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cs/0612133
Tales of Huffman
cs.IT cs.CC math.IT
We study the new problem of Huffman-like codes subject to individual restrictions on the code-word lengths of a subset of the source words. These are prefix codes with minimal expected code-word length for a random source where additionally the code-word lengths of a subset of the source words is prescribed, possibly differently for every such source word. Based on a structural analysis of properties of optimal solutions, we construct an efficient dynamic programming algorithm for this problem, and for an integer programming problem that may be of independent interest.
cs/0612136
Experiments on predictability of word in context and information rate in natural language
cs.IT math.IT
Based on data from a large-scale experiment with human subjects, we conclude that the logarithm of probability to guess a word in context (unpredictability) depends linearly on the word length. This result holds both for poetry and prose, even though with prose, the subjects don't know the length of the omitted word. We hypothesize that this effect reflects a tendency of natural language to have an even information rate.
cs/0612137
Turning Cluster Management into Data Management: A System Overview
cs.DB
This paper introduces the CondorJ2 cluster management system. Traditionally, cluster management systems such as Condor employ a process-oriented approach with little or no use of modern database system technology. In contrast, CondorJ2 employs a data-centric, 3-tier web-application architecture for all system functions (e.g., job submission, monitoring and scheduling; node configuration, monitoring and management, etc.) except for job execution. Employing a data-oriented approach allows the core challenge (i.e., managing and coordinating a large set of distributed computing resources) to be transformed from a relatively low-level systems problem into a more abstract, higher-level data management problem. Preliminary results suggest that CondorJ2's use of standard 3-tier software represents a significant step forward to the design and implementation of large clusters (1,000 to 10,000 nodes).
cs/0701002
Relay Assisted F/TDMA Ad Hoc Networks: Node Classification, Power Allocation and Relaying Strategies
cs.IT math.IT
This paper considers the design of relay assisted F/TDMA ad hoc networks with multiple relay nodes each of which assists the transmission of a predefined subset of source nodes to their respective destinations. Considering the sum capacity as the performance metric, we solve the problem of optimally allocating the total power of each relay node between the transmissions it is assisting. We consider four different relay transmission strategies, namely regenerative decode-and-forward (RDF), nonregenerative decode-and-forward (NDF), amplify-and-forward (AF) and compress-and-forward (CF). We first obtain the optimum power allocation policies for the relay nodes that employ a uniform relaying strategy for all nodes. We show that the optimum power allocation for the RDF and NDF cases are modified water-filling solutions. We observe that for a given relay transmit power, NDF always outperforms RDF whereas CF always provides higher sum capacity than AF. When CF and NDF are compared, it is observed that either of CF or NDF may outperform the other in different scenarios. This observation suggests that the sum capacity can be further improved by having each relay adopt its relaying strategy in helping different source nodes. We investigate this problem next and determine the optimum power allocation and relaying strategy for each source node that relay nodes assist. We observe that optimum power allocation for relay nodes with hybrid relaying strategies provides higher sum capacity than pure RDF, NDF, AF or CF relaying strategies.
cs/0701003
Magnification Laws of Winner-Relaxing and Winner-Enhancing Kohonen Feature Maps
cs.NE cs.IT math.IT
Self-Organizing Maps are models for unsupervised representation formation of cortical receptor fields by stimuli-driven self-organization in laterally coupled winner-take-all feedforward structures. This paper discusses modifications of the original Kohonen model that were motivated by a potential function, in their ability to set up a neural mapping of maximal mutual information. Enhancing the winner update, instead of relaxing it, results in an algorithm that generates an infomax map corresponding to magnification exponent of one. Despite there may be more than one algorithm showing the same magnification exponent, the magnification law is an experimentally accessible quantity and therefore suitable for quantitative description of neural optimization principles.
cs/0701006
The Trapping Redundancy of Linear Block Codes
cs.IT math.IT
We generalize the notion of the stopping redundancy in order to study the smallest size of a trapping set in Tanner graphs of linear block codes. In this context, we introduce the notion of the trapping redundancy of a code, which quantifies the relationship between the number of redundant rows in any parity-check matrix of a given code and the size of its smallest trapping set. Trapping sets with certain parameter sizes are known to cause error-floors in the performance curves of iterative belief propagation decoders, and it is therefore important to identify decoding matrices that avoid such sets. Bounds on the trapping redundancy are obtained using probabilistic and constructive methods, and the analysis covers both general and elementary trapping sets. Numerical values for these bounds are computed for the [2640,1320] Margulis code and the class of projective geometry codes, and compared with some new code-specific trapping set size estimates.
cs/0701011
Infinite-Alphabet Prefix Codes Optimal for $\beta$-Exponential Penalties
cs.IT cs.DS math.IT
Let $P = \{p(i)\}$ be a measure of strictly positive probabilities on the set of nonnegative integers. Although the countable number of inputs prevents usage of the Huffman algorithm, there are nontrivial $P$ for which known methods find a source code that is optimal in the sense of minimizing expected codeword length. For some applications, however, a source code should instead minimize one of a family of nonlinear objective functions, $\beta$-exponential means, those of the form $\log_a \sum_i p(i) a^{n(i)}$, where $n(i)$ is the length of the $i$th codeword and $a$ is a positive constant. Applications of such minimizations include a problem of maximizing the chance of message receipt in single-shot communications ($a<1$) and a problem of minimizing the chance of buffer overflow in a queueing system ($a>1$). This paper introduces methods for finding codes optimal for such exponential means. One method applies to geometric distributions, while another applies to distributions with lighter tails. The latter algorithm is applied to Poisson distributions. Both are extended to minimizing maximum pointwise redundancy.
cs/0701012
$D$-ary Bounded-Length Huffman Coding
cs.IT cs.DS math.IT
Efficient optimal prefix coding has long been accomplished via the Huffman algorithm. However, there is still room for improvement and exploration regarding variants of the Huffman problem. Length-limited Huffman coding, useful for many practical applications, is one such variant, in which codes are restricted to the set of codes in which none of the $n$ codewords is longer than a given length, $l_{\max}$. Binary length-limited coding can be done in $O(n l_{\max})$ time and O(n) space via the widely used Package-Merge algorithm. In this paper the Package-Merge approach is generalized without increasing complexity in order to introduce a minimum codeword length, $l_{\min}$, to allow for objective functions other than the minimization of expected codeword length, and to be applicable to both binary and nonbinary codes; nonbinary codes were previously addressed using a slower dynamic programming approach. These extensions have various applications -- including faster decompression -- and can be used to solve the problem of finding an optimal code with limited fringe, that is, finding the best code among codes with a maximum difference between the longest and shortest codewords. The previously proposed method for solving this problem was nonpolynomial time, whereas solving this using the novel algorithm requires only $O(n (l_{\max}- l_{\min})^2)$ time and O(n) space.
cs/0701013
Attribute Value Weighting in K-Modes Clustering
cs.AI
In this paper, the traditional k-modes clustering algorithm is extended by weighting attribute value matches in dissimilarity computation. The use of attribute value weighting technique makes it possible to generate clusters with stronger intra-similarities, and therefore achieve better clustering performance. Experimental results on real life datasets show that these value weighting based k-modes algorithms are superior to the standard k-modes algorithm with respect to clustering accuracy.
cs/0701016
The Second Law and Informatics
cs.IT math.IT
A unification of thermodynamics and information theory is proposed. It is argued that similarly to the randomness due to collisions in thermal systems, the quenched randomness that exists in data files in informatics systems contributes to entropy. Therefore, it is possible to define equilibrium and to calculate temperature for informatics systems. The obtained temperature yields correctly the Shannon information balance in informatics systems and is consistent with the Clausius inequality and the Carnot cycle.
cs/0701017
Energy-Efficient Power Control in Impulse Radio UWB Wireless Networks
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, a game-theoretic model for studying power control for wireless data networks in frequency-selective multipath environments is analyzed. The uplink of an impulse-radio ultrawideband system is considered. The effects of self-interference and multiple-access interference on the performance of generic Rake receivers are investigated for synchronous systems. Focusing on energy efficiency, a noncooperative game is proposed in which users in the network are allowed to choose their transmit powers to maximize their own utilities, and the Nash equilibrium for the proposed game is derived. It is shown that, due to the frequency selective multipath, the noncooperative solution is achieved at different signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios, depending on the channel realization and the type of Rake receiver employed. A large-system analysis is performed to derive explicit expressions for the achieved utilities. The Pareto-optimal (cooperative) solution is also discussed and compared with the noncooperative approach.
cs/0701018
Performance Analysis of Algebraic Soft-Decision Decoding of Reed-Solomon Codes
cs.IT math.IT
We investigate the decoding region for Algebraic Soft-Decision Decoding (ASD) of Reed-Solomon codes in a discrete, memoryless, additive-noise channel. An expression is derived for the error correction radius within which the soft-decision decoder produces a list that contains the transmitted codeword. The error radius for ASD is shown to be larger than that of Guruswami-Sudan hard-decision decoding for a subset of low-rate codes. These results are also extended to multivariable interpolation in the sense of Parvaresh and Vardy. An upper bound is then presented for ASD's probability of error, where an error is defined as the event that the decoder selects an erroneous codeword from its list. This new definition gives a more accurate bound on the probability of error of ASD than the results available in the literature.
