text:
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text:
New phones target social networkers
Microsoft moves to regain ground
- |
SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp. unveiled two cellphones yesterday meant for social networking-savvy teens and twenty-somethings in an attempt to revitalize its mobile business and regain ground on iPhones and BlackBerrys.
Microsoft said its new touchscreen phones — a short, square handset called Kin One and a longer, more rectangular one called Kin Two — will be sold exclusively in the United States by Verizon Wireless. They are being made by Sharp Corp., which has produced Sidekick cellphones, whose software comes from Microsoft-owned Danger Inc.
Microsoft has mostly sold its mobile software to other companies to put it on phones they make. This will be the case with its recently announced Windows Phone 7 Series software. The Kin phones mark a departure, as Microsoft has sway over the creation of their software and hardware.
Verizon said it will start selling the Kin phones online in early May and in stores shortly thereafter. In the fall, carrier Vodafone Group PLC — which owns Verizon Wireless in partnership with Verizon Communications Inc. — will start selling the Kin phones in Italy, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Microsoft has not announced prices.
Microsoft needs help in the cellphone market. Its software has been losing share while Apple Inc. and Google Inc., which makes the Android operating software, have gained. Microsoft software ran on 13.1 percent of smartphones sold in the United States last year, according to research firm In-Stat. That put Microsoft in third after BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. and Apple.
Roz Ho, leader of the Microsoft team behind the Kin, said the company has been working on the Kin devices for several years, trying to create a handset for people who especially want to connect with others over social websites such as Facebook. The phones are also meant for people who want a handset that works simply, without forcing them to hunt through menus and icons, she said.
That setup could also present a risk. Unlike most popular smartphones, the Kins won't have access to application stores that let customers download add-on software programs.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The East Terrace
WRU introduces reality television career training
The East Terrace
December 21, 2012
Gavin Henson's reality television exploits will now aid a new WRU venture © Getty Images
The Welsh Rugby Union has responded to the crisis currently engulfing the game in the principality by offering new employment packages to Welsh based players and completely overhauling its junior, youth and academy guidelines.
Faced with a stream of top players leaving Wales to play in England and France, as well as a barrage of embarrassing results at both international and domestic level, the WRU has been forced to act to stop the rot from setting in permanently. At a packed press conference in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, the WRU unveiled its 'Reality Rugby Pathway Project' (RRPP).
The RRPP programme will seek to ensure that Wales' top players have the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the lucrative world of reality television once they retire from the game.
Inspired by the success of Welsh stars Gavin Henson (Strictly Come Dancing/71 Degrees North) and Gareth Thomas (Celebrity Big Brother/Dancing on Ice), the WRU is looking to ensure as many players as possible are able to pursue reality television careers when they are no longer able to make a living from sport. The RRPP will offer all professional players in Wales individually tailored training programmes to best prepare them for a career in reality television.
"We simply don't have the money in Wales to compete with the glamorous French clubs like Toulon and Toulouse," said Mike Williams, the man the WRU has appointed as director of the RRPP. "If we want to keep Welsh players playing in Wales we need to offer something more than just financial inducements. We need to offer them long term options.
"We need to make sure that when they hang up the playing boots they have career options in front of them. In recent years we have a proud tradition of Welsh players bringing pride to the nation by representing us on the screens of commercial television and on the pages of classy publications like Heat and Hello! magazine. We want to ensure this continues and offer as many of our players a chance for fortune and glory as is possible."
The WRU revealed that the RRPP will be an intensive three year course that upon completion will see players given a qualification equivalent to that of a bachelor's degree from a university.
"Traditionally Wales is known as the land of song," added Williams. "But why not be the land of song and dance? Gavin and Gareth have been trailblazers in this regard and we would be negligent not to build upon the trail they have blazed. With Welsh reality television taking a recent boost from the Valleys documentary on that popular youth music television channel, the WRU simply had to make the most of the current climate. We equip our players with the tools they need to succeed. "
The RRPP course will include, but not be limited to, the following modules:
Whilst the introduction of such a comprehensive training programme for the elite game is being welcomed in most quarters in Wales, the accompanying decision to implement similar (if limited) programmes at all levels of the game down to mini rugby is proving to be more controversial.
"We will be asking all coaches who work with children to incorporate dance sessions at the end of any session," said Williams. "We recommend about fifteen minutes of dancing per week. We would also want some kind of ice skating tutoring put in place, where funds allow. We can't waste this opportunity to inspire a nation. We must not leave the youth of our country behind."
However, traditionalists are furious that the game they love seems to be focusing more on marketing and publicity than core rugby skills.
Meanwhile, troubled Welsh region the Cardiff Blues, who are struggling on and off the field, are rumoured to be in talks to be making a reality show about their escapades. However, television producers are apparently concerned that the club is in such disarray the show would be dismissed by casual viewers as slapstick, fictional comedy.
"There is no way people would believe it was true," said the head of programming at television production company ReelVision. "There is only so much the public can swallow."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Communication error please reload the page.


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Defending champion Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharpova and Caroline Wozniacki have all reached the second round of the Australian Open.
Temperatures soared above 40C but that was still not enough for the tournament to implement the extreme heat policy, which would see play suspended on open courts and the roof shut on Rod Laver and Hisense Arena.
Whether the policy is used is a decision made by tournament referee Wayne McKewen, and a combination of heat and humidity is taken into account.
Second seed Azarenka, who has won the title for the last two years, spent an hour and 46 minutes on court in defeating Swede Johanna Larsson 7-6 (7/2) 6-2.
Larsson twice served for the first set only for Azarenka to break back and then win the tie-break convincingly.
The Belarusian described the conditions as "like dancing in a frying pan", but said: "It wasn't too bad. I went to practise after so I'm okay.
"It's not easy those conditions but it's the same for everybody. You just have to adapt to it and try to do the best things to prepare. Actually I felt better as the match was going on than in the beginning."
"I put a (drink) bottle down on the court and it started melting" - Caroline Wozniacki
Azarenka, who meets Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in the next round, was not concerned by her first-set struggles.
She said: "She played really well. I can't say that I was surprised by that. She really went for her shots. The ball bounced a lot higher, which suited her. It took me a little bit of time to find my range."
Tenth seed Wozniacki, meanwhile, dropped only two games in defeating Spain's Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6-0 6-2.
There was a scare for eighth seed Jelena Jankovic when she fell during her match against Japan's Misaki Doi and needed treatment to her ankle, but she recovered to win 6-1 6-2.
Eleventh seed Simona Halep, who won more titles than any other woman except Serena Williams last season, was an even more emphatic winner, the Romanian defeating qualifier Katarzyna Piter 6-0 6-1.
Sharapova battled her way to victory over America's Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
The 6-3 6-4 scoreline did not really do justice to how hard Sharapova was made to work in the 99 minutes the pair spent on court.
Mattek-Sands, who as usual stood out from the crowd with her purple hair and knee-length black socks, was a tough draw for the third seed and she scrapped all the way to the finish.
Sharapova was playing her first grand slam match since Wimbledon, having missed the US Open with shoulder problems that brought an early end to her season.
The Russian was straight back into the groove, moving into a 4-0 lead despite Mattek-Sands having her chances.
The American stopped the rot with two straight games, but Sharapova held on to her advantage to take the set.
Mattek-Sands fought back in the second set as well to lead 4-3, having trailed 3-1, but Sharapova always looked to have enough to win the games that mattered, and so it proved.
The world number three goes through to face Italy's Karin Knapp, who defeated Paula Ormaechea of Argentina.
Wozniacki said of the conditions: "It was a little warm out there today. I put a (drink) bottle down on the court and it started melting a little bit underneath. It was great that I managed to finish it off in two sets and it wasn't too long."
Wozniacki is playing in her first grand slam since becoming engaged to golfer Rory McIlroy but insists she is as hungry as ever to try to be a grand slam force once more.
The 23-year-old has not reached the quarter-finals at one of the sport's four biggest tournaments for two years.
She added: "I think I'm in a very good place in my life right now, on the court and off the court. I know what I want. I want to improve all the time. I want to be the best."


