Sparrow is a chatbot developed by the artificial intelligence research lab DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. It is designed to answer users' questions correctly, while reducing the risk of unsafe and inappropriate answers. One motivation behind Sparrow is to address the problem of language models producing incorrect, biased or potentially harmful outputs. Sparrow is trained using human judgements, in order to be more “Helpful, Correct and Harmless” compared to baseline pre-trained language models. The development of Sparrow involved asking paid study participants to interact with Sparrow, and collecting their preferences to train a model of how useful an answer is. To improve accuracy and help avoid the problem of hallucinating incorrect answers, Sparrow has the ability to search the Internet using Google Search in order to find and cite evidence for any factual claims it makes. To make the model safer, its behaviour is constrained by a set of rules, for example "don't make threatening statements" and "don't make hateful or insulting comments", as well as rules about possibly harmful advice, and not claiming to be a person. During development study participants were asked to converse with the system and try to trick it into breaking these rules. A 'rule model' was trained on judgements from these participants, which was used for further training. Sparrow was introduced in a paper in September 2022, titled "Improving alignment of dialogue agents via targeted human judgements"; however, the bot was not released publicly. DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said DeepMind is considering releasing Sparrow for a "private beta" some time in 2023. == Training == Sparrow is a deep neural network based on the transformer machine learning model architecture. It is fine-tuned from DeepMind's Chinchilla AI pre-trained large language model (LLM), which has 70 Billion parameters. Sparrow is trained using reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), although some supervised fine-tuning techniques are also used. The RLHF training utilizes two reward models to capture human judgements: a “preference model” that predicts what a human study participant would prefer and a “rule model” that predicts if the model has broken one of the rules. == Limitations == Sparrow's training data corpus is mainly in English, meaning it performs worse in other languages. When adversarially probed by study participants it breaks the rules 8% of the time; however, this is still three times lower than the baseline prompted pre-trained model (Chinchilla).
Software design
Software design is the process of conceptualizing how a software system will work before it is implemented or modified. Software design also refers to the direct result of the design process – the concepts of how the software will work which may be formally documented or may be maintained less formally, including via oral tradition. The design process enables a designer to model aspects of a software system before it exists with the intent of making the effort of writing the code more efficiently. Creativity, past experience, a sense of what makes "good" software, and a commitment to quality are success factors for a competent design. A software design can be compared to an architected plan for a house. High-level plans represent the totality of the house (e.g., a three-dimensional rendering of the house). Lower-level plans provide guidance for constructing each detail (e.g., the plumbing lay). Similarly, the software design model provides a variety of views of the proposed software solution. == Part of the overall process == In terms of the waterfall development process, software design is the activity that occurs after requirements analysis and before coding. Requirements analysis determines what the system needs to do without determining how it will do it, and thus, multiple designs can be imagined that satisfy the requirements. The design can be created while coding, without a plan or requirements analysis, but for more complex projects this is less feasible. Completing a design prior to coding allows for multidisciplinary designers and subject-matter experts to collaborate with programmers to produce software that is useful and technically sound. Sometimes, a simulation or prototype is created to model the system in an effort to determine a valid and good design. == Code as design == A common point of confusion with the term design in software is that the process applies at multiple levels of abstraction such as a high-level software architecture and lower-level components, functions and algorithms. A relatively formal process may occur at high levels of abstraction but at lower levels, the design process is almost always less formal where the only artifact of design may be the code itself. To the extent that this is true, software design refers to the design of the design. Edsger W. Dijkstra referred to this layering of semantic levels as the "radical novelty" of