Trade & Cap: A Customer-Managed, Market-Based System for Trading Bandwidth Allowances at a Shared Link

We propose Trade & Cap (T&C), an economics-inspired mechanism that incentivizes users to voluntarily coordinate their consumption of the bandwidth of a shared resource (e.g., a DSLAM link) so as to converge on what they perceive to be an equitable allocation, while ensuring efficient resource utilization. Under T&C, rather than acting as an arbiter, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) acts as an enforcer of what the community of rational users sharing the resource decides is a fair allocation of that resource. Our T&C mechanism proceeds in two phases. In the first, software agents acting on behalf of users engage in a strategic trading game in which each user agent selfishly chooses bandwidth slots to reserve in support of primary, interactive network usage activities. In the second phase, each user is allowed to acquire additional bandwidth slots in support of presumed open-ended need for fluid bandwidth, catering to secondary applications. The acquisition of this fluid bandwidth is subject to the remaining "buying power" of each user and by prevalent "market prices" – both of which are determined by the results of the trading phase and a desirable aggregate cap on link utilization. We present analytical results that establish the underpinnings of our T&C mechanism, including game-theoretic results pertaining to the trading phase, and pricing of fluid bandwidth allocation pertaining to the capping phase. Using real network traces, we present extensive experimental results that demonstrate the benefits of our scheme, which we also show to be practical by highlighting the salient features of an efficient implementation architecture.National Science Foundation (CCF-0820138, CSR-0720604, EFRI-0735974, CNS-0524477, and CNS-0520166); Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and COLCIENCIAS–Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología “Francisco Jose ́ de Caldas”

Approximate sampling and counting for spin models in graphs

En aquest treball abordem els problemes de mostreig i comptatge aproximat en models d'espins en grafs, recopilant els resultats més significatius de l'àrea i introduïnt els coneixements previs necessaris del camp de la física estadística. En particular, prestem especial atenció als mètodes generals de disseny d'algorismes desenvolupats per Weitz i Barvinok, així com els avenços recents en matèria de comptatge i mostreig de conjunts independents de mida donada. Així mateix, discutim com es podrien adaptar aquests arguments als problemes de comptatge i mostreig de coloracions amb les mides de cada color fixades, explicant amb detall la línia de recerca actual que estem duent a terme.En este trabajo abordamos los problemas de muestreo y conteo aproximado en modelos de espines en grafos, recopilando los resultados más significativos del campo e introduciendo el conocimiento previo necesario del área de la física estadística. En particular, prestamos especial atención a los métodos generales de diseño de algorismos desarrollados por Weitz y Barvinok, así como a los avances recientes en cuanto al conteo y muestreo de conjuntos independientes de un tamaño dado. Así mismo, discutimos cómo se podrían adaptar estos argumentos al problema de contar y muestrear coloraciones con el tamaño de cada color fijo, explicando en detalle la línea de investigación que estamos llevando a cabo actualmente.We approach the problems of approximate sampling and counting in spin models on graphs, surveying the most significant results in the area and introducing the necessary background from statistical physics. We pay particular attention to the general algorithm design frameworks developed by Weitz and Barvinok, as well as to the newer results on counting and sampling independent sets of given size. In addition, we discuss the adaptation of the arguments behind these results to count and sample colorings with fixed color sizes, explaining in detail the current research line we are undertaking.Outgoin

Time Relaxed Round Robin Tournament and the NBA Scheduling Problem

This dissertation study was inspired by the National Basketball Association regular reason scheduling problem. NBA uses the time-relaxed round robin tournament format, which has drawn less research attention compared to the other scheduling formats. Besides NBA, the National Hockey League and many amateur leagues use the time-relaxed round robin tournament as well. This dissertation study is the first ever to examine the properties of general time-relaxed round robin tournaments. Single round, double round and multiple round time-relaxed round robin tournaments are defined. The integer programming and constraint programming models for those tournaments scheduling are developed and presented. Because of the complexity of this problem, several decomposition methods are presented as well. Traveling distance is an important factor in the tournament scheduling. Traveling tournament problem defined in the time constrained conditions has been well studied. This dissertation defines the novel problem of time-relaxed traveling tournament problem. Three algorithms has been developed and compared to address this problem. In addition, this dissertation study presents all major constraints for the NBA regular season scheduling. These constraints are grouped into three categories: structural, external and fairness. Both integer programming and constraint programming are used to model these constraints and the computation studies are presente

