How to Write a Research Proposal on Genetics in the 21st Century

How to Write a Research Proposal on Genetics in the 21st Century Writing a research paper doesn’t necessarily have to be rocket science. On the contrary, it is rather simple once you know how to do it. No matter what the topic, you need to properly understand what a research proposal means. The purpose of writing a research proposal is to show others that you have a potential research project and have the ability and competence to complete it. It should contain all the necessary elements involved in the research process and pass critical information along to readers so that they can form an idea about the proposed study. No matter what methodology you use, your research proposal should elaborate what you want to accomplish, what is the reason that you want to do it and what steps will you take to do it. Everything in your proposal must be crystal clear and demonstrate sound judgement. Remember that both research writing and research proposals should be delivered with quality in mind. Having both properly balanced, your writing would become compelling and interesting to read while your research proposal will be coherent and clear. This will make your proposal more acceptable to the authorities[1]. Here is how you outline a research proposal: Title Your title should clearly tell reader what to expect. It should provide insights to your proposal while indicating independent and dependent variables. Try to think of a title that is both informative and appealing. An effectual title will leave a good impression on the reader and compels him/her to further read your proposal. Abstract Abstract can be defined as a brief summary of what readers will find in the research proposal. It should contain a research question, hypothesis (if any), the operandi[2] Â  and discoveries. You can describe the procedure further by including the design, sample or any utensils that’ll[3] Â  be used. Introduction First off, you need to clearly speak of what problem or issues the research is focused on and support it with some background and context. You want to frame your research question in a focused context, so that its importance becomes immediately apparent. This depends on your creativity and how well you understand the depth of the problems involved in the research. The more knowledge you have on your research, the easier it becomes to think clearly and write a stellar research proposal. Next, you’ll need to define the issues and problems that lead to your research. You’ll continue further and explain the independent and dependent variables of your experiment; defining the phenomenon that you are eager to study is an option too. If you have any hypothesis in your research, do explain it afterwards and conclude your introduction by delivering a clear delimitation focus. You can also define significant concepts, but again, this can be seen as optional. Literature Review Although literature review is something that is attached to the introduction section, it is recommended that you make a separate section for it because that’s how professors prefer it. This is because it provides a more concise review to the reader. Here are some factors: Literature review clarifies that you are not duplicating the work of others. It also gives credibility to people from whom you have created your research. Reveals how well-versed you are on the research problem. Denotes how well you understand theoretical and research issues related to your research question. Reveals how critically you can assess the literature information. Demonstrates that you are able to combine and produce the literature. It delivers a conceptual model of what your research is all about and provides new insights on theoretical concepts and problems. Compels your reader that your research proposal will make an important and considerable handout to the literature[4] . That’s about it! You are now armed with the necessary tools to write a highly compelling research proposal on genetics in the 21st century. In case you missed the previous guide where we provided 20 topics on genetics in the 21st century along with a sample research paper, check that out and revisit our very first guide containing 12 facts on genetics in the 21st century for an academic research paper to get a better idea of how it all fits together.

College Close-reading Essays Instruction, Examples

College Closes A Guide How To Write A Close Reading Essay You may wonder what is meant by a close-reading essay. Consider an example of an individual going to a museum. He will stare at a picture until he finds out information he did not see initially. This is what is happening while writing a close-reading essay. While writing this kind of essay, you are expected to be flexible in your observation and be analytical in your interpretation of texts. When your tutor gives you this assignment, treat it as the best opportunity for you to show your teacher that apart from having the ability to identify minutes in a poem, passage or short storytelling, you can say something significant about your identification. Take it if you are looking for a hidden treasure. All the details you discover are your treasures, and at this moment you have all the freedom of deciding how to handle them. In most occasions, you will discover that you enjoy the process of writing a close-read essay. Because you will give meaning to every single word used in a text, you will find the process fascinating. Taking a more in-depth look at the discovered details will also help you find out a deeper and more detailed meaning of the text enlightening your experience of it. Before you make your conclusion to leave your assigned task on writing a close-reading text, give yourself a chance to see the beneficial side of it. Definition of a Close Reading As the name suggests, a close reading essay refers to an essay that is focused on the tiny themes within a literary story, passage, or poem. Most of the essays you might have come across or written were concerned on broader topics like justice, adulthood, loneliness, love, and jealousy. The mentioned issues are called broader themes because they deal with problems that are common in texts. They are not hard to find in any document. They are readily seen like traffic signs. Characteristics explained in the text would sometimes refer to them directly. At some point, these themes would be repeated in the text. They come in the mind of readers once they reference their work. On the other side, close reading assignments seek to explain what would be disclosed if one decides to look at these broad themes deeply. It is like examining the bottom of the rock and describing your experience and discovery (How to Write a Close Reading Essay, 2019). In close reading essays, the writer is expected to explain in detail how smaller teams have been used creatively to connect to the larger theme. In such articles, you should be in a position to tell how the writer has used his language and what has been left out. This essay is like a deep scuba that dives to the bottom of the text, ocean to find out how the authors choice of words, imagery, tonal variation, and other literary elements work together to bring out a unified theme in the text. Though the close essay intends to look beyond the typical focus of the book, most aspects uncovered in the text acts as a road map towards the larger theme. Most items you identify in a close reading essay help you understand other issues of the essay. Also, they will give you a better understanding of both nuance and understanding. This refers to both big and smaller themes that are found within a text. Despite the reader looking at hidden information within a text, you will be expected to gather a lot of information from any given portion of information. This essay requires you to interpret the text correctly and be in a position to apply it in the larger theme or the rest of the story. Your writing should have the ability to inspire readers to research and learn more about what you have discussed. Once you are through with this article, you will get a better insight into all that is needed from you as far as close-reading essays are concerned. You will be more than confident to handle one essay and get not just a passing grade but a grade you have ever yearned to get. Steps of Writing a Close Reading Essay The first thing to do after given a close reading assignment is to read it at least thrice. Your first reading is to equip yourself with the content. Then your second reading is to extract some finer details within the text. Your final reading is for you to understand the whole text and is achieved when you read slowly and keenly. As you read the text, you might have come across information that you find essential. Underline it for quick reference while writing. Necessary information can be repeated words, unusual syntax, provocative punctuation, or details you did notice during your first reading. You should invest your time in this stem by reading the text slowly. Remember discoveries are not made through a rush. Note down all the information you have underlined in the text. Try to figure out what might be