The Specialized Mappings Architecture

A probabilistic, nonlinear supervised learning model is proposed: the Specialized Mappings Architecture (SMA). The SMA employs a set of several forward mapping functions that are estimated automatically from training data. Each specialized function maps certain domains of the input space (e.g., image features) onto the output space (e.g., articulated body parameters). The SMA can model ambiguous, one-to-many mappings that may yield multiple valid output hypotheses. Once learned, the mapping functions generate a set of output hypotheses for a given input via a statistical inference procedure. The SMA inference procedure incorporates an inverse mapping or feedback function in evaluating the likelihood of each of the hypothesis. Possible feedback functions include computer graphics rendering routines that can generate images for given hypotheses. The SMA employs a variant of the Expectation-Maximization algorithm for simultaneous learning of the specialized domains along with the mapping functions, and approximate strategies for inference. The framework is demonstrated in a computer vision system that can estimate the articulated pose parameters of a human’s body or hands, given silhouettes from a single image. The accuracy and stability of the SMA are also tested using synthetic images of human bodies and hands, where ground truth is known.

BRITE: Universal Topology Generation from a User's Perspective

Effective engineering of the Internet is predicated upon a detailed understanding of issues such as the large-scale structure of its underlying physical topology, the manner in which it evolves over time, and the way in which its constituent components contribute to its overall function. Unfortunately, developing a deep understanding of these issues has proven to be a challenging task, since it in turn involves solving difficult problems such as mapping the actual topology, characterizing it, and developing models that capture its emergent behavior. Consequently, even though there are a number of topology models, it is an open question as to how representative the topologies they generate are of the actual Internet. Our goal is to produce a topology generation framework which improves the state of the art and is based on design principles which include representativeness, inclusiveness, and interoperability. Representativeness leads to synthetic topologies that accurately reflect many aspects of the actual Internet topology (e.g. hierarchical structure, degree distribution, etc.). Inclusiveness combines the strengths of as many generation models as possible in a single generation tool. Interoperability provides interfaces to widely-used simulation and visualization applications such as ns and SSF. We call such a tool a universal topology generator. In this paper we discuss the design, implementation and usage of the BRITE universal topology generation tool that we have built. We also describe the BRITE Analysis Engine, BRIANA, which is an independent piece of software designed and built upon BRITE design goals of flexibility and extensibility. The purpose of BRIANA is to act as a repository of analysis routines along with a user–friendly interface that allows its use on different topology formats.

An Efficient User-Level Shared Memory Mechanism for Application-Specific Extensions

This paper focuses on an efficient user-level method for the deployment of application-specific extensions, using commodity operating systems and hardware. A sandboxing technique is described that supports multiple extensions within a shared virtual address space. Applications can register sandboxed code with the system, so that it may be executed in the context of any process. Such code may be used to implement generic routines and handlers for a class of applications, or system service extensions that complement the functionality of the core kernel. Using our approach, application-specific extensions can be written like conventional user-level code, utilizing libraries and system calls, with the advantage that they may be executed without the traditional costs of scheduling and context-switching between process-level protection domains. No special hardware support such as segmentation or tagged translation look-aside buffers (TLBs) is required. Instead, our ``user-level sandboxing'' mechanism requires only paged-based virtual memory support, given that sandboxed extensions are either written by a trusted source or are guaranteed to be memory-safe (e.g., using type-safe languages). Using a fast method of upcalls, we show how our mechanism provides significant performance improvements over traditional methods of invoking user-level services. As an application of our approach, we have implemented a user-level network subsystem that avoids data copying via the kernel and, in many cases, yields far greater network throughput than kernel-level approaches.