Scheduling Packets with Values and Deadlines in Size-bounded Buffers

Motivated by providing quality-of-service differentiated services in the Internet, we consider buffer management algorithms for network switches. We study a multi-buffer model. A network switch consists of multiple size-bounded buffers such that at any time, the number of packets residing in each individual buffer cannot exceed its capacity. Packets arrive at the network switch over time; they have values, deadlines, and designated buffers. In each time step, at most one pending packet is allowed to be sent and this packet can be from any buffer. The objective is to maximize the total value of the packets sent by their respective deadlines. A 9.82-competitive online algorithm has been provided for this model (Azar and Levy. SWAT 2006), but no offline algorithms have been known yet. In this paper, We study the offline setting of the multi-buffer model. Our contributions include a few optimal offline algorithms for some variants of the model. Each variant has its unique and interesting algorithmic feature. These offline algorithms help us understand the model better in designing online algorithms.Comment: 7 page

STUDI EKSPERIMENTAL PENGARUH PITCH TERHADAP PENINGKATAN PERPINDAHAN PANAS PADA PENUKAR KALOR PIPA KONSENTRIK DENGAN LOUVERED STRIP INSERT SUSUNAN BACKWARD

Studi Eksperimental Pengaruh Pitch terhadap terhadap Peningkatan Perpindahan Panas pada Penukar Kalor Pipa Konsentrik dengan Louvered Strip Insert Susunan Backward Martina Anantyastuti Susanti Jurusan Teknik Mesin Fakultas Teknik Universitas Sebelas Maret Surakarta, Indonesia email : [email protected] Abstrak Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menguji karakteristik perpindahan panas dan faktor gesekan pada penukar kalor pipa konsentrik dengan penambahan louvered stip insert (LSI) dengan variasi pitch (S) = 40 mm, 50 mm dan 60mm. Seksi uji berupa penukar kalor pipa konsentrik satu laluan dengan pipa dalam dan pipa luar terbuat dari alumunium. Aliran pada pipa dalam dan annulus berlawanan arah dengan fluida kerja air. Fluida kerja di pipa dalam adalah air panas dimana temperatur masukannya dipertahankan pada 60˚C, sedangkan fluida kerja di annulus adalah air dingin dengan temperatur masukannya ±27˚C. LSI dipasang di pipa dalam dari penukar kalor pipa konsentrik. Dalam penelitian ini pengujian dilakukan dengan penambahan LSI dan tanpa louvered strip insert (plain tube) pada pipa dalam. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penukar kalor pipa konsentrik dengan penambahan LSI dengan S = 40, 50 dan 60 mm di pipa dalam menghasilkan bilangan Nusselt, faktor gesekan dan rasio koefisien perpindahan panas yang lebih besar daripada plain tube. Penambahan LSI menghasilkan peningkatan perpindahan panas yang lebih baik dibandingkan plain tube. Pada bilangan Reynolds yang sama, penambahan LSI dengan S = 40, 50 dan 60 mm di pipa dalam meningkatkan bilangan Nusselt berturut-turut dalam kisaran 62,9% - 70,0%; 42,5% - 51,3%; dan 23,1% - 31,4% dibandingkan dengan plain tube. Sedangkan penambahan LSI dengan S = 40, 50 dan 60 mm di pipa dalam menghasilkan faktor gesekan berturut-turut 1,86 - 2,44; 1,04 - 1,62; dan 0,58 - 0,84 kali lebih besar dibandingkan faktor gesekan plain tube. Penambahan LSI, S = 40, 50 dan 60 mm di pipa dalam menghasilkan rasio koefisien perpindahan panas berturut-turut dalam kisaran 1,06 - 1,10; 1,06 - 1,08 dan 1,01 - 1,05. Kata kunci : bilangan Nusselt, bilangan Reynolds, faktor gesekan, louvered strip insert, variasi pitch

A Virtual Data Grid for LIGO

GriPhyN (Grid Physics Network) is a large US collaboration to build grid services for large physics experiments, one of which is LIGO, a gravitational-wave observatory. This paper explains the physics and computing challenges of LIGO, and the tools that GriPhyN will build to address them. A key component needed to implement the data pipeline is a virtual data service; a system to dynamically create data products requested during the various stages. The data could possibly be already processed in a certain way, it may be in a file on a storage system, it may be cached, or it may need to be created through computation. The full elaboration of this system will al-low complex data pipelines to be set up as virtual data objects, with existing data being transformed in diverse ways