connecting them or even a portion of them. From your list, what can you conclude about the theme, the larger piece, and the authors intention? Then write down the conclusions you have made above in a piece of paper. Your most robust finding should be circled and redesigned into a thesis statement. From your underlined evidence, circle the one that strongly conforms to your thesis statement. Then come up with a hook that will connect to your broader idea of your thesis statement. For instance, if your thesis statement was about being watched unaware shown in the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, you may decide to start using a quote or interesting statistics on being watched unaware. Then make sure you discuss the above concept in an additional three to four sentences but still in your introduction. At the end of your submission, state the thesis statement you had prepared. In the first paragraph of your essay body, discuss the primary textual evidence. It should be brief and direct to imagery, language, syntax, repetition and any other thing you had noticed while reading the text of. Explain why it is essential and how it supports your thesis statement. Repeat step 8 with the other two body paragraphs in your essay. In this step, you will have to summarize your argument using a new fashion of language. You should do this without the slightest kind of repetition. Try in your summary to remind your readers how the details will help them get an understanding of the text. To achieve this, you have to connect your thesis statement to the bigger picture of the era. If for instance, you are discussing uncanny found in The Yellow Wallpaper, you may have to link your thesis statement to the human lineage to make people understand afterlife. The Format for a Close Reading The format for writing this kind of essay is not different from other essays you have come across. First, you begin your essay with an introduction and insert a thesis statement at the end of your introduction. After the introduction, you will write three body paragraphs in support of your thesis. In these body paragraphs, you will use detailed textures that are shown as quotes. In your conclusion, you will restate your thesis statement but using a new fashion of language making reference to the content of your essay. In case you are writing a close reading on a short story book or poem, then there is no need for you to specify the section your essay will deal with. But for longer pieces of writing or stories, you will have to specify using your introduction. For instance, you can decide to write something of this sought: The paper will explore the authors use of color in chapter one of The Red Badge, of Courage. Also, you can state it this way: The paper will examine repetition of the gerund in the Burial of the Dead in T.S. Eliots poem, ‘The Waste Land. Close Reading Essay Topics Daisys voice and words in ‘The Great Gatsby: Explain their indication on the authors character. The Beverage used in ‘The Great Gatsby: how they display both emotional and actual events. How does the phrase ‘old spot help in identifying the time when the novel ‘The Great Gatsby was created? What was the author trying to pass across by using Cigarettes and Smoking in the novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye? In the novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye, pick one slung word used by Holden and argue on it. In ‘This is just to say, discuss the word choice, structure, syntax, and visual elements that William Carlos used. What makes inscrutability more mysterious in Eliots ‘The Waste Land? Discuss how Biblical and religious symbols have been used to drive the narrative in The Red Badge of Courage? An Example of A Close Reading Essay The most known form of punishment associated with solitary confinement that lies in isolation is torture and its associated structures. It is manifested in the prevention of human association, stimulus, or exposure to the outside world. The above premise helps in shaping the renewed short story, Charlotte Perkins Gilmans, The Yellow Wallpaper. Majority of scholars who have read the story interpret it as a tale by a woman who went mad because of stimulus, isolation and excessive bearing of men who were in her life. Though their interpretation seems legitimate and valid factors for the heroine, the author places a very deliberate hint in the story that proposes that sees the story as a ghost story and there is something hidden that was influencing the main character in this story. It takes the author great pain to describe the grand empty house that was rented by the couple during summer. The house seemed to be having an exciting story of darkness. The house itself is in an environment that is isolated about three miles from the nearest town. These make me imagine English places I have read about. They have hedges, walls, and gates that are surrounded by other several little houses for workers. Even though the experience described in the story does not sound dark, the author aimed at provoking the subconscious mind of the readers. Coming across the word ‘English places will make readers think of dark, expansive, and gloomy places. The use of hedges, walls, locks, and gates helps in bringing the idea of captivity for those associated with such places. The authors reference to several small houses surrounding the place shows that there are numerous places for individuals and bad things to hide in. The concept of the dark history of the mentioned house is found in the following information. There were greenhouses, too, but they were all broken now. This is a provocative technique used by the author, and he deliberately avoided to mention that the houses were empty, or had rusted or needed some renovation. The only possible way of breaking a greenhouse to break the glass used to construct it. This shows that there is an existence of some violence, provocation, or rioting that resulted in the described situation. Further detail leaves the reader in anxiety. There was some legal trouble, I believe, something about the heirs and coheirs; anyhow, the place has been empty for some years. This technique is highly suggestive, and one would wonder the kind of trouble that would keep the place empty for that long duration. If there would be a suggestion, then it is like heirs are trying to vie to get to live in the place. This is if the situation is as described above. The situation suggests an ugly situation between family members or even chaotic in the country. Then the floor is scratched and gouged and splintered, the plaster itself is dug out here and there, and this great heavy bed which is all we found in the room, looks as if it had been through the wars. The above statement shows that there was someone who was held captive early. In the story, we are told severally that in the windows, there were bars and rings and things were also found on the walls. The fact the author tells us of gouges and plasters that had been dug shows that someone was really trying to escape from this place. This further creates a picture in the readers that someone was trying to escape but might have died and the ghost would possibly be observing the heroin in another part. To sum up, Gilman relied heavily on several details in his book, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper to bring out the aspect of the ghost story in the traditional setting. In this story, what drives the heroine insane is the existence of a supernatural being as well as forced seclusion. Information on the occult and uncanny is prevalent. It would be possible that the house was possibly a hidden place for murder. Because of torture and murder that took place in this house, it is full of marvelous energy and dark spirits and is waiting for any vulnerable individual like the main character in this case. Though the character goes mad, it would be even more challenging to start blaming all those surrounding her. The author intentionally suggests that there is something unusual with the room and the house in general and the history of this mysterious house would be sordid. Conclusion A close reading essay helps you to put in place your detective gears and examine a piece of writing more keenly. The intention of teachers giving out this kind of assignment is to test your ability to notice smaller details and relate them to the whole work. As a student, we would advise you to concentrate on the minor aspects of either poem or story provided. This is where most students and some scholars fail as they only focus on the major themes and forget about the smaller issues. After discovering them, then let the details you have found guide you throughout your discussion. This would be more fun as it gives you an opportunity to view the literary piece from another perspective. As we always advise students, if you still think you have a challenge handling this kind of assignment contact us. Our writing team is well equipped and has enough experience on this assignment so you should not worry at all. It will take them the shortest time to help you get on track with your writing, or if you are going in circles, they will guide you refocus your work.