cs/0701019
Flow-optimized Cooperative Transmission for the Relay Channel
cs.IT math.IT
This paper describes an approach for half-duplex cooperative transmission in a classical three-node relay channel. Assuming availability of channel state information at nodes, the approach makes use of this information to optimize distinct flows through the direct link from the source to the destination and the path via the relay, respectively. It is shown that such a design can effectively harness diversity advantage of the relay channel in both high-rate and low-rate scenarios. When the rate requirement is low, the proposed design gives a second-order outage diversity performance approaching that of full-duplex relaying. When the rate requirement becomes asymptotically large, the design still gives a close-to-second-order outage diversity performance. The design also achieves the best diversity-multiplexing tradeoff possible for the relay channel. With optimal long-term power control over the fading relay channel, the proposed design achieves a delay-limited rate performance that is only 3.0dB (5.4dB) worse than the capacity performance of the additive white Gaussian channel in low- (high-) rate scenarios.
cs/0701024
Secure Communication over Fading Channels
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
The fading broadcast channel with confidential messages (BCC) is investigated, where a source node has common information for two receivers (receivers 1 and 2), and has confidential information intended only for receiver 1. The confidential information needs to be kept as secret as possible from receiver 2. The broadcast channel from the source node to receivers 1 and 2 is corrupted by multiplicative fading gain coefficients in addition to additive Gaussian noise terms. The channel state information (CSI) is assumed to be known at both the transmitter and the receivers. The parallel BCC with independent subchannels is first studied, which serves as an information-theoretic model for the fading BCC. The secrecy capacity region of the parallel BCC is established. This result is then specialized to give the secrecy capacity region of the parallel BCC with degraded subchannels. The secrecy capacity region is then established for the parallel Gaussian BCC, and the optimal source power allocations that achieve the boundary of the secrecy capacity region are derived. In particular, the secrecy capacity region is established for the basic Gaussian BCC. The secrecy capacity results are then applied to study the fading BCC. Both the ergodic and outage performances are studied.
cs/0701025
Free deconvolution for signal processing applications
cs.IT math.IT
Situations in many fields of research, such as digital communications, nuclear physics and mathematical finance, can be modelled with random matrices. When the matrices get large, free probability theory is an invaluable tool for describing the asymptotic behaviour of many systems. It will be shown how free probability can be used to aid in source detection for certain systems. Sample covariance matrices for systems with noise are the starting point in our source detection problem. Multiplicative free deconvolution is shown to be a method which can aid in expressing limit eigenvalue distributions for sample covariance matrices, and to simplify estimators for eigenvalue distributions of covariance matrices.
cs/0701026
Analysis of Sequential Decoding Complexity Using the Berry-Esseen Inequality
cs.IT math.IT
his study presents a novel technique to estimate the computational complexity of sequential decoding using the Berry-Esseen theorem. Unlike the theoretical bounds determined by the conventional central limit theorem argument, which often holds only for sufficiently large codeword length, the new bound obtained from the Berry-Esseen theorem is valid for any blocklength. The accuracy of the new bound is then examined for two sequential decoding algorithms, an ordering-free variant of the generalized Dijkstra's algorithm (GDA)(or simplified GDA) and the maximum-likelihood sequential decoding algorithm (MLSDA). Empirically investigating codes of small blocklength reveals that the theoretical upper bound for the simplified GDA almost matches the simulation results as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) per information bit ($\gamma_b$) is greater than or equal to 8 dB. However, the theoretical bound may become markedly higher than the simulated average complexity when $\gamma_b$ is small. For the MLSDA, the theoretical upper bound is quite close to the simulation results for both high SNR ($\gamma_b\geq 6$ dB) and low SNR ($\gamma_b\leq 2$ dB). Even for moderate SNR, the simulation results and the theoretical bound differ by at most \makeblue{0.8} on a $\log_{10}$ scale.
cs/0701027
The source coding game with a cheating switcher
cs.IT math.IT
Berger's paper `The Source Coding Game', IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 1971, considers the problem of finding the rate-distortion function for an adversarial source comprised of multiple known IID sources. The adversary, called the `switcher', was allowed only causal access to the source realizations and the rate-distortion function was obtained through the use of a type covering lemma. In this paper, the rate-distortion function of the adversarial source is described, under the assumption that the switcher has non-causal access to all source realizations. The proof utilizes the type covering lemma and simple conditional, random `switching' rules. The rate-distortion function is once again the maximization of the R(D) function for a region of attainable IID distributions.
cs/0701028
Statistical keyword detection in literary corpora
cs.CL cs.IR physics.soc-ph
Understanding the complexity of human language requires an appropriate analysis of the statistical distribution of words in texts. We consider the information retrieval problem of detecting and ranking the relevant words of a text by means of statistical information referring to the "spatial" use of the words. Shannon's entropy of information is used as a tool for automatic keyword extraction. By using The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin as a representative text sample, we show the performance of our detector and compare it with another proposals in the literature. The random shuffled text receives special attention as a tool for calibrating the ranking indices.
cs/0701030
New Constructions of a Family of 2-Generator Quasi-Cyclic Two-Weight Codes and Related Codes
cs.IT math.IT
Based on cyclic simplex codes, a new construction of a family of 2-generator quasi-cyclic two-weight codes is given. New optimal binary quasi-cyclic [195, 8, 96], [210, 8, 104] and [240, 8, 120] codes, good QC ternary [195, 6, 126], [208, 6, 135], [221, 6, 144] codes are thus obtained. Furthermre, binary quasi-cyclic self-complementary codes are also constructed.
cs/0701034
Performance of Rake Receivers in IR-UWB Networks Using Energy-Efficient Power Control
cs.IT math.IT
This paper studies the performance of partial-Rake (PRake) receivers in impulse-radio ultrawideband wireless networks when an energy-efficient power control scheme is adopted. Due to the large bandwidth of the system, the multipath channel is assumed to be frequency-selective. By making use of noncooperative game-theoretic models and large-system analysis tools, explicit expressions are derived in terms of network parameters to measure the effects of self-interference and multiple-access interference at a receiving access point. Performance of the PRake receivers is thus compared in terms of achieved utilities and loss to that of the all-Rake receiver. Simulation results are provided to validate the analysis.
cs/0701036
Compression-based methods for nonparametric density estimation, on-line prediction, regression and classification for time series
cs.IT math.IT
We address the problem of nonparametric estimation of characteristics for stationary and ergodic time series. We consider finite-alphabet time series and real-valued ones and the following four problems: i) estimation of the (limiting) probability (or estimation of the density for real-valued time series), ii) on-line prediction, iii) regression and iv) classification (or so-called problems with side information). We show that so-called archivers (or data compressors) can be used as a tool for solving these problems. In particular, firstly, it is proven that any so-called universal code (or universal data compressor) can be used as a basis for constructing asymptotically optimal methods for the above problems. (By definition, a universal code can "compress" any sequence generated by a stationary and ergodic source asymptotically till the Shannon entropy of the source.) And, secondly, we show experimentally that estimates, which are based on practically used methods of data compression, have a reasonable precision.
cs/0701038
Approximate Eigenstructure of LTV Channels with Compactly Supported Spreading
cs.IT math.IT
In this article we obtain estimates on the approximate eigenstructure of channels with a spreading function supported only on a set of finite measure $|U|$.Because in typical application like wireless communication the spreading function is a random process corresponding to a random Hilbert--Schmidt channel operator $\BH$ we measure this approximation in terms of the ratio of the $p$--norm of the deviation from variants of the Weyl symbol calculus to the $a$--norm of the spreading function itself. This generalizes recent results obtained for the case $p=2$ and $a=1$. We provide a general approach to this topic and consider then operators with $|U|<\infty$ in more detail. We show the relation to pulse shaping and weighted norms of ambiguity functions. Finally we derive several necessary conditions on $|U|$, such that the approximation error is below certain levels.
cs/0701039
On the Complexity of the Numerically Definite Syllogistic and Related Fragments
cs.LO cs.AI cs.CC
In this paper, we determine the complexity of the satisfiability problem for various logics obtained by adding numerical quantifiers, and other constructions, to the traditional syllogistic. In addition, we demonstrate the incompleteness of some recently proposed proof-systems for these logics.
cs/0701040
Curve Tracking Control for Legged Locomotion in Horizontal Plane
cs.RO
We derive a hybrid feedback control law for the lateral leg spring (LLS) model so that the center of mass of a legged runner follows a curved path in horizontal plane. The control law enables the runner to change the placement and the elasticity of its legs to move in a desired direction. Stable motion along a curved path is achieved using curvature, bearing and relative distance between the runner and the curve as feedback. Constraints on leg parameters determine the class of curves that can be followed. We also derive an optimal control law that stabilizes the orientation of the runner's body relative to the velocity of the runner's center of mass.
cs/0701041
A Coding Theorem for a Class of Stationary Channels with Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
A coding theorem is proved for a class of stationary channels with feedback in which the output Y_n = f(X_{n-m}^n, Z_{n-m}^n) is the function of the current and past m symbols from the channel input X_n and the stationary ergodic channel noise Z_n. In particular, it is shown that the feedback capacity is equal to $$ \limp_{n\to\infty} \sup_{p(x^n||y^{n-1})} \frac{1}{n} I(X^n \to Y^n), $$ where I(X^n \to Y^n) = \sum_{i=1}^n I(X^i; Y_i|Y^{i-1}) denotes the Massey directed information from the channel input to the output, and the supremum is taken over all causally conditioned distributions p(x^n||y^{n-1}) = \prod_{i=1}^n p(x_i|x^{i-1},y^{i-1}). The main ideas of the proof are the Shannon strategy for coding with side information and a new elementary coding technique for the given channel model without feedback, which is in a sense dual to Gallager's lossy coding of stationary ergodic sources. A similar approach gives a simple alternative proof of coding theorems for finite state channels by Yang-Kavcic-Tatikonda, Chen-Berger, and Permuter-Weissman-Goldsmith.
