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Electronic voting consistently fails to supplant conventional paper ballot due to a plethora of security shortcomings. Not only are traditional voting methods mediocre in terms of transparency, audit, and costs, but they also encompass a principal-agent problem, where acting governments have real capability for tampering. Here, I propose Proof of Work by user devices to fortify integrity of votes as cast and seed-isolated time-based one-time passwords to force observable polling stations. Coupled with end-2-end verifiability, the measures proposed are intended to completely decentralize the voting process. A state would only issue single-use authorizations to vote, while an untrusted publisher would collect and publish two unrelatable lists: votes and voters. Eventually, anyone could tabulate results. Content distribution networks are shown to be instrumental security providers. Weaknesses of proposed architecture are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

One of the vital components of an organization's prosperity is data. Through true sites that are explicitly intended for showcasing, data might be spread. The created site should satisfy speed and security measures. Cloudflare is an organization that offers content conveyance network administrations, cloud online protection, DDoS relief, and ICANN-licensed space enrollment administrations. Cloudflare typically facilitates the transport of data from website pages so it ends up being faster with splendid execution. Cloudflare confines bots and blocks dangers. Cloudflare fundamentally diminishes spam and dangers while additionally improving quality paces by up to 95%. Cloudflare's savvy framework reserving saves transmission capacity, and that implies less work for the server and less cash. Cloudflare cuts down bandwidth by a typical 60%. Cloudflare decreases open time by half on each site page, bringing about speeding up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of 5G+ services, it has become increasingly convenient for mobile users to enjoy high-quality multimedia content from CDN driven streaming and catch-up TV services (Netflix, iPlayer) in the (post-) COVID over-the-top (OTT) content rush. To relieve ISP owned fixed-line networks from CDN streamed multimedia traffic, system ideas (e.g., Wi-Stitch in [45]) have been proposed to (a) leverage 5G services and enable consumers to share cached multimedia content at the edge, and (b) consequently, and more importantly, reduce IP traffic at the core network. Unfortunately, given that contemporary multimedia content might be a monetized asset, these ideas do not take this important fact into account for shared content. We present EdgeMart--a content provider (CP) federated, and computationally sustainable networked (graphical) market economy for paid-sharing of cached licensed (OTT) content with autonomous users of a wireless edge network (WEN). EdgeMart is a unique oligopoly multimedia market (economy) that comprises competing networked sub-markets of non-cooperative content sellers/buyers--each sub-market consisting of a single buyer connected (networked) to only a subset of sellers. We prove that for any WEN-supported supply-demand topology, a pure strategy EdgeMart equilibrium exists that is (a) nearly efficient (in a microeconomic sense) indicating economy sustainability, (b) robust to edge user entry/exit, and (c) can be reached in poly-time (indicating computational sustainability). In addition, we experimentally show that for physical WENs of varying densities, a rationally selfish EdgeMart economy induces similar orders of multimedia IP traffic savings when compared to the ideal (relatively less practical), altruistic, and non-monetized "economy" implemented atop the recently introduced Wi-Stitch WEN-based content trading architecture. Moreover, the EdgeMart concept helps envision a regulated edge economy of opportunistic (pay per licensed file) client services for commercial OTT platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid growth of internet traffic, the traditional host-to-host TCP/IP architecture is subject to many service limitations faced with content-oriented applications. Various novel network architectures have been proposed to solve these limitations, among which Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is one of the most prominent. ICN features the decoupling of content (service) from the physical devices storing (providing) it through location-independent naming, and offers inherent enhancement to network performance, such as multicast and in-network caching. ICN in-network caching has been extensively studied, and we believe that it may also be the main incentive for ISPs to deploy ICN. A CDN (content delivery network) is a typical content-oriented network paradigm that aims to provide the fast delivery of content. In this paper, we leverage the advantages of the in-network caching of ICN to enhance the content delivery efficiency of CDN by integrating ICN as a service. First, we present our design of a content delivery network enhanced with ICN, called IECDN. Additionally, we formulate a mathematical model to optimize the performance of our proposed design and conduct a series of evaluations. The