69 research outputs found
Technologies and Applications for Big Data Value
This open access book explores cutting-edge solutions and best practices for big data and data-driven AI applications for the data-driven economy. It provides the reader with a basis for understanding how technical issues can be overcome to offer real-world solutions to major industrial areas. The book starts with an introductory chapter that provides an overview of the book by positioning the following chapters in terms of their contributions to technology frameworks which are key elements of the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership and the upcoming Partnership on AI, Data and Robotics. The remainder of the book is then arranged in two parts. The first part “Technologies and Methods” contains horizontal contributions of technologies and methods that enable data value chains to be applied in any sector. The second part “Processes and Applications” details experience reports and lessons from using big data and data-driven approaches in processes and applications. Its chapters are co-authored with industry experts and cover domains including health, law, finance, retail, manufacturing, mobility, and smart cities. Contributions emanate from the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership and the Big Data Value Association, which have acted as the European data community's nucleus to bring together businesses with leading researchers to harness the value of data to benefit society, business, science, and industry. The book is of interest to two primary audiences, first, undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in various fields, including big data, data science, data engineering, and machine learning and AI. Second, practitioners and industry experts engaged in data-driven systems, software design and deployment projects who are interested in employing these advanced methods to address real-world problems
Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments
This open access book tackles the design of 3D spatial interactions in an audio-centered and audio-first perspective, providing the fundamental notions related to the creation and evaluation of immersive sonic experiences. The key elements that enhance the sensation of place in a virtual environment (VE) are: Immersive audio: the computational aspects of the acoustical-space properties of Virutal Reality (VR) technologies Sonic interaction: the human-computer interplay through auditory feedback in VE VR systems: naturally support multimodal integration, impacting different application domains Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments will feature state-of-the-art research on real-time auralization, sonic interaction design in VR, quality of the experience in multimodal scenarios, and applications. Contributors and editors include interdisciplinary experts from the fields of computer science, engineering, acoustics, psychology, design, humanities, and beyond. Their mission is to shape an emerging new field of study at the intersection of sonic interaction design and immersive media, embracing an archipelago of existing research spread in different audio communities and to increase among the VR communities, researchers, and practitioners, the awareness of the importance of sonic elements when designing immersive environments
From Traditional Adaptive Data Caching to Adaptive Context Caching: A Survey
Context data is in demand more than ever with the rapid increase in the
development of many context-aware Internet of Things applications. Research in
context and context-awareness is being conducted to broaden its applicability
in light of many practical and technical challenges. One of the challenges is
improving performance when responding to large number of context queries.
Context Management Platforms that infer and deliver context to applications
measure this problem using Quality of Service (QoS) parameters. Although
caching is a proven way to improve QoS, transiency of context and features such
as variability, heterogeneity of context queries pose an additional real-time
cost management problem. This paper presents a critical survey of
state-of-the-art in adaptive data caching with the objective of developing a
body of knowledge in cost- and performance-efficient adaptive caching
strategies. We comprehensively survey a large number of research publications
and evaluate, compare, and contrast different techniques, policies, approaches,
and schemes in adaptive caching. Our critical analysis is motivated by the
focus on adaptively caching context as a core research problem. A formal
definition for adaptive context caching is then proposed, followed by
identified features and requirements of a well-designed, objective optimal
adaptive context caching strategy.Comment: This paper is currently under review with ACM Computing Surveys
Journal at this time of publishing in arxiv.or
A Survey on Mobile Edge Computing for Video Streaming : Opportunities and Challenges
