Virtual Connections and a Traffic Optimization Model for an ATM Network

The number of virtual connections in the nodal space of an ATM network of arbitrary structure and topology is computed by a method based on a new concept—a covering domain having a concrete physical meaning. The method is based on a network information sources—boundary switches model developed for an ATM transfer network by the entropy approach. Computations involve the solution of systems of linear equations. The optimization model used to compute the number of virtual connections in a many-category traffic in an ATM network component is useful in estimating the resource of nodal equipment and communication channels. The variable parameters of the model are the transmission bands for different traffic categories.     

Grid-Computing

Grid-Computing, ein Mitte der 90er-Jahre eingeführter Begriff [1,2], bezeichnet eine Architektur für verteilte Systeme, die auf dem World Wide Web aufbaut und die Web-Vision erweitert. Mit dem Grid-Computing werden die Ressourcen einer Gemeinschaft, einer so genannten virtuellen Organisation, integriert. Die Hoffnung ist, dass hierdurch rechen- und/oder datenintensiven Aufgaben, die eine einzelne Organisation nicht lösen kann, handhabbar werden. Ein Grid bezeichnet eine nach dem Grid-Computing-Ansatz aufgebaute Rechner-, Netzwerk- und Software-Infrastruktur zur Teilung von Ressourcen mit dem Ziel, die Aufgaben einer virtuellen Organisation zu erledigen. * Vorschläge an Prof.Dr. Frank Puppe <puppe@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de> oder Dieter Steinbauer <dieter.steinbauer@schufa.de>Alle Aktuellen Schlagwörter seit 1988 finden Sie unter: www.ai-wuerzburg.de/as     

MEG-Eliminations

The basic disadvantage of the algorithms of EG-eliminations [1] is that the degrees of elements of the polynomial matrix being used and the coefficients of these elements grow. The progress in overcoming this difficulty is associated with the use of modular approaches. The paper describes modularization of EG-eliminations and a modified elimination scheme based on that modularization (quasi-modular algorithm).     

Duality in Quantum Information Geometry

Let H be a separable Hilbert space. We consider the manifold M consisting of density operators on H such that ^p is of trace class for some p (0, 1). We say M is nearby if there exists C > 1 such that C ^–1C. We show that the space of nearby points to can be furnished with the two flat connections known as the (±)-affine structures, which are dual relative to the BKM metric. We furnish M with a norm making it into a Banach manifold.     

Sometime = always + recursion ≡ always on the equivalence of the intermittent and invariant assertions methods for proving inevitability properties of programs

Summary We propose and compare two induction principles called always and sometime for proving inevitability properties of programs. They are respective formalizations and generalizations of Floyd invariant assertions and Burstall intermittent assertions methods for proving total correctness of sequential programs whose methodological advantages or disadvantages have been discussed in a number of previous papers. Both principles are formalized in the abstract setting of arbitrary nondeterministic transition systems and illustrated by appropriate examples. The sometime method is interpreted as a recursive application of the always method. Hence always can be considered as a special case of sometime. These proof methods are strongly equivalent in the sense that a proof by one induction principle can be rewritten into a proof by the other one. The first two theorems of the paper show that an invariant for the always method can be translated into an invariant for the sometime method even if every recursive application of the later is required to be of finite length. The third and main theorem of the paper shows how to translate an invariant for the sometime method into an invariant for the always method. It is emphasized that this translation technique follows the idea of transforming recursive programs into iterative ones. Of course, a general translation technique does not imply that the original sometime invariant and the resulting always invariant are equally understandable. This is illustrated by an example.     