computer programming, and Donald Knuth used his experience writing TeX to describe the futility of attempting to design a program prior to implementing it: TEX would have been a complete failure if I had merely specified it and not participated fully in its initial implementation. The process of implementation constantly led me to unanticipated questions and to new insights about how the original specifications could be improved. == Artifacts == A design process may include the production of art Software design documentation such as flow chart, use case, Pseudocode, Unified Modeling Language model and other Fundamental modeling concepts. For user centered software, design may involve user experience design yielding a storyboard to help determine those specifications. Documentation may be reviewed to allow constraints, specifications and even requirements to be adjusted prior to coding. == Iterative design == Software systems inherently deal with uncertainties, and the size of software components can significantly influence a system's outcomes, both positively and negatively. Neal Ford and Mark Richards propose an iterative approach to address the challenge of identifying and right-sizing components. This method emphasizes continuous refinement as teams develop a more nuanced understanding of system behavior and requirements. The approach typically involves a cycle with several stages: A high-level partitioning strategy is established, often categorized as technical or domain-based. Guidelines for the smallest meaningful deployable unit, referred to as "quanta," are defined. While these foundational decisions are made early, they may be revisited later in the cycle if necessary. Initial components are identified based on the established strategy. Requirements are assigned to the identified components. The roles and responsibilities of each component are analyzed to ensure clarity and minimize overlap. Architectural characteristics, such as scalability, fault tolerance, and maintainability, are evaluated. Components may be restructured based on feedback from development teams. This cycle serves as a general framework and can be adapted to different domains. == Design principles == Design principles enable a software engineer to navigate the design process. Davis suggested principles which have been refined over time as: The design process should not suffer from "tunnel vision" A good designer should consider alternative approaches, judging each based on the requirements of the problem, the resources available to do the job. The design should be traceable to the analysis model Because a single element of the design model can often be traced back to multiple requirements, it is necessary to have a means for tracking how requirements have been satisfied by the design model. The design should not reinvent the wheel Systems are constructed using a set of design patterns, many of which have likely been encountered before. These patterns should always be chosen as an alternative to reinvention. Time is short and resources are limited; design time should be invested in representing (truly new) ideas by integrating patterns that already exist (when applicable). The design should "minimize the intellectual distance" between the software and the problem as it exists in the real world That is, the structure of the software design should, whenever possible, mimic the structure of the problem domain. The design should exhibit uniformity and integration A design is uniform if it appears fully coherent. In order to achieve this outcome, rules of style and format should be defined for a design team before design work begins. A design is integrated if care is taken in defining interfaces between design components. The design should be structured to accommodate change The design concepts discussed in the next section enable a design to achieve this principle. The design should be structured to degrade gently, even when aberrant data, events, or operating conditions are encountered Well-designed software should never "bomb"; it should be designed to accommodate unusual circumstances, and if it must terminate processing, it should do so in a graceful manner. Design is not coding, coding is not design Even when detailed procedural designs are created for program components, the level of abstraction of the design model is higher than the source code. The only design decisions made at the coding level should address the small implementation details that enable the procedural design to be coded. The design should be assessed for quality as it is being created, not after the fact A variety of design concepts and design measures are available to assist the designer in assessing quality throughout the development process. The design should be reviewed to minimize conceptual (semantic) errors There is sometimes a tendency to focus on minutiae when the design is reviewed, missing the forest for the trees. A design team should ensure that major conceptual elements of the design (omissions, ambiguity, inconsistency) have been addressed before worrying about the syntax of the design model. == Design concepts == Design concepts provide a designer with a foundation from which more sophisticated methods can be applied. Design concepts include: Abstraction Reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically to retain only information that is relevant for a particular purpose. It is an act of Representing essential features without including the background details or explanations. Architecture The overall structure of the software and the ways in which that structure provides conceptual integrity for a system. Good software architecture will yield a good return on investment with respect to the desired outcome of the project, e.g. in terms of performance, quality, schedule and cost. Control hierarchy A program structure that represents the organization of a program component and implies a hierarchy of control. Data structure Representing the logical relationship between elements of data. Design pattern A designer may identify a design aspect of the system that has solved in the past. The reuse of such patterns can increase software development velocity. Information hiding Modules should be specified and designed so that information contained within a module is inaccessible to other modules that have no need for such information. Modularity Dividing the solution into parts (modules). Refinement The process of elaboration. A hierarchy is developed by decomposing a macrosco
Watcher Entertainment
Watcher Entertainment is an American digital media and entertainment company, founded by Steven Lim, Shane Madej, and Ryan Bergara. The channel features a variety of comedy, paranormal, gaming, cooking, and educational shows – typically hosted by Madej and Bergara. The Watcher main channel has over 400 million views and 2.9 million subscribers. The company launched their own streaming service, WatcherTV, in 2024. == History == === Buzzfeed and the creation of Watcher Entertainment (2019) === Madej, Bergara, and Lim met while working at the digital media company BuzzFeed. Madej and Bergara were co-hosts of the popular true crime and paranormal series Buzzfeed Unsolved and Lim was the creator and co-host of the popular internet food series Worth It. Both shows generated a combined 2 billion views with 15 billion minutes watched, making them two of the most successful shows on Buzzfeed. In 2019, Madej, Bergara, and Lim quit Buzzfeed as full-time employees. They each stayed on as contracted employees to complete their respective shows. The trio credited their departure to their desire to found a company with more "creative opportunities" and the ability to have "actual ownership of the content" made. The company is majority-owned by the trio. They received funding from Neuro, a caffeinated energy gum company; Boba Guys, a bubble-milk tea chain; and Steve Chen, a YouTube co-founder. Watcher Entertainment gained its name from the infamous true crime case of The Westfield Watcher, which Madej and Bergara had covered in a Buzzfeed Unsolved episode. The trio began the company as co-CEOs; however, Bergara and Madej stepped down from the role in 2023 to focus on content creation. === Watcher Entertainment (2020–present) === Watcher Entertainment was launched in January 2020. The company debuted with seven series and a weekly interactive talk show: Homemade, Grocery Run, Weird Wonderful World, Puppet History, Tourist Trapped, Top 5 Beatdown, Spooky Small Talk, and Watcher Weekly. The channel reached over 300,000 subscribers within the first month of launching. They were signed by talent agency CAA in the same year. Puppet History, a comedy educational game show, quickly became a success and gained a significant audience. The show, which stars Madej as a fluffy blue puppet, has spanned seven seasons and led to the creation of a variety of merchandise. It has featured a variety of guest stars on every episode, including other former Buzzfeed employees. The company premiered its first horror series in July 2020 with Are You Scared?. Following the end of Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural in 2021, the studio premiered its highly anticipated successor, Ghost Files, just months after. The show followed a similar format, with Bergara and Madej investigating reportedly haunted locations and attempting to find evidence of the paranormal. The show had significant success, with critics noting the improved production value and design from its predecessor. In 2023, Bergara and Madej went on a tour across the United States to premiere episodes of the second season. The series was renewed for a third season, which they premiered with a United Kingdom tour in 2024. That year, Watcher premiered a light-hearted successor to the graphic Buzzfeed Unsolved: True Crime, with Mystery Files. In this rendition, Bergara or Madej present unusual crime or supernatural mysteries with a collection of theoretical solutions. The show was met with great success by