This paper focuses on the bandwidth allocation methods based on real user experience for web browsing applications. Because the Internet and its services are rapidly increasing, the bandwidth allocation problem has become one of the typical challenges for Internet service providers (ISPs) and network planning with respect to providing high service quality. The quality of experience (QoE) plays an important role in the success of services, and the guarantee of QoE accordingly represents an important goal in network resource control schemes. To cope with this issue, this paper proposes two user-centric bandwidth resource allocation methods for web browsing applications. The first method dynamically allocates bandwidth by considering the same user's satisfaction in terms of QoE with respect to all users in the system, whereas the second method introduces an efficient trade-off between the QoE of each user group and the average QoE of all users. The purpose of these proposals is to provide a flexible solution to reasonably allocate limited network resources to users. By considering service quality from real users' perception viewpoint, the proposed allocation methods enable us to understand actual users' experiences. Compared to previous works, the numerical results show that the proposed bandwidth allocation methods achieve the following contributions: improving the QoE level for dissatisfied users and providing a fair distribution, as well as retaining a reasonable average QoE.

WPA is the security protocol for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks standardized as a substitute for WEP in 2003, and uses RC4 stream cipher for encryption. It improved a 16-byte RC4 key generation procedure, which is known as TKIP, from that in WEP. One of the remarkable features in TKIP is that the first 3-byte RC4 key is derived from the public parameter IV, and an analysis using this feature has been reported by Sen Gupta et al. at FSE 2014. They focused on correlations between the keystream bytes and the known RC4 key bytes in WPA, which are called key correlations or linear correlations, and improved the existing plaintext recovery attack using their discovered correlations. No study, however, has focused on such correlations including the internal states in WPA. In this paper, we investigated new linear correlations including unknown internal state variables in both generic RC4 and WPA. From the result, we can successfully discover various new linear correlations, and prove some correlations theoretically.

Based on a perfect Gaussian integer sequence, shift and combination operations are performed to construct Gaussian integer sequences with zero correlation zone (ZCZ). The resultant sequence sets are optimal or almost optimal with respect to the Tang-Fan-Matsufuji bound. Furthermore, the ZCZ Gaussian integer sequence sets can be provided for quasi-synchronous code-division multiple-access systems to increase transmission data rate and reduce interference.

The separation of signals with temporal structure from mixed sources is a challenging problem in signal processing. For this problem, blind source extraction (BSE) is more suitable than blind source separation (BSS) because it has lower computation cost. Nowadays many BSE algorithms can be used to extract signals with temporal structure. However, some of them are not robust because they are too dependent on the estimation precision of time delay; some others need to choose parameters before extracting, which means that arbitrariness can't be avoided. In order to solve the above problems, we propose a robust source extraction algorithm whose performance doesn't rely on the choice of parameters. The algorithm is realized by maximizing the objective function that we develop based on the non-Gaussianity and the temporal structure of source signals. Furthermore, we analyze the stability of the algorithm. Simulation results show that the algorithm can extract the desired signal from large numbers of observed sensor signals and is very robust to error in the estimation of time delay.

While standard signatures provide an efficient mechanism for information certification, the lack of privacy protecting measures makes them unsuitable if sensitive or confidential information is being certified. In this paper, we revisit nominative signatures, first introduced by Kim, Park and Won, which provides the functionality and security guarantees required to implement a certification system allowing the user (and not the authority) to control the verifiability of an obtained certificate. Unlike systems based on related primitives, the use of nominative signatures protects the user against authority information leaks and impersonation attacks based on these. We refine the security model of nominative signatures, and propose a new efficient scheme which is provably secure based on the computational Diffie-Hellman problem and the decisional linear problem. To the best of our knowledge, our scheme is the the only nominative signature scheme which is provably secure in the standard model based on standard assumptions. Furthermore, unlike most previous schemes, the proposed scheme provides signatures which hide both the signer and user identity. Hence, through our nominative signature scheme, we achieve an efficient non-transferable user certification scheme with strong security guarantees.

It is a well-known and useful problem to find a matching in a given graph G whose size is at most a given parameter k and whose weight is maximized (over all matchings of size at most k in G). In this paper, we consider two natural extensions of this problem. One is to find t disjoint matchings in a given graph G whose total size is at most a given parameter k and whose total weight is maximized, where t is a (small) constant integer. Previously, only the special case where t=2 was known to be fixed-parameter tractable. In this paper, we show that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable for any constant t. When t=2, the time complexity of the new algorithm is significantly better than that of the previously known algorithm. The other is to find a set of vertex-disjoint paths each of length 1 or 2 in a given graph whose total length is at most a given parameter k and whose total weight is maximized. As interesting applications, we further use the algorithms to speed up several known approximation algorithms (for related NP-hard problems) whose approximation ratio depends on a fixed parameter 0<ε<1 and whose running time is dominated by the time needed for exactly solving the problems on graphs in which each connected component has at most ε-1 vertices.