Modelling structures in generic space, a condition for adaptiveness of monitoring cognitive agent

The adaptiveness of agents is one of the basic conditions for the autonomy. This paper describes an approach of adaptiveness forMonitoring Cognitive Agents based on the notion of generic spaces. This notion allows the definition of virtual generic processes so that any particular actual process is then a simple configuration of the generic process, that is to say a set of values of parameters. Consequently, generic domain ontology containing the generic knowledge for solving problems concerning the generic process can be developed. This lead to the design of Generic Monitoring Cognitive Agent, a class of agent in which the whole knowledge corpus is generic. In other words, modeling a process within a generic space becomes configuring a generic process and adaptiveness becomes genericity, that is to say independence regarding technology. In this paper, we present an application of this approach on Sachem, a Generic Monitoring Cognitive Agent designed in order to help the operators in operating a blast furnace. Specifically, the NeuroGaz module of Sachem will be used to present the notion of a generic blast furnace. The adaptiveness of Sachem can then be noted through the low cost of the deployment of a Sachem instance on different blast furnaces and the ability of NeuroGaz in solving problem and learning from various top gas instrumentation.     

Fuzzy measurement in the Mishnah and the Talmud

I discuss the attitude of Jewish law sources from the 2nd–:5th centuries to the imprecision of measurement. I review a problem that the Talmud refers to, somewhat obscurely, as impossible reduction. This problem arises when a legal rule specifies an object by referring to a maximized (or minimized) measurement function, e.g., when a rule applies to the largest part of a divided whole, or to the first incidence that occurs, etc. A problem that is often mentioned is whether there might be hypothetical situations involving more than one maximal (or minimal) value of the relevant measurement and, given such situations, what is the pertinent legal rule. Presumption of simultaneous occurrences or equally measured values are also a source of embarrassment to modern legal systems, in situations exemplified in the paper, where law determines a preference based on measured values. I contend that the Talmudic sources discussing the problem of impossible reduction were guided by primitive insights compatible with fuzzy logic presentation of the inevitable uncertainty involved in measurement. I maintain that fuzzy models of data are compatible with a positivistic epistemology, which refuses to assume any precision in the extra-conscious world that may not be captured by observation and measurement. I therefore propose this view as the preferred interpretation of the Talmudic notion of impossible reduction. Attributing a fuzzy world view to the Talmudic authorities is meant not only to increase our understanding of the Talmud but, in so doing, also to demonstrate that fuzzy notions are entrenched in our practical reasoning. If Talmudic sages did indeed conceive the results of measurements in terms of fuzzy numbers, then equality between the results of measurements had to be more complicated than crisp equations. The problem of impossible reduction could lie in fuzzy sets with an empty core or whose membership functions were only partly congruent. Reduction is impossible may thus be reconstructed as there is no core to the intersection of two measures. I describe Dirichlet maps for fuzzy measurements of distance as a rough partition of the universe, where for any region A there may be a non-empty set of - _A (upper approximation minus lower approximation), where the problem of impossible reduction applies. This model may easily be combined with probabilistic extention. The possibility of adopting practical decision standards based on -cuts (and therefore applying interval analysis to fuzzy equations) is discussed in this context. I propose to characterize the uncertainty that was presumably capped by the old sages as U-uncertainty, defined, for a non-empty fuzzy set A on the set of real numbers, whose -cuts are intervals of real numbers, as U(A) = 1/h(A) ₀ ^h(A) log [1+(A)]d, where h(A) is the largest membership value obtained by any element of A and (A) is the measure of the -cut of A defined by the Lebesge integral of its characteristic function.     

Optimal multilayer channel routing with overlap

This paper presents algorithms for multiterminal net channel routing where multiple interconnect layers are available. Major improvements are possible if wires are able to overlap, and our generalized main algorithm allows overlap, but only on everyKth (K 2) layer. Our algorithm will, for a problem with densityd onL layers,L K + 3,provably use at most three tracks more than optimal: (d + 1)/L/K + 2 tracks, compared with the lower bound of d/L/K. Our algorithm is simple, has few vias, tends to minimize wire length, and could be used if different layers have different grid sizes. Finally, we extend our algorithm in order to obtain improved results for adjacent (K = 1) overlap: (d + 2)/2L/3 + 5 forL 7.This work was supported by the Semiconductor Research Corporation under Contract 83-01-035, by a grant from the General Electric Corporation, and by a grant at the University of the Saarland.     