5G communication brings substantial improvements in the quality of service provided to various applications by achieving higher throughput and lower latency. However, interactive multimedia applications (e.g., ultra high definition video conferencing, 3D and multiview video streaming, crowd-sourced video streaming, cloud gaming, virtual and augmented reality) are becoming more ambitious with high volume and low latency video streams putting strict demands on the already congested networks. Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is an emerging paradigm that extends cloud computing capabilities to the edge of the network i.e., at the base station level. To meet the latency requirements and avoid the end-to-end communication with remote cloud data centers, MEC allows to store and process video content (e.g., caching, transcoding, pre-processing) at the base stations. Both video on demand and live video streaming can utilize MEC to improve existing services and develop novel use cases, such as video analytics, and targeted advertisements. MEC is expected to reshape the future of video streaming by providing ultra-reliable and low latency streaming (e.g., in augmented reality, virtual reality, and autonomous vehicles), pervasive computing (e.g., in real-time video analytics), and blockchain-enabled architecture for secure live streaming. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of recent developments in MEC-enabled video streaming bringing unprecedented improvement to enable novel use cases. A detailed review of the state-of-the-art is presented covering novel caching schemes, optimal computation offloading, cooperative caching and offloading and the use of artificial intelligence (i.e., machine learning, deep learning, and reinforcement learning) in MEC-assisted video streaming services.publishedVersionPeer reviewe
Time-Shifted Prefetching and Edge-Caching of Video Content: Insights, Algorithms, and Solutions
Video traffic accounts for 82% of global Internet traffic and is growing at an unprecedented rate. As a result of this rapid growth and popularity of video content, the network is heavily burdened. To cope with this, service providers have to spend several millions of dollars for infrastructure upgrades; these upgrades are typically triggered when there is a reasonably sustained peak usage that exceeds 80% of capacity. In this context, with network traffic load being significantly higher during peak periods (up to 5 times as much), we explore the problem of prefetching video content during off-peak periods of the network even when such periods are substantially separated from the actual usage-time. To this end, we collected YouTube and Netflix usage from over 1500 users spanning at least a one-year period consisting of approximately 8.5 million videos collectively watched. We use the datasets to analyze and present key insights about user-level usage behavior, and show that our analysis can be used by researchers to tackle a myriad of problems in the general domains of networking and communication. Thereafter, equipped with the datasets and our derived insights, we develop a set of data-driven prediction and prefetching solutions, using machine-learning and deep-learning techniques (specifically supervised classifiers and LSTM networks), which anticipates the video content the user will consume based on their prior watching behavior, and prefetches it during off-peak periods. We find that our developed solutions can reduce nearly 35% of peak-time YouTube traffic and 70% of peak-time Netflix series traffic. We developed and evaluated a proof-of-concept system for prefetching video traffic. We also show how to integrate the two systems for prefetching YouTube and Netflix content. Furthermore, based on our findings from our developed algorithms, we develop a framework for prefetching video content regardless of the type of video and platform upon which it is hosted.Ph.D
Fundamental Limits of Caching: Symmetry Structure and Coded Placement Schemes
Caching is a technique to reduce the communication load in peak hours by prefetching contents
during off-peak hours. In 2014, Maddah-Ali and Niesen introduced a framework for coded
caching, and showed that significant improvement can be obtained compared to uncoded caching. Considerable efforts have been devoted to identify the precise information theoretic fundamental limit of such systems, however the difficulty of this task has also become clear. One of the reasons for this difficulty is that the original coded caching setting allows multiple demand types during delivery, which in fact introduces tension in the coding strategy to accommodate all of them. We seek to develop a better understanding of the fundamental limit of coded caching.
In order to characterize the fundamental limit of the tradeoff between the amount of cache
memory and the delivery transmission rate of multiuser caching systems, various coding schemes have been proposed in the literature. These schemes can largely be categorized into two classes, namely uncoded prefetching schemes and coded prefetching schemes. While uncoded prefetching schemes in general over order-wise optimal performance, coded prefetching schemes often have better performance at the low cache memory regime. At first sight it seems impossible to connect these two different types of coding schemes, yet finding a unified coding scheme that achieves the optimal memory-rate tradeoff is an important and interesting problem. We take the first step on this direction and provide a connection between the uncoded prefetching scheme proposed by Maddah Ali and Niesen (and its improved version by Yu et al.) and the coded prefetching scheme proposed by Tian and Chen. The intermediate operating points of this general scheme can in fact provide new memory-rate tradeoff points previously not known to be achievable in the literature. This new general coding scheme is then presented and analyzed rigorously, which yields a new inner bound to the memory-rate tradeoff for the caching problem.
While studying the general case can be difficult, we found that studying the single demand type
systems will provide important insights. Motivated by these findings, we focus on systems where the number of users and the number of files are the same, and the demand type is when all files are being requested. A novel coding scheme is proposed, which provides several optimal memory transmission operating points. Outer bounds for this class of systems are also considered, and their relation with existing bounds is discussed.