text:
Reporters at the State Department — and around the world — are awaiting the first televised briefing from new spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Psaki, a former Obama White House deputy communications director and more recently the 2012 traveling campaign press secretary, has been on the job a couple weeks now.
Patience — and some historical perspective — is needed here. We wrote 20 years ago that, a month into the same job, Mike McCurry, who later went to the White House, had "not been deemed ready for prime time to conduct the noon televised briefing."
The simple reason was that McCurry had not graduated from the famed Richard A. Boucher Ecole du Dizinformatsiya (school of disinformation, as it was jokingly dubbed), named for the then-current and widely admired spokesman.
The Boucher School is no joke, McCurry recalled Monday. "The heart of the training is to sit in the morning preparations with senior officials then leave the building and skip the briefing. When you return, colleagues do a mock briefing from the actual transcript, asking the same questions the reporters asked that day.
"The test is to see if you give the right answers," he said, so as not to spark some international crisis. "There's a level of substance and seriousness that you don't find at the theater of the absurd," he added, referring to the White House.
The hardest part comes when the cameras are off and reporters come up to chat on background. You have to be able to translate from diplospeak on camera into plain English and then make reporters think they got useful news —even if they didn't.
The legendary Boucher, State's longest serving public affairs chief, went on to senior-most posts, including assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs. He's now deputy secretary general of The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is conveniently headquartered in Paris.
As for Psaki, we've heard the plan is for the new kid to shadow current spokeswoman Victoria Nuland "until Jen learns to drive."
Shouldn't take much longer.


text:
TimoCom – Contact form
Message to TimoCom
Customer support Italy
Here you have the possibility to send an e-mail to the TimoCom Sales Office. You may also quote your telephone number. We will call you back as soon as possible (Mon - Fri 8:00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. – CET/CEST (Central European Time)).


text:
Johan feels rested, ready to return from DL
Johan feels rested, ready to return from DL
"I feel good. I was able to recover and do all my things," Santana said. "I'm definitely happy to be back and be around these guys again. I'm getting ready for my next outing."
That outing will come at Citi Field on Saturday against Atlanta, but not before he throws his bullpen session on Wednesday and diagrams a plan for the start with pitching coach Dan Warthen. Santana wasn't sure if he'd get the green light to throw without limitations in the start on Saturday -- his first since he was placed on the DL on July 21 -- but he speculated much of that decision hinged on the session.
The left-handed starter had a strong rehab start at Class A Brooklyn on Sunday, when he threw three scoreless innings and fanned three batters before increasing his pitch count to 90 by throwing three simulated innings in the bullpen.
"It was all about feeling good and feeling 100 percent from top to bottom," Santana said. "I was able to give my ankle some rest in rehab, but at the same time my whole body rest."


text:
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Create widescreen (16:9) movies in high definition (1280x720, 30fps), then use
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text:
- Forum posts: 14
Feb 10, 2012 4:38:33 AM via Website
Feb 10, 2012 4:38:33 AM via Website
★ Features ★
* Measure heart rate through front and back camera.
* Measure breath rate through front camera.
* Display your measurement history through a beautiful chart.
★ Permission ★
What's My Heart Rate is an advertising-supported app. It will request for internet access permission, to display Google AdMob advertisement.
★ Photo false detection ★
If you want to learn more about this app, or if you are wondering why face photo gives you reading, please visit http://www.whatsmyheartrate.com/about.html#photos.
★ How heart rate measurement works ★
Measure your heart rate by just looking at your screen. Easy and convenient without needed to finger press on your camera lens.
Your heartbeat causes micro color changes on your face. Our software uses camera and advanced software algorithm to detect these micro changes, with beat-to-beat accuracy. The algorithm is built based on reliable non-contact photoplethysmography concept ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoplethysmograph ).
You may even help your lovely sleeping baby, or your grandparents to measure their heart rate by switching to back camera. This breakthrough technology allows you to measure your heart rate in an easy and unobtrusive way.
This app works best, if the device is being hold still in a bright environment.
This is an on-going research being done in many research labs. To read on notable source regarding this research, please google https://www.google.com/search?q=non+contact+cardiac+pulse+webcam, or YouTube http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=non+contact+cardiac+pulse+webcam
★ How breath rate measurement works ★
When you breathe, your chest moves up and down. Our advanced software algorithm tracks the movement of your chest to measure your breathing rate. Make sure that your chest is inside the marked area.
This app works best, if the device is being hold still in a bright environment.
★ Note ★
This software is not intended for clinical use.
★ Download ★
★ Screenshot ★
— modified on May 17, 2012 11:45:50 AM


text:
Donations… meter
How difficult would it be to implement a meter at the top of the site with site overhead costs & donations for a given month/period? I think it would greatly encourage donations to lessen net overhead.
Haha, well, if you look at the donations page…. they're making a profit on RPGWatch right now :D +146 euro. That doesn't surprise me at all of course…..
We could make a meter for it, but I don't know if we will go that route and yes we are making a profit, but that will change in January when I add the annual cost again :)
Maybe it's better to do a yearly thing though. You seem to be adding everything together. It's already 3 years of costs/ads and donations in there.
Once 2011 finishes you should wrap it up there and start a new counter for 2012 methinks.
That is indeed what will be done in 2012.
I sent 20e(?) last spring but forgot to mention my nick. Anyways this is a good website and I like the people here.
I made a small donation and wanted to make sure it went through though. I live in the US so I had to use Paypal and convert the money … first time I did something like that. It looks like it went thogh okay on my end, just hope you got it on your end :) This is a great site and I enjoy it very much.
If you did not mention your user name I cannot verify that. If you PM me some of your info (like your name) I'll check.
I'm sooo glad we don't need to watch this face all year long…
If you turn on the avatar pictures in the forums here, you see quite a lot of different faces all of the time here instead. ;)
My annual question:
Are some donations needed for RPGWatch 2013?
Thanks for the question. ;)
We probably could use a couple of donations to break even next year. Myrthos will certainly say something about this soonish. At the moment he is busy cleaning things up.
From the looks of it we will have sufficient funding for 2013.
The cost for this year is somewhat lower as we did not move to a new server yet. The cost for next year will be a bit more than normally, but that still means there will be a surplus, especially when I also add our expected ad income.
Some $$$ for 2014 :)
Time to chip in I guess (haven't done so for quite a while :biggrin: )…
When Myrthos updates the pages, I suggest moving all the old donors to a separate page as it is starting to crowd the page. Might be useful to keep the 2013 ones on there though.
We appreciate every single donation. A page update is not in sight though. It will probably take weeks until new names appear on the donations page.
I've updated the page and it now shows the actual status. If you donated in 2013 or this year and your name is not in the list, you probably forgot to add your nickname to your PayPal payment…. or I made a mistake :)
In any case PM me to sort this out.
All donors from before 2013 that did not donate in 2013/2014 have been removed from the list and are no longer listed as donor on these forums.
eep, we need to pick up the donations a bit. It'd be nice if we could even out the budget!
added my 2¢ :)
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text:
Everyone wants to work with Salman Khan, but only a few get the chance. A few days before Anushka Sharma was finalised for "Sultan", Urvashi Rautela was reportedly spotted getting a bit "too friendly" with the film's director Ali Abbas Zafar.
SpotboyE further reported that Zafar turned red but Rautela didn't back off. Later, he asked her to send him her pictures saying his team will get in touch with her. The Miss India Universe 2015 was oblivious to the fact that people were watching her do what she was doing.
She took baby steps into the industry with Sunny Deol's "Singh Saab The Great" in 2013, but the film tanked at the box office. Later, the hit music video with Yo Yo Honey Singh ("Love Dose") put her in the limelight, but the hype faded way too quickly. She has Divya Khosla Kumar's "Sanam Re" lined-up for release, but is mostly missing from the promotional activities.
Her trying to jump at every opportunity that comes her way is understood, considering her Bollywood career hasn't really taken off after all the effort she has put in so far. Established actresses such as Jacqueline Fernandez and Huma Qureshi too have taken different routes to achieve what their hearts desired.
The "Kick" actress was apparently seen cozying up to the superstar in question to be able to land a role in his film. "Salman was on his own trip at the awards. He seemed happy in his own company. But Jacqueline would have none of that. She kept rushing to him backstage where they were both preparing to perform live," a source told DNA. Qureshi, on the other hand, was apparently busy warming up to Khan's manager Reshma Shetty for a role in "Sultan".
Source link


text:
The movie tie-in edition of the #1 bestselling trade paperback includes a collectible full-color, fold-out poster with photos of the movie cast on both sides.
In New Moon, Stephenie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural twist. The "star-crossed" lovers theme continues as Bella and Edward find themselves facing new obstacles, including a devastating separation, the mysterious appearance of dangerous wolves roaming the forest in Forks, a terrifying threat of revenge from a female vampire and a deliciously sinister encounter with Italy's reigning royal family of vampires, the Volturi. Passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.
Not since TV's Buffy "the Vampire Slayer" Summers battled demons in the halls of Sunnydale High has a teenager faced the number of monsters that Bella Swan does in Meyer's melodramatic sequel to Twilight. Bella's vampire boyfriend Edward and his unusual clan are joined by an ancient pack of werewolves-also with connections to Bella-in a story that's got romance, adventure, thrills and even a quick detour to Italy. Thanks to Kadushin's (who also read Twilight) consistently smooth delivery and her plausibility as a teen navigating heartbreak, hormones and confusion, listeners are likely to hang on for the many fever-pitch moments of suspense here, even if the lengthy tale could have used some pruning. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.


