arXiv subjects

Abhishek Gupta

Publications and source records attributed to Abhishek Gupta.

264 records · Page 15Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

On Service-Chaining Strategies using Virtual Network Functions in Operator Networks

Network functions (e.g., firewalls, load balancers, etc.) have been traditionally provided through proprietary hardware appliances. Often, hardware appliances need to be hardwired back to back to form a service chain providing chained network functions. Hardware appliances cannot be provisioned on demand since they are statically embedded in the network topology, making creation, insertion, modification, upgrade, and removal of service chains complex, and also slowing down service innovation. Hence, network operators are starting to deploy Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), which are virtualized over commodity hardware. VNFs can be deployed in Data Centers (DCs) or in Network Function Virtualization (NFV) capable network elements (nodes) such as routers and switches. NFV capable nodes and DCs together form a Network enabled Cloud (NeC) that helps to facilitate the dynamic service chaining required to support evolving network traffic and its service demands. In this study, we focus on the VNF service chain placement and traffic routing problem, and build a model for placing a VNF service chain while minimizing network resource consumption. Our results indicate that a NeC having a DC and NFV capable nodes can significantly reduce network-resource consumption.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2016

Multiple Service Chain Placement and Routing in a Network-enabled Cloud

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) aims to abstract the functionality of traditional proprietary hardware into software as Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), which can run on commercial off the shelf (COTS) servers. Besides reducing dependency on proprietary support, NFV helps network operators to deploy multiple services in a agile fashion. Service deployment involves placement and in sequence routing through VNFs comprising a Service Chain (SC). Our study is the first to focus on the computationally complex problem of multiple VNF SC placement and routing while considering VNF service chaining explicitly. We propose a novel column generation model for placing multiple VNF SCs and routing, which reduces the computational complexity of the problem significantly. Our aim here is to determine the ideal NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) for minimizing network resource consumption. Our results indicate that a Network enabled Cloud (NeC) results in lower networkresource consumption than a centralized NFVI (e.g., Data Center) while avoiding infeasibility with a distributed NFVI.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2016

Learning Modular Neural Network Policies for Multi-Task and Multi-Robot Transfer

Reinforcement learning (RL) can automate a wide variety of robotic skills, but learning each new skill requires considerable real-world data collection and manual representation engineering to design policy classes or features. Using deep reinforcement learning to train general purpose neural network policies alleviates some of the burden of manual representation engineering by using expressive policy classes, but exacerbates the challenge of data collection, since such methods tend to be less efficient than RL with low-dimensional, hand-designed representations. Transfer learning can mitigate this problem by enabling us to transfer information from one skill to another and even from one robot to another. We show that neural network policies can be decomposed into "task-specific" and "robot-specific" modules, where the task-specific modules are shared across robots, and the robot-specific modules are shared across all tasks on that robot. This allows for sharing task information, such as perception, between robots and sharing robot information, such as dynamics and kinematics, between tasks. We exploit this decomposition to train mix-and-match modules that can solve new robot-task combinations that were not seen during training. Using a novel neural network architecture, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our transfer method for enabling zero-shot generalization with a variety of robots and tasks in simulation for both visual and non-visual tasks.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2016

Genetic Transfer or Population Diversification? Deciphering the Secret Ingredients of Evolutionary Multitask Optimization

Evolutionary multitasking has recently emerged as a novel paradigm that enables the similarities and/or latent complementarities (if present) between distinct optimization tasks to be exploited in an autonomous manner simply by solving them together with a unified solution representation scheme. An important matter underpinning future algorithmic advancements is to develop a better understanding of the driving force behind successful multitask problem-solving. In this regard, two (seemingly disparate) ideas have been put forward, namely, (a) implicit genetic transfer as the key ingredient facilitating the exchange of high-quality genetic material across tasks, and (b) population diversification resulting in effective global search of the unified search space encompassing all tasks. In this paper, we present some empirical results that provide a clearer picture of the relationship between the two aforementioned propositions. For the numerical experiments we make use of Sudoku puzzles as case studies, mainly because of their feature that outwardly unlike puzzle statements can often have nearly identical final solutions. The experiments reveal that while on many occasions genetic transfer and population diversity may be viewed as two sides of the same coin, the wider implication of genetic transfer, as shall be shown herein, captures the true essence of evolutionary multitasking to the fullest.

cs.NE↗

arXiv2016

Modeling and Analyzing Millimeter Wave Cellular Systems

We provide a comprehensive overview of mathematical models and analytical techniques for millimeter wave (mmWave) cellular systems. The two fundamental physical differences from conventional Sub-6GHz cellular systems are (i) vulnerability to blocking, and (ii) the need for significant directionality at the transmitter and/or receiver, which is achieved through the use of large antenna arrays of small individual elements. We overview and compare models for both of these factors, and present a baseline analytical approach based on stochastic geometry that allows the computation of the statistical distributions of the downlink signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and also the per link data rate, which depends on the SINR as well as the average load. There are many implications of the models and analysis: (a) mmWave systems are significantly more noise-limited than at Sub-6GHz for most parameter configurations; (b) initial access is much more difficult in mmWave; (c) self-backhauling is more viable than in Sub-6GHz systems which makes ultra-dense deployments more viable, but this leads to increasingly interference-limited behavior; and (d) in sharp contrast to Sub-6GHz systems cellular operators can mutually benefit by sharing their spectrum licenses despite the uncontrolled interference that results from doing so. We conclude by outlining several important extensions of the baseline model, many of which are promising avenues for future research.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

