Digital Communications and Networking Commons^™

Understanding User Generated Content Characteristics : A Hot-Event Perspective, Miao Wang, Guodong Li, Jie Feng, Lisong Xu, Byrav Ramamurthy, Wei Li, Xiaohong Guan

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Nowadays, millions of Internet users watch and upload a large number of videos on User Generated Content (UGC) sites (e.g., Youtube) everyday. Moreover, online videos about hot events, such as breaking news and Olympic games, attract lots of users. In this paper, we study the characteristics of hot-event videos by collecting video traces of the largest UGC site in China for 28 days. We first empirically study statistical properties of such videos and find that hot-event videos contribute a large number of views, even though the total number of hotevent videos is relatively small. In addition, there exist extremely active …

Using Textual Features To Predict Popular Content On Digg, Paul H. Miller

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Over the past few years, collaborative rating sites, such as Netflix, Digg and Stumble, have become increasingly prevalent sites for users to find trending content.  I used various data mining techniques to study Digg, a social news site, to examine the influence of content on popularity.  What influence does content have on popularity, and what influence does content have on users’ decisions?  Overwhelmingly, prior studies have consistently shown that predicting popularity based on content is difficult and maybe even inherently impossible.  The same submission can have multiple outcomes and content neither determines popularity, nor individual user decisions.  My results show …

Optimized Delay-Sensitive Multimedia Communications Over Wireless Networks, Haiyan Luo

Department of Computer Electronics and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Multimedia communication is expected to be the major application of the next-generation wireless networks. However, providing delay-sensitive, loss-tolerant and resource-guzzling multimedia services over the current resource-limited wireless networks is still a very challenging task. In addition to their heterogeneous nature and resource limitation, wireless networks also suffer from channel variations and environmental changes. In this dissertation, we study the optimization techniques for wireless multimedia communications and address the issues from different theoretical and practical perspectives.

To solve the issues resulting from the increasingly heterogeneous wireless networks, we propose a framework for error resilient source coding and distributed application-layer error control, …

Data Aggregation And Dissemination In Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks, Khaled Ibrahim

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) are a fast growing technology that many governments and automobile manufacturers are investing in to provide not only safer and more secure roads, but also informational and entertainment-based applications for drivers. The applications developed for VANETs can be classified into multiple categories (safety, informational, entertainment). Most VANET applications, regardless of their category, depend on having certain vehicular data(vehicular speed, X position and Y position) available. Although these applications appear to use the same vehicular data, the characteristics of this data (i.e., amount, accuracy, and update rate) will vary based on the application category. For …

Performance Analysis For Wimax Wireless Systems With Multiple Receive Antennas, Selcuk Taskin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Broadband wireless access has become the best way to meet the growing demand for fast Internet connections. WiMAX is one of the most promising broadband access technologies that allows fast deployment as well as low maintenance costs. WiMAX allows efficient use available bandwidth by using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) which is an efficient multi-carrier modulation technique. Diversity is a method for improving the reliability of a signal in fading environments by using two or more communication channels and is usually achieved by multiple antenna techniques.

In this thesis, receiver side diversity combining methods are studied and the performance of …

A Study Of Diversity Techniques For Lte Wireless Systems, Ferhat Kaplan

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The demand of attaining information and the wish to communicating anytime and anywhere has caused numerous innovations in the digital communication world. Today, approximately half of the people on earth somehow use wireless technology which is in every part of our lives. LTE (Long Term Evolution) and WIMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) standards are the two leading wireless technologies, which support high data rates, multimedia applications, and voice video communications at very high speeds, also called 4G cellular systems in the global market.

These high expectations from wireless technology have revealed multiple antenna techniques which improve the performance and …

Electronic Warfare By Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Aydin Meric

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Technology continues to evolve rapidly by the day. Developments in technology should be followed closely if a country wants to become more powerful. Nowadays nobody can afford to ignore the importance of Electronic Warfare and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in military applications. Both of them play a crucial role in military operations that they can change the course of a war.

There are different kinds of Electronic Warfare methods that can be applied according to the situations and any evolving circumstances. In the beginning Electronic Warfare was used mainly for defensive purposes, but these days Electronic Warfare is used for …

Worse-Than-Rayleigh Fading: Experimental Results And Theoretical Models, David W. Matolak, Jeff Frolik

Faculty Publications

This article is motivated by the recent recognition that channel fading for new wireless applications is not always well described by traditional models used for mobile communication systems. In particular, fading data collected for vehicleto- vehicle and wireless sensor network applications has motivated new models for conditions in which channel fading statistics can be worse than Rayleigh. We review the use of statistical channel models, describe our example applications, and provide both measured and modeling results for these severe fading conditions.