text:
Going like sixty
Thoughts on being fifty-nine, which is close enough, right?
Thoughts on being fifty-nine, which is close enough, right?
Happy birthday.
Perhaps not surprisingly, I wrote that 60/120 analogy in my March 8, 2013 blogpost, which I've already written!
Always best to be prepared.
Happy Birthday Chaz!
Another year older beats the alternative every time, I always say.
Judgement for all of us comes closer w/ every minute, you're right on that. As on so much else.
Have a pleasant birthday, Chaz. Don't judge yourself too much!
Happy Birthday, Chaz!
As for that whole "nearer the end than the beginning" thing, don't give it too much thought. There's really nothing down that road for any of us, and none of us truly knows the number of our days, but only that our days are numbered. Make the most of today, and don't worry more than you have to about tomorrow.
Happy Birthday! You are still one day older than me, which is better than the possible alternative.


text:
James Franco turns 36 today—that calls for a selfie!
We've been seeing a lot of the Broadway star in the media for both great and not so great recent events. The timing couldn't have been worse for the actor as his Palo Alto trailer debuted the same week he got himself into a bit of a scandal. Franco tried to pick up a 17-year-old tourist using social media, and in his film, he plays a soccer coach who hooks up with one of his high school students.
Even after the embarrassing incident, Franco hasn't shied away from giving us more of his infamous selifes.
The social media king handled the situation by admitting he used bad judgment and has learned his lesson, he even joked and tweeted "I HOPE PARENTS KEEP THEIR TEENS AWAY FROM ME. Thank you."
Let's celebrate his birthday by taking a look at the comedic actor's intimate selfies. We just hope Instagram doesn't cause any more controversial issues for the movie star!


text:
Most spider monkeys can be found in the regions of South
America, Central America, and Mexico. They live in tropical rain forests, but their forests are rapidly being
destroyed by logging and humans expanding into their environment.
Within these tropical rain forests, spider monkeys like to stay near the top of
the canopy of trees. This helps keep them away from spider monkey
predators roaming the forest's floor.
Many zoos house spider
monkeys around the world as well.
Copyright SK Creations, Inc. - Last Updated


text:
Sporting Kansas City Academy players participated in the Development Academy Winter Showcase this past weekend wrapping up their final matches this morning.
The showcase was scheduled around a trio of international friendlies played by the U.S. Under-17 Men's National Team against Brazil, Turkey and Portugal.
Eighty-one clubs participate in the tournament and are each guaranteed three matches at the Premier Sport Complex in Lakewood Ranch, Fla.
The first game of the showcase for the Sporting Kansas City Academy teams took place on November 30. The U18's drew 1-1 to the PA Classics. Both teams saw 11 shots while only capitalizing on one a piece. Sporting Kansas City's lone goal was scored by Isai Gutierrez in the 79th minute. The lead didn't last long as PA Classics stirker Andrew Skundrich equalized four minutes later.
The U18's next match was on Saturday, December 1 at 10:00 a.m. CT. Sporting Kansas City lost to Vancouver Whitecaps FC 4-1. Cole Stevenson scored Sporting Kansas City Academy's only goal of the match in the 63rd minute.
The U16's opened their tournament play a few hours later, falling 4-0 to the PA Classics. The Classics notched their first goal of the match in the 29th minute and then tallied their next three goals in-between the 63rd and 68th minute markers, recording three goals in a six-minute span.
The U16's played their second contest on December 2 and were defeated 6-3 by Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
The tournament concluded on December 4 with both the U16's and the U18's facing Real Salt Lake Academy. The U18's earned the 1-1 draw in their final match as Isai Gutierrez scored his second goal of the tournament while the U16's fell 3-1.
The U18's finished the showcase with a record of 0-1-2 and the U16's concluded with a record of 0-3-0.


text:
Ryan declines soccer field offerCity and Y will continue to develop fields in Wellness Park
The project to create soccer fields on the city land reserved for the Wellness Park is moving ahead, although without the backing of the Washington Soccer Club, plans to find land for fields elsewhere.
During Wednesday's city council meeting, soccer club director Sid Ryan said that the club would not participate in the creation of fields. After the shared use agreement between the city and the Washington Community Y was approved, city administrator Brent Hinson said that he believes the project would continue without the club.
"At this time the soccer club and I are looking at another piece of property to purchase and we will make permanent soccer fields," Ryan said. "Temporary ones are great, but when you get done with the Wellness Park there are only two soccer fields there. We need five soccer fields for a tournament to come to town."
Mayor Sandra Johnson said that the fields could become a permanent part of the Wellness Park. Ryan said all the club had discussed were temporary fields. He said the club would survive the next five or six years.
"Do what you want to do, because it doesn't seem like I am involved in it much anymore, so that is all I have to say," he said, before leaving the meeting.
During discussion, council member Russ Zieglowsky said that he had spoken with Ryan, Hinson, and Y director Becky Harkema and felt they had worked out an agreement between the club and the Y to use the fields. He stressed to the council that he wanted the soccer club to continue "in the worst way." He said that a few changes had been made in the agreement, including allowing Ryan to sit on the facilities operation committee. The agreement also asked that the club becomes a non-profit entity. The changes were agreeable to all parties.
"The agreement is pretty solid," Zieglowsky said.
Gabby Canchola, spokesman for the soccer club before Ryan arrived, said that she had received word that Ryan planned to purchase private land for the soccer club to use.
"I'm a little confused by the conversations going on," she said, while the council was discussing the agreement. "When is the last time anyone spoke with Sid, because the information I have from Sid from a few hours ago is 'soccer club has no deal with the Y.'"
She said Ryan had told the club members that there wouldn't be a deal.
Zieglowsky was shocked by the statement, saying that he believed the groups had an agreement. Harkema said the Y is willing to work with the club, including securing grant money to build the fields.
After Ryan arrived, council member Bob Shellmyer, who attended through video conferencing, asked Ryan if the offer for the soccer club to develop the fields was still good. He said that if it were, he found it hard to accept anything else.
Ryan said that the offer didn't stand anymore.
The club had originally approached the city to allow it to use 10 acres of land for temporary soccer fields. During discussions, Hinson had recommended the field be administered by the Y as an initial run for the Wellness Park. At the time, Ryan objected, saying the club had a bad experience playing on fields the Y administered. About two years ago, the council had approved allowing the club to use the land, but it was never used.


