Today we are witnessing an exponential growth of information accumulated within universities, corporations, and government organizations. Autonomous repositories that store different types of digital data in multiple formats are becoming available for use on the fast-evolving global information systems infrastructure. More concretely, with the World Wide Web and related internetworking technologies, there has been an explosion in the types, availability, and volume of data accessible to a global information system. However, this information overload makes it nearly impossible for users to be aware of the locations, organization or structures, query languages, and semantics of the information in various repositories. Available browsing and navigation tools assist users in locating information resources on the Internet. However, there is a real need to complement current browsing and keyword-based techniques with concept-based approaches. An important next step should be to support queries that do not contain information describing location or manipulation of relevant resources.Ontology-Based Query Processing for Global Information Systems describes an initiative for enhancing query processing in a global information system. The following are some of the relevant features: * Providing semantic descriptions of data repositories using ontologies; * Dealing with different vocabularies so that users are not forced to use a common one; * Defining a strategy that permits the incremental enrichment of answers by visiting new ontologies; * Managing imprecise answers and estimations of the incurred loss of information. In summary, technologies such as information brokerage, domain ontologies, and estimation of imprecision in answers based on vocabulary heterogeneity have been synthesized with Internet computing, representing an advance in developing semantics-based information access on the Web. Theoretical results are complemented by the presentation of a prototype that implements the main ideas presented in this book. Ontology-Based Query Processing for Global Information Systems is suitable as a secondary text for a graduate-level course, and as a reference for researchers and practitioners in industry.

Multimedia Database Management Systems presents the issues and the techniques used in building multimedia database management systems. Chapter 1 provides an overview of multimedia databases and underlines the new requirements for these applications. Chapter 2 discusses the techniques used for storing and retrieving multimedia objects. Chapter 3 presents the techniques used for generating metadata for various media objects. Chapter 4 examines the mechanisms used for storing the index information needed for accessing different media objects. Chapter 5 analyzes the approaches for modeling media objects, both their temporal and spatial characteristics. Object-oriented approach, with some additional features, has been widely used to model multimedia information. The book discusses two systems that use object-oriented models: OVID (Object Video Information Database) and Jasmine. The models for representing temporal and spatial requirements of media objects are then studied. The book also describes authoring techniques used for specifying temporal and spatial characteristics of multimedia databases. Chapter 6 explains different types of multimedia queries, the methodologies for processing them and the language features for describing them. The features offered by query languages such as SQL/MM (Structured Query Language for Multimedia), PICQUERY+, and Video SQL are also studied. Chapter 7 deals with the communication requirements for multimedia databases. A client accessing multimedia data over computer networks needs to identify a schedule for retrieving various media objects composing the database. The book identifies possible ways for generating a retrieval schedule. Chapter 8 ties together the techniques discussed in the previous chapters by providing a simple architecture of a distributed multimedia database management system. Multimedia Database Management Systems can be used as a text for graduate students and researchers working in the area of multimedia databases. In addition, the book serves as essential reading material for computer professionals who are in (or moving to) the area of multimedia databases.

Intelligent Broadband Multimedia Networks is a non-mathematical, but highly systems oriented, coverage of modern intelligent information networks. This volume focuses on the convergence of computers and communications technologies. Most of the concepts that are generic to all intelligent networks, and their microscopic and macroscopic functions, are presented. This book includes specific architectures that can be used by network designers and planners, telecommunications managers, computer scientists, and telecommunications professionals. The breadth of this coverage and the systems orientation of this work make the text suitable for use in advanced level courses on intelligent communications networks. The material in this volume ranges from defining intelligent networks to more specific coverage of educational, medical, and knowledge-based networks. Each of the 20 chapters address issues that can help make the transition from computer design, to the underlying concepts of modern telecommunications systems, to considerations necessary for the implementation of intelligent network services. Special and timely coverage of emerging technologies, such as HDSL, ADSL, BISDN, wireless, broadband access, ATM, and other topics, are given expanded treatment. The authors have included design methodologies for installing intelligence into almost any communications systems, and procedures for using such intelligence according to the type of function expected from these networks. Unique features of the book are: a 64-page glossary of key terms (with expanded explanations) used in the field, a 23-page index that makes it easy to search for important information, running headers on each page to help the busy professional use the book as a reference/design tool, complete references including additional reading for more detailed information, and accurate and concise information to help telecommunications professionals understand the intricacies of the field.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 6th International ICST Conference on Mobile Multimedia Communications (MOBIMEDIA 2010) held in Lisbon, Portugal, in September 2010, which was accompanied by the First International Workshop on Cognitive Radio and Cooperative Strategies for POWER Saving (C2POWER 2010), the Workshop on Impact of Scalable Video Coding on Multimedia Provisioning (SVCVision 2010), and the First International Workshop on Energy-efficient and Reconfigurable Transceivers (EERT 2010). The 59 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions and are organized in topical sections on advanced techniques for video transmission; multimedia distribution; modelling of wireless systems; cellular networks; mobility concepts for IMT-advances (MOBILIA); media independent handovers (MIH-4-MEDIA); and IP-based emergency applications and services for next generation networks (PEACE).

