27266792
A unified approach to fault-tolerance in communication protocols based on recovery procedures
Discusses fault tolerance in computer communication protocols, modeled by communicating finite state machines, by providing an efficient algorithmic procedure for recovery in such systems. Even when the communication network is reliable and maintains the order of messages, any kind of transient error that may not be detected immediately could contaminate the system, resulting in protocol failure. To achieve fault-tolerance, the protocol must be able to detect the error, and then it must recover from that error and eventually reach a legal (or consistent) state, and resume its normal execution. A protocol that possesses the latter feature of recovering and continuing its execution starting from a legal state is also called a self-stabilizing protocol. Our recovery procedure does not require the application of an intrusive checkpointing procedure. The stable storage requirement for each process is less than that required for other proposed recovery procedures. The recovery procedure provides us with a legal protocol state, which is the global state before reaching any illegal state and before the effects of the error make other states illegal. Only a minimal number of processes affected by error propagation are required to rollback. Our recovery procedure can be used to recover from any number of transient errors in the system. Our recovery procedure has also been modeled in PROMELA, a language to describe validation models, which shows the syntactic correctness of our recovery protocol design. Finally, our procedure is compared with the existing approaches of handing the errors, and an illustrative example is provided.
37303795
Validation of SIP/H.323 Interworking Using SDL/MSC
SIP and H.323 are complementary protocols used (by different communities) to provide signaling for Internet multimedia sessions. An Interworking Facility (IWF) between SIP and H.323 has been proposed within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The IWF, SIP User Agent, SIP Server, H.323 End Point, and H.323 Gatekeeper have been formally specified in SDL, and validated using a combination of MSC comparison and interactive simulation. SDL was found to be simple to use, and its object-orientation made model enhancement easy. Suggested improvements to SDL include more flexible ways to define data.
8220547
A tree division approach to support local failure recovery for multicasting in MPLS networks
This paper introduces a novel approach to support local failure recovery in multicast trees. Although, the presented approach can be implemented in any large backbone network that employs multicast communication mode, we concentrate our discussion on MPLS networks. In the proposed approach, a multicast tree is divided into several domains where each domain represents a sub-tree of the original one. Backup paths are built between the root of the domain and each leaf router which is called a border router. Simulation results conducted on two network topologies show the performance of the proposed approach in terms of the total capacity required for reserving the backup paths and in terms of the maximum delay needed to notify about link/node failure. The results have shown that tree division approach compared with global recovery approach reduces the time needed to notify the router that is responsible for switching the traffic to the backup path.
34654890
An efficient recovery procedure for fault tolerance in distributed systems
Abstract In this article, the problem of fault tolerance in real-time distributed systems is addressed by providing an efficient algorithmic procedure for recovery in such systems. Our recovery procedure does not require the application of an intrusive checkpointing procedure, but uses contextual information exchanged between the distributed system components during normal system progress. On detection of a failure, each process, through an efficient propagation mechanism, will have locally computed a recovery point that is mutually consistent with the recovery points computed by other processes. During recovery, each process considers the contextual information recorded after its established recovery point; a minimal amount of computations are redone. Also, a minimal number of processes are required to roll back, and the time needed to revert to normal operation is found to be minimal, thus contributing to the real-time requirements for such systems. Furthermore, the stable storage requirement needed to implement our recovery procedure is bounded and minimal. Proofs of correctness of our procedure are provided, in particular, the absence of orphan messages, message losses, and duplications is shown. An example illustrating our recovery procedure is also provided.
13650022
Recovery Approach to the Design of Stabilizing Communication Protocols
This paper addresses the problem of designing stabilizing computer communication protocols modelled by communicating finite state machines. A communication protocol is said to be stabilizing if, starting from or reaching any illegal state, the protocol will eventually reach a legal (or consistent) state, and resume its normal execution. To achieve stabilization, the protocol must be able to detect the error as soon as it occurs, and then it must recover from that error and revert back to a legal protocol state. The later issue related to recovery is tackled here, and an efficient procedure for the recovery in communications protocols is described. The recovery procedure does not require periodic checkpointing and, therefore, is less intrusive. It requires less time for rollback and fewer recovery control messages than other procedures. Only a minimal number of processes will roll back, and a minimal number of protocol messages will be retransmitted during recovery. Moreover, our procedure requires minimal stable storage to be used to record contextual information exchanged during the progress of the protocol. Finally, our procedure is compared with an existing recovery procedure, and an illustrative example is provided.
14456979
Supporting Quality of Service in IP multicast networks
Developers and providers of data, voice and video applications have to satisfy numerous Quality of Service (QoS) requirements and cope with different architectures emerging to provide these QoS in the Internet. IntServ, DiffServ or MPLS are technologies currently used in different administrative domains in the Internet to provide QoS. With multicast applications emerging, such as video conferencing, distance learning and tele surgery, it has become almost impossible to provide end-to-end QoS over multiple administrative business domains without interworking these technologies. This paper analyses general issues on supporting QoS for multicast applications and reviews different ways to implement IP multicasting in IntServ, DiffServ or MPLS based networks. Subsequently, network configurations based on these different architectures and their interworking to provide end-to-end QoS are also discussed.
