Multicasting in WDM networks
Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks are believed to be a promising candidate to meet the explosive increase of bandwidth demand in the Internet. In this article, we survey the problems of and approaches to multicasting in WDM networks. In particular, we address the issues in the context of three types of WDM networks: broadcast-and-select, wavelength-routed, and optical burst-switched (OBS) WDM networks. Broadcast-and-select WDM networks are typically for WDM LANs¿MANs, and can be either single-hop or multihop. Various multicast scheduling algorithms (MSAs) are discussed for single-hop networks. For multihop networks, we discuss how channel sharing can be employed to effectively support multicast. In a wavelength-routed WDM network, supporting multicast leads to the multicast routing and wavelength assignment (MC-RWA) problem, which has been discussed for different scenarios, including sparse-splitting networks. We also discuss the problem of efficiently supporting multicast in optical burst-switched (OBS) networks, where the overheads due to control packets and guard bands need to considered.

title: Modeling and Dimensioning Hierarchical Storage Systems for Low-Delay Video Services
abstract: In order to cost-effectively accommodate a large number of titles in a video system, a hierarchical storage system can be used. In this system, not-so-popular video files are stored in a tertiary level such as a disk/tape library. These files are transferred, or "staged," to a secondary level composed of magnetic disks before being streamed to the users. This system overcomes the current limitations in using disk/tape libraries to stream videos and resolves the bandwidth difference between staging and streaming. We present, via analysis, a model of the system and determine the minimum storage and bandwidth required, at each level, to meet a given user delay goal. We also analyze a number of system operations pertaining to whether or not a file is played while it is being staged (i.e., stage-streaming) and whether or not the displayed segments are deleted (i.e., trail-deletion). We show that stage-streaming and trail-deletion can achieve substantially lower bandwidth and storage requirements. In order to further increase the streaming and storage scalability, a distributed storage system can be used where multiple local servers are put close to user pools and get their files from one of the libraries through a network. We extend the models developed to such a system and specify the resource requirements to meet a given delay goal.

title: Improved refinement search for H.263 to H.264/AVC transcoding based on the minimum cost tendency search
abstract: An improved refinement search method for transcoding from H.263 to H.264/AVC is proposed in this paper. Many existing motion re-estimation methods refine the input motion vector (MV) with a small search range, which is usually input MV biased. Motion estimation (ME) in H.263 usually does not consider the rate required for coding the MV, and hence, the input MV may incur a large cost in H.264/AVC. To overcome this problem, we introduce a refinement search method, called minimum cost tendency search (MCTS), which takes the difference between the cost functions for ME in H.263 and H.264/AVC into consideration. The input MV and the predictor MV are used as two anchor points. The proposed MCTS starts searching from the anchor point with a higher cost to another. Finally, the best point is chosen as the center for further refinement. The performance of MCTS is evaluated by comparing with full search, FME in JM software and refinement scheme using small diamond pattern around the input MV (RSD). Experimental results show the proposed MCTS performs more stable than FME and RSD over a wide range of output video quality

title: A new motion compensation approach for error resilient video coding
abstract: Multihypothesis motion-compensated prediction (MHMCP) can be used as an error resilience technique for video coding. Motivated by MHMCP, we propose a new error resilience approach named alternative motion-compensated prediction (AMCP), where two-hypothesis and one-hypothesis predictions are alternatively used with some mechanism. Both theory and simulation results show that in case of one frame loss, the expected converged error using AMCP is smaller than that using two-hypothesis MCP.

title: Fine-grained device management in an interactive media server
abstract: The use of interactive media has already gained considerable popularity. Interactivity gives viewers VCR controls like slow-motion, pause, fast-forward, and instant replay. However, traditional server-based or client-based approaches for supporting interactivity either consume too much network bandwidth or require large client buffering; and hence they are economically unattractive. We propose the architecture and design of an interactive media proxy (IMP) server that transforms noninteractive broadcast or multicast streams into interactive ones for servicing a large number of end users. For IMP to work cost-effectively, it must carefully manage its storage devices, which are needed for caching voluminous media data. In this regard, we propose a fine-grained device management strategy consisting of three complementary components: disk profiler, data placement, and IO scheduler. Through quantitative analysis and experiments, we show that these fine-grained strategies considerably improve device throughput under various workload scenarios.

