16470845
Dynamic server selection using fuzzy inference in content distribution networks
To accommodate the exponential growth of Web traffic, Content Distribution Networks (CDN) have been designed and deployed to distribute content to different cache servers, and to transparently and dynamically redirect user requests to the cache servers according to the latest network and server status. Server selection therefore is vital and crucial to both the functionality and performance of any CDN systems. An appropriate server should be selected by taking estimated user location, measured round-trip time, and advertised server load into account. However, it is unlikely to obtain accurate and timely inputs of these parameters in practice, so that the effectiveness and efficiency of CDN cannot be fully achieved by traditional means. In this paper, a novel CDN server selection scheme using fuzzy inference is proposed. The scheme selects appropriate servers based on partial round-trip time measurements and historical server load information, and it can be implemented generically wherever the decision is made. It is shown that the fuzzy inference-based scheme is inherently capable of handling multiple decision inputs efficiently, tolerable to measurement noise and errors, and able to deal with network dynamics. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with other server selection schemes, the proposed scheme can achieve higher resource utilization, provide better user-perceived Quality of Service (QoS), and efficiently deal with network dynamics.
6313972
Analysis and evaluation of expiration-based hierarchical caching systems
This paper investigates some fundamental properties and performance issues of the expiration-based caching systems. We focus on the hierarchical caching systems based on the time-to-live (TTL) expiration mechanism, and present a basic model for such systems. By analyzing the intrinsic timing behavior in this model, we derive some important performance metrics from the perspectives of caching systems and end users, respectively. We use network simulation results to further substantiate the efficacy of our analysis. Our results show some basic properties and trade-offs for a hierarchical caching system based on the weak consistency mechanism.
262193
Topology control for wireless sensor networks
We consider a two-tiered Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) consisting of sensor clusters deployed around strategic locations and base-stations (BSs) whose locations are relatively flexible. Within a sensor cluster, there are many small sensor nodes (SNs) that capture, encode and transmit relevant information from the designated area, and there is at least one application node (AN) that receives raw data from these SNs, creates a comprehensive local-view, and forwards the composite bit-stream toward a BS. In practice, both SN and AN are battery-powered and energy-constrained, and their node lifetimes directly affect the network lifetime of WSNs. In this paper, we focus on the topology control process for ANs and BSs, which constitute the upper tier of a two-tiered WSN. We propose approaches to maximize the topological network lifetime of the WSN, by arranging BS location and inter-AN relaying optimally. Based on an algorithm in Computational Geometry, we derive the optimal BS locations under three topological lifetime definitions according to mission criticality. In addition, by studying the intrinsic properties of WSNs, we establish the upper and lower bounds of their maximal topological lifetime. When inter-AN relaying becomes feasible and favorable, we continue to develop an optimal parallel relay allocation to further prolong the topological lifetime of the WSN. An equivalent serialized relay schedule is also obtained, so that each AN only needs to have one relay destination at any time throughout the mission. The experimental performance evaluation demonstrates the efficacy of topology control as a vital process to maximize the network lifetime of WSNs.
2042793
Peer Collaboration in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks
Voluntary peer collaboration is often assumed in media access, route discovery, packet forwarding, and upper-layer protocols for wireless ad hoc networks. This assumption is seriously challenged when some peers are autonomous, selfish, or malicious in large-scale, heterogeneous networks. In this paper, based on the latest advances in identity-based cryptography, we design a lightweight and cheat-resistant micropayment scheme to stimulate and compensate collaborative peers that sacrifice their resources to relay packets for other peers. We also demonstrate that when security and collaboration measures are properly enforced, profitable collaboration is a preferable strategy for all peers.
3648465
Optimal base-station locations in two-tiered wireless sensor networks
We consider generic two-tiered wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consisting of sensor clusters deployed around strategic locations, and base-stations (BSs) whose locations are relatively flexible. Within a sensor cluster, there are many small sensor nodes (SNs) that capture, encode, and transmit relevant information from a designated area, and there is at least one application node (AN) that receives raw data from these SNs, creates a comprehensive local-view, and forwards the composite bit-stream toward a BS. This paper focuses on the topology control process for ANs and BSs, which constitute the upper tier of two-tiered WSNs. Since heterogeneous ANs are battery-powered and energy-constrained, their node lifetime directly affects the network lifetime of WSNs. By proposing algorithmic approaches to locate BSs optimally, we can maximize the topological network lifetime of WSNs deterministically, even when the initial energy provisioning for ANs is no longer always proportional to their average bit-stream rate. The obtained optimal BS locations are under different lifetime definitions according to the mission criticality of WSNs. By studying intrinsic properties of WSNs, we establish the upper and lower bounds of maximal topological lifetime, which enable a quick assessment of energy provisioning feasibility and topology control necessity. Numerical results are given to demonstrate the efficacy and optimality of the proposed topology control approaches designed for maximizing network lifetime of WSNs.