29432247
Low Power Design of the Neuroprocessor
This paper presents the performance analysis for CPL based design of a Low power digital neuroprocessor. We have verified the functionality of the components at the high level using Verilog and carried out the simulations in Silos. The components of the proposed digital neuroprocessor have also been verified at the layout level in LASI. The layouts have then been simulated and analyzed in Winspice for their timing characteristics. The result shows that the proposed digital neuroprocessor consistently consumes less power than other designs of the same function. It can also be seen that the proposed functions have lesser propagation delay and thus higher speed than the other designs.
21945943
Heuristics and augmented neural networks for task scheduling with non-identical machines
Abstract We propose new heuristics along with an augmented-neural-network (AugNN) formulation for solving the makespan minimization task-scheduling problem for the non-identical machine environment. We explore four task and three machine-priority rules, resulting in 12 combinations of single-pass heuristics. The task-priority rules are Highest-Level-First (HLF), Highest-Total-Remaining-Processing-Time-First (HTRPTF), Smallest-Latest-Finish-Time-First (SLFTF) and Minimum-Slack-First (MSF). For machine priority, we propose a greedy rule called Fastest-Available-Machine-First (FAMF), and two non-greedy rules: (1) Fastest-Available-Machine-First-With-Conditional-Wait-1 (FAMF-CW-1), and (2) Fastest-Available-Machine-First-With-Conditional-Wait-2 (FMF-CW-2). The AugNN approach integrates neural-network learning with domain and problem specific knowledge through heuristics, to produce good results. A single-pass heuristic is embedded in a neural network designed specifically for each problem. We give the AugNN formulation for each of the 12 heuristics and show computational results on 100 randomly generated problems of sizes ranging from 20 to 70 tasks and 2 to 5 machines. Results demonstrate that AugNN provides significant improvement over single-pass heuristics. The reduction in the gap between the obtained solution and the lower-bound due to AugNN over single-pass heuristics ranged from 24.4% to 50%. As far as heuristics, the non-greedy machine-priority rules performed significantly better than the greedy rule. The average gaps for the non-greedy rules ranged from 16.1% to 23.5% compared to 33.7% to 40.4% for greedy. For AugNN, for non-greedy rules, the gap ranged from 11.5% to 15.5% compared to 18.4% to 25.0% for greedy. The HLF and HTRPTF task priority rules performed better than the other two. The HTRPTF/FAMF-CW-1 combination gave the best results, closely followed by HLF/FAMF-CW-2 and HTRPTF/FAMF-CW-2 combinations.
660603
Algorithms for portfolio management based on the Newton method
We experimentally study on-line investment algorithms first proposed by Agarwal and Hazan and extended by Hazan et al. which achieve almost the same wealth as the best constant-rebalanced portfolio determined in hindsight. These algorithms are the first to combine optimal logarithmic regret bounds with efficient deterministic computability. They are based on the Newton method for offline optimization which, unlike previous approaches, exploits second order information. After analyzing the algorithm using the potential function introduced by Agarwal and Hazan, we present extensive experiments on actual financial data. These experiments confirm the theoretical advantage of our algorithms, which yield higher returns and run considerably faster than previous algorithms with optimal regret. Additionally, we perform financial analysis using mean-variance calculations and the Sharpe ratio.
6368187
Algorithms for derivation of structurally stable Hamiltonian signed graphs
A graph Sp,q,n refers to a signed graph with p nodes and q edges with n being the number of negative edges. We introduce two theorems to facilitate identification of the complete set of balanced signed graph configurations for any p-node Hamiltonian signed graph in terms of p, q and n. This allows for the development of computational procedures to efficiently determine the structural stability of a signed graph. This is potentially useful for the planning and analysis of complex situations or scenarios which can be depicted as signed graphs. Through the application of the theorems, the state of balance of a signed graph structure or its affinity towards balance can be determined in a more time-efficient manner compared to any explicit enumeration algorithm. E-mail: pg0212208t@ntu.edu.sg E-mail: fnh@crl.nmsu.edu E-mail: dwunsch@ece.umr.edu
16989082
A Layered Architecture for NOC Design Methodology
ABSTRACT Multiprocessor system on chip (MPSoC) platform is an innovative trend of System on Chip (SoC) that enhances system performance. Demanding quality of service parameters and performance metrics, especially in mobile applications, are leading to the exploration of even more innovative architectures for SoC. These will have to incorporate highly scalable, reusable, predictable, cost and energy efficient architectures. Network on Chip (NOC) is a key example of this trend. NOC separates computing and communication concerns in an elegant manner. We propose here a seven layered architecture for designing NOC-based systems. Such a platform can separate domain specific issues in separate layers, which will allow for more effective modeling of concurrency and synchronization issues, in an attempt to develop an optimized system. For such a layered architecture, models of computation (MOC) will provide a framework to model various algorithms and activities, while accounting for and exploiting concurrency and synchronization aspects. These MOCs may differ from one to another NOC region. Further, a combination of these MOCs may be needed to truly represent a given NOC region. We have analyzed various models of computation (MOC) suitable for NOC. MLDesigner provides a system level modeling platform which allows one to integrate such MOCs together. We present our efforts and experiences so far.