62059806
Fundamental trade-offs in aggregate packet scheduling
In this paper we investigate the fundamental trade-offs in aggregate packet scheduling for support of guaranteed delay service. In particular, we study the relationships between the worst-case edge-to-edge delay (i.e., the maximum delay experienced by any packet across a network domain), the (maximum) allowable link utilization level of a network and the ``sophistication/complexity'' of aggregate packet scheduling employed by a network. In our study, besides the simple FIFO packet scheduling algorithm, we consider two classes of aggregate packet scheduling algorithms: the static earliest time first} (SETF) and dynamic earliest time first (DETF). In both classes additional control information is encoded in the packet header for scheduling purpose: in the class of SETF, packets are stamped with its entry time at the network edge, and they are scheduled in the order of their (network entry) time stamps at a router; in the class of DETF, the packet time stamps are modified at certain routers as packets traverse them. Through these two classes of aggregate packet scheduling, we show that, with additional time stamp control information encoded in the packet header for scheduling purpose, we can significantly increase the (maximum) allowable link utilization level of a network, and at the same time reduce the worst-case edge-to-edge delay bound. These results illustrate the fundamental trade-offs in aggregate packet scheduling algorithms and shed light on their provisioning power in support of guaranteed delay service.
14141879
Improving VoIP quality through path switching
The current best-effort Internet cannot readily provide the service guarantees that VoIP applications often require. Path switching can potentially address this problem without requiring new network mechanisms, simply by leveraging the robustness to performance variations available from connectivity options such as multi-homing and overlays. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness and benefits of path switching in improving the quality of VoIP applications, and demonstrate its feasibility through the design and implementation of a prototype gateway. We argue for an application-driven path switching system that accounts for both network path characteristics and application-specific factors (e.g., codec algorithms, playout buffering schemes). We also develop an application path quality estimator based on the ITU-T E-model for voice quality assessment, and an application-driven path switching algorithm that dynamically adapts the time scales over which path switching decisions are made to maximize voice quality. Through network emulation and experiments over a wide-area multi-homed test bed, we show that, with sufficient path diversity, path switching can yield meaningful improvements in voice quality. Hence by exploiting the inherent path diversity of the Internet, application-driven path switching is a viable option in providing quality-of-service to applications.
5876943
Adaptive packet sampling for flow volume measurement
Traffic measurement and monitoring are an important component of network management and traffic engineering. With high-speed Internet backbone links, efficient and effective packet sampling techniques for traffic measurement and monitoring are not only desirable, but also increasingly becoming a necessity. Since the utility of sampling depends on the accuracy and economy of measurement, it is important to control sampling error. In this paper we propose and analyze an adaptive, stratified random packet sampling technique for flow-level traffic measurement. In particular, we address the theoretical and practical issues involved. Through theoretical studies and experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed sampling technique provides unbiased estimation of flow size with controllable error bound, in terms of both packet and byte counts for elephant flows, while avoiding excessive oversampling.
33893889
Supporting stored video: reducing rate variability and end-to-end resource requirements through optimal smoothing
Variable-bit-rate (VBR) compressed video can exhibit significant multiple-time-scale bit-rate variability. In this paper we consider the transmission of stored video from a server to a client across a network, and explore how the client buffer space can be used most effectively toward reducing the variability of the transmitted bit rate. Two basic results are presented. First, we show how to achieve the greatest possible reduction in rate variability when sending stored video to a client with given buffer size. We formally establish the optimality of our approach and illustrate its performance over a set of long MPEG-1 encoded video traces. Second, we evaluate the impact of optimal smoothing on the network resources needed for video transport, under two network service models: deterministic guaranteed service (Chang 1994; Wrege et al. 1996) and renegotiated constant-bit-rate (RCBR) service (Grossglauser et al. 1997). Under both models, the impact of optimal smoothing is dramatic.
3065647
A core stateless bandwidth broker architecture for scalable support of guaranteed services
We present a novel bandwidth broker architecture for scalable support of guaranteed services that decouples the QoS control plane from the packet forwarding plane. More specifically, under this architecture, core routers do not maintain any QoS reservation states, whether per-flow or aggregate. Instead, the QoS reservation states are stored at and managed by a bandwidth broker. There are several advantages of such a bandwidth broker architecture. Among others, it avoids the problem of inconsistent QoS states faced by the conventional hop-by-hop, distributed admission control approach. Furthermore, it allows us to design efficient admission control algorithms without incurring any overhead at core routers. The proposed bandwidth broker architecture is designed based on a core stateless virtual time reference system developed recently. This virtual time reference system provides a unifying framework to characterize, in terms of their abilities to support delay guarantees, both the per-hop behaviors of core routers and the end-to-end properties of their concatenation. We focus on the design of efficient admission control algorithms under the proposed bandwidth broker architecture. We consider both per-flow end-to-end guaranteed delay services and class-based guaranteed delay services with flow aggregation. Using our bandwidth broker architecture, we demonstrate how admission control can be done on a per domain basis instead of on a "hop-by-hop" basis. Such an approach may significantly reduce the complexity of the admission control algorithms. In designing class-based admission control algorithms, we investigate the problem of dynamic flow aggregation in providing guaranteed delay services and devise a new apparatus to effectively circumvent this problem. We conduct detailed analyses to provide theoretical underpinning for our schemes as well as to establish their correctness. Simulations are also performed to demonstrate the efficacy of our schemes.
