Today many organizations face challenges when developing a realistic plan or schedule that provides the best possible balance between customer service and revenue goals. Optimization technology has long been used to find the best solutions to complex planning and scheduling problems. A decision-support environment that enables the flexible exploration of all the trade-offs and sensitivities needs to provide the following capabilities: Flexibility to develop and compare realistic planning and scheduling scenarios Quality sensitivity analysis and explanations Collaborative planning and scenario sharing Decision recommendations This IBM® Redbooks® publication introduces you to the IBM ILOG® Optimization Decision Manager (ODM) Enterprise. This decision-support application provides the capabilities you need to take full advantage of optimization technology. Applications built with IBM ILOG ODM Enterprise can help users create, compare, and understand planning or scheduling scenarios. They can also adjust any of the model inputs or goals, and fully understanding the binding constraints, trade-offs, sensitivities, and business options. This book enables business analysts, architects, and administrators to design and use their own operational decision management solution.

The complete guide to Cisco® IWAN: features, benefits, planning, and deployment Using Cisco Intelligent WAN (IWAN), businesses can deliver an uncompromised experience, security, and reliability to branch offices over any connection. Cisco IWAN simplifies WAN design, improves network responsiveness, and accelerates deployment of new services. Now, there’s an authoritative single-source guide to Cisco IWAN: all you need to understand it, design it, and deploy it for maximum value. In Cisco Intelligent WAN (IWAN), leading Cisco experts cover all key IWAN technologies and components, addressing issues ranging from visibility and provisioning to troubleshooting and optimization. They offer extensive practical guidance on migrating to IWAN from your existing WAN infrastructure. This guide will be indispensable for all experienced network professionals who support WANs, are deploying Cisco IWAN solutions, or use related technologies such as DMVPN or PfR. Deploy Hybrid WAN connectivity to increase WAN capacity and improve application performance Overlay DMVPN on WAN transport to simplify operations, gain transport independence, and improve VPN scalability Secure DMVPN tunnels and IWAN routers Use Application Recognition to support QoS, Performance Routing (PfR), and application visibility Improve application delivery and WAN efficiency via PfR Monitor hub, transit, and branch sites, traffic classes, and channels Add application-level visibility and per-application monitoring to IWAN routers Overcome latency and bandwidth inefficiencies that limit application performance Use Cisco WAAS to customize each location’s optimizations, application accelerations, and virtualization Smoothly integrate Cisco WAAS into branch office network infrastructure Ensure appropriate WAN application responsiveness and experience Improve SaaS application performance with Direct Internet Access (DIA) Perform pre-migration tasks, and prepare your current WAN for IWAN Migrate current point-to-point and multipoint technologies to IWAN

An overview of the rapidly growing field of ant colony optimization that describes theoretical findings, the major algorithms, and current applications. The complex social behaviors of ants have been much studied by science, and computer scientists are now finding that these behavior patterns can provide models for solving difficult combinatorial optimization problems. The attempt to develop algorithms inspired by one aspect of ant behavior, the ability to find what computer scientists would call shortest paths, has become the field of ant colony optimization (ACO), the most successful and widely recognized algorithmic technique based on ant behavior. This book presents an overview of this rapidly growing field, from its theoretical inception to practical applications, including descriptions of many available ACO algorithms and their uses. The book first describes the translation of observed ant behavior into working optimization algorithms. The ant colony metaheuristic is then introduced and viewed in the general context of combinatorial optimization. This is followed by a detailed description and guide to all major ACO algorithms and a report on current theoretical findings. The book surveys ACO applications now in use, including routing, assignment, scheduling, subset, machine learning, and bioinformatics problems. AntNet, an ACO algorithm designed for the network routing problem, is described in detail. The authors conclude by summarizing the progress in the field and outlining future research directions. Each chapter ends with bibliographic material, bullet points setting out important ideas covered in the chapter, and exercises. Ant Colony Optimization will be of interest to academic and industry researchers, graduate students, and practitioners who wish to learn how to implement ACO algorithms.

Overview and Goals Wireless communication technologies are undergoing rapid advancements. The last few years have experienced a steep growth in research in the area of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In WSNs, communication takes place with the help of spatially distributedautonomoussensornodesequippedtosensespeci?cinformation. WSNs, especially the ones that have gained much popularity in the recent years, are, ty- cally, ad hoc in nature and they inherit many characteristics/features of wireless ad hoc networks such as the ability for infrastructure-less setup, minimal or no reliance on network planning, and the ability of the nodes to self-organize and self-con?gure without the involvement of a centralized network manager, router, access point, or a switch. These features help to set up WSNs fast in situations where there is no existing network setup or in times when setting up a ?xed infrastructure network is considered infeasible, for example, in times of emergency or during relief - erations. WSNs ?nd a variety of applications in both the military and the civilian population worldwide such as in cases of enemy intrusion in the battle?eld, object tracking, habitat monitoring, patient monitoring, ?re detection, and so on. Even though sensor networks have emerged to be attractive and they hold great promises for our future, there are several challenges that need to be addressed. Some of the well-known challenges are attributed to issues relating to coverage and deployment, scalability, quality-of-service, size, computational power, energy ef?ciency, and security.

Tracing its roots back to World War II, operations research (OR) has become a vital tool in military and defense strategy. The second edition of the Handbook of Military and Defense Operations Research highlights this evolution, showcasing how OR integrates with cutting-edge areas like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and big data analytics. This volume is more than a historical account; it is a practical guide. The volume features expert voices and offers insights into OR applications in modern security challenges. Readers will discover a blend of theory and real-world case studies, making it an essential resource for both newcomers and seasoned defense analysis professionals. Dive into this handbook to explore the rich, dynamic field of military and defense operations research, a discipline at the heart of global security and strategic decision-making. New to the second edition: Reorganized into a three-part structure Extensive revisions throughout Numerous new exercises, examples, and case studies Several new chapters

Get a head start evaluating Windows 10--with technical insights from award-winning journalist and Windows expert Ed Bott. This guide introduces new features and capabilities, providing a practical, high-level overview for IT professionals ready to begin deployment planning now. This edition was written after the release of Windows 10 version 1511 in November 2015 and includes all of its enterprise-focused features. The goal of this book is to help you sort out what’s new in Windows 10, with a special emphasis on features that are different from the Windows versions you and your organization are using today, starting with an overview of the operating system, describing the many changes to the user experience, and diving deep into deployment and management tools where it’s necessary.