The disclosure concerns a process for removing mercaptans from fluid streams comprising same, especially from hydrocarbon gas streams, for example natural gas, synthesis gas from heavy oil or heavy residues or refinery gas, or else from liquid hydrocarbons, for example LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). The invention comprises intimately contacting the fluid stream in an absorption or extraction zone with a scrubbing liquor comprising at least one aliphatic alkanolamine of 2-12 carbon atoms, the amount of wash liquor being supplied to the absorption or extraction zone being sufficient to remove at least CO2 and H2S essentially completely from the fluid stream, and separating the substantially decontaminated fluid stream and the contaminated wash liquor and discharging them from the absorption zone. The substantially complete removal of CO2 and H2S is accompanied by the removal from the gas, stream of a very large portion of the mercaptans as well, without a significant fraction of the hydrocarbon gases dissolving in the wash liquor.

The present invention relates to a process for removing mercaptans from fluid streams comprising same, especially from hydrocarbon gas streams, for example, natural gas, synthesis gas from heavy oil or heavy residues or refinery gas, or else from liquid hydrocarbons, for example LPG (liquefied petroleum gas).
Numerous processes in the chemical industry give rise to fluid streams comprising acid gases, for example CO2, H2S, SO2, CS2, HCN, COS or mercaptans as impurities.
The LPG or gas streams in question here can be for example hydrocarbon gases from a natural gas source, synthesis gases from chemical processes or, say, reaction gases involved in the partial oxidation of organic materials, for example coal or petroleum. The removal of sulfur compounds from these fluid streams is of particular importance for various reasons. For instance, the level of sulfur compounds in natural gas has to be reduced by suitable processing measures immediately at a natural gas well, since the natural gas will normally also contain a certain fraction of entrained water as well as the above-recited sulfur compounds. In aqueous solution, however, these sulfur compounds form acids and have a corrosive effect. To transport natural gas in a pipeline, therefore, predetermined limits must be complied with for the sulfur-containing impurities. In addition, numerous sulfur compounds are malodorous andxe2x80x94with hydrogen sulfide (H2S) a prime examplexe2x80x94extremely toxic even at low concentrations.
Similarly, the CO2 content of hydrocarbon gases, such as natural gas, customarily has to be significantly reduced, since high concentrations of CO2 reduce the calorific value of the gas and may likewise cause corrosion to pipework and fittings.
There are therefore numerous processes already in existence for removing acid gas constituents from fluid streams such as hydrocarbon gases or LPG. In the most widely used processes, the fluid mixture containing acid gases is contacted with an organic solvent or an aqueous: solution of an organic solvent as part of a gas scrub process.
There is extensive patent literature on gas scrub processes and the scrubbing solutions used in these processes. In principle, two different kinds of gas scrub solvents can be distinguished:
On the one hand there are physical solvents, which rely on a physical absorption process, i.e., the acid gases dissolve in the physical solvent. Typical physical solvents are cyclotetramethylene sulfone (sulfolane) and its derivatives, aliphatic acid amides, NMP (N-methylpyrrolidone), N-alkylated pyrrolidones and corresponding piperidones, methanol and mixtures of dialkylethers of polyethylene glycols (Selexol(copyright), Union Carbide, Danbury, Conn., USA).
On the other hand, there are chemical solvents which work on the basis of chemical reactions which convert the acid gases into compounds which are simpler to remove. For instance, the most widely used chemical solvents in industry, aqueous solutions of alkanolamines, form salts when acid gases are passed through, and these salts can either be decomposed by heating and/or stripped off by means of steam. The alkanolamine solution is regenerated in the course of the heating or stripping, so that it can be re-used. Preferred alkanolamines used for removing acid gas impurities from hydrocarbon gas streams include monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), triethanolamine (TEA), diisopropylamine (DIPA), diglycolamine (DGA) and methyldiethanolamine (MDEA).
Primary and secondary alkanolamines are particularly suitable for gas scrubs where the purified gas has to have a very low CO2 content (e.g., 10 ppmv of CO2). To remove H2S from gas mixtures having a high original CO2 content, however, it has been found to be disadvantageous that the effectiveness of the solution for removing H2S is much reduced by an accelerated absorption of CO2. In addition, the regeneration of solutions of primary and secondary alkanolamines consumes large volumes of steam.
The European patent application EP-A-0 322 924 discloses, for example, that tertiary alkanolamines, especially MDEA, are particularly suitable for a selective removal of H2S from gas mixtures containing H2S and CO2.
The German patent application DE-A-1 542 415 proposes increasing the effectiveness not only of physical solvents but also of chemical solvents by addition of monoalkylalkanolamines or of morpholine and its derivatives. The German patent application DE-A-1 904 428 describes the addition of monomethylethanolamine (MMEA) as an accelerant to improve the absorption properties of an MDEA solution.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,233 describes one of the currently most effective scrubbing solutions for removing CO2 and H2S from a gas stream. It is an aqueous solution of about 1.5 to 4.5 mol/l of methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and 0.05 to 0.8 mol/l of piperazine as absorption accelerant (xcex1MDEA(copyright), BASF AG, Ludwigshafen). The removal of CO2 and H2S using MDEA is further described in greater detail in the following patents of present assignee: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,551,158; 4,553,984; 4,537,753; 4,999,031, CA 1 291 321 and CA 1 295 810. The removal of mercaptans from gas streams containing same is not mentioned in these property rights.
Mercaptans are substituted forms of H2S in which a hydrocarbyl R takes the place of one of the hydrogen atoms. Their general formula is therefore RSH. The properties of mercaptans depend substantially on the length of the hydrocarbon chain. Mercaptans in aqueous solution likewise act as acids, but are significantly weaker than H2S, for example. With increasing length of the hydrocarbon chain, therefore, mercaptans behave like hydrocarbons, which makes their removal from hydrocarbon gas streams particularly difficult. For instance, there is a report in the literature that MEA and DEA solutions will remove about 45 to 50% of methyl mercaptan, but only 20 to 25% of ethyl mercaptan and about 0 to 10% of propyl mercaptan (A. Kohl, R. Nielsen: xe2x80x9cGas Purificationxe2x80x9d, 5th Edition, 1997, p.155). xe2x80x9cGas Conditioning and Processingxe2x80x9d, Vol. 4: xe2x80x9cGas Treating and Liquid Sweetingxe2x80x9d, 4th Ed., J. M. Campbell and Company, 1998, states on page 51 that aqueous amine solutions have little if any utility with regard to the removal of mercaptans from gas streams. Mercaptans occur in some natural gas sources, especially on the North American continent, and are typically present in most liquid or liquefied refined hydrocarbon products (LPG). However, because of their corrosive and malodorous properties, mercaptans must likewise be substantially removed from hydrocarbon gases or liquids. Treated and purified hydrocarbons for polymerization reactions, for example, should customarily contain not more than 1-20 ppm of mercaptans.
The literature contains a wide variety of proposals for removing mercaptans from fluid streams containing same:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,808,765 describes a three-stage process for removing acid gases from a gaseous hydrocarbon stream. The first step is an absorption process in which an aqueous solvent which contains MDEA as a selective absorbent for H2S and DIPA as a selective absorbent for COS, to remove substantially all the H2S and a portion of the COS. The second step, which utilizes an aqueous alkaline solution of a primary alkanolamine as scrubbing solution, removes a substantial portion of the remaining COS. The third step, finally, removes mercaptans with the aid of an aqueous caustic solution (NaOH). This process is very complicated in terms of apparatus, since the individual scrubbing solutions have to be regenerated separately. Moreover, the hydrocarbon gas stream has to be subsequently additionally scrubbed with water to remove remnants of the caustic solution.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,968 states that, although traditional alkanolamine solutions are capable of removing H2S down to concentrations of less than 4 ppm, these processes are not suitable for removing mercaptans. U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,968 therefore proposes a scrubbing solution for the removal of mercaptans which consists of hydrogen peroxide or a combination of hydrogen peroxide with ammonia or with an amine. However, this process can be operated as a one-step process only with regard to gas streams having a sulfur content of not more than 50 ppm. At a higher sulfur content, it is necessary to operate a two-step process in which the first step involves using an alkanolamine scrubbing solution to remove H2S and the second step employs a hydrogen peroxide scrubbing solution to remove mercaptans, sulfides and disulfides.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,934 describes neat methoxyethylpyrrolidone as a physical solvent for removing mercaptans and other sulfur compounds from a gas stream. It further describes a solvent consisting of water, amine and methoxyethylpyrrolidone.
Lastly, the international patent application WO 95/13128 describes a process and a solvent for absorbing mercaptans from gas streams, the scrubbing solution comprising a polyalkylene glycol alkyl ether, for example methoxytriglycol, a secondary monoalkanolamine and optionally further amines, such as MDEA or DEA.
However, the use of a physical solvent such as methoxytriglycol for removing mercaptans from gas streams is associated with disadvantages. Physical solvents are typically used in excess, so that not only mercaptans but also a large fraction of product of value, i.e., hydrocarbon gases in the case of natural gas, are absorbed in the solvent. The increasing absorption of hydrocarbons with increasing pressure is disadvantageous in a high pressure natural gas scrub in particular. This is because the absorbed product of value is then either burned as flash gas and accordingly lost or recycled into the absorber feed, which, because of the recompression required and on account of the increase in the internal stream, leads to an increase in the size of the plant and to higher operating costs.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple and economical process for reliably removing mercaptans as well as other acid gas constituents from gaseous or liquid hydrocarbon streams.
We have found that this object is achieved by the process of the present claim 1. The invention accordingly provides a process for removing mercaptans from a fluid stream comprising mercaptans and further acid gases, especially CO2 and/or H2S, which comprises intimately contacting the fluid stream in an absorption or extraction zone with a scrubbing liquor comprising at least one aliphatic alkanolamine of 2-12 carbon atoms, the amount of scrubbing liquor being supplied to the absorption or extraction zone being sufficient to remove at least CO2 and H2S essentially completely from the fluid stream. The intimate contact between fluid stream and scrubbing liquor in the absorption zone ensures that mercaptans and other acid gases are absorbed by the scrubbing liquor. The substantially decontaminated lean fluid stream and the loaden scrubbing liquor are then separated and discharged from the absorption or extraction zone. The loaden scrubbing liquor contaminated with mercaptans and other acid gas constituents and discharged from the absorption zone is then customarily regenerated. The regenerated lean scrubbing liquor can then be recycled back into the absorption zone.
The fluid stream of the process of the invention can be a gaseous or liquid hydrocarbon stream. Natural gas is a typical example of a gas stream, while LPG is an example of a liquid stream.
In the process of the invention, the scrubbing liquor is preferably an aqueous solution and contains from 10 to 70% by weight of the aliphatic alkanolamine with particular advantage. Any reference in the present context to an aliphatic alkanolamine is also to be understood as encompassing a mixture of different alkanolamines, in which case the above-stated percentages then relate to the total alkanolamine content.
The process of the invention is distinguished from existing processes for removing mercaptans from fluid streams in that the scrubbing liquor used contains only a small fraction, preferably not more than 5% by weight, of a physical solvent for mercaptans. It is particularly preferable for the scrubbing liquor not to contain any of the customary physical solvents for mercaptans. While mercaptans and other acid gases possess a certain solubility even in water and in alkanolamines, these are not deemed to be physical solvents in the proper sense. On the contrary, physical solvents for the purposes of the present invention are in particular those typical physical solvents used in gas scrubbing, such as cyclotetramethylene sulfone (sulfolane), aliphatic acid amides, NMP, N-alkylated pyrrolidones, methanol or alkyl or dialkyl ethers of polyethylene glycol. Such solvents are preferably not employed in the scrubbing liquor of the invention, since the excess operation envisaged according to the invention would lead to a high loss of the product of value, the hydrocarbon gas.
