Distributed Algorithms

Distributed Systems Course Project: Consensus with Failure Detector

by Mattia Avancini

An adaptive cone based distributed tracking algorithm for a highly dynamic target in wireless sensor networks

by Kayhan Erciyes

target tracking, sensor networks

Accurate tracking of a target is imperative in military as well as civil applications. In this study, we propose a... more Accurate tracking of a target is imperative in military as well as civil applications. In this study, we propose a distributed cone based tracking algorithm for a target that can move with highly dynamic kinematics along linear and nonlinear trajectories. The algorithm provides wakening of a group of nodes in a cone shaped region along the trajectory of the target and particle filtering is used in the prediction of the next state of the target
to decrease the target missing ratios. Algorithm used is adaptive in that the shape of the cone is determined dynamically in accordance with the target kinematics. We compared our
algorithm with traditional tracking approaches, a recent tracking algorithm (Semi-Dynamic Clustering (SDC)) and other tracking algorithms that we have previously proposed.
Simulation results show that, in terms of target missing ratios, our algorithm is superior to all of these algorithms. Secondly, lower target missing ratios lead to less frequent execution of recovery mechanisms which in turn results in lower energy consumptions.

Modeling A Publish/Subscribe System As A Multi-Commodity Transportation Problem

by Shrisha Rao

6th Annual IEEE International Systems Conference (IEEE SysCon 2012), Vancouver, Canada, March 2012.

The publish/subscribe paradigm enables creation of loosely coupled dynamic systems with asynchronous communication... more The publish/subscribe paradigm enables creation of loosely coupled dynamic systems with asynchronous communication models but at the cost of unpredictable system behavior. Hence quality of service guarantees (QoS) are to be provided to bring in predictability in system behavior. There is a cost associated with providing the QoS guarantees and this cost needs to be reduced. In a publish/subscribe system, published information has to be delivered to a set of subscribers who have expressed interest in the publications. Optimal routing of information from producers of information to the consumers of information is critical to the performance of the publish/subscribe system. This paper proposes a strategy for routing of publications in a publish/subscribe system by modeling it as a multi commodity transportation problem. The proposed approach minimizes the cost of routing publications and also maintains the QoS guarantees.

Sensor Network Design for Smart Highways

by Shrisha Rao

Co-authored with Shyamakshi Ghosh and Balkrishnan Venkiteswaran. This paper is to appear in the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans. A prior version appeared as doi:10.1109/COASE.2009.5234136 in the 5th Annual IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (IEEE CASE 2009), Bangalore, India, August 2009, pp. 353--360.

A unique and efficient system model is proposed for sensor networks to create sensor-smart highways. Our approach... more A unique and efficient system model is proposed for sensor networks to create sensor-smart highways. Our approach first considers various cell geometries encountered with two-dimensional roads, and then extends the same to three-dimensional roads. The mathematical relations describing each type of cell are derived, and the analyses indicate the numbers and positions of sensor nodes needed in each cell of a certain type. We then propose algorithms for computing the deployment positions of sensor nodes on roads by describing them as consisting of cells of different geometries. We also validate the approach by computing a sensor deployment using real geospatial data.

Fair resource allocation in distributed combinatorial auctioning systems

by Shrisha Rao

An extended framework of safe stabilization

by Shrisha Rao

Finding central sets of tree structures in synchronous distributed systems.

by Shrisha Rao

Topology Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

by Shrisha Rao

Co-authored with Nitin Choubey. 3rd International Conference on Sensor Technologies and Applications (SENSORCOMM 2009), Athens, Greece, June 2009. doi:10.1109/SENSORCOMM.2009.59.

The main goal of topology control in wireless sensor networks is to reduce interference between competing signals and... more The main goal of topology control in wireless sensor networks is to reduce interference between competing signals and thus extend the battery life of sensor devices by minimizing retransmission of data. This paper proposes an algorithm, Low Bounded Interference Control, to minimize the lower and upper bounds on interference. The lower bound refers to the degree of any node, while the upper bound consists of both degree as well as the size of the critical node set. The critical node set of a node u consists of those nodes that are not its immediate neighbors but can cause interference at node u because u is within their transmission range. Our algorithm uses a robust model for interference measurement, and works well in situations where there is high interference on a node due to its immediate and critical node set. By analyzing the two- dimensional node distribution we show how our algorithm guarantees the construction of a connectivity-preserving topology with minimal interference in polynomial time.

