We developed a PC cluster system which consists of 100 PCs as a test bed for massively parallel query processing. Each PC employs the 200 MHz Pentium Pro CPU and is connected with others through an ATM switch. Because the query processing applications are insensitive to the communication latency and mainly perform integer operations, the ATM connected PC cluster approach can be considered a reasonable solution for high performance database servers with low costs. However, there has been no challenge to construct large scale PC clusters for database applications, as far as the authors know. Though we employed commodity components as much as possible, we developed the DBMS itself, because that was a key component for obtaining high performance in parallel query processing, and there seemed no system which could meet our demand. On each PC node, a server program which acts as a database kernel is running to process the queries in cooperation with other nodes. The kernel was designed to execute pipelined operators and handle voluminous data efficiently, to achieve high performance on complex decision support type queries. We used the standard benchmark, TPC-D, on a 100 GB database to verify the feasibility of our approach, through comparison of our system with commercial parallel systems. As a whole, our system exhibited sufficiently high performance which was competitive with the current TPC-D top records, in spite of not using indices. For some heavy queries in the benchmark, which have high selectivity and joinability, our system performed much better. In addition, we applied transposed file organization to the database for further performance improvement. The transposed file organization vertically partitions the tuples, enabling attribute-by-attribute access to the relations. This resulted in significant performance improvement by reducing the amount of disk I/O and shifting the bottleneck to computation.

The disk allocation problem examined in this paper is finding a method to distribute a Binary Cartesian Product File on multiple disks to maximize parallel disk I/O accesses for partial match retrieval. This problem is known to be NP-hard, and heuristic approaches have been applied to obtain suboptimal solutions. Recently, efficient methods such as Binary Disk Modulo (BDM) and Error Correcting Code (ECC) methods have been proposed along with the restrictions that the number of disks in which files are stored should be a power of 2. In this paper, a new Disk Allocation method based on Genetic Algorithm (DAGA) is proposed. The DAGA does not place restrictions on the number of disks to be applied and it can allocate the disks adaptively by taking into account the data access patterns. Using the schema theory, it is proven that the DAGA can realize a near-optimal solution with high probability. Comparing the quality of solution derived by the DAGA with the General Disk Modulo (GDM), BDM, and ECC methods through the simulation, shows that 1) the DAGA is superior to the GDM method in all the cases and 2) with the restrictions being placed on the number of disks, the average response time of the DAGA is always less than that of the BDM method and greater than that of the ECC method in the absence of data skew and 3) when data skew is considered, the DAGA performs better than or equal to both BDM and ECC methods, even when restrictions on the number of disks are enforced.

In a DC 50 V/3.3 A circuit, the spatial distributions of the spectral intensities of breaking arcs near the cathode for silver contacts were measured on the contact surfaces of three different shapes: flat and spherical (1 mm radius and 2 mm radius) and the arc temperature and the metal-vapor quantity were calculated from the spectral intensities. The influence of the contact shape on the arc temperature and the metal-vapor quantity were also examined, as well as the arc tracks on the contact surfaces and the gain and loss of the contacts. Findings show the distributions of spectral intensities are non-symmetrical from the beginning to the extinction of the breaking arc for the flat contact: However, they are symmetrical in the latter half of the breaking in spite of the number of breaking arcs and the shape of contact surface for the spherical contact. The relationship between the area of the arc tracks on the cathode and the shape of contact surface is the same as the relationship between the existent areas of measured spectra and the shape of the contact surface. For the spherical contacts, the arc temperature and the metal-vapor quantity are affected a little by the radius of the curved of contact surface and the number of breaking arcs. However, the longer the arc duration, the higher the metal-vapor quantity is in the latter period of the breaking arc. For the flat contacts, the metal-vapor quantity is lower than those for the spherical contacts. The gain and loss of the contacts are less and the arc duration is shorter for the flat contact than for the spherical contact.

