Backup reprovisioning to remedy the effect of multiple link failures in WDM mesh networks
As networks grow in size and complexity, both the probability and the impact of failures increase. The pre-allocated backup bandwidth, which has been widely investigated in the literature, may not be able to provide full protection guarantee when multiple failures occur in a network. In this study, we consider multiple concurrent failures where concurrent means that a new failure occurs before a previous failure is repaired. To combat the effect of multiple concurrent failures, new backups can be reprovisioned after one failure such that the next potential failure can be handled effectively and efficiently. We consider dynamic traffic where a pair of link-disjoint primary and backup paths is provisioned when a new connection request arrives. After a failure occurs, the affected connections switch traffic from their primary paths to backup paths. To protect against next potential failure, we reprovision new backups for connections that become unprotected or vulnerable because of losing their primary or their backup due to the previous failure or due to backup resource sharing. This approach is called Minimal Backup Reprovisioning (MBR). An alternative approach is to globally rearrange backups for all connections after one failure occurs, which is called Global Backup Reprovisioning (GBR). Backup reprovisioning can be performed whenever the network's state changes, e.g., (1) when a new request arrives, (2) when an existing connection terminates, (3) when a network failure occurs, (4) when a failed link/node is repaired, etc., to utilize the available resources more efficiently or to recover quickly from the next failure. In this study, we perform MBR or GBR after one network failure occurs to protect against the next potential failure in a wavelength-convertible WDM mesh network. The link-vector network model which can maximally explore the backup-sharing potential is assumed in this study. We then analyze the complexity of MBR and GBR under such a network model. A reprovisioning algorithm is proposed for MBR which can significantly reduce the connection vulnerability without the knowledge of the location of the next failure. In GBR, both integer linear program (ILP) and heuristic-based approaches are proposed. We compare capacity requirement and computational complexity of MBR to that of GBR through numerical examples. MBR demonstrates a good tradeoff between complexity and capacity efficiency to handle multiple concurrent failures

title: A comprehensive study on backup-bandwidth reprovisioning after network-state updates in survivable telecom mesh networks

title: A Hybrid Restoration Scheme Based on Threshold Reaction Time in Optical Burst-Switched Networks
abstract: Optical Burst-Switched (OBS) networks usually employ one-way reservation by sending a burst control packet (BCP) with a specific offset time, before transmitting each data burst frame (BDF). Therefore, a fiber link failure may lead to loss of several BDFs as the ingress nodes sending these BDFs remain unaware of the failed link till they receive the failure indication signal (FIS). In this paper, we propose a hybrid restoration scheme, wherein we employ a novel combination of sub-path as well as path restoration schemes. In particular, the upstream node preceding the failed link employs sub-path restoration as soon as it detects the failure. Thereafter, when the source ingress node receives the FIS message, it (source ingress node) takes over the responsibility and employs path restoration. However, sub-path restoration is exercised by the upstream node only if the remaining time intervals left for the yet-to-arrive BDFs (for which BCPs have already left the upstream node) are less than a minimum time interval (called as threshold reaction time). Performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated through extensive computer simulation using OPNET. Our results indicate that the proposed restoration scheme significantly reduces burst losses due to link failure and, thus, outperforms the existing restoration schemes.

title: Explicit Routing for Traffic Engineering in Labeled Optical Burst-Switched WDM Networks
abstract: Optical burst switching (OBS) is a promising technique for supporting high-capacity bursty data traffic over optical wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) networks. A label-switched path can be established to forward a burst control packet (BCP) if each OBS node is augmented with an IP/MPLS controller. Such a network is called a labeled OBS (LOBS) network, and it can exploit the explicit routing and constraint-based routing properties supported in the MPLS framework to perform traffic and resource engineering. In this paper, we consider the traffic-engineering problem in a LOBS network, using explicit routing to balance network load and to reduce the burst-loss probability. We model the traffic-engineering problem in a LOBS network as an optimization problem and propose two new objective functions to minimize network congestion. Our illustrative numerical examples show that the burst-loss probability can be significantly reduced using optimization technique, when compared with shortest-path routing.

title: The LLAMA Middleware Support for Accountable Service-Oriented Architecture
abstract: Enterprises are turning to SOA for the flexible deployment of business processes. While current monitoring tools can detect service execution problems in an enterprise's servers and report such problems to human decision makers, they may not closely monitor the external services they use, diagnose the root cause of process problems, and automatically reconfigure the process to replace faulty services. This paper presents the LLAMA middleware support for service process monitoring, run-time management, and configuration. Instances of accountability agents are deployed to selectively monitor some services' performance. These agents in turn allow LLAMA's Accountability Authority (AA) to diagnose process problems and apply any necessary reconfiguration. The project also builds tools to simplify the setup and deployment of LLAMA components. Our experimental results indicate that using LLAMA contributes only a modest amount of system overhead, and that the diagnosis process is swift and sufficiently accurate.

