46374921
A Formal Specification of the ATM ABR Rate Control Scheme
Abstract Formal specifications are indispensable for computer-aided validation, verification, and testing of communication protocols. However, a large number of practical protocols, including those for ATM, have only informal English specifications. A formal specification helps in achieving a consistent interpretation and thus increases the likelihood of interoperable implementations. As a case study, we consider an important protocol — ATM's Available Bit Rate (ABR) service specification. The ABR source/destination policies have been specified using an English description in the main body of the ATM Forum's draft Traffic Management specification, from which it is hard to conduct a formal analysis. It must be noted however that considerable energy has been spent in providing a reasonably precise specification, while allowing for appropriate implementation latitude. However, an English description still has the potential for different interpretations, which may lead to discrepancy in different vendors' implementations and cause serious problems in interoperability of the communication entities made by different manufacturers. We model the ABR protocols by parameterized communicating extended finite state machines with timers, which is often called a transition system. The protocol is formally specified by the specification of the transitions of the system. We also provide insights gained in the derivation of the formal specification. Furthermore, we introduce a scheduler, involved in transmitting queued cells at the allowed cell rate to meet the minimal requirements from the source/destination protocols. We present the transitions for the source/destination/scheduler machines primarily for transmitting in-rate cells.
31110512
Discontinuity Detection and Thresholding-A Stochastic Approach
We study discontinuity detection and thresholding using a stochastic approach. We discuss a general form of detectors, which includes a number of well known detectors as special cases. Thresholding is indispensable to eliminate spurious responses from the detection process. We propose a Weighted Thresholding, which is designed to cope with a variety of anomalies. Our analysis and experimental results on real images show that intelligent thresholding methods can make a significant difference for discontinuity detection.
7389460
Fault Detection of Hierarchical Networks with Probabilistic Testing Algorithms
As communications networks are expanding to larger areas the control and maintenance of routing information are becoming a formidable task. To cope with its size and complexity and to make the network reliable and scalable hierarchical network has been proposed with new features to support the information infrastructure. However, the network hierarchy adds more complications to the network design and implementations and that hampers the network reliability and quality of services. Conformance testing is known to be a powerful tool for network fault detection yet most of the works in the published literature are on networks without hierarchy. We present probabilistic algorithms for testing hierarchical networks along with the added features. Based on a formal model of the networks, we provide a formal analysis that shows that our probabilistic algorithms guarantee a high fault coverage with a feasible number of tests. To further reduce the number of tests we identify test equivalence classes and that enables us to significantly reduce the number of tests yet without losing the fault coverage. Experimental results on Internet OSPF protocol are reported.
38528864
Coping With Discontinuities In Computer Vision: Their Detection, Classification, And Measurement
6355860
Network Protocol System Fingerprinting - A Formal Approach
Network protocol system fingerprinting has been recognized as an important issue and a major threat to network security. Prevalent works rely largely on human experiences and insight of the protocol system specifications and implementations. Such ad-hoc approaches are inadequate in dealing with large complex protocol systems. In this paper we propose a formal approach for automated protocol system fingerprinting analysis and experiment. Parameterized Extended Finite State Machine is used to model protocol systems, and four categories of fingerprinting problems are formally defined. We propose and analyze algorithms for both active and passive fingerprinting and present our experimental results on Internet protocols. Furthermore, we investigate protection techniques against malicious fingerprinting and discuss the feasibility of two defense schemes, based on the protocol and application scenarios.
7765148
A formal approach for passive testing of protocol data portions
Passive testing is a process of detecting faults in a system under test by passively observing its input/output behaviors only without interrupting its normal operations, and proves to be a promising technique for network fault management. We study passive testing of data portions of network protocols and present two algorithms, using an event-driven extended finite state machine model. Experimental results on the Internet routing protocol OSPF (open shortest path first) are reported.
9367228
Verifying Web applications using bounded model checking
The authors describe the use of bounded model checking (BMC) for verifying Web application code. Vulnerable sections of code are patched automatically with runtime guards, allowing both verification and assurance to occur without user intervention. Model checking techniques are relatively complex compared to the typestate-based polynomial-time algorithm (TS) we adopted in an earlier paper, but they offer three benefits - they provide counterexamples, more precise models, and sound and complete verification. Compared to conventional model checking techniques, BMC offers a more practical approach to verifying programs containing large numbers of variables, but requires fixed program diameters to be complete. Formalizing Web application vulnerabilities as a secure information flow problem with fixed diameter allows for BMC application without drawback. Using BMC-produced counterexamples, errors that result from propagations of the same initial error can be reported as a single group rather than individually. This offers two distinct benefits. First, together with the counterexamples themselves, they allow for more descriptive and precise error reports. Second, it allows for automated patching at locations where errors are initially introduced rather than at locations where the propagated errors cause problems. Results from a TS-BMC comparison test using 230 open-source Web applications showed a 41.0% decrease in runtime instrumentations when BMC was used. In the 38 vulnerable projects identified by TS, BMC classified the TS-reported 980 individual errors into 578 groups, with each group requiring a minimal set of patches for repair.
