1,050 research outputs found
Optimal Data Collection For Informative Rankings Expose Well-Connected Graphs
Given a graph where vertices represent alternatives and arcs represent
pairwise comparison data, the statistical ranking problem is to find a
potential function, defined on the vertices, such that the gradient of the
potential function agrees with the pairwise comparisons. Our goal in this paper
is to develop a method for collecting data for which the least squares
estimator for the ranking problem has maximal Fisher information. Our approach,
based on experimental design, is to view data collection as a bi-level
optimization problem where the inner problem is the ranking problem and the
outer problem is to identify data which maximizes the informativeness of the
ranking. Under certain assumptions, the data collection problem decouples,
reducing to a problem of finding multigraphs with large algebraic connectivity.
This reduction of the data collection problem to graph-theoretic questions is
one of the primary contributions of this work. As an application, we study the
Yahoo! Movie user rating dataset and demonstrate that the addition of a small
number of well-chosen pairwise comparisons can significantly increase the
Fisher informativeness of the ranking. As another application, we study the
2011-12 NCAA football schedule and propose schedules with the same number of
games which are significantly more informative. Using spectral clustering
methods to identify highly-connected communities within the division, we argue
that the NCAA could improve its notoriously poor rankings by simply scheduling
more out-of-conference games.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, 3 table
Optimal Topology Design for Disturbance Minimization in Power Grids
The transient response of power grids to external disturbances influences
their stable operation. This paper studies the effect of topology in linear
time-invariant dynamics of different power grids. For a variety of objective
functions, a unified framework based on norm is presented to analyze the
robustness to ambient fluctuations. Such objectives include loss reduction,
weighted consensus of phase angle deviations, oscillations in nodal frequency,
and other graphical metrics. The framework is then used to study the problem of
optimal topology design for robust control goals of different grids. For radial
grids, the problem is shown as equivalent to the hard "optimum communication
spanning tree" problem in graph theory and a combinatorial topology
construction is presented with bounded approximation gap. Extended to loopy
(meshed) grids, a greedy topology design algorithm is discussed. The
performance of the topology design algorithms under multiple control objectives
are presented on both loopy and radial test grids. Overall, this paper analyzes
topology design algorithms on a broad class of control problems in power grid
by exploring their combinatorial and graphical properties.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, a version of this work will appear in ACC 201
Frugal Topologies for Saving Energy in IP Networks
International audienceRecent years have seen the advent of energy conservation as a key engineering and scientific challenge of our time. At the same time, most IP networks are typically provisioned to 30%-40% average utilization, leading to a significant waste of energy. Current approaches for creating more frugal networks rely on instantaneous and global knowledge of the traffic matrix and network congestion levels - a requirement that can be impractical for many network operators. We introduce a new traffic-agnostic metric for quantifying the quality of a frugal topology, the Adequacy Index (ADI).We show that the problem of minimizing the power consumption of a network subject to a given ADI threshold is NP-hard and present two polynomial time heuristics - ABStAIn and CuTBAck. We perform extensive simulations using topologies and traffic matrices from 3 real networks. Our results show that ABStAIn and CuTBAck are as effective as an exponential time traffic based solution at creating frugal topologies and outperform a state of the art polynomial time traffic based solution by about 80%. Furthermore, the median link utilization observed with ABStAIn and CuTBAck is similar to that with traffic based solutions, with the maximum link utilization never exceeding 80%
How to Secure Matchings Against Edge Failures
Suppose we are given a bipartite graph that admits a perfect matching and an adversary may delete any edge from the graph with the intention of destroying all perfect matchings. We consider the task of adding a minimum cost edge-set to the graph, such that the adversary never wins. We show that this problem is equivalent to covering a digraph with non-trivial strongly connected components at minimal cost. We provide efficient exact and approximation algorithms for this task. In particular, for the unit-cost problem, we give a log_2 n-factor approximation algorithm and a polynomial-time algorithm for chordal-bipartite graphs. Furthermore, we give a fixed parameter algorithm for the problem parameterized by the treewidth of the input graph. For general non-negative weights we give tight upper and lower approximation bounds relative to the Directed Steiner Forest problem. Additionally we prove a dichotomy theorem characterizing minor-closed graph classes which allow for a polynomial-time algorithm. To obtain our results, we exploit a close relation to the classical Strong Connectivity Augmentation problem as well as directed Steiner problems
Network connectivity tracking for a team of unmanned aerial vehicles
Algebraic connectivity is the second-smallest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix and can be used as a metric for the robustness and efficiency of a network. This connectivity concept applies to teams of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) performing cooperative tasks, such as arriving at a consensus. As a UAV team completes its mission, it often needs to control the network connectivity. The algebraic connectivity can be controlled by altering edge weights through movement of individual UAVs in the team, or by adding and deleting edges. The addition and deletion problem for algebraic connectivity, however, is NP-hard. The contributions of this work are 1) a comparison of four heuristic methods for modifying algebraic connectivity through the addition and deletion of edges, 2) a rule-based algorithm for tracking a connectivity profile through edge weight modification and the addition and deletion of edges, 3) a new, hybrid method for selecting the best edge to add or remove, 4) a distributed method for estimating the eigenvectors of the Laplacian matrix and selecting the best edge to add or remove for connectivity modification and tracking, and 5) an implementation of the distributed connectivity tracking using a consensus controller and double-integrator dynamics
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