Behavior-Based Mobility Prediction For Seamless Handoffs In Mobile Wireless Networks, Weetit Wanalertlak, Ben Lee, Chansu Yu, Myungchul Kim, Seung-Min Park, Won-Tae Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The field of wireless networking has received unprecedented attention from the research community during the last decade due to its great potential to create new horizons for communicating beyond the Internet. Wireless LANs (WLANs) based on the IEEE 802.11 standard have become prevalent in public as well as residential areas, and their importance as an enabling technology will continue to grow for future pervasive computing applications. However, as their scale and complexity continue to grow, reducing handoff latency is particularly important. This paper presents the Behavior-based Mobility Prediction scheme to eliminate the scanning overhead incurred in IEEE 802.11 networks. This …

A High-Throughput Routing Metric For Reliable Multicast In Multi-Rate Wireless Mesh Networks, Xin Zhao, Jun Guo, Chun Tung Chou, Archan Misra, Sanjay Jha

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose a routing metric for enabling highthroughput reliable multicast in multi-rate wireless mesh networks. This new multicast routing metric, called expected multicast transmission time (EMTT), captures the combined effects of 1) MAC-layer retransmission-based reliability, 2) transmission rate diversity, 3) wireless broadcast advantage, and 4) link quality awareness. The EMTT of one-hop transmission of a multicast packet minimizes the amount of expected transmission time (including that required for retransmissions). This is achieved by allowing the sender to adapt its bit-rate for each ongoing transmission/retransmission, optimized exclusively for its nexthop receivers that have not yet received the multicast packet. We model …

Solving The Vehicle Re-Identification Problem By Using Neural Networks, Tanweer Rashid

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Vehicle re-identification is the process by which vehicle attributes measured at one point on a road network are compared to vehicle attributes measured at another point in an effort to match vehicles without using any unique identifiers such as license plate numbers. A match is made if the two measurements are estimated to belong to the same vehicle. Vehicle attributes can be sensor readings such as loop induction signatures, or they can also be actual vehicle characteristics such as length, weight, number of axles, etc. This research makes use of vehicle length, travel time, axle spacing and axle weights for …

They Passed That? He Decided What? Tools And Techniques For Staying Informed About The Law, Jason Tubninis

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Thanks to the wide-scale adoption of the Internet as a primary means of disseminating information, the amount available is increasing at an exponential rate every day. This is especially true for the legal field and the practice of law. There is an incredible amount of information being released from a myriad of sources; government agencies, legal scholars, private practitioners, experts and more are distributing a veritable treasure trove of resources online.

The question is no longer “Is it out there?” but “How can I find it?” Unfortunately, this question is becoming increasingly difficult as the shear amount being released begins …

Internet Ethics: Complications Of The Digital Age And Web Sites To Help You Untangle Them, Maureen Cahill

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Computers and the Internet have profoundly changed at least the mechanics of the practice of law. Client communication, legal research, document drafting and transmittal, and record storage are increasingly paper free undertakings. As someone who began the practice of law long before the advent of the personal computer or the Internet, I can attest that the shift to computers and the Internet has greatly increased efficiency, productivity and convenience. At the same time, these tools can greatly complicate many traditional ethical considerations.

The paper is divided into two parts. In the first portion of this paper, I will try to …

Increasing Efficiency In Boundary Security With Wireless Sensor Networks And Geospatial Information Systems Using Homology Theory, Luis Berumen^, Eric Chaidez^, Hamide Dogan*, Jose Gerardo Rosiles**

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2011

As part of an institutional investigation, we attempt to address the challenges the US customs and Border protection agency faces in the El Paso region. Our research focuses on defining a system for the surveillance application, and the use of mathematical models employed to achieve a greater efficiency of such architecture. With the use of the defined system, we apply homology theory through the algebraic process of topology, to accomplish an independent coordinate-free based system, which covers the surveillance area, with lesser quantity of sensor nodes. Our architecture makes the use of an operating system for wireless sensor networks; TinyOS, …

A Multi Agent System For Flow-Based Intrusion Detection Using Reputation And Evolutionary Computation, David Hancock

Theses and Dissertations

The rising sophistication of cyber threats as well as the improvement of physical computer network properties present increasing challenges to contemporary Intrusion Detection (ID) techniques. To respond to these challenges, a multi agent system (MAS) coupled with flow-based ID techniques may effectively complement traditional ID systems. This paper develops: 1) a scalable software architecture for a new, self-organized, multi agent, flow-based ID system; and 2) a network simulation environment suitable for evaluating implementations of this MAS architecture and for other research purposes. Self-organization is achieved via 1) a reputation system that influences agent mobility in the search for effective vantage …

