1683294
Transaction Timestamping in (Temporal) Databases
Many database applications need accountability and trace-ability that necessitate retaining previous database states. For a transaction-time database supporting this, the choice of times used to timestamp database records, to establish when records are or were current, needs to be consistent with a committed transaction serialization order. Previous solutions have chosen timestamps at commit time, selecting a time that agrees with commit order. However, SQL standard databases can require an earlier choice because a statement within a transaction may request “current time.” Managing timestamps chosen before a serialization order is established is the challenging problem we solve here. By building on two-phase locking concurrency control, we can delay a transaction’s choice of a timestamp, reducing the chance that transactions may need to be aborted in order keep timestamps consistent with a serialization order. Also, while timestamps stored with records in a transaction-time database make it possible to directly identify write-write and write-read conflicts, handling read-write conflicts requires more. Our simple auxiliary structure conservatively detects read-write conflicts, and hence provides transaction timestamps that are consistent with a serialization order.
1348801
Using differential technlques to efficiently support transaction time
We present an architecture for query processing in the relational model extended with transaction time. The architecture integrates standard query optimization and computation techniques with new differential computation techniques. Differential computation computes a query incrementally or decrementally from the cahced and indexed results of previous computations. The use of differential computation techniques is essential in order to provide efficient processing of queries that access very large temporal relations. Alternative query plans are integrated into a state transition network, where the state space includes backlogs of base relations, cached results from previous computations, a cache index, and intermediate results; the transitions include standard relational algebra operators, operators for constructing differential files, operators for differential computation, and combined operators. A rule set is presented to prune away parts of state transition networks that are not promising, and dynamic programming techniques are used to identify the optimal plans from the remaining state transition networks. An extended logical access path serves as a “structuring” index on the cached results and contains, in addition, vital statistics for the query optimization process (including statistics about base relations, backlogs, and queries-previously computed and cached, previously computed, or just previously estimated).
44396365
Specification-based data reduction in dimensional data warehouses
Presents a powerful and easy-to-use technique for aggregation-based data reduction that enables the gradual change of the data from being detailed to being increasingly aggregated. The technique enables huge storage gains while retaining the data that is essential to the users, and it preserves the ability to query original and reduced data in an integrated manner.
1723263
Multidimensional data modeling for location-based services
Abstract.With the recent and continuing advances in areas such as wireless communications and positioning technologies, mobile, location-based services are becoming possible.Such services deliver location-dependent content to their users. More specifically, these services may capture the movements and requests of their users in multidimensional databases, i.e., data warehouses, and content delivery may be based on the results of complex queries on these data warehouses. Such queries aggregate detailed data in order to find useful patterns, e.g., in the interaction of a particular user with the services.The application of multidimensional technology in this context poses a range of new challenges. The specific challenge addressed here concerns the provision of an appropriate multidimensional data model. In particular, the paper extends an existing multidimensional data model and algebraic query language to accommodate spatial values that exhibit partial containment relationships instead of the total containment relationships normally assumed in multidimensional data models. Partial containment introduces imprecision in aggregation paths. The paper proposes a method for evaluating the imprecision of such paths. The paper also offers transformations of dimension hierarchies with partial containment relationships to simple hierarchies, to which existing precomputation techniques are applicable.
1655888
Supporting imprecision in multidimensional databases using granularities
Online analytical processing (OLAP) technologies are being used widely, but the lack of effective means of handling data imprecision, which occurs when exact values are not known precisely or are entirely missing, represents a major obstacle in applying these technologies in many domains. The paper develops techniques for handling imprecision that aim to maximally reuse existing OLAP modeling constructs such as dimension hierarchies and granularities. With imprecise data available in the database, queries are tested to determine whether or not they may be answered precisely given the available data; if not, alternative queries unaffected by the imprecision are suggested. When processing queries affected by imprecision, techniques are proposed that take into account the imprecision in the grouping of the data, in the subsequent aggregate computation, and in the presentation of the imprecise result to the user. The approach is capable of exploiting existing OLAP query processing techniques such as pre-aggregation, yielding an effective approach with low computational overhead and that may be implemented using current technology.
45102117
Temporal specialization
The authors explore a variety of temporal relations with specialized relationships between transaction and valid time. An example is a retroactive temporal event relation, where the event must have occurred before it was stored, i.e., the valid time-stamp is restricted to be less than the transaction time-stamp. The authors discuss many useful restrictions, defining a large number of specialized types of temporal relations, and indicate some of their applications. A detailed taxonomy of specialized temporal relations is presented. This taxonomy may be used during database design to specify the particular time semantics of temporal relations.<<ETX>>
14098973
CryptoCache: a secure sharable file cache for roaming users
Small mobile computers are now sufficiently powerful to run many applications, but storage capacity remains limited so working files cannot be cached or stored locally. Even if files can be stored locally, the mobile device is not powerful enough to act as server in collaborations with other users. Conventional distributed file systems cache everything locally or not at all; there is no possibility to cache files on nearby nodes.In this paper we present the design of a secure cache system called CryptoCache that allows roaming users to cache files on untrusted file hosting servers. The system allows flexible sharing of cached files among unauthenticated users, i.e. unlike most distributed file systems CryptoCache does not require a global authentication framework.Files are encrypted when they are transferred over the network and while stored on untrusted servers. The system uses public key cryptography, which allows roaming users to selectively grant read and write access to others by entrusting them with respectively the public key or the private key.
