A Simple Model for Chunk-Scheduling Strategies in P2P Streaming

Abstract
Peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming tries to achieve scalability (like P2P file distribution) and at the same time meet real-time playback requirements. It is a challenging problem still not well understood. In this paper, we describe a simple stochastic model that can be used to compare different downloading strategies to random peer selection. Based on this model, we study the tradeoffs between supported peer population, buffer size, and playback continuity. We first study two simple strategies: Rarest First (RF) and Greedy. The former is a well-known strategy for P2P file sharing that gives good scalability by trying to propagate the chunks of a file to as many peers as quickly as possible. The latter is an intuitively reasonable strategy to get urgent chunks first to maximize playback continuity from a peer's local perspective. Yet in reality, both scalability and urgency should be taken care of. With this insight, we propose a Mixed strategy that achieves the best of both worlds. Furthermore, the Mixed strategy comes with an adaptive algorithm that can adapt its buffer setting to dynamic peer population. We validate our analytical model with simulation. Finally, we also discuss the modeling assumptions and the model's sensitivity to different parameters and show that our model is robust.

MAP: Multiauctioneer Progressive Auction for Dynamic Spectrum Access

Abstract
Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising paradigm to achieve efficient utilization of the limited spectrum resource by allowing the unlicensed users to access the licensed spectrum, and dynamic spectrum access (DSA) is one of the fundamental functions of CR networks. Market-driven spectrum auction has been recognized as an effective way to achieve DSA. In spectrum auction, the primary spectrum owners (POs) act as auctioneers who are willing to sell idle spectrum bands for additional revenue, and the secondary users (SUs) act as bidders who are willing to buy spectrum bands from POs for their services. However, conventional spectrum auction designs are restricted within the scenario of single auctioneer. In this paper, we study the spectrum auction with multiple auctioneers and multiple bidders, which is more realistic for practical CR networks. We propose MAP, a Multiauctioneer Progressive auction mechanism, in which each auctioneer systematically raises the trading price and each bidder subsequently chooses one auctioneer for bidding. The equilibrium is defined as the state that no auctioneer and bidder would like to change his decision. We show analytically that MAP converges to the equilibrium with maximum spectrum utilization of the whole system. We further analyze the incentive for POs and SUs joining the auction and accepting the auction result. Simulation results show that MAP well converges to the equilibrium, and the spectrum utilization is arbitrary closed to the global optimal solution according to the length of step.

A Prediction-Based Overload Control Algorithm for SIP Servers

Abstract
Overload is a challenging problem for a SIP server because the built-in overload control mechanism based on generating rejection messages could not prevent the server from collapsing due to congestion. In this scenario, the paper presents an overload mechanism combining a local and a remote solution. The local part of the overload control mechanism is based on the appropriate queueing structure and buffer management of the SIP proxy. The remote overload control mechanism is based on feedback reports provided by the SIP proxy to the upstream neighbors. These reports permit the traffic regulation necessary to avoid the critical condition of overload. The main paper contributions are the design of key components of a remote control mechanism, the proposal of a new approach for dynamic load estimation, and the use of a prediction technique in the remote control loop

People Counting and Human Detection in a Challenging Situation

Abstract
Reliable people counting and human detection is an important problem in visual surveillance. In recent years, the field has seen many advances, but the solutions have restrictions: people must be moving, the background must be simple, and the image resolution must be high. This paper aims to develop an effective method for estimating the number of people and locate each individual in a low resolution image with complicated scenes. The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, postprocessing steps are performed on background subtraction results to estimate the number of people in a complicated scene, which includes people who are moving only slightly. Second, an Expectation Maximization (EM)-based method has been developed to locate individuals in a low resolution scene. In this method, a new cluster model is used to represent each person in the scene. The method does not require a very accurate foreground contour. Third, the number of people is used as a priori for locating individuals based on feature points. Hence, the methods for estimating the number of people and for locating individuals are connected. The developed methods have been validated based on a 4-hour video, with the number of people in the scene ranging from 36 to 222. The best result for estimating the number of people has an average error of 10% over 51 test cases. Based on the estimated number of people, some results of the EM-based method have also been shown.

Measuring Client-Perceived Pageview Response Time of Internet Services

Abstract
As e-commerce services are exponentially growing, businesses need quantitative estimates of client-perceived response times to continuously improve the quality of their services. Current server-side nonintrusive measurement techniques are limited to nonsecured HTTP traffic. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation a monitor, namely sMonitor, which is able to measure client-perceived response times for both HTTP and HTTPS traffic. At the heart of sMonitor is a novel size-based analysis method that parses live packets to delimit different webpages and to infer their response times. The method is based on the observation that most HTTP(S)-compatible browsers send significantly larger requests for container objects than those for embedded objects. sMonitor is designed to operate accurately in the presence of complicated browser behaviors, such as parallel downloading of multiple webpages and HTTP pipelining, as well as packet losses and delays. It requires only to passively collect network traffic in and out of the monitored secured services. We conduct comprehensive experiments across a wide range of operating conditions using live secured Internet services, on the PlanetLab, and on controlled networks. The experimental results demonstrate that sMonitor is able to control the estimation error within 6.7 percent, in comparison with the actual measured time at the client side.

Lossy Compression and Iterative Reconstruction for Encrypted Image

Abstract
This work proposes a novel scheme for lossy compression of an encrypted image with flexible compression ratio. A pseudorandom permutation is used to encrypt an original image, and the encrypted data are efficiently compressed by discarding the excessively rough and fine information of coefficients generated from orthogonal transform. After receiving the compressed data, with the aid of spatial correlation in natural image, a receiver can reconstruct the principal content of the original image by iteratively updating the values of coefficients. This way, the higher the compression ratio and the smoother the original image, the better the quality of the reconstructed image.

Color Extended Visual Cryptography Using Error Diffusion

Abstract
Color visual cryptography (VC) encrypts a color secret message into color halftone image shares. Previous methods in the literature show good results for black and white or gray scale VC schemes, however, they are not sufficient to be applied directly to color shares due to different

color structures. Some methods for color visual cryptography are not satisfactory in terms of producing either meaningless shares or meaningful shares with low visual quality, leading to suspicion of encryption. This paper introduces the concept of visual information pixel (VIP) synchronization and error diffusion to attain a color visual cryptography encryption method that produces meaningful color shares with high visual quality. VIP synchronization retains the positions of pixels carrying visual information of original images throughout the color channels and error diffusion generates shares pleasant to human eyes. Comparisons with previous approaches show the superior performance of the new method.

Improved Division by Invariant Integers

Abstract
This paper considers the problem of dividing a two-word integer by a single-word integer, together with a few extensions and applications. Due to lack of efficient division instructions in current processors, the division is performed as a multiplication using a precomputed single-word approximation of the reciprocal of the divisor, followed by a couple of adjustment steps. There are three common types of unsigned multiplication instructions: we define full word multiplication (umul), which produces the two-word product of two single-word integers; low multiplication (umullo), which produces only the least significant word of the product; and high multiplication (umulhi), which produces only the most significant word. We describe an algorithm that produces a quotient and remainder using one umul and one umullo. This is an improvement over earlier methods, since the new method uses cheaper multiplication operations. It turns out that we also get some additional savings from simpler adjustment conditions. The algorithm has been implemented in version 4.3 of the gmp library. When applied to the problem of dividing a large integer by a single word, the new algorithm gives a speedup of roughly 30 percent, benchmarked on AMD and Intel processors in the x86_64 family.