Academic literature on the topic 'Packet delay'

Factors like network delay, latency and bandwidth significantly affect the quality of communication using Voice over Internet Protocol. The use of jitter buffer at the receiving end compensates the effect of varying network delay up to some extent. But the extra buffer delay given for each packet plays a major role in playing late packets and thereby improving voice quality. As the buffer delay increases packet loss rate decreases, which in general is a very good sign. However, an increase of buffer delay beyond a certain limit affects the interactive quality of voice communication. In this paper, we propose a statistical framework for adaptive playout scheduling of voice packets based on network statistics, packet loss rate and availability of packets in the buffer. Experimental results show that the proposed model allocates optimal buffer delay with the lowest packet loss rate when compared with other algorithms.

In a cognitive radio network (CRN), a preempted secondary user (SU) is placed in a call level queue to wait for accessing another free channel. If the availability of channels is transparent to SUs, packets will be generated during their waiting time and the performance of the CRN will be influenced by which way to handle these packets. In this paper, the call level queue is departed into two parts, delay queue and discard queue. Here, an analytical model is developed to derive the formulas for both call level performance measures (i.e., call blocking probability) and packet level performance measures (i.e., packet delay, packet loss ratio and throughput). Numerical results show that theoretical models are consistent with simulation results. The major observations include (i) The performances of an SU degrade as the call arrival rate increases. (ii) With the increase of the delay queue length, the SU call blocking probability and packet delay increase, while the packet loss ratio and throughput decrease. (iii) Adopting different delay queue length causes a smaller effect on call blocking probability and throughput than on packet loss ratio and packet delay.

Recently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been applied to various applications. In order to perform repetitive and accurate tasks with a UAV, it is more efficient for the operator to perform the tasks through an integrated management program rather than controlling the UAVs one by one through a controller. In this environment, control packets must be reliably delivered to the UAV to perform missions stably. However, wireless communication is at risk of packet loss or packet delay. Typical network communications can respond to situations in which packets are lost by retransmitting lost packets. However, in the case of UAV control, delay due to retransmission is fatal, so control packet loss and delay should not occur. As UAVs move quickly, there is a high risk of accidents if control packets are lost or delayed. In order to stably control a UAV by transmitting control messages, we propose a control packet transmission scheme, ConClone. ConClone replicates control packets and then transmits them over multiple network connections to increase the probability of successful control packet transmission. We implemented ConClone using real equipment, and we verified its performance through experiments and theoretical analysis.

The peculiarity of the special purpose communication information network is that its functioning is influenced by the tactical situation. In particular, it determines the intensity of the flow of packets with information about the enemy's moving objects from reconnaissance and signaling complexes to the switching node, and from it to the control point and means of destruction, depending on the probable nature of enemy action. In combat applications, the information network operates simultaneously with fast and slow packet flows. At the same time, the packet delay in the switching node should not exceed the allowable value. Excessive packet delay results in the loss of relevance of transmitted messages and, consequently, in the loss of intelligence data. The proposed method of eliminating excessive delay involves the formation of two queues of packets in the switching node. Withdrawal of service packages from two queues is carried out using a new adaptive procedure. An adaptive switch has been introduced into the structure of the switching node, designed to withdraw packets from queues to the packet service system. When selecting a packet queue, the adaptive switch compares the number of service requests from each queue. The method assumes that the number of service requests from the fast packet flow queue determines the number of packets that are in the queue. The number of requests that are formed from the queue of slow-flow packets has two components: the number of real and the number of conditional requests. Actual applications take into account the number of packets in the queue. Real requests take into account the number of packets in the queue. Conditional requests take into account the delay time, since for each missed cycle of the packet's withdrawal from the slow flow queue, the adaptive switch generates a conditional request. Therefore, the number of requests for a slow stream grows even without packets entering the queue. A comparative study of options for implementing the adaptive procedure has been carried out. The proposed method for eliminating excessive packet delay in the switching node provides an increase in the efficiency of the functioning of a special-purpose information network as a whole.

