INSPIRE: Exploiting Cross-Disciplinary Synergies For Efficient Perishable Commodity and Information Distribution

该INSPIRE奖由计算机和信息科学与工程理事会（CISE）计算机和网络系统司（CNS）的网络技术和系统（NeTS）、工程理事会（ENG）的化学、生物工程、环境和运输系统司（CBET）以及综合活动办公室资助。商品配送、物流和信息网络的学科已经被广泛研究了几十年，但几乎只在它们自己的领域。在物流领域，生鲜食品和其他易腐商品的配送变得越来越重要，但易腐性并没有很好地融入物流中。本提案的目的是揭示涉及延迟敏感内容传输的易腐商品分销网络（PCDN）和信息网络（IN）之间的协同作用，并利用它们来解决这两个领域的复杂问题。这种协同研究特别及时，因为(a)信息和通信技术（ICT）在物流领域的快速注入，以及(b)这两个领域的碳足迹迅速增加。主要研究人员（pi）对易腐商品分布和计算的初步审查显示了许多协同作用，并激发了本提案将详细研究的一些跨领域方法。特别是，内容中心网络（CCN）范式正在下一代网络的背景下进行积极研究，并激发了提案将研究的易腐商品分销的类似方法。包装的捆绑和拆解在物流中起着至关重要的作用，不仅激发了对多种易腐商品进行捆绑以提高效率的研究，而且还通过特别适合批量数据传输的光网络在数据中心网络中进行内容捆绑。虚拟化是云计算系统中的一项众所周知的技术，该项目将在PCDN的背景下探索它。PCDN更高的复杂性不仅带来了新的挑战，而且激发了更复杂的虚拟化方案，用于涉及延迟敏感处理的计算。物流中的物理限制，如人力方面的调度卡车司机和不同的产品可用性，使得PCDN的效率特别低，估计在十几岁。该项目不仅研究了更好地适应这些限制的机制，还研究了受此类解决方案启发的新的数据中心光网络方案。最后，该提案寻求pcdn（例如，最大限度地减少食品腐败与减少空卡车里程）和数据中心（例如，最大限度地减少冷却与最大限度地提高服务器使用率）之间环境影响权衡的协同效应。本研究正在研究这些问题和其他问题，并为PCDN和IN开发技术。该研究的更广泛的影响是跨域技术的发展，可以用于PCDN和in领域更好的资源效率。这些方法有可能对这两个领域的环境可持续性产生积极影响。例如，即使在发达国家，也有很大比例的新鲜食品（可能接近50%）在供应链的某个环节被丢弃，这对农业（例如水、肥料、电力使用、肥料径流等）、食品加工和食品配送等方面产生了巨大的环境影响。因此，管理上哪怕是很小的改进都可能带来丰厚的环境红利。随着信息通信技术融入人类生活的各个方面，包括物质基础设施和人类健康，信息通信技术方面的碳足迹也在不断增加。因此，in领域的效率也可能产生重大的积极影响。

This INSPIRE award is funded by the Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) in the Computer and Network Systems Division (CNS) in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) Division in the Directorate for Engineering (ENG), and the Office of Integrative Activities. The disciplines of commodity distribution logistics and information networking have been studied extensively for many decades but almost exclusively in their own domains. In the logistics area, the distribution of fresh food and other perishable commodities is becoming critical but the perishability has not been well integrated into the logistics. The purpose of this proposal is to expose synergies between Perishable Commodity Distribution Networks (PCDN) and Information Networking (IN) involving transport of delay sensitive content, and exploit them to solve complex problems in both fields. Such a synergistic study is particularly timely because of (a) rapid infusion of information and communications technologies (ICT) in the logistics space, and (b) rapidly increasing carbon footprint in both areas.The Principal Investigators' (PIs') preliminary examination of perishable commodity distribution and computing in general have shown a number of synergies and inspired a number of cross-domain methods that this proposal will examine in detail. In particular, the content centric networking (CCN) paradigm is being actively examined in the context of next generation networks, and inspires similar approaches for the perishable commodity distribution that the proposal will examine. Bundling and unbundling of packages plays a crucial role in logistics and inspires not only the examination of bundling of multiple types of perishable commodities for higher efficiency but also bundling of contents in data center network via optical networks that are particularly suited for bulk data transfer. Virtualization is a well-known technique in cloud computing systems and the project will explore it in the context of PCDN. The much higher complexity of PCDN not only brings new challenges but also inspires more sophisticated virtualization schemes for computing involving latency sensitive processing. Physical constraints in logistics such as human aspects of scheduling truck drivers and varying produce availability make the efficiency of PCDN particularly low, estimated to be in the teens. The project not only examines mechanisms for better accommodation of these constraints but also examines a new data center optical networking scheme inspired by such solutions. Finally, the proposal seeks synergies between environmental impact tradeoffs in PCDNs (e.g., minimizing food spoilage vs. reducing empty truck miles) and data centers (e.g., minimizing cooling vs. maximizing server usage). This research is examining these and other issues and developing techniques for them for both PCDN and IN.The broader impacts of the research are the development of cross-domain techniques that can be used for better resource efficiency in both PCDN and IN areas. These methods have the potential to positively impact the environmental sustainability in both of these areas. For instance, even in developed countries, a huge percentage of fresh food (perhaps approaching 50%) is discarded at some point in the supply chain, which has a huge environmental impact in terms of agriculture (e.g., water, fertilizer, electricity use, fertilizer runoff, etc.), food processing, and distribution of the food. Thus an even small improvement in the management could result in rich environmental dividends. The IN side also has a consistently increasing carbon footprint as ICT is infused into all aspects of human life including physical infrastructures and human health. Thus the efficiencies in the IN domain could also have significant positive impact.