76461
Software Architecture-Based Adaptation for Pervasive Systems
An important requirement for pervasive computing systems is the ability to adapt at runtime to handle varying resources, user mobility, changing user needs, and system faults. In this paper we describe an approach in which dynamic adaptation is supported by the use of software architectural models to monitor an application and guide dynamic changes to it. The use of externalized models permits one to make reconfiguration decisions based on a global perspective of the running system, apply analytic models to determine correct repair strategies, and gauge the effectiveness of repair through continuous system monitoring. We illustrate the application of this idea to pervasive computing systems, focusing on the need to adapt based on performance-related criteria and models.
8012254
Software architecture-based adaptation for Grid computing
Grid applications must increasingly self-adapt dynamically to changing environments. In most cases, adaptation has been implemented in an ad hoc fashion, on a per-application basis. This paper describes work which generalizes adaptation so that it can be used across applications by providing an adaptation framework. This framework uses a software architectural model of the system to analyze whether the application requires adaptation, and allows repairs to be written in the context of the architectural model and propagated to the running system. In this paper, we exemplify our framework by applying it to the domain of load-balancing a client-server system. We report on an experiment conducted using our framework, which illustrates that this approach maintains architectural requirements.
46276818
Reconciling the needs of architectural description with object-modeling notations
Complex software systems require expressive notations for representing their software architectures. Two competing paths have emerged. One is to use a specialized notation for architecture, an architecture description language (ADL). The other is to adapt a general-purpose modeling notation, such as UML. The latter has a number of benefits, including familiarity to developers, close mapping to implementations, and commercial tool support. However, it remains an open question as to how best to use object-oriented notations for architectural description, and, indeed, whether they are sufficiently expressive, as currently defined. In this paper, we take a systematic look at these questions, examining the space of possible mappings from ADLs into UML. Specifically, we describe (a) the principal strategies for representing architectural structure in UML; (b) the benefits and limitations of each strategy; and (c) aspects of architectural description that are intrinsically difficult to model in UML using the strategies.
9335785
Rainbow: architecture-based self-adaptation with reusable infrastructure
While attractive in principle, architecture-based self-adaptation raises a number of research and engineering challenges. First, the ability to handle a wide variety of systems must be addressed. Second, the need to reduce costs in adding external control to a system must be addressed. Our rainbow framework attempts to address both problems. By adopting an architecture-based approach, it provides reusable infrastructure together with mechanisms for specializing that infrastructure to the needs of specific systems. The specialization mechanisms let the developer of self-adaptation capabilities choose what aspects of the system to model and monitor, what conditions should trigger adaptation, and how to adapt the system.
11053365
Making Self-Adaptation an Engineering Reality
In this paper, we envision a world where a software engineer could take an existing software system, specify, for a set of properties of interest, an objective, conditions for change, and strategies for their adaptation and, within a few man weeks, make that system self-adaptive where it was not before. We describe how our approach generalizes to different classes of systems and holds promise for cost-effective, dynamic system self-adaptation to become an engineering reality.
1009077
An architecture for coordinating multiple self-management systems
A common approach to adding self-management capabilities to a system is to provide one or more external control modules, whose responsibility is to monitor system behavior, and adapt the system at run time to achieve various goals (configure the system, improve performance, recover from faults, etc.). An important problem arises when there is more than one such self-management module: how can one make sure that they are composed to provide consistent and complementary benefits? In this paper we describe a solution that introduces a self-management coordination architecture and infrastructure to support such composition. We focus on the problem of coordinating self-configuring and self-healing capabilities, particularly with respect to global configuration and incremental repair. We illustrate the approach in the context of a self-managing video teleconference system that composes two preexisting adaptation modules to achieve synergistic benefits of both.