A Foundation of Demand-Side Resource Management in Distributed Systems

by Shrisha Rao

Transactions on Computational Science VIII, LNCS 6260, 2010, Springer, Heidelberg, pp. 114–126. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16236-7_8.

The theoretical problems of demand-side management are examined in without regard to the type of resource whose demand... more The theoretical problems of demand-side management are examined in without regard to the type of resource whose demand is to be managed, and the Maximum Demand problem is identified and addressed in a system consisting of independent processes that consume the resource. It is shown that the Maximum Demand problem generalizes the Santa Fe Bar Problem of game theory, and the basic properties of Maintenance and Strong and Weak Recovery that are desirable of systems of processes where demand management is practiced are defined. Basic algorithms are given for solving the Maximum Demand problem in a general context, and in a system where the processes have priorities.

Fail-Stop Distributed Combinatorial Auctioning Systems With Fair Resource Allocation

by Shrisha Rao

Co-authored with Arun Kalyanasundaram and Reehan Ahmed Khan Lalkhanwar. 7th Annual IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (IEEE CASE 2011), Trieste, Italy, August 2011, pp. 181--188. doi:10.1109/CASE.2011.6042428.

A Distributed Combinatorial Auctioning System (DCAS) is a multi-agent system (MAS) where each auctioneer has a set of... more A Distributed Combinatorial Auctioning System (DCAS) is a multi-agent system (MAS) where each auctioneer has a set of local bidders and all of them adopt a cooperative strategy in conducting the auction. Any occurrence of failure in the system leads to an unpredictable behavior and hence forcing abandonment of the auction. We systematically analyze the failures occurring in the agents and propose a fail-stop design of the DCAS. We present a set of Event Based Failure Handlers (EBFHs) that are triggered upon receiving specific messages from other agents in the network. We provide a proof of correctness of our approach and analyze the efficiency in terms of the message complexity. We also discuss the different parameters that influence the performance of a given DCAS configuration. We use the framework in which the concepts of
basic and extended fairness are used in the bidding
process.

Reliability versus cost: design of a probabilistic broadcast algorithm

by Augusto Ciuffoletti

from the paper published in Distributed Computing (Vol. 7) in 1993.

We propose a probabilistic algorithm to solve the problem of distributed broadcast. A simple diffusion algorithm is... more We propose a probabilistic algorithm to solve the problem of distributed broadcast. A simple diffusion algorithm is introduced, and its reliability is evaluated. The cost and reliability of the probabilistic algorithm are compared with the corresponding deterministic algorithm.

A Distributed Hardware Algorithm for Scheduling Dependent Tasks on Multicore Architectures

by Lorenzo Di Gregorio

7th IEEE Workshop on Intelligent solutions in Embedded Systems

We present a novel hardware algorithm for scheduling tasks with dependency constraints on multicore... more We present a novel hardware algorithm for scheduling tasks with dependency constraints on multicore architectures.  This algorithm provides a deadlock-free scheduling over a large class of architectures by employing a generalization of a fundamental algorithm by Tomasulo.  Performance measurements show that the proposed algorithm can deliver higher performance than a large increase in the number of processing cores.  Several authors have already pointed out how the "threads" model of computation can lead to a painstaking and error-prone programming process.  Our approach does not preclude backward compatibility and the use of traditional techniques, but still supports a different and more advanced programming model, which is generally better suited for many complex embedded multicore systems.

