Digital Commons Network^™

Constructing An Interval Temporal Logic For Real-Time Systems, Grace Tsai, Matt Insall, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

A real-time system is one that involves control of one or more physical devices with essential timing requirements. Examples of these systems are command and control systems, process control systems, flight control systems, and the space shuttle avionics systems. The characteristics of these systems are that severe consequences will occur if the logical and physical timing specifications of the systems are not met.

Formal specification and verification are among the techniques to achieve reliable software for real-time systems, in which testing may be impossible or too dangerous to perform. This paper presents a modal logic, Interval Temporal , built upon …

Hybrid Arq Schemes For Point-To-Multipoint Communications Over Nonstationary Broadcast Channels, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Hybrid automatic-repeat-request (ARQ) error control schemes make use of both error detection and error correction in order to achieve high throughput and low undetected error probabilities on two way channels. Two hybrid ARQ schemes, termed hybrid go-back-N (HGB- N) and hybrid selective-repeat (HSR), are proposed for point-to-multipoint communications over broadcast channels. Both schemes incorporate a concatenated code for error correction and error detection. The performance study of the hybrid schemes is based on a two-state Markov model of a burst noise channel. An analytic solution is derived for the throughput efficiency of the HSR scheme, while approximations and computer simulation …

Rsvp: A New Resource Reservation Protocol, Daniel Zappala, Stephen Deering, Deborah Estrin, Scott Shenker, Lixia Zhang

Faculty Publications

The current Internet architecture, embodied in the Internet Protocol (IP) network protocol, offers a very simple service model: point-to-point best-effort service. In recent years, several new classes of distributed applications have been developed, such as remote video, multimedia conferencing, data fusion, visualization, and virtual reality. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Internet’s primitive service model is inadequate for these new applications. This inadequacy stems from the failure of the point-to-point best-effort service model to address two application requirements. First, many of these applications are very sensitive to the quality of service their packets receive. For a network to deliver …

Entity Identification In Database Integration: An Evidential Reasoning Approach, Ee Peng Lim, Jaideep Srivastava

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Entity identification is the problem of matching object instances from different databases which correspond to the same real-world entity. In this paper, we present a 2-step entity identification process in which attributes for matching tuples may be missing in certain tuples, and thus need to be derived prior to the matching. To match tuples, we require identity rules which specify the conditions to be satisfied by a pair of tuples, from different databases, before they can be considered as modeling the same real-world entity. We also introduce ILFD's (instance-level functional dependencies) as a form of inference rules which derive the …

Data Dependence In Programs Involving Indexed Variables, Borislav Nikolik

Dissertations and Theses

Symbolic execution is a powerful technique used to perform various activities such as program testing, formal verification of programs, etc. However, symbolic execution does not deal with indexed variables in an adequate manner. Integration of indexed variables such as arrays into symbolic execution would increase the generality of this technique. We present an original substitution technique that produces array-term-free constraints as a counterargument to the commonly accepted belief that symbolic execution cannot handle arrays. The substitution technique deals with constraints involving array terms with a single aggregate name, array terms with multiple aggregate names, and nested array terms. Our approach …

Implicit Methods On Parallel Processors, Larry Reeves

Computer Science Technical Reports

Since most partial differential equations (PDEs) do not have exact solutions, they are usually solved by some type of numerical method. Since a numerical method is commonly built from finite difference approximations derived from Taylor series expansions, such a development is derived. Stability and convergence of these methods is defined and the rate of convergence is defined and shown for a few simple methods. Of particular importance is the difference between implicit and explicit methods. Finally, the current applications and adaptations of implicit methods on parallel processors are examined and their strengths and weaknesses discussed.

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Certain Metrics In Measuring The Quality Of End User Documentation, Ronald Morrison

Dissertations and Theses

Traditional methods of evaluating quality in computer end user documentation have been subjective in nature, and have not been widely used in practice. Attempts to quantify quality and more narrowly define the essential features of quality have been limited -- leaving the issue of quality largely up to the writer of the user manual.