text:
The Scientific World Journal
Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 561984, 9 pages
A Hybrid OFDM-TDM Architecture with Decentralized Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation for PONs
Computer Engineering Department, Fatih University, 34500 Istanbul, Turkey
Received 4 August 2013; Accepted 27 August 2013
Academic Editors: W. Sun, G. Zhang, and J. Zhou
Copyright © 2013 Taner Cevik. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
One of the major challenges of passive optical networks is to achieve a fair arbitration mechanism that will prevent possible collisions from occurring at the upstream channel when multiple users attempt to access the common fiber at the same time. Therefore, in this study we mainly focus on fair bandwidth allocation among users, and present a hybrid Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed/Time Division Multiplexed architecture with a dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme that provides satisfying service qualities to the users depending on their varying bandwidth requirements. Unnecessary delays in centralized schemes occurring during bandwidth assignment stage are eliminated by utilizing a decentralized approach. Instead of sending bandwidth demands to the optical line terminal (OLT) which is the only competent authority, each optical network unit (ONU) runs the same bandwidth demand determination algorithm. ONUs inform each other via signaling channel about the status of their queues. This information is fed to the bandwidth determination algorithm which is run by each ONU in a distributed manner. Furthermore, Light Load Penalty, which is a phenomenon in optical communications, is mitigated by limiting the amount of bandwidth that an ONU can demand.
1. Introduction
In parallel with the improvements occurring at the backbone side, more sophisticated and bandwidth harvesting user demands have emerged lately. In spite of this mutual capacity and demand increase, the portion residing between the user and the backbone which is called the last (first) mile remains as the bottleneck. The recent technology employed in the last mile is the DSL technology. However, this solution will soon not be able to fulfill the bandwidth requirements of the users running multimedia and real time services such as video conferencing [1, 2]. 6 Mbits/s bandwidth per user was satisfying for all users previously. However, by the rapid progress of multimedia applications offered via Internet such as High Definition TV, existing resources have begun not to meet the needs of some users. These users running bandwidth harvesting applications needed broadband access capacity in order not to suffer delays and experience low-quality performance. Furthermore, due to the improvements in optical signal processing and devices, deployment of optical architectures in the last mile is not as costly as before [3].
In order to remedy that bandwidth bottleneck, optical fiber has been deployed instead of traditional copper cable in the last mile. This architecture is called Fiber-to-the-x (FTTx). This appellation differs according to the distance between the end user and the optical fiber [4].
Besides serving the broadband bandwidth to the users, achieving it in lower costs is another challenge to overcome. PONs are considered as the premising solution for that aforementioned challenge by means of their low operational costs, longevity, and huge capacity [5]. In addition to conventional Internet, CATV, and multimedia data, it also supports wireless data such as 3G and 4G [6].
All the elements assigned on the network between source and destination, are passive which means no electrical supply is needed [7]. By means of a splitter, fewer number of fibers are deployed, thereby cost and complexity are reduced. On the contrary, in Active Optical Networks (AON), an active curb switch is employed instead of a passive splitter/combiner. That requires electrical supply, physical preservation, and administration of the switch. However, passive splitter just replicates the incoming signal without performing any operations on it. In another type of optical network called point-to-point Optical Networks, individual fibers are deployed for each subscriber. That is, each user is connected to the central office through the fiber assigned specifically for it which is a very cumbersome and expensive solution.
PONs roughly comprise three elements. The main component of a PON is the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) device that is placed at the local exchange part (Central Office). OLT is responsible for signal conversion between optical and electrical plane. Furthermore, it coordinates multiple access of ONUs to the common fiber towards upstream direction [8]. Another component is the Optical Network Unit (ONU) which is located at the user side and serves as an interface between the OLT and the user domain. ONUs are usually assigned for every user premise such as a curb or a building. ONUs perform the conversion of optical signals into electrical domain and vice versa. Moreover, they schedule users, thereby provide efficient service quality, fair bandwidth usage and better channel utilization. The last important element of a PON is the Optical Splitter/Combiner that is charged to split the optical signal incoming from OLT into several subsignals and distribute them via the fibers connected to the ONUs placed at the premises side.
ATM is defined as a standard layer 2 protocol of PONs by the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) in the hope that ATM networks will dominate the market. However, Ethernet has won a great victory against ATM and gained great acceptance especially at the user side of PONs. In ATM Passive Optical Networks (APONs), whole IP datagram is segmented into fixed size ATM cells. If one of the cells is dropped or disrupted somehow, all remaining cells comprising the whole IP datagram have to be resent again, even though they arrive to the destination without any corruption. Moreover, the IP datagram cannot be fragmented. That is to say, when an IP datagram is segmented into ATM cells and the remaining part does not contain enough data to fill out completely an ATM cell, empty bits of the ATM cell will be padded which brings an extra overhead. Also, failing to be an inexpensive technology is another important factor for ATM not being considered at the user side of PONs. Due to above-mentioned reasons, APONs have not gained the targeted interest [9].
Ethernet PON (EPON) is an inexpensive, ubiquitous technology that is interoperable with the legacy equipment while supporting different types of data requiring various service qualities. That makes EPONs much more popular and acceptable in the client side. Depending on the fact that 90% of data traffic emerges from or ends at an Ethernet LAN, it is reasonable of Ethernet to be the standard layer-2 protocol for PONs.
This paper presents a hybrid OFDM/TDM architecture that provisions enhanced service quality, fair, dynamic bandwidth allocation, and utilization for EPONS. Nearly all dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithms suggested for Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) architectures, offer very close solutions and performances. Furthermore, most of the TDM architectures are centralized. The most attractive solution breaking this uniformity is the method that applies echo mechanism at the splitter, thereby all the ONUs become aware of each other's transmission. A latter solution offered for multiple access is the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) in which different wavelengths are assigned to each ONU. Though it is a simple solution to implement, since it requires tunable receiver arrays at the OLT, it is not cost effective. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) which is a popular wireless broadband access technology has been considered lately to be employed in PONs. By utilizing the penetrating performance of OFDM mechanism, we present a decentralizing dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithm by means of using echo mechanism in the splitter.
The remainder of this paper is presented as follows. Section 2 summarizes the multiple access schemes and dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithms utilized in EPONs; Section 3 describes the architecture we propose; in Section 4, simulation results are depicted and the last section concludes the paper.
2. Scheduling and Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation
In EPON, communication channel is divided into two subchannels, upstream and downstream. In the downstream direction, PON acts as a point-to-multipoint network. Data sent by the OLT is broadcasted to all ONUs by means of the splitter. ONUs getting data look at the address of the packets whether the designated subscriber belongs to their domain or not. If it is not, packets are discarded. Encryption is applied in order to prevent eavesdropping. Since broadcast mechanism is employed, problems like multiple accessing in the upstream do not occur. On the other hand, some challenges arise in the upstream direction. All ONUs share the same fiber and they inherently attempt to access to the common communication channel at the same time. Since it was nearly impossible for ONUs to detect collisions occurring at the OLT, traditional collision detection mechanisms such as Ethernet's CSMA/CD mechanism was previously difficult to be employed in EPONs [10]. However, development and usage of echo splitters have let ONUs detect other ONUs' signals, thereby requiring CSMA/CD to be applied. To this end, different solutions have been suggested and some of these are described generally in this section.
Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation Solutions depend on the multiplexing mechanism employed. Therefore, they are grouped roughly under four headings, TDM, CSMA/CD, WDM, and OFDM solutions.
First and the most effective solution offered is the application of TDM in the upstream direction. Time domain is sliced into windows and each ONU is assigned a fix-sized window permanently. This mechanism is very simple and easy to implement. However, it is not an ideal solution due to the bursty nature of the data traffic. Though an ONU does not have any data, the transmission window previously assigned for that ONU cannot serve any other ONU, and the fiber will redundantly remain idle which results in low bandwidth utilization. With the aim of achieving high bandwidth utilization, transmission time windows should be assigned dynamically with varying sizes depending on the burstiness of data [11] as shown in Figure 1.
In order to provide a better channel utilization, resources should be assigned to demanding ONUs temporarily which is called Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation [12]. Moreover, since time domain is being multiplexed, transmissions of the ONUs must be scheduled depending on different criteria. Some of the proposed solutions employ round-robin mechanism and some of them use adaptive scheduling schemes [13–15].
Scheduling is performed in two domains. First one is the Inter-ONU Scheduling, which is the job of organizing the transmissions of multiple ONUs in the system. ONUs inform the OLT about their bandwidth demands. OLT performs required planning operations and replies back to ONUs with their transmission time and length schedules. Another type of scheduling is the Intra-ONU scheduling which is performed by the ONUs in the network. After each ONU gets its GRANT message, obtained bandwidth is apportioned among the users existing in the ONU's domain, depending on their service level agreements or bandwidth demands [16].
All mechanisms suggested for dynamic bandwidth allocation under TDM group are based on multipoint Control Protocol (MPCP) [17]. MPCP is a signaling protocol used by both OLT and ONUs during bandwidth allocation process. MPCP mainly relies on two messages: REPORT and GATE. GATE message is used by the OLT for allocating bandwidth to the ONUs. ONUs send their data together with the REPORT message that carries information about the present situation about the queues of the related ONU.
Various DBA mechanisms are suggested for the purpose of remedying dynamic bandwidth allocation. As is known, the most popular and fundamental study is IPACT, in which an interleaved polling scheme with an adaptive cycle time is presented. The next ONU is polled, before the data of the previous ONU arrives. In IPACT, for in-band signaling a single wavelength is used for both GRANT message and downstream data transmissions. Besides, they suggest that, in order to prevent some ONUs with larger demands to dominate the whole bandwidth, a maximum window size is defined. If an ONU demands a window size larger than the maximum threshold, the maximum bandwidth it can get is the predefined maximum window size. Demands smaller than the maximum window size will be fulfilled by the OLT.
