OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Joint Millimeter Wave and Microwave Resources Allocation in Cellular Networks with Dual-Mode Base Stations
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

In this paper, a novel dual-mode scheduling framework is proposed that jointly performs user applications (UA) selection and scheduling over microwave ($μ$W) and millimeter wave (mmW) bands. The proposed scheduling framework utilizes a set of context information, including the channel state information, the delay tolerance and required load per UA, and the uncertainty of mmW channels, to maximize the quality-of-service (QoS) per UA. The scheduling problem is formulated as an optimization with minimum unsatisfied relations (min-UR) problem which is shown to be challenging to solve. Consequently, a long-term scheduling framework, consisting of two stages, is proposed. Within this framework, first, the scheduling over $μ$W band is formulated as a matching game and to solve this problem, a novel algorithm is proposed and shown to yield a two-sided stable resource allocation. Second, over the mmW band, the scheduling problem is formulated as a 0-1 Knapsack problem and a novel algorithm is proposed to solve it. Furthermore, it is shown that the proposed framework can find an effective scheduling solution, over both $μ$W and mmW, in polynomial time. Simulation results show that, compared with conventional scheduling schemes, the proposed approach significantly increases the number of satisfied UAs and enhances the users' quality-of-experience.
Optimal Zero Delay Coding of Markov Sources: Stationary and Finite Memory Codes
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

The optimal zero delay coding of a finite state Markov source is considered. The existence and structure of optimal codes are studied using a stochastic control formulation. Prior results in the literature established the optimality of deterministic Markov (Walrand-Varaiya type) coding policies for finite time horizon problem, and the optimality of both deterministic nonstationary and randomized stationary policies for the infinite time horizon problem. Our main result here shows that for any irreducible and aperiodic Markov source with a finite alphabet, \emph{deterministic and stationary} Markov coding policies are optimal for the infinite horizon problem. In addition, the finite blocklength (time horizon) performance on an optimal (stationary and Markov) coding policy is shown to approach the infinite time horizon optimum at a rate $O(1/T)$. The results are extended to systems where zero delay communication takes place across a noisy channel with noiseless feedback.
Representation of texts as complex networks: a mesoscopic approach
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2017
Year: 2017

Statistical techniques that analyze texts, referred to as text analytics, have departed from the use of simple word count statistics towards a new paradigm. Text mining now hinges on a more sophisticated set of methods, including the representations in terms of complex networks. While well-established word-adjacency (co-occurrence) methods successfully grasp syntactical features of written texts, they are unable to represent important aspects of textual data, such as its topical structure, i.e. the sequence of subjects developing at a mesoscopic level along the text. Such aspects are often overlooked by current methodologies. In order to grasp the mesoscopic characteristics of semantical content in written texts, we devised a network model which is able to analyze documents in a multi-scale fashion. In the proposed model, a limited amount of adjacent paragraphs are represented as nodes, which are connected whenever they share a minimum semantical content. To illustrate the capabilities of our model, we present, as a case example, a qualitative analysis of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". We show that the mesoscopic structure of a document, modeled as a network, reveals many semantic traits of texts. Such an approach paves the way to a myriad of semantic-based applications. In addition, our approach is illustrated in a machine learning context, in which texts are classified among real texts and randomized instances.
All Your Cards Are Belong To Us: Understanding Online Carding Forums
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2017
Year: 2017

Underground online forums are platforms that enable trades of illicit services and stolen goods. Carding forums, in particular, are known for being focused on trading financial information. However, little evidence exists about the sellers that are present on carding forums, the precise types of products they advertise, and the prices buyers pay. Existing literature mainly focuses on the organisation and structure of the forums. Furthermore, studies on carding forums are usually based on literature review, expert interviews, or data from forums that have already been shut down. This paper provides first-of-its-kind empirical evidence on active forums where stolen financial data is traded. We monitored 5 out of 25 discovered forums, collected posts from the forums over a three-month period, and analysed them quantitatively and qualitatively. We focused our analyses on products, prices, seller prolificacy, seller specialisation, and seller reputation.
Design of a high-performance GEMM-like Tensor-Tensor Multiplication
Venue: arXiv cs.MS 2017
Year: 2017