Multi-Robot Persistent Coverage in Complex Environments

Los recientes avances en robótica móvil y un creciente desarrollo de robots móviles asequibles han impulsado numerosas investigaciones en sistemas multi-robot. La complejidad de estos sistemas reside en el diseño de estrategias de comunicación, coordinación y controlpara llevar a cabo tareas complejas que un único robot no puede realizar. Una tarea particularmente interesante es la cobertura persistente, que pretende mantener cubierto en el tiempo un entorno con un equipo de robots moviles. Este problema tiene muchas aplicaciones como aspiración o limpieza de lugares en los que la suciedad se acumula constantemente, corte de césped o monitorización ambiental. Además, la aparición de vehículos aéreos no tripulados amplía estas aplicaciones con otras como la vigilancia o el rescate.Esta tesis se centra en el problema de cubrir persistentemente entornos progresivamente mas complejos. En primer lugar, proponemos una solución óptima para un entorno convexo con un sistema centralizado, utilizando programación dinámica en un horizonte temporalnito. Posteriormente nos centramos en soluciones distribuidas, que son más robustas, escalables y eficientes. Para solventar la falta de información global, presentamos un algoritmo de estimación distribuido con comunicaciones reducidas. Éste permite a los robots teneruna estimación precisa de la cobertura incluso cuando no intercambian información con todos los miembros del equipo. Usando esta estimación, proponemos dos soluciones diferentes basadas en objetivos de cobertura, que son los puntos del entorno en los que más se puedemejorar dicha cobertura. El primer método es un controlador del movimiento que combina un término de gradiente con un término que dirige a los robots hacia sus objetivos. Este método funciona bien en entornos convexos. Para entornos con algunos obstáculos, el segundométodo planifica trayectorias abiertas hasta los objetivos, que son óptimas en términos de cobertura. Finalmente, para entornos complejos no convexos, presentamos un algoritmo capaz de encontrar particiones equitativas para los robots. En dichas regiones, cada robotplanifica trayectorias de longitud finita a través de un grafo de caminos de tipo barrido.La parte final de la tesis se centra en entornos discretos, en los que únicamente un conjunto finito de puntos debe que ser cubierto. Proponemos una estrategia que reduce la complejidad del problema separándolo en tres subproblemas: planificación de trayectoriascerradas, cálculo de tiempos y acciones de cobertura y generación de un plan de equipo sin colisiones. Estos subproblemas más pequeños se resuelven de manera óptima. Esta solución se utiliza en último lugar para una novedosa aplicación como es el calentamiento por inducción doméstico con inductores móviles. En concreto, la adaptamos a las particularidades de una cocina de inducción y mostramos su buen funcionamiento en un prototipo real.Recent advances in mobile robotics and an increasing development of aordable autonomous mobile robots have motivated an extensive research in multi-robot systems. The complexity of these systems resides in the design of communication, coordination and control strategies to perform complex tasks that a single robot can not. A particularly interesting task is that of persistent coverage, that aims to maintain covered over time a given environment with a team of robotic agents. This problem is of interest in many applications such as vacuuming, cleaning a place where dust is continuously settling, lawn mowing or environmental monitoring. More recently, the apparition of useful unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has encouraged the application of the coverage problem to surveillance and monitoring. This thesis focuses on the problem of persistently covering a continuous environment in increasingly more dicult settings. At rst, we propose a receding-horizon optimal solution for a centralized system in a convex environment using dynamic programming. Then we look for distributed solutions, which are more robust, scalable and ecient. To deal with the lack of global information, we present a communication-eective distributed estimation algorithm that allows the robots to have an accurate estimate of the coverage of the environment even when they can not exchange information with all the members of the team. Using this estimation, we propose two dierent solutions based on coverage goals, which are the points of the environment in which the coverage can be improved the most. The rst method is a motion controller, that combines a gradient term with a term that drives the robots to the goals, and which performs well in convex environments. For environments with some obstacles, the second method plans open paths to the goals that are optimal in terms of coverage. Finally, for complex, non-convex environments we propose a distributed algorithm to nd equitable partitions for the robots, i.e., with an amount of work proportional to their capabilities. To cover this region, each robot plans optimal, nite-horizon paths through a graph of sweep-like paths. The nal part of the thesis is devoted to discrete environment, in which only a nite set of points has to be covered. We propose a divide-and-conquer strategy to separate the problem to reduce its complexity into three smaller subproblem, which can be optimally solved. We rst plan closed paths through the points, then calculate the optimal coverage times and actions to periodically satisfy the coverage required by the points, and nally join together the individual plans of the robots into a collision-free team plan that minimizes simultaneous motions. This solution is eventually used for a novel application that is domestic induction heating with mobile inductors. We adapt it to the particular setting of a domestic hob and demonstrate that it performs really well in a real prototype.<br /