title: Optimized routing for fault management in optical burst-switched WDM networks
abstract: Optical burst switching (OBS) is a promising technique for supporting high-capacity, bursty data traffic over optical wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) networks. An optical link failure may result in a huge amount of data (and revenue) loss, and it has been an important survivability concern in optical networks. In this paper, we study the fault- management issues related with a link failure in an OBS network. We propose to use pre-planned global rerouting to balance network load and to reroute bursts after a link fails. We apply optimization techniques to pre-plan explicit backup routes for failure scenarios. Our objective is to achieve optimal load balancing both before and after a failure such that the network state can still remain stable with minimum burst-loss probability when a failure occurs. We apply the pre-planned normal and backup routing tables to an OBS network, and study the network performance after a failure occur using illustrative numerical examples. The results show that the average burst-loss probability can be significantly reduced by 60% - from an average of 0.10 to 0.04 (when the normalized link load is less than 0.5) using globally-rerouted backup routes, when compared with the scheme without global rerouting. We also observe that the burst-loss probability is reduced by 43% - from an average of 0.07 to 0.04 (when the link load is less than 0.5) if the rerouting is done using optimization techniques, when compared with shortest-path routing.for Fault Management

title: A component-oriented software toolkit for patient-specific finite element model generation
abstract: A component-oriented software system, i.BioMech (image-based biomechanical modeling) is proposed for generation of patient-specific finite element model. It applies a systematic software engineering approach to patient/subject-specific meshing and assignment of material properties. The prototype program is based on the component object model (COM), which enables ease of combination of existing mesh generation algorithms and material property assignment schemes, and incorporation of new ones. It also facilitates utilization by other programming languages or platforms. Data input comprises a series of medical images captured from the patient. The output is a patient-specific finite element model for computational analysis using commercially available finite element software. The prototype software system provides a framework to compare the different finite element mesh generation methods as well as schemes for material property assignment. Our focus is on patient/subject-specific modeling of the human vertebrae.

title: Extraction of Text Objects in Video Documents: Recent Progress
abstract: Text extraction in video documents, as an important research field of content-based information indexing and retrieval, has been developing rapidly since 1990s. This has led to much progress in text extraction, performance evaluation, and related applications. By reviewing the approaches proposed during the past five years, this paper introduces the progress made in this area and discusses promising directions for future research.

title: Dynamic Terrain LOD with Region Preservation in 3D Game Engine
abstract: In the outdoor 3D game, the terrain can be modified because of interaction. This brings two new complexities to render terrain in 3D game. The first lies in the real-time visualization of dynamic terrain, and the second is that the modified terrain surface need to be preserved. We present an algorithm for dynamic terrain LOD(DT LOD) with preserving region in 3D game engine. The algorithm uses a DAG to represent dependency relationship of vertices which split triangles, and employs an active vertices set to update triangles in two consecutive frames for improving rendering performance. The region LOD can be constructed according to the view direction and the distance between the viewpoint and regions. The results of experiments show that our algorithm has a effective performance during rendering terrain.

title: A Task-Based Approach to User Interface Design for a Web-Based Hydrologic Information Systems
abstract: Hydroinformatics is a new and rapidly developing field that integrates knowledge and understanding of water resources with the latest developments in information technology to improve decision-making in many critical applications. It encompasses methods for data capture, storage, processing, analysis and visualization, and the use of advanced modeling, simulation, optimization and knowledge-based tools and systems infrastructure. Three types of hydrological data are most commonly used: flow rate in major rivers and streams, height of water in wells, and precipitation. To get a complete view of the state of water at a given point in space and time, one must analyze many different types of hydrological data together to derive information using an online GIS tool. To help use these disparate data sources more effectively and efficiently, we have built an online interface called the IJEDI WebCenter for Hydroinformatics using a task-based approach. In this design, we first identify the tasks that users perform to study water-related issues, then organize data for each task, and build task-specific tools to present and analyze data and information. In a study involving both novices and experts in hydrology, we found that the both groups performed water-related studies more effectively and efficiently than they would have without the WebCenter.

title: A Survey on Use of "New Perspective English Learning System" among University Students-Case Study on Jiangxi Normal University
abstract: As an e-learning system, New Perspective English Learning System is widely used in universities and colleges in China. However, little research has been carried on directed towards its effectiveness and correctness. This paper makes a case study on Jiangxi Normal University and adopts survey research as the predominant methodology and interview as secondary method. Via data collection and analysis, it examines respectively system effectiveness from respondents' satisfaction comments on five dimensions including students situation, learning resources, support from teachers, e-learning Support Platform and learning support service. Then it suggests an urgent need to solve the existing problems and improve the function of the whole NPELS Learning Hall platform in many ways. Finally some discussion and corresponding suggestions are proposed.