results indicate that our proposed design provides significant performance gains while reducing bandwidth consumption and shows better resilience to traffic surge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Moving away can be motivated by a multitude of factors, just as the reasons for not moving away might be different. The individual’s social situation greatly determines the chance of turning their life situation around through moving away. Aims: We investigated the factors that affected the representatives of the three Roma groups researched here (Romungro, Vlach, Boyash) in their moving in the past and in their intentions to move in the future. Methods: A SEM model was developed (N = 570) to analyze the differences between previous movers and non-movers in well-being, socioeconomic status, and social network. We also investigated the effect of the above variables on the intention to move. Data were collected via the “snowball method”. Results: Out of the Vlachs, those who had moved in the past have significantly fewer confidant relatives (p = .021) and also know significantly fewer people pursuing high-prestige vocations (p = .003), moreover, the fewer people pursuing moderate-prestige vocations they know, the more they would like to move away from their present residence (p = .031). Regarding the Boyash, the more favorable their socio-economic situation, the more they would like to move away (p = .007); while regarding the Romungro, the low level of their mental wellbeing (p = .019) and the relatively high number of their confidant relatives constitutes (p = .017) the incentive to change their residence. Conclusions: The spatially mobile Roma who had moved before possess fewer confidant relatives and weak ties. The individual factors connect to the different Roma groups’ moving intentions to various extents.

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) play a vital role in today's Internet ecosystem. To reduce the latency of loading a website's content, CDNs deploy edge servers in different geographic locations. CDN providers also offer important security features including protection against Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), and recently, issuing and managing certificates for their customers. Many popular websites use CDNs to benefit from both the security and the performance advantages. For HTTPS websites, Transport Layer Security (TLS) security choices may differ in the connections between end-users and a CDN (front-end or user-to-CDN), and between the CDN and the origin server (back-end or CDN-to-Origin). Modern browsers can stop/warn users if weak or insecure TLS/HTTPS options are used in the front-end connections. However, such problems in the back-end connections are not visible to browsers or end-users, and lead to serious security issues (e.g., not validating the certificate can lead to MitM attacks). In this article, we primarily analyze TLS/HTTPS security issues in the back-end communication; such issues include inadequate certificate validation and support for vulnerable TLS configurations. We develop a test framework and investigate the back-end connection of 14 leading CDNs (including Cloudflare, Microsoft Azure, Amazon, and Fastly), where we could create an account. Surprisingly, for all the 14 CDNs, we found that the back-end TLS connections are vulnerable to security issues prevented/warned by modern browsers; examples include failing to validate the origin server's certificate, and using insecure cipher suites such as RC4, MD5, SHA-1, and even allowing plain HTTP connections to the origin. We also identified 168,795 websites in the Alexa top 1 million that are potentially vulnerable to Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks in their back-end connections regardless of the origin/CDN configurations chosen by the origin owner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid growth of internet traffic, the traditional host-to-host TCP/IP architecture is subject to many service limitations faced with content-oriented applications. Various novel network architectures have been proposed to solve these limitations, among which Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is one of the most prominent. ICN features the decoupling of content (service) from the physical devices storing (providing) it through location-independent naming, and offers inherent enhancement to network performance, such as multicast and in-network caching. ICN in-network caching has been extensively studied, and we believe that it may also be the main incentive for ISPs to deploy ICN. A CDN (content delivery network) is a typical content-oriented network paradigm that aims to provide the fast delivery of content. In this paper, we leverage the advantages of the in-network caching of ICN to enhance the content delivery efficiency of CDN by integrating ICN as a service. First, we present our design of a content delivery network enhanced with ICN, called IECDN. Additionally, we formulate a mathematical model to optimize the performance of our proposed design and conduct a series of evaluations. The results indicate that our proposed design provides significant performance gains while reducing bandwidth consumption and shows better resilience to traffic surge.

