11088545
Supporting Random Access on Real-Time Retrieval of Digital Continuous Media
In addition to the large data size requirement and real-time constraint in continuous media, future video applications such as video editing demand a random access capability at the video-frame level. This paper introduces our study on effective buffering control for the real-time retrieval of jitter-free digital video medium. We adopt a video-frame level approach to maintaining the flexibility on placement and analysing the efficiency of the buffering schemes. An integrated solution which offers efficient buffering schemes and flexible storage placement to support random access is our goal. We present two buffering schemes: the two-buffer scheme and the k-buffer compensation scheme. The two-buffer scheme requires that all the frames in a block are stored consecutively, while providing random access between blocks. However, this intuitive buffering scheme potentially requires a large block size and buffer space. The k-buffer compensation scheme is proposed to resolve this large buffer space requirement, by using more than two buffers and requiring a minimal number of blocks randomly placed in each cylinder. This scheme differs from the contiguous placement scheme because individual blocks can be stored anywhere in each cylinder. Compared to the two-buffer scheme, the k-buffer compensation scheme requires less buffer space, has higher disk utilization and finer granularity on disk data transfer. The placement requirements are more flexible and implementable than the contiguous and storage pattern placement schemes. Experimental measurement results reveal the significant improvements on the buffer-size reduction and placement flexibility by using the k-buffer compensation scheme. Extensions of the k-buffer compensation scheme to support multiple streams are also addressed.
12802794
A systematic approach to design the network-based learning environment for home and office
An effective network-based learning environment provides synchronous and asynchronous education to learners who are physically, remote from or opt to telecommute to the base location of instruction. The environment provides content creation, user registration, course material storage, multiple delivery means, and end-user viewing tools. An intriguing aspect of the environment is how to model a lecture in terms of pre-, in-, and post-class information. We regard a lecture model collectively as an activity consisting of three elements: lecture materials, lecture presentation, and lecture interaction. We derive the synchronization specification for the media objects and define strong-weak networked hyperlink (SWNH) to represent the lecture structure and inter/intra media object reference in the distributed network environment. The specification and representation exhibit an object-oriented modular design. The presentation of the lecture embody both the event-driven and timeline-based presentation synchronization where the browsing and authoring tools developed earlier fit right into the learning environment, e.g. FLIPS and HQT by the authors, or are immediately available through other providers, e.g. Web browsers.
7236819
Creating a virtual network laboratory
Networking courses are traditionally conceptual in nature, with little opportunity for students to apply what they have learned in order to strengthen their knowledge. To support these courses, the University of Minnesota established a hands-on network laboratory. Educational and operational concerns have surfaced throughout the years due to the physical laboratory constraints and difficulty of satisfying the high demand. To address these issues, and to overcome the shortcomings of current approaches, we are developing a virtual network laboratory environment to eliminate most of the constraints, though it is not necessarily replacing all of the physical settings at once. The kernel consists of a collection of online multimedia learning modules which integrate the key laboratory devices with instructional material. The modules are designed to allow students to carry out hands-on networking in a virtual environment or through remote access. This virtual laboratory is easily accessible over the Internet.
32794956
The Steiner Ratio Conjecture Is True for Five Points
Abstract The long-standing conjecture of Gilbert and Pollak states that for any set of n given points in the Euclidean plane, the ratio of the length of a Steiner minimal tree and the length of a minimal (spanning) tree is at least 3 2 . This conjecture was shown to be true for n = 3 by Gilbert and Pollak, and for n = 4 by Pollak. Recently, Du, Yao and Hwang used a different approach to give a shorter proof for n = 4. In this paper we continue this approach to prove the conjecture for n = 5. Such results for small n are useful in obtaining bounds for the ratio of the two lengths in the general case.
39689433
On 1-rate Wide-sense Nonblocking for 3-stage Clos Networks
Abstract This paper considers the multirate environment in which each network link has a unity capacity and each call is associated with a rate w, 1 ⩾ w>0. The multirate environment is reduced to the 1 -rate environment if all rates are identical. Circuit switching is a special case of 1 -rate in which the constant rate is w = 1. We establish some general relations between wide-sense nonblocking in circuit switching and 1-rate wide-sense nonblocking for the 3-stage Clos network. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for a 3-stage Clos network with two input switches and two output switches to be wide-sense nonblocking, and give a necessary condition when there are three input switches and three output switches. We conjecture that 1-rate wide-sense nonblocking implies circuit switching wide-sense nonblocking and give some partial evidence.
18860643
The multiroute maximum flow problem revisited
We are given a directed network G = (V, A, u) with vertex setV , arc setA, a source vertexs ∈ V , a destination vertex t ∈ V , a finite capacity vector u = {uij}ij∈A, and a positive integerm ∈ Z+. The multiroute maximum flow problem ( m-MFP) generalizes the ordinary maximum flow problem by seeking a maximum flow from s to t subject to not only the regular flow conservation constraints at the vertices (except s andt) and the flow capacity constraints at the arcs, but also the extra constraints that any flow must be routed alon g m arc-disjoints-t paths. In this paper, we devise two new combinatorial algorithms for m-MFP. One is based on Newton’s method and another is based on augmenting-path technique. We also show how the Newton-based algorithm unifies two existing algorithms, and how the augmen ting-path algorithm is strongly polynomial for case m = 2.
2453836
On connectivity of consecutive-d digraphs
The concept of a consecutive-d digraph was proposed by Du, Hsu and Hwang as a generalization of de Bruijn digraphs, Kautz digraphs, and their generalizations given by Imase and Itoh and Reddy, Pradhan and Kuhl. In this paper, we determine the connectivity of consecutive-d digraphs and study how to modify consecutive-d digraphs to reach maximum connectivity. Our results will generalize and improve several existing results on the connectivity of de Bruijn digraphs, Kautz digraphs and Imase-Itoh digraphs.
9780632
An integrated admission control scheme for the delivery of streaming media
Quality of service (QoS) assurance is a major concern in media-on-demand (MoD) systems. Admission control is one of the most important issues that need to be addressed for QoS assurance. Also, smoothing is a basic technique for the media server to improve its bandwidth and buffer utilization. However, existing approaches cannot achieve the best resource utilization because (1) they cannot fully utilize the time-varying buffer spaces available at both server and client sides due to the separation of admission control and smoothing processes, and (2) the computing time is unacceptable for media of long duration. In this paper, we formulate the admission control as an integer programming problem and propose several heuristic methods for solving the problem. Specially, we introduce an efficient scheme, called batched admission (BA) scheme, which integrates admission control, transmission rate smoothing, and batching, to achieve best resource utilization with guaranteed QoS. Experimental studies show that the BA scheme outperforms existing approaches.