Aqueous alkanolamine solutions have hitherto merely been used for removing H2S and CO2. The process of the invention surprisingly makes it possible to use these scrubbing liquors, which are known per se, to remove mercaptans from fluid streams, too. The aspect which must be a particular surprise to those skilled in the art is the observation underlying the invention that it is sufficient to dimension an absorption column in such a way that any CO2 present in the feed gas and any H2S present in the feed gas are essentially completely removed from the fluid stream. The amount of scrubbing liquor this requires then automatically leads to a substantial removal of mercaptans from the fluid stream. For example, the process of the invention provides a reduction in the mercaptan content of natural gas by from 75% to 95%, which is simply considered impossible in the literature for an amine scrub, i.e., a scrub with an aqueous amine solution as scrubbing liquor.
The removal of CO2 and H2S from a hydrocarbon fluid stream is familiar to those skilled in the art. There is already commercial software available which, on the basis of predetermined plant parameters and the specifications desired for the purified gas or LPG, can calculate the operating parameters for a certain scrubbing liquor (an example is the TSWEET program from Brian Research and Engineering). The invention proposes dimensioning the operating parameters in such a way that the CO2 and H2S levels in a given fluid stream are lowered for example to not more than 500 ppm, preferably 50 ppm Of CO2 and not more than 10 ppm, preferably 4 ppm of H2S, respectively. The required amount of scrubbing liquor which can be calculated on that basis will according to the invention also remove a very large portion of the mercaptans present in the fluid stream.
The process of the invention provides for substantial removal of mercaptans from the fluid stream while at the same time only relatively small amounts of gaseous or (in the case of LPG) liquid hydrocarbons are dissolved in the scrubbing liquor. There is thus hardly any loss of product of value, and the disadvantages of the physical solvents traditionally used for mercaptan removal are avoided. Typically, the scrubbing liquor discharged from the absorption region contains less than 1% by weight of hydrocarbons, preferably less than 0.3% by weight of hydrocarbons, particularly preferably less than 0.1% by weight of hydrocarbons.
The inventors determined that effective, i.e., substantial, mercaptan removal (i.e. essentially methyl mercaptan, ethyl mercaptan and propyl mercaptan) requires the removal of all major acid gas components (for example, in the case of a natural gas stream, mainly CO2, H2S, COS). It is not possible to substantially remove mercaptans while, for example, CO2 or H2S are only removed incompletely and are still present in the treated gas in the percent range, say. The absorption of the individual components takes place roughly in the order of the acid strength, i.e., essentially in the order of H2S, CO2, COS, mercaptans. Since the mercaptans, as very weak acids, are absorbed by the scrubbing liquor as the last component, as it were, the invention proposes offering an excess of scrubbing liquor in order that the mercaptans may be absorbed as well as H2S, CO2 and COS. The inventors determined that an insufficient amount of solvent leads to a displacement of the mercaptans by the stronger acids, with the result that only little mercaptan is absorbed. Typical values as chosen according to the invention for natural gas scrubbing, for example, are frequently within the range from 10 to 50 liters of scrubbing liquor per cubic meter (s.t.p.) of acid gas in the gas stream (m3 s.t.p.=m3 at 0xc2x0 C. and 101.325 kPa (1.01325 bar absolute)). However, it is impossible to define the excess precisely, since the absorption of acid gas constituents in the scrubbing liquor proposed by the invention is not precisely stoichiometric. More particularly, the optimum ratio of scrubbing liquor to the acid gas fraction in the feed gas or feed LPG will depend on the equilibrium conditions which in turn depend on the respective operating parameters, in the case of a gas scrub in particular on the feed gas temperature and the feed gas pressure, the feed gas composition, the temperature of the (regenerated) scrubbing liquor, the residual contamination of the scrubbing liquor, the absorber base-of-column temperature, the separating efficiency of the column (number of plates or height equivalent to a theoretical plate), etc., although the absorber base-of-column temperature is usually not a free parameter, but is determined by the heat of absorption. On the basis of the fundamentals described, a person skilled in the art is able to compute the requisite excess of scrubbing liquor for the particular operating conditions using, for example, the abovementioned TSWEET program and optimize the operating conditions in actual service, starting from the computed values, by means of a few series of experiments.
It is true that there are at present no commercial programs for mercaptan removal using an amine scrub, since amine scrubs were hitherto considered unsuitable for this purpose. With the process proposed by the invention, however, mercaptan removal can be based on the removal of the acid gases CO2 and H2S which are traditionally removable using an amine scrub. For example, using the TSWEET program, it is possible to compute a scrubbing liquor quantity to provide for 95% removal of CO2 and H2S. The invention then provides that this theoretically determined solvent quantity, be raised by from 5 to 30%, preferably by from 10 to 20%. This excess, then, would then also provide for the removal of a very large portion of the mercaptans present in the fluid stream.
The aliphatic alkanolamine used is preferably a tertiary alkanolamine, for example triethanolamine (TEA) or methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), the use of MDEA being particularly preferred for gas streams.
The scrubbing liquor advantageously further contains from 0 to 20% by weight of a primary or secondary amine as activator, especially of a primary or secondary alkanolamine or of a saturated 5- or 6-membered N-heterocycle which optionally contains further heteroatoms selected from O and N. The activator is advantageously selected from the group consisting of monoethanolamine, monomethylethanolamine, diethanolamine, piperazine, methylpiperazine and morpholine. The preferred activator used in the process of the invention is piperazine in a concentration of from 0.5 to 15% by weight, particularly preferably from 3 to 8% by weight.
The process of the invention can be carried out with the customary scrubbing means used in gas scrubbing or LPG scrubbing. Suitable scrubbing means, which ensure an intimate contact between the fluid stream and the scrubbing liquor, are for example randomly packed, structurally packed and plate columns, radial flow scrubbers, jet scrubbers, venturi scrubbers and rotational spray scrubbers, preferably structurally packed, randomly packed and plate columns.
The temperature of the scrubbing liquor in the absorption column is typically within the range from 40 to 70xc2x0 C. at the top of the column and from 50 to 100xc2x0 C. at the base of the column. The overall pressure in the column is generally within the range from 1 to 120 bar, preferably within the range from 10 to 100 bar.
The process of the invention can be carried out in one step or in a plurality of successive substeps. In the latter case, the fluid stream containing the acidic gas constituents is intimately contacted in each substep with a separate substream of the scrubbing liquor. For example, various locations in the absorption zone can be supplied with a substream in the absorbent, in which casexe2x80x94if an absorption column is used, for examplexe2x80x94the temperature of the supplied scrubbing liquor in successive substeps generally decreases from the base to the top of the column.
The scrubbing liquor contaminated with acidic gas constituents can be regenerated and subsequently returned into the absorption zone with reduced contamination. Typically, in the course of the regeneration, the contaminated scrubbing liquor is decompressed from a relatively high pressure, prevailing in the absorption zone, to a lower pressure. Decompression can be accomplished by means of a throttle valve, for example. Additionally or alternatively, the scrubbing liquor can be passed through an expansion turbine with which a generator may be driven and electric energy may be obtained. The energy thus removed from the scrubbing liquor in the course of expansion can be also used, for example, to drive liquid pumps in the scrubbing liquor recirculation system.
The removal of the acidic gas constituents to regenerate the scrubbing liquor can be effected, for example, in an expansion column, for example a vertical or horizontal flash vessel or a countercurrent column fitted with internals. There may be a plurality of consecutive expansion columns in which regeneration is effected at different pressures. For example, the scrubbing liquid can be initially regenerated in a pre-expansion column at high pressure, for example at about 1.5 bar above the partial pressure of the acidic gas constituents in the absorption zone, and then in a main expansion column at low pressure, for example at from 1 to 2 bar absolute. If a multistage expansion process is used, the first expansion column preferably removes inert gases, such as absorbed hydrocarbons, and the subsequent expansion columns, the acidic gas constituents.
Preferably, the scrubbing liquor to be regenerated is also subjected to a stripping process to remove further acid gases. To this end, the scrubbing liquor and a stripping agent, advantageously a hot gas (steam is preferred), is passed countercurrently through a desorption column equipped with random packings, structured packings or plates. Preferably, the stripping pressure is from 1 to 3 bar absolute at a temperature from 90 to 130xc2x0 C.
A regeneration of the scrubbing liquor in a plurality of successive substeps in which the contamination of the scrubbing liquor with acid gas constituents decreases with every substep is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,233, where a coarse scrub is carried out with an expansion cycle only and no stripping, and the contaminated scrubbing liquor is decompressed through an expansion turbine and regenerated stepwise in a pre-expansion column and a main expansion column. This variant is used in particular when the acidic gases to be scrubbed out have high partial pressures and when the clean gas has to meet only low purity requirements.
In a further preferred embodiment of the process of the present invention, the scrubbing liquor substreams used in successive substeps of the scrubbing or absorption process are obtainable through successive substeps of the regeneration process and have a decreasing contamination with acidic gas constituents. In a particularly preferred process, the feed gas or LPG containing the acidic constituents are intimately contacted in succession with a first substream of the scrubbing liquor (obtained after partial regeneration in an expansion column and prior to stripping) and a second substream of the scrubbing liquor (obtained after stripping).
For example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,233, the absorption step can be carried out in two substeps, a coarse scrub and a fine scrub, and the regeneration step stepwise through decompression in an expansion turbine, a pre-expansion column and a main expansion column, and also through subsequent stripping. In this case, the substream of the scrubbing liquor for the coarse scrub can come from the main expansion column and the substream for the fine scrub from the stripping stage.
The regenerated absorbent, before it is introduced into the absorption zone, is customarily passed through a heat exchanger to adjust it to the temperature required for the scrub. For example, the regenerated scrubbing liquor leaving the stripping column can have heat removed from it and supplied to the scrubbing liquor still containing acid gas constituents prior to its entry into the stripping column.
The process of the invention can be carried out using typical plant configurations used for gas scrubbing and subsequent regeneration of the scrubbing liquor, as described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,233 for a one-stage or two-stage scrubbing process and particularly extensively in EP-A 0 322 924 for a single-stage scrubbing process featuring an expansion and stripping step. The two documents are hereby expressly incorporated herein by, reference.
The invention further proposes that conventional activated aqueous methyldiethanolamine solutions, hitherto merely used for removing CO2 and H2S from gas streams, also be used for removing mercaptans from fluid streams containing same. The present invention accordingly also provides for the use of an activated aqueous MDEA solution for removing mercaptans from fluid streams containing same, especially from hydrocarbon gases such as natural gas or from LPG. Such scrubbing liquors are being marketed as highly concentrated solutions, for example under the brand name of a MDEA(copyright) (manufacturer: BASF AG, Ludwigshafen, Germany) with piperazine as activator. The user dilutes the highly concentrated solution with water until the solution has approximately the following composition: from 10 to 70% by weight of methyldiethanolamine, from 0.5 to 15% by weight of piperazine and from 30 to 60% by weight of water.

