arXiv subjects

Reza Farrahi Moghaddam

Publications and source records attributed to Reza Farrahi Moghaddam.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2017

FSITM: A Feature Similarity Index For Tone-Mapped Images

In this work, based on the local phase information of images, an objective index, called the feature similarity index for tone-mapped images (FSITM), is proposed. To evaluate a tone mapping operator (TMO), the proposed index compares the locally weighted mean phase angle map of an original high dynamic range (HDR) to that of its associated tone-mapped image calculated using the output of the TMO method. In experiments on two standard databases, it is shown that the proposed FSITM method outperforms the state-of-the-art index, the tone mapped quality index (TMQI). In addition, a higher performance is obtained by combining the FSITM and TMQI indices. The MATLAB source code of the proposed metric(s) is available at https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/59814.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2017

A Monte-Carlo Approach to Lifespan Failure Performance Analysis of the Network Fabric in Modular Data Centers

Data centers have been evolved from a passive element of compute infrastructure to become an active, core part of any ICT solution. In particular, modular data centers (MDCs), which are a promising design approach to improve resiliency of data centers, can play a key role in deploying ICT infrastructure in remote and inhospitable environments in order to take advantage of low temperatures and hydro- and wind-electric capabilities. This is because of capability of the modular data centers to survive even in lack of continuous on-site maintenance and support. The most critical part of a data center is its network fabric that could impede the whole system even if all other components are fully functional, assuming that other analyses has been already performed to ensure the reliability of the underlying infrastructure and support systems. In this work, a complete failure analysis of modular data centers using failure models of various components including servers, switches, and links is performed using a proposed Monte-Carlo approach. The proposed Monte-Carlo approach, which is based on the concept of snapshots, allows us to effectively calculate the performance of a design along its lifespan even up to the terminal stages. To show the capabilities of the proposed approach, various network topologies, such as FatTree, BCube, MDCube, and their modifications are considered. The performance and also the lifespan of each topology design in presence of failures of their components are studied against the topology parameters.

cs.PF↗

arXiv2016

FairGA: Fair Genetic Algorithm - Beyond Resource-oriented Sustainability for ICT Products and Services

The complexity of ICT products and services has brought them to the level of disposable `species'. The combination of the race to optimal performance and disposability has resulted in considerable footprint and impact. Although approaches such as increasing efficiency, reducing the total cost of ownership, life cycle assessment and management, and circular economy have been put forward to manage and reduce the footprint and impact, the complexity of processes involved and especially invisibility of key but unobservable processes has resulted in some lower bounds for minimal achievable footprint. In this work, a modified approach to the Genetic Algorithm is proposed in order to introduce the notion of 'nondisposability' to the ICT products and services in order to implicitly influence and manage unobservable processes, and ultimately reduce the overall footprint and resource consumption. The proposed genetic algorithm is called FairGA, and it is compared with the traditional Genetic Algorithm against standard optimization functions. Also, the impact of the FairGA on the resource extraction has been illustrated with promising results.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2016

Transparent Clouds: An Enhancement to Abstraction

With the introduction of various hardware/software technologies such as Cloud Technologies or Virtualization technologies, there has been a great potential to reuse ICT artifacts thanks to Abstraction and also Exchangeability features achieved via these technologies. These technologies also provide various advantages with respect to sustainability including resource consumption reduction (in the use phase only or in the whole life cycle). However, there is an additional but untapped potential associated with the anonymization of resources introduced by both abstraction and exchangeability features. By realizing on this potential, we can improve cloud solutions and reduce their by-product opacity, which usually prevents leveraging on the specialized but tweakable (i.e., nonessential modifications without changing the main function) features of components that are captured in the component models. This is especially a challenge in the case heterogeneous/disaggregated infrastructure where developing models to cover everything is practically impossible. In this work, by leveraging on the concept of pathways, we develop a few mechanisms that enable transparency and therefore tweakability of features even in the presence of abstraction and heterogeneity. In particular, the layered-stack approach to system decomposition is considered because of its role in both software defined networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) system decompositions. For a concrete example, the case of dynamic frequency scaling of processors is considered and it is shown that the associated consumption could be considerably reduced without requiring additional changes to the middle components.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2015