The purpose of this book is to make the reader famliar with software engineering for distributed systems. Software engineering is a valuable discipline in the develop ment of software. The reader has surely heard of software systems completed months or years later than scheduled with huge cost overruns, systems which on completion did not provide the performance promised, and systems so catastrophic that they had to be abandoned without ever doing any useful work. Software engi neering is the discipline of creating and maintaining software; when used in con junction with more general methods for effective management its use does reduce the incidence of horrors mentioned above. The book gives a good impression of software engineering particularly for dis tributed systems. It emphasises the relationship between software life cycles, meth ods, tools and project management, and how these constitute the framework of an open software engineering environment, especially in the development of distrib uted software systems. There is no closed software engineering environment which can encompass the full range of software missions, just as no single flight plan, airplane or pilot can perform all aviation missions. There are some common activities in software engi neering which must be addressed independent of the applied life cycle or methodol ogy. Different life cycles, methods, related tools and project management ap proaches should fit in such a software engineering framework."

With the increasing market penetration of cellular telephones, the number of E-911 calls placed by cellular telephones has grown cons- erably. This growth in E-911 calls led to a 1996 FCC ruling requiring that all cellular, PCS, and SMR licensees provide location information for the support of E-911 safety services. The provision of such location information is to be implemented in two phases. Phase I, whose deadline has already been passed, requires that wireless carriers relay the caller's telephone number along with location of the cell site and/or sector se- ing the call, to a designated Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). This information allows the PSAP to return the call if disconnected. Phase II, to be completed by October 1, 2001, is much more stringent and requires that the location of an E-911 caller be determined and reported with an rms location accuracy of 125 m in 67% of the cases. The applications of wireless location technology extend well beyond E-911 services. Location information can be used by cellular telephone operators themselves for more effective management of their radio - sources, so as to achieve greater spectral efficiencies. Resource m- agement algorithms such as hand-offs between cell sites, channel assi- ments, and others can all benefit from subscriber location information. Location information obtained from vehicular based cellular telephones can be used as an input to Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), and in particular traffic management and traveler information systems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Web-Age Information Management, WAIM 2012, held in Harbin, China in August 2012. The 32 revised full papers presented together with 10 short papers and three keynotes were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 178 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on wireless sensor networks; data warehousing and data mining; query processing; spatial databases; similarity search and queries; XML and Web data; graph and uncertain data; distributed computing; data security and management; information extraction and integration; and social networks and modern Web services.

Control networks span a wide range of application areas. These networks are put into action in the `Digital Home', industrial applications, commercial buildings, transportation systems, gas stations, security systems, and they are found in most instances where smart sensors and smart actuators are used to exchange information. The authors of this volume provide an overview of various control network protocols and discuss LonTalk (R) protocol, Neuron (R) chip, programming model, network structures, network management, interoperability between nodes, application profiles, development and maintenance tools, performance analysis, and standardization activities. Open Control Networks: LonWorks/EIA 709 Technology will be an important resource for advanced students of control systems and embedded systems, engineers designing distributed networks, systems designers and architects, and others developing smart buildings and intelligent transportation systems.