14146996
Cryptographic access control in a distributed file system
Traditional access control mechanisms rely on a reference monitor to mediate access to protected resources. Reference monitors are inherently centralized and existing attempts to distribute the functionality of the reference monitor suffer from problems of scalability.Cryptographic access control is a new distributed access control paradigm designed for a global federation of information systems. It defines an implicit access control mechanism, which relies exclusively on cryptography to provide confidentiality and integrity of data managed by the system. It is particularly designed to operate in untrusted environments where the lack of global knowledge and control are defining characteristics.The proposed mechanism has been implemented in a distributed file system, which is presented in this paper along with a preliminary evaluation of the proposed mechanism.
8891155
The Claim Tool Kit for ad hoc recognition of peer entities
In ubiquitous/pervasive computing environments, it is envisaged that computing elements--entities--will start interacting in an ad hoc fashion. The peer-to-peer (p2p) paradigm is appealing for such types of interaction especially with JXTA, which supports the development of reusable p2p building blocks, which facilitate implementation on any smart device. However, the inability to rely on a centralised authentication infrastructure, the openness of the environment and the absence of an administrator (it is assumed to be too expensive to have a skilled administrator at hand due to the large number of peers) challenge the use of legacy authentication mechanisms.Supporting spontaneous interactions among previously unknown entities requires dynamic enrolment of strangers and unknown entities. Entity recognition (ER) is a process that is carried out each time an interaction happens between entities in order to dynamically recognise previously met entities.In this paper, we present the Claim Tool Kit (CTK), a Java-based implementation of ER: entities exchange messages, called Claims, and rely on their associated clues to evaluate the level of confidence in recognition.The CTK employs advanced features available with Java, such as JXTA and Java Cryptography and Security Architectures. We show that the CTK needs performance results on these features in order to increase the level of auto-configuration of the CTK. We describe how to obtain performance assessment for some of these new features. Finally, we explain how the CTK can be instrumented to take into account performance assessment. By analysing the evaluation results, the applicability of these advanced Java-based technologies for peer entity recognition is assessed.
28565174
Trust Evolution Policies for Security in Collaborative Ad Hoc Applications
The vision of pervasive computing has introduced the notion of a vast, networked infrastructure of heterogeneous entities interact through collaborative applications, e.g., playing a multi-player online game on the way to work. This will require interactions between users who may be marginally known or completely unknown to each other, or in situations where complete information is unavailable. This introduces the problem of assigning access rights to such marginally known or unknown entities. Explicit trust management has emerged as a solution to the problem of dealing with partial information about other users and the context in which the interaction takes place. We have implemented an access control mechanism based on the human notion of trust, where recommendations or initial participation in low risk interactions will allow entities to slowly build trust in each other. As the trust between two entities grows, interactions that entail a higher degree of risk may be allowed to proceed. We have used this mechanism in a simple role-based access control mechanism that uses trust to assign roles to users in a distributed blackjack card game application. This application allows us to experiment with different policies for trust-based admission control and trust evolution. In this paper we present an evaluation of policies specifying trust dynamics, which shows that our prototype reacts appropriately to the behaviour of other users and that the system updates trust values and implements admission policies in a manner similar to what would be expected from human trust assessment. This indicates that trust evolution policies can replace explicit human intervention in application scenarios that are similar to the evaluated prototype.
2275333
Risk probability estimating based on clustering
Ubiquitous computing environments are highly dynamic, with new unforeseen circumstances and constantly changing environments, which introduces new risks that cannot be assessed through traditional means of risk analysis. Mobile entities in a ubiquitous computing environment require the ability to perform an autonomous assessment of the risk incurred by a specific interaction with another entity in a given context. This assessment will allow a mobile entity to decide whether sufficient evidence exists to mitigate the risk and allow the interaction to proceed. Such evidence might include records of prior experiences, recommendations from a trusted entity or the reputation of the other entity. We propose a dynamic mechanism for estimating the risk probability of a certain interaction in a given environment using hybrid neural networks. We argue that traditional risk assessment models from the insurance industry do not directly apply to ubiquitous computing environments. Instead, we propose a dynamic mechanism for risk assessment, which is based on pattern matching, classification and prediction procedures. This mechanism uses an estimator of risk probability, which is based on the automatic clustering of defining features of the environment and the other entity, which helps avoid subjective judgments as much as possible.