2528129
Rectilinear Paths Among Rectilinear Obstacles
We address problems of finding rectilinear paths among rectilinear obstacles subject to certain optimization criteria. They have applications in the fields of motion planning and computer-aided circuit design. The criteria that we consider include minimizing the length of the path, minimizing the number of bends on the path, bounding one of the two factors (length and number of bends) and minimizing the other, and minimizing a given non-decreasing function of both the length and the number of bends. The length measure of a rectilinear path can be the total length of all the segments of the paths or just the sum of lengths of all the vertical or horizontal segments of the path. Besides the various optimization criteria for the paths that we look for, the routing environments may have different constraints. For example, the obstacles can be rectangular or rectilinear, the orientations of the path may be restricted to be horizontal or vertical on different layers in a two-layer interconnection model, or the path can penetrate the obstacles and pay extra costs. Previous results and problem solving approaches are summarized and compared to ours in this dissertation. 
We obtain more efficient algorithms for finding a shortest rectilinear path between two points, minimum spanning tree of a set of points, and for finding assorted paths taking both length and the number of bends into consideration. We also derive a general problem transformation scheme to convert an instance in two-layer model into an equivalent problem in one-layer model, for which previously obtained algorithms under different objective functions are applicable.
32204617
A Study on Scalable Bluetooth Piconet for Secure Ubiquitous
Due to the changes in the wireless information environment, there has been an increased demand for various types of information. Accordingly, many wireless communication technologies have been studied and developed. In particular, studies on ubiquitous close distance communications are well underway. Lately, the focus has been on the Bluetooth technology due to its applicability in various environments. Applying Bluetooth connectivity to new environments such as ubiquitous or sensor networks requires finding new ways of using it. Thus, this research analyzed the vulnerability on the limited number of slaves in a piconet configuration through the current Bluetooth communication and proposed an expanded Bluetooth piconet formation method, regardless of the number of slaves inside the piconet even if it is not configured in a scatternet. In the proposed method, a security service was applied and the vulnerabilities of the current piconet configured as an expanded form of the current tree-shaped structure.
995590
k best cuts for circular-arc graphs
Given a set ofn nonnegativeweighted circular arcs on a unit circle, and an integerk, thek Best Cust for Circular-Arcs problem, abbreviated as thek-BCCA problem, is to find a placement ofk points, calledcuts, on the circle such that the total weight of the arcs that contain at least one cut is maximized.We first solve a simpler version, thek Best Cuts for Intervals (k-BCI) problem, inO(kn+n logn) time andO(kn) space using dynamic programming. The algorithm is then extended to solve a variation, called thek-restricted BCI problem, and the space complexity of thek-BCI problem can be improved toO(n). Based on these results, we then show that thek-BCCA problem can be solved inO(I(k,n)+nlogn) time, whereI(k, n) is the time complexity of thek-BCI problem. As a by-product, thek Maximum Cliques Cover problem (k>1) for the circular-arc graphs can be solved inO(I(k,n)+nlogn) time.
140119475
A Study on Efficient Key Distribution and Renewal in Broadcast Encryption
The method of broadcast encryption has been applied to the transmission of digital information such as multimedia, software, and paid TV on the open network. In this broadcast encryption method, only previously authorized users can gain access to digital information. When broadcast message is transmitted, authorized users can first decode the session key using the previously given private key and get digital information using this session key. This way, users retrieve a message or a session key using the key transmitted by broadcasters. For their part, broadcasters need to generate and distribute keys. Broadcasters should also carry out efficient key renewal when users subscribe or unsubscribe. This paper introduces how to generate and distribute key efficiently and how key renewal works. The proposal uses two methods: (1) the server generates keys without the consent of users by anticipating users, and; (2) the server and users generate keys by mutual agreement. The advantage of the two proposed methods is that the receiver can decode broadcast message using a secret key. Even if the key is renewed later, the user can efficiently renew using only a single set of information.