21934561
Location and Configuration Management in Mobile-Switch ATM Networks
The features of two important application scenarios, supporting mobile switches with fixed end users and mobile switches with mobile users, are dramatically different from those of the traditional wired network structure. To exploit mobile switches, the location and configuration management of mobile switches is essential to handle the mobility and topology change of the wireless/mobile ATM network. In this paper we address the location management and configuration problems of mobile switches in an ATM network. We investigate several aspects of the location management problem including architecture to support switch mobility, mobile switch tracking, and mobile switch locating. We propose an approach that is based on the Private Network-Network Interface (PNNI) protocol. We extend the PNNI protocol to enable it to handle mobile switches. Moreover, we develop analytical models to determine the tracking and locating costs for mobile switches under the proposed scheme. The models illustrate the relation between total cost (tracking cost + locating cost) and peer group size. The models can be used to derive the optimal configuration for an ATM network with mobile switches.
15109463
Slepian-Wolf Coded Nested Lattice Quantization for Wyner-Ziv Coding: High-Rate Performance Analysis and Code Design
Nested lattice quantization provides a practical scheme for Wyner-Ziv coding. This paper examines the high-rate performance of nested lattice quantizers and gives the theoretical performance for general continuous sources. In the quadratic Gaussian case, as the rate increases, we observe an increasing gap between the performance of finite-dimensional nested lattice quantizers and the Wyner-Ziv distortion-rate function. We argue that this is because the boundary gain decreases as the rate of the nested lattice quantizers increases. To increase the boundary gain and ultimately boost the overall performance, a new practical Wyner-Ziv coding scheme called Slepian-Wolf coded nested lattice quantization (SWC-NQ) is proposed, where Slepian-Wolf coding is applied to the quantization indices of the source for the purpose of compression with side information at the decoder. Theoretical analysis shows that for the quadratic Gaussian case and at high rate, SWC-NQ performs the same as conventional entropy-coded lattice quantization with the side information available at both the encoder and the decoder. Furthermore, a nonlinear minimum mean-square error (MSE) estimator is introduced at the decoder, which is theoretically proven to degenerate to the linear minimum MSE estimator at high rate and experimentally shown to outperform the linear estimator at low rate. Practical designs of one- and two-dimensional nested lattice quantizers together with multilevel low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes for Slepian-Wolf coding give performance close to the theoretical limits of SWC-NQ
26902554
Smart Media: Empower Media with Active Data Hiding
The seamless development in computing, networking, communication, and signal processing is making media a more and more important part of our daily lives. The passive nature of media, however, limits the capability of it. In this paper, we introduce the notion of 'smart' media which carry additional active information imperceptibly in the media content itself for added interactive-ability. With smart media, traditional information access -- from single medium to multimedia -- can be enhanced with new, two-way communication abilities. Active data hiding, endowed with perceptual intelligent high capacity data hiding techniques, is used to embed an agent imperceptibly into a medium. It infuses mobility to the passive data stream by introducing personality and controllability into the medium. The design of active data hiding system for smart media shall be discussed, along with a variety of applications.
15084916
Computing the channel capacity and rate-distortion function with two-sided state information
In this correspondence, we present iterative algorithms that numerically compute the capacity-power and rate-distortion functions for coding with two-sided state information. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate efficiency of our algorithms.
9060129
Extended Depth-of-Field Microscope Imaging: MPP Image Fusion VS. WAVEFRONT CODING
Biomedical specimens thicker than the microscope depth-of-field (DOF) produces images of limited quality where a part of the specimen is in focus and others out of focus. Even the best in-focus image always contains objects that are blurred. These blurred contents make the quantitative and accurate analysis of the specimen difficult. The problem can be remedied by extending the DOF of the imaging system. One way to achieve this is to apply digital image fusion, a software technique that combines multiple images into a carefully synthesized image. Another way, albeit more expensive, is to incorporate modification in the optical system. In this paper we describe an extended DOF method that is based on multiscale pointwise product (MPP) image fusion, and compare it with the state-of-the-art wavefront coding technique which involves optical modification. We show competitive performance of our method and contrast its pros and cons with those of the wavefront coding.