On a random Volterra integral equation

Summary Tsokos [12] showed the existence of a unique random solution of the random Volterra integral equation (*)x(t; ) = h(t; ) + _o ^t k(t, ; )f(, x(; )) d, where , the supporting set of a probability measure space (,A, P). It was required thatf must satisfy a Lipschitz condition in a certain subset of a Banach space. By using an extension of Banach's contraction-mapping principle, it is shown here that a unique random solution of (*) exists whenf is (, )-uniformly locally Lipschitz in the same subset of the Banach space considered in [12].     

Multicriterion optimization of complex systems with parameters ranked by descending importance

A multicriterion optimization method is proposed for complex systems with parameters ranked by descending importance. This method requires weaker expert estimates for choosing an optimal alternative from the set of equally good solutions by formal specification of functional dependence between ranked parameter weights.Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 6, pp. 167–170, November–December, 1991.     

Estimating camera and object translation in the presence of camera rotation

This paper deals with stereo camera-based estimation of sensor translation in the presence of modest sensor rotation and moving objects. It also deals with the estimation of object translation from a moving sensor. The approach is based on Gabor filters, direct passive navigation, and Kalman filters.Three difficult problems associated with the estimation of motion from an image sequence are solved. (1) The temporal correspondence problem is solved using multi-scale prediction and phase gradients. (2) Segmentation of the image measurements into groups belonging to stationary and moving objects is achieved using the Mahalanobis distance. (3) Compensation for sensor rotation is achieved by internally representing the inter-frame (short-term) rotation in a rigid-body model. These three solutions possess a circular dependency, forming a cycle of perception. A seeding process is developed to correctly initialize the cycle. An additional complication is the translation-rotation ambiguity that sometimes exists when sensor motion is estimated from an image velocity field. Temporal averaging using Kalman filters reduces the effect of motion ambiguities. Experimental results from real image sequences confirm the utility of the approach.Financial support from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada is acknowledged.     

Interval routing schemes

In this paper the problem of routing messages along shortest paths in a distributed network without using complete routing tables is considered. In particular, the complexity of deriving minimum (in terms of number of intervals) interval routing schemes is analyzed under different requirements. For all the cases considered NP-hardness proofs are given, while some approximability results are provided. Moreover, relations among the different cases considered are studied.This work was supported by the EEC ESPRIT II Basic Research Action Program under Contract No. 7141 Algorithms and Complexity II, by the EEC Human Capital and Mobility MAP project, and by the Italian MURST 40% project Algoritmi, Modelli di Calcolo e Strutture Informative.     

CLSS: An Intelligent Crane Lorry Scheduling System

Companies that provide crane-lorry services are faced with the daily need to perform vehicle and driver allocation and scheduling. Many companies still do this manually due to the lack of suitable technologies. This manual approach is both time consuming and inaccurate and most probably will not lead to an optimized plan that can reduce operational costs. In this paper, we describe the design of a system called Crane Lorry Scheduling System (CLSS) that we have developed for the largest crane lorry company in Hong Kong. A crane lorry company is a company that provides lorries with different types of mounted crane equipment and drivers to service different types of moving and lifting jobs. CLSS is a Web-based application that streamlines communication with customers, subcontractors and employees/lorry drivers. We modeled the lorry-assignment problem as a constraint-satisfaction problem (CSP) algorithm, which we call the Crane Lorry Optimizing Engine (CLOE). CLOE was designed to be easily customizable to match the needs and requirements of different crane lorry companies. We experimented with two versions of CLOE, regular CLOE that finds best solutions and X-CLOE that finds optimal solutions. Results from our tests show that CLOE is faster and generates better quality plans than the manual approach.     

A remark about a substitution property

S. A. Greibach proved in Chains of full AFL's a useful property concerning the substitution of full semi-AFL's. We prove here that this property remains true when the families of languages under considerations are assumed only to be full trios, i.e., closure under union is not required.     

