1974741
Strategyproof Mechanisms towards Dynamic Topology Formation in Autonomous Networks
In autonomous networks, cooperations among nodes cannot be assumed, since each node is capable of making independent decisions based on their personal preferences. In particular, when a node needs the help of intermediate nodes to relay messages to other nodes, these intermediaries may be reluctant to contribute their network resource for the benefit of others. Ideally, the right amount of incentives should be provided to motivate cooperations among autonomous nodes so that a mutually beneficial network results. In this paper, we leverage the power of mechanism design in microeconomics to design a distributed incentive mechanism that motivates each node towards a more desirable network topology. Since network parameters and constraints change dynamically in reality, the desirable topology can vary over time. Our solution presented in this paper has successfully encompassed such a dynamic nature of the network topology. In addition, we have transformed our solution to an easy-to-implement distributed algorithm, that converges towards the globally optimal topology.
15776548
Cross-layer flow control in lightly-loaded multi-hop ad hoc networks
The throughput in multi-hop ad hoc networks (MANETs) is highly dependent on the sending rate and the route length from the source node to the destination. Sending packets at the optimal rate for a given route length maximizes throughput in the network, whereas slightly increasing the sending rate over the optimal value may decrease throughput by up to 55%. This paper presents a novel cross-layer technique for flow control in lightly-loaded MANETs. The technique allows applications to send packets at the rate that maximizes throughput for a given route length. To achieve this, the routing layer notifies interested applications about routing changes, and the applications adaptively modify their sending rates based on the new route length to the destination. In static and mobile networks, this technique outperforms UDP-based flows with a fixed sending rate and doubles the throughput of TCP for networks with up to 2 concurrent flows.
8043231
QoS-Aware Adaptive Services in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks
Ad-hoc wireless networks consist of mobile nodes interconnected by multi-hop wireless paths. Unlike conventional wireless networks, ad-hoc networks have no fixed network infrastructure or administrative support. Because of the dynamic nature of the network topology and limited bandwidth of wireless channels, Quality-of-Service (QoS) provisioning is an inherently complex and difficult issue. In this paper, we propose a fully distributed and adaptive algorithm to provide statistical QoS guarantees with respect to accessibility of services in an ad-hoc network. In this algorithm, we focus on the optimization of a new QoS parameter of interest, service efficiency, while keeping protocol overheads to the minimum. To achieve this goal, we first theoretically derive the lower and upper bounds of service efficiency based on a novel model for group mobility, followed by extensive simulation results to verify the effectiveness of our algorithm.
3208295
Price-based resource allocation in wireless ad hoc networks
The shared-medium multi-hop nature of wireless ad hoc networks poses fundamental challenges to the design of an effective resource allocation algorithm to maximize the aggregated utility of flows, while maintaining basic fairness among multiple flows. When previously proposed scheduling algorithms have been shown to perform well in providing fair shares of bandwidth among single-hop wireless flows, they did not consider multi-hop flows with an end-to-end perspective. Moreover, the resource allocation strategies employed in the wireline network can not be applied directly in the context of ad hoc networks due to the unique characteristic of location dependent contention and spatial reuse of the shared wireless channel. In this paper, we propose a price-based resource allocation model to achieve maximized aggregated utility (i.e., social welfare) of flows. Our original contributions are: First, we propose to use maximal clique-associated shadow prices for wireless channel access coordination, rather than link-associated price for wireline link access arbitration. Second, we present a new pricing policy for end-to-end multi-hop flow. Using this model, different fairness goals can be realized in ad hoc networks for end-to-end flows. With a two-tier distributed and iterative algorithm, scarce channel capacity is allocated fairly among multi-hop flows from an end-to-end perspective, using shadow prices as the mechanism to arbitrate channel access. Through extensive analysis and simulation results, we show that our proposed algorithm is able to fairly distribute resources among multi-hop flows, while simultaneously maximizing the aggregated utility of flows globally.
5921080
Dynamic reconfiguration for complex multimedia applications
Current state-of-the-art distributed multimedia applications require an environment that provides stable quality of service (QoS). However, these applications typically run on best-effort heterogeneous platforms, and compete with other applications or connections for end system and network resources, hence suffer from instability and dynamic variations with regards to QoS. We present a dynamically reconfigurable middleware control architecture to enhance adaptation awareness of these applications. Our middleware architecture allows for detecting QoS fluctuations in the surrounding environment and signaling optimal control actions to the application. Furthermore, we discuss the design of a core component, the Configurator, that adopts a fuzzy control approach to compute optimal control actions. Preliminary experimental results with a distributed visual tracking application show that our approach is viable and effective in controlling adaptive applications.