Wireless network services can be known for their quality with the Quality of Service (QoS) method. This method can measure the quality of streaming services in terms of throughput, delay, packet loss, and jitter. The purpose of this study was to analyze wireless network QoS for streaming technology. This type of research is quantitative with observation methods using the Wireshark application and compared with TIPHON standards. The target of the ICONNET ISP wireless survey on Jalan Nusantara km. 13 Tanjungpinang Timur District. The parameters for measuring QoS use four parameters, namely throughput, delay, packet loss, and jitter. Our findings show that the throughput of obtaining index value is 3.67 and is at a good level. Furthermore, the delay value has an average index of 4 with the best level. Meanwhile, the jitter obtained an index value of 3 at a good level, while the packet loss value obtained an index of 3.3 and had a good level. Based on the results of this study, the quality of ICONNET ISP wireless network services when accessing streaming technology shows data speed instability, data delays, and lost data packets. However, the network quality is still in the "Good" level in terms of throughput, jitter, and packet loss parameters, and the "Best" level in terms of the delay parameter.

Packet scheduling and buffer management are the two important functions adopted in networks design to ensure the Quality of Service (QoS) when different types of packets with different needs of quality share the same network resources. The Packet scheduling policy determines packet service priorities at the output link, it can reduce packet delay and delay jitter for high-priority traffic. The buffer management involves packet dropping and buffer allocation. The overall goal of such schemes proposed in High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is to take advantage of the channel variations between users and preferably schedule transmissions to a user when the channel conditions are advantageous; it does not take in consideration the characteristics of the flows composing the transmitted traffic to the user. This paper compares two queue management mechanisms with thresholds applied for packets transmitted to an end user in HSDPA network. Those mechanisms are used to manage access packets in the queue giving priority to the Real Time (RT) packets and avoiding the Non Real Time (NRT) packets loss. The authors show that the performance parameters of RT packets are similar in the two mechanisms, where as the second mechanism improves the performance parameters of the NRT packets.

Packet-level Forward Error Control (FEC) for video streaming over a wireless network has received comparatively limited investigation, because of the delay introduced by the need to assemble a group of packets. However, packet-level interleaving when combined with FEC presents a remedy to time-correlated error bursts, though it can further increase delay if this issue is not addressed. This paper proposes adapting the overall degree of interleaved packet-level FEC according to the display deadlines of packets, transmit buffer occupation, and estimated video input to the wireless channel, all of which address the issue of delay. To guard against estimation error, the scheme applies a conservative adaptation policy, which accounts for picture type importance to ensure that display deadlines are met, thus avoiding this defect of interleaving. The paper additionally introduces a greedy algorithm that effectively groups packet-level FEC protection according to packet priority. Priority encoding adds extra protection during deep fades. As feedback is not required, the interleaving scheme is suitable for all forms of video broadcast. A Bluetooth piconet demonstrates the packet-level FEC interleaving scheme, which provides higher quality delivered video compared to the industry-standard Pro-MPEG Cop#3r2 interleaving scheme.

AbstractWe consider a hybrid switch which provides integrated packet (asynchronous) and circuit (isochronous) switching. Queue size and delay distribution of the packet switched traffic in the steady state are derived by modelling the packet queue as a queue in a Markovian environment. The arrival process of the packets as well as of the circuit allocation requests are both modelled by a Poisson process. The analysis is performed for several circuit allocation policies, namely repacking, first-fit (involving static or dynamic renumbering) and best-fit. Both exact results and approximations are discussed. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the effect of increase in packet and circuit loading on the packet delay for each of the policies.

The development of today's telecommunication network is progressing very fast. Various kinds of telecommunication technology facilities continue to be developed so that users can communicate practically, wherever the location of the user the resides. This study aims to find out what processes are running when data packets are sent such as computing and comparing the speed of packet data transmitted (Throughput), packet loss data (Packet Loss), and time delay data transmission from each user used. The method used in this study is to use literature study by taking data in the field with the aim to Calculate the value of Throughput, delay and packet loss of a packet sent by each user in the network Ethernet Switch. From the results of the study obtained Comparison of Througput of each field of work, seen in the financial field has the highest value. While having the lowest Througput value is in the field of news. Comparison of time delay of each field can be in the field of delay news with the fastest time to send data and in the field of finance delay with the longest time in data transmission. The packet loss data analysis of each experiment gets a good average score in each field according to ITU G.114 standard with 0% percentage.