We present "GEMM-like Tensor-Tensor multiplication" (GETT), a novel approach to tensor contractions that mirrors the design of a high-performance general matrix-matrix multiplication (GEMM). The critical insight behind GETT is the identification of three index sets, involved in the tensor contraction, which enable us to systematically reduce an arbitrary tensor contraction to loops around a highly tuned "macro-kernel". This macro-kernel operates on suitably prepared ("packed") sub-tensors that reside in a specified level of the cache hierarchy. In contrast to previous approaches to tensor contractions, GETT exhibits desirable features such as unit-stride memory accesses, cache-awareness, as well as full vectorization, without requiring auxiliary memory. To compare our technique with other modern tensor contractions, we integrate GETT alongside the so called Transpose-Transpose-GEMM-Transpose and Loops-over-GEMM approaches into an open source "Tensor Contraction Code Generator" (TCCG). The performance results for a wide range of tensor contractions suggest that GETT has the potential of becoming the method of choice: While GETT exhibits excellent performance across the board, its effectiveness for bandwidth-bound tensor contractions is especially impressive, outperforming existing approaches by up to $12.4\times$. More precisely, GETT achieves speedups of up to $1.41\times$ over an equivalent-sized GEMM for bandwidth-bound tensor contractions while attaining up to $91.3\%$ of peak floating-point performance for compute-bound tensor contractions.
Does Your DNS Recursion Really Time Out as Intended? A Timeout Vulnerability of DNS Recursive Servers
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2017
Year: 2017

Parallelization is featured by DNS recursive servers to do time-consuming recursions on behalf on clients. As common DNS configurations, recursive servers should allow a reasonable timeout for each recursion which may take as long as several seconds. However, it is proposed in this paper that recursion parallelization may be exploited by attackers to compromise the recursion timeout mechanism for the purpose of DoS or DDoS attacks. Attackers can have recursive servers drop early existing recursions in service by saturating recursion parallelization. The key of the proposed attack model is to reliably prolong service times for any attacking queries. As means of prolong service times, serval techniques are proposed to effectively avoiding cache hit and prolonging overall latency of external DNS lookups respectively. The impacts of saturated recursion parallelization on timeout are analytically provided. The testing on BIND servers demonstrates that with carefully crafted queries, an attacker can use a low or moderate level of query load to successfully overwhelm a target recursive server from serving the legitimate clients.
A Constrained Coding Scheme for Correcting Asymmetric Magnitude-$1$ Errors in $q$-ary Channels
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

We present a constraint-coding scheme to correct asymmetric magnitude-$1$ errors in multi-level non-volatile memories. For large numbers of such errors, the scheme is shown to deliver better correction capability compared to known alternatives, while admitting low-complexity of decoding. Our results include an algebraic formulation of the constraint, necessary and sufficient conditions for correctability, a maximum-likelihood decoder running in complexity linear in the alphabet size, and upper bounds on the probability of failing to correct $t$ errors. Besides the superior rate-correction tradeoff, another advantage of this scheme over standard error-correcting codes is the flexibility to vary the code parameters without significant modifications.
Echo State Networks for Proactive Caching in Cloud-Based Radio Access Networks with Mobile Users
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

In this paper, the problem of proactive caching is studied for cloud radio access networks (CRANs). In the studied model, the baseband units (BBUs) can predict the content request distribution and mobility pattern of each user, determine which content to cache at remote radio heads and BBUs. This problem is formulated as an optimization problem which jointly incorporates backhaul and fronthaul loads and content caching. To solve this problem, an algorithm that combines the machine learning framework of echo state networks with sublinear algorithms is proposed. Using echo state networks (ESNs), the BBUs can predict each user's content request distribution and mobility pattern while having only limited information on the network's and user's state. In order to predict each user's periodic mobility pattern with minimal complexity, the memory capacity of the corresponding ESN is derived for a periodic input. This memory capacity is shown to be able to record the maximum amount of user information for the proposed ESN model. Then, a sublinear algorithm is proposed to determine which content to cache while using limited content request distribution samples. Simulation results using real data from Youku and the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications show that the proposed approach yields significant gains, in terms of sum effective capacity, that reach up to 27.8% and 30.7%, respectively, compared to random caching with clustering and random caching without clustering algorithm.
Full waveform inversion guided by travel time tomography
Venue: arXiv cs.CE 2017
Year: 2017

Full waveform inversion (FWI) is a process in which seismic numerical simulations are fit to observed data by changing the wave velocity model of the medium under investigation. The problem is non-linear, and therefore optimization techniques have been used to find a reasonable solution to the problem. The main problem in fitting the data is the lack of low spatial frequencies. This deficiency often leads to a local minimum and to non-plausible solutions. In this work we explore how to obtain low frequency information for FWI. Our approach involves augmenting FWI with travel time tomography, which has low-frequency features. By jointly inverting these two problems we enrich FWI with information that can replace low frequency data. In addition, we use high order regularization, in a preliminary inversion stage, to prevent high frequency features from polluting our model in the initial stages of the reconstruction. This regularization also promotes the non-dominant low-frequency modes that exist in the FWI sensitivity. By applying a joint FWI and travel time inversion we are able to obtain a smooth model than can later be used to recover a good approximation for the true model. A second contribution of this paper involves the acceleration of the main computational bottleneck in FWI--the solution of the Helmholtz equation. We show that the solution time can be reduced by solving the equation for multiple right hand sides using block multigrid preconditioned Krylov methods.
On the Achievable Rate of Bi-Static Modulated Re-Scatter Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

