Slight-Delay Shaped Variable Bit Rate (SD-SVBR) Technique for Video Transmission

The aim of this thesis is to present a new shaped Variable Bit Rate (VBR) for video transmission, which plays a crucial role in delivering video traffic over the Internet. This is due to the surge of video media applications over the Internet and the video typically has the characteristic of a highly bursty traffic, which leads to the Internet bandwidth fluctuation. This new shaped algorithm, referred to as Slight Delay - Shaped Variable Bit Rate (SD-SVBR), is aimed at controlling the video rate for video application transmission. It is designed based on the Shaped VBR (SVBR) algorithm and was implemented in the Network Simulator 2 (ns-2). SVBR algorithm is devised for real-time video applications and it has several limitations and weaknesses due to its embedded estimation or prediction processes. SVBR faces several problems, such as the occurrence of unwanted sharp decrease in data rate, buffer overflow, the existence of a low data rate, and the generation of a cyclical negative fluctuation. The new algorithm is capable of producing a high data rate and at the same time a better quantization parameter (QP) stability video sequence. In addition, the data rate is shaped efficiently to prevent unwanted sharp increment or decrement, and to avoid buffer overflow. To achieve the aim, SD-SVBR has three strategies, which are processing the next Group of Picture (GoP) video sequence and obtaining the QP-to-data rate list, dimensioning the data rate to a higher utilization of the leaky-bucket, and implementing a QP smoothing method by carefully measuring the effects of following the previous QP value. However, this algorithm has to be combined with a network feedback algorithm to produce a better overall video rate control. A combination of several video clips, which consisted of a varied video rate, has been used for the purpose of evaluating SD-SVBR performance. The results showed that SD-SVBR gains an impressive overall Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) value. In addition, in almost all cases, it gains a high video rate but without buffer overflow, utilizes the buffer well, and interestingly, it is still able to obtain smoother QP fluctuation

Cache replacement positions in information-centric network

Information dissemination as the sole functionality driving the current Internet trend has been of keen interest for its manageability. Information Centric Network (ICN) proposed as a new paradigm shift to mitigate the predicted traffic of the current Internet.However, caching as an advantageous building block of ICN is faced with the challenges of content placement, content replacement and eviction.The current practice of ICN caching has given birth to the problems of content redundancy, path redundancy and excessive wastage of bandwidth.This study analyzes the intelligence in cache content management to palliate the gross expenses incurred in the ICN practice.The use of the current factors in previous studies in recency and frequency in content usage play delicate roles in our study. Replacement strategies are agreed to influence the entire cache-hit, stretch and Network diversity

Cache-skip approach for information-centric network

Several ICN cache deployment and management techniques have since been using the Web management techniques to manage information sharing and better cache-hit ratio.Leave Copy Down, Leave Copy Everywhere and Probabilistic cache managements have gained more attention. However, with Leave Copy Everywhere being the initial design specification in ICN proposal, several research issues of content manageability have posed a threat of particularly content and path redundancy.This paper presents an extensive simulation analysis of the popular cache management techniques by subjecting the concepts into different network topologies to investigate the prospect of extending and proposing a new form of cache management in ICN known as Cache-skip. Cache-skip use the consciousness of time of request, network size and Time Since Birth (TSB) and Time Since Inception (TSI) to carefully dedicate the positions of caching to benefits hit rates and less network stress as a form to efficiently utilize the bandwidth and enhance hits

Content caching in ICN using Bee-Colony optimization algorithm

Information dissemination has recently been overtaken by the huge media-driven data shared across different platforms.Future Internet shall greatly be concerned about pervasion and ubiquity of data on all devices.Information-Centric Network seems the challenging paradigm that aims at guaranteeing the flexibility needed when the data explosion occurs.Caching is thus an option that provides the flexibility that manages data exchange practices. Different caching issues has raised concern about the content flooded all over the Internet.In line with the challenges, Bee-Colony Optimization Algorithm (B-COA) has been proposed in this paper to avail content on the Internet with less referral cost and heavy monopoly of data on hosts.It is believed that the advantages of the grouping and waggle phase could be used to place the contents faster in ICN

A survey on buffer and rate adaptation optimization in TCP-based streaming media studies

Contrary to the popular conventional wisdom that the best transport protocol for the streaming media is UDP, many findings found that most of the transport protocols used nowadays are TCP. Two main reasons that UDP is not being used widely are it is not friendly to other flows and some organizations are blocking this protocol. In the meantime,TCP is naturally reliable and friendly to other flows. But with so many controls inbuilt in the protocol; such as congestion control, flow control, and others with the heavy acknowledgement mechanism, resulting delays and jitters.Thus it’s naturally not friendly to the streaming media.But with all the inherited weaknesses, we have seen explosive growth of streaming media in the Internet. With these contrasting premises, it is very interesting to study and investigate the streaming media via TCP transport protocol,specifically on buffer and rate adaptation optimization