Quantifiable measures from the literature, especially Velotta (1992) and Brockman (1990), have been assembled into a set of uniformly weighted metrics for the measurement of document quality. This measure has been applied to the end user documentation of eighty-two personal computer packages. End user documentation is …

Formal Model And Specification Of Deadlock, Pei-Yu Li, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

In this paper, we present a formal model of deadlock in a distributed system and develop the deadlock specification in terms of time-dependent predicates. Primitive activities of processes in the distributed system are specified by the predicates so that system behaviors can be described by logic operations. With the formal model, we have an insight into the definition of deadlock in local views. A rigorous proof to show the equivalence of local-time and global-time deadlock specifications is presented. The local-time deadlock specification, which defines the timing of dependence between deadlocked processes, will be useful in the correctness verification of distributed …

A Network Management Tool For The University Of Tennessee At Chattanooga Using Simple Network Management Protocol, Ghasem Shojaie

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This research is an attempt to develop a general purpose network management tool, using the Simple Network Management Protocol, for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). This tool is intended to be a non vendor specific application that runs on very low cost hardware, yet provides the primary functions one needs to monitor the health of network devices such as routers and bridges. The Simple Network Management Protocol was chosen because it is an industry standard. It has fewer operators than other network management protocols; therefore, it is simpler to implement. Because of the type of network that is …

Parallel Detection Of All Palindromes In A String, Alberto Apostolico, Dany Breslauer, Zvi Galil

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Facial Image Retrieval, Identification, And Inference System, Jian Kang Wu, Yew Hock Ang, Chiam Prong Lam, S. K. Moorthy, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recognition of a human face is very easy even to a child, but is extremely difficult for computers. Here we present a Computer Aided Facial Image Identification, Retrieval and Inference System (CAFIIRIS) for criminal identification. The system stores and manages facial images and criminal records, providing necessary image and text processing, and editing tools. Inference of facial images of different ages of a person is also possible. Access to facial images can be done via key words, fuzzy descriptions, and visual browsing.

A Survey Of Expert Systems In Singapore And The Integration Of Multimedia Technology And Expert Systems, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Expert systems technologies have been widely adopted by different industries form the early 1980s. There have been examples of expert systems embedded in applications developed for the financial and banking sector, manufacturing, services and government. In section 2 of this paper, we present a scan of expert systems used in different sectors. Section 3 will cover the expert system tools and applications developed in the decade of the 1980s. Section 4 will present some of the ongoing expert systems related activities. Section 5 will extrapolate the present work to forecast the future types of expert systems that might be developed …

Memory-Adaptive External Sorting, Hwee Hwa Pang, Michael J. Carey, Miron Livny

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In real-time and goal-oriented database systems, the amount of memory assigned to queries that sort or join large relations may fluctuate due to contention from other higher priority transactions. This study focuses on techniques that enable external sorts both to reduce their buffer usage when they lose memory, and to effectively utilize any additional buffers that are given to them. We also show how these techniques can be extended to work with sort-merge joins. A series of experiments confirms that our proposed techniques are useful for sorting and joining large relations in the face of memory fluctuations.

Performance Analysis Of Two Bridged Csma/Cd Networks, C. C. Ko, W. C. Wang, J. L. Du, Robert H. Deng, K. M. Lye

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper analyses the performance of two non-persistent CSMA/CD LANs linked by a bridge. The main function of the bridge is to buffer all internet work packets and forward them across networks to their destinations. From establishing and solving the main equations governing the behaviour of the bridged networks, the effects of design parameters such as the bridge buffer size and re-transmission back off delay on the performance of the system are studied. It is shown that if these parameters are chosen properly, better throughput and delay performance can be obtained, when compared with an equivalent CSMA/CD network without using …

A Cognitively Motivated System For Software Component Reuse, Michael Joseph Mateas

Dissertations and Theses

Software reuse via component libraries suffers from the twin problems of code location and comprehension. The Intelligent Code Object Planner (ICOP) is a cognitively motivated system that facilitates code reuse by answering queries about how to produce an effect with the library. It can plan for effects which are not primitive with respect to the library by building a plan that incorporates multiple components. The primary subsystems of ICOP are a knowledge base which describes the ontology of the library, a natural language interface which translates user queries into a formal effect language (predicates), a planner which accepts the effect …

