An analytical model on the blocking probability of a fault-tolerantnetwork

The well-known Clos network has been extensively used for telephone switching, multiprocessor interconnection and data communications. Much work has been done to develop analytical models for understanding the routing blocking probability of the Clos network. However, none of the analytical models for estimating the blocking probability of this type of network have taken into account the very real possibility of the interstage links in the network failing. In this paper, we consider the routing between arbitrary network inputs and outputs in the Clos network in the presence of interstage link faults. In particular, we present an analytical model for the routing blocking probability of the Clos network which incorporates the probability of interstage link failure to allow for a more realistic and useful determination of the approximation of blocking probability. We also conduct extensive simulations to validate the model. Our analytical and simulation results demonstrate that for a relatively small interstage link failure probability, the blocking behavior of the Clos network is similar to that of a fault-free network, and indicate that the Clos network has a good fault-tolerant capability. The new integrated analytical model can guide network designers in the determination of the effects of network failure on the overall connecting capability of the network and allows for the examination of the relationship between network utilization and network failure     

Performance analysis of the Sent-But-Sure strategy for Optical Burst and Packet Switched Networks

This work proposes an analytical model to characterize the performance of a loss-free transmission strategy for Optical Burst and Packet Switched Networks, which ensures that a burst/packet will successfully reach its destination once it has been scheduled in the first link of its path. In this paper this strategy is called Sent-But-Sure (SBS) because it avoids losses in any intermediate node. The SBS strategy combines a routing and wavelength assignment scheme with simple contention resolution mechanisms. As a result, new burst/packet allocation attempts in an intermediate node only contend with bursts/packets in transit coming from a single input link. Moreover, bursts/packets in transit always have priority over bursts/packets whose transmission has not been scheduled yet. These two main features of the SBS strategy allow us to develop an analytical model based on a two-priority M/G/1 queueing model to characterize the network performance.     

Leveraging spatial abstraction in traffic analysis and forecasting with visual analytics

A spatially abstracted transportation network is a graph where nodes are territory compartments (areas in geographic space) and edges, or links, are abstract constructs, each link representing all possible paths between two neighboring areas. By applying visual analytics techniques to vehicle traffic data from different territories, we discovered that the traffic intensity (a.k.a. traffic flow or traffic flux) and the mean velocity are interrelated in a spatially abstracted transportation network in the same way as at the level of street segments. Moreover, these relationships are consistent across different levels of spatial abstraction of a physical transportation network. Graphical representations of the flux–velocity interdependencies for abstracted links have the same shape as the fundamental diagram of traffic flow through a physical street segment, which is known in transportation science. This key finding substantiates our approach to traffic analysis, forecasting, and simulation leveraging spatial abstraction.We propose a framework in which visual analytics supports three high-level tasks, assess, forecast, and develop options, in application to vehicle traffic. These tasks can be carried out in a coherent workflow, where each next task uses the results of the previous one(s). At the ‘assess’ stage, vehicle trajectories are used to build a spatially abstracted transportation network and compute the traffic intensities and mean velocities on the abstracted links by time intervals. The interdependencies between the two characteristics of the links are extracted and represented by formal models, which enable the second step of the workflow, ‘forecast’, involving simulation of vehicle movements under various conditions. The previously derived models allow not only prediction of normal traffic flows conforming to the regular daily and weekly patterns but also simulation of traffic in extraordinary cases, such as road closures, major public events, or mass evacuation due to a disaster. Interactive visual tools support preparation of simulations and analysis of their results. When the simulation forecasts problematic situations, such as major congestions and delays, the analyst proceeds to the step ‘develop options’ for trying various actions aimed at situation improvement and investigating their consequences. Action execution can be imitated by interactively modifying the input of the simulation model. Specific techniques support comparisons between results of simulating different “what if” scenarios.     

Developing network indicators for ideological landscapes from the political blogosphere in South Korea

This paper investigates hyperlink patterns in the South Korean political blogosphere. Using sampling from the blog sidebar hyperlinks of elected politicians (National Assemblymen), the top 79 elite citizen blogs were selected. Two data sets were manually compiled during January, 2007: (a) links between politicians and citizens, and (b) links amongst citizens. A variety of social network analytical methods were then applied. The results show that more top blogs have reciprocal links with politicians than have unidirectional links. The structure of hyperlink interconnectivity suggests that the ruling Uri party affiliated blogs are key in the blog network. For example, the blogs tied with the Uri party have a higher centrality and are more densely connected. Network diagrams also suggest that the top blogs are polarized by party. However, some blogs are located at the center of the Uri and GNP clusters and are connected to both camps. In other words, there are a number of citizen blogs that link to both the Uri and GNP members, because their political identities are not completely shaped but also remain between 2 different ideologies. This suggests that binary opposition in online political discourse is slowly changing.     

