{"id":1302,"date":"2020-11-11T14:18:51","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T18:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ece.ncsu.edu\/?p=238638"},"modified":"2020-11-11T14:18:51","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T18:18:51","slug":"managing-data-flow-to-boost-cyber-physical-system-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/2020\/managing-data-flow-to-boost-cyber-physical-system-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing data flow to boost cyber-physical system performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Researchers in NC State\u2019s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) have developed a suite of algorithms to improve the performance of cyber-physical systems \u2014 from autonomous vehicles to smart power grids \u2014 by balancing each component\u2019s need for data with how fast that data can be sent and received.<\/p>\n

\u201cCyber-physical systems integrate sensors, devices, and communications tools, allowing all of the elements of a system to share information and coordinate their activities in order to accomplish goals,\u201d says Dr. Aranya Chakrabortty<\/a>, co-author of a paper on the new algorithms and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State. \u201cThese systems have tremendous potential \u2014 the National Science Foundation refers to them as \u2018enabling a smart and connected world\u2019 \u2014 but these systems also pose challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecifically, the physical agents in a system \u2014 the devices \u2014 need a lot of communication links in order to function effectively. This leads to large volumes of data flowing through the communication network, which causes routing and queuing delays. These delays can cause long waiting times for the agents to take action, thereby degrading the quality of the system. In other words, there\u2019s so much data, being passed through so many links, that a system may not be able to accomplish its established goals \u2014 the lag time is just too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

This creates a dilemma. Reducing communication can hurt the quality of the system\u2019s performance because each element of the system will be operating with less information. On the other hand, reducing communication means that each element of the system would be able to get that information more quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s all a trade-off,\u201d Chakrabortty says. \u201cThe right balance needs to be struck between all three variables \u2014 namely, the right amount of communication sparsity, the optimal delay and the best achievable performance of the agents. Striking this fine balance to carry out the mission in the best possible way while also ensuring safe and stable operation of every agent is not easy. This is where our algorithms come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chakrabortty and ECE graduate student\u00a0Nandini Negi\u00a0developed three algorithms that, taken together, reduce the overall number of data requests from each node in a system, but ensure that each node receives enough information, quickly enough, to achieve system goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no one-size-fits-all solution that will apply to every cyber-physical system,\u201d Negi says. \u201cBut our algorithms allow users to identify the optimal communications solution for any system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Negi is first author of the paper. The work was funded in part by the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"Optimizing data flow allows ECE researchers to dramatically improve the performance of cyber-physical systems, from autonomous vehicles to smart power grids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1302"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2542,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions\/2542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}