A Multiple-Expert Binarization Framework for Multispectral Images

In this work, a multiple-expert binarization framework for multispectral images is proposed. The framework is based on a constrained subspace selection limited to the spectral bands combined with state-of-the-art gray-level binarization methods. The framework uses a binarization wrapper to enhance the performance of the gray-level binarization. Nonlinear preprocessing of the individual spectral bands is used to enhance the textual information. An evolutionary optimizer is considered to obtain the optimal and some suboptimal 3-band subspaces from which an ensemble of experts is then formed. The framework is applied to a ground truth multispectral dataset with promising results. In addition, a generalization to the cross-validation approach is developed that not only evaluates generalizability of the framework, it also provides a practical instance of the selected experts that could be then applied to unseen inputs despite the small size of the given ground truth dataset.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2015

The Service-Bond Paradigm - Potentials for a Sustainable, ICT-enabled Future

The service paradigm as we know it has gone through a long journey of evolution and improvement, and it seems that a service-oriented vision to activities in general could serve as a potential platform for the global transition to a sustainable future. However, it is also apparent that the services themselves are required to move beyond their traditional definition in order to prevent any secondary side effect. Here, a new paradigm is proposed based on bonding between entities involved in a service interaction, service chaining, or service orchestration. It is purposed to serve as a vehicle to approach sustainability at the global level in a manner that is thoughtful, collaborative, and incremental. Time-modulated implementation of the proposed service-bond paradigm is considered in order to reduce the associated risks and liabilities. The service bonds are then simply generalized toward representing bonding among more than two entities. Finally, a practical application of ICT agents in enabling the service bonds is presented in a use case related to smart houses. In this use case, some ICT-based agents (federal regulars, among other ICT agents) are considered to represent and govern services and service bonds of a household with external entities such as utilities.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2015

40 Gbps Access for Metro networks: Implications in terms of Sustainability and Innovation from an LCA Perspective

In this work, the implications of new technologies, more specifically the new optical FTTH technologies, are studied both from the functional and non-functional perspectives. In particular, some direct impacts are listed in the form of abandoning non-functional technologies, such as micro-registration, which would be implicitly required for having a functioning operation before arrival the new high-bandwidth access technologies. It is shown that such abandonment of non-functional best practices, which are mainly at the management level of ICT, immediately results in additional consumption and environmental footprint, and also there is a chance that some other new innovations might be 'missed.' Therefore, unconstrained deployment of these access technologies is not aligned with a possible sustainable ICT picture, except if they are regulated. An approach to pricing the best practices, including both functional and non-functional technologies, is proposed in order to develop a regulation and policy framework for a sustainable broadband access.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2015

Modified Hausdorff Fractal Dimension (MHFD)

The Hausdorff fractal dimension has been a fast-to-calculate method to estimate complexity of fractal shapes. In this work, a modified version of this fractal dimension is presented in order to make it more robust when applied in estimating complexity of non-fractal images. The modified Hausdorff fractal dimension stands on two features that weaken the requirement of presence of a shape and also reduce the impact of the noise possibly presented in the input image. The new algorithm has been evaluated on a set of images of different character with promising performance.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2015

A Decentralized Approach to Software-Defined Networks (SDNs)

Redistribution of the intelligence and management in the software defined networks (SDNs) is a potential approach to address the bottlenecks of scalability and integrity of these networks. We propose to revisit the routing concept based on the notion of regions. Using basic and consistent definition of regions, a region-based packet routing called SmartRegion Routing is presented. The flexibility of regions in terms of naming and addressing is then leveraged in the form of a region stack among other features placed in the associated packet header. In this way, most of complexity and dynamicity of a network is absorbed, and therefore highly fast and simplified routing at the inter-region level along with semi-autonomous intra-region routing will be feasible. In addition, multipath planning can be naturally realized at both inter and intra levels. A basic form of SmartRegion routing mechanism is provided. Simplicity, scalability, and manageability of the proposed approach would also bring future potentials to reduce energy consumption and environmental footprint associated to the SDNs. Finally, various applications, such as enabling seamless broadband access, providing beyond IP addressing mechanisms, and also address-equivalent naming mechanisms, are considered and discussed.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2015

Dynamic Bandwidth-Efficient BCube Topologies for Virtualized Data Center Networks