Because of the specific characteristics of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks and real-time applications, the trade-off between delay and reliability imposes problems for streaming video. Buffer management and drop packets policies play a critical role in the final quality of the video received by the end station. In this paper, we present a reactive buffer management algorithm, called Multi-Source Application Layer Automatic Repeat Request (MS-AL-ARQ), for a real-time non-interactive video streaming system installed on a standalone UAV network. This algorithm implements a selective-repeat ARQ model for a multi-source download scenario using a shared buffer for packet reordering, packet recovery, and measurement of Quality of Service (QoS) metrics (packet loss rate, delay and, delay jitter). The proposed algorithm MS-AL-ARQ will be injected on the application layer to alleviate packet loss due to wireless interference and collision while the destination node (base station) receives video data in real-time from different transmitters at the same time. Moreover, it will identify and detect packet loss events for each data flow and send Negative-Acknowledgments (NACKs) if packets were lost. Additionally, the one-way packet delay, jitter, and packet loss ratio will be calculated for each data flow to investigate the performances of the algorithm for different numbers of nodes under different network conditions. We show that the presented algorithm improves the QoS of the video data received under the worst network connection conditions. Furthermore, some congestion issues during deep analyses of the algorithm’s performances have been identified and explained.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1986.
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Bibliography: leaf 61.
by Talissa A. Altes.
M.S.

Quantization of multimodal vector data in Realtime Interactive Communication Networks (RICNs) associated with application areas such as speech, video, audio, and haptic signals introduces a set of unique challenges. In particular, achieving the necessary distortion performance with minimum rate while maintaining low end-to-end delay and handling packet losses is of paramount importance. This dissertation presents vector quantization schemes which aim to satisfy these important requirements based on two source coding paradigms; 1) Predictive coding 2) Distributed source coding. Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) can be used to model any probability density function (pdf) with an arbitrarily small error given a sufficient number of mixture components. Hence, Gaussian Mixture Models can be effectively used to model the underlying pdfs of a variety of data in RICN applications. In this dissertation, first we present Gaussian Mixture Models Kalman predictive coding, which uses transform domain predictive GMM quantization techniques with Kalman filtering principles. In particular, we show how suitable modeling of quantization noise leads to a signal-adaptive GMM Kalman predictive coder that provides improved coding performance. Moreover, we demonstrate how running a GMM Kalman predictive coder to convergence can be used to design a stationary GMM Kalman predictive coding system which provides improved coding of GMM vector data but now with only a modest increase in run-time complexity over the baseline. Next, we address the issues of packet loss in the networks using GMM Kalman predictive coding principles. In particular, we show how an initial GMM Kalman predictive coder can be utilized to obtain a robust GMM predictive coder specifically designed to operate in packet loss. We demonstrate how one can define sets of encoding and decoding modes, and design special Kalman encoding and decoding gains for each mode. With this framework, GMM predictive coding design can be viewed as determining the special Kalman gains that minimize the expected mean squared error at the decoder in packet loss conditions. Finally, we present analytical techniques for modeling, analyzing and designing Wyner-Ziv(WZ) quantizers for Distributed Source Coding for jointly Gaussian vector data with imperfect side information. In most of the DSC implementations, the side information is not explicitly available in the decoder. Thus, almost all of the practical implementations obtain the side information from the previously decoded frames. Due to model imperfections, packet losses, previous decoding errors, and quantization noise, the available side information is usually noisy. However, the design of Wyner-Ziv quantizers for imperfect side information has not been widely addressed in the DSC literature. The analytical techniques presented in this dissertation explicitly assume the existence of imperfect side information in the decoder. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the design problem for vector data can be decomposed into independent scalar design subproblems. Then, we present the analytical techniques to compute the optimum step size and bit allocation for each scalar quantizer such that the decoder's expected vector Mean Squared Error(MSE) is minimized. The simulation results verify that the predicted MSE based on the presented analytical techniques closely follow the simulation results.