The plane with parallel coordinates

By means ofParallel Coordinates planar graphs of multivariate relations are obtained. Certain properties of the relationship correspond tothe geometrical properties of its graph. On the plane a point line duality with several interesting properties is induced. A new duality betweenbounded and unbounded convex sets and hstars (a generalization of hyperbolas) and between Convex Unions and Intersections is found. This motivates some efficient Convexity algorithms and other results inComputational Geometry. There is also a suprising cusp inflection point duality. The narrative ends with a preview of the corresponding results inR ^N .     

Sound and Complete Qualitative Simulation Needs “Quantitative” Filtering

The AI methodology of qualitative reasoning furnishes useful tools to scientists and engineers who need to deal with incomplete system knowledge during design, analysis, or diagnosis tasks. Qualitative simulators have a theoretical soundness guarantee; they cannot overlook any concrete equation implied by their input. On the other hand, the basic qualitative simulation algorithms have been shown to suffer from the incompleteness problem; they may allow non-solutions of the input equation to appear in their output. The question of whether a simulator with purely qualitative input which never predicts spurious behaviors can ever be achieved by adding new filters to the existing algorithm has remained unanswered. In this paper, we show that, if such a sound and complete simulator exists, it will have to be able to handle numerical distinctions with such a high precision that it must contain a component that would better be called a quantitative, rather than qualitative reasoner. This is due to the ability of the pure qualitative format to allow the exact representation of the members of a rich set of numbers.     

Crankback Prediction in Hierarchical ATM Networks

When an ATM node discovers that it cannot continue the setup of a virtual channel under the requested Quality of Service (QoS), it initiates a backtracking procedure called crankback. We propose a novel scheme, referred to as crankback prediction, that decreases the crankback overhead. Under the proposed scheme, nodes check during the connection admission control procedure whether the establishment of a virtual channel has a good chance to be admitted over the entire designated route. If this is not the case, crankback is initiated even before a particular QoS parameter is violated. The main idea behind the proposed scheme is to allocate a quota to the Peer Groups (PGs) along the message path, and then to suballocate this quota to the child PGs of these PGs. This process continues recursively until reaching the 1-level PG, which contains only physical nodes. The main advantage of the proposed scheme is that it lowers the setup delay and the processing and communication load imposed by signaling messages that establish unused portions of Virtual Channels (VCs)     

The Kreisel length-of-proof problem

A first-order system F has theKreisel length-of-proof property if the following statement is true for all formulas(x): If there is ak1 such that for alln0 there is a proof of(¯n) in F with at mostk lines, then there is a proof of x(x) in F. We consider this property for Parikh systems, which are first-order axiomatic systems that contain a finite number of axiom schemata (including individual axioms) and a finite number of rules of inference. We prove that any usual Parikh system formulation of Peano arithmetic has the Kreisel length-of-proof property if the underlying logic of the system is formulated without a schema for universal instantiation in either one of two ways. (In one way, the formula to be instantiated is built up in steps, and in the other way, the term to be substituted is built up in steps.) Our method of proof uses techniques and ideas from unification theory.     

Continuous reductions among combinatorial optimization problems

Summary Many reductions among combinatorial problems are known in the context of NP-completeness. These reductions preserve the optimality of solutions. However, they may change the relative error of approximative solutions dramatically. In this paper, we apply a new type of reductions, called continuous reductions. When one problem is continuously reduced to another, any approximation algorithm for the latter problem can be transformed into an approximation algorithm for the former. Moreover, the performance ratio is preserved up to a constant factor. We relate the problem Minimum Number of Inverters in CMOS-Circuits, which arises in the context of logic synthesis, to several classical combinatorial problems such as Maximum Independent Set and Deletion of a Minimum Number of Vertices (Edges) in Order to Obtain a Bipartite (Partial) Subgraph.     

Some Considerations on the Reason for Bloat

A representation-less model for genetic programming is presented. The model is intended to examine the mechanisms that lead to bloat in genetic programming (GP). We discuss two hypotheses (fitness causes bloat and neutral code is protective) and perform simulations to examine the predictions deduced from these hypotheses. Our observation is that predictions from both hypotheses are realized in the simulated model.