In this paper, we propose a mobility-adaptive digital twin (MADT) framework for network traffic prediction in a post-disaster scenario where some affected terrestrial base stations (BSs) are malfunctional, causing unavailable user traffic data under their coverage areas. The MADT framework consists of three core modules: 1) DT data construction, 2) DT modeling for traffic prediction, and 3) DT model calibration. For the data construction, we generate a distribution of user volumes over a considered region, where a clustered modular mobility model (clustered-Mo3) is tailored to characterize the post-disaster user movements and a spatial-temporal-aware-k-nearest-neighbors (STAK)-based data imputation technique is applied to supplement the missing user traffic data under malfunctional BSs. For traffic prediction, a spatial-temporal graph convolutional network (STGCN) is utilized to establish the DT model under a sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) forecasting architecture. To improve the traffic prediction accuracy, we further develop a residual calibration (ResCAL) model to estimate and calibrate the traffic prediction errors. The MADT framework establishes a complete DT lifecycle, where the DT model performance is continuously monitored and fed back to trigger the model update if the network traffic pattern changes. Experimental results show that the MADT framework outperforms state-of-the-art spatiotemporal prediction schemes in terms of prediction accuracy and adaptation to user mobility, achieving performance comparable to that of the complete-data-trained STGCN (CD-STGCN).

Many real-time systems must control their CPU utilizations in order to meet end-to-end deadlines and prevent overload. Utilization control is particularly challenging in distributed real-time systems with highly unpredictable workloads and a large number of end-to-end tasks and processors. This paper presents the Decentralized End-to-end Utilization CONtrol (DEUCON) algorithm, which can dynamically enforce the desired utilizations on multiple processors in such systems. In contrast to centralized control schemes adopted in earlier works, DEUCON features a novel decentralized control structure that requires only localized coordination among neighbor processors. DEUCON is systematically designed based on recent advances in distributed model predictive control theory. Both control-theoretic analysis and simulations show that DEUCON can provide robust utilization guarantees and maintain global system stability despite severe variations in task execution times. Furthermore, DEUCON can effectively distribute the computation and communication cost to different processors and tolerate considerable communication delay between local controllers. Our results indicate that DEUCON can provide a scalable and robust utilization control for large-scale distributed real-time systems executing in unpredictable environments.

Many real-time systems must control their CPU utilizations in order to meet end-to-end deadlines and prevent overload. Utilization control is particularly challenging in distributed real-time systems with highly unpredictable workloads and a large number of end-to-end tasks and processors. This paper presents the decentralized end-to-end utilization control (DEUCON) algorithm that can dynamically enforce desired utilizations on multiple processors in such systems. In contrast to centralized control schemes adopted in earlier work, DEUCON features a novel decentralized control structure that only requires localized coordination among neighbor processors. DEUCON is systematically designed based on recent advances in distributed model predictive control theory. Both control-theoretic analysis and simulations show that DEUCON can provide robust utilization guarantees and maintain global system stability despite severe variations in task execution times. Furthermore, DEUCON can effectively distribute the computation and communication cost to different processors and tolerate considerable communication delay between local controllers. Our results indicate that DEUCON can provide scalable and robust utilization control for large-scale distributed real-time systems executing in unpredictable environments.

A wide variety of sensors have been incorporated into a spectrum of wireless sensor network (WSN) platforms, providing flexible sensing capability over a large number of low-power and inexpensive nodes. Traditional signal processing algorithms, however, often prove too complex for energy-and-cost-effective WSN nodes. This study explores how to design efficient sensing and classification algorithms that achieve reliable sensing performance on energy-and-cost effective hardware without special powerful nodes in a continuously changing physical environment. We present the detection and classification system in a cutting-edge surveillance sensor network, which classifies vehicles, persons, and persons carrying ferrous objects, and tracks these targets with a maximum error in velocity of 15%. Considering the demanding requirements and strict resource constraints, we design a hierarchical classification architecture that naturally distributes sensing and computation tasks at different levels of the system. Such a distribution allows multiple sensors to collaborate on a sensor node, and the detection and classification results to be continuously refined at different levels of the WSN. This design enables reliable detection and classification without involving high-complexity computation, reduces network traffic, and emphasizes resilience and adaptation to the realistic environment. We evaluate the system with performance data collected from outdoor experiments and field assessments. Based on the experience acquired and lessons learned when developing this system, we abstract common issues and introduce several guidelines which can direct future development of detection and classification solutions based on WSNs.

A continuing problem with inductive logic programming (ILP) has been the poor handling of numbers. Constraint inductive logic programming (CILP) aims to solve this problem with ILP. We propose a new approach to generating numerical constraints in CILP, and describe an implementation of the CILP system (namely, BPU-CILP). In our approach, methods from pattern recognition and multivariate data analysis, such as Fisher's linear discriminant, dynamic clustering and principal component analysis, are introduced into CILP. The BPU-CILP can generate various forms of polynomial constraints of multiple dimensions, without additional background knowledge. As a result, the constraint logic program covering all positive examples and consistent with all negative examples can be derived automatically.