Some aspects of traffic control and performance evaluation of ATM networks

The emerging high-speed Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks are expected to integrate through statistical multiplexing large numbers of traffic sources having a broad range of statistical characteristics and different Quality of Service (QOS) requirements. To achieve high utilisation of network resources while maintaining the QOS, efficient traffic management strategies have to be developed. This thesis considers the problem of traffic control for ATM networks. The thesis studies the application of neural networks to various ATM traffic control issues such as feedback congestion control, traffic characterization, bandwidth estimation, and Call Admission Control (CAC). A novel adaptive congestion control approach based on a neural network that uses reinforcement learning is developed. It is shown that the neural controller is very effective in providing general QOS control. A Finite Impulse Response (FIR) neural network is proposed to adaptively predict the traffic arrival process by learning the relationship between the past and future traffic variations. On the basis of this prediction, a feedback flow control scheme at input access nodes of the network is presented. Simulation results demonstrate significant performance improvement over conventional control mechanisms. In addition, an accurate yet computationally efficient approach to effective bandwidth estimation for multiplexed connections is investigated. In this method, a feed forward neural network is employed to model the nonlinear relationship between the effective bandwidth and the traffic situations and a QOS measure. Applications of this approach to admission control, bandwidth allocation and dynamic routing are also discussed. A detailed investigation has indicated that CAC schemes based on effective bandwidth approximation can be very conservative and prevent optimal use of network resources. A modified effective bandwidth CAC approach is therefore proposed to overcome the drawback of conventional methods. Considering statistical multiplexing between traffic sources, we directly calculate the effective bandwidth of the aggregate traffic which is modelled by a two-state Markov modulated Poisson process via matching four important statistics. We use the theory of large deviations to provide a unified description of effective bandwidths for various traffic sources and the associated ATM multiplexer queueing performance approximations, illustrating their strengths and limitations. In addition, a more accurate estimation method for ATM QOS parameters based on the Bahadur-Rao theorem is proposed, which is a refinement of the original effective bandwidth approximation and can lead to higher link utilisation

Neural Networks for Gas Turbine Diagnosis

The present chapter addresses the problems of gas turbine gas path diagnostics solved using artificial neural networks. As a very complex and expensive mechanical system, a gas turbine should be effectively monitored and diagnosed. Being universal and powerful approximation and classification techniques, neural networks have become widespread in gas turbine health monitoring over the past few years. Applications of such networks as a multilayer perceptron, radial basis network, probabilistic neural network, and support vector network were reported. However, there is a lack of manuals that summarize neural network applications for gas turbine diagnosis

Lamb meat quality assessment by support vector machines

The correct assessment of meat quality (i.e., to fulfill the consumer's needs) is crucial element within the meat industry. Although there are several factors that affect the perception of taste, tenderness is considered the most important characteristic. In this paper, a Feature Selection procedure, based on a Sensitivity Analysis, is combined with a Support Vector Machine, in order to predict lamb meat tenderness. This real-world problem is defined in terms of two difficult regression tasks, by modeling objective (e.g. Warner-Bratzler Shear force) and subjective (e.g. human taste panel) measurements. In both cases, the proposed solution is competitive when compared with other neural (e.g. Multilayer Perceptron) and Multiple Regression approaches

Data-mining modeling for the prediction of wear on forming-taps in the threading of steel components

An experimental approach is presented for the measurement of wear that is common in the threading of cold-forged steel. In this work, the first objective is to measure wear on various types of roll taps manufactured to tapping holes in microalloyed HR45 steel. Different geometries and levels of wear are tested and measured. Taking their geometry as the critical factor, the types of forming tap with the least wear and the best performance are identified. Abrasive wear was observed on the forming lobes. A higher number of lobes in the chamber zone and around the nominal diameter meant a more uniform load distribution and a more gradual forming process. A second objective is to identify the most accurate data-mining technique for the prediction of form-tap wear. Different data-mining techniques are tested to select the most accurate one: from standard versions such as Multilayer Perceptrons, Support Vector Machines and Regression Trees to the most recent ones such as Rotation Forest ensembles and Iterated Bagging ensembles. The best results were obtained with ensembles of Rotation Forest with unpruned Regression Trees as base regressors that reduced the RMS error of the best-tested baseline technique for the lower length output by 33%, and Additive Regression with unpruned M5P as base regressors that reduced the RMS errors of the linear fit for the upper and total lengths by 25% and 39%, respectively. However, the lower length was statistically more difficult to model in Additive Regression than in Rotation Forest. Rotation Forest with unpruned Regression Trees as base regressors therefore appeared to be the most suitable regressor for the modeling of this industrial problem.ThisinvestigationwaspartiallysupportedbyProjects TIN2011-24046,IPT-2011-1265-020000andDPI2009- 06124-E/DPIoftheSpanishMinistryofEconomyand Competitiveness.WethanktheUFIinMechanicalEngineer- ing oftheUPV/EHU(UFIMECA-1.0.2016(ext))forits support

Road Roughness Estimation Using Machine Learning

Road roughness is a very important road condition for the infrastructure, as the roughness affects both the safety and ride comfort of passengers. The roads deteriorate over time which means the road roughness must be continuously monitored in order to have an accurate understand of the condition of the road infrastructure. In this paper, we propose a machine learning pipeline for road roughness prediction using the vertical acceleration of the car and the car speed. We compared well-known supervised machine learning models such as linear regression, naive Bayes, k-nearest neighbor, random forest, support vector machine, and the multi-layer perceptron neural network. The models are trained on an optimally selected set of features computed in the temporal and statistical domain. The results demonstrate that machine learning methods can accurately predict road roughness, using the recordings of the cost approachable in-vehicle sensors installed in conventional passenger cars. Our findings demonstrate that the technology is well suited to meet future pavement condition monitoring, by enabling continuous monitoring of a wide road network

Experiments in Aggregating Air Ordnance Effectiveness Data for the TACWAR Model

An interactive MS Access&trademark; based application that aggregates the output of the SABSEL model for input into the TACWAR model is developed. The application was developed following efforts to create a functional approximation of the SABSEL data using neural networks, statistical networks, and traditional statistical techniques. These approximations were compared to a look-up table methodology on the basis of accuracy, (RMS

Neuromorphic learning of continuous-valued mappings from noise-corrupted data. Application to real-time adaptive control

The ability of feed-forward neural network architectures to learn continuous valued mappings in the presence of noise was demonstrated in relation to parameter identification and real-time adaptive control applications. An error function was introduced to help optimize parameter values such as number of training iterations, observation time, sampling rate, and scaling of the control signal. The learning performance depended essentially on the degree of embodiment of the control law in the training data set and on the degree of uniformity of the probability distribution function of the data that are presented to the net during sequence. When a control law was corrupted by noise, the fluctuations of the training data biased the probability distribution function of the training data sequence. Only if the noise contamination is minimized and the degree of embodiment of the control law is maximized, can a neural net develop a good representation of the mapping and be used as a neurocontroller. A multilayer net was trained with back-error-propagation to control a cart-pole system for linear and nonlinear control laws in the presence of data processing noise and measurement noise. The neurocontroller exhibited noise-filtering properties and was found to operate more smoothly than the teacher in the presence of measurement noise