Improved Animal Tracking Algorithms Using Distributed Kalman-based Filters

by Sergio Valcarcel Macua

DISTRIBUTED LINEAR DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS

by Sergio Valcarcel Macua

Consensus-based Distributed Principal Component Analysis in Wireless Sensor Networks

by Sergio Valcarcel Macua

Lazy Decomposition for Distributed Decision Procedures

by Christoph Wintersteiger

Airline Operations Control: A New Concept for Operations Recovery

by Antonio Castro

Antonio J.M. Castro and Eugenio Oliveira (2011). Airline Operations Control: A New Concept for Operations Recovery, Airline Industry: Strategies, Operations and Safety, Connor R. Walsh (Ed.), pp. 61-97, ISBN: 978-1-61122-079-7, Series: Transportation Infrastructure - Roads, Highways, Bridges, Airports and Mass Transit, Nova Science Publishers.

The Airline Operations Control Centre (AOCC) of an airline company is the organization responsible for monitoring and... more The Airline Operations Control Centre (AOCC) of an airline company is the organization responsible for monitoring and solving operational problems. It includes teams of human experts specialized in solving problems related with aircrafts, crewmembers and passengers, in a process called disruption management or operations recovery. In this chapter we propose a new concept for disruption management in this domain. The organization of the AOCC is represented by a multi-agent system (MAS), where the roles that correspond to the most repetitive tasks are performed by intelligent agents. The human experts, represented by agents that are able to interact with them, are part of this AOCC-MAS supervising the system and taking the final decision from the solutions proposed by the AOCC-MAS. We show the architecture of this AOCC-MAS, including the main costs involved and details about how the system takes decisions. We tested the concept, using several real airline crew related problems and using four methods: human experts (traditional way), the AOCC-MAS with and without using quality-costs and the integrated approach presented in this chapter. The results are presented and discussed.

A Distributed Multi-Agent System to Solve Airline Operations Problems

by Antonio Castro

Antonio Castro and Eugenio Oliveira, Proceedings of the 9th ICEIS 2007 Volume Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Systems, pp. 22-30, Funchal, Portugal, June 12-16 2007, INSTICC, ISBN: 978-972-8865-89-4

An airline schedule very rarely operates as planned. Problems related with aircrafts, crew members and passengers are... more An airline schedule very rarely operates as planned. Problems related with aircrafts, crew members and passengers are common and the actions towards the solution of these problems are usually known as operations recovery or disruption management. The Airline Operations Control Center (AOCC) tries to solve these problems with the minimum impact in the airline schedule, with the minimum cost and, at the same time, satisfying all the required safety rules. Usually, each problem is treated separately and some tools have been proposed to help in the decision making process of the airline coordinators. In this paper we present the implementation of a Distributed Multi-Agent System (MAS) that represents the several roles that exist in an AOCC. This MAS deals with several operational bases and for each type of operation problems it has several specialized software agents that implements heuristic solutions and other solutions based in operations research mathematic models and artificial intelligence algorithms. These specialized agents compete to find the best solution for each problem. We present a real case study taken from an AOCC where a crew recovery problem is solved using the MAS. Computational results using a real airline schedule are presented, including a comparison with a solution for the same problem found by the human operators in the Airline Operations Control Center. We show that, even in simple problems and when comparing with solutions found by human operators in the case of this airline company, it is possible to find valid solutions, in less time and with a smaller cost.

Using Specialized Agents in a Distributed MAS to Solve Airline Operations Problems: a Case Study

by Antonio Castro

Antonio J. M. Castro and Eugenio Oliveira, Proceedings of IAT 2007 (Intelligent Agent Technology Conference), pp. 473-476, Silicon Valley, California, USA, 2-5 November 2007, IEEE Computer Society, ISBN: 0-7695-3027-3.

An airline schedule very rarely operates as planned. Problems related with aircrafts, crew members and passengers are... more An airline schedule very rarely operates as planned. Problems related with aircrafts, crew members and passengers are common and the actions towards the solution of these problems are usually known as operations recovery. The Airline Operations Control Center (AOCC) tries to solve these problems with the minimum cost and satisfying all the required rules. In this paper we present the implementation of a Distributed Multi-Agent System (MAS) representing the existing roles in an AOCC. This MAS has several specialized software agents that implement different algorithms, competing to find the best solution for each problem. We present a real case study where a crew recovery problem is solved. We show that it is possible to find valid solutions, in less time and with a smaller cost.

Multicolored Dynamos on Toroidal Meshes

by Walter Quattrociocchi