cs/0701042
Sending a Bivariate Gaussian Source over a Gaussian MAC with Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the problem of transmitting a bivariate Gaussian source over a two-user additive Gaussian multiple-access channel with feedback. Each of the transmitters observes one of the source components and tries to describe it to the common receiver. We are interested in the minimal mean squared error at which the receiver can reconstruct each of the source components. In the ``symmetric case'' we show that, below a certain signal-to-noise ratio threshold which is determined by the source correlation, feedback is useless and the minimal distortion is achieved by uncoded transmission. For the general case we give necessary conditions for the achievability of a distortion pair.
cs/0701043
Adaptive Alternating Minimization Algorithms
cs.IT math.IT math.OC
The classical alternating minimization (or projection) algorithm has been successful in the context of solving optimization problems over two variables. The iterative nature and simplicity of the algorithm has led to its application to many areas such as signal processing, information theory, control, and finance. A general set of sufficient conditions for the convergence and correctness of the algorithm is quite well-known when the underlying problem parameters are fixed. In many practical situations, however, the underlying problem parameters are changing over time, and the use of an adaptive algorithm is more appropriate. In this paper, we study such an adaptive version of the alternating minimization algorithm. As a main result of this paper, we provide a general set of sufficient conditions for the convergence and correctness of the adaptive algorithm. Perhaps surprisingly, these conditions seem to be the minimal ones one would expect in such an adaptive setting. We present applications of our results to adaptive decomposition of mixtures, adaptive log-optimal portfolio selection, and adaptive filter design.
cs/0701047
On vocabulary size of grammar-based codes
cs.IT cs.CL math.IT
We discuss inequalities holding between the vocabulary size, i.e., the number of distinct nonterminal symbols in a grammar-based compression for a string, and the excess length of the respective universal code, i.e., the code-based analog of algorithmic mutual information. The aim is to strengthen inequalities which were discussed in a weaker form in linguistics but shed some light on redundancy of efficiently computable codes. The main contribution of the paper is a construction of universal grammar-based codes for which the excess lengths can be bounded easily.
cs/0701048
Energy Conscious Interactive Communication for Sensor Networks
cs.IT math.IT
In this work, we are concerned with maximizing the lifetime of a cluster of sensors engaged in single-hop communication with a base-station. In a data-gathering network, the spatio-temporal correlation in sensor data induces data-redundancy. Also, the interaction between two communicating parties is well-known to reduce the communication complexity. This paper proposes a formalism that exploits these two opportunities to reduce the number of bits transmitted by a sensor node in a cluster, hence enhancing its lifetime. We argue that our approach has several inherent advantages in scenarios where the sensor nodes are acutely energy and computing-power constrained, but the base-station is not so. This provides us an opportunity to develop communication protocols, where most of the computing and communication is done by the base-station. The proposed framework casts the sensor nodes and base-station communication problem as the problem of multiple informants with correlated information communicating with a recipient and attempts to extend extant work on interactive communication between an informant-recipient pair to such scenarios. Our work makes four major contributions. Firstly, we explicitly show that in such scenarios interaction can help in reducing the communication complexity. Secondly, we show that the order in which the informants communicate with the recipient may determine the communication complexity. Thirdly, we provide the framework to compute the $m$-message communication complexity in such scenarios. Lastly, we prove that in a typical sensor network scenario, the proposed formalism significantly reduces the communication and computational complexities.
cs/0701050
A Simple Proof of the Entropy-Power Inequality via Properties of Mutual Information
cs.IT math.IT
While most useful information theoretic inequalities can be deduced from the basic properties of entropy or mutual information, Shannon's entropy power inequality (EPI) seems to be an exception: available information theoretic proofs of the EPI hinge on integral representations of differential entropy using either Fisher's information (FI) or minimum mean-square error (MMSE). In this paper, we first present a unified view of proofs via FI and MMSE, showing that they are essentially dual versions of the same proof, and then fill the gap by providing a new, simple proof of the EPI, which is solely based on the properties of mutual information and sidesteps both FI or MMSE representations.
cs/0701051
Coding, Scheduling, and Cooperation in Wireless Sensor Networks
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a single-hop data gathering sensor cluster consisting of a set of sensors that need to transmit data periodically to a base-station. We are interested in maximizing the lifetime of this network. Even though the setting of our problem is very simple, it turns out that the solution is far from easy. The complexity arises from several competing system-level opportunities available to reduce the energy consumed in radio transmission. First, sensor data is spatially and temporally correlated. Recent advances in distributed source-coding allow us to take advantage of these correlations to reduce the number of transmitted bits, with concomitant savings in energy. Second, it is also well-known that channel-coding can be used to reduce transmission energy by increasing transmission time. Finally, sensor nodes are cooperative, unlike nodes in an ad hoc network that are often modeled as competitive, allowing us to take full advantage of the first two opportunities for the purpose of maximizing cluster lifetime. In this paper, we pose the problem of maximizing lifetime as a max-min optimization problem subject to the constraint of successful data collection and limited energy supply at each node. By introducing the notion of instantaneous decoding, we are able to simplify this optimization problem into a joint scheduling and time allocation problem. We show that even with our ample simplification, the problem remains NP-hard. We provide some algorithms, heuristics and insight for various scenarios. Our chief contribution is to illustrate both the challenges and gains provided by joint source-channel coding and scheduling.
cs/0701052
Time Series Forecasting: Obtaining Long Term Trends with Self-Organizing Maps
cs.LG math.ST stat.TH
Kohonen self-organisation maps are a well know classification tool, commonly used in a wide variety of problems, but with limited applications in time series forecasting context. In this paper, we propose a forecasting method specifically designed for multi-dimensional long-term trends prediction, with a double application of the Kohonen algorithm. Practical applications of the method are also presented.
cs/0701053
A Case For Amplify-Forward Relaying in the Block-Fading Multi-Access Channel
cs.IT math.IT
This paper demonstrates the significant gains that multi-access users can achieve from sharing a single amplify-forward relay in slow fading environments. The proposed protocol, namely the multi-access relay amplify-forward, allows for a low-complexity relay and achieves the optimal diversity-multiplexing trade-off at high multiplexing gains. Analysis of the protocol reveals that it uniformly dominates the compress-forward strategy and further outperforms the dynamic decode-forward protocol at high multiplexing gains. An interesting feature of the proposed protocol is that, at high multiplexing gains, it resembles a multiple-input single-output system, and at low multiplexing gains, it provides each user with the same diversity-multiplexing trade-off as if there is no contention for the relay from the other users.
cs/0701055
Bounds on Space-Time-Frequency Dimensionality
cs.IT math.IT
We bound the number of electromagnetic signals which may be observed over a frequency range $2W$ for a time $T$ within a region of space enclosed by a radius $R$. Our result implies that broadband fields in space cannot be arbitrarily complex: there is a finite amount of information which may be extracted from a region of space via electromagnetic radiation. Three-dimensional space allows a trade-off between large carrier frequency and bandwidth. We demonstrate applications in super-resolution and broadband communication.
cs/0701056
Space-Time-Frequency Degrees of Freedom: Fundamental Limits for Spatial Information
cs.IT math.IT
We bound the number of electromagnetic signals which may be observed over a frequency range $[F-W,F+W]$ a time interval $[0,T]$ within a sphere of radius $R$. We show that the such constrained signals may be represented by a series expansion whose terms are bounded exponentially to zero beyond a threshold. Our result implies there is a finite amount of information which may be extracted from a region of space via electromagnetic radiation.
cs/0701057
Cooperative Optimization for Energy Minimization: A Case Study of Stereo Matching
cs.CV cs.AI
Often times, individuals working together as a team can solve hard problems beyond the capability of any individual in the team. Cooperative optimization is a newly proposed general method for attacking hard optimization problems inspired by cooperation principles in team playing. It has an established theoretical foundation and has demonstrated outstanding performances in solving real-world optimization problems. With some general settings, a cooperative optimization algorithm has a unique equilibrium and converges to it with an exponential rate regardless initial conditions and insensitive to perturbations. It also possesses a number of global optimality conditions for identifying global optima so that it can terminate its search process efficiently. This paper offers a general description of cooperative optimization, addresses a number of design issues, and presents a case study to demonstrate its power.
cs/0701058
Precoding in Multiple-Antenna Broadcast Systems with a Probabilistic Viewpoint
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we investigate the minimum average transmit energy that can be obtained in multiple antenna broadcast systems with channel inversion technique. The achievable gain can be significantly higher than the conventional gains that are mentioned in methods like perturbation technique of Peel, et al. In order to obtain this gain, we introduce a Selective Mapping (SLM) technique (based on random coding arguments). We propose to implement the SLM method by using nested lattice codes in a trellis precoding framework.
cs/0701059
Enhancing Sensor Network Lifetime Using Interactive Communication
cs.IT math.IT
We are concerned with maximizing the lifetime of a data-gathering wireless sensor network consisting of set of nodes directly communicating with a base-station. We model this scenario as the m-message interactive communication between multiple correlated informants (sensor nodes) and a recipient (base-station). With this framework, we show that m-message interactive communication can indeed enhance network lifetime. Both worst-case and average-case performances are considered.
cs/0701060
Duadic Group Algebra Codes
cs.IT math.IT quant-ph
Duadic group algebra codes are a generalization of quadratic residue codes. This paper settles an open problem raised by Zhu concerning the existence of duadic group algebra codes. These codes can be used to construct degenerate quantum stabilizer codes that have the nice feature that many errors of small weight do not need error correction; this fact is illustrated by an example.