audiences and was quickly renewed for a second season. Watcher launched a second channel, 'WatcherPodcasts,' in October 2023. The channel features podcasts hosted by Lim, Bergara, and Madej. On April 19, 2024, the company launched its Watcher streaming service. Going forward, all of their content would be released exclusively on the service and the company planned to transition away from YouTube. This announcement was met with overwhelmingly negative reactions from their fans, with many calling for the company to reverse the decision. Additionally, their YouTube channel lost over 50,000 subscribers in the day following the announcement. On April 22, 2024, the company issued an apology and changed their decision, stating that episodes would instead be released on the streaming service a month before their premiere on YouTube. In May 2025, the channel 'Andrew, Steven, and Adam' was launched as a subsidiary of Watcher with the release of the second season of Travel Season. Travel Season is a spiritual successor to Worth It with the same cast of Lim, Andrew Ilnyckyj, and Adam Bianchi. The channel focuses on food reviews and the behind of the scenes of making it. The main channel is now set to be focused primarily on horror, creepy, and paranormal content. == Channels and shows == === Watcher === ==== Current shows ==== Puppet History (2020–present) A whimsical puppet host walks through history's wildest tales as two guests compete for the title of history wizard. Making Watcher (2020–present) What happens when 3 creators with no business experience decide to make their own company? A multi-series documentary on the journey of creating Watcher Entertainment. Weird Wonderful World (2020–present) Curious pals Madej and Bergara explore lesser-known destinations and the fascinating subcultures within them. Too Many Spirits (2020–present) Bergara and Madej read and rate audience-submitted ghost stories, while getting progressively more tipsy drinking cocktails prepared by Steven and Ricky Wang. Top 5 Beatdown (2020–present) Bergara and Madej compare asinine top 5 lists with a topical expert, inspiring surprisingly heated debate. Are You Scared? (2020–2022, 2024–present) Bergara reads the internet's scariest stories (some true, some false) to his pal Madej as they try to figure out if the story is experienced or imagined. Ghost Files (2021–present) Bergara and Madej investigate haunted locations to discover whether something paranormal really lies within. Mystery Files (2023–present) Bergara and Madej present unusual crime or supernatural mysteries with a collection of theoretical solutions. Survival Mode (2023–present) Bergara and Madej play a variety of horror games and give a spooky review. ==== Former shows ==== Grocery Run (2020) Madej interviews a celeb on their typical grocery run, before returning to their home to help prepare their signature dish. Homemade (2020) Lim examines popular food by comparing an elevated restaurant experience vs. a home-cooked experience. Spooky Small Talk (2020) Bergara interviews celebs in a haunted house, exposing their fears and if they can manage it, a little about themselves too. Social Distancing D&D (2020) Socially Distance along with the motley gang of Watchers as they embark on a great quest of Dungeons and Dragons! Tourist Trapped (2020) Begara and Madej battle for tour guide supremacy, highlighting the two sides of a city, tourist attractions and hidden gems. Watcher Weekly (2020–2021) Lim, Bergara, and Madej chat the week's content and answer questions, with the occasional musical guest! Dish Granted (2021–2022) A show where host and amateur home cook Lim attempts to create the most extravagant dishes for his friends. Pretty Historic (2022) Selorm and guests explore beauty and fashion trends from history, try them, and decide whether the trends should remain in the past or come to the present. Worth a Shot (2022–2023) Take a seat at a Master Mixologist's bar as pro Ricky Wang crafts the unbelievable into a digestible drink for his guests. === Watcher Podcast === ==== Current shows ==== Get Scared with Shane, Ryan, and Steven (2023–2025) Previously named 'Pod Watcher' Madej, Bergara, and Lim host a weekly podcasts, exploring a variety of topics and answering viewer questions. Guests occasionally appear to replace one host. Matt Real serves as the producer and a fourth voice for the podcast. For Your Amusement (2023–present) Bergara explores a variety of topics surrounding theme parks. === Andrew, Steven, and Adam === Travel Season (2024–present) Lim reunites with Worth It costars Andrew Ilnyckyj and Adam Bianchi in a new food review show. == Awards and nominations ==
List of UPnP AV media servers and clients