14053219
Distributed Algorithm for Service Replication in Service Overlay Network
The service overlay network (SON) is an effective mean to deploy end-to-end QoS guaranteed content delivery services on the current Internet. We model the content delivery service on a SON as a service delivery tree (SDT). Previous studies have addressed the optimal distribution tree formulation issues. In this paper, we focus on the problem of maximizing the total operation profit of the SON. In [1], authors introduced a cost model for optimal bandwidth provisioning in SON. In this paper, we extended this concept and propose an alternative approach to maximize the total effective throughput of SDT as well as to minimize the QoS violation penalty of the SON by service replication. We present both centralized and distributed algorithms for the placement of replicated servers on the SDT. Experiments are carried to quantify the merit, effectiveness and the scalability of the proposed service replication algorithm. In particular, the performance gain is very close to the exhaustive search. The algorithm performs well when we scale up the service overlay networks. Finally, we show that one only needs to perform a small number of replications to attain the optimal gain.
18001096
Optimal scheduling algorithms in WDM optical interconnects with limited range wavelength conversion capability
Optical communication is a promising candidate for many emerging networking and parallel/distributed computing applications because of its huge bandwidth. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a technique that can better utilize the optical bandwidth by dividing the bandwidth of a fiber into multiple wavelength channels. In this paper, we study optimal scheduling algorithms to resolve output contentions in bufferless time slotted WDM optical interconnects with wavelength conversion ability. We consider the general case of limited range wavelength conversion with arbitrary conversion capability, as limited range wavelength conversion is easier to implement and more cost effective than full range wavelength conversion, and it also includes full range wavelength conversion as a special case. We first consider the conversion scheme in which each wavelength can be converted to multiple wavelengths in an interval of wavelengths and the intervals for different wavelengths are "ordered". We show that the problem of maximizing network throughput can be formalized as finding a maximum matching in a bipartite graph. We then give an optimal scheduling algorithm called the first available algorithm that runs in O(k) time, where k is the number of wavelengths per fiber. We also study the case where the connection requests have different priorities. We formalize the problem as finding an optimal matching in a weighted bipartite graph and give a scheduling algorithm called the downwards expanding algorithm that runs in O(kD + Nklog(Nk)) time where N is the number of input fibers of the interconnect and D is the conversion degree. Finally, we consider the circular symmetrical wavelength conversion scheme and give optimal scheduling algorithms for nonprioritized scheduling in O(Dk) time and prioritized scheduling in O(k/sup 2/+Nklog(Nk)) time.
10630576
On cloud-antichains and related configurations
Abstract We introduce the concept of a cloud-antichain, which is a natural generalization of antichains in partially ordered sets, and solve some seemingly basic extrenal problems for them. Following the discovery of our identity (in[1]) we found the ‘missing term’, which converts Bollobas' inequality into an identity. It immediately yields the uniqueness in the Sperner Theorem for unrelated chains of subsets, which are an example of a cloud-antichain.
5688571
Enhancing Downlink Performance in Wireless Networks by Simultaneous Multiple Packet Transmission
In this paper, we consider using simultaneous Multiple Packet Transmission (MPT) to improve the downlink performance of wireless networks. With MPT, the sender can send two compatible packets simultaneously to two distinct receivers and can double the throughput in the ideal case. We formalize the problem of finding a schedule to send out buffered packets in minimum time as finding a maximum matching problem in a graph. Since maximum matching algorithms are relatively complex and may not meet the timing requirements of real-time applications, we give a fast approximation algorithm that is capable of finding a matching at least 3/4 of the size of a maximum matching in O(|E|) time, where |E| is the number of edges in the graph. We also give analytical bounds for maximum allowable arrival rate, which measures the speedup of the downlink after enhanced with MPT, and our results show that the maximum arrival rate increases significantly even with a very small compatibility probability. We also use an approximate analytical model and simulations to study the average packet delay, and our results show that packet delay can be greatly reduced even with a very small compatibility probability.
10250672
Robust and Rapid Generation of Animated Faces from Video Images: A Model-Based Modeling Approach
We have developed an easy-to-use and cost-effective system to construct textured 3D animated face models from videos with minimal user interaction. This is a particularly challenging task for faces due to a lack of prominent textures. We develop a robust system by following a model-based approach: we make full use of generic knowledge of faces in head motion determination, head tracking, model fitting, and multiple-view bundle adjustment. Our system first takes, with an ordinary video camera, images of a face of a person sitting in front of the camera turning their head from one side to the other. After five manual clicks on two images to indicate the position of the eye corners, nose tip and mouth corners, the system automatically generates a realistic looking 3D human head model that can be animated immediately (different poses, facial expressions and talking). A user, with a PC and a video camera, can use our system to generate his/her face model in a few minutes. The face model can then be imported in his/her favorite game, and the user sees themselves and their friends take part in the game they are playing. We have demonstrated the system on a laptop computer live at many events, and constructed face models for hundreds of people. It works robustly under various environment settings.
7981159
Extraction of temporally correlated sources with its application to non-invasive fetal electrocardiogram extraction
This letter addresses the problem of fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) extraction. A class of source extraction algorithms is proposed and it uses a combination of two different approaches: Barros's source extraction approach and Hyvarinen's fixed-point approach. The proposed algorithms can rapidly extract the desired FECG with little noise, and can work well in some poor situations. The validity and performance of the algorithms are confirmed by extensive computer simulations and experiments on real-world data.