Matching Items (37)
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Description
This thesis investigates three different resource allocation problems, aiming to achieve two common goals: i) adaptivity to a fast-changing environment, ii) distribution of the computation tasks to achieve a favorable solution. The motivation for this work relies on the modern-era proliferation of sensors and devices, in the Data Acquisition Systems

This thesis investigates three different resource allocation problems, aiming to achieve two common goals: i) adaptivity to a fast-changing environment, ii) distribution of the computation tasks to achieve a favorable solution. The motivation for this work relies on the modern-era proliferation of sensors and devices, in the Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) layer of the Internet of Things (IoT) architecture. To avoid congestion and enable low-latency services, limits have to be imposed on the amount of decisions that can be centralized (i.e. solved in the ``cloud") and/or amount of control information that devices can exchange. This has been the motivation to develop i) a lightweight PHY Layer protocol for time synchronization and scheduling in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), ii) an adaptive receiver that enables Sub-Nyquist sampling, for efficient spectrum sensing at high frequencies, and iii) an SDN-scheme for resource-sharing across different technologies and operators, to harmoniously and holistically respond to fluctuations in demands at the eNodeB' s layer.

The proposed solution for time synchronization and scheduling is a new protocol, called PulseSS, which is completely event-driven and is inspired by biological networks. The results on convergence and accuracy for locally connected networks, presented in this thesis, constitute the theoretical foundation for the protocol in terms of performance guarantee. The derived limits provided guidelines for ad-hoc solutions in the actual implementation of the protocol.

The proposed receiver for Compressive Spectrum Sensing (CSS) aims at tackling the noise folding phenomenon, e.g., the accumulation of noise from different sub-bands that are folded, prior to sampling and baseband processing, when an analog front-end aliasing mixer is utilized.

The sensing phase design has been conducted via a utility maximization approach, thus the scheme derived has been called Cognitive Utility Maximization Multiple Access (CUMMA).

The framework described in the last part of the thesis is inspired by stochastic network optimization tools and dynamics.

While convergence of the proposed approach remains an open problem, the numerical results here presented suggest the capability of the algorithm to handle traffic fluctuations across operators, while respecting different time and economic constraints.

The scheme has been named Decomposition of Infrastructure-based Dynamic Resource Allocation (DIDRA).
ContributorsFerrari, Lorenzo (Author) / Scaglione, Anna (Thesis advisor) / Bliss, Daniel (Committee member) / Ying, Lei (Committee member) / Reisslein, Martin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
We consider the problem of routing packets with end-to-end hard deadlines in multihop communication networks. This is a challenging problem due to the complex spatial-temporal correlation among flows with different deadlines especially when significant traffic fluctuation exists. To tackle this problem, based on the spatial-temporal routing algorithm that specifies where

We consider the problem of routing packets with end-to-end hard deadlines in multihop communication networks. This is a challenging problem due to the complex spatial-temporal correlation among flows with different deadlines especially when significant traffic fluctuation exists. To tackle this problem, based on the spatial-temporal routing algorithm that specifies where and when a packet should be routed using concepts of virtual links and virtual routes, we proposed a constrained resource-pooling heuristic into the spatial-temporal routing, which enhances the ``work-conserving" capability and improves the delivery ratio. Our extensive simulations show that the policies improve the performance of spatial-temporal routing algorithm and outperform traditional policies such as backpressure and earliest-deadline-first (EDF) for more general traffic flows in multihop communication networks.
ContributorsWang, Weichang (Author) / Ying, Lei (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Junshan (Committee member) / Ewaisha, Ahmed (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Diffusion processes in networks can be used to model many real-world processes, such as the propagation of a rumor on social networks and cascading failures on power networks. Analysis of diffusion processes in networks can help us answer important questions such as the role and the importance of each node

Diffusion processes in networks can be used to model many real-world processes, such as the propagation of a rumor on social networks and cascading failures on power networks. Analysis of diffusion processes in networks can help us answer important questions such as the role and the importance of each node in the network for spreading the diffusion and how to top or contain a cascading failure in the network. This dissertation consists of three parts.