Another similar work presented is an adaptive MAC polling protocol suggested by Zheng and Mouftah [11]. This protocol mainly depends on IPACT and the amendment they suggest is defining the ONU that should send its data first by considering their RTTs.
The problem that emerges during light network loads is the light load penalty identified by Kramer et al. [18]. At the end of every cycle, each ONU puts information about its queues' status into the REPORT message that is attached to the data portion. Obviously, this information denotes the recent bandwidth demand of that ONU. If demand of the ONU is smaller than or equal to the maximum transmission window size, the requested bandwidth is supplied to the ONU by giving the details in the GRANT message. However, until the GRANT message arrives at the ONU, new packets with different priorities inherently may arrive at the ONU from the users located in its domain. The bandwidth granted by the OLT covers the packets arrived previously and the newly arriving high priority packets will suppress the previously arrived lower priority packets. These lower priority packets will have to wait for the next cycle. However, same events may repeat in the next cycle, and the same lower priority packets may suffer unlimited delays and as a result will be dropped. Kramer et al. suggest a two-stage buffer mechanism in which packets arriving at the ONU are placed into different queues depending on their priorities. These queues are called stage 1 queues. Depending on a pulling algorithm, packets are pulled from these differentiated queues and passed to the queue that holds the packets to be transmitted in the next cycle. So, the REPORT message holds information about the status of this stage 2 queue. Newly arriving packets are directly pushed into the stage 1 queues. Thus, they cannot dominate the lower priority packets that have gained transmission grant for the present cycle.
Studies described above are based on the idea of centralized bandwidth allocation and scheduling which is performed by the OLT. ONUs send their bandwidth demands in a REPORT message attached after the data portion. Depending on these requests, OLT allocates bandwidth and organizes the schedule. Despite that, in decentralized solutions, OLT does not have any mission anything about bandwidth allocation and organization process. On the contrary, ONUs decide everything when and how long they will access to the common fiber. This is achieved by means of an echo featured splitter that provides each signal sent by an ONU to be received by the remaining ONUs. In the paper proposed by Sherif et al. [19], time is portioned into frames each of which represents a cycle. A small slice at the beginning of the cycle is divided into small slots that are each assigned to an ONU permanently to announce its bandwidth demand and make reservation. Each ONU broadcasts its demand in its dedicated time slot. After this notification process, all ONUs in the system become aware of the demands of other ONUs. The values obtained from other ONUs are processed by a DBA algorithm. Since every ONU runs the same algorithm, the results produced at each ONU are all consistent. Hence, the schedule becomes definite and every ONU starts its transmission at the time the algorithm identifies.
As described at the beginning of this section, CSMA/CD couldn't have been applied in passive optical networks previously, because, it was impossible for an ONU to be aware of another ONUs' transmission. There were two major factors causing ONUs not to be able to realize the signals of other ONUs. First one is that splitters lacked echo (repeater) mechanism. Other reason was that it was very difficult for ONUs to sense a collision occuring at the OLT. By the development of repeater type passive splitters, a signal transmitted by an ONU is echoed at the splitter to all other ONUs. Thus, each ONU realizes an ongoing transmission and does not attempt to send its data in order not to cause a collision which is an obvious application of CSMA/CD.
RCMA [20] and its extended version FULL-RCMA [21] propose a MAC protocol similar to CSMA/CD. They employ the echo mechanism by means of a passive optical splitter/combiner similar to the 10BASE-FP Ethernet. According to their solution, an ONU, before sending its data, should broadcast a request message. This request message is repeated at the echo splitter and arrives at all other ONUs together with the originating one. When the echoed request message arrives back at the originating ONU, it is discarded, and not evaluated as a collision by means of a special transceiver designed for Ethernet. The request message is used for making reservation in time domain. At that time, all other ONUs become aware of how long the common medium will be busy. Each ONU applies this process and makes its own reservation. Before an ONU broadcasts its requests, it first senses the medium. If it is free to send, then it puts the request message on the way towards the splitter.
TDM PONs with statistical multiplexing offers low cost network maintenance and administration. However, the common fiber can be used by only a single ONU at a time. Considering bandwidth demands of the clients increase very rapidly nowadays, a promising solution for fulfilling these requirements is the WDM technology. Capacity increase can be achieved in the backbone easily by using WDM. However, employing WDM in the access side has been a much more complicated and expensive challenge. In terms of cost of the devices and maintenance, WDM networks are considered as the next-generation follower of TDM PONs. Thus, hybrid TDM-WDM techniques are being proposed as a smooth adaptation bridge for the recent stage [22].
The most important factor that affects WDMs to be an expensive technology to be applied in the access side is the high cost of the WDM light source. Distributed feedback laser diode used in the backbone is not convenient for the access side [23]. However, promising, low cost WDM light sources are proposed such as Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE)-injected Fabry-Perot Laser Diode (FP-LD) [24].
In nondynamic WDM networks, ONUs have a single light source (FP-LD) fixed to a single wavelength. Though this approach seems to be a cost effective solution to implement under light loads; the assigned wavelength will not be fully utilized [25]. Using multiple FP-LDs each fixed to a single wavelength at each ONU is another alternative solution. However, the best case is that each ONU owns a tunable laser that can use any of the upstream channel wavelengths. Though full tunability scheme provides the best performance in terms of bandwidth utilization, it requires a centralized tunable DeMux at OLT which is an expensive solution [26].
Another promising technology that is not as costly as WDM for PONs is the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing. Application of OFDM on PONs has drawn great interest in recent years. By dividing the baseband carrier to the multiple orthogonal subcarriers, significant bandwidth utilization, and enlargements can be achieved [27].
Several research studies [28–30] have been performed about OFDMA PONs. An OFDMA-based 10 Gb/s PON architecture is demonstrated by Qian et al. [31]. In another work [32], a dynamic, asynchronous OFDMA scheme is proposed. Uplink channel is divided into orthogonal subcarriers again. Besides, each ONU has allocated a subchannel permanently dedicated for control messages transmission. Each ONU sends its recent demand to the OLT via that dedicated signaling channel. Depending on these demands arriving from ONUs, OLT allocates the necessary resources to ONUs by means of GRANT messages. In this way, a centralized statistical bandwidth allocation mechanism is achieved.
In the architecture, we propose a statistical subcarrier allocation to each ONU depending on their recent demands. However, instead of charging the OLT for giving this bandwidth allocation decisions, a decentralized approach is employed in which each ONU runs an algorithm that produces the same output at every ONU. Thus, delay suffered because of the REPORT and GRANT signaling messages is alleviated.
3. The Proposed Architecture
In traditional TDM PONs, just a single ONU can access to the common channel at a single time. However, by allocating a portion of the capacity to each of the ONUs in the system, multiple of them can access to the common fiber simultaneously. This simultaneous multiple access is achieved by applying OFDMA scheme in our architecture. Uplink channel is apportioned to multiple orthogonal subchannels as shown in Figure 2.
Subchannel allocation is not performed centrally by the OLT. As in the previous works, unnecessary delays occur during signaling process. In contrast, a decentralized mechanism is employed. Each ONU in the system runs the same Dynamic Subchannel Allocation algorithm that produces the same output at each ONU. In order to produce the same output, the algorithm has to be applied to the same inputs. These inputs are the bandwidth demands of each ONU in the system. So, these demands should be notified to every ONU. One of the subchannels is assigned for this notification process. Access to the signaling subchannel is achieved in the TDM manner. Hence, signaling subchannel is partitioned into mini-slots in the time domain as depicted in Figure 3, each of which is assigned to an ONU permanently.
3.1. System Architecture
Instead of a traditional splitter/combiner, an echo-splitter/combiner [33] is utilized in the system. Thus, each ONU becomes aware of each other's transmissions via a common signaling channel as shown in Figure 4.
Architecture of an ONU in the system is sketched in Figure 5. Numbers and arrows in the figure denote the order and direction of operations, respectively. In order to prevent light-load penalty, two stage queue mechanism is employed in the ONUs. Packets incoming from users (1) are conducted to the appropriate queues by the classifier depending on their types (2). At the beginning of each cycle, Load Calculation Unit (LCU) calculates the total load (3) and passes this information to the Communication Unit (CU) and Dynamic Subchannel Allocation (DSCA) Unit (4). CU broadcasts the load information in its permanently allocated mini-slot period (5) to inform other ONUs about its load. Also, all other ONUs' notification broadcast messages arrive during this load notification stage (6). All incoming load information is processed by the DSCA Unit, and the result which represents the amount of bandwidth that the corresponding ONU gained is conveyed to the Scheduler (8). Scheduler pulls packets from the queues according to the priority management policy without exceeding the bandwidth defined by the DSCA (9). Packets leaving the Stage1 Queue Unit enter to the stage 2 Queue Unit to be sent in the present cycle (10). Lastly, packets ordered in the second queue are forwarded to the CU to be transmitted (11).
3.2. Intra-ONU Scheduling and Decentralized Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation
Network traffic is classified as in Diffserv, [34] and packets are pushed into different queues depending on their types. As shown in Figure 5, each ONU maintains three types of queues that each holds different prioritized packets. ConstantBitRate (CBR) stands for Diffserv's Expedited Forwarding (EF) representing services such as voice services that need low delay jitter. VariableBitRate (VBR) symbolizes Diffserv's Assured Forwarding services, such as video that can tolerate some delay and loss. Lastly, BestEffort (BE) is the lowest prioritized services in the hierarchy [35].
Length of each queue that holds different priority packets are passed to the LCU. Bandwidth demand is calculated according to the load present in the queues. The length of high priority queues are the major decisive factor while calculating the load of each ONU. Load of an ONU is calculated by (1):
In the formula given previously, denotes the total load of an ONU, in other words, total bandwidth demand of the ONU. LqCBR, LqVBR, and LqBE represent the lengths of CBR, VBR, and BE queues of , respectively.