The prediction of mean end-to-end delay of multiple packet messages is the focus of this thesis. The models established are of great importance to network designers as they provide the basis for meeting user requirements for time delays and for network throughput.
Two distinct models are developed depending upon the traffic load requested by network users. The first model considers traffic conditions in which the traffic demand heavily loads the computer network. Mean end-to-end message delays are computed by assuming the existence of product form solution of the obtained closed queueing network model. Heuristics are developed and are validated via simulation to render the computation feasible and to extend the solution method to non product form networks.
Under light traffic conditions, clusters of packets resulting from message segmentation may enter the computer network. To this end, algorithms are developed to determine the network performance measures of closed queueing networks in which bulk transitions are possible. A second message delay model is then developed to take into account the clustered arrival of packets to the network. All models and heuristics are validated via simulation.
Finally, the appropriate length of the packets into which a message should be segmented is addressed. The performance tradeoff between message delay and throughput is discussed. Boundaries delimiting the packet size to meet user requirements are established for delay and throughput.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1986.
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Bibliography: leaf 58.
by Charles Rossi, Jr.
M.S.

Radio networks are expanding, becoming more advanced, and pushing the limits of what is possible. Services utilizing the radio networks are also being developed in order to provide new functionality to end-users worldwide. When discussing 5G radio networks, concepts such as driverless vehicles, drones and near zero communication delay are recurrent. However, measures of delay are needed in order to verify that such services can be provided -- and measuring this is an extensive task. Ericsson has developed a platform for simulating a radio environment surrounding a radio base station. Using this simulator, this project involved measuring one-way packet delay in a radio network, and performing a Quality of Service evaluation of a radio network with a number of network applications in concern. Application data corresponding to video streams, or Voice over IP conversations, were simulated and packet delay measurements were used to calculate and evaluate the Quality of Service provided by a radio network. One of the main conclusions of this project was that packet delay variations are asymmetric in uplink, which suggests usage of non-conventional jitter measurement techniques.

As older adults live longer, they experience a concomitant increase in chronic illness, which may be associated with a more frequent need for health care and intermittent or progressive functional decline. There is an increased need for regular health care monitoring as well as treatment and coordination of care among multiple providers and across settings to prevent, delay, or minimize decline in health and quality of life. Interprofessional collaboration is critical for safe coordination of care, reduction of duplication in services, and cost containment. Health care professionals who serve older adults are developing new models of collaboration to provide more integrated and person-centered approaches to maintaining the quality of life for older adults, especially those with multiple chronic illnesses. These models include health-oriented teams, home and community-based services, Acute Care for Elders (ACE), home-based primary care, Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), comprehensive geriatric assessment, and palliative care teams.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

Investigation on using network for distributed systems is an important topic in the motion control industry. This paper presents solutions to time-delay and packet-loss problems encountered in distributed real-time operation of an open-loop unstable magnetic levitation (maglev) test bed via an Ethernet. A novel model predictive control strategy with optimal controller design is developed to overcome the adverse influences of time delays and packet losses. By using the prediction of system states and the event-driven and time-driven smart actuator simultaneously, the plant receives the current control signal in every sampling interval even at the presence of time delays and packet losses. Thus we can compensate the time-delay and packet-loss in a uniform way. The simulation and experimental results demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of this control algorithm for NCSs with long stochastic time delays and successive packet losses.