title: Video loss recovery with FEC and stream replication
abstract: Packet loss is inevitable in video multicast. In this paper, we propose and study an effective feedback-free loss recovery scheme for layered video which combines forward error correction (FEC) and stream replication. In our scheme, the server multicasts the video in parallel with FEC packets and a number of replicated delayed (ReD) version of the stream. Receivers autonomously and dynamically join the FEC and ReD streams to repair their losses. On the server side, we analyze and optimize the number of replicated streams and FEC packets to meet a certain residual loss requirement (i.e., error after correction). On the receiver side, we analyze the optimal combination of FEC and ReD packets to minimize its loss. We also present a fast yet accurate approximation algorithm for receiver to make such decision. We show that FEC combined with merely one or two replicated streams can effectively reduce the residual error rate (by as much as 50%) as compared with pure FEC or replication alone. Both subjective and objective video measures confirm that our recovery scheme achieves much better visual quality.

title: A collaborative filtering framework based on fuzzy association rules and multiple-level similarity
abstract: The rapid development of Internet technologies in recent decades has imposed a heavy information burden on users. This has led to the popularity of recommender systems, which provide advice to users about items they may like to examine. Collaborative Filtering (CF) is the most promising technique in recommender systems, providing personalized recommendations to users based on their previously expressed preferences and those of other similar users. This paper introduces a CF framework based on Fuzzy Association Rules and Multiple-level Similarity (FARAMS).  extended existing techniques by using fuzzy association rule mining, and takes advantage of product similarities in taxonomies to address data sparseness and nontransitive associations. Experimental results show that FARAMS improves prediction quality, as compared to similar approaches.

title: A data link control protocol for broadband wireless networks with adaptive coding rate
abstract: One of the challenges of broadband wireless multimedia networks is to design a wireless data link control (W-DLC) protocol which provides reliable data delivery over the noisy wireless link in an efficient manner. This paper presents our proposal of such a W-DLC protocol, based on a new coding scheme called multi-dimensional concatenated zigzag code. Both real-time and non-real-time traffic can be efficiently supported by adopting different error control mechanisms. A distinct feature of the protocol is that the coding rate can be adapted to a wide range of channel conditions. Hence, our protocol utilizes the scarce wireless channel resources more efficiently.

title: On the use of hierarchical information in sequential mining-based XML document similarity computation
abstract: Measuring the structural similarity among XML documents is the task of finding their semantic correspondence and is fundamental to many web-based applications. While there exist several methods to address the problem, the data mining approach seems to be a novel, interesting and promising one. It explores the idea of extracting paths from XML documents, encoding them as sequences and finding the maximal frequent sequences using the sequential pattern mining algorithms. In view of the deficiencies encountered by ignoring the hierarchical information in encoding the paths for mining, a new sequential pattern mining scheme for XML document similarity computation is proposed in this paper. It makes use of a preorder tree representation (PTR) to encode the XML tree’s paths so that both the semantics of the elements and the hierarchical structure of the document can be taken into account when computing the structural similarity among documents. In addition, it proposes a postprocessing step to reuse the mined patterns to estimate the similarity of unmatched elements so that another metric to qualify the similarity between XML documents can be introduced. Encouraging experimental results were obtained and reported.

title: Accessing Hidden Web Documents by Metasearching a Directory of Specialty Search Engines
abstract: Many valuable Web documents have not been indexed by general search engines and are only accessible through specific search interfaces. Metasearching groups of specialty search engines is one possible way to gain access to large amount of such hidden Web resources. One of the key issues for returning quality metasearch results is how to select the most relevant specialty search engines for a given query. We introduce a method for categorizing specialty search engines automatically into a hierarchical directory for metasearching. By utilizing the directory, specialty search engines that have a high possibility of having relevant information and resources can be easily selected by a metasearch engine. We evaluate our algorithm by comparing the directory built by the proposed algorithm with another one that was built by human-judgments. In addition, we present a metasearch engine prototype, which demonstrates that such a specialty search engine directory can be beneficial in locating essential but hidden Web resources.

title: Segment-based application level multicast (SALM) for supporting group communication in CSCW applications
abstract: This paper illustrates an application level multicast architecture -segment-based application level multicast (SALM). The SALM partitions the shared multicast tree into segments and creates control mesh group (CMG) composed of segment leaders. SALM, in accordance with estimations of intra-segment and inter-segment interactions, dynamically adjusts the sizes of the segments and the configuration of CMG to improve the perceived performance in a collaborative working environment and a relatively stable shared multicast tree structure. The main purpose of CMG is to improve users' performance when they interact with CSCW applications.