Malicious And Malfunctioning Node Detection Via Observed Physical Layer Data, Tyler J. Hardy

Theses and Dissertations

There are many mechanisms that can cause inadequate or unreliable information in sensor networks. A user of the network might be interested in detecting and classifying specific sensors nodes causing these problems. Several network layer based trust methods have been developed in previous research to assess these issues; in contrast this work develops a trust protocol based on observations of physical layer data collected by the sensors. Observations of physical layer data are used for decisions and calculations, and are based on just the measurements collected by the sensors. Although this information is packaged and distributed on the network layer, …

Adaptive Quality Of Service Engine With Dynamic Queue Control, James D. Haught

Theses and Dissertations

While the current routing and congestion control algorithms in use today are often sufficient for networks with relatively static topology, these algorithms may not be sufficient for military networks where a certain level of quality of service (QoS) needs to be achieved to complete a mission. Current networking technology limits a network's ability to adapt to changes and interactions in the network, often resulting in sub-optimal performance. This research investigates the use of queue size predictions to create a network controller to optimize computer networks. These queue size predictions are made possible through the use of Kalman filters to detect …

Holistic Network Defense: Fusing Host And Network Features For Attack Classification, Jenny W. Ji

Theses and Dissertations

This work presents a hybrid network-host monitoring strategy, which fuses data from both the network and the host to recognize malware infections. This work focuses on three categories: Normal, Scanning, and Infected. The network-host sensor fusion is accomplished by extracting 248 features from network traffic using the Fullstats Network Feature generator and from the host using text mining, looking at the frequency of the 500 most common strings and analyzing them as word vectors. Improvements to detection performance are made by synergistically fusing network features obtained from IP packet flows and host features, obtained from text mining port, processor, logon …

Covert Channels Within Irc, Wayne C. Henry

Theses and Dissertations

The exploration of advanced information hiding techniques is important to understand and defend against illicit data extractions over networks. Many techniques have been developed to covertly transmit data over networks, each differing in their capabilities, methods, and levels of complexity. This research introduces a new class of information hiding techniques for use over Internet Relay Chat (IRC), called the Variable Advanced Network IRC Stealth Handler (VANISH) system. Three methods for concealing information are developed under this framework to suit the needs of an attacker. These methods are referred to as the Throughput, Stealth, and Baseline scenarios. Each is designed for …

Routing Uavs To Co-Optimize Mission Effectiveness And Network Performance With Dynamic Programming, Spenser D. Lee

Theses and Dissertations

In support of the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) vision of the layered sensing operations center, command and control intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (C2ISR) more focus must be placed on architectures that support information systems, rather than just the information systems themselves. By extending the role of UAVs beyond simply intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations and into a dual-role with networking operations we can better utilize our information assets. To achieve the goal of dual-role UAVs, a concrete approach to planning must be taken. This research defines a mathematical model and a non-trivial deterministic algorithmic approach to determining UAV …

Evaluating Information Assurance Control Effectiveness On An Air Force Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (Scada) System, Jason R. Nielsen

Theses and Dissertations

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are increasingly being connected to corporate networks which has dramatically expanded their attack surface to remote cyber attack. Adversaries are targeting these systems with increasing frequency and sophistication. This thesis seeks to answer the research question addressing which Information Assurance (IA) controls are most significant for network defenders and SCADA system managers/operators to focus on in order to increase the security of critical infrastructure systems against a Stuxnet-like cyber attack. This research applies the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) IA controls to an attack tree modeled on a remote Stuxnet-like cyber …

Spear Phishing Attack Detection, David T. Merritt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the problem of identifying email spear phishing attacks, which are indicative of cyber espionage. Spear phishing consists of targeted emails sent to entice a victim to open a malicious file attachment or click on a malicious link that leads to a compromise of their computer. Current detection methods fail to detect emails of this kind consistently. The SPEar phishing Attack Detection system (SPEAD) is developed to analyze all incoming emails on a network for the presence of spear phishing attacks. SPEAD analyzes the following file types: Windows Portable Executable and Common Object File Format (PE/COFF), Adobe Reader, …

Creating A Network Model For The Integration Of Dynamic And Static Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (Scada) Test Environment, Marlon Coerbell

Theses and Dissertations

Since 9/11 protecting our critical infrastructure has become a national priority. Presidential Decision Directive 63 mandates and lays a foundation for ensuring all aspects of our nation's critical infrastructure remain secure. Key in this debate is the fact that much of our electrical power grid fails to meet the spirit of this requirement. My research leverages the power afforded by Electric Power and Communication Synchronizing Simulator (EPOCHS) developed with the assistance of Dr. Hopkinson, et al. The power environment is modeled in an electrical simulation environment called PowerWorld©. The network is modeled in OPNET® and populated with self-similar network and …