Method for removing mercaptans from fluid fluxes


Methods and systems that facilitate efficient and effective adaptive execution mode selection are described. The adaptive execution mode selection is performed in part on-the-fly and changes to an execution mode (e.g., sequential, parallel, etc.) for a program task can be made. An intelligent adaptive selection can be made between a variety execution modes. The adaptive execution mode selection can also include selecting parameters associated with the execution modes. A controller receives historical information associated with execution mode selection, engages in training regarding execution mode selection, and adaptively selects an execution mode on-the-fly. The training can use an approach similar to an artificial neural network in which automated guided machine learning approach establishes correspondences between execution modes and task/input feature definitions based upon historical information. An adaptive selection is performed on-the-fly based on an initial trial run.

Numerous electronic technologies such as digital computers, calculators, audio devices, video equipment, and telephone systems facilitate increased productivity and cost reduction in analyzing and communicating data, ideas and trends in most areas of business, science, education and entertainment. Frequently, these activities involve complex and complicated processing and how the information is processed (e.g., sequentially, in parallel, etc.) can impact performance. Conventional process or task execution is typically limited to one of a couple of pre-determined execution modes (e.g., sequential and parallel).
Different execution modes typically have different advantages and potential problems. Sequential programming is one of the original execution modes and is still used in many applications. Sequential programming is relatively straight forward, well understood and since the programs generally flow in a straight sequence, sequential programming does not usually involve complex timing coordination between different parts of the program. However, sequential programming is usually limited to performing one task at a time and can take a significant amount of time to complete the whole program. Parallel computing offers performance improvement in some applications by performing various operations substantially at the same time and has become one of the dominant paradigms in computer architectures (e.g., in multi-core processors, etc.) due to massively increased network size and attempts to solve increasingly difficult problems. While parallel computing can be beneficial in many applications, there are various aspects of parallel programming that can also be problematic and give rise to significant obstacles (e.g., more communication between components, synchronization between tasks, race conditions, usually more difficult to develop than sequential programming, etc.).
There are some conventional framework approaches, however, they typically have limitations such as limited to choosing one pre-determined framework at a time with a fixed execution mode. Once a pre-determination is made, the execution mode is not typically changed. The performance ability of a particular fixed pre-determined execution mode can vary under different circumstances (e.g., problem size, data arrangement, cache usage, etc.). Some traditional attempts try to extract parallelism, but often require added runtime and operating system (OS) extensions. There are a few other conventional approaches that use machine learning to map heuristic decisions, but these attempts are usually limited to pre-determination in compiler based auto-parallelization attempts that are often problematic (e.g., hard to handle irregular programs, do not adapt to input type, etc.).