Will Youtube be the new Academy of Arts Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Will Youtube be the new Academy of Arts - Article Example It gives billions of individuals a chance to â€Å"discover, watch and share originally created videos. It is a virtual forum where people can connect, inspire and connect with others from around the world and it also acts as a platform on which creators of original content can show their material (30). Alexa, a company that classifies websites according to popularity and usage, has continually ranked YouTube among the top five global websites. It lies on the same wavelength as websites such as Google and Facebook in terms of global popularity (Burgess and Green 12). The power of YouTube as a video sharing channel has elicited wide ranging opinions from scholars and social network experts. Uploading videos on the site is easy and free. It offers a wide range of video categories such as gaming, animation, news, entertainment and many others. Since the advent of YouTube many people who were little known outside their neighborhoods and schools became famous because they were able to upload and show the world what they had to offer (Cheng, Dale and Liu 144). Researchers believe that the potential of YouTube as a means of talent discovery is not going to fade any time soon. However, it is generally agreed that one does not have to become famous simply by adding his or her video on YouTu be, there has to be some level of creativity to go with it (Burgess and Green 43). Most of the people who have posted their videos on You Tube and ended up becoming famous for doing that include Jackie Evancho, Maria Aragon who is a 10 year old singer, Edwards Gould who is a world famous animator and there is of course the sensational Justine Bieber, the Canadian child superstar who has taken the music world by storm. Bieber was discovered on YouTube after his mother posted some videos of himself singing. Jackie Evancho is also a child superstar whose talent was discovered on YouTube. She finished second on the fifth season of the popular show ‘America’s

Macroeconomic Convergence, Development And Growth Essay

Macroeconomic Convergence, Development And Growth - Essay Example The convergence process is dependent on a large number of factors such as the population growth, speed of capital formation and the presence of efficient economic policies as well as appropriate financial institutions. Along with this the accumulation of human and physical capital are important as it significantly influences the savings and rate of investment (Halmai & Vasary, 2009, p.3). Technological spread, change in growth rate and total productivity of the factors are the major players in enhancing the rate of convergence (Halmai & Vasary, 2009, p.3). As per professor Jeffrey Sachs, countries following closed economic polies have not been successful in converging. The countries following closed economic policies had a growth rate of 2% whereas the countries following open economic policies have a growth rate of 4.5 %. As sited by many economists, endogenous rather than the exogenous factors triggers the growth of an economy (Alfaro et al, 2005). The Asian tigers such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea have been successful in converging with the developed countries. An economy is said to have achieved economic growth, if it is able to produce more goods and services than what it used to produce initially. Economic growth is often related with technological progress. If an economy has achieved growth than the standard of living of its citizens also improves. In US, the economic growth occurred with the introduction of high technology in the country. Financial development also follows from the economic growth. This is due to the fact that if an economy is financially sound then its economy is also developed. Association between Economic Growth and Macroeconomic Convergence Economic growth takes place in a country whenever the resources are utilised more efficiently (Romer, 2007). As per the neoclassical growth theories, a country converges to its steady state rate, if there exists diminishing returns from investing in the physical capitals. Poore r economies have a greater tendency to converge owning to its high marginal productivity. This process of convergence which eventually leads in the equalisation of the per capita incomes amongst the countries is called absolute convergence. If for a country the convergence takes place both in terms of growth rate as well as income levels than the process becomes beta convergence. According to the idea of club convergence, if countries have similar initial conditions then they have a tendency to converge. This concept is regarded as sigma convergence. It is also emphasised that if the countries vary in their initial conditions then they will not converge, this could however be overcome if the economic policies could eliminate the variations. Solow growth model emphasise that such variations in a country’s economic policy cannot lead to long run economic growth (Romer, P, 2007). As the scatter plot alongside shows, the association between average annual growth rate and real GDP per capita need not be associated similarly for all nations, even though they are featured by similar initial characteristics. A country’s economic growth is measured by its level of technological progress. According to the endogenous growth theory, creation of enlarged market in an economy leads to a better utilisation of economies of scale. This on the other hand has a positive impact on a

Free College Essays - New Journalism and The Right Stuff :: The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff - New Journalism The Right Stuff is a great example of the writing style called "New Journalism". Author Tom Wolfe is widely known as a ground breaker in this type of writing. New Journalism has its foundation in fact but uses techniques from the world of fiction to present the information in a refreshingly realistic way. One important fictional technique is dialogue. Seldom in "normal" journalism does a reader come across real dialogue. Through dialogue, an author is able to show the characters' personalities. The reader's ability to hear what a character says is as important as the ability to see how he reacts. For example, when Wolfe shows us Chuck Yeager's last try at a record, the dialogue gives the reader an extra sense into the intensity of the moment. A second important technique taken from fiction is scene-by-scene examination. Traditionally, journalists present news by importance of the events in a story. In New Journalism, the author instead describes only a certain number of important events. The different scenes are used in the same way that a writer of fiction builds the plot of the story as a whole. In an essay on "New Journalism", Chris Anderson states that a "New Journalistic" "writer can not only render the full details of a scene or event but also describe the subjective, emotional life of the characters" (Marowski and Matuz 418). A third fictional tool is descriptive language. In The Right Stuff, for example, Wolfe purposefully uses the insider slang of fighter pilots. Critic Chris Anderson says he is "fascinated with the insider's slang, the power words of the privileged groups and underground cultures he seeks out" (Marowski and Matuz 418). This use of words from a small, elite in-group helps to allow the reader to understand that group's characteristics, thoughts, and emotions. A fourth technique is point of view. Most journalists are taught to keep their own perspective out of the story and never use the first person in writing. "New Journalistic" novels like The Right Stuff balk at this idea. Wolfe's first-person point of view puts a human face on the news.

Review of Related Literature on the Effect of Acid Using Vinegar as a Model on Mortality Rate of Freshwater Guppy Fishes Essay

Republic Act No. 9275 Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 is an Act providing for a comprehensive water quality management and for other purposes. In Section 2 of this Act, it states that the State shall pursue a policy of economic growth in a manner consistent with the protection, preservation and revival of the quality of our fresh, brackish and marine waters. The State wants to manage and reduce the population of water resources of the country by promoting environmental strategies and use of appropriate economic instruments. The State recognizes that water quality is in the same level of concern of the quality of life. This Act also wants to promote commercial and industrial processes and products that will not harm the environment, which includes the living organisms in different ecosystems. Related Literature According to the special report, Acid Precipitation of Gene Likens from Cornell University during 1976, the acidity of rain and snow falling on parts of the U.S. and Europe has been rising—for reasons that are still not entirely clear and with consequences that have yet to be well evaluated. Acid precipitation has a long-term effect especially on the living organisms in many lakes and streams which sometimes causes extinction. Related Studies On the study of Schindler during 1988, Effects of Acid Rain on Freshwater Ecosystems, it was stated that there is an increase in number of areas most likely to be affected by acid. The study presented the biological damage caused by the acid rain, which includes the disappearance mostly of small fishes that are considered as food for larger predators which might cause these predators to starve and might result for another disappearance of fishes. Justification of Study Articles and past studies show that acid rain has a negative effect on living organisms from different ecosystems including freshwater. It was also mentioned in the study of Schindler in 1988 that the small fishes are most affected by the acidity of their environment. This study wants to know how affected these small fishes are thus, determining the mortality rate of guppies in environments with different levels of acidity