Direct links in IEEE 802.11: Analytical study of unfairness problem

In this paper, the problem of mutual interference between direct links in IEEE 802.11 networks is represented. This problem is common for direct links in infrastructure networks with hidden terminals and for mesh networks as well. In this paper, we develop analytical models to study the impact of the direct link interference on links performance indices in various cases of links disposition. With these models proved by simulation, we show that network capacity distribution between direct links is unfair in many cases, explaining the reasons of the unfairness in every case. As a conclusion, we discuss possible mechanisms to solve the unfairness problem.     

An efficient critical protection scheme for intra-domain routing using link characteristics

In recent years, there are substantial demands to reduce packet loss on the Internet. Among the proposed schemes, finding backup paths in advance is considered to be an effective method to reduce the reaction time. Very commonly, a backup path is chosen to be the most disjoint path from the primary path, or on the network level, a backup path is computed for each link (e.g., IPFRR). The validity of this straightforward choice is based on two things. The first thing is all the links may have the equal likelihood to fail; the second thing is, facing the high protection requirement today, it just looks weird to have links not protected or to share links between the primary and backup paths. Nevertheless, many studies have confirmed that the individual vulnerability of the links on the Internet is far from being equal. In addition, we have observed that full protection schemes (In this paper, full protection schemes means schemes (1) in which backup path is a most disjoint path from the primary path; or (2) which compute backup path for each link.) may introduce high cost (e.g., computation).In this paper, we argue that such approaches may not be cost-efficient and therefore propose a novel critical protection scheme based on link failure characteristics. Firstly, we analyze the link failure characteristics based on real world traces of CERNET2 (China Education and Research NETwork 2). The analysis results clearly show that the failure probabilities of the links in CERNET2 backbone are heavy-tailed, i.e., a small set of links causing most of the failures. Based on this observation, we find out two key parameters which strongly impact link criticality and propose a critical protection scheme for both single link failure situation and multi-link failure situation. We carefully analyze the implementation details and overhead for backup path schemes of the Internet today; the problem is formulated as an optimization problem to guarantee the routing performance and minimize the backup cost. This cost is special as it involves computational overhead. Based on this, we propose a novel Critical Protection Algorithm which is fast itself for both the single link failure and the multi-link failure versions. A comprehensive set of evaluations with randomly generated topologies, real world topologies and the real traces from CERNET2, shows that our scheme gains significant achievement over full protection in both single link failure situation and multi-link failure situation. It costs only about 30–60% of the full protection cost when the network relative availability increment is 90% of the full protection scheme.     

基于遗传算法的城市混合型路网优化设计研究

城市路网设计问题就是研究如何用定量的方法在已有交通网络上添加或扩容某些路段的问题。本文提出一种基于遗传算法的城市混合型路网设计的双层优化模型,可求出最优的用于道路网新建或改善的交通建设投资决策方案,并利用一个算例进行仿真试验,结果表明,该模型和算法是可行的,可为城市路网设计提供借鉴。     

A bi-objective approach for shortest-path network interdiction

In the literature, solution approaches to the shortest-path network interdiction problem have been developed for optimizing a single figure-of-merit of the network configuration when considering limited amount of resources available to interdict network links. This paper presents a newly developed evolutionary algorithm that allows approximating the optimal Pareto set of network interdiction strategies when considering bi-objective shortest path problems. Thus, the paper considers the concurrent optimization of two objectives: (1) maximization of shortest-path length and (2) minimization of interdiction strategy cost. Also, the paper considers the transformation of the first objective into the minimization of the most reliable path reliability. To solve these multi-objective optimization problems, an evolutionary algorithm has been developed. This algorithm is based on Monte Carlo simulation, to generate potential network interdiction strategies, graph theory to analyze strategies’ shortest path or most reliable path and, an evolutionary search driven by the probability that a link will appear in the optimal Pareto set. Examples for different sizes of networks and network behavior are used throughout the paper to illustrate and validate the approach.     

Capacity assignment in computer communication networks with unreliable links

This paper considers the problem of selecting the optimum capacities of the links in a computer communication network which employs unreliable links. Given the nodes, links, link probabilities, grade of service and cost functions of the network, the objective of this problem is to find the optimum link capacities that minimize the network design cost, subject to the constraint equation involving the grade of service. This is essentially a combinatorial optimization problem. A general methematical model for this problem is formulated and a set of feasible solutions is obtained using Lagrangean relaxation and subgradient optimization techniques. A simulation study has been performed to verify the model, and favourable results obtained for a variety of nontrivial networks.