Systems and methods to adaptively select execution modes


Disclosed is high strength spring steel that can limit the depth of pitting occurring when corroded and therefore possesses high strength as well as excellent pitting corrosion resistance and corrosion fatigue property, with a composition containing: C: greater than 0.35 mass % and less than 0.50 mass %; Si: greater than L75 mass % and less than or equal to 3.00 mass %; Mn: 0.2 mass % to 1.0 mass %; Cr: 0.01 mass % to 0.04 mass %; P: 0.025 mass % or less; S: 0.025 mass % or less; Mo: 0.1 mass % to 1.0 mass %; and 0: 0.0015 mass % or less, under a condition that a PC value calculated by PC=4.2×([C]+[Mn])+0.1×(1/[Si]+1/[Mo])+20.3×[Cr]+0.001×(1/[N]) is greater than 3.3 and equal to or less than 8.0. Also disclosed is a preferred method for manufacturing the same.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to high strength spring steel that is used as the material of, for example, suspension springs, torsion bars and stabilizers for automobiles, and in particular, to high strength spring steel that possesses high strength as well as excellent pitting corrosion resistance and corrosion fatigue property and that is preferably used as chassis underbody members of automobiles, and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
From the viewpoint of recent global environmental issues, there are demands for improving fuel efficiency of automobiles and reducing carbon dioxide emission, and therefore an increasingly high demand for reducing weight of automobiles. Particularly, there is a strong demand for reducing weight of suspension springs that are chassis underbody members of automobiles, whereby high stress design is applied to these suspension springs by using as a material thereof a strengthened material having a post quenching-tempering strength of 2000 MPa or more.
General-purpose spring steel has a post quenching-tempering strength of about 1600 to 1800 MPa, as prescribed in JIS G4801. Such spring steel is manufactured into a predetermined wire rod by hot rolling and the wire rod is thermally formed into a spring-like shape and subjected to quenching-tempering processes in a case of a hot formed spring. Alternatively, the spring steel is subjected to drawing, quenching-tempering processes and then formed into a spring-like shape in a case of a cold formed spring.
For example, the materials commonly used for suspension springs include SUP7 described in JIS G4801. When SUP7 is strengthened, corrosion fatigue property (corrosion fatigue resistance) thereof after corrosion deteriorate, although fatigue properties thereof in the atmosphere improve, thereby eventually causing a problem of deterioration in corrosion fatigue property. In view of this, the current upper limit of actually applicable hardness of SUP7 is a level of 51 HRC and the upper limit of design stress thereof is 1100 MPa, inhibiting further enhancement of SUPT strength.
A material that is strengthened so as to have a strength of 1900 MPa or more after quenching-tempering processes has higher crack sensitivity. Accordingly, if a component that is exposed to the exterior, such as a suspension spring as a chassis underbody member of an automobile, is made of such a material as described above and has poor pitting corrosion resistance, there is a concern that corrosion pits may be formed at those portions where the coating has come off due to pebbles and that the chassis underbody member may be damaged due to the propagation of fatigue cracks starting from the corrosion pits.
In view of the foregoing, some solutions have been proposed to address these problems. JP-B-2932943 discloses that, by controlling the chemical composition and the value of FP (see Formula (1a) below) to be between 2.5 and 4.5, no supercooling structure occurs in the structure after rolling, the strength after rolling is suppressed to be 1350 MPa or less at which cold working is facilitated, and uniform and sufficient hardening is obtained by the subsequent quenching and tempering, which makes it possible to obtain the strength after quenching and tempering being 1900 MPa or more. However, JP-B-2932943 is based on the addition of an alloy element for improving corrosion resistance and controllably setting the value of FP to be between 2.5 and 4.5 does not necessarily ensure provision of a high strength spring steel that possesses good pitting corrosion resistance and corrosion fatigue property.FP=(0.23[C]+0.1)×(0.7[Si]+1)×(3.5[Mn]+1)×(2.2[Cr]+1)×(0.4[Ni]+1)×(3[Mo]+1)   Formula (1a)wherein [brackets] denote the content of each element in the brackets (in mass %).
JP-A 10-196697 discloses spring steel that is obtained by covering at least a part of the surface of a spring steel base material with a corrosion protective film functioning as a sacrifice anode, wherein carbonitride forming elements are added to the spring steel base material so that carbonitride is micro-dispersed in the spring steel basic material. In JP-A 10-196697, there is used as a corrosion protective film either a metal film that is composed of metal/alloy having electrochemically lower potential than the spring steel basic material or a composite film in which many metals/alloys of the metals having electrochemically lower potential than the spring steel basic material are dispersed in a non-metal film. This, however, leads to an increase in manufacturing cost due to the need for performing a step of forming a corrosion protective film on the spring steel. It is also believed that if the corrosion protective film comes off due to pebbles and the like, corrosion pits are formed and deteriorate corrosion fatigue property.
JP-B 3896902 discloses that C is to be reduced as the cause of a reduction in corrosion fatigue strength, that degradation in sag resistance that could be caused by the reduction in C is prevented by adding Si, and that the ratio of Si/C is important in this regard. However, there is a limit to reducing the amount of C, if reduction of carbon content effectively suppresses deterioration in the corrosion fatigue strength. Thus, simply setting a ratio of Si/C alone does not necessarily provide high strength spring steel that possesses both good pitting corrosion resistance and corrosion fatigue property.
Patent JP-B 4280123 discloses that reducing the content of Cr may suppress the amount of hydrogen generated at the tip of corrosion pits, therefore the amount of hydrogen penetrating into the steel and eventually the degree of hydrogen embrittlement. Patent JP-B 4280123 also discloses that if any hydrogen penetrates into the steel material, the degree of hydrogen embrittlement may be suppressed by trapping hydrogen by Ti and V, and therefore the corrosion fatigue resistance may be improved by balancing the contents of Cr, Ti and V appropriately. However, even if the degree of hydrogen embrittlement of the spring steel can be suppressed by only optimizing the contents of Cr, Ti and V, high strength spring steel that possesses good pitting corrosion resistance and corrosion fatigue property may not necessarily be obtained by such optimization.
JP-A 2008-106365 discloses that corrosion fatigue property may be improved by subjecting the steel to heat treatment to have a hardness of 50.5 to 55.0 HRC, followed by warm shot peening so that a residual stress of 600 MPa or more is generated at a depth of 0.2 mm below the surface. This, however, leads to an increase in manufacturing cost due to the need for performing a step of shot peening the spring steel. Further, while the provision of residual stress by shot peening is effective for suppressing the occurrence of surface cracks, it does not necessarily provide high strength spring steel that possesses both good pitting corrosion resistance and corrosion fatigue property.
JP-A 2009-046764 discloses spring steel that has excellent corrosion fatigue property by balancing appropriately the contents of C, Si, Mn, Cr, Ni and Cu from the viewpoint of the hardness of spring steel, the amounts of C, Cr, Ni and Cu from the viewpoint of the shape of pits, and the amounts of C, Si, Mn, Cr, Ni, Cu, Ti and Nb from the viewpoint of hydrogen embrittlement resistance. However, there is a limit on optimizing the shape of pits only by balancing the amounts of C, Cr, Ni and Cu.

Spring steel and method for manufacturing the same


In an electronic apparatus, a flexible wiring board is connected with a display unit and a cutout portion is formed at a part of a rear cover adjacent to the wiring board. A grip member is fixed on the rear cover so as to cover the cutout portion. A discharge member is electrically connected with the rear cover and provided at the cutout portion exposing its surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus equipped with a touch panel. More particularly, the present invention is suitably used in an electronic apparatus in which the touch panel and a non-conductive exterior member are provided across a gap.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a recent year, products equipped with a touch panel in an electronic apparatus have been known. An operation with the touch panel is superior in a graphical user interface (GUI) compared with a conventional operation with a physical button. With the touch panel, an intuitive operation can be performed while looking at a screen, and can realize various operability according to software.
In a case of a general touch panel of a resistance film type, to protect wirings from the resistance film at the uppermost surface of the touch panel to an internal of a main body of the apparatus, the touch panel is located one step lower than a surrounding exterior member so as to cover an edge of the touch panel with the exterior member. However, in an electronic apparatus in which downsizing and thinning are required, in a recent year, the touch panel and the exterior member have been designed to be at an approximately same surface level.
When the touch panel and the surrounding exterior member are located at the approximately same surface level, a gap is generated between the touch panel and the exterior member in consideration of a building-in process. If the exterior member is made of a conductive material, static electricity flows to an earth portion of a circuit board through the exterior member when static electricity is applied on a surrounding of the touch panel.
However, if the exterior member is made of a non-conductive material, the applied static electricity flows in a circuit of the touch panel through the aforementioned gap and may cause an error operation in a product. Therefore, in a case of an electronic apparatus having the exterior member made of a non-conductive material, a mechanism for preventing flowing-in of the static electricity to the circuit of the touch panel is necessary.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-185991 discusses the electronic apparatus in which a transparence conductive film sheet is stuck on a surface of a liquid crystal display panel and a conductive sheet with a conductive adhesive is stuck on the conductive film sheet. The conductive sheet with the conductive adhesive is crimped to an earth portion which is a ground potential side. Therefore, the static electricity applied on the liquid crystal display panel transmits through the transparent conductive film sheet, further transmits through the conductive sheet with the conductive adhesive, and fall down to the ground of a power source.
However, in the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-185991, the sticking strength of the adhesive in the conductive sheet with the conductive adhesive may change due to a change with the passage of time, so that a stable performance may not be provided for a long time period.
Further, in a recent year, to produce a thin device and improve visibility, a number of an electronic apparatus, in which a touch panel is fixed to a liquid crystal display element, has been increased. In the apparatus with such a configuration, the touch panel and the liquid crystal display element are fixed in a state enabling movement by a predetermined amount in a perpendicular direction to a display screen. In such an apparatus, a structure which is called as a floating structure has been often adopted. In the floating structure, the touch panel is moved and positioned to an opening of the apparatus exterior at a time of assembling. Since the touch panel and the earth portion are relatively movable, it is not easy to obtain a stable connection by using the aforementioned conductive sheet with the conductive adhesive.


The present disclosure provides a transflective switchable liquid crystal display device and its display module. The liquid crystal display module includes a liquid crystal unit and a transflector driving unit arranged in this order; wherein the transflective driving unit further includes a first substrate, a first electrode layer arranged on the first substrate, a first liquid layer arranged on the first electrode layer, and a second liquid layer surrounding and covering the first liquid layer. The spreading and shrinking state of the first liquid layer are changed by controlling the voltage of the first electrode layer, and the transmissive mode and the reflective mode of the liquid crystal display module are switched. The liquid crystal display module enables the liquid crystal display to have a high opening, a high penetration, or a highly reflective display in both the transmission mode and the reflection mode.

To make an LCD in the low ambient illumination of indoor and the high ambient illumination of outdoor has a good display quality, a transflective LCD has been invented, and the transflective LCD divides the space of the display area of the pixel to a transmissive portion and a reflective portion, generally, by using the transmission mode in the low ambient illumination of indoor and using the reflection mode or the transflective mode in the high ambient illumination of outdoor. But there is a major problem in the transflective LCD. Since the reflective electrode of the pixel reflection region is not transparent, the proportion of the area of the transmissive display region is decreased, and the light transmittance in the transmissive mode is very low.

Liquid crystal display device being switchable between transmission mode and reflection mode and display module thereof

Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


A switching fabric loop prevention system includes first slave switch devices in a switching fabric that each automatically determine a first slave switch device role for themselves based on first directly connected device identification information received from a first directly connected device, and second slave switch devices in the switching fabric that each automatically determine a second slave switch device role for themselves based on second directly connected device identification information received from a second directly connected device. A master switch device in the switching fabric then configures each of the first slave switch devices having the first slave switch device role to prevent first type communications that have been received from one of the second slave switch devices having the second slave switch device role from being forwarded to another of the second slave switch devices having the second slave switch device role.