Devices and services - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 30 Words: 8977 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Abstract Autonomic networks attempt to find the method to improve the capability of networks, devices and services, in order to handle with unpredictable changes. This document will propose an autonomic solution along with the required components in order to set up an autonomic configuration to a non-centralized and self-administrative group of autonomic base stations taking part of a wireless access network. The system proposed will show a different way to evade existing centralized topologies avoiding the central point of failure. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Devices and services" essay for you Create order In addition, when considering autonomic networks is critical the examination of protection requirements and the administration of security infrastructure. This system will illustrate a qualitative assessment and simulation results that shows self-healing characteristics and autonomous behaviour. It explains many of the drawbacks found when trying to simulate an autonomic conduct and the limitations when using software simulators. Acknowledgment I would like to thank Dr Thomas Owens for reading my dissertation report and supplying me with technical and writing advice including the supporting conversations we had. I have to thank Claudia and Angel who always gave me recommendations from a non-technical point of view. This work could not have been done without the help all of them. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents and God, who always supported me, gave me new ideas, and brought me the right solutions I always needed. Chapter 1: Introduction Autonomic wireless access systems was a model created in order to support the development of communication networks in the direction of efficient flexibility and extensibility to a large sort of potential faults and attacks. On the other hand, particular importance is given on the foundation values to accomplish focused behaviour over a self-organization. Therefore, an autonomic system allows the performance of an autonomic network when including self-management, self-configuration, self-optimization, self-healing and self-protection and the relation with different numerous of dynamic network groups and communities. As a result, every day more people, private customers and enterprises are employing wireless access technologies in order to achieve better connection, mobility and easier reception at any location. However, as the significance of this wireless technology has been increasing with the time, the need of autonomic self-management systems became crucial. In fact, this dissert ation will collaborate to the actual investigations related with autonomic wireless management systems. In addition, when considering autonomic networks is critical the examination of protection requirements and the administration of security infrastructure. The system presented in this report will illustrate a qualitative evaluation and simulation results that shows self-healing characteristics and autonomous conduct. It presents some of the disadvantages found when trying to simulate an autonomic behaviour and the restrictions of using software simulators. 1.1 Towards Self-Management. Self-management [1] is the core of autonomic networks, and its intention is to liberate systems administrators from the facts of system operation and maintenance and to give users with a machine that can be used at all times. In addition autonomic systems will preserve and regulate their operation in the case of changing components, hardware failures, software malfunctions, and outdoor conditions. The autonomic system has the capacity of frequently supervise itself, and check for component improvements. Self-configuration takes part when the system can configure itself in harmony with high-level procedures. In the case of a new component is adapted, this will incorporate itself easily, and the rest of the system will adjust to its incidence. Self-optimization means the way that several parameters must be set correctly for the network to work ideally. Autonomic systems try to improve the operation of different technologies by identifying and gathering their main functions in order to make them much more competent in performance or cost. Therefore, is here when autonomic systems will monitor and experiment with their individual factors in order to make proper choices, verifying, and applying the most recent updates. Self-healing takes place when the system can identify, trace and determine the origin and cause of a particular malfunction in complex mobile ad hoc networks [2]. On the other hand, serious user problems can occur and their explanation can take several weeks to be detected and fixed. However, autonomic systems will discover, analyse, and restore localized failures by using information about its individual system configuration and may be through a regression tester. Self-protection over autonomic systems can be applied in two ways. Firstly, we can protect the network as a whole against considerable, associated problems coming up from attacks or consecutive failures. Secondly, we can predict problems based on premature reports obtained from sensors and take steps in order to evade or make them smaller. In mobile ad hoc networks, it is very common to deal with unexpected alterations of population, topology and the complex reconfiguration executed by end-users. In addition, it is highly difficult for people to manage and to have the control of these unpredictable changes because the complex character of mobile ad hoc environments due to the heterogeneity of components and technologies, the lack of infrastructure and the decentralized composition. The model to follow in this project about mobile autonomic networks is based on a specific type of wireless mobile ad hoc networks [3]. In other words the network is built spontaneously as devices connect, instead of relying on a unique central base station to manage the current of messages to each node in the network, the individual network nodes forward packets to and from each other. A mobile autonomic network could be a semi-centralized, mobile ad hoc, wireless, autonomic network, where its nodes are heterogeneous and the whole network can be easily manage by non-expert users. Therefore, a kind of mobile autonomic network can be for example, a home wireless network, a SOHO wireless network, an emergency service ad hoc network a business meeting network or a military scheme ad hoc network. The security needs that the mobile autonomic networks required are mainly the same as those usual networks. In other words, the security architecture obtained from wireless, mobile and ad hoc networks might be implemented in mobile autonomic networks. 1.2 Problem Depiction Self-managed wireless network posses a quantity of characteristics that allow us the developing and creation of autonomic base stations or access routers. However, in order to achieve the best performance of the network there are some problems that must be taken into account. The number of capabilities that every base station must enclose includes: A base station may be self-configure as long as it has a home duplicate of running and administration information in addition with particular installation of the management methods. Self-optimisation characteristic includes the facility of a base station to communicate with other ones and to find their positions on the network. As a result, each base station must be connected each other since they have to share important information during the authentication procedure. The security part needs special attention since all the interchange of data among base stations has to be protected against attackers in addition with the reliability of the management information such base station exchange (self-protection). Self-adaptive attributes must take place when every base station inform to the others about any modifications in its environment. It is essential for the network to have a self-managed communication method that guarantee a well performance as the traffic and the interchange of information increases. The idea is that every station will be able to operate and interact with others by creating new configurations or, be capable of running its default configuration sequence. In the event of failures o errors every base station must be capable of find the solution and solve the problem itself or, if necessary, notify to other access points in order to correct the failure globally as a method of self-healing conduct. 1.3 Aim and Objectives To present and simulate an autonomic behaviour through the use of self-healing capabilities and the improvement of some of the different aspects involved within a decentralized management system when being applied to an autonomic wireless network context in addition with the analysis of all requirements that an autonomic base station has to contain. Describe a system that could implement self-capabilities for autonomic base stations. Show how base station performance can be autonomy adapted. Illustrate the manner how self-protection, self-healing and self-optimisation are applied to autonomic wireless networks. Evaluate the possible solutions when improving the scalability problems of autonomic management systems. Simulate an Autonomic behaviour using OPNET Modeller by showing how self-healing capabilities may be adopted. Analyse some of the different drawbacks presented when trying to evaluate autonomic conditions. 1.4 Dissertation Organisation Chapter 2 looks into what are the existing approaches for autonomic systems and the management of wireless networks. Additionally, it examines some of the issues when dealing with autonomic networks and essential network technologies involved in the autonomic networks field. Chapter 3 describes the proposed decentralized management system and different autonomic applications may possibly run on it. Furthermore, important security characteristics will be discussed. Chapter 4 presents the modelling and simulation, using OPNET Modeller 14.5-Education version for the autonomic wireless network management. This chapter contains all modifications and suppositions that were necessary in order to achieve an autonomic self-healing behaviour including failure detection and results. Finally, conclusions, simulationÂÂ ´s limitations and discussion of further work in Chapter 5. Chapter 2: Literature review 2.1 Autonomic Systems Autonomic systems can be denoted as interactive groups of autonomic elements, individual systems components that have resources and deliver services to specific users and other autonomic elements. These elements may manage their inner actions and their associations with other autonomic elements in harmony with policies that people or other elements have recognized. In addition, a spread, service-oriented infrastructure will maintain autonomic elements and their communications. The managed component will be alike to what is found in ordinary non-autonomic systems, although it can be personalized to allow the autonomic manager to observe and manage it. The directed element may be a hardware supply, such as a CPU, a printer, or a software resource, such as a database [1]. Within a more complex field, a managed element may be an application service, electronic business application or other related IT application. The autonomic manager makes a distinction the autonomic element from its non-autonomic equivalent. If we can monitor the managed element and its exterior atmosphere, and constructing a plan based on an examination of this information, the autonomic manager will reduce people of the dependability of directly managing the managed element. The autonomic computing is expected to progress as designers slowly add progressively more complicated autonomic managers to existing managed elements. Each autonomic element will be responsible for managing its own interior condition and conduct and for controlling its relations with an environment that consists mainly of signals and communication from other elements and the external world. An elementÂÂ ´s internal behaviour and its relationships with other elements will be determined by objectives that its maker has implanted in it, by other elements that have authority over it [2]. The element may need help from other elements to accomplish its goals. In this case, it will be in charge for obtaining essential resources from other