cs/0701061
Conjugate Gradient Projection Approach for Multi-Antenna Gaussian Broadcast Channels
cs.IT math.IT
It has been shown recently that the dirty-paper coding is the optimal strategy for maximizing the sum rate of multiple-input multiple-output Gaussian broadcast channels (MIMO BC). Moreover, by the channel duality, the nonconvex MIMO BC sum rate problem can be transformed to the convex dual MIMO multiple-access channel (MIMO MAC) problem with a sum power constraint. In this paper, we design an efficient algorithm based on conjugate gradient projection (CGP) to solve the MIMO BC maximum sum rate problem. Our proposed CGP algorithm solves the dual sum power MAC problem by utilizing the powerful concept of Hessian conjugacy. We also develop a rigorous algorithm to solve the projection problem. We show that CGP enjoys provable convergence, nice scalability, and great efficiency for large MIMO BC systems.
cs/0701062
Network Coding over a Noisy Relay : a Belief Propagation Approach
cs.IT math.IT
In recent years, network coding has been investigated as a method to obtain improvements in wireless networks. A typical assumption of previous work is that relay nodes performing network coding can decode the messages from sources perfectly. On a simple relay network, we design a scheme to obtain network coding gain even when the relay node cannot perfectly decode its received messages. In our scheme, the operation at the relay node resembles message passing in belief propagation, sending the logarithm likelihood ratio (LLR) of the network coded message to the destination. Simulation results demonstrate the gain obtained over different channel conditions. The goal of this paper is not to give a theoretical result, but to point to possible interaction of network coding with user cooperation in noisy scenario. The extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart is shown to be a useful engineering tool to analyze the performance of joint channel coding and network coding in the network.
cs/0701063
Hierarchical Decoupling Principle of a MIMO-CDMA Channel in Asymptotic Limits
cs.IT math.IT
We analyze an uplink of a fast flat fading MIMO-CDMA channel in the case where the data symbol vector for each user follows an arbitrary distribution. The spectral efficiency of the channel with CSI at the receiver is evaluated analytically with the replica method. The main result is that the hierarchical decoupling principle holds in the MIMO-CDMA channel, i.e., the MIMO-CDMA channel is decoupled into a bank of single-user MIMO channels in the many-user limit, and each single-user MIMO channel is further decoupled into a bank of scalar Gaussian channels in the many-antenna limit for a fading model with a limited number of scatterers.
cs/0701065
Can Punctured Rate-1/2 Turbo Codes Achieve a Lower Error Floor than their Rate-1/3 Parent Codes?
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we concentrate on rate-1/3 systematic parallel concatenated convolutional codes and their rate-1/2 punctured child codes. Assuming maximum-likelihood decoding over an additive white Gaussian channel, we demonstrate that a rate-1/2 non-systematic child code can exhibit a lower error floor than that of its rate-1/3 parent code, if a particular condition is met. However, assuming iterative decoding, convergence of the non-systematic code towards low bit-error rates is problematic. To alleviate this problem, we propose rate-1/2 partially-systematic codes that can still achieve a lower error floor than that of their rate-1/3 parent codes. Results obtained from extrinsic information transfer charts and simulations support our conclusion.
cs/0701066
Non-binary Hybrid LDPC Codes: Structure, Decoding and Optimization
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we propose to study and optimize a very general class of LDPC codes whose variable nodes belong to finite sets with different orders. We named this class of codes Hybrid LDPC codes. Although efficient optimization techniques exist for binary LDPC codes and more recently for non-binary LDPC codes, they both exhibit drawbacks due to different reasons. Our goal is to capitalize on the advantages of both families by building codes with binary (or small finite set order) and non-binary parts in their factor graph representation. The class of Hybrid LDPC codes is obviously larger than existing types of codes, which gives more degrees of freedom to find good codes where the existing codes show their limits. We give two examples where hybrid LDPC codes show their interest.
cs/0701067
On Four-group ML Decodable Distributed Space Time Codes for Cooperative Communication
cs.IT math.IT
A construction of a new family of distributed space time codes (DSTCs) having full diversity and low Maximum Likelihood (ML) decoding complexity is provided for the two phase based cooperative diversity protocols of Jing-Hassibi and the recently proposed Generalized Non-orthogonal Amplify and Forward (GNAF) protocol of Rajan et al. The salient feature of the proposed DSTCs is that they satisfy the extra constraints imposed by the protocols and are also four-group ML decodable which leads to significant reduction in ML decoding complexity compared to all existing DSTC constructions. Moreover these codes have uniform distribution of power among the relays as well as in time. Also, simulations results indicate that these codes perform better in comparison with the only known DSTC with the same rate and decoding complexity, namely the Coordinate Interleaved Orthogonal Design (CIOD). Furthermore, they perform very close to DSTCs from field extensions which have same rate but higher decoding complexity.
cs/0701068
Distributed Space-Time Codes for Cooperative Networks with Partial CSI
cs.IT math.IT
Design criteria and full-diversity Distributed Space Time Codes (DSTCs) for the two phase transmission based cooperative diversity protocol of Jing-Hassibi and the Generalized Nonorthogonal Amplify and Forward (GNAF) protocol are reported, when the relay nodes are assumed to have knowledge of the phase component of the source to relay channel gains. It is shown that this under this partial channel state information (CSI), several well known space time codes for the colocated MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) channel become amenable for use as DSTCs. In particular, the well known complex orthogonal designs, generalized coordinate interleaved orthogonal designs (GCIODs) and unitary weight single symbol decodable (UW-SSD) codes are shown to satisfy the required design constraints for DSTCs. Exploiting the relaxed code design constraints, we propose DSTCs obtained from Clifford Algebras which have low ML decoding complexity.
cs/0701070
On formulas for decoding binary cyclic codes
cs.IT math.IT
We adress the problem of the algebraic decoding of any cyclic code up to the true minimum distance. For this, we use the classical formulation of the problem, which is to find the error locator polynomial in terms of the syndroms of the received word. This is usually done with the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm in the case of BCH codes and related codes, but for the general case, there is no generic algorithm to decode cyclic codes. Even in the case of the quadratic residue codes, which are good codes with a very strong algebraic structure, there is no available general decoding algorithm. For this particular case of quadratic residue codes, several authors have worked out, by hand, formulas for the coefficients of the locator polynomial in terms of the syndroms, using the Newton identities. This work has to be done for each particular quadratic residue code, and is more and more difficult as the length is growing. Furthermore, it is error-prone. We propose to automate these computations, using elimination theory and Grbner bases. We prove that, by computing appropriate Grbner bases, one automatically recovers formulas for the coefficients of the locator polynomial, in terms of the syndroms.
cs/0701072
Tagging, Folksonomy & Co - Renaissance of Manual Indexing?
cs.IR
This paper gives an overview of current trends in manual indexing on the Web. Along with a general rise of user generated content there are more and more tagging systems that allow users to annotate digital resources with tags (keywords) and share their annotations with other users. Tagging is frequently seen in contrast to traditional knowledge organization systems or as something completely new. This paper shows that tagging should better be seen as a popular form of manual indexing on the Web. Difference between controlled and free indexing blurs with sufficient feedback mechanisms. A revised typology of tagging systems is presented that includes different user roles and knowledge organization systems with hierarchical relationships and vocabulary control. A detailed bibliography of current research in collaborative tagging is included.
cs/0701077
Asynchronous Distributed Searchlight Scheduling
cs.MA cs.RO
This paper develops and compares two simple asynchronous distributed searchlight scheduling algorithms for multiple robotic agents in nonconvex polygonal environments. A searchlight is a ray emitted by an agent which cannot penetrate the boundary of the environment. A point is detected by a searchlight if and only if the point is on the ray at some instant. Targets are points which can move continuously with unbounded speed. The objective of the proposed algorithms is for the agents to coordinate the slewing (rotation about a point) of their searchlights in a distributed manner, i.e., using only local sensing and limited communication, such that any target will necessarily be detected in finite time. The first algorithm we develop, called the DOWSS (Distributed One Way Sweep Strategy), is a distributed version of a known algorithm described originally in 1990 by Sugihara et al \cite{KS-IS-MY:90}, but it can be very slow in clearing the entire environment because only one searchlight may slew at a time. In an effort to reduce the time to clear the environment, we develop a second algorithm, called the PTSS (Parallel Tree Sweep Strategy), in which searchlights sweep in parallel if guards are placed according to an environment partition belonging to a class we call PTSS partitions. Finally, we discuss how DOWSS and PTSS could be combined with with deployment, or extended to environments with holes.
cs/0701078
Low SNR Capacity of Fading Channels -- MIMO and Delay Spread
cs.IT math.IT
Discrete-time Rayleigh fading multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels are considered, with no channel state information at the transmitter and receiver. The fading is assumed to be correlated in time and independent from antenna to antenna. Peak and average transmit power constraints are imposed, either on the sum over antennas, or on each individual antenna. In both cases, an upper bound and an asymptotic lower bound, as the signal-to-noise ratio approaches zero, on the channel capacity are presented. The limit of normalized capacity is identified under the sum power constraints, and, for a subclass of channels, for individual power constraints. These results carry over to a SISO channel with delay spread (i.e. frequency selective fading).
cs/0701079
Practical Binary Adaptive Block Coder
cs.IT cs.DS math.IT
This paper describes design of a low-complexity algorithm for adaptive encoding/ decoding of binary sequences produced by memoryless sources. The algorithm implements universal block codes constructed for a set of contexts identified by the numbers of non-zero bits in previous bits in a sequence. We derive a precise formula for asymptotic redundancy of such codes, which refines previous well-known estimate by Krichevsky and Trofimov, and provide experimental verification of this result. In our experimental study we also compare our implementation with existing binary adaptive encoders, such as JBIG's Q-coder, and MPEG AVC (ITU-T H.264)'s CABAC algorithms.