The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to preventing communication loops in networked information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems such as, for example, switch devices, are often configured to provide switching fabrics. However, the configuration and management of conventional switching fabrics is associated with complexity, ongoing operational overhead, and relatively long times required for new system deployment. Software Defined Networking (SDN) techniques have been developed to alleviate some of the management and control issues associated with conventional switching fabrics, but are still associated with complex configuration operations and relatively long configuration times. In addition, such techniques require a device external to the switching fabric (e.g., a server device upon which an SDN controller operates in order to manage and control SDN switch devices in the switching fabric) in order to provide for management and control of the switching fabric, which increases the cost of managing and controlling the switching fabric. As such, conventional switching fabric configuration techniques increase the overhead associated with performing management and control operations on switch devices in that switching fabric including, for example, configuring switch devices to prevent communication loops.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved switching fabric that provides for the prevention of communication loops between switch devices in the switching fabric.


A technique protects traffic (IP) against the failure of a border router between two domains in a computer network using Fast Reroute and backup tunnels. The border router (i.e., the “protected border router”) announces/advertises a list of all its adjacent next-hop routers (i.e., its “neighbors”) residing in first and second domains interconnected by the protected border router. A neighbor in the first domain that is immediately upstream to the protected border router and that is configured to protect the border router (i.e., the “protecting router”) learns address prefixes (i.e., “protected prefixes”) reachable from the next-hop router in the second domain (i.e., “next-next-hops,” NNHOPs to the protected prefixes from the protecting router). The protecting router calculates a backup tunnel to each NNHOP that excludes the protected border router, and associates each backup tunnel with protected prefixes accordingly. When the protected border router fails, Fast Reroute is triggered, and the protected prefixes are rerouted by the protecting router onto an appropriate backup tunnel to a corresponding NNHOP.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer networks and more particularly to protecting against border router failure between domains of a computer network using backup tunnels.
2. Background Information
A computer network is a geographically distributed collection of nodes interconnected by communication links and segments for transporting data between end nodes, such as personal computers and workstations. Many types of networks are available, with the types ranging from local area networks (LANs) to wide area networks (WANs). LANs typically connect the nodes over dedicated private communications links located in the same general physical location, such as a building or campus. WANs, on the other hand, typically connect geographically dispersed nodes over long-distance communications links, such as common carrier telephone lines, optical lightpaths, synchronous optical networks (SONET), or synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) links. The Internet is an example of a WAN that connects disparate networks throughout the world, providing global communication between nodes on various networks. The nodes typically communicate over the network by exchanging discrete frames or packets of data according to predefined protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). In this context, a protocol consists of a set of rules defining how the nodes interact with each other. Computer networks may be further interconnected by an intermediate network node, such as a router, to extend the effective "size" of each network.
Since management of interconnected computer networks can prove burdensome, smaller groups of computer networks may be maintained as routing domains or autonomous systems. The networks within an autonomous system (AS) are typically coupled together by conventional "intradomain" routers configured to execute intradomain routing protocols, and are generally subject to a common authority. To improve routing scalability, a service provider (e.g., an ISP) may divide an AS into multiple "areas." It may be desirable, however, to increase the number of nodes capable of exchanging data; in this case, interdomain routers executing interdomain routing protocols are used to interconnect nodes of the various ASes. Moreover, it may be desirable to interconnect various ASes that are operated under different administrative domains. As used herein, an AS or, more particularly, an area is generally referred to as a "domain," and a router that interconnects different domains together is generally referred to as a "border router."
An example of an interdomain routing protocol is the Border Gateway Protocol version 4 (BGP), which performs routing between domains (ASes) by exchanging routing and reachability information among neighboring interdomain routers of the systems. An adjacency is a relationship formed between selected neighboring (peer) routers for the purpose of exchanging routing information messages and abstracting the network topology. The routing information exchanged by BGP peer routers typically includes destination address prefixes, i.e., the portions of destination addresses used by the routing protocol to render routing ("next-hop") decisions. Examples of such destination addresses include IP version 4 (IPv4) and version 6 (IPv6) addresses. BGP generally operates over a reliable transport protocol, such as TCP, to establish a TCP connection/session. The BGP protocol is well known and generally described in Request for Comments (RFC) 1771, entitled A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4), published March 1995.
Examples of an intradomain routing protocol, or an interior gateway protocol (IGP), are the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol and the Intermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (IS-IS) routing protocol. The OSPF and IS-IS protocols are based on link-state technology and, therefore, are commonly referred to as link-state routing protocols. Link-state protocols define the manner with which routing information and network-topology information are exchanged and processed in a domain. This information is generally directed to an intradomain router's local state (e.g., the router's usable interfaces and reachable neighbors or adjacencies). The OSPF protocol is described in RFC 2328, entitled OSPF Version 2, dated April 1998 and the IS-IS protocol used in the context of IP is described in RFC 1195, entitled Use of OSI ISIS for routing in TCP/IP and Dual Environments, dated December 1990, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
An intermediate network node often stores its routing information in a routing table maintained and managed by a routing information base (RIB). The routing table is a searchable data structure in which network addresses are mapped to their associated routing information. However, those skilled in the art will understand that the routing table need not be organized as a table, and alternatively may be another type of searchable data structure. Although the intermediate network node's routing table may be configured with a predetermined set of routing information, the node also may dynamically acquire ("learn") network routing information as it sends and receives data packets. When a packet is received at the intermediate network node, the packet's destination address (e.g., stored in a header of the packet) may be used to identify a routing table entry containing routing information associated with the received packet. Among other things, the packet's routing information indicates the packet's next-hop address.
To ensure that its routing table contains up-to-date routing information, the intermediate network node may cooperate with other intermediate nodes to disseminate routing information representative of the current network topology. For example, suppose the intermediate network node detects that one of its neighboring nodes (i.e., adjacent network nodes) becomes unavailable, e.g., due to a link failure or the neighboring node going "off-line," etc. In this situation, the intermediate network node can update the routing information stored in its routing table to ensure that data packets are not routed to the unavailable network node. Furthermore, the intermediate node also may communicate this change in network topology to the other intermediate network nodes so they, too, can update their local routing tables and bypass the unavailable node. In this manner, each of the intermediate network nodes becomes "aware" of the change in topology.
Typically, routing information is disseminated among the intermediate network nodes in accordance with a predetermined network communication protocol, such as a link-state protocol (e.g., IS-IS, or OSPF). Conventional link-state protocols use link-state packets (or "IGP Advertisements") for exchanging routing information between interconnected intermediate network nodes (IGP nodes). As used herein, an IGP Advertisement generally describes any message used by an IGP routing protocol for communicating routing information among interconnected IGP nodes, i.e., routers and switches. Operationally, a first IGP node may generate an IGP Advertisement and "flood" (i.e., transmit) the packet over each of its network interfaces coupled to other IGP nodes. Thereafter, a second IGP node may receive the flooded IGP Advertisement and update its routing table based on routing information contained in the received IGP Advertisement. Next, the second IGP node may flood the received IGP Advertisement over each of its network interfaces, except for the interface at which the IGP Advertisement was received. This flooding process may be repeated until each interconnected IGP node has received the IGP Advertisement and updated its local routing table.
In practice, each IGP node typically generates and disseminates an IGP Advertisement whose routing information includes a list of the intermediate node's neighboring network nodes and one or more "cost" values associated with each neighbor. As used herein, a cost value associated with a neighboring node is an arbitrary metric used to determine the relative ease/burden of communicating with that node. For instance, the cost value may be measured in terms of the number of hops required to reach the neighboring node, the average time for a packet to reach the neighboring node, the amount of network traffic or available bandwidth over a communication link coupled to the neighboring node, etc.
As noted, IGP Advertisements are usually flooded until each intermediate network IGP node has received an IGP Advertisement from each of the other interconnected intermediate nodes. Then, each of the IGP nodes can construct the same "view" of the network topology by aggregating the received lists of neighboring nodes and cost values. To that end, each IGP node may input this received routing information to a "shortest path first" (SPF) calculation that determines the lowest-cost network paths that couple the intermediate node with each of the other network nodes. For example, the Dijkstra algorithm is a conventional technique for performing such a SPF calculation, as described in more detail in Section 12.2.4 of the text book Interconnections Second Edition, by Radia Perlman, published September 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein. Each IGP node updates the routing information stored in its local routing table based on the results of its SPF calculation. More specifically, the RIB updates the routing table to correlate destination nodes with next-hop interfaces associated with the lowest-cost paths to reach those nodes, as determined by the SPF calculation.
Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) Traffic Engineering has been developed to meet data networking requirements such as guaranteed available bandwidth or fast restoration. MPLS Traffic Engineering exploits modern label switching techniques to build guaranteed bandwidth end-to-end tunnels through an IP/MPLS network of label switched routers (LSRs). These tunnels are a type of label switched path (LSP) and thus are generally referred to as MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE) LSPs. Examples of MPLS TE can be found in RFC 3209, entitled RSVP-TE: Extensions to RSVP for LSP Tunnels dated December 2001, RFC 3784 entitled Intermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (IS-IS) Extensions for Traffic Engineering (TE) dated June 2004, and RFC 3630, entitled Traffic Engineering (TE) Extensions to OSPF Version 2 dated September 2003, the contents of all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Establishment of an MPLS TE-LSP from a head-end LSR to a tail-end LSR involves computation of a path through a network of LSRs. Optimally, the computed path is the "shortest" path, as measured in some metric, that satisfies all relevant LSP Traffic Engineering constraints such as e.g., required bandwidth, availability of backup bypass tunnels for each link and node included in the path, etc. Path computation can either be performed by the head-end LSR or by some other entity operating as a path computation element (PCE). The head-end LSR (or a PCE) exploits its knowledge of network topology and resources available on each link to perform the path computation according to the LSP Traffic Engineering constraints. Various path computation methodologies are available including CSPF (constrained shortest path first). MPLS TE-LSPs can be configured within a single domain, e.g., IGP area or level, or may also span multiple domains, e.g., IGP areas or levels.
One difficulty that arises in crossing domain boundaries is that path computation at the head-end LSR requires knowledge of network topology and resources across the entire network between the head-end and the tail-end LSRs. Yet service providers typically do not share this information with each other across domain borders. In particular, network topology and resource information do not generally flow across area boundaries even though a single service provider may operate all the areas. Neither the head-end LSR nor any single PCE will have sufficient knowledge to compute a path. Because of this, MPLS Traffic Engineering path computation techniques are required to compute inter-domain TE-LSPs.
The use of PCEs has been adapted to create a distributed PCE architecture, in order to extend MPLS TE-LSPs across domain boundaries. An example of such a distributed architecture is described in commonly-owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/767,574, entitled COMPUTING INTER-AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM MPLS TRAFFIC ENGINEERING LSP PATHS, filed by Vasseur et al., on Sep. 18, 2003, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. In a distributed PCE architecture, the visibility needed to compute paths is extended between adjacent domains so that PCEs may cooperate to compute paths across multiple domains by exchanging virtual shortest path trees (VSPTs) while preserving confidentiality across domains (e.g., when applicable to ASes).
Some applications may incorporate unidirectional data flows configured to transfer time-sensitive traffic from a source (sender) in a computer network to a destination (receiver) in the network in accordance with a certain "quality of service" (QoS). Here, network resources may be reserved for the unidirectional flow to ensure that the QoS associated with the data flow is maintained. The Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP) is a network-control protocol that enables applications to reserve resources in order to obtain special QoS for their data flows. RSVP works in conjunction with routing protocols to, e.g., reserve resources for a data flow in a computer network in order to establish a level of QoS required by the data flow. RSVP is defined in R. Braden, et al., Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP), RFC 2205. In the case of traffic engineering applications, RSVP signaling is used to establish a TE-LSP and to convey various TE-LSP attributes to routers, such as border routers, along the TE-LSP obeying the set of required constraints whose path may have been computed by various means.
Generally, a tunnel is a logical structure that encapsulates a packet (a header and data) of one protocol inside a data field of another protocol packet with a new header. In this manner, the encapsulated data may be transmitted through networks that it would otherwise not be capable of traversing. More importantly, a tunnel creates a transparent virtual network link between two network nodes that is generally unaffected by physical network links or devices (i.e., the physical network links or devices merely forward the encapsulated packet based on the new header). While one example of a tunnel is an MPLS TE-LSP, other known tunneling methods include, inter alia, the Layer Two Tunnel Protocol (L2TP), the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), and IP tunnels.
Reconfiguring a network in response to a network element failure using, e.g., pure IP rerouting, can be time consuming. Many recovery techniques, however, are available to provide fast recovery and/or network configuration in the event of a network element failure, including, inter alia, Fast Reroute (FRR), e.g., IP FRR or MPLS TE FRR. An example of MPLS TE FRR is described in Pan, et al., Fast Reroute Extensions to RSVP-TE for LSP Tunnels, Internet Draft, February 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein. FRR has been widely deployed to protect against intra-domain network failures, where "backup tunnels" are created to bypass a protected network device (e.g., links, shared risk link groups (SRLGs), and nodes). When the network element fails, traffic is quickly rerouted over a backup tunnel to bypass the failed device (or in the case of MPLS, a set of TE-LSP(s) is/are quickly rerouted). In an inter-domain IP/MPLS environment, however, there is a lack of knowledge of routers surrounding an inter-domain border router regarding the forwarding path of inter-domain traffic traversing that border router. Protection of border routers is particularly critical because of the amount of traffic generally traversing them. While solutions are available to create inter-domain backup tunnels (e.g., manually configuring backup tunnels from each router surrounding the border router in one domain to each router surrounding the border router in another), one difficulty is to dynamically select an appropriate backup tunnel for each destination address prefix. Selecting an improper backup tunnel could result in routing loops, black holing, time delay, or other undesirable outcomes.

