Abstract: The invention provides methods, apparatus and systems for detecting distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks within the Internet by sampling packets at a point or points in Internet backbone connections to determine a packet metric parameter. The packet metric parameter which might comprise the volume of packets received is analyzed over selected time intervals with respect to specified geographical locations in which the hosts transmitting the packets are located. The expected behavior can be employed to identify traffic distortions revealing a DDoS attack. In a complementary aspect, the invention provides a method of authenticating packets at routers in order to elevate the QoS of authenticated packets. This method can be used to block or filter packets and can be used in conjunction with the DDoS attack detection system to defend against DDoS attacks within the Internet in a distributed manner.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for scheduling event streams. The apparatus includes (i) an interface for receiving event streams which are placed in queues and (ii) a scheduler which selects at least one event stream for dispatch depending on sketched content information data of the received event streams. The scheduler includes a sketching engine for sketching the received event streams to determine content information data and a selection engine for selecting at least one received event stream for dispatch depending on the determined content information data of the received event streams. The method includes the steps of (i) determining content information data about the content of event streams and (ii) selecting at least one event stream from the event streams for dispatch depending on the content information data. A computer program, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the steps of the above method.

Abstract: A system of nodes including processors within a wireless sensor network includes an arrangement of the nodes with data connections therebetween within the wireless sensor network, wherein the data connections are limited to a set of distinct, non-intersecting paths, wherein each source node of the nodes is connected with a root nodes of the nodes by at least a predetermined number of the paths

Abstract: A method for electronically storing and retrieving at a later date a true copy of a document stored on a remote storage device comprises: sending a document in electronic format from a document owner's computing device to a store entity for storing the document; generating a digest of the document while the document is at the store entity by applying a hash function to the document; signing the digest electronically with a key while said document is at the store entity; generating a receipt that includes the digest and the key; sending the receipt to the document owner; and verifying, at the document owner's computing device, that the received receipt corresponds to the document sent from the owner's computing device.

Abstract: A communication device, a computer program product, and a method for operating a communication device. The communication device has at least one protocol stack having at least two protocol modules, a number of threads for executing the protocol modules, the respective thread being blocked or active, the respective active thread being idle or busy, and a control unit having first means adapted to adjust the number of active threads by monitoring a ratio between a first time duration the active threads are busy and a second time duration the active threads are idle.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining the order of wagons in a train. The invention configures a plurality of wagons of a train to sense at least one environmental condition that the wagons are respectively exposed to when the train is moving. The invention configures the wagons to generate a corresponding announcement message in response to a change in state of the environmental condition. The invention configures the first wagon of the train to listen for the announcement message generated by any of the plurality of wagons. The invention configures the first wagon to compute a sequence of the announcement messages from an order in which the wagons have been heard.

Abstract: A method and an electronic unit are disclosed for controlling traffic on a network, especially for controlling peer-to-peer related traffic. A filter unit is intercepting messages related to peer-to-peer application from a network line, irrespective of the messages' destination, A control logic then manages a request represented by an intercepted message subject to its content and subject to peering specific information.

Abstract: A method for identifying a geographic location of a server. A request is delivered to the server to send back a message via a cellular network; the message of the server is received via a cell of the cellular network; cell location information about the geographic location of the cell that received the message is delivered; the cell location information is used as information about the geographic location of the server.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of delivering data from a sender application to at least one receiver application that are arranged in a protocol stack comprising: underlying the sender application a sender messaging layer and a sender transport layer, and underlying the receiver application, a receiver messaging layer and a receiver transport layer, wherein the sender transport layer and the receiver transport layer are coupled by way of a network layer, the method comprising the steps of: incorporating a sender intermediate layer between the sender messaging layer and the sender transport layer and a receiver intermediate layer between the receiver messaging layer and the receiver transport layer; configuring the interface characteristics of the intermediate layers to be the same as for their corresponding transport layers; creating a sender queue in a non-volatile data storage component of the sender intermediate layer and a receiver queue in a non-volatile data storage component of the receiver

Abstract: An index server support for file sharing applications is disclosed. A way of retrieving an index server includes sending a request for investigating a hierarchical structure of index servers in a network to a known index server, intercepting the investigation request by the first index server that becomes aware of the investigation request, notifying an originator of the investigation request of the intercepting index server identity, dropping the intercepted request is dropped by the intercepting index server. The originator of the investigation request then registers the intercepting index server as addressee for future file querying requests.

Abstract: The invention provides methods, apparatus and systems for detecting distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks within the Internet by sampling packets at a point or points in Internet backbone connections to determine a packet metric parameter. The packet metric parameter which might comprise the volume of packets received is analysed over selected time intervals with respect to specified geographical locations in which the hosts transmitting the packets are located. The expected behaviour can be employed to identify traffic distortions revealing a DDoS attack. In a complementary aspect, the invention provides a method of authenticating packets at routers in order to elevate the QoS of authenticated packets. This method can be used to block or filter packets and can be used in conjunction with the DDoS attack detection system to defend against DDoS attacks within the Internet in a distributed manner.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining the order of wagons in a train. The invention configures a plurality of wagons of a train to sense at least one environmental condition that the wagons are respectively exposed to when the train is moving. The invention configures the wagons to generate a corresponding announcement message in response to a change in state of the environmental condition. The invention configures the first wagon of the train to listen for the announcement message generated by any of the plurality of wagons. The invention configures the first wagon to compute a sequence of the announcement messages from an order in which the wagons have been heard.

Abstract: A method and an electronic unit are disclosed for controlling traffic on a network, especially for controlling peer-to-peer related traffic. A filter unit is intercepting messages related to peer-to-peer application from a network line, irrespective of the messages' destination, A control logic then manages a request represented by an intercepted message subject to its content and subject to peering specific information.

Abstract: A method for reducing power consumption of sensors (2) within a sensor network (1), wherein a central controller (3) calculates a transmission schedule for said sensors (2) on the basis of a correlation between sensor data transmitted from said sensors (2) to the central controller (3).

Abstract: A method and apparatus for identifying an unwanted short message service (SMS) message from SMS messages received by a cellular mobile communication system, which comprises at least a history database (HB) for storing a set (H) of the messages received by the cellular mobile communication system. The method includes the steps of: measuring a difference in an information content between a SMS message (m) received by the cellular mobile communication system and the set (H) of messages stored in the history database (HB), and marking the SMS message (m) as being an unwanted SMS message if the difference that is measured is less than or equal to a predefined threshold value.