To provide users with database-like query interfaces on HTML data, several systems have been developed to extract structures from HTML pages. Among them, tree-like structures and path expressions are the most popular modeling and navigating tools, respectively. Although path expressions are straightforward in representing top-down search patterns, they provide very limited help in representing bottom-up and in-breadth search patterns. In this paper, a lattice model is proposed to store Web data. The model provides an integrated mechanism to store text, linking information, HTML hierarchy, and sequence order of HTML data. By incorporating lattice operators with comprehension syntax, we show that the query language can represent top-down, bottom-up, and in-breadth searching patterns with uniform operators. It will be also shown that lattice comprehensions can represent all operators of path expressions, except Kleen closure.

This paper describes a way of implementing a conceptual model for temporal data on a commercial object database system. The implemented version is provided as a class library. The library enables applications to handle temporal data. Any application can employ the library because it does not depend on specific applications. Furthermore, we propose an enhanced version of Time Index. The index efficiently processes event queries in particular. These queries search time intervals in which given events are all valid. We also investigate the effectiveness of the enhanced Time Index.

A packet-based leaky-bucket algorithm functions like the early packet discard (EPD), and accepts a newly arriving packet if the probability that all the cells of the packet are accepted is high. We derive some performance characteristics of the cell and packet arrival processes that are accepted by the leaky-bucket algorithm. From these analyses, a method to determine the values of the parameters of the leaky-bucket algorithm and certain relations between this leaky-bucket algorithm and the generic cell rate algorithm (GCRA) are obtained.

This paper proposes a new framework of managing virtual spaces based on spatial databases as an extension of VRML-based systems. The framework is suitable for treating continuous virtual spaces and for managing the quality of service (QoS) of the virtual spaces depending on user's operations and situations of computer resources. Levels of detail (LoD) of 3D objects is the most important rule for rendering scenes dynamically while managing the QoS. This paper describes a method of managing the QoS depending on the LoD in the form of spatial queries. An advantage of the framework is that spatial databases can incrementally construct virtual spaces in clients using differential descriptions based on VRML, that is, DVRML, proposed in this paper. Dynamic spatial data such as avatar's movement and real-time multimedia data such as videos should be shared by all participants in a virtual space in real time. Our framework can also handle dynamic spatial data by means of real-time updating of some spatial objects in spatial databases as well as static spatial data. We developed some experimental applications based on the framework in order to prove that it is feasible for networked virtual spaces with video components.

In this paper, we investigate a call admission control (CAC) problem in a multimedia wireless ATM network that supports various multimedia applications based on micro/pico cellular architectures. Due to reduced wireless cell size (compared to conventional cellular networks), forced termination of calls in progress becomes a more serious problem in the wireless ATM network. Another problem specific to the multimedia wireless network is how to avoid an excessive delay of non-realtime applications under the presence of various realtime applications with priority over non-realtime applications. We consider two service classes; CBR for realtime applications and UBR for non-realtime applications, and then propose a new CAC scheme that addresses above two problems while minimizing a blocking probability of newly arriving calls of CBR. Through the analytical methods, we derive the blocking probabilities and forced termination probabilities of CBR calls and the average packet delay of UBR connections. We also present a method that decides the optimal CAC threshold values in our CAC scheme.

In this paper, we represent a class structure using directed graph in which each node corresponds to each member of the class. To quantify the dependence relationship among members, we define weighted closure. Using this quantified relationship and effort equation proposed by M. H. Halstead, we propose a metric for class structural complexity.

In this work, we propose an End-to-End Rate Control Approach (EERCA) for congestion avoidance in Available Bit Rate (ABR) service on Asynchronous Transmit Mode (ATM) networks. In our approach, the network estimates the number of cells stored in the switch for each VC. The source generates a specific traffic pattern, then a proper explicit rate can be derived based on the received traffic pattern at the destination. This approach is designed to reduce the rate calculation effort in the switch as well as to avoid the complexity in setting the monitoring-interval. EERCA features higher efficiency, higher utilization, more stable queue occupancy, shorter transient response time, and better fairness compared with existed schemes.