Parallel Genetic Algorithm For The Dag Vertex Splitting Problem, Matthias Mayer

Computer Science Technical Reports

Directed Acyclic Graphs (DGAs) are often used to model circuits and networks. The path length in such DAGs represents circuit or network delays. In the vertex splitting problem, the objective is to determine a minimum number of vertices from the graph to split such that the resulting graph has no path of length greater than a given maximum delay δ. The problem has been proven to be NP-hard. A sequential Genetic Algorithm has been developed to solve the DAG Vertex Splitting Problem. Unlike a standard Genetic Algorithm, this approach uses a variable chromosome length to represent the vertices that split …

Parallel Algorithm Fundamentals And Analysis, Bruce M. Mcmillin, Hanan Lutfiyya, Grace Tsai, Jun-Lin Liu

Computer Science Technical Reports

This session explores, through the use of formal methods, the “intuition” used in creating a parallel algorithm design and realizing this design on distributed memory hardware. The algorithm class NC and the LSTM machine are used to show why some algorithms realize their promise of speedup better than others and the algorithm class NP is used to show why other algorithms will never be good for parallelization. Performance and correctness through cooperative axiomatic reasoning and temporal reasoning provide an additional basis for understanding parallel algorithm design and specification. Finally, the realities of algorithm design are presented through partitioning and mapping …

Parallel Algorithm Fundamentals And Analysis, Bruce M. Mcmillin, Hanan Lutfiyya, Grace Tsai, Jun-Lin Liu

Computer Science Technical Reports

This session explores, through the use of formal methods, the “intuition” used in creating a parallel algorithm design and realizing this design on distributed memory hardware. The algorithm class NG and the LSTM machine are used to show why some algorithms realize their promise of speedup better than others and the algorithm class NP is used to show why other algorithms will never be good for parallelization. The realities of algorithm design are presented through partitioning and mapping issues and models. Finally, correctness through cooperative axiomatic reasoning provides an additional basis for understanding parallel algorithm design and specification and is …

X.500 Directory Service Support For Electronic Mail, Mihai G. Sirbu, Fikret ErçAl

Computer Science Technical Reports

One of the difficult problems on the Internet is finding the electronic mail addresses of users. In practice, there are some indirect ways of finding these addresses such as the finger program in UNIX, but almost all of these methods require the user to know the exact host name of the destination. What is most desirable is an automated mechanism which provides the e-mail addresses of users if some minimal information about the destination site is known.

This thesis describes the design of such a directory service support system, based on the X.500 Series of CCITT Recommendation, for the elm …

Genetic Algorithm With 3-Parent Uniform Crossover, L. Vincent Edmondson, Billy E. Gillett

Computer Science Technical Reports

A new genetic algorithm which uses a 3-parent uniform crossover operator is developed and analyzed. Uniform crossover operators are shown to be based on the premise that all bit-level genetic information should be passed from parents to children. The 3-parent uniform crossover operator is shown to adhere to this premise. The 3-parent uniform crossover operator is shown to be better than the 2-parent uniform crossover operator on the De Jong test functions.

Two new genetic algorithms which use 3-parent traditional crossover operators are developed and analyzed. The first uses a strategy of randomly selecting 3 of the 6 children resulting …

Policy And Procedures Manual: Department Of Computer Sciences, John R. Rice

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Performance Of A Token-Passing System With Batch Arrivals And Its Application To File Transfers, Robert H. Deng, Xuanyu Zhang, Kuan Tase Huang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper investigates the performance of token-passing systems with limited service and Poisson arrivals. For pure Poisson arrivals, the Laplace-Stieltjes Transform (LST) of an approximate customer/packet waiting time distribution is derived and expressed as a functional equation, from which the approximate mean and variance of waiting time are obtained; for batch Poisson arrivals, an approximate mean of waiting time is derived. Mean waiting time approximations are compared against both simulation results and other results presented in the literature; the variance approximation is evaluated by comparing it to simulation results only, since no other results on variance have been reported so …