1.1 Macroeconomic summary Economic recovery has consistently outperformed the technical staff’s expectations following a steep decline in activity in the second quarter of 2020. At the same time, total and core inflation rates have fallen and remain at low levels, suggesting that a significant element of the reactivation of Colombia’s economy has been related to recovery in potential GDP. This would support the technical staff’s diagnosis of weak aggregate demand and ample excess capacity. The most recently available data on 2020 growth suggests a contraction in economic activity of 6.8%, lower than estimates from January’s Monetary Policy Report (-7.2%). High-frequency indicators suggest that economic performance was significantly more dynamic than expected in January, despite mobility restrictions and quarantine measures. This has also come amid declines in total and core inflation, the latter of which was below January projections if controlling for certain relative price changes. This suggests that the unexpected strength of recent growth contains elements of demand, and that excess capacity, while significant, could be lower than previously estimated. Nevertheless, uncertainty over the measurement of excess capacity continues to be unusually high and marked both by variations in the way different economic sectors and spending components have been affected by the pandemic, and by uneven price behavior. The size of excess capacity, and in particular the evolution of the pandemic in forthcoming quarters, constitute substantial risks to the macroeconomic forecast presented in this report. Despite the unexpected strength of the recovery, the technical staff continues to project ample excess capacity that is expected to remain on the forecast horizon, alongside core inflation that will likely remain below the target. Domestic demand remains below 2019 levels amid unusually significant uncertainty over the size of excess capacity in the economy. High national unemployment (14.6% for February 2021) reflects a loose labor market, while observed total and core inflation continue to be below 2%. Inflationary pressures from the exchange rate are expected to continue to be low, with relatively little pass-through on inflation. This would be compatible with a negative output gap. Excess productive capacity and the expectation of core inflation below the 3% target on the forecast horizon provide a basis for an expansive monetary policy posture. The technical staff’s assessment of certain shocks and their expected effects on the economy, as well as the presence of several sources of uncertainty and related assumptions about their potential macroeconomic impacts, remain a feature of this report. The coronavirus pandemic, in particular, continues to affect the public health environment, and the reopening of Colombia’s economy remains incomplete. The technical staff’s assessment is that the COVID-19 shock has affected both aggregate demand and supply, but that the impact on demand has been deeper and more persistent. Given this persistence, the central forecast accounts for a gradual tightening of the output gap in the absence of new waves of contagion, and as vaccination campaigns progress. The central forecast continues to include an expected increase of total and core inflation rates in the second quarter of 2021, alongside the lapse of the temporary price relief measures put in place in 2020. Additional COVID-19 outbreaks (of uncertain duration and intensity) represent a significant risk factor that could affect these projections. Additionally, the forecast continues to include an upward trend in sovereign risk premiums, reflected by higher levels of public debt that in the wake of the pandemic are likely to persist on the forecast horizon, even in the context of a fiscal adjustment. At the same time, the projection accounts for the shortterm effects on private domestic demand from a fiscal adjustment along the lines of the one currently being proposed by the national government. This would be compatible with a gradual recovery of private domestic demand in 2022. The size and characteristics of the fiscal adjustment that is ultimately implemented, as well as the corresponding market response, represent another source of forecast uncertainty. Newly available information offers evidence of the potential for significant changes to the macroeconomic scenario, though without altering the general diagnosis described above. The most recent data on inflation, growth, fiscal policy, and international financial conditions suggests a more dynamic economy than previously expected. However, a third wave of the pandemic has delayed the re-opening of Colombia’s economy and brought with it a deceleration in economic activity. Detailed descriptions of these considerations and subsequent changes to the macroeconomic forecast are presented below. The expected annual decline in GDP (-0.3%) in the first quarter of 2021 appears to have been less pronounced than projected in January (-4.8%). Partial closures in January to address a second wave of COVID-19 appear to have had a less significant negative impact on the economy than previously estimated. This is reflected in figures related to mobility, energy demand, industry and retail sales, foreign trade, commercial transactions from selected banks, and the national statistics agency’s (DANE) economic tracking indicator (ISE). Output is now expected to have declined annually in the first quarter by 0.3%. Private consumption likely continued to recover, registering levels somewhat above those from the previous year, while public consumption likely increased significantly. While a recovery in investment in both housing and in other buildings and structures is expected, overall