Search by Ideal Candidates: Next Generation of Talent Search at LinkedIn

One key challenge in talent search is how to translate complex criteria of a hiring position into a search query. This typically requires deep knowledge on which skills are typically needed for the position, what are their alternatives, which companies are likely to have such candidates, etc. However, listing examples of suitable candidates for a given position is a relatively easy job. Therefore, in order to help searchers overcome this challenge, we design a next generation of talent search paradigm at LinkedIn: Search by Ideal Candidates. This new system only needs the searcher to input one or several examples of suitable candidates for the position. The system will generate a query based on the input candidates and then retrieve and rank results based on the query as well as the input candidates. The query is also shown to the searcher to make the system transparent and to allow the searcher to interact with it. As the searcher modifies the initial query and makes it deviate from the ideal candidates, the search ranking function dynamically adjusts an refreshes the ranking results balancing between the roles of query and ideal candidates. As of writing this paper, the new system is being launched to our customers.

cs.IR↗

arXiv2014

On the Existence of Optimal Policies for a Class of Static and Sequential Dynamic Teams

In this paper, we identify sufficient conditions under which static teams and a class of sequential dynamic teams admit team-optimal solutions. We first investigate the existence of optimal solutions in static teams where the observations of the decision makers are conditionally independent or satisfy certain regularity conditions. Building on these findings and the static reduction method of Witsenhausen, we then extend the analysis to sequential dynamic teams. In particular, we show that a large class of dynamic LQG team problems, including the vector version of the well-known Witsenhausen's counterexample and the Gaussian relay channel problem viewed as a dynamic team, admit team-optimal solutions. Results in this paper substantially broaden the class of stochastic control and team problems with non-classical information known to have optimal solutions.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2014

The Topology of Information on the Space of Probability Measures over Product of Polish Spaces

We study here the topology of information on the space of probability measures over Polish spaces that was defined in Hellwig (1996). We show that under this topology, a convergent sequence of probability measures satisfying a conditional independence property converges to a measure that also satisfies the same conditional independence property. This also corrects the proof of a claim in Hellwig (1996, Lemma 4). Additionally, we determine sufficient conditions on the Polish spaces and the topology over measures spaces under which a convergent sequence of probability measures is also convergent in the topology of information.

math.PR↗

arXiv2014

The Topology of Information on the Space of Probability Measures over Polish Spaces

We study here the topology of information on the space of probability measures over Polish spaces that was defined in [1]. We show that under this topology, a convergent sequence of probability measures satisfying a conditional independence property converges to a measure that also satisfies the same conditional independence property. In the process of showing this, we also provide a correct proof of the result in Lemma 4 in [1].

math.PR↗

arXiv2014

Common Information based Markov Perfect Equilibria for Linear-Gaussian Games with Asymmetric Information

We consider a class of two-player dynamic stochastic nonzero-sum games where the state transition and observation equations are linear, and the primitive random variables are Gaussian. Each controller acquires possibly different dynamic information about the state process and the other controller's past actions and observations. This leads to a dynamic game of asymmetric information among the controllers. Building on our earlier work on finite games with asymmetric information, we devise an algorithm to compute a Nash equilibrium by using the common information among the controllers. We call such equilibria common information based Markov perfect equilibria of the game, which can be viewed as a refinement of Nash equilibrium in games with asymmetric information. If the players' cost functions are quadratic, then we show that under certain conditions a unique common information based Markov perfect equilibrium exists. Furthermore, this equilibrium can be computed by solving a sequence of linear equations. We also show through an example that there could be other Nash equilibria in a game of asymmetric information, not corresponding to common information based Markov perfect equilibria.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2012

Nash Equilibria for Stochastic Games with Asymmetric Information-Part 1: Finite Games

A model of stochastic games where multiple controllers jointly control the evolution of the state of a dynamic system but have access to different information about the state and action processes is considered. The asymmetry of information among the controllers makes it difficult to compute or characterize Nash equilibria. Using common information among the controllers, the game with asymmetric information is shown to be equivalent to another game with symmetric information. Further, under certain conditions, a Markov state is identified for the equivalent symmetric information game and its Markov perfect equilibria are characterized. This characterization provides a backward induction algorithm to find Nash equilibria of the original game with asymmetric information in pure or behavioral strategies. Each step of this algorithm involves finding Bayesian Nash equilibria of a one-stage Bayesian game. The class of Nash equilibria of the original game that can be characterized in this backward manner are named common information based Markov perfect equilibria.

cs.GT↗

arXiv2010

Multiple View Reconstruction of Calibrated Images using Singular Value Decomposition

Calibration in a multi camera network has widely been studied for over several years starting from the earlier days of photogrammetry. Many authors have presented several calibration algorithms with their relative advantages and disadvantages. In a stereovision system, multiple view reconstruction is a challenging task. However, the total computational procedure in detail has not been presented before. Here in this work, we are dealing with the problem that, when a world coordinate point is fixed in space, image coordinates of that 3D point vary for different camera positions and orientations. In computer vision aspect, this situation is undesirable. That is, the system has to be designed in such a way that image coordinate of the world coordinate point will be fixed irrespective of the position & orientation of the cameras. We have done it in an elegant fashion. Firstly, camera parameters are calculated in its local coordinate system. Then, we use global coordinate data to transfer all local coordinate data of stereo cameras into same global coordinate system, so that we can register everything into this global coordinate system. After all the transformations, when the image coordinate of the world coordinate point is calculated, it gives same coordinate value for all camera positions & orientations. That is, the whole system is calibrated.

cs.CV↗