10,679 research outputs found
Dependability in Aggregation by Averaging
Aggregation is an important building block of modern distributed
applications, allowing the determination of meaningful properties (e.g. network
size, total storage capacity, average load, majorities, etc.) that are used to
direct the execution of the system. However, the majority of the existing
aggregation algorithms exhibit relevant dependability issues, when prospecting
their use in real application environments. In this paper, we reveal some
dependability issues of aggregation algorithms based on iterative averaging
techniques, giving some directions to solve them. This class of algorithms is
considered robust (when compared to common tree-based approaches), being
independent from the used routing topology and providing an aggregation result
at all nodes. However, their robustness is strongly challenged and their
correctness often compromised, when changing the assumptions of their working
environment to more realistic ones. The correctness of this class of algorithms
relies on the maintenance of a fundamental invariant, commonly designated as
"mass conservation". We will argue that this main invariant is often broken in
practical settings, and that additional mechanisms and modifications are
required to maintain it, incurring in some degradation of the algorithms
performance. In particular, we discuss the behavior of three representative
algorithms Push-Sum Protocol, Push-Pull Gossip protocol and Distributed Random
Grouping under asynchronous and faulty (with message loss and node crashes)
environments. More specifically, we propose and evaluate two new versions of
the Push-Pull Gossip protocol, which solve its message interleaving problem
(evidenced even in a synchronous operation mode).Comment: 14 pages. Presented in Inforum 200
Model-driven design of distributed applications
The design process is structured into a preparation and an execution phase. In the preparation phase, designers identify (and, when necessary, define) the required levels of models, their abstract platforms and the modelling language(s) to be used. In addition, a designer may also identify or define transformations between related levels of models. The results of the preparation phase are used in the execution phase, which entails the creation of models of an application using specific modelling languages and abstract platforms.\ud
The main aspects of the approach are illustrated with a case study involving the design of context-aware mobile services. We define three levels of models: a platform-independent service specification level, a platformindependent service design level and a platform-specific service design level. Particular attention is given to the representation and transformation of behavioural aspects of service designs
Spectra: Robust Estimation of Distribution Functions in Networks
Distributed aggregation allows the derivation of a given global aggregate
property from many individual local values in nodes of an interconnected
network system. Simple aggregates such as minima/maxima, counts, sums and
averages have been thoroughly studied in the past and are important tools for
distributed algorithms and network coordination. Nonetheless, this kind of
aggregates may not be comprehensive enough to characterize biased data
distributions or when in presence of outliers, making the case for richer
estimates of the values on the network. This work presents Spectra, a
distributed algorithm for the estimation of distribution functions over large
scale networks. The estimate is available at all nodes and the technique
depicts important properties, namely: robust when exposed to high levels of
message loss, fast convergence speed and fine precision in the estimate. It can
also dynamically cope with changes of the sampled local property, not requiring
algorithm restarts, and is highly resilient to node churn. The proposed
approach is experimentally evaluated and contrasted to a competing state of the
art distribution aggregation technique.Comment: Full version of the paper published at 12th IFIP International
Conference on Distributed Applications and Interoperable Systems (DAIS),
Stockholm (Sweden), June 201
The quadratic relationship between intangible assets and growth in Portuguese SMEs
This article shows new empirical evidence concerning the growth determinants of SMEs. Specifically, we identify the existence of a quadratic relationship between the level of intangible assets of Portuguese SMEs and their growth. Based on the results obtained here, we conclude that intangible assets represents a catalyst for growth only when accounting for a significant proportion of total assets. A relatively weaker presence of intangibles might in fact inhibit growth.Growth; Intangible Assets; Portuguese SMEs
Fast Distributed Computation of Distances in Networks
This paper presents a distributed algorithm to simultaneously compute the
diameter, radius and node eccentricity in all nodes of a synchronous network.
Such topological information may be useful as input to configure other
algorithms. Previous approaches have been modular, progressing in sequential
phases using building blocks such as BFS tree construction, thus incurring
longer executions than strictly required. We present an algorithm that, by
timely propagation of available estimations, achieves a faster convergence to
the correct values. We show local criteria for detecting convergence in each
node. The algorithm avoids the creation of BFS trees and simply manipulates
sets of node ids and hop counts. For the worst scenario of variable start
times, each node i with eccentricity ecc(i) can compute: the node eccentricity
in diam(G)+ecc(i)+2 rounds; the diameter in 2*diam(G)+ecc(i)+2 rounds; and the
radius in diam(G)+ecc(i)+2*radius(G) rounds.Comment: 12 page
COGNITO – The graphics and content delivery module
The poster presents the two main components for the graphics and content delivery module of COGNITO system. One Augmented reality player is presented as well as one editor of multimedia content to be used in the player (augmented information)
Sign changes of error terms related to arithmetical functions
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