investment levels in this case likely continued to be low, and gross fixed capital formation is expected to continue to show significant annual declines. Imports likely recovered to again outpace exports, though both are expected to register significant annual declines. Economic activity that outpaced projections, an increase in oil prices and other export products, and an expected increase in public spending this year account for the upward revision to the 2021 growth forecast (from 4.6% with a range between 2% and 6% in January, to 6.0% with a range between 3% and 7% in April). As a result, the output gap is expected to be smaller and to tighten more rapidly than projected in the previous report, though it is still expected to remain in negative territory on the forecast horizon. Wide forecast intervals reflect the fact that the future evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic remains a significant source of uncertainty on these projections. The delay in the recovery of economic activity as a result of the resurgence of COVID-19 in the first quarter appears to have been less significant than projected in the January report. The central forecast scenario expects this improved performance to continue in 2021 alongside increased consumer and business confidence. Low real interest rates and an active credit supply would also support this dynamic, and the overall conditions would be expected to spur a recovery in consumption and investment. Increased growth in public spending and public works based on the national government’s spending plan (Plan Financiero del Gobierno) are other factors to consider. Additionally, an expected recovery in global demand and higher projected prices for oil and coffee would further contribute to improved external revenues and would favor investment, in particular in the oil sector. Given the above, the technical staff’s 2021 growth forecast has been revised upward from 4.6% in January (range from 2% to 6%) to 6.0% in April (range from 3% to 7%). These projections account for the potential for the third wave of COVID-19 to have a larger and more persistent effect on the economy than the previous wave, while also supposing that there will not be any additional significant waves of the pandemic and that mobility restrictions will be relaxed as a result. Economic growth in 2022 is expected to be 3%, with a range between 1% and 5%. This figure would be lower than projected in the January report (3.6% with a range between 2% and 6%), due to a higher base of comparison given the upward revision to expected GDP in 2021. This forecast also takes into account the likely effects on private demand of a fiscal adjustment of the size currently being proposed by the national government, and which would come into effect in 2022. Excess in productive capacity is now expected to be lower than estimated in January but continues to be significant and affected by high levels of uncertainty, as reflected in the wide forecast intervals. The possibility of new waves of the virus (of uncertain intensity and duration) represents a significant downward risk to projected GDP growth, and is signaled by the lower limits of the ranges provided in this report. Inflation (1.51%) and inflation excluding food and regulated items (0.94%) declined in March compared to December, continuing below the 3% target. The decline in inflation in this period was below projections, explained in large part by unanticipated increases in the costs of certain foods (3.92%) and regulated items (1.52%). An increase in international food and shipping prices, increased foreign demand for beef, and specific upward pressures on perishable food supplies appear to explain a lower-than-expected deceleration in the consumer price index (CPI) for foods. An unexpected increase in regulated items prices came amid unanticipated increases in international fuel prices, on some utilities rates, and for regulated education prices. The decline in annual inflation excluding food and regulated items between December and March was in line with projections from January, though this included downward pressure from a significant reduction in telecommunications rates due to the imminent entry of a new operator. When controlling for the effects of this relative price change, inflation excluding food and regulated items exceeds levels forecast in the previous report. Within this indicator of core inflation, the CPI for goods (1.05%) accelerated due to a reversion of the effects of the VAT-free day in November, which was largely accounted for in February, and possibly by the transmission of a recent depreciation of the peso on domestic prices for certain items (electric and household appliances). For their part, services prices decelerated and showed the lowest rate of annual growth (0.89%) among the large consumer baskets in the CPI. Within the services basket, the annual change in rental prices continued to decline, while those services that continue to experience the most significant restrictions on returning to normal operations (tourism, cinemas, nightlife, etc.) continued to register significant price declines. As previously mentioned, telephone rates also fell significantly due to increased competition in the market. Total inflation is expected to continue to be affected by ample excesses in productive capacity for the remainder of 2021 and 2022, though less so than projected in January. As a result, convergence to the inflation target is now expected to be somewhat faster than estimated in the previous report, assuming the absence of significant additional outbreaks of COVID-19. The technical staff’s year-end inflation projections for 2021 and 2022 have increased, suggesting figures around 3% due largely to variation in food and