A Polyhedral Study of Mixed 0-1 Set

We consider a variant of the well-known single node fixed charge network flow set with constant capacities. This set arises from the relaxation of more general mixed integer sets such as lot-sizing problems with multiple suppliers. We provide a complete polyhedral characterization of the convex hull of the given set

Emerging Trustworthiness Issues in Distributed Learning Systems

A distributed learning system allocates learning processes onto several workstations to enable faster learning algorithms. Federated Learning (FL) is an increasingly popular type of distributed learning which allows mutually untrusted clients to collaboratively train a common machine learning model without sharing their private/proprietary training data with each other. In this dissertation, we aim to address emerging trustworthiness issues in distributed learning systems, particularly in the field of FL. First, we tackle the issue of robustness in FL and demonstrate its susceptibility by presenting a comprehensive analysis of the various poisoning attacks and defensive aggregation rules proposed in the literature and connecting them under a common framework. To address this issue, we propose Federated Rank Learning (FRL) which reduces the space of client updates from a continuous space of float numbers in standard FL to a discrete space of integer values, limiting the adversary\u27s options for poisoning attacks. Next, we address the privacy concerns in FL, including access privacy and data privacy. An adversarial server in FL gets information about the data distribution of a target client by monitoring either I) local updates that the target submits throughout the FL training or II) the access pattern of the target, which can be privacy sensitive in many real-world scenarios. To preserve access privacy, we design Heterogeneous Private Information Retrieval (HPIR), which allows clients to fetch their specific model parameters from untrusted servers without leaking any information. We believe that HPIR will enable new application scenarios for private distributed learning systems, as well as improve the usability of some of the known applications of PIR. To preserve data privacy, we show that local rankings leak less information about private training data. We conduct a comprehensive investigation on the privacy of rankings in FRL to measure data leakage compared to weight parameter updates in standard FL in presence of the state-of-the-art white-box membership inference attack. Finally, we address the issue of fairness in FL where a single model cannot represent all clients equally due to heterogeneity in their data distributions. To alleviate this issue, we propose Equal and Equitable Federated Learning (E2FL). E2FL produces fair federated learning models by preserving both equity and equality among the participating clients based on learning on parameter rankings where multiple global models are learned so that each group of clients can benefit from their personalized model

On a spontaneous decentralized market process

We examine a spontaneous decentralized market process widely observed in real life labor markets. This is a natural random decentralized dynamic competitive process. We show that this process converges globally and almost surely to a competitive equilibrium. This result is surprisingly general by assuming only the existence of an equilibrium. Our findings have also meaningful policy implications

Models and methods for operational planning in freight railroads

textRailroads are facing increasing demand for freight transportation. Effective planning and scheduling are crucial to improve the utilization of expensive resources (such as crew and track), reduce operational costs, and provide on-time service. This dissertation focuses on problem modeling and solution method development for real planning problems faced by railroads. It consists of three chapters that study two important planning problems in the daily operations of U.S. freight railroads: crew assignment and train movement planning. Chapter 2 proposes an optimization model to decide crew-to-train assignments and deadheads for double-ended crew districts. We develop an effective solution approach, combining optimization and a standalone heuristic, that generates optimal solutions in minutes. The excellent performance of this solution approach makes it well-suited for implementation within a real-time decision support tool for crew dispatchers. Chapter 3 discusses crew repositioning given the uncertainty in trains’ arrival and departure times. We propose models that minimize the expected crew holding, train delay, and deadheading cost, and develop both exact and heuristic solution methods to provide insights for crew planning under train schedule uncertainty. The last chapter studies the movement planning problem for trains traveling in a territory with multiple through tracks (mainlines) and various junctions. We explore a number of heuristic algorithms to obtain good solutions within a reasonable amount of time. The contributions of this dissertation include modeling enhancements, algorithmic development, implementation and computational testing, and validation using real data.Operations Research and Industrial Engineerin