elements and for dealing with exception cases, as an example the failure of a necessary resource. Autonomic elements will take part at many levels, from individual computing components such as disk drivers to small-scale computing systems such as workstations or servers to entire automated enterprises in the largest autonomic system of all the global economy. At the lower levels, an autonomic elements variety of interior behaviours and relations with other elements, and the set of elements with which it can act together, may be comparatively partial and hard-coded. Mainly at the rank of individual components, well-established techniques, many of which fall under the rubric of fault tolerance, have led to the expansion of elements that not often fail, which is one significant feature of being autonomic. When having higher levels, fixed behaviours, links, and associations will give way to enlarged vitality and flexibility. All these aspects of autonomic elements will be articulated in more high-level, goal-oriented terms, leaving the elements themselves with the responsibility for resolving the details on the fly. Service-oriented architectural models such as Web and network services will play an elementary function, a sufficient foundation for autonomic computing requires more. Primary, as service providers, autonomic elements will not obediently honour requests for service, as would classic Web services or objects in an object-oriented environment [2]. In fact, autonomic elements will provide only services that can improve the reliability of its objectives. Autonomic elements will initially a problem requests to other elements to carry out their objectives. After all, autonomic elements will have complex life cycles, frequently transporting on various threads of activity, and constantly sensing and responding to the environment in which they are situated. Autonomy, proactively, and goal-directed interactivity with their environment are distinguishing characteristics of software agents. 2.2 Architecture of Autonomic Networks The current consideration on network organization remains. For example, autonomic communications holds the layer as: User Applications Services / Components Middleware Network and Computers Device Agent (soft) or Sensor (hard) Take into account that this layering has network, computers and software, transmissions, and information. But the requirement of supporting everywhere networks is required; a strong domain model must be incorporated in Autonomic Communication architectures [3]. Domains substitute layers as the main organizing component. Domains will supply limits, much like the border and doorway routers do today in IP networks. But domains will need to mechanically communicate large amounts of information about what they will and will not accept; what they are capable of, and what present facility and QoS is accessible. Domains will contain domains, each with alike computational manage systems but with diverse locations, contexts and communities [4]. Criticize domain structures will have connection and provide shortcuts across these many networks. A distributed computing, tools and platforms will be a fixed part of the network. While routers and switches will still pass data, they will subcontract all but the simplest and quickest of decisions to the implanted distributed computing substrate; only things like lookups will stay. In result, every mechanism will have a service interface with available methods. In some architectural systems, the device-embedded service will dynamically register itself with service modellers and discovery components principal of which is the agent-service providing self restoration. This probably means that every device will include Java or .NET and provide service and running interfaces accessible by soft services. Basic to the plan of all autonomic networks is a fixed security model. In conventional networks, protection was applied after the reality mainly via external devices, applications and tools. The world would be a much more organized and safer place if TCP/IP had been designed with fixed security and even this is being looked at again [5,6]. Autonomic networks must be self configuring, self deploying, and self assembling. While total security cannot be assured and security does add fee, for the most part of current designs have produced workable compromises where the security of a network is well known. The best designs can adjust cost and security as properties of network domains, controlled by policy and bounded on the borders with a security that filters user and service admittance. Four basic steps are designed into Autonomic Network [7]: Collect: get together information from environmental and device sensors and instrumentations; determine purpose or service requirements; look up user context and security credentials. Analyze: this function uses the current tools to associate and model multifaceted situations for example, queuing models, economic models, rules and polices. In addition, these mechanisms permit the autonomic manager to use the network environment more efficiently and to predict further conditions. Decide: process with the best available computation engines including decision theory; risk analysis, hypothesis generation, genetic algorithms, and neural networks; scope actions to situations and needs. Act: call up services; collect components; manage association; configure managed elements; signal devices; inform users and administrators; log actions and the strategic analysis that determined them. 2.3 Existing Management Solutions With the use of centralized, distributed or hybrid solutions it is possible the management of wireless networks. Centralized systems make use of a unique master mechanism to configure the base stations. On the other hand, decentralized, distributed configurations do not use that single point of malfunction and collaboratively execute a completely distributed administration solution. Within any of the approaches mention above, the objective is that a wireless base station must have a reliable, system-wide composition. Nowadays, with the use of wireless switches is possible to connect base stations and make them operate as wireless bridges to a switched wired network as a solution that many companies have been created in order to provide centralized administration solutions for groups of base stations [5]. With the use of wireless switches within a centralized architecture is possible to obtain channel management in addition with bandwidth, access and traffic control therefore the link-layer switch executes the management component. However, this type of centralized link-layer topologies also has disadvantages. There are several problems related with broadcast traffic that does not allow the free develop of link-layer broadcast domains. Furthermore, the architecture of the wired system does not allow straight association of the management system to the base stations. However, there are some solutions that work at the network-layer resolving this limitation. One way to configure mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) [16] is through decentralized management systems where its centre of attention is to enable peer-to-peer communication within very high dynamic, mobile structures [4]. It means that each base station does not make any decision based on a central manager but it does base on its local capacity. There are many uncompleted researches that try to design self-configuring solutions for MANETs. On the other hand, this report is focused mainly on the configuration of fixed wireless networks for mobile clients seeking the way to improve effectiveness and performance. In addition, the important factor here is to develop an autonomic and decentralized management platform that can sustain different sort of management functions. Hybrid advances to wireless network management give some more functionality from a fundamental system into the base stations. However, hybrid systems which are a little more complex than the plain wireless bridges do not totally attend to solve the disadvantages of centralized systems; e.g., being central points of failure for one. 2.4 A Quantity of Problems of Autonomic Home Networks With the introduction of the self-characteristics (self-management, self-organization and self-configuration [12]) some issues have been brought within a dynamic environment. The IP-based networks have been increasing its complexity rapidly which affect directly to network designers, network operators and subsequently network users. Actual IP networking technologies execute spontaneous adjustment by responding to changes in the location once a problem has happened. Therefore, is the job of autonomic networks find the way to develop the capacity of networks, terminals and devices to deal with the unexpected variations, along with the physical and logical features of the network that can be accessed but also, changes in topology, load and other responsibilities. In addition, by the introduction of self-characteristics it provides users with the advantage to focus on their duties instead of configuring and managing networks. Nevertheless, within a dynamic environment a quantity of problems can also be brought by utilization of the self-characteristics, such as be deficient in learning capacity of the policy-based [12], autonomic control-loop, particularly in the mixed and mobile context in addition with the complex security and cost-effectiveness of the inherent monitoring methods found in the current autonomic networking technologies. There are some factors that must be considered when analysing the self decision makings process within autonomic networks, such as context information for routing decision which could limit the autonomic ability of the systems. Therefore, in order to be able to analyse and consequently understand the modelling and performance of the most recent autonomic networking technologies and systems, we must analyse some of their issues in the context of some basic network technologies, intrinsic monitoring systems and mobility management. 2.5 Essential Networking Technologies The inclusion of autonomic features into modern internet architecture let us visualized a future internet system having capacities such as self-optimizing, self-management, self-organization and so on. Nowadays autonomic networking technologies are yet inadequate to adjust to diversity of upcoming network situations as follow: Control/Decision plane: at this part the modern models of control loop just provides autonomic tasks like the policy-based autonomic control loop [13] has no learning features, providing the network with no autonomic capabilities. In addition, for an end-to-end performance goal makes so much difficult for a decision element obtain the correct decision. Better comprehensive context technologies: in order to make decisions, autonomic network nodes obtain essential information through contexts and for this reason network contexts achievement technologies have obtained special treatments. On the other hand, contents of applications and service characteristics are very significant context information for autonomic nodes when optimizing network routines and quality of service of users. A clear example may be, since wireless networks have a limited data transmission capacity, packet loss rate is pretty high. In the case that, autonomic nodes choose to drop a number of packets, users will suppose that important packets are going to be protected while insignificant ones to be dropped. Therefore, with a better comprehensive context aware technologies will provide such behaviour by gaining and analyzing the context data of clients, applications and network. An obedient network: total responsiveness regarding to objectives, businesses and applications must be essential properties of Self-Managed Autonomic Networks. 