Several simulations are performed for various () triples. As it will be clarified in the following sections, in order to provide better service qualities for high prioritized packets, larger ratio of () must be applied. By this way, ONUs with larger CBR queue lengths will possess more bandwidth.
Total bandwidth demand in the system, which is denoted by TotBwD, is calculated by adding demands of all ONUs in the network:
In order to provide fairness, there is a maximum bandwidth value (MaxBw) that an ONU can demand. That is because, if all bandwidth demands of ONUs are satisfied carelessly, ONUs with lower demands will never get a chance to reach to the common fiber. Thus, in order to prevent Light Load Penalty, the amount of bandwidth that an ONU can demand is limited in this way. Calculation of the bandwidth allocated to the ONUs is performed in two stages. In the first stage, demands smaller than MaxBw is satisfied completely. If the value that the ONU demands exceeds MaxBw in the first place, a minimum guaranteed bandwidth (MinGrBw) is allocated to that ONU. In this way, ONUs with larger demands are prevented to dominate the common media and also the ONUs with lower demands get their share fairly. Bandwidth allocation process in the first stage is formulated as follows:
After the bandwidth allocation at the first stage, the remaining bandwidth demand of each ONU is shown by
Equation (5) represents the total remaining bandwidth demand after the first stage:
The total allocated and remaining available bandwidths after the first stage are calculated, respectively, as follows:
In (7), TotBw and RemAvBw denote the total bandwidth capacity of the network and the remaining available bandwidth after the first stage, respectively. In the second stage, residual bandwidth allocation to the ONUs is performed proportional with their remaining demands as identified by
Channels are assigned to the ONUs as shown in Figure 6 according to the results calculated by the decentralized dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithm. As represented in Figure 6, time is partitioned into cycles. Each cycle comprises two phases: Load Notification Phase (LDP) and Data Transfer Phase (DTP). During LDP which is negligible compared to the DTP, an ONU broadcasts its load information towards the splitter via the signaling channel in its permanent mini-timeslot. When the broadcasted notification message arrives at the echo-splitter/combiner, it is reflected back towards the other ONUs together with the originating one. By looking at the source id of the message, the originator discards it. Other ONUs check the destination address of the message and after realizing the broadcast address and the type of the message which identifies a notification, their CUs take and pass the message to their DSCA units.
4. Performance Evaluation
In this section, we present the results of the simulations performed with different parametric combinations. Simulations are performed on an event-based testbed. We use a PON with 10 ONUs connected in a stare-shape topology. The uplink channel data rate between each ONU and the splitter is assumed as 1 Gb/s with a total capacity of 10 Gb/s. Cycle length in time domain is set to 20 ms. Total bandwidth is divided into 2048 subchannels each with the capacity of 5 Mb/s. Number of users connected to each ONU is assumed to be the same. However, not all of the users connected to an ONU generate packets. Each user generates packets randomly in each cycle. As described previously, three different types of packets are present in the network: CBR, VBR, and BE. CBR packets are generated with the rate of 4.48 Mb/s and 70 Bytes length. Sizes of VBR and BE packets are assumed to be 100 Bytes.
We first identify the impact of the coefficients , , and on the maximum delay suffered in the system. As described in (1), load of an ONU which actually symbolizes the bandwidth demand of an ONU is calculated according to this triplet value.
Figure 7 shows the maximum delay suffered depending on different combinations. As the ratio of increases, end-to-end delay of a CBR packet decreases. The reason of the decrease in delay is that ratio describes the bandwidth reserved for CBR packets. Figure 8 also encourages the notion asserted above. It is depicted the change in the maximum delay CBR, VBR, and BE packets suffered due to varying values of when and are kept constant.
Since the parameter describes the weight of VBR packets during bandwidth reservation, as shown in Figure 9, the increase in the value of when and are kept constant, the delay of VBR packets decreases.
The same goes for the BE packets. As presented in Figure 10, when it is intended to prevent the CBR and VBR packets to dominate the BE packets in the system, value of is increased.
Another important factor affecting the delay is the network traffic. By the time the number of active users in the system increases, the network load also increases. The change in delay due to the increase in the number of users attached to each ONU is shown in Figure 11.
As described in the previous section, during bandwidth partition for each ONU, if it is not prevented, an ONU with a higher load can dominate the total capacity. In this case, users of ONUs with lower loads may suffer to significant delays. In order to avoid this situation, all of the ONUs are given some amount of guaranteed bandwidth which is denoted by MinGrBw in (3). The remaining bandwidth is shared rationally between the ONUs of which bandwidth demands are not fulfilled. As clarified in Figure 12, if the amount of minimum guaranteed bandwidth is increased, the delay that the CBR packets suffer also increases.
5. Conclusion
This paper proposes a hybrid OFDM-TDM architecture with a statistical bandwidth allocation scheme. Traditional centralized structures mostly apply TDM mechanism as the multiple access scheme. With TDM, just a single ONU owns the common shared medium at a time. However, apportioning the available resources among the beneficiaries yields a much more effective and fair utilization. WDM is an alternative and promising solution for this purpose. Though it is an applicable technology in the backbone, it is not cost effective in the access side because it requires a centralized tunable DeMux in OLT which is an expensive solution. One of the latest prominent solutions for PONs is the application of OFDM in the access side. OFDM provides better shared resource access with lower costs. In this paper, TDM is employed as the accompanying multiple access scheme for coordinating the bandwidth apportioned among the users that is assigned by OFDM. Besides, by applying a decentralized architecture, redundant delays suffered because of the signaling between the ONUs and the OLT are prevented. After a short notification stage, each ONU becomes aware of the loads of other ONUs in the system. Load calculation is performed according to the weights of CBR, VBR, and BE packets in the total load. Hence, high priority packets and ONUs dominating the resources are prevented. Allocating resources dynamically in each cycle according to the demands of ONUs provides better resource utilization.
For future work, a performance comparison by employing multiple OLTs in the system will be added.
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The documents below can also be found under DoD FADL's Resource Materials.
Other DoD FADL related regulations, FMs, DODDs. DODIs, etc. can also be found under Resource Materials.
DoD FADL Diagnostics Section Documents Request for Laboratory Determination for Rabies (DD 2620) Shipment of Specimen for Rabies Diagnosis (FADL Form D-169) UN 3373 Biological Substance Category B Labels Military Working Dog Banked Annual Blood and Serum Form (FADL Form D-127) Serology Test Request for MWD or POA (FADL Form D-128) Military Working Dog Lackland Test Request (For Lackland Air Force Base Use Only) (FADL Form D-128LAFB) TSA Dog Serology Test Request (FADL Form D-128TSA) Diagnostic Test List (FADL Form D-191)
DoD FADL Field Technical Support (FTS) Documents DoD Food Analysis and Diagnostic Laboratory Submission Guide (TG 361) Request for Veterinary Laboratory Testing and Food Sample Record (DA 7539) APHIS Permit 42917 Pork Poultry Dairy Equine Sera APHIS Permit 49136 US Returned Beef Samples Uncooked APHIS Permit 51279 Bioballs APHIS Permit 100707 C perfringens Campy Jejuni APHIS Permit 101539 Salmonella E coli Listeria Campylobacter APHIS Permit 116092 West Nile Virus CDC Permit 2014-07-158 Blood, Tissue from Humans, Animals, Dead Insects DoD FADL Pet Travel Requirements Documents Request for FAVN-OIE Rabies Antibody Testing Form (FADL LAB Form D-132A) Fluorescent Antibody Virus Neutralization (FAVN)-OIE Rabies Antibody Test Requirements and Instructions for the Importation of Dogs and Cats (FADL LAB Form D-132-B) Credit Card Authorization Form (FADL LAB Form D-132-C) CDC Permit 2014-07-158 Blood, Tissue from Humans, Animals, Dead Insects
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To their critics, Rick Scott and Jeff Greene are poster boys for two of America's biggest problems: our health care and financial systems. Scott resigned in 1997 as CEO of the world's largest hospital corporation, Columbia/HCA, after the feds brought criminal and civil charges against it for massive Medicare fraud, resulting in a record $1.7 billion in fines and settlements. Greene whose best man at his 2007 wedding was boxer and convicted rapist Mike Tyson, and who once had convicted Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss as a housemate became a billionaire using credit-default swaps to bet against the subprime mortgages that toppled the U.S. housing market.
Given voters' anger at Wall Street greed and general corporate malfeasance, you might think controversial résumés like those might dampen prospects for political careers. But then again, there's always Florida. There, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll, Scott looks set to win the Republican primary for governor on Aug. 24 and Greene is in a statistical tie with Congressman Kendrick Meek in the contest for the Democratic nod for the state's open U.S. Senate seat. In an interview with TIME, Greene calls that race "a choice between a career politician who's failed and an outsider who's succeeded a guy like me."
Scott, who like Greene has never held elected office but is spending millions of his own dollars on TV ads, uses the same rhetoric in his race against Florida attorney general and former Congressman Bill McCollum whom Scott leads by a surprising 13 points. But now that the two are surging in the polls and in the wake of last week's primaries in California, where multimillionaire ex-CEOs Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina won the GOP nominations for Governor and Senator, respectively Scott and Greene are highlighting a critical issue in this election cycle: Are they the can-do antipoliticians that our rotted government culture needs, or are they just a troubling reminder that when an angry electorate throws open the door to outsiders, it's too often the ultra-rich who end up walking through it?
Greene, 55, whose personal fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $1.25 billion, was raised in a working-class family in Massachusetts and Florida. He worked his way through Harvard Business School before striking gold in real estate in California, where he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1980 as a Republican and acquired Tinseltown buddies like Tyson and Fleiss. "I don't condone some of the things Mike Tyson did in his past," says Greene, who acknowledges, "I've been a friend to people who may not have had perfect pasts." But perhaps his more controversial move was shoveling $50 million into credit-default swaps, arcane financial instruments that would pay off handsomely if the U.S. housing bubble burst, as Greene presciently feared it could. When it did, his investment turned into $800 million.
There was nothing illegal about how Greene made his fortune. He concedes explosive Wall Street tools like swaps and derivatives "need to be better regulated," but he argues he was just "protecting my real estate investments and the jobs they create" from "bad home loans Washington had allowed to run wild." Ironically, Greene says that's a big reason he's running: "In so many areas of our security, Washington is failing, and like a lot of people I'm in a panic that it's not getting anything done." But Meek accuses Greene of "betting against middle-class homeowners" and then, just two years after returning to Florida, "trying to buy" its Senate election in "carpetbagger" style. "Voters may be frustrated with Washington," notes Meek campaign manager Abe Dyk, "but they're even more frustrated with Wall Street."