regulated items prices. The projection for inflation excluding food and regulated items also increased, but remains below 3%. Price relief measures on indirect taxes implemented in 2020 are expected to lapse in the second quarter of 2021, generating a one-off effect on prices and temporarily affecting inflation excluding food and regulated items. However, indexation to low levels of past inflation, weak demand, and ample excess productive capacity are expected to keep core inflation below the target, near 2.3% at the end of 2021 (previously 2.1%). The reversion in 2021 of the effects of some price relief measures on utility rates from 2020 should lead to an increase in the CPI for regulated items in the second half of this year. Annual price changes are now expected to be higher than estimated in the January report due to an increased expected path for fuel prices and unanticipated increases in regulated education prices. The projection for the CPI for foods has increased compared to the previous report, taking into account certain factors that were not anticipated in January (a less favorable agricultural cycle, increased pressure from international prices, and transport costs). Given the above, year-end annual inflation for 2021 and 2022 is now expected to be 3% and 2.8%, respectively, which would be above projections from January (2.3% and 2,7%). For its part, expected inflation based on analyst surveys suggests year-end inflation in 2021 and 2022 of 2.8% and 3.1%, respectively. There remains significant uncertainty surrounding the inflation forecasts included in this report due to several factors: 1) the evolution of the pandemic; 2) the difficulty in evaluating the size and persistence of excess productive capacity; 3) the timing and manner in which price relief measures will lapse; and 4) the future behavior of food prices. Projected 2021 growth in foreign demand (4.4% to 5.2%) and the supposed average oil price (USD 53 to USD 61 per Brent benchmark barrel) were both revised upward. An increase in long-term international interest rates has been reflected in a depreciation of the peso and could result in relatively tighter external financial conditions for emerging market economies, including Colombia. Average growth among Colombia’s trade partners was greater than expected in the fourth quarter of 2020. This, together with a sizable fiscal stimulus approved in the United States and the onset of a massive global vaccination campaign, largely explains the projected increase in foreign demand growth in 2021. The resilience of the goods market in the face of global crisis and an expected normalization in international trade are additional factors. These considerations and the expected continuation of a gradual reduction of mobility restrictions abroad suggest that Colombia’s trade partners could grow on average by 5.2% in 2021 and around 3.4% in 2022. The improved prospects for global economic growth have led to an increase in current and expected oil prices. Production interruptions due to a heavy winter, reduced inventories, and increased supply restrictions instituted by producing countries have also contributed to the increase. Meanwhile, market forecasts and recent Federal Reserve pronouncements suggest that the benchmark interest rate in the U.S. will remain stable for the next two years. Nevertheless, a significant increase in public spending in the country has fostered expectations for greater growth and inflation, as well as increased uncertainty over the moment in which a normalization of monetary policy might begin. This has been reflected in an increase in long-term interest rates. In this context, emerging market economies in the region, including Colombia, have registered increases in sovereign risk premiums and long-term domestic interest rates, and a depreciation of local currencies against the dollar. Recent outbreaks of COVID-19 in several of these economies; limits on vaccine supply and the slow pace of immunization campaigns in some countries; a significant increase in public debt; and tensions between the United States and China, among other factors, all add to a high level of uncertainty surrounding interest rate spreads, external financing conditions, and the future performance of risk premiums. The impact that this environment could have on the exchange rate and on domestic financing conditions represent risks to the macroeconomic and monetary policy forecasts. Domestic financial conditions continue to favor recovery in economic activity. The transmission of reductions to the policy interest rate on credit rates has been significant. The banking portfolio continues to recover amid circumstances that have affected both the supply and demand for loans, and in which some credit risks have materialized. Preferential and ordinary commercial interest rates have fallen to a similar degree as the benchmark interest rate. As is generally the case, this transmission has come at a slower pace for consumer credit rates, and has been further delayed in the case of mortgage rates. Commercial credit levels stabilized above pre-pandemic levels in March, following an increase resulting from significant liquidity requirements for businesses in the second quarter of 2020. The consumer credit portfolio continued to recover and has now surpassed February 2020 levels, though overall growth in the portfolio remains low. At the same time, portfolio projections and default indicators have increased, and credit establishment earnings have come down. Despite this, credit disbursements continue to recover and solvency indicators remain well above regulatory minimums. 1.2 Monetary policy decision In its meetings in March and April the BDBR left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.75%.