2.5.1 Monitoring Infrastructures Actual autonomic systems are facing problems regarding the way monitoring infrastructures provide local and global performance information consistently and efficiently not including security problems and performance degradations. In addition, the status concerning the autonomic network must be sensed by an autonomic system which leads to a large amount of data flow to be handed out to the autonomic system. Therefore, the monitoring infrastructures must be strongly built with very high performance, the security of the principal monitoring system have to be cautiously calculated as well as the expenses of big monitoring activities ought to be take into account. Additionally, in case of have a large size monitoring activities further processing and combining into the total performance information for the autonomic systems and services will be required due to a massive production of data. 2.5.2 Mobility Administration Mobility management becomes much more complex and complicated since potential mixed wired and wireless systems are going to supply everywhere coverage and flawless mobility in order to allow additional users with multi-mode transportable terminals. As a result, for a mobile device will be a problem quick to response different changes perfectly and opportune and acquire suitable calculations without human intervention along with heterogeneous access situations. Likewise, in order to accomplish competent resource employment, load contribution, bandwidth aggregation and some more features, mobility administration must support interface-level [13], mobility and flow-level mobility. The junction rate of the control-loop in the autonomic networks might be low since diverse types of the heterogeneous access technologies, the time-changing characteristic of wireless channels produce vibrations when collecting information for the control-loops. As a consequence, it may have and effect on the self-configuration and self-adaptation process in the mixed wired/wireless situations. Chapter 3: Design of an Autonomic Management System 3.1 Overview The aim of this chapter is to describe the design of the autonomic management system. In addition, it will explain what sort of suppositions must be taken into account when choosing the autonomic access points as well as the most important security characteristics and the basic networks functionality. After all, the chapter will describe some important autonomic functions that can be including in the central system. 3.2 General Requirements The model that is presented in this report requires of a well selected base stations which are fundamental components of the autonomic wireless system. IP [22] access routers can be used as wireless base stations due to their assigned IP subnet and they have the capability to correct any error that may occur without the intervention of any human operator. Each access point will require a wireless interface in order to provide wireless services to every user or mobile piece of equipment connected. Another network interface which can be wired or wireless is going to supply uplink [25] communication to mobile devices and the other part of the network. In fact, it can be used for Internet access [14]. In addition, this second interface may be use as a supervision and management interface among base stations and to support self-management services. The use of supplementary interconnection lines can be useful when connecting mobile devices that come from different networks (wired or wireless) and there is a need to link different channels and protocols. The description mentioned above is represented in the Figure 3.0 where four access routers provide wireless interfaces for connectivity and uplink among different mobile devices. The other network interface is used to transfer data between the access router and the Internet and for autonomic administration capabilities. However, an extra or extras uplink interfaces could be included. It is the job of the access routers to allocate and configure IP addresses and subnets which are going to be used for the mobile devices and for the uplink interfaces. Self-protection (Figure 3.1) can be achieved by following a number of considerations that the model proposed in this report must make use of. This model will use X.509 certificates [15] among with public-key cryptography in order to obtain key distribution and user authentication. A key pair (private/public) is created by a certification authority (CA) [17]. Public keys are included into a certificate; they do not need to be protected from unauthorized nodes and may be spread with the use of software [24], information servers or an Internet system. A two-way authentication along with the use of X.509 certificates provides reliability in many security aspects. Every base station needs to corroborate its neighbours certificates. Consequently, each base station must contain the related certification authorityÂÂ ´s public key and the deviceÂÂ ´s certificate. At the same time, the use of hash algorithms is fundamental in this application, being SHA-1 [18] and MD5 [23] the most commonly known and used. The Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) generates a 160 bit (20 byte) message digest in contrast with the 128 bit (16 byte) message used by MD5. Therefore, SHA-1 is stronger against attacks but slower than MD5. 3.3 Functionality of the Network An essential idea about this report and the projected model is to show how we can distribute the administration functionality of the wireless system, in some way that no central point of failure will exist and as a result will be avoiding bottlenecks [18] during the processing and communication of information. For that reason, all the base stations must support autonomic management capabilities and be able to provide self-protection, self-healing and self-optimisation. In addition, important information regarding the wireless network configuration and running activities must be exchanged and collected among each base station and its neighbours hence every station within the radio range work together as a uniform wireless access network. Within a network with inner management station, there is communication between each station and the central administration station but no exchange of information is possible between other base stations. Avoiding central point of failure [14, 18] topologies, interchange of irrelevant information among neighboured base stations is evaded. Hence, the information recovered and collected locally will permit base station to choose the correct management configuration. The information exchanged between base stations sometimes is divided and just passed to a single access router and it must be absolutely reliable all over the network. In addition, this information will be extend globally among stations which are closely situated and every station have to report to its neighbours regarding any modifications by using sporadic periods in order to avoid massive transit of messages. Figure 3.2 shows the way in which information is shared between stations is obtained using next-door stations only. In other words, when a base station obtains fresh management data this information is only transmitted to the nearest neighbour station. Subsequently, the station who has received new information must inform to itÂÂ ´s next-door station about all modifications it does internally plus data received previously from the originating transmitter [20]. After an exchanging of information between stations, the information shared will not be forward again because to the initial sender this data is no longer new material. For a base station must be absolutely relevant, the fact of avoid contacting all other base stations within the network when planning to execute management data modifications, instead, the only thing they have to do is to contact its individual next-door stations. The autonomic configuration activity takes place in the way that, access points receive and exchange certain information among other devices that is use for specific purposes. Though, every base station posses an autonomic behaviour since they shared information each other but none access point can be oblige to adopt or make use of any kind of information or wrong configuration it receives. In addition, this protects all the devices within the wireless network against an attacker pretending to force a base station to execute malicious procedures. 3.4 Categorisation Process It is very functional to make a segmentation based on the type of information that every base station manage in order to make easy for the base station to decide what sort of information it should used during a specific process. 3.4.1 Global Information. This information can be broadcasted throughout the entire network and includes actual employed protocols, a group of unnecessary mobile devices and wireless encryption key. 3.4.2 Public Information. Public Information will be exchange only among next-door devices which can be found within the radio coverage. As a result, this information contains the number of devices connected to each base station, the connection path use for base stations and information regarding addressing. Consequently, when a group of next-door stations want to communicate each other public information shared allows them to act in response to events happening within a specific area. By using bi-directional broadcasting at regular intervals to next-door devices, base stations use its public data to revise and renew information regarding to its home status as well as its own system updating. 3.4.3 Private Information Private data will be found and used exclusively for local proposes and it is not transferable among devices. Security related information and capacity data will not be shared with anyone. However, some security elements are exchanged throughout the entire network. 3.5 Performance and Setting up Propose of this section is to explain how the suggested autonomic wireless access network works based on its management functionalities. Firstly, we are going to analyse the performance of the self-configuration method, the course of action when adding new base station. Afterwards, we will be discussing how to include homogeneity when processing global information and after all explain how a centralized configuration could be transformed and used within a non-centralized autonomic wireless access network. 