Remarks on Bootstrap Percolation in Metric Networks

We examine bootstrap percolation in d-dimensional, directed metric graphs in the context of recent measurements of firing dynamics in 2D neuronal cultures. There are two regimes, depending on the graph size N. Large metric graphs are ignited by the occurrence of critical nuclei, which initially occupy an infinitesimal fraction, f_* -> 0, of the graph and then explode throughout a finite fraction. Smaller metric graphs are effectively random in the sense that their ignition requires the initial ignition of a finite, unlocalized fraction of the graph, f_* >0. The crossover between the two regimes is at a size N_* which scales exponentially with the connectivity range \lambda like_* \sim \exp\lambda^d. The neuronal cultures are finite metric graphs of size N \simeq 10^5-10^6, which, for the parameters of the experiment, is effectively random since N<< N_*. This explains the seeming contradiction in the observed finite f_* in these cultures. Finally, we discuss the dynamics of the firing front

The Cost of Stability in Coalitional Games

A key question in cooperative game theory is that of coalitional stability, usually captured by the notion of the \emph{core}--the set of outcomes such that no subgroup of players has an incentive to deviate. However, some coalitional games have empty cores, and any outcome in such a game is unstable. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of stabilizing a coalitional game by using external payments. We consider a scenario where an external party, which is interested in having the players work together, offers a supplemental payment to the grand coalition (or, more generally, a particular coalition structure). This payment is conditional on players not deviating from their coalition(s). The sum of this payment plus the actual gains of the coalition(s) may then be divided among the agents so as to promote stability. We define the \emph{cost of stability (CoS)} as the minimal external payment that stabilizes the game. We provide general bounds on the cost of stability in several classes of games, and explore its algorithmic properties. To develop a better intuition for the concepts we introduce, we provide a detailed algorithmic study of the cost of stability in weighted voting games, a simple but expressive class of games which can model decision-making in political bodies, and cooperation in multiagent settings. Finally, we extend our model and results to games with coalition structures.Comment: 20 pages; will be presented at SAGT'0

Montage: a grid portal and software toolkit for science-grade astronomical image mosaicking

Montage is a portable software toolkit for constructing custom, science-grade mosaics by composing multiple astronomical images. The mosaics constructed by Montage preserve the astrometry (position) and photometry (intensity) of the sources in the input images. The mosaic to be constructed is specified by the user in terms of a set of parameters, including dataset and wavelength to be used, location and size on the sky, coordinate system and projection, and spatial sampling rate. Many astronomical datasets are massive, and are stored in distributed archives that are, in most cases, remote with respect to the available computational resources. Montage can be run on both single- and multi-processor computers, including clusters and grids. Standard grid tools are used to run Montage in the case where the data or computers used to construct a mosaic are located remotely on the Internet. This paper describes the architecture, algorithms, and usage of Montage as both a software toolkit and as a grid portal. Timing results are provided to show how Montage performance scales with number of processors on a cluster computer. In addition, we compare the performance of two methods of running Montage in parallel on a grid.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure

Improved Competitive Guarantees for QoS Buffering

textabstractWe consider a network providing Differentiated Services (Diffserv), which allow Internet Service Providers (ISP s) to offer different levels of Quality of Service (QoS) to different traffic streams. We study two types of buffering policies that are used in network switches supporting QoS. In the FIFO type, packets must be transmitted in the order they arrive. In the uniform bounded-delay type, there is a maximum delay time associated with the switch and each packet must be transmitted within this time, or otherwise it is dropped. In both models, the buffer space is limited, and packets are lost when the buffer overflows. Each packet has an intrinsic value, and the goal is to maximize the total value of transmitted packets. Our main contribution is an algorithm for the FIFO model with arbitrary packet values that for the first time achieves a competitive ratio better than 2, namely 2 - epsilon for a constant epsilon > 0. We also describe an algorithm for the uniform bounded delay model which simulates our algorithm for the FIFO model, and show that it achieves the same competitive ratio

Collaboration in the Semantic Grid: a Basis for e-Learning

The CoAKTinG project aims to advance the state of the art in collaborative mediated spaces for the Semantic Grid. This paper presents an overview of the hypertext and knowledge based tools which have been deployed to augment existing collaborative environments, and the ontology which is used to exchange structure, promote enhanced process tracking, and aid navigation of resources before, after, and while a collaboration occurs. While the primary focus of the project has been supporting e-Science, this paper also explores the similarities and application of CoAKTinG technologies as part of a human-centred design approach to e-Learning

Packet Forwarding Algorithms in a Line Network

Abstract. We initiate a competitive analysis of packet forwarding poli-cies for maximum and average flow in a line network. We show that the policies Earliest Arrival and Furthest-To-Go are scalable, but not con-stant competitive, for maximum flow. We show that there is no constant competitive algorithm for average flow.