A Group Signature Scheme with Easy Membership Canceling

In the group signature scheme with a trusted party, a verifier can determine whether or not a signature is made by a member of the group, but cannot identify the member who signed the signature. In case of dispute later on, the signer can be identified by the trusted party. However, for efficient group signature schemes proposed so far, removing a member from the group can be not efficiently performed. In this paper, a group signature scheme with an easy membership canceling is proposed. By sending a request to use a resource together with the group signature on it to the manager of the resource, the manager can control anonymous accesses to the resource. In such an application, the proposed group signature scheme is suitable for canceling of the access privilege

Compact tree plus algorithms for application-level multicast communications in multihome networks

Application-level multicast (ALM) communications replicate packets on host level to deliver them from a single source to multiple clients, so that it can efficiently realize a variety of network applications using moving pictures such as video conferences, distance learning, and video-on-demands. In this paper, we propose the CT+ (compact tree plus) algorithm for finding a better ALM routing tree in terms of delay minimization between hosts. CT+ consists of a tree construction stage from the existing CT algorithm, and a newly added iterative tree improvement stage. Then, we define the extended ALM routing problem and its heuristic algorithm ExCT+, to optimize the effectiveness of the multihome network in ALM communications by selecting multihomed hosts and connections in the ALM routing tree simultaneously. For their evaluations, we construct a network simulation model named MINET (multiple-ISP network simulator), where the topology is composed of multiple ISP backbone networks with IX connections, and the network traffic is generated by following the M/M/1 queuing process. The simulation results using MINET verify the effectiveness of our algorithms.</p

Optical-drop wavelength assignment problem for wavelength reuse in WDM ring metropolitan area networks

This paper presents a formulation of the optical-drop wavelength assignment problem (ODWAP) and its heuristic algorithm for WDM ring networks. The wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology has been popular in communication societies for providing very large communication bands by multiple lightpaths with different wavelengths on a single optical fiber. Particularly, a double-ring optical network architecture based on the packet-over-WDM technology such as the HORNET architecture has been studied as a next generation platform for metropolitan area networks (MANs). Each node in this architecture is equipped with a wavelength-fixed optical-drop and a tunable transmitter so that a lightpath can be established between any pair of nodes without wavelength conversions. In this paper, we formulate ODWAP for efficient wavelength reuse under heterogeneous traffic in this network. Then, we propose a simple heuristic algorithm for ODWAP. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in reducing waiting times for packet transmissions when a small number of wavelengths are available to retain the network cost for MANs

A minimal-state processing search algorithm for satisfiability problems

The satisfiability problem (SAT) is a typical NP-complete problem where a wide range of applications has been studied. Given a set of variables U and a set of clauses C, the goal of SAT is to find a truth assignment to variables in U such that every clause in C is satisfied if it exits, or to derive the infeasibility otherwise. This paper presents an approximation algorithm, called a minimal-state processing search algorithm for SAT (MIPS-SAT). MIPS-SAT repeatedly transits minimal states in terms of the cost function for searching a solution through a construction stage and a refinement stage. The first stage greedily generates an initial state composed of as many satisfied clauses as possible. The second stage iteratively seeks a solution while keeping state minimality. The performance of MIPS-SAT is verified through solving DIMACS benchmark instances</p

Higher prevalence of obstructive airway disease in patients with thoracic or abdominal aortic aneurysm

AbstractBackground and Aim: The risk factors of aortic aneurysm (AA) are comparable with those described for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This study was performed to determine whether patients with AA have a higher than average prevalence of obstructive airway disease. Methods: We performed pulmonary function tests in 240 consecutive patients (182 men and 58 women; age, 70 ± 10 years) with thoracic or abdominal AA. The results were compared with those in individuals without obvious cardiovascular disease (control) and in patients with coronary artery disease who were matched for age, gender, smoking status, and other atherosclerotic risk factors. Results: Patients in the AA group had a lower forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity (%) and carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (%/predicted value) than did the control group (P < .01). The proportion of patients with airway obstruction, defined as forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity of 70% or less, was higher in the AA group (100/240; 42%) than in the control (51/223; 23%) and coronary artery disease (43/238; 18%) groups. Multiple logistic regression analysis results revealed that the presence of an AA and male gender were associated with a higher risk of airway obstruction (odds ratio, 2.928; 95% CI, 1.722 to 4.979; and odds ratio, 1.622; 95% CI, 1.055 to 2.493, respectively). Conclusion: These data suggest that AA may be a risk factor indicative of the presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A higher prevalence of depressed pulmonary function should be suspected as a preoperative risk in presence of thoracic or abdominal AA as compared with other types of cardiovascular disorders. (J Vasc Surg 2002;36:35-40.