3.6 Improving the Scalability of the Network The process of initialization of a base station starts breaking its synchronisation [20] follow by a checking period. Subsequently, the base station may start configuring itself in order to supply connection mode to all mobile devices associated to each node of the network. In case of power malfunction, all stations may be re-initialized themselves at the same time, but because they are not synchronized they will not be looking for new next-door stations in a parallel way. After a small period of time where the base station generates a probe of connectivity this is ready for an auto-configuration IP process, which includes designation of subnets in order to bring association capabilities to mobile devices and get ready with the uplink line [20]. In addition, the base station looks for its next-door devices with propose of testing their correct configuration and the later inclusion within the self-management network. At this part of the process beacons [26] are imperative elements because they provide to a neighbour base station with network management information as a result of the quantity of overhead that the broadcast of beacon frames produce which is very significant; conversely, a beacon is capable of identify the presence of an access point. By using a radio network interface card (NIC), every radio frequency channel is scanned looking for beacons approaching from base stations in order to discover an appropriate one. As soon as a beacon is discovered, information regarding groups of access points and potential information about the network could be obtained. Therefore, association process among bases stations may start taking place. Power reduction mode is another important attribute of beacons. Inside our self-managed wireless access network, a base station periodically transmits mapping information using beacons in order to identify which base stations utilizing power reduction mode have data frames claiming for them at the access point buffering service. In case that none next-door stations can be found by the access point during the searching process, the device autonomously will use a default configuration and then be able to commence operation among mobile devices. Figure 3.5 illustrates the manner how an access point initiates a wireless scanning process looking for next-door base stations. As soon as a station detects the presence of the other access points within its coverage area the station ratifies the scanned access point as one of its neighbours. Resolution of management interface addresses takes place with the transmission of a resolve request by the base station to its next-door previously scanned stations. The resolve request may be sent as a user datagram protocol (UDP) [21] message. As a result, broadcasting and multicasting messages can be used. On the other hand, if fresh stations use encryption or filtering the communication may possibly fail. A new access point gets association with all the addresses and stations found throughout the wireless scan using their management interfaces. This is like the MAC address of the interface which makes possible wireless services. In order to obtain association with next-door stations the recent base station may utilize the wireless interface as a mobile point of connection at the same time transmitting the solve request to that base station. Therefore, needless multicast or broadcast messages could be avoided inside the wireless access network. However, a fresh base station could broadcast or multicast the resolve request by using its administration interfaces. If the neighbour stations do not provide answer at all to the new base station, it will set up the configuration by default as well as connection service among mobile devices. The first time neighboured stations receive information regarding a new base station is when this one sends to them its resolve request. A successful authentication of a new base station is conceded by its next-door stations, only they will authorize this procedure using the information exchange during the presentation part and the implementation of an X.509 certificate previously discussed in the section 3.2. Transmission control protocol (TCP) [22] supplies reliable and well-organized transport of a stream of bytes as well as flow control, network traffic congestion and it will guarantee the trustworthiness of management data exchange among bases stations. At this instant, the new base station is capable of provide all its neighbours with public and global information. The new base station will be ready then to combine all the data recovered from its different next-door stations during the searching phase and the selectivity of available radio channels. In addition, a base station performs a series of scans in order to identify alterations around its surroundings. However, the scanning procedure could affect users connectivity depending on how frequently is executed as a result regulation take place during the uplink transmission among mobile nodes. 3.7 Network Database and Recovery Several advantages will be obtained with the use of databases that save and store important information regarding all devices inside the wireless access network. In other words, a network administrator could be capable to obtain significant data about the actual network configuration and status just by using previous collect related information. In case of network failure, the fact of having a backup of all information related will be incredibly helpful in addition with the security fact that none malicious attacker will be able to modify or utilize certain information because it will be out of reach. One way to apply this concept is with the creation of virtual neighbours [25]. In fact, a neighbour will be adding to a list of all actual next-door stations no matter if it belongs to the same radio coverage. In this order of ideas, the virtual device will collect the same amount of messages that direct or (real) neighbours have received. Scalability is easily obtained with the inclusion of virtual devices since a station does not differentiate among a virtual or real next-door device. Therefore, a virtual neighbour simply recovers the configuration information of a pre-selected subgroup of each and every one stations contained by the wireless access network. 3.8 Security Requirements and Technologies The use of security applications must be imperative when trying to guard the wireless access network. The system has to be protected against malicious infiltrations, illegal accessing, interception or modification of private data [24]. In addition, authentication information and encryption keys have to be protected from harm. Masquerading attack [19] is quiet difficult to detect and one of the most dangerous attacks, it can affect the normal operation among mobile clients and base stations. An invalid entity may impersonate a valid base station and acquire illegal control over the traffic network. The management procedures carrying out within the wireless network could be used as a way to attack the network. A broadcast including resolve messages is created by the enemy using a stations address as destination address. In consequence, the station affected will receive several answers due to the broadcast attack sent to all active base stations. Data integrity and privacy among base stations is possible by using the transport layer security (TLS) [8] protocol. The TLS protocol is divided into to layers: TLS record protocol TLS handshake protocol TLS record protocol uses private connection and encryption is achieved using symmetric cryptography. The connection is trustworthy and message transference makes use of a message integrity check using MAC address. SHA-1 and MD5 can be used as hash functions. TLS handshake protocol provides authentication, encryption algorithm negotiation and cryptography key checking between stations. Chapter 4: Simulation and Results 4.1 Overview The aim of this chapter is to illustrate the modelling and simulation, using OPNET Modeller 14.5-Education version for the autonomic wireless network management. In addition, it will explain what kind of modifications and suppositions were necessary in order to achieve the autonomic self-healing mechanism, including agentÂÂ ´s architecture and description. 4.2 Autonomic Management Agents This section will illustrate the modelling and simulation, using OPNET Modeller 14.5-Education version, of a community of autonomic management agents that provide network fault analysis for a group of base stations. The main objective of these intelligent agents will be to bring together process information in order to detect failures when bases stations exchange information between them and the creating of high obtainable wireless access network. Analysing network failures is relatively difficult since theses problems may differ from one network system to another and could depend on network dynamics, i.e., the type of network information to be exchange and the traffic characteristics associated with that information. In addition, the pattern of failures could vary quickly as the network operates and reconfigures around a failed device. As OPNET Modeller 14.5-Education version does not have autonomous process ready for simulation usage, existing code had to be adapted to allow autonomic behaviour. The use of two different autonomic agents we required in order to provide self-healing network diagnosis and facilities. In this report, OPNET coding modifications will be called Agents and two different types are mentioned and applied to the access points. Testing Agents will supply data simplicity and monitoring capabilities to Node Agents, on the other hand, Node Agents will check periodically the information that Testing Agents bring together and use it as a medium of failure detection within the wireless access network. In addition, a Testing Agent will be able to supervise and provide data regarding information exchanged among access points. Node agents use data obtained by the Testing Agents as a method of node analysis. Various Testing Agents may be found on a single wireless client. A Testing Agent can be situated on a host device since it does not have to deal with data acquisition and information simplicity. In contrast, Node Agents will be located on a base station. Various Testing Agents may be found on a single wireless client. 4.2.1 Additions and Model Modifications OPNET Modeller was used in order to determine concept achievability of the proposed model. The conception about Autonomic Mobile Wireless Networks is illustrated by using a community of wireless base stations which allow autonomous healing of interrupted paths. Intended how autonomic healing (self-healing) is possible of broken route. The OPNET simulation showed in this report will contain two Node Agents and two Testing Agents which take part of a group of autonomic base stations. The new OPNET topology required the creation of ten nodes in order to characterize every autonomic agent and all the modifications were made to accomplish the needs of both agents. The autonomic behaviour was obtained through modifications to the wlan_server_adv and ip_arp_v4 OPNET process models, where code changes were made in order to achieve the desired behaviour. 