In ambient re-scatter communications, devices convey information by modulating and re-scattering the radio frequency signals impinging on their antennas. In this correspondence, we consider a system consisting of a legacy modulated continuous carrier multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) link and a multi-antenna modulated re-scatter (MRS) node, where the MRS node modulates and re-scatters the signal generated by the legacy transmitter. The receiver seeks to decode both the original message and the information added by the MRS. We show that the achievable sum rate of this system exceeds that which the legacy system could achieve alone. We further consider the impact of channel estimation errors under the least squares channel estimation and study the achievable rate of the legacy and MRS systems, where a linear minimum mean square error receiver with successive interference cancellation is utilized for joint decoding.
Network Simplification in Half-Duplex: Building on Submodularity
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

This paper explores the {\it network simplification} problem in the context of Gaussian Half-Duplex (HD) diamond networks. Specifically, given an $N$-relay diamond network, this problem seeks to derive fundamental guarantees on the capacity of the best $k$-relay subnetwork, as a function of the full network capacity. The main focus of this work is on the case when $k=N-1$ relays are selected out of the $N$ possible ones. First, a simple algorithm, which removes the relay with the minimum capacity (i.e., the worst relay), is analyzed and it is shown that the remaining $(N-1)$-relay subnetwork has an approximate (i.e., optimal up to a constant gap) HD capacity that is at least half of the approximate HD capacity of the full network. This fraction guarantee is shown to be tight if only the single relay capacities are known, i.e., there exists a class of Gaussian HD diamond networks with $N$ relays where, by removing the worst relay, the subnetwork of the remaining $k=N-1$ relays has an approximate capacity equal to half of the approximate capacity of the full network. Next, this work proves a fundamental guarantee, which improves over the previous fraction: there always exists a subnetwork of $k=N-1$ relays that achieves at least a fraction $\frac{N-1}{N}$ of the approximate capacity of the full network. This fraction is proved to be tight and it is shown that any optimal schedule of the full network can be used by at least one of the $N$ subnetworks of $N-1$ relays to achieve a worst-case performance guarantee of $\frac{N-1}{N}$. Additionally, these results are extended to derive lower bounds on the fraction guarantee for general $k \in [1:N]$. The key steps in the proofs lie in the derivation of properties of submodular functions, which provide a combinatorial handle on the network simplification problem in Gaussian HD diamond networks.
Maximizing the Sum of Radii of Disjoint Balls or Disks
Venue: arXiv cs.CG 2017
Year: 2017

Finding nonoverlapping balls with given centers in any metric space, maximizing the sum of radii of the balls, can be expressed as a linear program. Its dual linear program expresses the problem of finding a minimum-weight set of cycles (allowing 2-cycles) covering all vertices in a complete geometric graph. For points in a Euclidean space of any finite dimension~$d$, with any convex distance function on this space, this graph can be replaced by a sparse subgraph obeying a separator theorem. This graph structure leads to an algorithm for finding the optimum set of balls in time $O(n^{2-1/d})$, improving the $O(n^3)$ time of a naive cycle cover algorithm. As a subroutine, we provide an algorithm for weighted bipartite matching in graphs with separators, which speeds up the best previous algorithm for this problem on planar bipartite graphs from $O(n^{3/2}\log n)$ to $O(n^{3/2})$ time. We also show how to constrain the balls to all have radius at least a given threshold value, and how to apply our radius-sum optimization algorithms to the problem of embedding a finite metric space into a star metric minimizing the average distance to the hub.
Inference of Haemoglobin Concentration From Stereo RGB
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

Multispectral imaging (MSI) can provide information about tissue oxygenation, perfusion and potentially function during surgery. In this paper we present a novel, near real-time technique for intrinsic measurements of total haemoglobin (THb) and blood oxygenation (SO2) in tissue using only RGB images from a stereo laparoscope. The high degree of spectral overlap between channels makes inference of haemoglobin concentration challenging, non-linear and under constrained. We decompose the problem into two constrained linear sub-problems and show that with Tikhonov regularisation the estimation significantly improves, giving robust estimation of the Thb. We demonstrate by using the co-registered stereo image data from two cameras it is possible to get robust SO2 estimation as well. Our method is closed from, providing computational efficiency even with multiple cameras. The method we present requires only spectral response calibration of each camera, without modification of existing laparoscopic imaging hardware. We validate our technique on synthetic data from Monte Carlo simulation % of light transport through soft tissue containing submerged blood vessels and further, in vivo, on a multispectral porcine data set.
Traffic Management for Heterogeneous Networks with Opportunistic Unlicensed Spectrum Sharing
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