With the introduction of ATM technology, service providers around the world have actively engaged in offering high bandwidth services. Currently, services, such as T1/E1, T3/E3 circuit emulation, are made available to large-volume account users. However, more advanced services, such as multimedia applications, have demanded not just high bandwidth but also flexible rate adaptation with quality-of-service (QoS) guarantee. To support the above service requirements, sophisticated network planning and engineering procedures should be taken. In the past few years, we have conducted various researches on developing the engineering strategies for resource control and management to support multi-rate service offering. We have also looked into the design details of connection control and management for achieving the QoS requirement. We considered the service quality of the underlying transport in regard with the QoS management. In this paper, we will outline those results and give an overview description about the proposed framework.

In this paper, a transceiver VLSI architecture is proposed for high speed digital CATV modems, which can perform both the QAM and the VSB transmissions. The proposed architecture of all-digital dual-mode QAM/VSB receiver consists of digital AGC, digital demodulator, fractionally spaced blind equalizer and DFE, digital carrier recovery, and symbol timing recovery. Finite word-length simulation results show that the proposed architecture can achieve an SNR 29 dB for both the 64-QAM mode and 8-VSB mode when the 10 bit ADC input signal SNR is 36 dB, and there are 6 kHz of carrier frequency offset, 110 ppm of symbol rate offset, and -82 dBc carrier phase-jitter at 10 kHz away from the nominal carrier frequency.

This paper describes a new approach to analyze nonlinear characteristics of propagating waves in a ferrite material. As to the formulation of the wave in a ferrite medium, the analysis in this paper is not taken under the assumption of a sinusoidal steady state using Polder tensor permeability, but taken by directly differentiating the gyromagnetic equation in time domain without any linear approximations. Then it is combined with Maxwell equation in FDTD procedure. As a result, intensity-dependent nonlinear responses of the propagating wave are confirmed, and the nonlinearity is seen in only the right-hand polarization wave. It is also found that an effect of the damping term in the equation of the motion of the magnetization has nonlinear characteristics for wave propagation.

Object-oriented analysis methods can be grouped into data-driven and behavior-driven approaches. With data-driven approaches, object models are developed based on a list of objects and their inter-relationships, which describe a static view of the real world. With behavior-oriented approaches, a system usage scenario is analyzed before developing the object models. Although qualitative comparisons of these two types of methods have been made, there was no statistical study has evaluated them based on controlled experiments. This paper proposes the patterned object-oriented method, POOM, which is a behavior-oriented approach, and compares it to OMT, a data-driven approach, using small team experiments. The effectiveness of POOM is shown in terms of productivity and homogeneity.

This paper describes a method to represent m output functions using shared multi-terminal binary decision diagrams (SMTBDDs). The SMTBDD(k) consists of multi-terminal binary decision diagrams (MTBDDs), where each MTBDD represents k output functions. An SMTBDD(k) is the generalization of shared binary decision diagrams (SBDDs) and MTBDDs: for k=1, it is an SBDD, and for k=m, it is an MTBDD. The size of a BDD is the total number of nodes. The features of SMTBDD(k)s are: 1) they are often smaller than SBDDs or MTBDDs; and 2) they evaluate k outputs simultaneously. We also propose an algorithm for grouping output functions to reduce the size of SMTBDD(k)s. Experimental results show the compactness of SMTBDD(k)s. An SMTBDDmin denotes the smaller SMTBDD which is either an SMTBDD(2) or an SMTBDD(3) with fewer nodes. The average relative sizes for SBDDs, MTBDDs, and SMTBDDs are 1. 00, 152. 73, and 0. 80, respectively.