cs/0701080
Analysis of the Sufficient Path Elimination Window for the Maximum-Likelihood Sequential-Search Decoding Algorithm for Binary Convolutional Codes
cs.IT math.IT
A common problem on sequential-type decoding is that at the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) below the one corresponding to the cutoff rate, the average decoding complexity per information bit and the required stack size grow rapidly with the information length. In order to alleviate the problem in the maximum-likelihood sequential decoding algorithm (MLSDA), we propose to directly eliminate the top path whose end node is $\Delta$-trellis-level prior to the farthest one among all nodes that have been expanded thus far by the sequential search. Following random coding argument, we analyze the early-elimination window $\Delta$ that results in negligible performance degradation for the MLSDA. Our analytical results indicate that the required early elimination window for negligible performance degradation is just twice of the constraint length for rate one-half convolutional codes. For rate one-third convolutional codes, the required early-elimination window even reduces to the constraint length. The suggestive theoretical level thresholds almost coincide with the simulation results. As a consequence of the small early-elimination window required for near maximum-likelihood performance, the MLSDA with early-elimination modification rules out considerable computational burdens, as well as memory requirement, by directly eliminating a big number of the top paths, which makes the MLSDA with early elimination very suitable for applications that dictate a low-complexity software implementation with near maximum-likelihood performance.
cs/0701083
A Backtracking-Based Algorithm for Computing Hypertree-Decompositions
cs.DS cs.AI
Hypertree decompositions of hypergraphs are a generalization of tree decompositions of graphs. The corresponding hypertree-width is a measure for the cyclicity and therefore tractability of the encoded computation problem. Many NP-hard decision and computation problems are known to be tractable on instances whose structure corresponds to hypergraphs of bounded hypertree-width. Intuitively, the smaller the hypertree-width, the faster the computation problem can be solved. In this paper, we present the new backtracking-based algorithm det-k-decomp for computing hypertree decompositions of small width. Our benchmark evaluations have shown that det-k-decomp significantly outperforms opt-k-decomp, the only exact hypertree decomposition algorithm so far. Even compared to the best heuristic algorithm, we obtained competitive results as long as the hypergraphs are not too large.
cs/0701084
Pseudo-codeword Landscape
cs.IT cond-mat.stat-mech math.IT
We discuss the performance of Low-Density-Parity-Check (LDPC) codes decoded by means of Linear Programming (LP) at moderate and large Signal-to-Noise-Ratios (SNR). Utilizing a combination of the previously introduced pseudo-codeword-search method and a new "dendro" trick, which allows us to reduce the complexity of the LP decoding, we analyze the dependence of the Frame-Error-Rate (FER) on the SNR. Under Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) decoding the dendro-code, having only checks with connectivity degree three, performs identically to its original code with high-connectivity checks. For a number of popular LDPC codes performing over the Additive-White-Gaussian-Noise (AWGN) channel we found that either an error-floor sets at a relatively low SNR, or otherwise a transient asymptote, characterized by a faster decay of FER with the SNR increase, precedes the error-floor asymptote. We explain these regimes in terms of the pseudo-codeword spectra of the codes.
cs/0701085
Variations on the Fibonacci Universal Code
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
This note presents variations on the Fibonacci universal code, that may also be called the Gopala-Hemachandra code, that can have applications in source coding as well as in cryptography.
cs/0701086
Loop Calculus and Belief Propagation for q-ary Alphabet: Loop Tower
cs.IT cond-mat.stat-mech math.IT
Loop Calculus introduced in [Chertkov, Chernyak '06] constitutes a new theoretical tool that explicitly expresses the symbol Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) solution of a general statistical inference problem via a solution of the Belief Propagation (BP) equations. This finding brought a new significance to the BP concept, which in the past was thought of as just a loop-free approximation. In this paper we continue a discussion of the Loop Calculus. We introduce an invariant formulation which allows to generalize the Loop Calculus approach to a q-are alphabet.
cs/0701087
Artificiality in Social Sciences
cs.MA
This text provides with an introduction to the modern approach of artificiality and simulation in social sciences. It presents the relationship between complexity and artificiality, before introducing the field of artificial societies which greatly benefited from the computer power fast increase, gifting social sciences with formalization and experimentation tools previously owned by "hard" sciences alone. It shows that as "a new way of doing social sciences", artificial societies should undoubtedly contribute to a renewed approach in the study of sociality and should play a significant part in the elaboration of original theories of social phenomena.
cs/0701089
Constructive Dimension and Turing Degrees
cs.CC cs.IT math.IT
This paper examines the constructive Hausdorff and packing dimensions of Turing degrees. The main result is that every infinite sequence S with constructive Hausdorff dimension dim_H(S) and constructive packing dimension dim_P(S) is Turing equivalent to a sequence R with dim_H(R) <= (dim_H(S) / dim_P(S)) - epsilon, for arbitrary epsilon > 0. Furthermore, if dim_P(S) > 0, then dim_P(R) >= 1 - epsilon. The reduction thus serves as a *randomness extractor* that increases the algorithmic randomness of S, as measured by constructive dimension. A number of applications of this result shed new light on the constructive dimensions of Turing degrees. A lower bound of dim_H(S) / dim_P(S) is shown to hold for the Turing degree of any sequence S. A new proof is given of a previously-known zero-one law for the constructive packing dimension of Turing degrees. It is also shown that, for any regular sequence S (that is, dim_H(S) = dim_P(S)) such that dim_H(S) > 0, the Turing degree of S has constructive Hausdorff and packing dimension equal to 1. Finally, it is shown that no single Turing reduction can be a universal constructive Hausdorff dimension extractor, and that bounded Turing reductions cannot extract constructive Hausdorff dimension. We also exhibit sequences on which weak truth-table and bounded Turing reductions differ in their ability to extract dimension.
cs/0701090
Ergodic Capacity of Discrete- and Continuous-Time, Frequency-Selective Rayleigh Fading Channels with Correlated Scattering
cs.IT math.IT
We study the ergodic capacity of a frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channel with correlated scattering, which finds application in the area of UWB. Under an average power constraint, we consider a single-user, single-antenna transmission. Coherent reception is assumed with full CSI at the receiver and no CSI at the transmitter. We distinguish between a continuous- and a discrete-time channel, modeled either as random process or random vector with generic covariance. As a practically relevant example, we examine an exponentially attenuated Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process in detail. Finally, we give numerical results, discuss the relation between the continuous- and the discrete-time channel model and show the significant impact of correlated scattering.
cs/0701091
Iterative LDPC decoding using neighborhood reliabilities
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we study the impact of the processing order of nodes of a bipartite graph, on the performance of an iterative message-passing decoding. To this end, we introduce the concept of neighborhood reliabilities of graph's nodes. Nodes reliabilities are calculated at each iteration and then are used to obtain a processing order within a serial or serial/parallel scheduling. The basic idea is that by processing first the most reliable data, the decoder is reinforced before processing the less reliable one. Using neighborhood reliabilities, the Min-Sum decoder of LDPC codes approaches the performance of the Sum-Product decoder.
cs/0701092
The Multiplexing Gain of MIMO X-Channels with Partial Transmit Side-Information
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we obtain the scaling laws of the sum-rate capacity of a MIMO X-channel, a 2 independent sender, 2 independent receiver channel with messages from each transmitter to each receiver, at high signal to noise ratios (SNR). The X-channel has sparked recent interest in the context of cooperative networks and it encompasses the interference, multiple access, and broadcast channels as special cases. Here, we consider the case with partially cooperative transmitters in which only partial and asymmetric side-information is available at one of the transmitters. It is proved that when there are M antennas at all four nodes, the sum-rate scales like 2Mlog(SNR) which is in sharp contrast to [\lfloor 4M/3 \rfloor,4M/3]log(SNR) for non-cooperative X-channels \cite{maddah-ali,jafar_degrees}. This further proves that, in terms of sum-rate scaling at high SNR, partial side-information at one of the transmitters and full side-information at both transmitters are equivalent in the MIMO X-channel.
cs/0701093
Throughput Scaling Laws for Wireless Networks with Fading Channels
cs.IT math.IT
A network of $n$ wireless communication links is considered. Fading is assumed to be the dominant factor affecting the strength of the channels between nodes. The objective is to analyze the achievable throughput of the network when power allocation is allowed. By proposing a decentralized on-off power allocation strategy, a lower bound on the achievable throughput is obtained for a general fading model. In particular, under Rayleigh fading conditions the achieved sum-rate is of order $\log n$, which is, by a constant factor, larger than what is obtained with a centralized scheme in the work of Gowaikar et al. Similar to most of previous works on large networks, the proposed scheme assigns a vanishingly small rate for each link. However, it is shown that by allowing the sum-rate to decrease by a factor $\alpha<1$, this scheme is capable of providing non-zero rate-per-links of order $\Theta(1)$. To obtain larger non-zero rate-per-links, the proposed scheme is modified to a centralized version. It turns out that for the same number of active links the centralized scheme achieves a much larger rate-per-link. Moreover, at large values of rate-per-link, it achieves a sum-rate close to $\log n$, i.e., the maximum achieved by the decentralized scheme.
cs/0701095
Propositional theories are strongly equivalent to logic programs
cs.AI cs.LO
This paper presents a property of propositional theories under the answer sets semantics (called Equilibrium Logic for this general syntax): any theory can always be reexpressed as a strongly equivalent disjunctive logic program, possibly with negation in the head. We provide two different proofs for this result: one involving a syntactic transformation, and one that constructs a program starting from the countermodels of the theory in the intermediate logic of here-and-there.