This paper studies how to maximize the per-user-based throughput in an M-tier heterogeneous wireless network (HetNet) by optimally managing traffic flows between the access points (APs) in the HetNet. The APs in the first M-1 tiers can use the licensed spectrum at the same time whereas they share the unlicensed spectrum with the APs in the Mth tier by the proposed opportunistic carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol. The APs that access the licensed and unlicensed spectra simultaneously are able to integrate their spectrum resources by the carrier aggregation technique. We first characterize the distribution of the cell load and the channel access probability of each AP using a generalized AP association scheme. For an AP in each tier, the tight lower bounds on its mean spectrum efficiencies in the licensed and unlicensed spectra are derived for the general random models of the channel gain and AP association weights. We define the per-user link throughput and per-user network throughput based on the derived the mean spectrum efficiencies and maximize them by proposing the decentralized and centralized traffic management schemes for the APs in the first M-1 tiers under the constraint that the per-user link throughput of the tier-M APs must be above some minimum required value. Finally, a numerical example of coexisting LTE and WiFi networks is provided to validate our derived results and findings.
Best-Response Dynamics in Combinatorial Auctions with Item Bidding
Venue: arXiv cs.GT 2017
Year: 2017

In a combinatorial auction with item bidding, agents participate in multiple single-item second-price auctions at once. As some items might be substitutes, agents need to strategize in order to maximize their utilities. A number of results indicate that high welfare can be achieved this way, giving bounds on the welfare at equilibrium. Recently, however, criticism has been raised that equilibria are hard to compute and therefore unlikely to be attained. In this paper, we take a different perspective. We study simple best-response dynamics. That is, agents are activated one after the other and each activated agent updates his strategy myopically to a best response against the other agents' current strategies. Often these dynamics may take exponentially long before they converge or they may not converge at all. However, as we show, convergence is not even necessary for good welfare guarantees. Given that agents' bid updates are aggressive enough but not too aggressive, the game will remain in states of good welfare after each agent has updated his bid at least once. In more detail, we show that if agents have fractionally subadditive valuations, natural dynamics reach and remain in a state that provides a $1/3$ approximation to the optimal welfare after each agent has updated his bid at least once. For subadditive valuations, we can guarantee an $Ω(1/\log m)$ approximation in case of $m$ items that applies after each agent has updated his bid at least once and at any point after that. The latter bound is complemented by a negative result, showing that no kind of best-response dynamics can guarantee more than an $o(\log \log m/\log m)$ fraction of the optimal social welfare.
Ergodic Spectral Efficiency in MIMO Cellular Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

This paper shows how the application of stochastic geometry to the analysis of wireless networks is greatly facilitated by (i) a clear separation of time scales, (ii) the abstraction of small-scale effects via ergodicity, and (iii) an interference model that reflects the receiver's lack of knowledge of how each individual interference term is faded. These procedures render the analysis both more manageable and more precise, as well as more amenable to the incorporation of subsequent features. In particular, the paper presents analytical characterizations of the ergodic spectral efficiency of cellular networks with single-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and sectorization. These characterizations, in the form of easy-to-evaluate expressions, encompass the coverage, the distribution of spectral efficiency over the network locations, and the average thereof.
Deep learning trends for focal brain pathology segmentation in MRI
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

Segmentation of focal (localized) brain pathologies such as brain tumors and brain lesions caused by multiple sclerosis and ischemic strokes are necessary for medical diagnosis, surgical planning and disease development as well as other applications such as tractography. Over the years, attempts have been made to automate this process for both clinical and research reasons. In this regard, machine learning methods have long been a focus of attention. Over the past two years, the medical imaging field has seen a rise in the use of a particular branch of machine learning commonly known as deep learning. In the non-medical computer vision world, deep learning based methods have obtained state-of-the-art results on many datasets. Recent studies in computer aided diagnostics have shown deep learning methods (and especially convolutional neural networks - CNN) to yield promising results. In this chapter, we provide a survey of CNN methods applied to medical imaging with a focus on brain pathology segmentation. In particular, we discuss their characteristic peculiarities and their specific configuration and adjustments that are best suited to segment medical images. We also underline the intrinsic differences deep learning methods have with other machine learning methods.