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Below are poems written by poet
Shadae Wilson. Click the Next or Previous links below the poem to navigate between poems. Remember, Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth. Thank you.
List of ALL
wilson poems
Shadae Wilson
The poem(s) are below...
I see so much through these gorgeous eyes
I've seen pain and misery through tears
I've seen love and joy for countless nights
I've enjoyed the pleasures of looking into
The deep starry eyes of a gorgeous flower
I see the rose petals blooming
I see the the sun gleaming through those eyes
I envision you in my heart and soul
An may we awl hand in hand to the sea shores above
To see his godly will bewilder your love senseless
So close your eyes and envision me
I see your beautiful body
I see your beautiful mind
I see so much through these gorgeous eyes
I see me and you together for ever
Through love and life itself.
Now look into my eyes
An see what I see of you everyday
Copyright © shadae wilson | Year Posted 2012


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in this issue of the tipsheet, guest writer carrie mckenzie shares the many ways she was able to use her palm handheld to simplify her holiday to europe last year. in the tipsheet interview, malaysian palm user george wong shares his palm-using experiences. check it out.
user comments 22 comment(s)
|venice (8:52am est wed jul 03 2002)
currencies? when did you go there? all countries mentioned use the euro. – by hc


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An excerpt from www.HouseOfNames.com archives copyright © 2000 - 2017
Gueny Early Origins
Gueny Spelling Variations
Gueny Spelling Variations
Spelling variations of this family name include: Goene, Gosne, Goens, Gone, Gonel, Guene, Guenet, Guenot, Gueny, Gohn, Kohn and many more.
Gueny Early History
Gueny Early History
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Gueny research. Another 183 words (13 lines of text) covering the years 1548, 1619, 1682, 1675 and 1680 are included under the topic Early Gueny History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Gueny Early Notables (pre 1700)
Gueny Early Notables (pre 1700)
Another 35 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Gueny Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
The Great Migration
The Great Migration
Some of the first settlers of this family name were:
Gueny Settlers in Canada in the 18th Century
Gueny Family Crest Products
Gueny Family Crest Products
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See Also
Other References
The Gueny Family Crest was acquired from the Houseofnames.com archives. The Gueny Family Crest was drawn according to heraldic standards based on published blazons. We generally include the oldest published family crest once associated with each surname.
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News Release
Please note: As of January 20, 2017, information in some news releases may be out of date or not reflect current policies.
WHD News Release: [01/29/2010]
Contact Name: Elizabeth Todd
Phone Number: (972) 850-4710
Release Number: 10-1073-DAL
US Labor Department resolves back wage case against Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim's Pride Corp.
Workers to recover more than $1 million in overtime back wages
DALLAS The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the filing of a consent judgment in a case against Pilgrim's Pride Corp. – the country's largest poultry processor recovering $1,001,438 in overtime back wages for 798 former and current processing workers at the company's Dallas facility. The company also agreed to pay for time spent by employees "donning and doffing," or putting on and taking off work-related gear in all processing plants nationwide.
"I am committed to ensuring that all workers receive the compensation to which they are entitled under the law," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "Poultry processing is physically demanding hard work, and no one should leave at the end of his or her shift without having been paid for all time worked."
This agreement marks another major step in the department's poultry initiative, which is aimed at ensuring that the poultry processing industry pays its workers all wages to which they are entitled.
The agreement was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, El Dorado Division, and settles allegations that Pilgrim's Pride Corp. failed to properly pay overtime back wages as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The law's overtime violations occurred in part because the company failed to pay its employees for all hours worked, including time spent putting on and taking off protective clothing. Additionally, required recordkeeping was not maintained.
"These low-wage workers were not paid for time donning and doffing at the beginning and end of the workday and before and after meals," said Cynthia Watson, regional administrator for the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division's Southwest Region. The department's legal action followed an investigation by the division.
The agreement stipulates that Pilgrim's Pride will comply with FLSA regulations regarding donning and doffing, and recordkeeping, and also enjoins the entire company from committing future violations.
The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates of pay, including commissions, bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per week. Employers must also maintain accurate time and payroll records.
For more information about the FLSA, call the Wage and Hour Division's Dallas District Office at 817-861-2150 or the Department of Labor's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available on the Internet at http://www.wagehour.dol.gov.