Development of a web-based academic time management system

Web-based systems are widely used in organisational management.The research paper reports on how Web-based technology is used in developing an academic time management system.This prototype system, which is currently used in the School of Information Technology at the Universiti Utara Malaysia, has significantly improved time management. Through this Web-based application, users could manage their time for traditional meetings, student consultations and lectures. Furthermore, this application would enable users to discuss things collaboratively, design projects and conduct meetings through a virtual environment.This research also discovered some constraints and limitations of the system. Finally, an avenue for further research is also identifie

Web security awareness of it graduate students: case study

Nowadays, the security of web applications has a serious importance as Internet publication is increasing rapidly with huge variety of activities. The functionality of web applications should be insured beside the immunity from many types of vulnerabilities. There are many attackers who can bring harm to the operation of the web application and the safety of the users’ information. Checking the web application vulnerabilities can be easily done using the penetration tools from Kali Linux. In this research, we tried to study the level of security awareness of final year students in IT related fields at University Utara Malaysia (UUM). Qualitative and quantitative analyses were done to evaluate the level of awareness of a selected group of users and web admins. Based on the results obtained, most of the users are aware of the importance of web application security and cares about their own personal information but they do not know how to insure that they are safe online. As for web admins, after seeing a live demo on their websites using Kali Linux’s tools, they were aware that their websites should be secured but they did not know how to achieve this goal and the preliminary outcomes of this quantitative survey identified admins' enthusiasm to learn cybersecurity skills

Proposed algorithm for scheduling in computational grid using backfilling and optimization techniques

In recent years, the fast evolution in the industry of computer hardware such as the processors, has led the application developers to design advanced software's that require massive computational power.Thus, grid computing has emerged in order to handle the computational power demands requested by the applications.Quality of service (QoS) in grid is highly required in order to provide a high service level to the users of Grid.Several interactions events are involved in determining the QoS level in grid such as; allocating the resources for the jobs, monitoring the performance of the selected resources and the computing capability of the available resources. To allocate the suitable resources for the incoming jobs, a scheduling algorithm has to manage this process.In this paper, we provide a critical review the recent mechanisms in “grid computing” environment.In addition, we propose a new scheduling algorithm to minimize the delay for the end user, Gap Filling policy will be applied to improve the performance of the priority algorithm.Then, an optimization algorithm will perform in order to further enhance the initial result for that obtained from backfilling mechanism.The main aim of the proposed scheduling mechanism is to improve the QoS for the end user in a real grid computing environment

A critical analysis of simulators in grid

In parallel and distributed computing environment such as "The Grid", anticipating the behavior of the resources and tasks based on certain scheduling algorithm is a great challenging.Thus, studying and improving these types of environments becomes very difficult. Out of this, the developers have spent remarkable efforts to come up with simulators which facilitate the studies in this domain.In addition, these simulators have a significant role in enhancing and proposing many scheduling algorithms, and this in turn has reflected efficiently on the Grid.In this paper, we will present some of these tools, which are: GridSim for large scales distributed computing and parallel environment, Alea for tackling dynamic scheduling problems, Sim-G-Batch grid simulator for simulating the security and energy concept and Balls simulator for evaluation peer-to-peer with integrated load balancing algorithm.Furthermore, this paper aims to guide and assist the researcher to choose the proper tool that can fit the studied research area, by providing functionality analysis for the reviewed simulators

Results acceptability of E-Voting system using blockchain technology

Voting is a democratic activity that has been utilized over the years as an important means of expressing ideas and conversations among people in democratic countries. This article aims to facilitate and safeguard the voting process by creating a confident online voting system for voting and referendums. With blockchain technology, users' data is secured from theft, and Eavesdropping and voting disturbance is prevented from ensuring voting integrity. The blockchain encrypts votes to safeguard all votes against falsification. This approach is not only aimed at governments but at all public and private entities. For example, governments can hold referendums or elections, and anybody with a legal age and a government voting card can vote. This eliminates the old procedures and eliminates ballot boxes, sticks in the long lineups, and delays, which cost governments a lot of time, effort, and money. Any organization or private company that wants to conduct polls or surveys or to collect opinions from society may easily utilize this method to contact them. The approach helps the authorities concerned to achieve outcomes promptly without delay, bearing in mind variations between government and commercial organizations