In the first part, we study the problem of locating multiple diffusion sources in networks under the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model. Given a complete snapshot of the network, we developed a sample-path-based algorithm, named clustering and localization, and proved that for regular trees, the estimators produced by the proposed algorithm are within a constant distance from the real sources with a high probability. Then, we considered the case in which only a partial snapshot is observed and proposed a new algorithm, named Optimal-Jordan-Cover (OJC). The algorithm first extracts a subgraph using a candidate selection algorithm that selects source candidates based on the number of observed infected nodes in their neighborhoods. Then, in the extracted subgraph, OJC finds a set of nodes that "cover" all observed infected nodes with the minimum radius. The set of nodes is called the Jordan cover, and is regarded as the set of diffusion sources. We proved that OJC can locate all sources with probability one asymptotically with partial observations in the Erdos-Renyi (ER) random graph. Multiple experiments on different networks were done, which show our algorithms outperform others.

In the second part, we tackle the problem of reconstructing the diffusion history from partial observations. We formulated the diffusion history reconstruction problem as a maximum a posteriori (MAP) problem and proved the problem is NP hard. Then we proposed a step-by- step reconstruction algorithm, which can always produce a diffusion history that is consistent with the partial observations. Our experimental results based on synthetic and real networks show that the algorithm significantly outperforms some existing methods.

In the third part, we consider the problem of improving the robustness of an interdependent network by rewiring a small number of links during a cascading attack. We formulated the problem as a Markov decision process (MDP) problem. While the problem is NP-hard, we developed an effective and efficient algorithm, RealWire, to robustify the network and to mitigate the damage during the attack. Extensive experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms other algorithms on most of the robustness metrics.
ContributorsChen, Zhen (Author) / Ying, Lei (Thesis advisor) / Tong, Hanghang (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Junshan (Committee member) / He, Jingrui (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
In the past few decades, there has been a remarkable shift in the boundary between public and private information. The application of information technology and electronic communications allow service providers (businesses) to collect a large amount of data. However, this ``data collection" process can put the privacy of users at

In the past few decades, there has been a remarkable shift in the boundary between public and private information. The application of information technology and electronic communications allow service providers (businesses) to collect a large amount of data. However, this ``data collection" process can put the privacy of users at risk and also lead to user reluctance in accepting services or sharing data. This dissertation first investigates privacy sensitive consumer-retailers/service providers interactions under different scenarios, and then focuses on a unified framework for various information-theoretic privacy and privacy mechanisms that can be learned directly from data.

Existing approaches such as differential privacy or information-theoretic privacy try to quantify privacy risk but do not capture the subjective experience and heterogeneous expression of privacy-sensitivity. The first part of this dissertation introduces models to study consumer-retailer interaction problems and to better understand how retailers/service providers can balance their revenue objectives while being sensitive to user privacy concerns. This dissertation considers the following three scenarios: (i) the consumer-retailer interaction via personalized advertisements; (ii) incentive mechanisms that electrical utility providers need to offer for privacy sensitive consumers with alternative energy sources; (iii) the market viability of offering privacy guaranteed free online services. We use game-theoretic models to capture the behaviors of both consumers and retailers, and provide insights for retailers to maximize their profits when interacting with privacy sensitive consumers.

Preserving the utility of published datasets while simultaneously providing provable privacy guarantees is a well-known challenge. In the second part, a novel context-aware privacy framework called generative adversarial privacy (GAP) is introduced. Inspired by recent advancements in generative adversarial networks, GAP allows the data holder to learn the privatization mechanism directly from the data. Under GAP, finding the optimal privacy mechanism is formulated as a constrained minimax game between a privatizer and an adversary. For appropriately chosen adversarial loss functions, GAP provides privacy guarantees against strong information-theoretic adversaries. Both synthetic and real-world datasets are used to show that GAP can greatly reduce the adversary's capability of inferring private information at a small cost of distorting the data.
ContributorsHuang, Chong (Author) / Sankar, Lalitha (Thesis advisor) / Kosut, Oliver (Committee member) / Nedich, Angelia (Committee member) / Ying, Lei (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Mobile devices have penetrated into every aspect of modern world. For one thing, they are becoming ubiquitous in daily life. For the other thing, they are storing more and more data, including sensitive data. Therefore, security and privacy of mobile devices are indispensable. This dissertation consists of five parts: two

Mobile devices have penetrated into every aspect of modern world. For one thing, they are becoming ubiquitous in daily life. For the other thing, they are storing more and more data, including sensitive data. Therefore, security and privacy of mobile devices are indispensable. This dissertation consists of five parts: two authentication schemes, two attacks, and one countermeasure related to security and privacy of mobile devices.