Efficient mechanism for fast recovery in case of border router node failure in a computer network


A fuel cell comprises a bipolar plate having a cationic polymer layer and a conductive and hydrophilic surface layer disposed on at least a portion of its exterior area. The surface layer comprises a conductive carbon material having a hydrophilic organic group ionically attached to its surface. A process of producing a bipolar plate and a fuel cell is also disclosed.

A fuel cell usually consists of a series of membrane electrode assemblies and bipolar plates stacked together in an alternating manner. The membrane electrode assembly is typically made of an ion conductive membrane sandwiched between an anode and a cathode sections each on the opposite side of the membrane. A bipolar plate is a plate-like electric conductor, having a plurality of channels for fluid passage. Reactive gases that supply to a fuel cell flow through those channels to reach the anode and cathode sections where electrochemical reactions of the gases take place, and from which electricity is produced. The electricity generated from the electrochemical reactions is collected and conducted through the bipolar plate to an external circuit. The bipolar plate, therefore, needs to have high electric conductivity or low contact resistance to reduce energy loss and heat buildup.
In the case of a hydrogen fuel cell, water management is one of the key challenges. Water is continuously generated in a hydrogen fuel cell and the ion conductive membrane needs to maintain a certain hydration level. When a hydrogen fuel cell is operated at a low current density, for example, at 0.2 A /cm2, there would not be enough gas flow to remove the water generated from the electrochemical reaction at the cathode section. Water drops can form in the fluid passages and block the supply of a reactive gas to the electrode. Without the supply of a reactant gas, the blocked section of the fuel cell will not produce electricity. Performance of the fuel cell will deteriorate due to non-homogeneous current distribution. Such phenomenon is known as low power stability (LPS).
Conventional hydrophilic coatings or treatments on a bipolar plate can improve water management, but usually adversely affect the electric contact resistance. Conventional hydrophilic coatings and treatments can also cause an increase in water leachable contaminants and electrochemical degradation of the bipolar plate, electrodes and membranes.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Conductive and hydrophilic surface modification of fuel cell bipolar plate


In an automatic remote metering system in accordance with the invention a method is provided for reprogramming each client utility meter from a host computer by downloading a reprogram first program from the host to a corresponding hub utility meter fourth memory portion via a communications link, verifying integrity of the reprogram first program, and downloading the reprogram first program from the hub utility meter to the client utility meter via a radio frequency link and overwriting the client utility meter first program code with the reprogram first program code.

Typically, electrical power supplied for residential applications is single phase alternating current power. To measure the consumption of electricity in residential applications, a utility company meter is provided at the electrical service entrance to the residence. Utility company meters are of three general types, namely, electromechanical based meters, purely electronic component based meters, and hybrid electromechanical/electronic meters. The electromechanical and hybrid type meters are essentially an induction motor in which the moving element is a rotating disk. The speed of rotation of the disk is directly proportional to the voltage applied and the amount of current flowing through the motor. The phase displacement of the current, as well as the magnitude of the current, is automatically taken into account by the meter, i.e., the power factor influences the speed of rotation of the disk. The result is that the disk rotates with a speed proportional to true power. In the electromechanical type of meters, a register is used to register the number of revolutions, and the gearing is arranged to be read directly in kilowatt-hours.
The electric utility meters most commonly in use are of the electromechanical type. The meters are generally highly reliable, but do not lend themselves to remote or automated reading.
Hybrid meters typically utilize electronic circuitry in combination with the rotating disk to permit at least limited two-way communication to/from the meter. Typically, the two-way communication is limited to reading the meter via a proprietary communications link that frequently is a limited range radio frequency link.
It is not uncommon for electric utilities to utilize both simple and complex tariffs. The tariffs may be time of use type tariffs, or may be changed from time to time or on predetermined dates to provide for various time of use type of rates.
It is common practice for utility companies to access meter information on only a monthly or 30 day period.
In addition, present metering technology makes it inconvenient for a consumer to determine in a timely fashion the amount of energy being consumed.
One problem with electronic programmable automatic metering systems is the difficulty of reprogramming meters that are in the system.


A method for assembling an uncured spoke is provided. The method includes the assembly of a panel (14), a first foot (24), and a second foot (26) of the uncured spoke. The first foot (24) and the second foot (26) are complexed onto the panel (14), and the panel extends continuously from the first foot to the second foot.