A rapid single-flux-quantum (RSFQ) 4-bit bit-slice multiplier is proposed. A new systolic-like multiplication algorithm suitable for RSFQ implementation is developed. The multiplier is designed using the cell library for AIST 10-kA/cm2 1.0-µm fabrication technology (ADP2). Concurrent flow clocking is used to design a fully pipelined RSFQ logic design. A 4n×4n-bit multiplier consists of 2n+17 stages. For verifying the algorithm and the logic design, a physical layout of the 8×8-bit multiplier has been designed with target operating frequency of 50GHz and simulated. It consists of 21 stages and 11,488 Josephson junctions. The simulation results show correct operation up to 62.5GHz.

A method based on score level fusion using logistic regression has been developed that uses packet header information to classify Internet applications. Applications are classified not on the basis of the individual flows for each type of application but on the basis of all the flows for each type of application, i.e., the “overall traffic flow.” The overall traffic flow is divided into equal time slots, and the applications are classified using statistical information obtained for each time slot. Evaluation using overall traffic flow generated by five types of applications showed that its true and false positive rates are better than those of methods using feature level fusion.

In order to further optimize the power consumption of Pseudo-CMOS inverter, this paper proposes a Re-Pull-Down transistor scheme. Two additional transistors are used to build another pull-down network. With this design, the quiescent current of the inverter can be reduced while the ratioless nature is preserved. Based on the reduced input gate area, two output transistors are set wider to compensate for the pull-up speed. The simulation result shows that, compared with Pseudo-CMOS inverter, the maximum quiescent current of the Re-Pull-Down transistor scheme inverter is reduced by 37.6% in the static analysis. Besides, the average power consumption is reduced by 30.8% in the 5-stage ring oscillator test.

The Flash Translation Layer (FTL) is a firmware layer inside NAND flash memory that allows existing disk-based applications to use it without any significant modifications. Since the FTL has a critical impact on the performance and reliability of flash-based storage, a variety of FTLs have been proposed. The existing FTLs, however, are designed to perform well for either a read intensive workload or a write intensive workload, not for both due to their internal address mapping schemes. To overcome this limitation, we propose a novel hybrid FTL scheme named Convertible Flash Translation Layer (CFTL). CFTL is adaptive to data access patterns with the help of our unique hot data identification design that adopts multiple bloom filters. Thus, CFTL can dynamically switch its mapping scheme to either page-level mapping or block-level mapping to fully exploit the benefits of both schemes. In addition, we design a spatial locality-aware caching mechanism and adaptive cache partitioning to further improve CFTL performance. Consequently, both the adaptive switching scheme and the judicious caching mechanism empower CFTL to achieve good read and write performance. Our extensive evaluations demonstrate that CFTL outperforms existing FTLs. In particular, our specially designed caching mechanism remarkably improves the cache hit ratio, by an average of 2.4×, and achieves much higher hit ratios (up to 8.4×) especially for random read intensive workloads.

Left-weight sequences (LW-sequences for short) are in common currency for encoding binary trees. In [16], Wu et al. proposed an algorithm associated with tree rotations for listing all binary trees in diverse representations including LW-sequences. In particular, such a list of LW-sequences is generated in Gray-code order. In this paper, based on this ordering, we present efficient ranking and unranking algorithms. For binary trees with n internal nodes, the time complexity and the space requirement in each of our ranking and unranking algorithms are O(n2) and O(n), respectively.

An extended harmonic disturbance observer is designed for speed (or position) sensorless current control of DC motor subject to a biased sinusoidal disturbance and parameter uncertainties. The proposed method does not require the information on the mechanical part of the motor equation. Theoretical analysis via the singular perturbation theory is performed to verify that the feedforward compensation using the estimation can improve the robust transient performance of the closed-loop system. A stability condition is derived against parameter uncertainties. Comparative experimental results validate the robustness of the proposed method against the uncertainties.

To study the similarity between queries and retrieved masses, we design an interactive CBIR (Content-based Image Retrieval) CADx (Computer-aided Diagnosis) system using relevance feedback for the characterization of breast masses in ultrasound (US) images based on radiologists' visual similarity assessment. The CADx system retrieves masses that are similar to query masses from a reference library based on six computer-extracted features that describe the texture, width-to-height, and posterior shadowing of the mass. The k-NN retrieval with Euclidean distance similarity measure and the Rocchio relevance feedback algorithm (RRF) are used. To train the RRF parameters, the similarities of 1891 image pairs from 62 (31 malignant and 31 benign) masses are rated by 3 MQSA (Mammography Quality Standards Act) radiologists using a 9-point scale (9=most similar). The best RRF parameters are chosen based on 3 observer experiments. For testing, 100 independent query masses (49 malignant and 51 benign) and 121 reference masses on 230 (79 malignant and 151 benign) images were collected. Three radiologists rated the similarity between the query masses and the computer-retrieved masses. Average similarity ratings without and with RRF were 5.39 and 5.64 for the training set and 5.78 and 6.02 for the test set, respectively. Average AUC values without and with RRF were, respectively, 0.86±0.03 and 0.87±0.03 for the training set and 0.91±0.03 and 0.90±0.03 for the test set. On average, masses retrieved using the CBIR system were moderately similar to the query masses based on radiologists' similarity assessments. RRF improved the similarity of the retrieved masses.