Introduction: Moving away can be motivated by a multitude of factors, just as the reasons for not moving away might be different. The individual’s social situation greatly determines the chance of turning their life situation around through moving away. Aims: We investigated the factors that affected the representatives of the three Roma groups researched here (Romungro, Vlach, Boyash) in their moving in the past and in their intentions to move in the future. Methods: A SEM model was developed (N = 570) to analyze the differences between previous movers and non-movers in well-being, socioeconomic status, and social network. We also investigated the effect of the above variables on the intention to move. Data were collected via the “snowball method”. Results: Out of the Vlachs, those who had moved in the past have significantly fewer confidant relatives (p = .021) and also know significantly fewer people pursuing high-prestige vocations (p = .003), moreover, the fewer people pursuing moderate-prestige vocations they know, the more they would like to move away from their present residence (p = .031). Regarding the Boyash, the more favorable their socio-economic situation, the more they would like to move away (p = .007); while regarding the Romungro, the low level of their mental wellbeing (p = .019) and the relatively high number of their confidant relatives constitutes (p = .017) the incentive to change their residence. Conclusions: The spatially mobile Roma who had moved before possess fewer confidant relatives and weak ties. The individual factors connect to the different Roma groups’ moving intentions to various extents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, image and video super-resolution have gained attention outside the computer vision community due to the outstanding results produced by applying deep-learning models to solve the super-resolution problem. These models have been used to improve the quality of videos and images. In the last decade, video-streaming applications have also become popular. Consequently, they have generated traffic with an increasing quantity of data in network infrastructures, which continues to grow, e.g., global video traffic is forecast to increase from 75% in 2017 to 82% in 2022. In this paper, we leverage the power of deep-learning-based super-resolution methods and implement a model for video super-resolution, which we call VSRGAN+. We train our model with a dataset proposed to teach systems for high-level visual comprehension tasks. We also test it on a large-scale JND-based coded video quality dataset containing 220 video clips with four different resolutions. Additionally, we propose a cloud video-delivery framework that uses video super-resolution. According to our findings, the VSRGAN+ model can reconstruct videos without perceptual distinction of the ground truth. Using this model with added compression can decrease the quantity of data delivered to surrogate servers in a cloud video-delivery framework. The traffic decrease reaches 98.42% in total. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of German International Journal of Modern Science / Deutsche Internationale Zeitschrift für Zeitgenössische Wissenschaft is the property of Artmedia24 and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A communication protocol includes one or more messages passed between Web routers over a reliable transmission protocol used for inter-Web router communication. These messages include information that allows the Web routers to dynamically update mappings of client addresses or address ranges to information object repository addresses based on client-to-server distance and server load. The mappings are preferably optimal mappings of the client addresses or address ranges to the information object repository addresses and the messages report updated distances from these information object repository addresses to the client addresses or address ranges. For example, the messages may report, for each updated distance, an associated client address or address range and/or an associated anchor address of a Web router co-located with an information object repository that is the subject of the message.

Modern key-value stores, object stores, Internet proxy caches, and Content Delivery Networks (CDN) often manage objects of diverse sizes, e.g., blobs, video files of different lengths, images with varying resolutions, and small documents. In such workloads, size-aware cache policies outperform size-oblivious algorithms. Unfortunately, existing size-aware algorithms tend to be overly complicated and computationally expensive. Our work follows a more approachable pattern; we extend the prevalent (size-oblivious) TinyLFU cache admission policy to handle variable-sized items. Implementing our approach inside two popular caching libraries only requires minor changes. We show that our algorithms yield competitive or better hit-ratios and byte hit-ratios compared to the state-of-the-art size-aware algorithms such as AdaptSize, LHD, LRB, and GDSF. Further, a runtime comparison indicates that our implementation is faster by up to 3× compared to the best alternative, i.e., it imposes a much lower CPU overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latency is one of the key parameters of Internet services. However, it is difficult to correctly assess a service by its latency. Many latency measurements are blocked en route by routers and firewalls. For this reason, the service latency is not fully known. This work proposes a method to assess Internet services including the blocked latency measurements. Survival theory is applied to process latency values. The results show that the omission of blocked latencies from statistical processing severely underestimates the service latency. Two Internet service providers were compared as an example. Their latency difference was 9 ms using the traditional approach. The survival latency resulted in a difference of 17 ms. The method of survival latency can be used to increase revenues in e-commerce and to improve the experience of online gaming.