4.2.2 Testing Agent (TA) and Node Agent (NA) Description Each Testing Agents belong respectively with a Node Agent as a single component of a particular node in the OPNET simulation. As mentioned in section 3.3, each base station is aware of its next-door stations at all times. A Testing agent (TA_1) is designed to watch and detect alterations regarding other base stations. In the event of any modification of the network, TA_1 will notify Node Agent (NA_1) by using a UDP message. UDP presents lack of reliability consequently; the Testing agent TA_1 cannot assured successful message transmission. However, this lack of reliability will be useful for simulation proposes. After receiving information from TA_1, a Node Agent (NA_1) will inform other stations about changes in zone, and files updating may take place. When a NA_1 observes that information sent has no arrived to its destination by a particular period of time, the agent alerts its neighbours that a probable node malfunction has happened. This time depends of certain attributes fixed for a particular mobile user. Scalability of the network will be achieved with the use of a second pair of agents. Where, Agent TA_2 has the job of monitoring path request messages sent and received by other stations. Information regarding path request is detected by TA_2, including the time when the path request was generated and the destination of this demand. Changes to the mobility architecture were necessary including ARP and IP alterations. The idea was to alter some settings in order to evaluate and compare the destination address with the address of the device were specific information was sent. The destination address must belong to a registered wireless client and the intelligent agents will check correct transmission of it. IP alterations were made changing the moip_core to allow stations to be able of forwarding information packets to its neighbours, modifying the IP routing mode and helping each station choosing the better route available. The moip_core has a list that could be dynamically regulated as the base stations travel between networks. The UDP is used as a transport protocol and the managing, mobility and registration information is handling by the process show in the figure below. The moip_reg process allows base stations when managing and updating mobility information regarding next-door stations. When exchanging information among stations, all the agents will monitor and process each request and they will aim to find failures during the registration process. When the registration communication was successful, there is an identification value that is compare with a mobility list and the right matched among them will mean no error has occurred during the registration procedure. Updated messages must be sending when agents have no information regarding the mobile station due to updating failures. In fact, agents need acknowledgments in order to be sure that the communication between stations is doing perfectly and in case that an agent does not received the updating message, it will not be able to monitor base stations and all the information exchanged among agents will be lost. Therefore, all the updates and acknowledgments will be verified within an identification field contained by the moip_reg. If they are equivalent, the update will be set as confirmed and the exchange of information will be free of failures. OPNET Modeller allows us to present the node model which was modified in order to provide autonomic behaviour to a set of autonomic base stations within a self-managed wireless access network. The wireless connectivity is achievable through the use of IEEE802.11b interfaces, permitting roaming among networks. This type of interfaces could be improved by adding an extra communication module between the radio transceiver and the wlan_mac system. This process allows a base station to simulate the effect of completely losing connection among devices and at the same time avoiding unnecessarily queues of packets. 4.3 Network Model Three different network configurations were constructed to simulate and identify autonomic characteristics, and agent distribution was arbitrarily decided in order to improve the simulation. The Testing agent (TA_1) was applied to a single base station, other station was selected to make use of Testing agent (TA_2) and Node Agent (NA_1) while Node Agent (NA_2) were modified to operate in all base stations. 4.3.1 Design of Wireless Network Infrastructure The next steps were followed in order to design a wireless infrastructure in OPNET: Open the OPNET program and select New Project and the press OK. Give the project a name and the scenario name. Select create empty scenario and press Next. Network space was chose as campus and specific size was selected as: X-span and Y-span 10 kilometres respectively. The Object Palette Tree will open which illustrates the various WLAN devices as follows. The third model illustrated in the Figure 4.7 offers a more narrowly linked network configuration. The number of neighbours for every node will increase and the communication between Node Agents and Testing Agents will improve due to a decrement in the number of paths required for Testing Agent information to meet the suitable Node Agent. Therefore, a superior self-healing performance will be expected using this configuration. 4.4 Verification of Agents self-healing process upon base station malfunction. To experiment the right operation of the agents, different simulations were made in every network model. The main purpose is to test agent reliability and its competence when providing intelligent self-healing course of action. Consequently, the base stations were programmed to reproduce a failure and the action of agents would eventually lead to simulate an autonomic behaviour. The diagram above illustrates the self-management of the system. Exchange of information among nodes may take different paths until data arrives at its final destination. In the event that a particular base station fails, the permanent monitoring service of the Node Agents will detect the malfunction, and then base stations self-healing method will autonomously locate another route allowing intelligent diagnosing and repairing. OPNET code modifications provide one method of simulating a malfunction in the base station. The most important features required for this process was the use of acknowledge mechanism and understanding of the range capacity of base stations. These characteristics were required to allow mobile devices to recognize when a failure takes place in a base station and stop transmitting and routing traffic, in order to start self-healing and path recovery. 4.5 OPNET Simulation Results A set of simulation were run in order to obtain some important information regarding self-healing and path recovery. The figure 4.9 shows the interchange of data being sent by the two mobile devices and obtained by mobile_node_2. The red line indicates the data and traffic being sent by mobile nodes 0 and 1, while the blue one represents information received by the mobile_node_2. In order to detect the presence of devices and the best possible path, control traffic and management features are established and can be noticed by looking at those short spikes at the beginning of the simulation. In addition, there is a stable amount of traffic being transmitted without interruptions. Chapter 5: Conclusions and Future Work This document proposed an autonomic solution along with the required components in order to set up an autonomic configuration while providing self-characteristics to a non-centralized and self-administrative group of autonomic base stations taking part of a wireless access network. We showed how to avoid centralized topologies including the central point of failure issue. A qualitative evaluation and simulation results allow us to demonstrate self-healing characteristic and autonomous behaviour within the system. This report presented and simulated an autonomic behaviour through the use of self-healing capabilities and the upgrading of different aspects involved within a decentralized management system when being applied to an autonomic wireless network environment. A fast reaction of the self-managed wireless access network is very important in order to react to failures, errors and interferences. Therefore, the self-healing behaviour used in this report offers a way to address such connection problems, including a vision of how a base station can react to changes in its environment and react on failures of its neighbours. On the other hand, the proposed system is capable to handle various base stations in wireless access networks through diverse topologies. This management system for a wireless access network was able to identify and to adapt alterations in the network and, to be efficient, establish the alterations on all regarding base stations. The self-healing behaviour is protecting network information being exchanged and the traffic characteristics associated with that information. As a result, avoiding that the intensity of failures could vary quickly as the network operates and reconfigures around a failed device. The self-management of the system shows how exchange of information between nodes can take diverse routes until data arrives at its final destination, when a particular base station failed, the permanent monitoring service of the Node Agents detected the malfunction, and then base stations self-healing method autonomously located another route allowing intelligent diagnosing and repairing. Alterations to the OPNET mobility architecture showed one method of simulating a base station malfunctions. In addition, with the use of an acknowledge mechanism and understanding of the range capacity of base stations the system could recognized when a failure took place in a base station, stopping transmitted and routed traffic, and beginning self-healing and optimal path recovery. Simulation of autonomic characteristics including self-healing, self-characteristics (self-management, self-organization and self-configuration) and security features in OPNET Modeller 14.5-Education version is a problem for various reasons. OPNET modeller requires enormous alterations of coding programming in order to achieve autonomic behaviour. Therefore, self-characteristics are not easy to apply and gather together in the same network environment because OPNET Modeller 14.5-Education version does not include autonomous process ready for simulation usage. As an alternative, modifications of OPNET architecture have to be done in order to accomplish such propose. OPNET Modeller 14.5-Education version does not support WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) security characteristics. Therefore, simulation of security features within wireless environments is quite complex. 5.1 Future Work It is very important to think about future applications but more importantly is the upgrading of this actual one. The integration of external information will improve the scalability problems and the lack of self-management characteristics. In addition, the inclusion of more management applications is vital. More OPNET architecture modifications must be include accomplishing further autonomic capabilities, including implementation with greater number of nodes and base stations. References S. Dobson, S. Denazis, A. Fernandez, D. Gaiti, E. Gelenbe, F. Massacci, P. Nixon, F. Saffre, N. Schmidt, and F. Zambonelli, A survey of autonomic communications, ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems, 2006. M. Aljnidi and J. 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