cs/0701097
MacWilliams Identity for the Rank Metric
cs.IT math.IT
This paper investigates the relationship between the rank weight distribution of a linear code and that of its dual code. The main result of this paper is that, similar to the MacWilliams identity for the Hamming metric, the rank weight distribution of any linear code can be expressed as an analytical expression of that of its dual code. Remarkably, our new identity has a similar form to the MacWilliams identity for the Hamming metric. Our new identity provides a significant analytical tool to the rank weight distribution analysis of linear codes. We use a linear space based approach in the proof for our new identity, and adapt this approach to provide an alternative proof of the MacWilliams identity for the Hamming metric. Finally, we determine the relationship between moments of the rank distribution of a linear code and those of its dual code, and provide an alternative derivation of the rank weight distribution of maximum rank distance codes.
cs/0701098
Packing and Covering Properties of Rank Metric Codes
cs.IT math.IT
This paper investigates packing and covering properties of codes with the rank metric. First, we investigate packing properties of rank metric codes. Then, we study sphere covering properties of rank metric codes, derive bounds on their parameters, and investigate their asymptotic covering properties.
cs/0701099
On the Feedback Capacity of Power Constrained Gaussian Noise Channels with Memory
cs.IT math.IT
For a stationary additive Gaussian-noise channel with a rational noise power spectrum of a finite-order $L$, we derive two new results for the feedback capacity under an average channel input power constraint. First, we show that a very simple feedback-dependent Gauss-Markov source achieves the feedback capacity, and that Kalman-Bucy filtering is optimal for processing the feedback. Based on these results, we develop a new method for optimizing the channel inputs for achieving the Cover-Pombra block-length-$n$ feedback capacity by using a dynamic programming approach that decomposes the computation into $n$ sequentially identical optimization problems where each stage involves optimizing $O(L^2)$ variables. Second, we derive the explicit maximal information rate for stationary feedback-dependent sources. In general, evaluating the maximal information rate for stationary sources requires solving only a few equations by simple non-linear programming. For first-order autoregressive and/or moving average (ARMA) noise channels, this optimization admits a closed form maximal information rate formula. The maximal information rate for stationary sources is a lower bound on the feedback capacity, and it equals the feedback capacity if the long-standing conjecture, that stationary sources achieve the feedback capacity, holds.
cs/0701100
Delayed Feedback Capacity of Stationary Sources over Linear Gaussian Noise Channels
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a linear Gaussian noise channel used with delayed feedback. The channel noise is assumed to be a ARMA (autoregressive and/or moving average) process. We reformulate the Gaussian noise channel into an intersymbol interference channel with white noise, and show that the delayed-feedback of the original channel is equivalent to the instantaneous-feedback of the derived channel. By generalizing results previously developed for Gaussian channels with instantaneous feedback and applying them to the derived intersymbol interference channel, we show that conditioned on the delayed feedback, a conditional Gauss-Markov source achieves the feedback capacity and its Markov memory length is determined by the noise spectral order and the feedback delay. A Kalman-Bucy filter is shown to be optimal for processing the feedback. The maximal information rate for stationary sources is derived in terms of channel input power constraint and the steady state solution of the Riccati equation of the Kalman-Bucy filter used in the feedback loop.
cs/0701102
Coding Solutions for the Secure Biometric Storage Problem
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
The paper studies the problem of securely storing biometric passwords, such as fingerprints and irises. With the help of coding theory Juels and Wattenberg derived in 1999 a scheme where similar input strings will be accepted as the same biometric. In the same time nothing could be learned from the stored data. They called their scheme a "fuzzy commitment scheme". In this paper we will revisit the solution of Juels and Wattenberg and we will provide answers to two important questions: What type of error-correcting codes should be used and what happens if biometric templates are not uniformly distributed, i.e. the biometric data come with redundancy. Answering the first question will lead us to the search for low-rate large-minimum distance error-correcting codes which come with efficient decoding algorithms up to the designed distance. In order to answer the second question we relate the rate required with a quantity connected to the "entropy" of the string, trying to estimate a sort of "capacity", if we want to see a flavor of the converse of Shannon's noisy coding theorem. Finally we deal with side-problems arising in a practical implementation and we propose a possible solution to the main one that seems to have so far prevented real life applications of the fuzzy scheme, as far as we know.
cs/0701103
Analysis and design of raptor codes for joint decoding using Information Content evolution
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we present an analytical analysis of the convergence of raptor codes under joint decoding over the binary input additive white noise channel (BIAWGNC), and derive an optimization method. We use Information Content evolution under Gaussian approximation, and focus on a new decoding scheme that proves to be more efficient: the joint decoding of the two code components of the raptor code. In our general model, the classical tandem decoding scheme appears to be a subcase, and thus, the design of LT codes is also possible.
cs/0701104
Why is a new Journal of Informetrics needed?
cs.DL cs.DB
In our study we analysed 3.889 records which were indexed in the Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA) database in the research field of informetrics. We can show the core journals of the field via a Bradford (power law) distribution and corroborate on the basis of the restricted LISA data set that it was the appropriate time to found a new specialized journal dedicated to informetrics. According to Bradford's Law of scattering (pure quantitative calculation), Egghe's Journal of Informetrics (JOI) first issue to appear in 2007, comes most probable at the right time.
cs/0701105
A Delta Debugger for ILP Query Execution
cs.PL cs.LG
Because query execution is the most crucial part of Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) algorithms, a lot of effort is invested in developing faster execution mechanisms. These execution mechanisms typically have a low-level implementation, making them hard to debug. Moreover, other factors such as the complexity of the problems handled by ILP algorithms and size of the code base of ILP data mining systems make debugging at this level a very difficult job. In this work, we present the trace-based debugging approach currently used in the development of new execution mechanisms in hipP, the engine underlying the ACE Data Mining system. This debugger uses the delta debugging algorithm to automatically reduce the total time needed to expose bugs in ILP execution, thus making manual debugging step much lighter.
cs/0701112
(l,s)-Extension of Linear Codes
cs.IT math.CO math.IT
We construct new linear codes with high minimum distance d. In at least 12 cases these codes improve the minimum distance of the previously known best linear codes for fixed parameters n,k. Among these new codes there is an optimal ternary [88,8,54] code. We develop an algorithm, which starts with already good codes C, i.e. codes with high minimum distance d for given length n and dimension k over the field GF(q). The algorithm is based on the newly defined (l,s)-extension. This is a generalization of the well-known method of adding a parity bit in the case of a binary linear code of odd minimum weight. (l,s)-extension tries to extend the generator matrix of C by adding l columns with the property that at least s of the l letters added to each of the codewords of minimum weight in C are different from 0. If one finds such columns the minimum distance of the extended code is d+s provided that the second smallest weight in C was at least d+s. The question whether such columns exist can be settled using a Diophantine system of equations.
cs/0701114
The problem determination of Functional Dependencies between attributes Relation Scheme in the Relational Data Model. El problema de determinar Dependencias Funcionales entre atributos en los esquemas en el Modelo Relacional
cs.DB cs.DS
An alternative definition of the concept is given of functional dependence among the attributes of the relational schema in the Relational Model, this definition is obtained in terms of the set theory. For that which a theorem is demonstrated that establishes equivalence and on the basis theorem an algorithm is built for the search of the functional dependences among the attributes. The algorithm is illustrated by a concrete example
cs/0701115
Browser-based distributed evolutionary computation: performance and scaling behavior
cs.DC cs.NE
The challenge of ad-hoc computing is to find the way of taking advantage of spare cycles in an efficient way that takes into account all capabilities of the devices and interconnections available to them. In this paper we explore distributed evolutionary computation based on the Ruby on Rails framework, which overlays a Model-View-Controller on evolutionary computation. It allows anybody with a web browser (that is, mostly everybody connected to the Internet) to participate in an evolutionary computation experiment. Using a straightforward farming model, we consider different factors, such as the size of the population used. We are mostly interested in how they impact on performance, but also the scaling behavior when a non-trivial number of computers is applied to the problem. Experiments show the impact of different packet sizes on performance, as well as a quite limited scaling behavior, due to the characteristics of the server. Several solutions for that problem are proposed.
cs/0701116
The Impact of CSI and Power Allocation on Relay Channel Capacity and Cooperation Strategies
cs.IT math.IT
Capacity gains from transmitter and receiver cooperation are compared in a relay network where the cooperating nodes are close together. Under quasi-static phase fading, when all nodes have equal average transmit power along with full channel state information (CSI), it is shown that transmitter cooperation outperforms receiver cooperation, whereas the opposite is true when power is optimally allocated among the cooperating nodes but only CSI at the receiver (CSIR) is available. When the nodes have equal power with CSIR only, cooperative schemes are shown to offer no capacity improvement over non-cooperation under the same network power constraint. When the system is under optimal power allocation with full CSI, the decode-and-forward transmitter cooperation rate is close to its cut-set capacity upper bound, and outperforms compress-and-forward receiver cooperation. Under fast Rayleigh fading in the high SNR regime, similar conclusions follow. Cooperative systems provide resilience to fading in channel magnitudes; however, capacity becomes more sensitive to power allocation, and the cooperating nodes need to be closer together for the decode-and-forward scheme to be capacity-achieving. Moreover, to realize capacity improvement, full CSI is necessary in transmitter cooperation, while in receiver cooperation optimal power allocation is essential.
cs/0701117
Maximum Entropy in the framework of Algebraic Statistics: A First Step
cs.IT cs.SC math.IT
Algebraic statistics is a recently evolving field, where one would treat statistical models as algebraic objects and thereby use tools from computational commutative algebra and algebraic geometry in the analysis and computation of statistical models. In this approach, calculation of parameters of statistical models amounts to solving set of polynomial equations in several variables, for which one can use celebrated Grobner bases theory. Owing to the important role of information theory in statistics, this paper as a first step, explores the possibility of describing maximum and minimum entropy (ME) models in the framework of algebraic statistics. We show that ME-models are toric models (a class of algebraic statistical models) when the constraint functions (that provide the information about the underlying random variable) are integer valued functions, and the set of statistical models that results from ME-methods are indeed an affine variety.
