purpose
There are cloud computing (CC) services available for various applications within supply chain management (SCM) processes and related enterprise information systems (ISs). These services offer, for example, consistent global networking platforms and shared real-time information. Furthermore, they enable quick decision making and ensure efficiency, which may strengthen competitive advantages as to digital processes within the supply chain (SC). However, research lacks a paper that systematically analyzes the interrelation between CC and SCM in detail and aims to become a reference point in the intersection of both research fields. Moreover, the purpose of this paper is to gain a deep understanding of the current state of research and to identify future research challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a cross-discipline systematic literature review from the research perspectives of ISs and SCM. In total, 99 papers have been investigated by combining qualitative and quantitative content analysis. As a side effect the authors developed a new methodological framework for conducting comprehensive literature reviews that could be applied by future research.
Finding
The authors discover the most important influence factors for CC implementations in SC processes and pay special attention to major issues, research methods, applied theoretical concepts, and geographical differences. Until now, SCM research in the realm of CC usage is still in its infancy both in theory and practice.
Research limitations/implications
Possibly not all of the relevant papers have been filtered during the paper selection phase. The findings of the literature review and the conceptual framework identifying different areas of concern are believed to be useful for future research to obtain an overview of the evolution of CC in SC processes.
Originality/value
To the best of the knowledge, there is no systematic literature review that consistently focusses CC usage within SC processes while integrating strategic aspects. Additionally, the authors constructed and applied a unique keyword analysis.