Non-pneumatic tires are those that do not require air or other fluid for their inflation for use. Some non-pneumatic tires have a plurality of spokes arranged circumferentially around and attached to a hub. On their opposite end, the spokes are attached to a shear band. To build the spoke components of the non-pneumatic tire, it is known to combine together uncured sections of the spoke to form a green, uncured spoke which is subsequently cured through use of a mold and heat. One such method of producing a green, uncured spoke is shown and described with reference to application number PCT/US17/68679 filed on Dec. 28, 2017 and entitled, "End Effector with Pivoting Arrangement for Construction of Spoke of Non-Pneumatic Tire," the entire contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety for all purposes. In this method, a flat fixture is provided and various uncured spoke components are supplied onto this fixture. A pick and place device such, such as a pivoting end effector, can be used to pick the uncured spoke components up from a supply conveyor or other transport means and place the picked up components onto the flat fixture. Once the desired number of components have been assembled onto the flat fixture, the end effector can pick them up and move them to a second form, that is not flat, onto which a nose component of the spoke rests. The end effector can fold the variously assembled uncured components around and onto the nose component. This assembly can then be lifted by the end effector off of the second form and then placed onto a conveyor or otherwise transported to a mold for curing. Although capable of assembling a green, uncured spoke, additional methods of making a multi-component green, uncured spoke are desired. As such, there remains room for variation and improvement within the art.
The use of identical or similar reference numerals in different figures denotes identical or similar features.

Method to assemble uncured spoke of non-pneumatic tire

Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin


Systems and methods of performing a host write process are provided. W blocks are selected from the multiple blocks and W is a natural number. Write target data in accordance with a write command is written to the W next write destination pages which are included in the W blocks respectively. Each block selected is a block whose next write destination page is a first kind page. Each block consists of multiple pages. The multiple pages are two or more first kind pages and two or more second kind pages. Each second kind page is a page with a lower write performance than that of each first kind page.

A storage system, in general, is configured to provide a logical volume which is created based on the RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) group which is composed of plural storage devices. Recently, as a storage device, in addition to or in place of a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a non-volatile semiconductor storage device which includes plural non-volatile memory chips as non-volatile semiconductor storage devices, has been adopted. PTL 1 discloses an FM, to be more specific, an NAND flash memory which includes plural flash memory (hereinafter, FM) chips, as a non-volatile semiconductor storage device.
A storage area of an NAND flash memory is divided into plural areas "blocks" each of which is an erase unit. In addition, each block is divided into plural areas "pages" each of which is a unit for read or write. Each page is composed of plural memory cells.
There are two kinds of memory cells which configure an NAND flash memory; an SLC (single Level Cell) type of memory cell which records 1 bit to one memory cell, and an MLC (Multi Level Cell) type of memory cell which records plural bits (in general 2 bits) to one memory cell. PTL 2 discloses a basic configuration and a control method of an NAND flash memory (hereinafter, referred to as MLC memory) which includes an MLC memory cell (MLC type of memory cell). In case of an MLC memory, data from the host apparatus will be written to an LSB (Least Significant Bit) page, or an MSB (Most Significant Bit) page.
In general, there is a problem in a MLC memory cell that it has a less program possible number of times (that is, fewer rewritable number of times) compared to an SLC memory cell (SLC type memory cell). In order to solve the problem, PTL 3 discloses a method to decrease a program number of times of an MLC memory cell by controlling data similar to the data pattern written to an LSB page, not to write to an MSB page.
In general, an MLC memory has a problem that a data error is likely to occur compared to an NAND flash memory (hereinafter, referred to as SLC memory) which includes an SLC memory cell. In order for an MLC memory to be able to use as an SLC memory which an error is unlikely to occur, PTL 4 discloses a method which data programs a reinforcement data to the programmed cell, and adjusts the threshold voltage to a safer condition. In addition, PTL 5 discloses a method on an MLC memory, while data is not being read and written; data executes a reprogram for the programmed cell, and adjusts the threshold voltage to a safer condition.
In general, an MLC memory is an LSB page which has a fast write performance in half of the pages out of plural pages in the block, and also has a feature of being an MSB page which has a slow write performance in the other half of the pages.
PLT 6 discloses a method to skip an MSB page, on a system which an MLC memory is applied to, in order to assign a write destination of the write data based on the write command from the host apparatus in which a fast response is sought, to an LSB page.

Storage system which includes non-volatile semiconductor storage medium, and storage control method of storage system


This application relates to the field of wireless communications technologies, and provides a user equipment tracing method and a device, to implement joint trace for user equipment by two devices. The user equipment tracing method includes: receiving, by a master base station, a request message sent by a core network device, where the request message requests the master base station to initiate trace for user equipment UE; and sending, by the master base station, a first message to a secondary base station, where the first message carries first instruction information, and the first instruction information instructs the secondary base station to trace the UE.

in an existing long term evolution (LTE) mechanism, an eNodeB (eNB) can support end-to-end trace for user equipment (UE), to help, based on a trace result for the UE that is fed back by the eNodeB, a network entity (for example, an operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) server) trace/monitor a service status/service performance of the UE on the eNodeB, find an exception in time, and locate a network fault and problem quickly, thereby facilitating device maintenance and fault removal.
In the conventional technical solution, how an eNodeB activates trace for UE in the LTE system only in several scenarios is described. For example, in a scenario in which UE initially accesses a network, an eNB receives a trace activation instruction sent by a core network device (for example, a mobility management entity (MME)) by using an Initial Context Setup Response message, and triggers trace for the UE according to the trace activation instruction. For another example, after UE accesses a network, an eNB activates trace for the UE according to a trace activation instruction added by an MME to a Trace Start message. In an existing standard, there is a dual connectivity (DC) scenario, to be specific, a scenario in which one UE is simultaneously connected to two base stations. One of the two base stations serves as a master base station, the other serves as a secondary base station, and there is a signaling connection only between the master base station and a core network device.
However, currently, there is no solution for tracing user equipment by a secondary base stations in the DC scenario.

User equipment tracing method and device


A method, system, and computer program product are provide for, among other things, quantitative analysis of heart rate characteristics from fetal heart rate and cardiotocogram monitors that gives information about the well-being of the fetus and the risk of poor fetal outcome. The method comprises (a) continuously measuring fetal heart rate and cardiotocographic characteristics and (b) identifying at least one characteristic abnormality in the heart rate characteristics that is associated with fetal distress. Benefits are appreciated by the fetus and the mother and during the antepartum and intrapartum periods.

Continuous monitoring of the fetal heart rate is very commonly performed during active labor and for purposes of fetal stress testing. It has been recognized since the 1960's that a heart rate pattern showing reduced heart rate variability and transient decelerations signifies fetal distress, and observation of such characteristics often leads to surgical delivery of the fetus by Caesarian section. Improvements in fetal outcome due to this monitoring strategy, though, have been less than expected.
Electronic monitoring of the fetal heart rate (FHR) was developed the 1950s and became commercially available in the 1960s. See 1. Parer, J. T. and King, T. 2000, "Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring: Is it Salvageable?" Am J Obstet. Gynecol. 182:982-987, of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. Physicians have learned to recognize qualitative features of FHR records that signify fetal distress. See Freeman, R. K., "Problems with Intrapartum Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Interpretation and Patient Management," Obstet.Gynecol., vol. 100, no. 4, pp. 813-826, October 2002. Classification of abnormal FHR patterns was developed in the 1960s and theories to correlate the fetal condition and FHR pattern were formulated. (See "Hon E. An Atlas of Fetal Heart Rate Patterns" New Haven: Harty Press; 1968. P. 1-31, of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.) It was hoped that the introduction of FHR monitoring could serve as a screening test for asphyxia that is severe enough to cause neurologic damage or fetal death. It was thought that if an abnormal pattern was recognized that early obstetric intervention would avoid asphyxia-induced brain damage and death. See 1997 "Electronic Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring: Research Guidelines for Interpretation," National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Research Planning Workshop 1, Am J Obstet. Gynecol., 177:1385-1390, of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends either intermittent auscultation or electronic FHR monitoring (EFM) as alternatives in low-risk pregnancies (See ACOG Technical Bulletin. Number 207. July, 1995). FHR and cardiotocogram (CTG) monitoring is widely utilized and in 1992 it was estimated that 74% of all pregnancies in the US were monitored electronically (See National Center for Health Statistics. Annual summary of birth, marriages, divorces, and deaths: United States, 1992. Month Vital Stat Rep 1993;41:28.)
While initial retrospective trials suggested EFM reduced stillbirth during labor (see Shenker, L., Post, R. C., and Seiler, J. S. 1975, "Routine Electronic Monitoring of Fetal Heart Rate and Uterine Activity During Labor," Obstet Gynecol., 46:185-189 and Johnstone, F. D., Campbell, D. M., and Hughes, G. J., 1978, "Has Continuous Intrapartum Monitoring Made Any Impact On Fetal Outcome?" Lancet 1:1298-1300, of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety), this clinical paradigm has been questioned. In a recent meta-analysis of 12 studies, involving nearly 60,000 patients a statistically significant decrease was associated with routine EFM for a 1-minute Apgar score of less than 4 and neonatal seizures, however the protective effect of EFM for a 1-minute score less than 4 was apparent only in the non-United States studies, and the protective effect for neonatal seizure was evident only in studies with high-quality scores. No significant differences were observed in 1-min Apgar scores less than 7, rate of admissions to neonatal intensive care units, and perinatal death. An increase associated with the use of EFM was observed in the rate of cesarean delivery and total operative delivery. Risk of cesarean delivery was greatest in low-risk pregnancies. See Thacker, S. B., Stroup, D. F. and Peterson, H. B., 1995, "Efficacy and Safety of Intrapartum Electronic Fetal Monitoring: an Update," Obstet. Gynecol., 86:613-620, of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
One possible reason is that only qualitative interpretation of the heart rate characteristics is available, and different health care personnel might reach different conclusions about the same data. For example, the definition used in each trial for those FHR and CTG patterns necessitating obstetric intervention differed. There is, in addition, poor reliability of FHR and CTG interpretation. Studies assessing inter- and intra-observer agreement in interpretation of FHR tracings have found marked variability in interpretation in both normal and abnormal tracings. See Nielsen, P. V., Stigsby, B., Nickelsen, C. and Nim, J., 1988, "Computer Assessment of the Intrapartum Cardiotocogram. II. The Value of Compared with Visual Assessment," Acta Obstet. Gynecol. Scand, 67:461-464 and Cibils, L. A., 1996, "On Intrapartum Fetal Monitoring," Am J Obstet. Gynecol. 174:1382-1389, of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. Thus, inappropriate interpretation of FHR and CTG patterns signifying fetal jeopardy has led to inaccurate interpretation and inappropriate obstetric intervention.
A National Institutes of Health Research Planning Workshop published guidelines for interpreting FHR tracings (See 1997 "Electronic Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring: Research Guidelines for Interpretation," National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Research Planning Workshop 1, Am J Obstet. Gynecol., 177:1385-1390), and commercial'systems to implement them are available.
Therefore, the optimal outcome of this approach is to reduce human error in using the guidelines, which have inherent limitations because the basis of the analysis is semi-quantitative. It is thus clear that the current methods of evaluating the FHR and CTG are less than optimal.