Optical networks, employing Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM) and wavelength routing, are believed to be the answer for the explosion in IP traffic and the emergence of real-time multimedia applications. These networks offer quantum leaps in transmission capacity as well as eliminate the electronic bottleneck in existing metropolitan and backbone networks. During the last decade, we witnessed a tremendous growth in the theoretical and experimental studies focusing on the cost-effective deployment of wavelength routed networks. The majority of these studies, however, assumed ideal behavior of optical devices. In this book, we argue that for the successful deployment of optical networks, design algorithms and network protocols must be extended to accommodate the non-ideal behavior of optical devices. These extensions should not only focus on maintaining acceptable signal quality (e.g., 12 maintaining BER above 10- ), but should also motivate the development of optimization algorithms and signaling protocols which take transmission impairments into consideration. In addition, the design of enabling technologies, such as optical cross-connects, should be transmission-efficient. This book is a comprehensive treatment of the impact of transmission impairments on the design and management of wavelength-routed networks. We start with transparent networks, focusing on power implications such as cross-connect design, device allocation problems, and management issues. In this all-optical model, we propose a design space based on reduction in overall cost and ease of network management. This design concept, motivates various switch architectures and different optimization problems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Multiple Access Communications, MACOM 2012, held in Maynooth, Ireland, in November 2012. The 13 full papers and 5 demo and poster papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on network coding, handling interference and localization techniques at PHY/MAC layers, wireless access networks, and medium access control.

Photo-Excited Processes, Diagnostics and Applications covers the area of photo-excitation and processing of materials by photons from the basic principles and theories to applications, from IR to x-rays, from gas phase to liquid and solid phases. The various chapters give a wide spectral view of this developing field.

Twelve leading groups worldwide set down to write this book during the past two years which include the most updated techniques used in their laboratories for investigating photo-excited processes and new applications. This book will be useful to scientists and engineers who have a strong interest in photo-assisted processes development for microelectronics and photonics.

Although research in collaborative learning has a fairly long history, dating back at least to the early work of Piaget and Vygotsky, it is only recently that workers have begun to apply some of its findings to the design of computer based learning systems. The early generation of the le systems focused on their potential for supporting individual learning: learning could be self paced; teaching could be adapted to individual learners' needs. This was certainly the promise of the later generation of intelligent tutoring systems. However, this promise has yet to be realised. Not only are there still some very difficult research problems to solve in providing adaptive learning systems, but there are also some very real practical constraints on the widespread take up of individualised computer based instruction. Reseachers soon began to realise that the organisational, cultural and social contexts of the classroom have to be taken into account in designing systems to promote effective learning. Much of the work that goes on in classrooms is collaborative, whether by design or not. Teachers also need to be able to adapt the technology to their varying needs. Developments in technology, such as networking, have also contributed to changes in the way in which computers may be envisaged to support learning. In September 1989, a group of researchers met in Maratea, Italy, for a NATO-sponsored workshop on "Computer supported collaborative . learning." A total of 20 researchers from Europe (Belgium."

The desire and the necessity for accessing and processing information stored in computer networks anytime and anywhere' has been the impetus for the growing interest in mobile computing research. Wired computing networks and end devices such as PCs and workstations have effectively extended the data-only networking capability of a few years ago to sophisticated multimedia networking. The cost of such transformation to the end user turns out to be very nominal. Undoubtedly the wireless access technology has given a big boost to mobile cellular telephony and data networking. Processing general purpose multimedia information requires, besides higher bandwidth, means for controlling the available bandwidth and caring for quality of service issues. This problem is accentuated by the need for providing such service in the presence of wireless physical layer and host mobility. Thus, tetherless and ubiquitous mobile and wireless computing systems should carefully combine advances in computer networking and wireless communication. While several experimental mobile computing platforms have sprung up, much research is needed to overcome technological obstacles in low power system design, sustainable battery life, unreliability and limited bandwidth of the wireless channel. Mobile Computing addresses some aspects of this new but rapidly growing field of research. A total of eight papers span the areas of protocols, network architecture, and performance issues. All of the papers deal with the complexities of host mobility in a wireless setting. They expose several challenges that affect system design of mobile computing networks at various levels. By addressing these challenges in an efficient and cost-effective manner, it is hoped that user-friendly, seamless and faster networks will emerge to serve the sophisticated and demanding applications of mobile users. Mobile Computing serves as an excellent reference, providing insights into some of the most important issues in mobile and wireless computing.