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Starbucks is the largest coffee house retailer in the world today, with over 15,000 stores in over 42 countries. With a Starbucks store at almost every corner, millions of people see the famous Starbucks logo every day.
The distinctive Starbucks logo has achieved broad visual recognition, equal in familiarity to the Starbucks brand name itself. At the same time, a certain mystique surrounds the trademarked image and the unusual mermaid like figure at the center of the logo. What exactly does the mythical looking figure symbolize or represent, and what does it have to do with coffee?
The original logo, conceived in 1971, was fashioned after a 15th century Norse woodcut, the image of a mythical two-tailed mermaid siren. The siren, as you may recall from Greek mythology, was an alluring and irresistible female figure, typically half-fish/half-women (the mermaid variety). The siren's objective was to a seduce the seagoing mariner with a powerful enticing song most often to the unfortunate demise of the susceptible sailor who could not resist temptation.
With a coffee brown color scheme, the circular ring surrounding the mythological mermaid figure contained the text "Starbucks - Coffee - Tea - Spices". The overall image was designed to resemble a cigar band label.
The symbolism of the mermaid siren was not intended to suggest the demise of the customers who bought the coffee, but rather, to represent the irresistible and seductive quality of the coffee itself.
Over the last thirty five years, the logo has undergone several significant changes, while still adhering to the original theme.
The original version remained in use until 1987 when Howard Schultz raised sufficient capital from local investors to purchase Starbucks from the founders for 3.7 million.
Schultz had previously left Starbucks in 1985 to pursue his vision of a European style espresso cafe when he started the Il Giornale coffee house. The Il Giornale logo reflected a theme of speed with the head of Mercury, the swift messenger god of Roman mythology, at the center. The theme of swift speed fit well with espresso. Espresso translates to a "fast and express" coffee in Italian.
After the purchase of Starbucks in 1987, the Starbucks logo was cleaned up a bit, a little more befitting of a new corporate image. The bare breasts were covered up by the mermaids flowing hair, although her belly button was still visible. And the color scheme was changed from a coffee brown in the original logo to the familiar green established by the Il Giornale logo. The text in the surrounding circular band was changed to simply "Starbucks Coffee".
Second Starbucks logo, 1987 to 1992
A third revision of the Starbucks logo in 1992 crops the image of the mermaid with a close-up view. Her navel is no longer visible. The mermaid's tails on either side are mostly obscured which creates some mystery and question for those not familiar with the earlier logo.
Current Starbucks logo
Recently, with the April 2008 introduction of the new Pike Place Roast blend, Starbucks has re-introduced a version of the original logo. While this is not a replacement for the current Starbucks logo, you'ill find this retro-logo on the Pike Place Roast cups, and Pike Place Roast bags of coffee beans.
This new logo version is similar to the cigar motif of the original logo from the 1970's with a few differences. The phrase around the perimeter of the old logo was "Starbucks - Coffee - Tea - Spices". The new logo retains the familiar "Starbucks - Fresh Roasted Coffee". And the bare breasts in the original mermaid image are not covered with her flowing locks of hair.
New Pike Place Roast Logo - Retro 1970
The marketing objective in bringing back this version of the original logo compliments the campaign slogan "Roasting coffee since 1971. The best cup then. The best cup now".
Acknowledgement to the DeadProgrammers Blog for the excellent Starbucks logo detective work, and to Brand Autopsy's The Evolution of the Starbucks Logo for additional Starbucks logo research and reference to Howard Schultz's "Pour Your Heart Into It : How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time".
For additional background and interesting Starbucks History see Starbucks History - A Magnificent Tale of Innovation in the Coffee Industry


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For a dog who was found in such a dire state of emaciation, the brown and white pitbull lights up around people.
That's what volunteers at the Genesee County Animal Shelter who have been nursing Foxer back to health say about the dog owned by Nina Kelso.
The 29-year-old Hutchins Street resident is being prosecuted for mistreating Foxer for allegedly failing to provide him proper food and water. Foxer was found extremely malnourished in February and the case has been pending ever since, leaving his fate undetermined.
"The dog will not be up for adoption until the subject voluntarily signs it over to the shelter," Animal Control Officer James Sheflin says, "or the case has been resolved."
That's made the recovering pitbull a little stir-crazy, as most of his days are spent in a crate.
"In the kennel I think he gets a little bit of anxiety, but as you can see, as soon as he gets around humans he's happy and ready to go," Sheflin said. "I can't speak to how he was before we got him -- whether he had a lot of human contact before -- so I don't know if it's a separation anxiety type thing."
Foxer can't go to a foster home, either, because he's considered evidence. He does get a daily walk and an occasional joyride in the car.
Sheflin says Foxer has gained 26 pounds since coming in as he recovers from other maladies, such as "huge, gaping wounds" on his shoulder – the product of lying in one place for an extended period of time. Sheflin says Foxer underwent surgery for the wounds and they have healed nicely.
"He's happy and healthy. He'll kiss anyone on the face," he said.
Another dog abuse case involving Lauren Pellegrino of Batavia is still pending as well, Sheflin says.
Nessa was brought in a few weeks before Foxer and looks much improved and is happy and comfortable around people.
Photo of Foxer on Feb. 4 via our news partner, The Batavian. You can see a current picture of him here: http://bit.ly/1sYwyLD


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Posted under Accountability & Innovation and Reform & Opt Outs & Public Charter Schools & School Choice & Testing & Union
It's Thursday again, which (I think) still qualifies as a serious work day. I suppose that means we should do something that amounts to serious education policy-ing rather than just watching a video or something. Oh, stop looking at me like that. You like it when we get nerdy.
If the plan is for us to be serious today, we should pick a super-serious topic. And if we have to pick a super-serious topic, what could be better than opting out of statewide assessments? It is, after all, testing season in Colorado.
I was thinking about opt outs yesterday as I read a Politico article about a new push by the opt-out "movement" to diversify the people who participate. Or should I say who don't participate? Whatever. The point is that they want the movement to be less white. More specifically, they'd like it to be less white and poorer.
Now why would opt-out folks want something like that? Continue Reading »


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Galaxy Nexus High Quality Android 4.1, JellyBean ROM Released
A high quality Android 4.1, JellyBean ROM has been released this week for the Verizon variant of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
The ROM runs extremely smooth and is close to what the actual official update will be like, according to YouMobile.org.
It is based off the JRO03L AOSP build, a code that recently hit servers.
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus can now be obtained on Sprint for free with a new 2-year agreement, according to the company's website.
The carrier began the offer last month following in the footsteps of Verizon, who already offers the smartphone for free for customers with new agreements.
Best Buy also started offering the Galaxy Nexus for free last month.
The Galaxy Nexus is one of the first devices able to upgrade to Android 4.1, JellyBean and comes with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich pre-installed.
Certain variants of the Galaxy Nexus, including the GSM model, have already received the 4.1 update.
Sprint customers who own the smartphone are still waiting for the update to roll out. Samsung issued a minor software upgrade last month in order to bring the carrier's version of the Galaxy Nexus up to speed.
It brought its software build version to number L700.FG01, and slightly tweaks its on-screen signal strength indicator, along with adding support for Sprint TV.
The update also changes the default settings on Wi-Fi and LTE, making them "on" now that Sprint's LTE network is fully operational.
Galaxy Nexus users who have already upgraded to Android 4.1, JellyBean for the GSM version of the smartphone are currently experiencing issues with its GPS as it does not work, even with several satellites in view.
In order to diagnose the problem, owners of the device can check to see if their GPS has been affected by opening up an app that constantly tracks where they are such as Google Maps and then check the notification shade for a GPS message. If it says "Searching for GPS" and they do not see a flashing icon, then they are not getting a GPS lock, and the device has been affected by the bug.