This is a list of UPnP AV media servers and client application or hard appliances. == UPnP AV media servers == === Software === === Cross-platform === Allonis myServer, a multi-faceted media player/organizer with a DLNA/UPnP server, controller, and renderer, including conversion. Runs on Microsoft Windows. Supports most all HTML5 devices as remote controls. Asset UPnP (DLNA compatible) from Illustrate. An audio specific UPnP/DLNA server for Windows, QNAP, macOS and Linux. Features audio WAVE/LPCM transcoding from a range of audio codecs, ReplayGain and playlists. FreeMi UPnP Media Server, very simple server, historically used to stream to the STB Freebox, based on .net/mono. Home Media Server, a free media server/player/controller for Windows, Linux, macOS, individual device settings, transcoding, external and internal subtitles, restricted device access to folders, uploading files, Internet-Radio, Internet-Television, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), DMR-control and "Play To", Music (Visualization), Photo (Slideshow), support for 3D-subtitles, support for BitTorrent files, Web-navigation with HTML5 player, Digital Media Renderer (DMR) emulation for AirPlay and Google Cast devices. Jellyfin, a free and open-source suite of multimedia applications designed to organize, manage, and share digital media files to networked devices. JRiver Media Center, a multi-faceted media player/organizer with a DLNA/UPnP server, controller, and renderer, including conversion. Supports Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux. Kodi (previously XBMC), a cross platform open source software media-player/media center for Android, Apple TV, Linux, macOS and Windows. LimboMedia, a free cross platform home- and UPnP/DLNA mediaserver with android app and WebM transcoding for browser playback (build with java and FFmpeg). MinimServer, a Java-based highly configurable uPnP/DNLA music server with additional consideration given to Classical Music, supports transcoding with MinimStreamer, supports Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and various NAS devices. Neutron Music Player, acts as a cross platform UPnP/DLNA Media Renderer server available for Android, iOS, BlackBerry 10 & PlayBook platforms. Supports gapless playback and has possibility to output rendered audio further to the high-resolution internal DAC or external USB DAC or another UPnP/DLNA Media Renderer with all supported DSP effects applied. Plex, a cross-platform and closed source software media player and entertainment hub for digital media, available for macOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux, as well as mobile clients for iOS (including Apple TV (2nd generation) onwards), Android, Windows Phone, and many devices such as Xbox. Supports on-the-fly transcoding of video and music. PonoMusic World. Based on the JRiver Media Center software, includes similar features along with a store for purchasing HD audio tracks. PS3 Media Server, a free cross platform Java based UPnP DLNA server especially good for AVC and other current HD media codecs with on-the-fly transcoding. Serviio, is available with a free and a pro license. It can stream media files (music, video or images) to renderer devices (e.g. a TV set, Blu-ray player, games console or mobile phone) on a local area network. TVMOBiLi, a cross platform, high performance UPnP/DLNA Media Server for Windows, macOS and Linux. TwonkyMedia server, a cross-platform multimedia server and entertainment hub for digital media, available for Android, Apple TV, iOS, Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox 360. Universal Media Server, a free (open source) DLNA-compliant UPnP Media Server for Windows, macOS and Linux (originally based on the PS3 Media Server). It is able to stream videos, audio and images to any DLNA-capable device. It contains more features than most paid UPnP/DLNA Media Servers. It streams to many devices including TVs (Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, LG, Philips and more.), PS3, Xbox(One/360), smartphones, Blu-ray players and more. vGet Cast, a simple, cross platform (Chrome App) DLNA server and controller for single, local video files. Vuze, an open-source Java-based BitTorrent client which contains MediaServer plugin. Wild Media Server, a media server/player/controller for Windows, Linux, macOS, individual device settings, transcoding, external and internal subtitles, restricted device access to folders, uploading files, Internet-Radio, Internet-Television, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), DMR-control and "Play To", Music (Visualization), Photo (Slideshow), support for 3D-subtitles, support for BitTorrent files, Web-navigation with HTML5 player, Digital Media Renderer (DMR) emulation for AirPlay and Google Cast devices. === Android === BubbleUPnP Android UPnP/DLNA server, player, controller and renderer CastLab Android UPnP/DLNA server. Pixel Media Server, Android UPnP/DLNA Media Server. Supports all popular Video and Audio files. It also support external subtitle file (SRT) Plato is an Android UPnP client app that can play videos and audio. Toaster Cast Android UPnP/DLNA server, controller and renderer vGet, Android App that can play videos embedded in websites on DLNA renderers. Media Cast UPnP, Android UPnP client app that can play