Performance Analysis Of Interconnected Lans With Server/Client Configuration, Jiangling Du, Robert H. Deng, Chi Chung Ko

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we study the end-to-end performance of interconnected local area networks (LAN) with server/client configuration. The system uses bridges to connect two token-ring LANs through a high-speed communication link. A server station located on one LAN receives requests from client-stations on the same LAN as well as on the remote LAN, processes the requests, and returns responses to the client-stations. The end-to-end connections of the interconnected network are modelled as single-chain and multiple-chain closed queueing systems, which are solved by an iterative algorithm based on the MVA (mean value analysis) method. The performance examples are shown in terms …

Operational Evaluation Of Responsiveness Properties, Grace Tsai, Matt Insall, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

In this paper, a new technique for ensuring run-time satisfaction of properties-specifically responsiveness property, a subset of liveness property, in responsive systems, is presented. Since whether the run-time behavior of a system is satisfied depends on the execution (operational) environment, we develop a translation which takes into account the constraints in the operational environment, and generates histories for each process in the system. Thus, every process can utilize its history to operationally evaluate the system behavior and signal errors if its history is violated. Therefore, this technique provides software safety, handles error-detection, and ensures run-time satisfaction of responsiveness property in …

A General Method For Maximizing The Error-Detecting Ability Of Distributd Algorithms, Martina Schollmeyer, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

Error-detecting algorithms can determine when, at run time, a program deviates from its expected behavior due to a hardware, software or communication error. In a fixed interconnect multiprocessor system, the error detecting ability heavily depends on the number of faults, which is bounded, and their spatial distribution. Otherwise multiple fault occurrences can mask each other. This paper provides a general method for computing the overall system failure bound, the maximal fault index, from the system topology and local communication patterns. The result of the computation is used to design a mapping of processes to processor groups such that multiple processor …

Designing A Unix Novice Interface, Lee K. Seitz

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Putting Humpty-Dumpty Together Again: Reconstructing Functions From Their Projections., Anil Ravindran Menon, Kishan Mehrotra, Chilukuri K. Mohan, Sanjay Ranka

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Technical Reports

We present a problem decomposition approach to reduce neural net training times. The basic idea is to train neural nets in parallel on marginal distributions obtained from the original distribution (via projection), and then reconstruct the original table from the marginals (via a procedure similar to the join operator in database theory). A function is said to be reconstructible, if it may be recovered without error from its projections. Most distributions are non-reconstructible. The main result of this paper is the Reconstruction theorem, which enables non-reconstructible functions to be expressed in terms of reconstructible ones, and thus facilitates the application …

On Inverse Sigmoid Functions, Anil Ravindran Menon, Kishan Mehrotra, Chilukuri K. Mohan, Sanjay Ranka

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Technical Reports

Networks with sigmoid node functions have been shown to be universal approximators, and can use straightforward implementations of learning algorithms. Mathematically, what is common to different sigmoid functions used by different researchers? We establish a common representation of inverse sigmoid functions in terms of the Guass Hypergeometric function, generalizing different node function formulations. We also show that the continuous Hopfield network equation can be transformed into a Legendre differential equation, without assuming the specific form of the node function; this establishes a link between Hopfield nets and the method of function approximation using Legendre polynomials

Off-Line Cursive Handwriting Recognition Using Style Parameters, Berrin A. Yanikoglu, Peter A. Sandon

Computer Science Technical Reports

We present a system for recognizing off-line cursive English text, guided in part by global characteristics of the handwriting. A new method for finding the letter boundaries, based on minimizing a heuristic cost function, is introduced. The function is evaluated at each point along the baseline of the word to find the best possible segmentation points. The algorithm tries to find all the actual letter boundaries and as few additional ones as possible. After size and slant normalizations, the segments are classified by a one hidden layer feedforward neural network. The word recognition algorithm finds the segmentation points that are …

Ua66/3/2 Computer Science Alumni Newsletter, Vol. 8, Wku Computer Science

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by WKU Computer Science for alumni of the program. This issue includes list of faculty research and scholarly activity and results of alumni survey.