Specifically, in Chapter 1, I give an overview the challenges and existing solutions in these areas. In Chapter 2, a novel authentication scheme is presented, which is based on a user’s tapping or sliding on the touchscreen of a mobile device. In Chapter 3, I focus on mobile app fingerprinting and propose a method based on analyzing the power profiles of targeted mobile devices. In Chapter 4, I mainly explore a novel liveness detection method for face authentication on mobile devices. In Chapter 5, I investigate a novel keystroke inference attack on mobile devices based on user eye movements. In Chapter 6, a novel authentication scheme is proposed, based on detecting a user’s finger gesture through acoustic sensing. In Chapter 7, I discuss the future work.
ContributorsChen, Yimin (Author) / Zhang, Yanchao (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Junshan (Committee member) / Reisslein, Martin (Committee member) / Ying, Lei (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Networks naturally appear in many high-impact applications. The simplest model of networks is single-layered networks, where the nodes are from the same domain and the links are of the same type. However, as the world is highly coupled, nodes from different application domains tend to be interdependent on each

Networks naturally appear in many high-impact applications. The simplest model of networks is single-layered networks, where the nodes are from the same domain and the links are of the same type. However, as the world is highly coupled, nodes from different application domains tend to be interdependent on each other, forming a more complex network model called multi-layered networks.

Among the various aspects of network studies, network connectivity plays an important role in a myriad of applications. The diversified application areas have spurred numerous connectivity measures, each designed for some specific tasks. Although effective in their own fields, none of the connectivity measures is generally applicable to all the tasks. Moreover, existing connectivity measures are predominantly based on single-layered networks, with few attempts made on multi-layered networks.

Most connectivity analyzing methods assume that the input network is static and accurate, which is not realistic in many applications. As real-world networks are evolving, their connectivity scores would vary by time as well, making it imperative to keep track of those changing parameters in a timely manner. Furthermore, as the observed links in the input network may be inaccurate due to noise and incomplete data sources, it is crucial to infer a more accurate network structure to better approximate its connectivity scores.

The ultimate goal of connectivity studies is to optimize the connectivity scores via manipulating the network structures. For most complex measures, the hardness of the optimization problem still remains unknown. Meanwhile, current optimization methods are mainly ad-hoc solutions for specific types of connectivity measures on single-layered networks. No optimization framework has ever been proposed to tackle a wider range of connectivity measures on complex networks.

In this thesis, an in-depth study of connectivity measures, inference, and optimization problems will be proposed. Specifically, a unified connectivity measure model will be introduced to unveil the commonality among existing connectivity measures. For the connectivity inference aspect, an effective network inference method and connectivity tracking framework will be described. Last, a generalized optimization framework will be built to address the connectivity minimization/maximization problems on both single-layered and multi-layered networks.
ContributorsChen, Chen (Author) / Tong, Hanghang (Thesis advisor) / Davulcu, Hasan (Committee member) / Sen, Arunabha (Committee member) / Subrahmanian, V.S. (Committee member) / Ying, Lei (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
The explosive growth of data generated from different services has opened a new vein of research commonly called ``big data.'' The sheer volume of the information in this data has yielded new applications in a wide range of fields, but the difficulties inherent in processing the enormous amount of

The explosive growth of data generated from different services has opened a new vein of research commonly called ``big data.'' The sheer volume of the information in this data has yielded new applications in a wide range of fields, but the difficulties inherent in processing the enormous amount of data, as well as the rate at which it is generated, also give rise to significant challenges. In particular, processing, modeling, and understanding the structure of online social networks is computationally difficult due to these challenges. The goal of this study is twofold: first to present a new networked data processing framework to model this social structure, and second to highlight the wireless networking gains possible by using this social structure.

The first part of the dissertation considers a new method for modeling social networks via probabilistic graphical models. Specifically, this new method employs the t-cherry junction tree, a recent advancement in probabilistic graphical models, to develop a compact representation and good approximation of an otherwise intractable probabilistic model. There are a number of advantages in this approach: 1) the best approximation possible via junction trees belongs to the class of t-cherry junction trees; 2) constructing a t-cherry junction tree can be largely parallelized; and 3) inference can be performed using distributed computation. To improve the quality of approximation, an algorithm to build a higher order tree gracefully from an existing one, without constructing it from scratch, is developed. this approach is applied to Twitter data containing 100,000 nodes to study the problem of recommending connections to new users.