videos/Audio. Media Server Pro is a DLNA server that allows individual file selections for sharing. Slick UPnP A minimal and intuitive open-source Android UPnP client app that can play video/audio. (It is not DMS) YAACC Open source UPnP controller, renderer and server app === Linux === === Microsoft Windows === Sundtek Streamingserver a native Windows TV Server providing DVB, ATSC and ISDB-T via UPnP/DLNA, it also supports streaming media files (it only supports TV devices from Sundtek). Stream What You Hear, a Windows application that streams the sound of your computer (i.e.: “what you hear”) to UPnP/DLNA device such as TVs, amps, network receivers, game consoles, etc... TVersity Media Server, a Windows application that streams multimedia content from a personal computer to UPnP, DLNA and mobile devices (Chromecast is also supported). It was the first media server to offer real-time transcoding (back in 2005). TVersity Screen Server, a Windows application that mirrors the screen of a personal computer to UPnP, DLNA and mobile devices. DVBViewer, a Windows application, mainly for TV/Radio recording/playback, but with the ability to stream live TV/radio as well as multimedia files via UPnP/DLNA. DivX, a Windows application, mainly for video encoding into DivX format, but has the ability to stream multimedia files via DLNA. foobar2000, a freeware audio player for Windows. Highly customizable, audio only. Download of dlna-extension from the developers' webpage necessary. Home Media Center, a free and open source media server compatible with DLNA. Includes web interface for streaming content to web browser (Android, iOS, ...), subtitles integration and Windows desktop streaming. This server is easy to use. KooRaRoo Media, a commercial DLNA media server and organizer for Windows. Includes on-the-fly transcoding, per-file and per-folder parental controls, powerful organizing features with dynamic playlists, Internet radio streaming, "Play To" functionality and remote device control, burned-in and external subtitles, extensive format support including RAW photo formats. Streams all files to all devices. Media Go, media player and tagger MediaMonkey, a free media player/tagger/editor with an UPnP/DLNA client and server for Microsoft Windows MusicBee, an audio player, supports UPnP via a plugin. Mezzmo, a commercial software package. Mezzmo streams music, movies, photos and subtitles to the UPnP and DLNA-enabled devices. It automatically finds and organizes music, movies and photos, imports multimedia files from iPad, iPhone, iPod, Audio CDs, iTunes, Windows Media Player and WinAmp. DLNA server supports all popular media file formats with real time transcoding to meet the device specifications. PlayOn, a commercial UPnP/DLNA media server for Windows, includes a transcoder for streaming web video. TVble, a cloud connected (Rotten tomatoes/TMDB etc.), Torrent streaming, DLNA enabled media server. Allows single file or playlist downloads. Windows Media Connect from Microsoft, a free UPnP AV MediaServer and control point (server and client) for Microsoft Windows WMC version 2.0 can be installed for usage with Windows Media Player 10 for Windows XP WMC version 3.0 can be installed for usage with Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP WMC version 4.0 comes pre-installed on Windows Vista with its Windows Media Player 11 WMC can also refer to Windows Media Center. From the Windows Media Center entry in Wikipedia: In May 2015, Microsoft announced that Windows Media Center would be discontinued on Windows 10, and that it would be uninstalled when upgrading; but stated that those upgrading from a version of Windows that included the Media Center application would receive the paid Windows DVD Player app to maintain DVD playback functio
Hyperscale computing
In computing, hyperscale is the ability of an architecture to scale appropriately as increased demand is added to the system. This typically involves the ability to seamlessly provide and add computing, memory, networking, and storage resources to a given node or set of nodes that make up a larger computing, distributed computing, or grid computing environment. Hyperscale computing is necessary in order to build a robust and scalable cloud, big data, map reduce, or distributed storage system and is often associated with the infrastructure required to run large distributed sites such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud, or Cloudflare. Companies like Ericsson, AMD, and Intel provide hyperscale infrastructure kits for IT service providers. Companies like Scaleway, Switch, Alibaba, IBM, QTS, Neysa, Digital Realty Trust, Equinix, Oracle, Meta, Amazon Web Services, SAP, Microsoft, Google, and Cloudflare build data centers for hyperscale computing. Such companies are sometimes called "hyperscalers". They are recognized for their massive scale in cloud computing and data management, operating in environments that require extensive infrastructure to accommodate large-scale data processing and storage.