Polarimetric Enhancements To Electro-Optical Aided Navigation Techniques, Jeremiah D. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Navigation in indoor and urban environments by small unmanned systems is a topic of interest for the Air Force. The Advanced Navigation Technology Center at the Air Force Institute of Technology is continually looking for novel approaches to navigation in GPS deprived environments. Inertial sensors have been coupled with image aided concepts, such as feature tracking, with good results. However, feature density in areas with large, flat, smooth surfaces tends to be low. Polarimetric sensors have been used for surface reconstruction, surface characterization and outdoor navigation. This thesis combines aspects of some of these algorithms along with a realistic, micro-facet …

Reactive Routing In Hidra Networks, Scott Michael Marshall

Computer Engineering

In recent years, the Internet has grown so large that the future scalability of the Internet has become a major concern. The two primary scalability concerns are the size of the forwarding table and the ability for BGP to converge while distributing hundreds of thousands of routes.

HIDRA is a new Internet routing architecture that is backwards-compatible with existing routing technologies and protocols that focuses on feasibility-of-implementation. HIDRA remedies the first Internet scalability concern by proposing a means to reduce the number of entries in the default-free zone (DFZ) forwarding table.

This project extends HIDRA by designing a complete reactive …

A Cooperative Diversity-Based Robust Mac Protocol In Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, Sangman Moh, Chansu Yu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In interference-rich and noisy environment, wireless communication is often hampered by unreliable communication links. Recently, there has been active research on cooperative communication that improves the communication reliability by having a collection of radio terminals transmit signals in a cooperative way. This paper proposes a medium access control (MAC) algorithm, called Cooperative Diversity MAC (CD-MAC), which exploits the cooperative communication capability of the physical (PHY) layer to improve robustness in wireless ad hoc networks. In CD-MAC, each terminal proactively selects a partner for cooperation and lets it transmit simultaneously so that this mitigates interference from nearby terminals, and thus, improves …

On Reducing Communication Energy Using Cross-Sensor Coding Technique, Kien Nguyen, Thinh Nguyen, Sen-Ching Cheung

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the uneven communication energy problem in data gathering sensor networks where the nodes closer to the sink tend to consume more energy than those of the farther nodes. Consequently, the lifetime of a network is significantly shortened. We propose a cross-sensor coding technique using On-Off keying which exploits (a) the tradeoff between delay and energy consumption and (b) the network topology in order to alleviate the problem of unequal energy consumption. We formulate our coding problem as an integer linear programming problem and show how to construct a number of codes based on different criteria. We show …

Pgtp: Power Aware Game Transport Protocol For Multi-Player Mobile Games, Bhojan Anand, Jeena Sebastian, Soh Yu Ming, Akhihebbal L. Ananda, Mun Choon Chan, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Applications on the smartphones are able to capitalize on the increasingly advanced hardware to provide a user experience reasonably impressive. However, the advancement of these applications are hindered battery lifetime of the smartphones. The battery technologies have a relatively low growth rate. Applications like mobile multiplayer games are especially power hungry as they maximize the use of the network, display and CPU resources. The PGTP, presented in this paper is aware of both the transport requirement of these multiplayer mobile games and the limitation posed by battery resource. PGTP dynamically controls the transport based on the criticality of game state …

On The Applications Of Deterministic Chaos For Encrypting Data On The Cloud, Jonathan Blackledge, Nikolai Ptitsyn

Conference papers

Cloud computing is expected to grow considerably in the future because it has so many advantages with regard to sale and cost, change management, next generation architectures, choice and agility. However, one of the principal concerns for users of the Cloud is lack of control and above all, data security. This paper considers an approach to encrypting information before it is ‘placed’ on the Cloud where each user has access to their own encryption algorithm, an algorithm that is based on a set of iterated function systems that outputs a chaotic number stream, designed to produce a cryptographically secure cipher. …

Understanding The Influence Of Blog On The Development Of Social Capital, Reza Vaezi, Gholamreza Torkzadeh, Jerry Cha-Jan Chang

Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology Faculty Research

The rapid use and application of blogs in diverse areas such as education, marketing, journalism, and human resource management in recent years underlines the need for a better understanding of the impact of this new technology on social capital. Social capital reflects the norm of reciprocity and the level of trust among individuals who connect, interact, and benefit from one another. Blog is expected to influence the extent and the scope of this interaction by providing new means of networking among people. This paper examines the relationship between blog use and social capital and reports on the results of an …