Next, the t-cherry junction tree framework is extended by considering the impact of estimating the distributions involved from a training data set. Understanding this impact is vital to real-world applications as distributions are not known perfectly, but rather generated from training data. First, the fidelity of the t-cherry junction tree approximation due to this estimation is quantified. Then the scaling behavior, in terms of the size of the t-cherry junction tree, is approximated to show that higher-order t-cherry junction trees, which with perfect information are higher fidelity approximations, may actually result in decreased fidelity due to the difficulties in accurately estimating higher-dimensional distributions. Finally, this part concludes by demonstrating these findings by considering a distributed detection situation in which the sensors' measurements are correlated.

Having developed a framework to model social structure in online social networks, the study then highlights two approaches for utilizing this social network data in existing wireless communication networks. The first approach is a novel application: using social networks to enhance device-to-device wireless communication. It is well known that wireless communication can be significantly improved by utilizing relays to aid in transmission. Rather than deploying dedicated relays, a system is designed in which users can relay traffic for other users if there is a shared social trust between them, e.g., they are ``friends'' on Facebook, and for users that do not share social trust, implements a coalitional game framework to motivate users to relay traffic for each other. This framework guarantees that all users improve their throughput via relaying while ensuring that each user will function as a relay only if there is a social trust relationship or, if there is no social trust, a cycle of reciprocity is established in which a set of users will agree to relay for each other. This new system shows significant throughput gain in simulated networks that utilize real-world social network traces.

The second application of social structure to wireless communication is an approach to reduce the congestion in cellular networks during peak times. This is achieved by two means: preloading and offloading. Preloading refers to the process of using social network data to predict user demand and serve some users early, before the cellular network traffic peaks. Offloading allows users that have already obtained a copy of the content to opportunistically serve other users using device-to-device communication, thus eliminating the need for some cellular traffic. These two methods work especially well in tandem, as preloading creates a base of users that can serve later users via offloading. These two processes can greatly reduce the peak cellular traffic under ideal conditions, and in a more realistic situation, the impact of uncertainty in human mobility and the social network structure is analyzed. Even with the randomness inherent in these processes, both preloading and offloading offer substantial improvement. Finally, potential difficulties in preloading multiple pieces of content simultaneously are highlighted, and a heuristic method to solve these challenges is developed.
ContributorsProulx, Brian (Author) / Zhang, Junshan (Thesis advisor) / Cochran, Douglas (Committee member) / Ying, Lei (Committee member) / Zhang, Yanchao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
A principal goal of this dissertation is to study wireless network design and optimization with the focus on two perspectives: 1) socially-aware mobile networking and computing; 2) security and privacy in wireless networking. Under this common theme, this dissertation can be broadly organized into three parts.

The first part studies socially-aware

A principal goal of this dissertation is to study wireless network design and optimization with the focus on two perspectives: 1) socially-aware mobile networking and computing; 2) security and privacy in wireless networking. Under this common theme, this dissertation can be broadly organized into three parts.

The first part studies socially-aware mobile networking and computing. First, it studies random access control and power control under a social group utility maximization (SGUM) framework. The socially-aware Nash equilibria (SNEs) are derived and analyzed. Then, it studies mobile crowdsensing under an incentive mechanism that exploits social trust assisted reciprocity (STAR). The efficacy of the STAR mechanism is thoroughly investigated. Next, it studies mobile users' data usage behaviors under the impact of social services and the wireless operator's pricing. Based on a two-stage Stackelberg game formulation, the user demand equilibrium (UDE) is analyzed in Stage II and the optimal pricing strategy is developed in Stage I. Last, it studies opportunistic cooperative networking under an optimal stopping framework with two-level decision-making. For both cases with or without dedicated relays, the optimal relaying strategies are derived and analyzed.

The second part studies radar sensor network coverage for physical security. First, it studies placement of bistatic radar (BR) sensor networks for barrier coverage. The optimality of line-based placement is analyzed, and the optimal placement of BRs on a line segment is characterized. Then, it studies the coverage of radar sensor networks that exploits the Doppler effect. Based on a Doppler coverage model, an efficient method is devised to characterize Doppler-covered regions and an algorithm is developed to find the minimum radar density required for Doppler coverage.

