Data assessment and prioritization in mobile networks for real-time prediction of spatial information using machine learning

A new framework of data assessment and prioritization for real-time prediction of spatial information is presented. The real-time prediction of spatial information is promising for next-generation mobile networks. Recent developments in machine learning technology have enabled prediction of spatial information, which will be quite useful for smart mobility services including navigation, driving assistance, and self-driving. Other key enablers for forming spatial information are image sensors in mobile devices like smartphones and tablets and in vehicles such as cars and drones and real-time cognitive computing like automatic number/license plate recognition systems and object recognition systems. However, since image data collected by mobile devices and vehicles need to be delivered to the server in real time to extract input data for real-time prediction, the uplink transmission speed of mobile networks is a major impediment. This paper proposes a framework of data assessment and prioritization that reduces the uplink traffic volume while maintaining the prediction accuracy of spatial information. In our framework, machine learning is used to estimate the importance of each data element and to predict spatial information under the limitation of available data. A numerical evaluation using an actual vehicle mobility dataset demonstrated the validity of the proposed framework. Two extension schemes in our framework, which use the ensemble of importance scores obtained from multiple feature selection methods, are also presented to improve its robustness against various machine learning and feature selection methods. We discuss the performance of those schemes through numerical evaluation

Quadri-dimensional approach for data analytics in mobile networks

The telecommunication market is growing at a very fast pace with the evolution of new technologies to support high speed throughput and the availability of a wide range of services and applications in the mobile networks. This has led to a need for communication service providers (CSPs) to shift their focus from network elements monitoring towards services monitoring and subscribers’ satisfaction by introducing the service quality management (SQM) and the customer experience management (CEM) that require fast responses to reduce the time to find and solve network problems, to ensure efficiency and proactive maintenance, to improve the quality of service (QoS) and the quality of experience (QoE) of the subscribers. While both the SQM and the CEM demand multiple information from different interfaces, managing multiple data sources adds an extra layer of complexity with the collection of data. While several studies and researches have been conducted for data analytics in mobile networks, most of them did not consider analytics based on the four dimensions involved in the mobile networks environment which are the subscriber, the handset, the service and the network element with multiple interface correlation. The main objective of this research was to develop mobile network analytics models applied to the 3G packet-switched domain by analysing data from the radio network with the Iub interface and the core network with the Gn interface to provide a fast root cause analysis (RCA) approach considering the four dimensions involved in the mobile networks. This was achieved by using the latest computer engineering advancements which are Big Data platforms and data mining techniques through machine learning algorithms.Electrical and Mining EngineeringM. Tech. (Electrical Engineering

Predicting customer's gender and age depending on mobile phone data

In the age of data driven solution, the customer demographic attributes, such as gender and age, play a core role that may enable companies to enhance the offers of their services and target the right customer in the right time and place. In the marketing campaign, the companies want to target the real user of the GSM (global system for mobile communications), not the line owner. Where sometimes they may not be the same. This work proposes a method that predicts users' gender and age based on their behavior, services and contract information. We used call detail records (CDRs), customer relationship management (CRM) and billing information as a data source to analyze telecom customer behavior, and applied different types of machine learning algorithms to provide marketing campaigns with more accurate information about customer demographic attributes. This model is built using reliable data set of 18,000 users provided by SyriaTel Telecom Company, for training and testing. The model applied by using big data technology and achieved 85.6% accuracy in terms of user gender prediction and 65.5% of user age prediction. The main contribution of this work is the improvement in the accuracy in terms of user gender prediction and user age prediction based on mobile phone data and end-to-end solution that approaches customer data from multiple aspects in the telecom domain

Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructures 2nd Volume

The second volume of the book contains the manuscripts that were accepted for publication in the MDPI Special Topic "Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure" after a rigorous peer-review process. Authors from academia, government and industry contributed their innovative solutions, consistent with the interdisciplinary nature of cybersecurity. The book contains 16 articles, including an editorial that explains the current challenges, innovative solutions and real-world experiences that include critical infrastructure and 15 original papers that present state-of-the-art innovative solutions to attacks on critical systems

A machine learning based Distributed Congestion Control Protocol for multi-hop wireless networks