2109911
Serialized optimal relay schedules in two-tiered wireless sensor networks
In two-tiered wireless sensor networks (WSNs), sensor nodes (SNs) are scattered in clusters, and are responsible for collecting relevant information from designated areas and transmitting to an application node (AN) in the cluster. The AN then constructs a local-view for the cluster by exploring correlations among information received from nearby SNs, and sends the local-view toward a base-station that creates a global-view for the entire WSN. ANs can also relay local-views for other ANs, if the resultant network lifetime is longer. In this paper, we want to arrange inter-AN relaying optimally, which is an important process in topology control for maximizing the topological lifetime of a WSN with regard to a certain amount of initial energy provisioning. We first propose some criteria on relay candidates preselection, which can considerably reduce the overhead of obtaining an optimal relaying. We then design an algorithm to serialize the parallel relay allocation, so that each AN only needs to have one relaying AN at any time. Finally, we demonstrate the equivalency in network lifetime of the serialized inter-AN relay schedules.
18117251
Multimedia annotations on the semantic Web
Multimedia in all forms (images, video, graphics, music, speech) is exploding on the Web. The content needs to be annotated and indexed to enable effective search and retrieval. However, recent standards and best practices for multimedia metadata don't provide semantically rich descriptions of multimedia content. On the other hand, the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3Cs) semantic Web effort has been making great progress in advancing techniques for annotating semantics of Web resources. To bridge this gap, a new W3C task force has been created to investigate multimedia annotations on the semantic Web. This article examines the problems of semantically annotating multimedia and describes the integration of multimedia metadata with the semantic Web.
10596767
Automatic mining of fruit fly embryo images
We present FEMine, an automatic system for image-based gene expression analysis. We perform experiments on the largest publicly available collection of Drosophila ISH (in situ hybridization) images, showing that our FEMine system achieves excellent performance in classification, clustering, and content-based image retrieval. The major innovation of FEMine is the use of automatically discovered latent spatial "themes" of gene expressions, LGEs, in the whole-embryo context, as opposed to patterns in nearly disjoint portions of an embryo proposed in previous methods.
7197213
A Manifold Regularization Approach to Calibration Reduction for Sensor-Network Based Tracking
The ability to accurately detect the location of a mobile node in a sensor network is important for many artificial intelligence (AI) tasks that range from robotics to context-aware computing. Many previous approaches to the location-estimation problem assume the availability of calibrated data. However, to obtain such data requires great effort. In this paper, we present a manifold regularization approach known as LeMan to calibration-effort reduction for tracking a mobile node in a wireless sensor network. We compute a subspace mapping function between the signal space and the physical space by using a small amount of labeled data and a large amount of unlabeled data. This mapping function can be used online to determine the location of mobile nodes in a sensor network based on the signals received. We use Crossbow MICA2 to setup the network and USB camera array to obtain the ground truth. Experimental results show that we can achieve a higher accuracy with much less calibration effort as compared to several previous systems.
6653256
Domain-constrained semi-supervised mining of tracking models in sensor networks
Accurate localization of mobile objects is a major research problem in sensor networks and an important data mining application. Specifically, the localization problem is to determine the location of a client device accurately given the radio signal strength values received at the client device from multiple beacon sensors or access points. Conventional data mining and machine learning methods can be applied to solve this problem. However, all of them require large amounts of labeled training data, which can be quite expensive. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic semi supervised learning approach to reduce the calibration effort and increase the tracking accuracy. Our method is based on semi-supervised conditional random fields which can enhance the learned model from a small set of training data with abundant unlabeled data effectively. To make our method more efficient, we exploit a Generalized EM algorithm coupled with domain constraints. We validate our method through extensive experiments in a real sensor network using Crossbow MICA2 sensors. The results demonstrate the advantages of methods compared to other state-of-the-art object-tracking algorithms.
5675255
RDFS(FA): Connecting RDF(S) and OWL DL
Semantic Web (SW) languages are supposed to be compatible with each other in a meaningful way, so as to facilitate machine understanding. Recent research, however, shows that the semantics of the standard SW annotation language RDF (as well as its ontological extension RDFS) and that of the standard SW ontology language OWL DL are not compatible with each other. This paper investigates some issues behind this incompatibility and proposes a novel modification of RDF(S) as a firm semantic foundation for many of the latest description logics-based SW ontology languages, including OWL DL. Furthermore, the bidirectional one-to-one mapping between RDFS(FA) axioms in strata 0-2 and OWL DL axioms has been established, which enables RDFS(FA)-agents and OWL DL-agents to communicate with each other more easily. As a result, the introduction of RDFS(FA) clarifies the vision of the semantic Web and solidifies RDF(S)'s proposed role as the base of the semantic Web