Outer-bounding the fundamental limits of coded caching problem is difficult, not only because
there are tons of information inequalities and problem specific equalities to choose from, but also because of identifying a useful subset (and often a quite small subset) from them and how to combine them to produce an improved outerbound is a hard problem. Information inequalities can be used to derive the fundamental limits of information systems. Many information inequalities and problem-specific constraints are linear equalities or inequalities of joint entropies, and thus outer bounding the fundamental limits can be viewed as and in principle computed through linear programming. However, for many practical engineering problems, the resultant linear program (LP) is very large, rendering such a computational approach almost completely inapplicable in practice. We provide a method to pinpoint this reduction by counting the number of orbits induced by the symmetry on the set of the LP variables and the LP constraints, respectively. We proposed a generic three-layer decomposition of the group structures for this purpose. This general approach can also be applied to various other problems such as extremal pairwise cyclically symmetric entropy inequalities and the regenerating code problem.
Decentralized coded caching is applicable in scenarios when the server is uninformed of the
number of active users and their identities in a wireless or mobile environment. We propose a
decentralized coded prefetching strategy where both prefetching and delivery are coded. The proposed strategy indeed outperforms the existing decentralized uncoded caching strategy in regimes of small cache size when the numbers of files is less than the number of users. Methods to manage the coding overhead are further suggested
Life-cycle management and placement of service function chains in MEC-enabled 5G networks
Recent advancements in mobile communication technology have led to the fifth generation of mobile cellular networks (5G), driven by the proliferation in data traffic demand, stringent latency requirements, and the desire for a fully connected world. This transformation calls for novel technology solutions such as Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) to satisfy service requirements while providing dynamic and instant service deployment. MEC and NFV are two principal and complementary enablers for 5G networks whose co-existence can lead to numerous benefits. Despite the numerous advantages MEC offers, physical resources at the edge are extremely scarce and require efficient utilization.
In this doctoral dissertation, we first attempt to optimize resource utilization at the network edge for the scenario of live video streaming. We specifically utilize the real-time Radio Access Network (RAN) information available at the MEC servers to develop a machine learning-based prediction solution and anticipate user requests. Consequently, Integer Linear Programming (ILP) models are used to prefetch/cache video contents from a centralized video server.
Regarding the advantages of NFV technology for the deployment of NFs, the second problem that this dissertation address is the proper association of the users to the gNBs along with efficient placement of SFCs on the substrate network. Our primary purpose is to find a proper embedding of the SFC in a hierarchical 5G network. The problem is formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model, having the objective to minimize service provisioning cost, link utilization, and the effect of VNF migration on users' perceived quality of experience.
After rigorously analyzing the proposed SFC placement and considering mobile networks' dynamicity, our next goal is to develop an ILP-based model that minimizes the resource provisioning cost by dynamically embed and scale SFCs so that provisioning cost is minimized while user requirements are met
Towards Smart Vehicular Environments via Deep Learning and Emerging Technologies
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) embrace smart vehicular environments through a fully connected paradigm known as vehicular networks. Vehicular networks allow automobiles to stay online and connected with their surroundings while travelling. In that sense, vehicular networks enable various activities; for example, autonomous driving, road surveillance, data collection, content delivery, and many others. This leads to more efficient, safer, and comfort driving experiences and opens up new opportunities for many business sectors. As such, the networking industry and academia have shown great interests in advancing vehicular networks and leveraging relevant services.