The application areas of multi-hop wireless networks are expected to experience sustained growth in the next years. This growth will be further supported by the current possibility of providing low-cost communication capabilities to any device. One of the main issues to consider with this type of networks is congestion control, that is, avoiding an excessive volume of data traffic that could lead to a loss of performance. In this work, a distributed congestion control mechanism is proposed for generic multi-hop networks. Different categories of data traffic are taken into account, each of them with different quality of service requirements. The mechanism is based on machine learning techniques, specifically, the CatBoost algorithm that uses gradient boosting on decision trees. The obtained decision trees are used to predict whether the packets to be transmitted over the network will reach their destination on time or not. This prediction will be made based on the network load state, which will be quantified by means of two parameters: the utilization factor of the different transmission channels, and the occupancy of the buffers of the network nodes. To make the values of these parameters available to all nodes in the network, an appropriate dissemination protocol has also been designed. Besides, a method to assign different transmission priorities to each traffic category, based on the estimation of the network resources required at any time, has also been included. The complete system has been implemented and evaluated through simulations, which show the correct functionality and the improvements obtained in terms of packet delivery ratio, network transit time, and traffic differentiation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Report from GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394: Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World

This report documents the program and the outcomes of GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394 "Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World". The seminar addressed the problem of performance-aware DevOps. Both, DevOps and performance engineering have been growing trends over the past one to two years, in no small part due to the rise in importance of identifying performance anomalies in the operations (Ops) of cloud and big data systems and feeding these back to the development (Dev). However, so far, the research community has treated software engineering, performance engineering, and cloud computing mostly as individual research areas. We aimed to identify cross-community collaboration, and to set the path for long-lasting collaborations towards performance-aware DevOps. The main goal of the seminar was to bring together young researchers (PhD students in a later stage of their PhD, as well as PostDocs or Junior Professors) in the areas of (i) software engineering, (ii) performance engineering, and (iii) cloud computing and big data to present their current research projects, to exchange experience and expertise, to discuss research challenges, and to develop ideas for future collaborations

Cybersecurity Alert Prioritization in a Critical High Power Grid With Latent Spaces

High-Power electric grid networks require extreme security in their associated telecommunication network to ensure protection and control throughout power transmission. Accordingly, supervisory control and data acquisition systems form a vital part of any critical infrastructure, and the safety of the associated telecommunication network from intrusion is crucial. Whereas events related to operation and maintenance are often available and carefully documented, only some tools have been proposed to discriminate the information dealing with the heterogeneous data from intrusion detection systems and to support the network engineers. In this work, we present the use of deep learning techniques, such as Autoencoders or conventional Multiple Correspondence Analysis, to analyze and prune the events on power communication networks in terms of categorical data types often used in anomaly and intrusion detection (such as addresses or anomaly description). This analysis allows us to quantify and statistically describe highseverity events. Overall, portions of alerts around 5-10% have been prioritized in the analysis as first to handle by managers. Moreover, probability clouds of alerts have been shown to configure explicit manifolds in latent spaces. These results offer a homogeneous framework for implementing anomaly detection prioritization in power communication networks

Explaining Machine Learning DGA Detectors from DNS Traffic Data

One of the most common causes of lack of continuity of online systems stems from a widely popular Cyber Attack known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), in which a network of infected devices (botnet) gets exploited to flood the computational capacity of services through the commands of an attacker. This attack is made by leveraging the Domain Name System (DNS) technology through Domain Generation Algorithms (DGAs), a stealthy connection strategy that yet leaves suspicious data patterns. To detect such threats, advances in their analysis have been made. For the majority, they found Machine Learning (ML) as a solution, which can be highly effective in analyzing and classifying massive amounts of data. Although strongly performing, ML models have a certain degree of obscurity in their decision-making process. To cope with this problem, a branch of ML known as Explainable ML tries to break down the black-box nature of classifiers and make them interpretable and human-readable. This work addresses the problem of Explainable ML in the context of botnet and DGA detection, which at the best of our knowledge, is the first to concretely break down the decisions of ML classifiers when devised for botnet/DGA detection, therefore providing global and local explanations