cs/0701118
Optimal Order of Decoding for Max-Min Fairness in $K$-User Memoryless Interference Channels
cs.IT math.IT
A $K$-user memoryless interference channel is considered where each receiver sequentially decodes the data of a subset of transmitters before it decodes the data of the designated transmitter. Therefore, the data rate of each transmitter depends on (i) the subset of receivers which decode the data of that transmitter, (ii) the decoding order, employed at each of these receivers. In this paper, a greedy algorithm is developed to find the users which are decoded at each receiver and the corresponding decoding order such that the minimum rate of the users is maximized. It is proven that the proposed algorithm is optimal.
cs/0701119
The framework for simulation of dynamics of mechanical aggregates
cs.CE
A framework for simulation of dynamics of mechanical aggregates has been developed. This framework enables us to build model of aggregate from models of its parts. Framework is a part of universal framework for science and engineering.
cs/0701120
Algorithmic Complexity Bounds on Future Prediction Errors
cs.LG cs.AI cs.IT math.IT
We bound the future loss when predicting any (computably) stochastic sequence online. Solomonoff finitely bounded the total deviation of his universal predictor $M$ from the true distribution $mu$ by the algorithmic complexity of $mu$. Here we assume we are at a time $t>1$ and already observed $x=x_1...x_t$. We bound the future prediction performance on $x_{t+1}x_{t+2}...$ by a new variant of algorithmic complexity of $mu$ given $x$, plus the complexity of the randomness deficiency of $x$. The new complexity is monotone in its condition in the sense that this complexity can only decrease if the condition is prolonged. We also briefly discuss potential generalizations to Bayesian model classes and to classification problems.
cs/0701123
Feasible Depth
cs.CC cs.IT math.IT
This paper introduces two complexity-theoretic formulations of Bennett's logical depth: finite-state depth and polynomial-time depth. It is shown that for both formulations, trivial and random infinite sequences are shallow, and a slow growth law holds, implying that deep sequences cannot be created easily from shallow sequences. Furthermore, the E analogue of the halting language is shown to be polynomial-time deep, by proving a more general result: every language to which a nonnegligible subset of E can be reduced in uniform exponential time is polynomial-time deep.
cs/0701124
Group Secret Key Generation Algorithms
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
We consider a pair-wise independent network where every pair of terminals in the network observes a common pair-wise source that is independent of all the sources accessible to the other pairs. We propose a method for secret key agreement in such a network that is based on well-established point-to-point techniques and repeated application of the one-time pad. Three specific problems are investigated. 1) Each terminal's observations are correlated only with the observations of a central terminal. All these terminals wish to generate a common secret key. 2) In a pair-wise independent network, two designated terminals wish to generate a secret key with the help of other terminals. 3) All the terminals in a pair-wise independent network wish to generate a common secret key. A separate protocol for each of these problems is proposed. Furthermore, we show that the protocols for the first two problems are optimal and the protocol for the third problem is efficient, in terms of the resulting secret key rates.
cs/0701125
Universal Algorithmic Intelligence: A mathematical top->down approach
cs.AI cs.LG
Sequential decision theory formally solves the problem of rational agents in uncertain worlds if the true environmental prior probability distribution is known. Solomonoff's theory of universal induction formally solves the problem of sequence prediction for unknown prior distribution. We combine both ideas and get a parameter-free theory of universal Artificial Intelligence. We give strong arguments that the resulting AIXI model is the most intelligent unbiased agent possible. We outline how the AIXI model can formally solve a number of problem classes, including sequence prediction, strategic games, function minimization, reinforcement and supervised learning. The major drawback of the AIXI model is that it is uncomputable. To overcome this problem, we construct a modified algorithm AIXItl that is still effectively more intelligent than any other time t and length l bounded agent. The computation time of AIXItl is of the order t x 2^l. The discussion includes formal definitions of intelligence order relations, the horizon problem and relations of the AIXI theory to other AI approaches.
cs/0701126
Optimal Throughput-Diversity-Delay Tradeoff in MIMO ARQ Block-Fading Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we consider an automatic-repeat-request (ARQ) retransmission protocol signaling over a block-fading multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) channel. Unlike previous work, we allow for multiple fading blocks within each transmission (ARQ round), and we constrain the transmitter to fixed rate codes constructed over complex signal constellations. In particular, we examine the general case of average input-power-constrained constellations as well as the practically important case of finite discrete constellations. This scenario is a suitable model for practical wireless communications systems employing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing techniques over a MIMO ARQ channel. Two cases of fading dynamics are considered, namely short-term static fading where channel fading gains change randomly for each ARQ round, and long-term static fading where channel fading gains remain constant over all ARQ rounds pertaining to a given message. As our main result, we prove that for the block-fading MIMO ARQ channel with discrete input signal constellation satisfying a short-term power constraint, the optimal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) exponent is given by a modified Singleton bound, relating all the system parameters. To demonstrate the practical significance of the theoretical analysis, we present numerical results showing that practical Singleton-bound-achieving maximum distance separable codes achieve the optimal SNR exponent.
cs/0701127
A novel set of rotationally and translationally invariant features for images based on the non-commutative bispectrum
cs.CV cs.AI
We propose a new set of rotationally and translationally invariant features for image or pattern recognition and classification. The new features are cubic polynomials in the pixel intensities and provide a richer representation of the original image than most existing systems of invariants. Our construction is based on the generalization of the concept of bispectrum to the three-dimensional rotation group SO(3), and a projection of the image onto the sphere.
cs/0701129
Space-time codes with controllable ML decoding complexity for any number of transmit antennas
cs.IT math.IT
We construct a class of linear space-time block codes for any number of transmit antennas that have controllable ML decoding complexity with a maximum rate of 1 symbol per channel use. The decoding complexity for $M$ transmit antennas can be varied from ML decoding of $2^{\lceil \log_2M \rceil -1}$ symbols together to single symbol ML decoding. For ML decoding of $2^{\lceil \log_2M \rceil - n}$ ($n=1,2,...$) symbols together, a diversity of $\min(M,2^{\lceil \log_2M \rceil-n+1})$ can be achieved. Numerical results show that the performance of the constructed code when $2^{\lceil \log_2M \rceil-1}$ symbols are decoded together is quite close to the performance of ideal rate-1 orthogonal codes (that are non-existent for more than 2 transmit antennas).
cs/0701131
Effective Beam Width of Directional Antennas in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks
cs.IT math.IT
It is known at a qualitative level that directional antennas can be used to boost the capacity of wireless ad hoc networks. Lacking is a measure to quantify this advantage and to compare directional antennas of different footprint patterns. This paper introduces the concept of the effective beam width (and the effective null width as its dual counterpart) as a measure which quantitatively captures the capacity-boosting capability of directional antennas. Beam width is commonly defined to be the directional angle spread within which the main-lobe beam power is above a certain threshold. In contrast, our effective beam width definition lumps the effects of the (i) antenna pattern, (ii) active-node distribution, and (iii) channel characteristics, on network capacity into a single quantitative measure. We investigate the mathematical properties of the effective beam width and show how the convenience afforded by these properties can be used to analyze the effectiveness of complex directional antenna patterns in boosting network capacity, with fading and multi-user interference taken into account. In particular, we derive the extent to which network capacity can be scaled with the use of phased array antennas. We show that a phased array antenna with N elements can boost transport capacity of an Aloha-like network by a factor of order N^1.620.
cs/0701135
Complex networks and human language
cs.CL
This paper introduces how human languages can be studied in light of recent development of network theories. There are two directions of exploration. One is to study networks existing in the language system. Various lexical networks can be built based on different relationships between words, being semantic or syntactic. Recent studies have shown that these lexical networks exhibit small-world and scale-free features. The other direction of exploration is to study networks of language users (i.e. social networks of people in the linguistic community), and their role in language evolution. Social networks also show small-world and scale-free features, which cannot be captured by random or regular network models. In the past, computational models of language change and language emergence often assume a population to have a random or regular structure, and there has been little discussion how network structures may affect the dynamics. In the second part of the paper, a series of simulation models of diffusion of linguistic innovation are used to illustrate the importance of choosing realistic conditions of population structure for modeling language change. Four types of social networks are compared, which exhibit two categories of diffusion dynamics. While the questions about which type of networks are more appropriate for modeling still remains, we give some preliminary suggestions for choosing the type of social networks for modeling.
cs/0701136
Citation Advantage For OA Self-Archiving Is Independent of Journal Impact Factor, Article Age, and Number of Co-Authors
cs.IR cs.DL
Eysenbach has suggested that the OA (Green) self-archiving advantage might just be an artifact of potential uncontrolled confounding factors such as article age (older articles may be both more cited and more likely to be self-archived), number of authors (articles with more authors might be more cited and more self-archived), subject matter (the subjects that are cited more, self-archive more), country (same thing), number of authors, citation counts of authors, etc. Chawki Hajjem (doctoral candidate, UQaM) had already shown that the OA advantage was present in all cases when articles were analysed separately by age, subject matter or country. He has now done a multiple regression analysis jointly testing (1) article age, (2) journal impact factor, (3) number of authors, and (4) OA self-archiving as separate factors for 442,750 articles in 576 (biomedical) journals across 11 years, and has shown that each of the four factors contributes an independent, statistically significant increment to the citation counts. The OA-self-archiving advantage remains a robust, independent factor. Having successfully responded to his challenge, we now challenge Eysenbach to demonstrate -- by testing a sufficiently broad and representative sample of journals at all levels of the journal quality, visibility and prestige hierarchy -- that his finding of a citation advantage for Gold OA (articles published OA on the high-profile website of the only journal he tested (PNAS) over Green OA articles in the same journal (self-archived on the author's website) was not just an artifact of having tested only one very high-profile journal.