In this dissertation, several vehicular network problems are addressed along with proposing novel ideas and utilizing effective solutions. As opposed to stationary or slow moving communications, vehicular networks experience more challenging environment as a result of vehicle mobility. Consequently, vehicular networks suffer from ever-changing topology, short contact times, and intractable propagation environments. In particular, this dissertation presents six works that participate in supplementing the literature as follows. First, a content delivery framework in the context of vehicular network is studied where digital contents are generated by different content providers (CP) and have distinct values. To this end, a prefetching technique along with vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communications are used to enable fast content delivery. Furthermore, a pricing model is proposed to deal with contents' values to attain a satisfactory Quality of Experience (QoE). Second, a more advanced system model is discussed to cache contents with the assistance of vehicles and to enable a disconnected and fixed Road-Side Unit (RSU) to participate in providing content delivery services. The changing popularity of contents is investigated besides accounting for the limited RSU cache capabilities. Third, the stationary RSU proposed in the second work is replaced by a more flexible infrastructure, namely an aerial RSU mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The mobility of the UAV and its constrained energy capacity are analyzed and Deep Reinforcement Learning is incorporated to aid in solving the challenges in leveraging UAVs. Fourth, the previous two studies are integrated by investigating the collaboration between a UAV and terrestrial RSUs in delivering large-size contents. A strategy to fill up the UAV cache is also suggested via mulling contents over vehicles. Fifth, the complexity of vehicular urban environments is addressed. In particular, the problem of disconnected areas in vehicular environments due to the appearance of high-rise buildings and other obstacles is studied. In details, a Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) is exploited to provide indirect links between the RSU and vehicles travelling through such areas. Our sixth and final contribution deals with time-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) devices (IoTD) supporting ITS networks. In this regard, a UAV is dispatched to collect their data timely and fully while being assisted by a RIS to improve the wireless channel quality. In the end, this dissertation provides discussions that highlight open research directions worth of further investigations
Resource Management in Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC)
This PhD thesis investigates the effective ways of managing the resources of a Multi-Access Edge Computing Platform (MEC) in 5th Generation Mobile Communication (5G) networks.
The main characteristics of MEC include distributed nature, proximity to users, and high availability. Based on these key features, solutions have been proposed for effective resource
management. In this research, two aspects of resource management in MEC have been addressed. They are the computational resource and the caching resource which corresponds to the services provided by the MEC.
MEC is a new 5G enabling technology proposed to reduce latency by bringing cloud computing capability closer to end-user Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices. MEC would support latency-critical user applications such as driverless cars and e-health. These applications will depend on resources and services provided by the MEC. However, MEC has
limited computational and storage resources compared to the cloud. Therefore, it is important to ensure a reliable MEC network communication during resource provisioning by eradicating the chances of deadlock. Deadlock may occur due to a huge number of devices contending for a limited amount of resources if adequate measures are not put in place. It is
crucial to eradicate deadlock while scheduling and provisioning resources on MEC to achieve a highly reliable and readily available system to support latency-critical applications. In this research, a deadlock avoidance resource provisioning algorithm has been proposed for industrial IoT devices using MEC platforms to ensure higher reliability of network interactions. The proposed scheme incorporates Banker’s resource-request algorithm using Software Defined Networking (SDN) to reduce communication overhead. Simulation and experimental results have shown that system deadlock can be prevented by applying the proposed algorithm which ultimately leads to a more reliable network interaction between mobile stations and MEC platforms.
Additionally, this research explores the use of MEC as a caching platform as it is proclaimed as a key technology for reducing service processing delays in 5G networks. Caching on MEC decreases service latency and improve data content access by allowing direct content delivery through the edge without fetching data from the remote server. Caching on MEC is also deemed as an effective approach that guarantees more reachability due to proximity to endusers. In this regard, a novel hybrid content caching algorithm has been proposed for MEC platforms to increase their caching efficiency. The proposed algorithm is a unification of a modified Belady’s algorithm and a distributed cooperative caching algorithm to improve data access while reducing latency. A polynomial fit algorithm with Lagrange interpolation is employed to predict future request references for Belady’s algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm obtains 4% more cache hits due to its selective caching approach when compared with case study algorithms. Results also show that the use of a cooperative algorithm can improve the total cache hits up to 80%.
Furthermore, this thesis has also explored another predictive caching scheme to further improve caching efficiency. The motivation was to investigate another predictive caching approach as an improvement to the formal. A Predictive Collaborative Replacement (PCR) caching framework has been proposed as a result which consists of three schemes. Each of the schemes addresses a particular problem. The proactive predictive scheme has been proposed to address the problem of continuous change in cache popularity trends. The collaborative scheme addresses the problem of cache redundancy in the collaborative space. Finally, the replacement scheme is a solution to evict cold cache blocks and increase hit ratio. Simulation experiment has shown that the replacement scheme achieves 3% more cache hits than existing replacement algorithms such as Least Recently Used, Multi Queue and Frequency-based replacement. PCR algorithm has been tested using a real dataset (MovieLens20M dataset) and compared with an existing contemporary predictive algorithm. Results show that PCR performs better with a 25% increase in hit ratio and a 10% CPU utilization overhead
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