Quantitative fetal heart rate and cardiotocographic monitoring system and related method thereof

University of Virginia Patent Foundation


A human engineer using a computer system can maintain numerous software services and packages installed on a number of servers through a single master server and a computer network. Each software service and package is represented in a package and service template datastore in a templatized form in which server-specific information is represented by placeholder data. To install a service or package on a destination server computer, data specific to the destination server is substituted for the corresponding placeholder data in program modules, configuration data files, and installation scripts and the program modules, configuration data files, and installation scripts are transported to the destination server where the installation scripts are executed. To support simultaneous installations of multiple versions of a software package, a given software package includes a first directory which is version-independent and additional, separate directories for each version of the software package installed on the destination server computer.

The present invention relates to remote installation of computer software and, in particular, to a mechanism for automatically, accurately, and remotely installing and updating computer software distributed over a computer network.
The Internet is just the latest of a growing number of large computer networks in which a number of server computer systems provide services to countless client computer systems. Each of the server computer systems require maintenance as new software is made available or existing software is upgraded.
Such maintenance typically involves a human computer engineer accessing each server individually and customizing software for each server. Requiring human access to each individual server effectively limits the number of servers that can be maintained and represents a relatively high cost for such maintenance.
What is needed is a mechanism by which software installation and maintenance to various servers of a computer network can be more automated and, as a result, more error-free. Such a system would significantly reduce the cost in providing large numbers of such servers.
In accordance with the present invention, a human engineer using a computer system can maintain numerous software services and packages installed on a number of servers through a single master server and a computer network. Each software service and package is represented in a package and service template datastore in a templatized form in which server-specific information is represented by placeholder data. To install a service or package on a destination server computer, data specific to the destination server is substituted for the corresponding placeholder data in program modules, configuration data files, and installation scripts and the program modules, configuration data files, and installation scripts are transported to the destination server where the installation scripts are executed.
Execution of the installation scripts copies program modules and configuration data files to locations specified in the installation scripts and can also create symbolic links which make the program modules available and accessible to clients of the service represented by the program modules, configuration data files, and installation scripts. Within the destination server, such program files and configuration data files are stored in such a manner that multiple versions of the same software package can simultaneously execute within the destination server.
In particular, version-independent data is separated from version-dependent data. A given software package includes a first directory which is version-independent and additional, separate directories for each version of the software package installed on the destination server computer. Data which is version-independent, i.e., which is applicable to more than one version of the package, is stored in the version-independent directory. Data which is version-dependent, i.e., which is specific to a particular version of the package, is stored in the version-dependent directory for the particular version of the package to which the data pertains.
All versions of a particular package retrieve version-independent data from the version-independent directory. Accordingly, aspects of the package which are to remain constant across various versions are specified in a single location and therefore do remain constant. Each version of a particular package retrieves version-dependent data from the version-dependent directory for that version. As a result, multiple versions of the package execute properly and simultaneously.
Multiple, simultaneous versions of a software package provide a significant benefit. The following example is illustrative. Consider that a collection of software providing a first service to client computers has been present on a server computer for some time and relies on a particular version of a software package to faithfully and reliably provide the first service. Consider further that a new collection of software which provides a new, second service to client computers and requires a newer version of the same software package is to be installed on the server computer system. Installation of the newer version of the package may cause the first service to no longer function properly, requiring modification of the first collection of software and adaptation to the newer version of the package. Such represents a significant amount of effort and expense.
However, in accordance with the present invention, both versions of the package can be available on the server computer simultaneously such that the first service continues to be provided reliably and without change while the new, second service can be added to thereby more fully utilize the computing resources of the server computer. The present invention therefore represents a significant improvement over prior art systems.

Remote software installation and maintenance


The invention describes a sports drink, which in addition to conventional additives contains viable lactobacilli having a positive effect on human intestinal mucosa. The sports drink preferably also contains micronutrients and proteins. The invention also refers to a tablet for the preparation of such a sports drink, containing viable freeze-dried lactobacilli in combination with micronutrients. In addition to providing liquid and nutrients replacement, the sports drink also relieves the stress symptoms, which are associated with long physical exercise.

It is generally known that physical exercise requires an increased and nutritionally adequate liquid intake. Dehydration rapidly decreases the capacity of an individual, but in hard training and competition the administration of salts and carbohydrates is also required in order to maintain the fluid balance, a proper salt balance and the energy level.
There is on the market today a large number of fluid and/or energy providing beverages. So called sports drinks are normally intended to be taken directly during the physical exercise to meet with the loss of fluids and salts of the body. A sports drink can be hypotonic, that is have a lower content of salts and sugars than the human body fluid, which means that it is quickly taken up by the body. Such a beverage is well fitted for short training sessions. An isotonic sports drink, that is having about the same concentration of salts and sugars as the human body, may well be used during harder and longer training sessions. A conventional sports drink contains in addition to water, carbohydrates, such as different sugars, in an amount of 4-8%, salts and minerals.
There are also different types of nutritional additives based on vitamins, minerals and other antioxidants, or in other ways stimulating substances such as caffeine or ginseng, which can either be provided in a sports drink or in the shape of tablets or powder or any other conventional form such as an energy cake.
In connection with physical exercise it is now generally believed that there is also an increased demand of proteins and many nutritional additive products therefore also contains one or more amino acids or proteins. This is especially true for products, which are used by body-builders and other strength sports performers.
When practising an endurance sport or exercising physically during a long period of time the body will be in a state of stress. This implies an increased flow of blood to the muscles, increased production of free radicals, and increased level of the so called stress hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol. This state of stress also leads to gastrointestinal problems for many people practising said sports, such as marathon runners and hard training athletes. The gastro-intestinal problems can be manifested in many different ways, such as constipation, diarrhea, stomach ache, cramp or nausea (Nancy Rehrer et al., Gastrointestinal complaints in relation to dietary intake in triathletes, International Journal of Sport Nutrition, 1992, 2, 48-59). Competitive long-distance running is also said to induce gastrointestinal blood loss which may contribute to iron deficiency, runner's anaemia (James G. Stewart et al., Gastrointestinal Blood Loss and Anaemia in Runners, Annals of Internal Medicine, 1984, Vol. 100, No. 6, 843-845). Said intestinal bleedings might be due to a weakened intestinal mucosa.


Embodiments of the disclosure provide a method and device for indicating time domain resource allocation. The method comprises: determining time information of a resource region based on numerology information of the resource region, the resource region being allocated for transmitting data to a terminal device; and transmitting the time information to the terminal device to enable the terminal device to receive the data on the resource region.

Newly-developed mobile standards call for higher data transfer speeds, greater numbers of connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. Generally, a network device transmits data on allocated resource to one or more terminal devices. In a legacy Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a subframe is used as a scheduling granularity of the time domain resource allocation. In a 5G system, such as New Radio (NR), a mini-slot is introduced as the scheduling granularity, for example, for Ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) traffic. A mini-slot may include one or more symbols and the length of the mini-slot may change semi-statically or dynamically. In such a case, the scheduling granularity is variable.
In NR, the numerology may change from one subframe to another subframe due to different traffic requirements, which makes the time domain resource granularity length change. For carriers having different numerologies, cross carrier scheduling also needs to take the different time domain resource granularities into account.
In these cases, time domain resource allocation needs to consider different scheduling granularities and dynamically change numerology within the same carrier or different carriers. However, conventional schemes do not provide a solution for indicating the time domain resource allocation under such circumstances.
Accordingly, there is a need to develop a scheme for indicating information about time domain resource allocation in case of variable scheduling granularities.

Method and device for indicating resource allocation