Network virtualization enables computing networks and data center (DC) providers to manage their networking resources in a flexible manner using software running on physical computers. In this paper, we address the existing issues with the classic DC network topologies in virtualized environment, and investigate a set of DC network topologies with the capability of providing dynamic structures according to the service-level required by the active traffic in a virtual DC network. In particular, we propose three main approaches to modify the structure of a classic BCube topology as a topology benchmark, and investigate their associated structural features and maximum achievable interconnected bandwidth for different routing scenarios. Finally, we run an extensive simulation program to check the performance of the proposed modified topologies in a simulation environment which considers failure analysis and also traffic congestion. Our simulation experiments, which are consistent to our design goals, show the efficiency of the proposed modified topologies comparing to the classic BCube in terms of bandwidth availability and failure resiliency.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2015

Quality of Experience (QoE) beyond Quality of Service (QoS) as its baseline: QoE at the Interface of Experience Domains

In this work, a new approach to the definition of the quality of experience is presented. By considering the quality of service as a baseline, that portion of the QoE that can be inferred from the QoS is excluded, and then the rest of the QoE is approached with the notion of QoE at a Boundary (QoEaaB). With the QoEaaB as the core of the proposed approach, various potential boundaries, and their associated unseen opportunities to improve the QoE are discussed. In particular, property, contract, SLA, and content are explored in terms of their boundaries and also their associated QoEaaB. With an interest in online video delivery, management of resource sharing and isolation associated with multi-tenant operations is considered. It is concluded that the proposed QoEaaB can bring a new perspective in QoE modeling and assessment toward a more enriched approach to improving the experience based on innovation and deep connectivity among actors.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2015

SmartPacket: Re-Distributing the Routing Intelligence among Network Components in SDNs

In this work, a new region-based, multipath-enabled packet routing is presented and called SmartPacket Routing. The proposed approach provides several opportunities to re-distribute the smartness and decision making among various elements of a network including the packets themselves toward providing a decentralized solution for SDNs. This would bring efficiency and scalability, and therefore also lower environmental footprint for the ever-growing networks. In particular, a region-based representation of the network topology is proposed which is then used to describe the routing actions along the possible paths for a packet flow. In addition to a region stack that expresses a partial or full regional path of a packet, QoS requirements of the packet (or its associated flow) is considered in the packet header in order to enable possible QoS-aware routing at region level without requiring a centralized controller.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2014

A Graph-based Perspective to Total Carbon Footprint Assessment of Non-marginal Technology-driven Projects - Use case of OTT/IPTV

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of green and sustainable projects has been found to be a necessary analysis in order to include all upstream, downstream, and indirect impacts. Because of the complexity of interactions, the differential impacts with respect to a baseline, i.e., a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, are commonly considered to relatively compare various projects. However, as the degree of penetration of a project in the baseline increases, the popular marginal assumption does no longer hold, and the differential impacts may become inconsistent. Although various mythologies have been successfully proposed and used to contain such a side effect, the bottom-up nature, which initiates the assessment from the project itself and ultimately widens the scope, could easily fail to acknowledge critical modifications to the baseline. This is highly relevant in terms of ICT's disruptive and dynamic technologies which push the baseline to become a marginal legacy. In this work, an analytic formalism is presented to provide a means of comparison of such technologies and projects. The core idea behind the proposed methodology is a magnitude-insensitive graph-based distance function to differentially compare a project with a baseline. The applicability of the proposed methodology is then evaluated in a use case of OTT/IPTV online media distribution services.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2014

Challenges and complexities in application of LCA approaches in the case of ICT for a sustainable future

In this work, three of many ICT-specific challenges of LCA are discussed. First, the inconsistency versus uncertainty is reviewed with regard to the meta-technological nature of ICT. As an example, the semiconductor technologies are used to highlight the complexities especially with respect to energy and water consumption. The need for specific representations and metric to separately assess products and technologies is discussed. It is highlighted that applying product-oriented approaches would result in abandoning or disfavoring of new technologies that could otherwise help toward a better world. Second, several believed-untouchable hot spots are highlighted to emphasize on their importance and footprint. The list includes, but not limited to, i) User Computer-Interfaces (UCIs), especially screens and displays, ii) Network-Computer Interlaces (NCIs), such as electronic and optical ports, and iii) electricity power interfaces. In addition, considering cross-regional social and economic impacts, and also taking into account the marketing nature of the need for many ICT's product and services in both forms of hardware and software, the complexity of End of Life (EoL) stage of ICT products, technologies, and services is explored. Finally, the impact of smart management and intelligence, and in general software, in ICT solutions and products is highlighted. In particular, it is observed that, even using the same technology, the significance of software could be highly variable depending on the level of intelligence and awareness deployed. With examples from an interconnected network of data centers managed using Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) technology and smart cooling systems, it is shown that the unadjusted assessments could be highly uncertain, and even inconsistent, in calculating the management component's significance on the ICT impacts.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2014