The transmission bandwidth of a vehicle–ground connection is low when an EMU (electric multiple unit) is running in a high-speed scenario. To this end, this paper focuses on the need to solve the problem of the poor bandwidth of the vehicle–ground integration information network, and proposes a vehicle–ground integration information network scheme for EMUs based on small base stations. Based on the existing wi-fi system of the EMU, in order to realize the coverage of the 5G signal in the carriage, this paper—through the deployment of the technical characteristics of 5G—sinks the customized UPF (user plane function) and MEC (mobile edge computing) to the train carriage, and expands the internet channels of the train carriage. Relying on the technologies of MEC and CDN (content delivery network) for high-speed railways, network extension service products can satisfy passengers' needs around network rate and delay. On the one hand, this can relieve the pressure of the network backhaul and save the bandwidth resources of the vehicle–ground integration information network. On the other hand, it can help operators to reduce the investment of network construction, operation, and maintenance. As a result, the proposed scheme can inspire the products that match the extended service needs of the passenger, realize the technical and innovation value of the 5G mobile network, and achieve business model innovation in high-speed mobile scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problem of how edge computing and Content Delivery Network (CDN) edge nodes implementing the resource coordination, the technology and method of CDN cache software adapting to virtual machines and containers are proposed. By comparing and analyzing the performance test data of CDN in three deployment modes of physical machine, container and virtual machine, the performance loss caused by CDN virtualization is evaluated. The performance loss of the container mode is small, and its performance is comparable to the physical machine. The performance loss of the virtual machine mode is large, and its performance is equivalent to about 75%of the physical machine. According to the nominal value of performance, the virtualized CDN edge node can release most of the central processing unit, memory and disk resources, and achieve resource sharing with edge computing.

Kubernetes is one of the platforms which provides different features that help in the deployment of applications. This platform provides different ways to enhance the application’s capability. With the better exploration of these ways, we can provide the best Content Delivery Network (CDN) services. Some of the important Kubernetes features that are useful in the deployment of CDN application is highlighted in this paper. The aim of this paper is the analysis of the CDN application deployment and the demonstration of high)speed data delivery from the CDN application. We deployed a single-node Kubernetes edge cluster on the physical machine using Intel’s Open NESS software toolkit. We installed the NGINX-based CDN applications on the Kuberenetes cluster. To achieve higher speed, the Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) interface is used between the edge node and the CDN client machine. The performance measurements of the CDN application show higher data delivery speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large content providers and content distribution network operators usually connect with large Internet service providers (eyeball networks) through dedicated private peering. The capacity of these private network interconnects is provisioned to match the volume of the real content demand by the users. Unfortunately, in cases in which there is a surge in traffic demand, (e.g., due to trending content or massive software updates) the capacity of the private interconnect may deplete, requiring the content provider/distributor to reroute the excess traffic through transit providers. Although such overflow events are rare, they negatively impact content providers, Internet service providers, and end-users. Such impact includes unexpected delays and disruptions that reduce the quality of the user experience, as well as direct costs paid by the Internet service provider to the transit providers. In this article, we examine the problem of predicting an overflow event in order to enable content and Internet service providers to handle the excess traffic in a timely manner. We propose an ensemble of deep learning models trained to predict overflow events over a short-term horizon of 2–4 hours and predict the specific interconnections through which the excess traffic will enter the Internet service provider. Evaluated with 2.5 years (2017-2019) of traffic measurement data from a large European Internet service provider, the models were shown to successfully recall 65% of the events with precision of 51% on average. While the lockdowns imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the overflow prediction accuracy, the pandemic’s impact on the accuracy was temporary. Although the lockdown continued on and off, the performance of models trained before the pandemic regained their performance during April-May 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, image and video super-resolution have gained attention outside the