cs/0701137
The Open Access Citation Advantage: Quality Advantage Or Quality Bias?
cs.IR cs.DL
Many studies have now reported the positive correlation between Open Access (OA) self-archiving and citation counts ("OA Advantage," OAA). But does this OAA occur because (QB) authors are more likely to self-selectively self-archive articles that are more likely to be cited (self-selection "Quality Bias": QB)? or because (QA) articles that are self-archived are more likely to be cited ("Quality Advantage": QA)? The probable answer is both. Three studies [by (i) Kurtz and co-workers in astrophysics, (ii) Moed in condensed matter physics, and (iii) Davis & Fromerth in mathematics] had reported the OAA to be due to QB [plus Early Advantage, EA, from self-archiving the preprint before publication, in (i) and (ii)] rather than QA. These three fields, however, (1) have less of a postprint access problem than most other fields and (i) and (ii) also happen to be among the minority of fields that (2) make heavy use of prepublication preprints. Chawki Hajjem has now analyzed preliminary evidence based on over 100,000 articles from multiple fields, comparing self-selected self-archiving with mandated self-archiving to estimate the contributions of QB and QA to the OAA. Both factors contribute, and the contribution of QA is greater.
cs/0701139
Time and the Prisoner's Dilemma
cs.GT cs.AI
This paper examines the integration of computational complexity into game theoretic models. The example focused on is the Prisoner's Dilemma, repeated for a finite length of time. We show that a minimal bound on the players' computational ability is sufficient to enable cooperative behavior. In addition, a variant of the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma game is suggested, in which players have the choice of opting out. This modification enriches the game and suggests dominance of cooperative strategies. Competitive analysis is suggested as a tool for investigating sub-optimal (but computationally tractable) strategies and game theoretic models in general. Using competitive analysis, it is shown that for bounded players, a sub-optimal strategy might be the optimal choice, given resource limitations.
cs/0701143
Dirac Notation, Fock Space and Riemann Metric Tensor in Information Retrieval Models
cs.IR math-ph math.MP
Using Dirac Notation as a powerful tool, we investigate the three classical Information Retrieval (IR) models and some their extensions. We show that almost all such models can be described by vectors in Occupation Number Representations (ONR) of Fock spaces with various specifications on, e.g., occupation number, inner product or term-term interactions. As important cases of study, Concept Fock Space (CFS) is introduced for Boolean model; the basic formulas for Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Model are manipulated in terms of Dirac notation. And, based on SVD, a Riemannian metric tensor is introduced, which not only can be used to calculate the relevance of documents to a query, but also may be used to measure the closeness of documents in data clustering.
cs/0701146
State constraints and list decoding for the AVC
cs.IT math.IT
List decoding for arbitrarily varying channels (AVCs) under state constraints is investigated. It is shown that rates within $\epsilon$ of the randomized coding capacity of AVCs with input-dependent state can be achieved under maximal error with list decoding using lists of size $O(1/\epsilon)$. Under average error an achievable rate region and converse bound are given for lists of size $L$. These bounds are based on two different notions of symmetrizability and do not coincide in general. An example is given that shows that for list size $L$ the capacity may be positive but strictly smaller than the randomized coding capacity. This behavior is different than the situation without state constraints.
cs/0701149
Power-Bandwidth Tradeoff in Dense Multi-Antenna Relay Networks
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a dense fading multi-user network with multiple active multi-antenna source-destination pair terminals communicating simultaneously through a large common set of $K$ multi-antenna relay terminals in the full spatial multiplexing mode. We use Shannon-theoretic tools to analyze the tradeoff between energy efficiency and spectral efficiency (known as the power- bandwidth tradeoff) in meaningful asymptotic regimes of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and network size. We design linear distributed multi-antenna relay beamforming (LDMRB) schemes that exploit the spatial signature of multi-user interference and characterize their power-bandwidth tradeoff under a system wide power constraint on source and relay transmissions. The impact of multiple users, multiple relays and multiple antennas on the key performance measures of the high and low SNR regimes is investigated in order to shed new light on the possible reduction in power and bandwidth requirements through the usage of such practical relay cooperation techniques. Our results indicate that point-to-point coded multi-user networks supported by distributed relay beamforming techniques yield enhanced energy efficiency and spectral efficiency, and with appropriate signaling and sufficient antenna degrees of freedom, can achieve asymptotically optimal power-bandwidth tradeoff with the best possible (i.e., as in the cutset bound) energy scaling of $K^{-1}$ and the best possible spectral efficiency slope at any SNR for large number of relay terminals.
cs/0701150
Contains and Inside relationships within combinatorial Pyramids
cs.CV
Irregular pyramids are made of a stack of successively reduced graphs embedded in the plane. Such pyramids are used within the segmentation framework to encode a hierarchy of partitions. The different graph models used within the irregular pyramid framework encode different types of relationships between regions. This paper compares different graph models used within the irregular pyramid framework according to a set of relationships between regions. We also define a new algorithm based on a pyramid of combinatorial maps which allows to determine if one region contains the other using only local calculus.
cs/0701152
Characterization of Rate Region in Interference Channels with Constrained Power
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, an $n$-user Gaussian interference channel, where the power of the transmitters are subject to some upper-bounds is studied. We obtain a closed-form expression for the rate region of such a channel based on the Perron-Frobenius theorem. While the boundary of the rate region for the case of unconstrained power is a well-established result, this is the first result for the case of constrained power. We extend this result to the time-varying channels and obtain a closed-form solution for the rate region of such channels.
cs/0701155
Data Cube: A Relational Aggregation Operator Generalizing Group-By, Cross-Tab, and Sub-Totals
cs.DB
Data analysis applications typically aggregate data across many dimensions looking for anomalies or unusual patterns. The SQL aggregate functions and the GROUP BY operator produce zero-dimensional or one-dimensional aggregates. Applications need the N-dimensional generalization of these operators. This paper defines that operator, called the data cube or simply cube. The cube operator generalizes the histogram, cross-tabulation, roll-up, drill-down, and sub-total constructs found in most report writers. The novelty is that cubes are relations. Consequently, the cube operator can be imbedded in more complex non-procedural data analysis programs. The cube operator treats each of the N aggregation attributes as a dimension of N-space. The aggregate of a particular set of attribute values is a point in this space. The set of points forms an N-dimensional cube. Super-aggregates are computed by aggregating the N-cube to lower dimensional spaces. This paper (1) explains the cube and roll-up operators, (2) shows how they fit in SQL, (3) explains how users can define new aggregate functions for cubes, and (4) discusses efficient techniques to compute the cube. Many of these features are being added to the SQL Standard.
cs/0701156
Data Management: Past, Present, and Future
cs.DB
Soon most information will be available at your fingertips, anytime, anywhere. Rapid advances in storage, communications, and processing allow us move all information into Cyberspace. Software to define, search, and visualize online information is also a key to creating and accessing online information. This article traces the evolution of data management systems and outlines current trends. Data management systems began by automating traditional tasks: recording transactions in business, science, and commerce. This data consisted primarily of numbers and character strings. Today these systems provide the infrastructure for much of our society, allowing fast, reliable, secure, and automatic access to data distributed throughout the world. Increasingly these systems automatically design and manage access to the data. The next steps are to automate access to richer forms of data: images, sound, video, maps, and other media. A second major challenge is automatically summarizing and abstracting data in anticipation of user requests. These multi-media databases and tools to access them will be a cornerstone of our move to Cyberspace.
cs/0701157
A Critique of ANSI SQL Isolation Levels
cs.DB
ANSI SQL-92 defines Isolation Levels in terms of phenomena: Dirty Reads, Non-Repeatable Reads, and Phantoms. This paper shows that these phenomena and the ANSI SQL definitions fail to characterize several popular isolation levels, including the standard locking implementations of the levels. Investigating the ambiguities of the phenomena leads to clearer definitions; in addition new phenomena that better characterize isolation types are introduced. An important multiversion isolation type, Snapshot Isolation, is defined.
cs/0701158
Queues Are Databases
cs.DB
Message-oriented-middleware (MOM) has become an small industry. MOM offers queued transaction processing as an advance over pure client-server transaction processing. This note makes four points: Queued transaction processing is less general than direct transaction processing. Queued systems are built on top of direct systems. You cannot build a direct system atop a queued system. It is difficult to build direct, conversational, or distributed transactions atop a queued system. Queues are interesting databases with interesting concurrency control. It is best to build these mechanisms into a standard database system so other applications can use these interesting features. Queue systems need DBMS functionality. Queues need security, configuration, performance monitoring, recovery, and reorganization utilities. Database systems already have these features. A full-function MOM system duplicates these database features. Queue managers are simple TP-monitors managing server pools driven by queues. Database systems are encompassing many server pool features as they evolve to TP-lite systems.
cs/0701159
Supporting Finite Element Analysis with a Relational Database Backend, Part I: There is Life beyond Files
cs.DB cs.CE
In this paper, we show how to use a Relational Database Management System in support of Finite Element Analysis. We believe it is a new way of thinking about data management in well-understood applications to prepare them for two major challenges, - size and integration (globalization). Neither extreme size nor integration (with other applications over the Web) was a design concern 30 years ago when the paradigm for FEA implementation first was formed. On the other hand, database technology has come a long way since its inception and it is past time to highlight its usefulness to the field of scientific computing and computer based engineering. This series aims to widen the list of applications for database designers and for FEA users and application developers to reap some of the benefits of database development.