A Multi-Entity Input Output (MEIO) Approach to Sustainability - Water-Energy-GHG (WEG) Footprint Statements in Use Cases from Auto and Telco Industries

A new Input-Output model, called the Multi-Entity Input-Output (MEIO) model, is introduced to estimate the responsibility of entities of an ecosystem on the footprint of each other. It assumed that the ecosystem is comprised of end users, service providers, and utilities. The proposed MEIO modeling approach can be seen as a realization of the Everybody-in-the-Loop (EitL) framework, which promotes a sustainable future using behaviors and actions that are aware of their ubiquitous eco-socio-environment impacts. In this vision, the behavioral changes could be initiated by providing all actors with their footprint statement, which would be estimated using the MEIO models. First, a naive MEIO model is proposed in the form of a graph of actions and responsibility by considering interactions and goods transfers among the entities and actors along four channels. Then, the unnormalized responsibility and also the final responsibility among the actors are introduced, and then are used to re-allocate immediate footprint of actors among themselves. The footprint in the current model is limited to three major impacts: Water, Energy, and GHG emissions. The naive model is then generalized to Provider-perspective (P-perspective) and End User-perspective (E-perspective) MEIO models in order to make it more suitable to cases where a large number of end users are served by a provider. The E-perspective modeling approach particularly allows estimating the footprint associated to a specific end user. In two use cases from the auto and Telco industries, it has been observed that the proposed MEIO models are practical and dependable in allocating footprint to the provider and also to the end user, while i) avoiding footprint leakage to the end users and ii) handling the large numbers end users. In addition, it will be shown that the MEIO models could be sued to integrate Scope-3 and LCA approaches.

q-fin.GN↗

arXiv2014

Spiralet Sparse Representation

This is the first report on Working Paper WP-RFM-14-01. The potential and capability of sparse representations is well-known. However, their (multivariate variable) vectorial form, which is completely fine in many fields and disciplines, results in removal and filtering of important "spatial" relations that are implicitly carried by two-dimensional [or multi-dimensional] objects, such as images. In this paper, a new approach, called spiralet sparse representation, is proposed in order to develop an augmented representation and therefore a modified sparse representation and theory, which is capable to preserve the data associated to the spatial relations.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2014

IIGHGINT: A generalization to the modified GHG intensity universal indicator toward a production/consumption insensitive border carbon tax

A global agreement on how to reduce and cap human footprint, especially their GHG emissions, is very unlikely in near future. At the same time, bilateral agreements would be inefficient because of their neural and balanced nature. Therefore, unilateral actions would have attracted attention as a practical option. However, any unilateral action would most likely fail if it is not fair and also if it is not consistent with the world trade organization's (WTO's) rules, considering highly heterogeneity of the global economy. The modified GHG intensity (MGHGINT) indicator, hereafter called Inequality-adjusted Production-based GHGINT (IPGHGINT), was put forward to address this need in the form of a universal indicator applicable to every region regardless of its economic and social status. Nonetheless, the original MGHGINT indicator ignores hidden consumption-related emissions, and therefore it could be unfair to some production-oriented regions in the current bipolar production/consumption world. Here, we propose two generalizations, called Inequality-adjusted Consumption-based GHGINT (ICGHGINT) and Inequality-adjusted Production/Consumption-Insensitive GHGINT (IIGHGINT), to the IPGHGINT in order to combine both production and consumption emissions in a unified and balanced manner. The impact of this generalizations on the associated border carbon tax rates is evaluated in order to validate their practicality.

q-fin.GN↗

arXiv2013

Computer Simulation of 3-D Finite-Volume Liquid Transport in Fibrous Materials: a Physical Model for Ink Seepage into Paper

A physical model for the simulation ink/paper interaction at the mesoscopic scale is developed. It is based on the modified Ising model, and is generalized to consider the restriction of the finite-volume of ink and also its dynamic seepage. This allows the model to obtain the ink distribution within the paper volume. At the mesoscopic scale, the paper is modeled using a discretized fiber structure. The ink distribution is obtained by solving its equivalent optimization problem, which is solved using a modified genetic algorithm, along with a new boundary condition and the quasi-linear technique. The model is able to simulate the finite-volume distribution of ink.

cs.CE↗