This paper discusses a method to evaluate mutual couplings of cavity-backed slot antennas using the FDTD technique. The antenna fed by the short-ended probe is considered, which is investigated as an element of the power transmission antenna, Spacetenna, for the solar power satellite SPS2000. It is found from the FDTD computation on E-plane two- and four-element array antennas that the size of the problem space should be larger for the evaluation of the mutual coupling than for the estimation of the input impedance. Since enlarging the size of the problem space requires a large amount of computer storage, it is not practical for computer simulations. In order to carry out accurate estimations of the mutual coupling with relatively small amount of computer memory, the problem space is extended only in the broadside of the array antenna and in the other directions there are ten cells between the antenna surface and the outer boundary. Computer simulations demonstrate that there are no differences between the results of the proposed problem space geometry and the problem space extended in each direction of the axis coordinate by the same number of cells. Furthermore comparisons of computed and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach after discussing how large the size of the problem space is required to estimate the mutual coupling.

In this paper, we present an analysis of the microstrip lines whose strip conductors are of various cross-sections, such as rectangular cross-section, triangle cross-section, and half-cycle cross-section. The method employed is the boundary integral equation method (BIEM). Numerical results for these microstrip lines demonstrate various shape effects of the strip conductor on the characteristics of lines. The processing technique on the convergence of the Green's function is also described.

A new method for computing the external Q and unloaded Q of a resonator in the time domain is proposed. The external Q and unloaded Q are derived from the input energy, the field amplitude at the observation point within the resonator and the output power from the port, using the energy relationship during the early stage of the amplitude growth process of the electromagnetic field in the resonator excited by a sinusoidal wave. First, this energy method is applied to the rectangular cavity without a port to carry out a comparison with the analytically derived exact solution. Over the wide range of surface resistances, the unloaded Q can be obtained with an error on the order of 0.01 percent. It is also shown that even if Q is as high as the twelfth power of ten (1012), one is still able to do the calculations with the computation time corresponding to 230 cycles of the resonant frequency. Next, the method is applied to the rectangular cavity with apertures, and the external Q and unloaded Q are computed. Based on these results, the validity of the Q computation is confirmed. This paper also reports the effects of the arrangement types and coarseness of the FDTD grid on the external Q. The rectangular cavity with inductive apertures is computed using the FDTD method. Two types of grid arrangements are used for the coarse, fine and graded meshes. When comparing the external Q's, we found considerable differences between the results obtained when using the type 1 and type 2 grid arrangements, while the difference in resonant frequencies was about 0.1%. It is satisfactory to consider that less power flows out through the aperture in the type 1 arrangement than the actual power flow, while more power flows out in the case of type 2. These facts are important when modeling the conductor corners.

This paper describes a new method for permittivity measurement using microwave free-space technique. The general consideration is to measure the amplitudes of transmission and reflection coefficients and calculate the permittivity from the measurement values. Theoretical analysis shows that the permittivity of the sample can be calculated solely from the measurement values of the amplitudes of transmission and reflection coefficients when the sample is prepared with so large attenuation that the multiple reflections between the two surfaces of the sample can be neglected. Using this method, the permittivity measurement can be performed without reflection influence, and on-line measurement of the permittivity becomes possible because the permittivity can be measured instantaneously and without contact with the material.

The equivalence between Aperture Field Integration Method (AFIM) and Physical Optical (PO) is discussed for polyhedron surfaces in this paper. The necessary conditions for the equivalence are summarized which demand complete equivalent surface currents and complete apertures. The importance of the exact expressions for both incident and reflected fields in constructing equivalent surface currents is emphasized and demonstrated numerically. The fields from reflected components on additional surface which lies on the Geometrical Optics (GO) reflection boundary are evaluated asymptotically. The analytical expression enhances the computational efficiency of the complete AFIM. The equivalent edge currents (EECs) for AFIM (AFIMEECs) are used to extract the mechanism of this equivalence between AFIM and PO.