2274256
Overlay Networks with Linear Capacity Constraints
Overlay networks are virtual networks residing over the IP network; consequently, overlay links may share hidden lower level bottlenecks. Previous work has assumed an independent overlay model: a graph with independent link capacities. We introduce a model of overlays that incorporates correlated link capacities and linear capacity constraints (LCC) to formulate hidden shared bottlenecks; we refer to these as LCC-overlays. We define metrics to qualitatively measure overlay quality in terms of its accuracy (in representing the true network topology) and efficiency (that is, performance). Through analysis and simulations, we show that LCC-overlay is perfectly accurate and, hence, enjoys much higher efficiency than the inaccurate independent overlay. We discover that even a highly restricted LCC class-node-based LCC-yields near-optimal accuracy and significantly higher efficiency. We study two network flow problems in the context of LCC-graphs: widest path and maximum flow. We prove that Widest Path with LCC is NP-complete. We formulate Maximum Flow with LCC as a linear program and propose an efficient distributed algorithm to solve it. Based on the LCC model, we further study the problem of optimizing delay while still maintaining optimal or near-optimal bandwidth. We also outline a distributed algorithm to efficiently construct an overlay with node-based LCC.
34801552
Profile-based event tracking
In this research, we focus on tracking topics that originate and evolve from a specific event. Intuitively, a few key elements of a target event, such as date, location, and persons involved, would be enough for making a decision on whether a test story is on-topic. Consequently, a profile-based event tracking method is proposed. We attempt to build an event profile from the given on-topic stories by robust information retrieval technologies. A feature selection metric and a recognized event clause are utilized to determine most (if not all) key semantic elements of the target event. Preliminary experiments on the TDT2 mandarin corpus show that this profile-based event tracking method is promising.
10610312
Semantic sports video analysis: approaches and new applications
In this paper, we show that event-based semantic analysis of sports video can be achieved through two major classes of methods: approaches using deterministic reasoning and approaches depending on probabilistic inference. Deterministic approaches depend on an explicit description of an event and an explicit representation of the event in terms of low-level aural-visual features that can be automatically detected. Probabilistic approaches are based on some proper state/transition models whose parameters are learnt through labeled training sequences. We first discuss the pros and cons of the two classes of approaches. Next, we present algorithms of these two types for a new application, automatic analysis of coaching video (which is different from sports broadcast programs that have been subject of most prior work).
1260337
An Improved k-Nearest Neighbor Algorithm for Text Categorization
k is the most important parameter in a text categorization system based on k-Nearest Neighbor algorithm (kNN).In the classification process, k nearest documents to the test one in the training set are determined firstly. Then, the predication can be made according to the category distribution among these k nearest neighbors. Generally speaking, the class distribution in the training set is uneven. Some classes may have more samples than others. Therefore, the system performance is very sensitive to the choice of the parameter k. And it is very likely that a fixed k value will result in a bias on large categories. To deal with these problems, we propose an improved kNN algorithm, which uses different numbers of nearest neighbors for different categories, rather than a fixed number across all categories. More samples (nearest neighbors) will be used for deciding whether a test document should be classified to a category, which has more samples in the training set. Preliminary experiments on Chinese text categorization show that our method is less sensitive to the parameter k than the traditional one, and it can properly classify documents belonging to smaller classes with a large k. The method is promising for some cases, where estimating the parameter k via cross-validation is not allowed.
2962872
Finite element analysis of a class of stress-free martensitic microstructures
This work is concerned with the finite element approximation of a class of stress-free martensitic microstructures modeled by multi-well energy minimization. Finite element energy-minimizing sequences are first constructed to obtain bounds on the minimum energy over all admissible finite element deformations. A series of error estimates are then derived for finite element energy minimizers.
17742402
A Unicode-based Adaptive Segmenter
This paper presents a Unicode based Chinese word segmentor. It can handle Chinese text in Simplified, Traditional, or mixed mode. The system uses the strategy of divide-and-conquer to handle the recognition of personal names, numbers, time and numerical values, etc in the preprocessing stage. The segmentor further uses tagging information to work on disambiguation. Adopting a modular design approach, different functional parts are separately implemented using different modules and each module tackles one problem at a time providing more flexibility and extensibility. Results show that with added pre-processing modules and accessorial modules, the accuracy of the segmentor is increased and the system is easily adaptive to different applications.