computer vision community due to the outstanding results produced by applying deep-learning models to solve the super-resolution problem. These models have been used to improve the quality of videos and images. In the last decade, video-streaming applications have also become popular. Consequently, they have generated traffic with an increasing quantity of data in network infrastructures, which continues to grow, e.g., global video traffic is forecast to increase from 75% in 2017 to 82% in 2022. In this paper, we leverage the power of deep-learning-based super-resolution methods and implement a model for video super-resolution, which we call VSRGAN+. We train our model with a dataset proposed to teach systems for high-level visual comprehension tasks. We also test it on a large-scale JND-based coded video quality dataset containing 220 video clips with four different resolutions. Additionally, we propose a cloud video-delivery framework that uses video super-resolution. According to our findings, the VSRGAN+ model can reconstruct videos without perceptual distinction of the ground truth. Using this model with added compression can decrease the quantity of data delivered to surrogate servers in a cloud video-delivery framework. The traffic decrease reaches 98.42% in total.

The rapid development of blockchain technology has provided new ideas for network security research. Blockchain-based network security enhancement solutions are attracting widespread attention. This paper proposes an Internet domain name verification method based on blockchain. The authenticity of DNS (Domain Name System) resolution results is crucial for ensuring the accessibility of Internet services. Due to the lack of adequate security mechanisms, it has always been a challenge to verify the authenticity of Internet domain name resolution results. Although the solution represented by DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) can theoretically solve the domain name verification problem, it has not been widely deployed on a global scale due to political, economic, and technical constraints. We argue that the root cause of this problem lies in the significant centralization of the DNS system. This centralized feature not only reduces the efficiency of domain name verification but also has the hidden risks of single point of failure and unilateral control. Internet users may disappear from the Internet due to the results of fake, subverted, or misconfigured domain name resolution. This paper presents a decentralized DNS cache verification method, which uses the consortium blockchain to replace the root domain name server to verify the authenticity of the domain name. Compared with DNSSEC's domain name verification process, the verification efficiency of this method has increased by 30%, and there is no single point of failure or unilateral control risk. In addition, this solution is incrementally deployable, and even if it is deployed on a small number of content delivery network servers, satisfactory results can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of social media, the political speech of undergraduates blots out the sky and covers up the earth, which perhaps generates the negative effect. To enhance the management ability of government departments, it is considerably necessary to pay more attention to the public opinion. However, the current researches on the public opinion mainly focus on mathematical modeling or data mining irrespective of public opinion analysis. Consider that Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has the strong data analysis ability, this paper uses CNN to realize the special application, that is, politics public opinion analysis of undergraduates, which has two functions. On one hand, greatly help the government departments eliminate the crisis timely; On the other hand, correctly guide the political education of undergraduates. Besides, this paper also presents a case study based on Content Delivery Network (CDN) deployment, in which a monitor system of public opinion analysis is implemented to analyze the undergraduates' political speech. Finally, with three public opinion dissemination modes consideration, the experiments are made. The results show that CNN has better training ability and the whole deployment is more significant compared to the state‐of‐the‐art schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stimulator of interferon genes (STING) is an important regulator of the innate immune response to cytoplasmic DNA. However, regulation of STING itself is largely unknown. Here, we show that STING transcription is induced by innate immune activators, such as cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs), through an IFNAR1- and STAT1-dependent pathway. We also identify a STAT1 binding site in the STING promoter that contributes to the activation of STING transcription. Furthermore, we show that induction of STING mediates the positive feedback regulation of CDN-triggered IFN-I. Thus, our study demonstrates that STING is an interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) and its induction is crucial for the IFN-I positive feedback loop.

Copyright of Study on Optical Communications / Guangtongxin Yanjiu is the property of Study on Optical Communications Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)