7182796
Logic and Model Checking for Hidden Markov Models
The branching-time temporal logic PCTL* has been intro- duced to specify quantitative properties over probability systems, such as discrete-time Markov chains. Until now, however, no logics have been defined to specify properties over hidden Markov models (HMMs). In HMMs the states are hidden, and the hidden processes produce a se- quence of observations. In this paper we extend the logic PCTL* to POCTL*. With our logic one can state properties such as “there is at least a 90 percent probability that the model produces a given sequence of observations” over HMMs. Subsequently, we give model checking algorithms for POCTL* over HMMs.
1125168
Flow Faster: Efficient Decision Algorithms for Probabilistic Simulations
Strong and weak simulation relations have been proposed for Markov chains,
while strong simulation and strong probabilistic simulation relations have been
proposed for probabilistic automata. However, decision algorithms for strong
and weak simulation over Markov chains, and for strong simulation over
probabilistic automata are not efficient, which makes it as yet unclear whether
they can be used as effectively as their non-probabilistic counterparts. This
paper presents drastically improved algorithms to decide whether some
(discrete- or continuous-time) Markov chain strongly or weakly simulates
another, or whether a probabilistic automaton strongly simulates another. The
key innovation is the use of parametric maximum flow techniques to amortize
computations. We also present a novel algorithm for deciding strong
probabilistic simulation preorders on probabilistic automata, which has
polynomial complexity via a reduction to an LP problem. When extending the
algorithms for probabilistic automata to their continuous-time counterpart, we
retain the same complexity for both strong and strong probabilistic
simulations.
8791084
Collecting the internet AS-level topology
At the inter-domain level, the Internet topology can be represented by a graph with Autonomous Systems (ASes) as nodes and AS peerings as links. This AS-level topology graph has been widely used in a variety of research efforts. Conventionally this topology graph is derived from routing tables collected by Route Views or RIPE RIS. In this work, we assemble the most complete AS-level topology by extending the conventional method along two dimensions. First, in addition to using data from RouteViews and RIPE RIS, we also collect data from many other sources, including route servers, looking glasses, and routing registries. Second, in addition to using routing tables, we also accumulate topological information from routing updates over time. The resulting topology graph on a recent day contains 44% more links and 3% more nodes than that from using RouteViews routing tables alone. Our data collection and topology generation process have been automated, and we publish the latest topology on the web on a daily basis.
14199573
Zapato: Automatic Theorem Proving for Predicate Abstraction Refinement
Counterexample-driven abstraction refinement is an automatic process that produces abstract models of finite and infinite-state systems. When this process is applied to software, an automatic theorem prover for quantifier-free first-order logic helps to determine the feasibility of program paths and to refine the abstraction. In this paper we report on a fast, lightweight, and automatic theorem prover called Zapato which we have built specifically to solve the queries produced during the abstraction refinement process.
21758360
WS-trustworthy: a framework for Web services centered trustworthy computing
The emerging paradigm of Web services has been gaining significant momentum in the recent years since it offers a promising way to facilitate business-to-business (B2B) collaboration. However, it is not clear that this new model of Web services provides any measurable increase in computing trustworthiness. We propose a generic framework to control the trustworthiness of computing in the domain of Web services. A layered model is established to highlight four key elements: resources, policies, validation processes, and management. The robustness of this model exhibits its flexibility and extensibility. Examples utilizing our framework are reported.
11528752
Redundancy in Complete Sets
We show that a set is m-autoreducible if and only if it is m-mitotic. This solves a long standing open question in a surprising way. As a consequence of this unconditional result and recent work by Glaser et al. [12], complete sets for all of the following complexity classes are m-mitotic: NP, coNP, $\bigoplus$P, PSPACE, and NEXP, as well as all levels of PH, MODPH, and the Boolean hierarchy over NP. In the cases of NP, PSPACE, NEXP, and PH, this at once answers several well-studied open questions. These results tell us that complete sets share a redundancy that was not known before. In particular, every NP-complete set A splits into two NP-complete sets A1 and A2.
12333291
Denoising by spatial correlation thresholding
This paper presents a spatial-correlation thresholding scheme for noise reduction by wavelet transform. Observing that edge structures are of high magnitude across wavelet scales but noise decays rapidly, we multiply two adjacent wavelet scales to form a spatial-correlation function to enhance significant structures and dilute noise. Dissimilar to the traditional thresholding schemes that apply threshold to the wavelet coefficients, the proposed scheme applies threshold directly to the scale correlation. A robust threshold is presented and experiments show that the proposed scheme outperforms the traditional thresholding methods.