In this paper, by jointly considering power allocation and network selection, we address the energy efficiency maximization problem in dynamic and heterogeneous wireless networks, where user equipments are typically equipped with multi-homing capability. In order to effectively deal with the dynamics of heterogeneous wireless networks, a stochastic optimization problem is formulated that optimizes the long-term energy efficiency under the constraints of system stability, peak power consumption and average transmission rate. By adopting the parametric approach and Lyapunov optimization, we derive an equivalent optimization problem out of the original problem and then investigate its optimal resource allocation. Then, to reduce the computational complexity, a suboptimal resource allocation algorithm is proposed based on relaxed optimization, which adapts to time-varying channels and stochastic traffic without requiring relevant a priori knowledge. The simulation results demonstrate the theoretical analysis and validate the adaptiveness of our proposed algorithm.

The transmission control protocol with a random early detection (TCP/RED) is an important algorithm for a TCP congestion control [1]. It has been expressed as a simple second-order discrete-time hybrid dynamical model, and shows unique and typical nonlinear phenomena, e.g., bifurcation phenomena or chaotic attractors [2], [3]. However, detailed behavior is unclear due to discontinuity that describes the switching of transmission phases in TCP/RED, but we have proposed its analysis method in previous study. This letter clarifies bifurcation structures with it.

In this paper, a convolution theorem which is analogous to the theorem for Fourier transform is shown among a certain type of polynomials. We establish a fast method of the multiplication in a special class of quotient rings of multivariate polynomials over q-element finite field GF(q). The polynomial which we treat is one of expressing forms of the multiple-valued logic function from the product of the semigroups in GF(q) to GF(q). Our results can be applied to the speedup of both software and hardware concerning multiple-valued Boolean logic.

In this paper we discuss approximation algorithms for the ELEMENT-DISJOINT STEINER TREE PACKING problem (Element-STP for short). For a graph G=(V,E) and a subset of nodes T⊆V, called terminal nodes, a Steiner tree is a connected, acyclic subgraph that contains all the terminal nodes in T. The goal of Element-STP is to find as many element-disjoint Steiner trees as possible. Element-STP is known to be APX-hard even for |T|=3 [1]. It is also known that Element-STP is NP-hard to approximate within a factor of Ω(log |V|) [3] and there is an O(log |V|)-approximation algorithm for Element-STP [2],[4]. In this paper, we provide a $lceil rac{|T|}{2} ceil$-approximation algorithm for Element-STP on graphs with |T| terminal nodes. Furthermore, we show that the approximation ratio of 3 for Element-STP on graphs with five terminal nodes can be improved to 2.

In the 3-slope ski-rental problem, the player is asked to determine a strategy, that is, (i) whether to buy a ski wear and then a ski set separately, or to buy them at once for a discount price, and (ii) when to buy these goods. If the player has not got any thing, he/she can rent it for some price. The objective is to minimize the total cost, under the assumption that the player does not know how many times he/she goes skiing in the future. We reveal that even with a large discount for buying at once available, there is some price setting for which to buy the goods separately is a more reasonable choice. We also show that the performance of the optimal strategy may become arbitrarily worse, when a large discount is offered.

The most famous silhouette puzzle is the tangram, which originated in China more than two centuries ago. From around the same time, there is a similar Japanese puzzle called Sei Shonagon Chie no Ita. Both are derived by cutting a square of material with straight incisions into seven pieces of varying shapes, and each can be decomposed into sixteen non-overlapping identical right isosceles triangles. It is known that the pieces of the tangram can form thirteen distinct convex polygons. We first show that the Sei Shonagon Chie no Ita can form sixteen. Therefore, in a sense, the Sei Shonagon Chie no Ita is more expressive than the tangram. We also propose more expressive patterns built from the same 16 identical right isosceles triangles that can form nineteen convex polygons. There exist exactly four sets of seven pieces that can form nineteen convex polygons. We show no set of seven pieces can form at least 20 convex polygons, and demonstrate that eleven pieces made from sixteen identical isosceles right triangles are necessary and sufficient to form 20 convex polygons. Moreover, no set of six pieces can form nineteen convex polygons.