Computer Engineering Commons^™

Robust And Efficient Localization Techniques For Cellular And Wireless Sensor Networks, Haseebulla M. Khan

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Localization in wireless networks refers to a collection of tasks that, collectively, determines the location of a mobile user, striving to hide the effects of mobility from the user and/or application. Localization has become an important issue and has drawn considerable attention, as many applications including E-911, cargo tracking, locating patients, location-sensitive billing, etc., require knowledge of the location of user/objects. It was realized, quite a while back, that extending emergency 911-like services (E-911) to continually growing mobile population is one of the extremely important localization applications. The bulk of the proposed solutions to emergency location management in wireless environments …

Radar - A Novel Admission Control And Handoff Management Scheme For Multimedia Leo Satellite Networks, Syed Rashidali Rizvi

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks are deployed as an enhancement to terrestrial wireless networks in order to provide broadband services to users regardless of their location. In addition to global coverage, these satellite systems support communications with hand-held devices and offer low cost-per-minute access cost, making them promising platforms for Personal Communication Services (PCS). LEO satellites are expected to support multimedia traffic and to provide their users with some form of Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. However, the limited bandwidth of the satellite channel, satellite rotation around the Earth and mobility of end-users makes QoS provisioning and mobility management …

Dream: A Theoretical Analysis, Xueying Qi

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

A Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET, for short) is a collection of mobile nodes deployed in support of a short-lived special-purpose operation. Examples include search-and-rescue missions, law-enforcement, multimedia classrooms, and among many others. Unlike cellular or satellite networks, MANET do not rely on any form of pre-existing infrastructure. The mobility of nodes combined with the lack of infrastructure makes routing in MANET notoriously difficult. It was recently suggested that routing in MANET can use to advantage geographic information that the nodes may acquire either by endowing them with a GPS chip or simply by using known localization algorithms. Distance Routing Effect …

Opal: In Vivo Based Preservation Framework For Locating Lost Web Pages, Terry L. Harrison

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

We present Opal, a framework for interactively locating missing web pages (http status code 404). Opal is an example of "in vivo" preservation: harnessing the collective behavior of web archives, commercial search engines, and research projects for the purpose of preservation. Opal servers learn from their experiences and are able to share their knowledge with other Opal servers using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Using cached copies that can be found on the web, Opal creates lexical signatures which are then used to search for similar versions of the web page. Using the OAI-PMH to facilitate …

Clustering And Hybrid Routing In Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Lan Wang

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on clustering and hybrid routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET). Specifically, we study two different network-layer virtual infrastructures proposed for MANET: the explicit cluster infrastructure and the implicit zone infrastructure. In the first part of the dissertation, we propose a novel clustering scheme based on a number of properties of diameter-2 graphs to provide a general-purpose virtual infrastructure for MANET. Compared to virtual infrastructures with central nodes, our virtual infrastructure is more symmetric and stable, but still light-weight. In our clustering scheme, cluster initialization naturally blends into cluster maintenance, showing the unity between these two operations. …

Lightweight Federation Of Non-Cooperating Digital Libraries, Rong Shi

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation studies the challenges and issues faced in federating heterogeneous digital libraries (DLs). The objective of this research is to demonstrate the feasibility of interoperability among non-cooperating DLs by presenting a lightweight, data driven approach, or Data Centered Interoperability (DCI). We build a Lightweight Federated Digital Library (LFDL) system to provide federated search service for existing digital libraries with no prior coordination.

We describe the motivation, architecture, design and implementation of the LFDL. We develop, deploy, and evaluate key services of the federation. The major difference to existing DL interoperability approaches is one where we do not insist on …

Software Development Project Risk Management: A Literature Review, Kevin Macg. Adams, C. Ariel Pinto

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The rapid and unprecedented growth in software has brought with it some of the most spectacular and costly project failures in modern history. How risk management is presented in the scholarly journals may give insight into the risk management methods and techniques in use on software development projects. This paper provides a glimpse into the risk management methods, methodologies and techniques available to those who are responsible for software development projects by conducting a non-experimental content analysis. The findings reveal that risk management has not received sufficient attention and does not appear to be widely accepted within the software engineering …

Final Report For The Development Of The Nasa Technical Report Server (Ntrs), Michael L. Nelson

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The author performed a variety of research, development and consulting tasks for NASA Langley Research Center in the area of digital libraries (DLs) and supporting technologies, such as the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). In particular, the development focused on the NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS) and its transition from a distributed searching model to one that uses the OAI-PMH. The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) is an international consortium focused on furthering the interoperability of DLs through the use of "metadata harvesting". The OAI-PMH version of NTRS went into public production on April 28, 2003. Since that …

Introduction: Data Communication And Topology Algorithms For Sensor Networks, Stephan Olariu, David Simplot-Ryl, Ivan Stojmenovic

Computer Science Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) We are very proud and honored to have been entrusted to be Guest Editors for this special issue. Papers were sought to comprehensively cover the algorithmic issues in the “hot” area of sensor networking. The concentration was on network layer problems, which can be divided into two groups: data communication problems and topology control problems. We wish to briefly introduce the five papers appearing in this special issue. They cover specific problems such as time division for reduced collision, fault tolerant clustering, self-stabilizing graph optimization algorithms, key pre-distribution for secure communication, and distributed storage based on spanning trees …

Lessons Learned With Arc, An Oai-Pmh Service Provider, Xiaoming Liu, Kurt Maly, Michael L. Nelson

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Web-based digital libraries have historically been built in isolation utilizing different technologies, protocols, and metadata. These differences hindered the development of digital library services that enable users to discover information from multiple libraries through a single unified interface. The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) is a major, international effort to address technical interoperability among distributed repositories. Arc debuted in 2000 as the first end-user OAI-PMH service provider. Since that time, Arc has grown to include nearly 7,000,000 metadata records. Arc has been deployed in a number of environments and has served as the basis for many other …

Archive Ingest And Handling Test, Michael L. Nelson, Johan Bollen, Giridhar Manepalli, Rabia Haq

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The Archive Ingest and Handling Test (AIHT) was a Library of Congress (LC) sponsored research project administered by Information Systems and Support Inc. (ISS). The project featured five participants: Old Dominion University Computer Science Department; Harvard University Library; Johns Hopkins University Library; Stanford University Library; Library of Congress. All five participants received identical disk drives containing copies of the 911.gmu.edu web site, a collection of 9/11 materials maintained by George Mason University (GMU). The purpose of the AIHT experiment was to perform archival forensics to determine the nature of the archive, ingest it, simulate at least one of the file …

Energy-Efficient Self-Organization Protocols For Sensor Networks, Qingwen Xu

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN, for short) consists of a large number of very small sensor devices deployed in an area of interest for gathering and delivery information. The fundamental goal of a WSN is to produce, over an extended period of time, global information from local data obtained by individual sensors. The WSN technology will have a significant impact on a wide array of applications on the efficiency of many civilian and military applications including combat field surveillance, intrusion detection, disaster management among many others. The basic management problem in the WSN is to balance the utility of the …