The third part studies cyber security and privacy in socially-aware networking and computing. First, it studies random access control, cooperative jamming, and spectrum access under an extended SGUM framework that incorporates negative social ties. The SNEs are derived and analyzed. Then, it studies pseudonym change for personalized location privacy under the SGUM framework. The SNEs are analyzed and an efficient algorithm is developed to find an SNE with desirable properties.
ContributorsGong, Xiaowen (Author) / Zhang, Junshan (Thesis advisor) / Cochran, Douglas (Committee member) / Ying, Lei (Committee member) / Zhang, Yanchao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Vertical taking off and landing (VTOL) drones started to emerge at the beginning of this century, and finds applications in the vast areas of mapping, rescuing, logistics, etc. Usually a VTOL drone control system design starts from a first principles model. Most of the VTOL drones are in the shape

Vertical taking off and landing (VTOL) drones started to emerge at the beginning of this century, and finds applications in the vast areas of mapping, rescuing, logistics, etc. Usually a VTOL drone control system design starts from a first principles model. Most of the VTOL drones are in the shape of a quad-rotor which is convenient for dynamic analysis.

In this project, a VTOL drone with shape similar to a Convair XFY-1 is studied and the primary focus is developing and examining an alternative method to identify a system model from the input and output data, with which it is possible to estimate system parameters and compute model uncertainties on discontinuous data sets. We verify the models by designing controllers that stabilize the yaw, pitch, and roll angles for the VTOL drone in the hovering state.

This project comprises of three stages: an open-loop identification to identify the yaw and pitch dynamics, an intermediate closed-loop identification to identify the roll action dynamic and a closed-loop identification to refine the identification of yaw and pitch action. In open and closed loop identifications, the reference signals sent to the servos were recorded as inputs to the system and the angles and angular velocities in yaw and pitch directions read by inertial measurement unit were recorded as outputs of the system. In the intermediate closed loop identification, the difference between the reference signals sent to the motors on the contra-rotators was recorded as input and the roll angular velocity is recorded as output. Next, regressors were formed by using a coprime factor structure and then parameters of the system were estimated using the least square method. Multiplicative and divisive uncertainties were calculated from the data set and were used to guide PID loop-shaping controller design.
ContributorsLiu, Yiqiu (Author) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Thesis advisor) / Rodriguez, Armando (Thesis advisor) / Rivera, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
The research on the topology and dynamics of complex networks is one of the most focused area in complex system science. The goals are to structure our understanding of the real-world social, economical, technological, and biological systems in the aspect of networks consisting a large number of interacting units and

The research on the topology and dynamics of complex networks is one of the most focused area in complex system science. The goals are to structure our understanding of the real-world social, economical, technological, and biological systems in the aspect of networks consisting a large number of interacting units and to develop corresponding detection, prediction, and control strategies. In this highly interdisciplinary field, my research mainly concentrates on universal estimation schemes, physical controllability, as well as mechanisms behind extreme events and cascading failure for complex networked systems.

Revealing the underlying structure and dynamics of complex networked systems from observed data without of any specific prior information is of fundamental importance to science, engineering, and society. We articulate a Markov network based model, the sparse dynamical Boltzmann machine (SDBM), as a universal network structural estimator and dynamics approximator based on techniques including compressive sensing and K-means algorithm. It recovers the network structure of the original system and predicts its short-term or even long-term dynamical behavior for a large variety of representative dynamical processes on model and real-world complex networks.

One of the most challenging problems in complex dynamical systems is to control complex networks.

Upon finding that the energy required to approach a target state with reasonable precision

is often unbearably large, and the energy of controlling a set of networks with similar structural properties follows a fat-tail distribution, we identify fundamental structural ``short boards'' that play a dominant role in the enormous energy and offer a theoretical interpretation for the fat-tail distribution and simple strategies to significantly reduce the energy.

Extreme events and cascading failure, a type of collective behavior in complex networked systems, often have catastrophic consequences. Utilizing transportation and evolutionary game dynamics as prototypical

settings, we investigate the emergence of extreme events in simplex complex networks, mobile ad-hoc networks and multi-layer interdependent networks. A striking resonance-like phenomenon and the emergence of global-scale cascading breakdown are discovered. We derive analytic theories to understand the mechanism of

control at a quantitative level and articulate cost-effective control schemes to significantly suppress extreme events and the cascading process.
ContributorsChen, Yuzhong (Author) / Lai, Ying-Cheng (Thesis advisor) / Spanias, Andreas (Committee member) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Ying, Lei (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016