Cloudlet
A cloudlet is a mobility-enhanced small-scale cloud datacenter that is located at the edge of the Internet. The main purpose of the cloudlet is supporting resource-intensive and interactive mobile applications by providing powerful computing resources to mobile devices with lower latency. It is a new architectural element that extends today's cloud computing infrastructure. It represents the middle tier of a 3-tier hierarchy: mobile device - cloudlet - cloud. A cloudlet can be viewed as a data center in a box whose goal is to bring the cloud closer. The cloudlet term was first coined by M. Satyanarayanan, Victor Bahl, Ramón Cáceres, and Nigel Davies, and a prototype implementation is developed by Carnegie Mellon University as a research project. The concept of cloudlet is also known as follow me cloud, and mobile micro-cloud. == Motivation == Many mobile services split the application into a front-end client program and a back-end server program following the traditional client-server model. The front-end mobile application offloads its functionality to the back-end servers for various reasons such as speeding up processing. With the advent of cloud computing, the back-end server is typically hosted at the cloud datacenter. Though the use of a cloud datacenter offers various benefits such as scalability and elasticity, its consolidation and centralization lead to a large separation between a mobile device and its associated datacenter. End-to-end communication then involves many network hops and results in high latencies and low bandwidth. For the reasons of latency, some emerging mobile applications require cloud offload infrastructure to be close to the mobile device to achieve low response time. In the ideal case, it is just one wireless hop away. For example, the offload infrastructure could be located in a cellular base station or it could be LAN-connected to a set of Wi-Fi base stations. The individual elements of this offload infrastructure are referred to as cloudlets. == Applications == Cloudlets aim to support mobile applications that are both resource-intensive and interactive. Augmented reality applications that use head-tracked systems require end-to-end latencies of less than 16 ms. Cloud games with remote rendering also require low latencies and high bandwidth. Wearable cognitive assistance systems combine devices such as Google Glass with cloud-based processing to guide users through complex tasks. This futuristic genre of applications is characterized as “astonishingly transformative” by the report of the 2013 NSF Workshop on Future Directions in Wireless Networking. These applications use cloud resources in the critical path of real-time user interaction. Consequently, they cannot tolerate end-to-end operation latencies of more than a few tens of milliseconds. Apple Siri and Google Now which perform compute-intensive speech recognition in the cloud, are further examples in this emerging space. == Cloudlet vs Cloud == There is significant overlap in the requirements for cloud and cloudlet. At both levels, there is the need for: (a) strong isolation between untrusted user-level computations; (b) mechanisms for authentication, access control, and metering; (c) dynamic resource allocation for user-level computations; and, (d) the ability to support a very wide range of user-level computations, with minimal restrictions on their process structure, programming languages or operating systems. At a cloud datacenter, these requirements are met today using the virtual machine (VM) abstraction. For the same reasons they are used in cloud computing today, VMs are used as an abstraction for cloudlets. Meanwhile, there are a few but important differentiators between cloud and cloudlet. === Rapid provisioning === Different from cloud data centers that are optimized for launching existing VM images in their storage tier, cloudlets need to be much more agile in their provisioning. Their association with mobile devices is highly dynamic, with considerable churn due to user mobility. A user from far away may unexpectedly show up at a cloudlet (e.g., if he just got off an international flight) and try to use it for an application such as a personalized language translator. For that user, the provisioning delay before he is able to use the application impacts usability. === VM handoff across cloudlets === If a mobile device user moves away from the cloudlet he is currently using, the interactive response will degrade as the logical network distance increases. To address this effect of user mobility, the offloaded services on the first cloudlet need to be transferred to the second cloudlet maintaining end-to-end network quality. This resembles live migration in cloud computing but differs considerably in a sense that the VM handoff happens in Wide Area Network (WAN). == OpenStack++ == Since the cloudlet model requires reconfiguration or additional deployment of hardware/software, it is important to provide a systematic way to incentivise the deployment. However, it can face a classic bootstrapping problem. Cloudlets need practical applications to incentivize cloudlet deployment. However, developers cannot heavily rely on cloudlet infrastructure until it is widely deployed. To break this deadlock and bootstrap the cloudlet deployment, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University proposed OpenStack++ that extends OpenStack to leverage its open ecosystem. OpenStack++ provides a set of cloudlet-specific APIs as OpenStack extensions. == Commercial implementations and standardization effort == By 2015 cloudlet based applications were commercially available. In 2017 the National Institute of Standards and Technology published draft standards for fog computing in which cloudlets were defined as nodes on the fog architecture.
Institute of Telecommunications Professionals
The Institute of Telecommunications Professionals (ITP) is a membership organisation for professionals in the telecommunications industry, based in the United Kingdom. The Institute was originally founded in 1906. It is now a registered company with Companies House in the United Kingdom, incorporated in 2002. Brendan O' Mahony has been the chief executive of the ITP. Lucy Woods presided over ITP for fifteen years, until 2018, when the organization named Kevin Paige chairman for five years. In 2022 the ITP appointed its new CEO, Charlotte Goodwill. In 2021, the ITP assisted a UK fibre network Vorboss in establishing its training academy. In 2023, the ITP appointed Tim Creswick, the CEO of Vorboss, as the new chair of its board of directors. The institute has an associated journal, the Journal of the Institute of Telecommunications Professionals, established in 2007 and published quarterly.