Co-editors of the volume are:

Federico "Alvarez," Alessandro "Bassi," Michele "Bezzi," Laurent "Ciavaglia," Frances "Cleary," Petros "Daras," Hermann "De Meer," Panagiotis "Demestichas," John "Domingue," Theo G. "Kanter," Stamatis "Karnouskos," Srdjan "Kr"" ""o," Laurent "Lefevre," Jasper "Lentjes," Man-Sze "Li," Paul "Malone," Antonio "Manzalini," Volkmar "Lotz," Henning "Muller," Karsten "Oberle," Noel E. "O'Connor," Nick "Papanikolaou," Dana "Petcu," Rahim "Rahmani," Danny" Raz," Gael "Richards," Elio "Salvadori," Susana "Sargento," Hans "Schaffers," Joan" Serrat," Burkhard "Stiller," Antonio F. "Skarmeta," Kurt "Tutschku," Theodore "Zahariadis"

The Internet is the most vital scientific, technical, economic and societal set of infrastructures in existence and in operation today serving 2.5 billion users. Continuing its developments would secure much of the upcoming innovation and prosperity and it would underpin the sustainable growth in economic values and volumes needed in the future. Future Internet infrastructures research is therefore a must.

The Future Internet Assembly (FIA) is a successful conference that brings together participants of over 150 research projects from several distinct yet interrelated areas in the European Union Framework Programme 7 (FP7). The research projects are grouped as follows: the network of the future as infrastructure connecting and orchestrating the future Internet of people, computers, devices, content, clouds and things; cloud computing, Internet of Services and advanced software engineering; the public-private partnership projects on Future Internet; Future Internet Research and Experimentation (FIRE).

The 26 full papers included in this volume were selected from 45 submissions. They are organized in topical sections named: software driven networks, virtualization, programmability and autonomic management; computing and networking clouds; internet of things; and enabling technologies and economic incentives."

Driven by the increasing demand for capacity and Quality of Service in wireless cellular networks and motivated by the distributed antenna system, the authors proposed a cooperative communication architecture-Group Cell architecture, which was initially brought forward in 2001. Years later, Coordinated Multiple-Point Transmission and Reception (CoMP) for LTE-Advanced was put forward in April 2008, as a tool to improve the coverage of cells having high data rates, the cell-edge throughput and/or to increase system throughput. This book mainly focuses on the Group Cell architecture with multi-cell generalized coordination, Contrast Analysis between Group Cell architecture and CoMP, Capacity Analysis, Slide Handover Strategy, Power Allocation schemes of Group Cell architecture to mitigate the inter-cell interference and maximize system capacity and the trial network implementation and performance evaluations of Group Cell architecture.

There are many exciting trends and developments in the communications industry, several of which are related to advances in fast packet switching, multi media services, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and high-speed protocols. It seems fair to say that the face of networking has been rapidly changing and the distinction between LANs, MANs, and WANs is becoming more and more blurred. It is commonly believed in the industry that ATM represents the next generation in networking. The adoption of ATM standards by the research and development community as a unifying technology for communications that scales from local to wide area has been met with great enthusiasm from the business community and end users. Reflecting these trends, the technical program of the First International Conference on LAN Interconnection consists of papers addressing a wide range of technical challenges and state of the art reviews. We are fortunate to have assembled a strong program committee, expert speakers, and panelists. We would like to thank Professor Schwartz for his keynote speech. We would like to thank Professor Yannis Viniotis and his students for the preparation of the index. We gratefully acknowledge the generous financial support of Dr. Jon Fjeld, Mr. Rick McGee, and Mr. David Witt, all of IBM-Research Triangle Park. We also would like to thank Ms. Mary Safford, our editor, and Mr. John Matzka, both at Plenum Press, for the publication of the proceedings.

Reactive systems are computing systems which are interactive, such as real-time systems, operating systems, concurrent systems, control systems, etc. They are among the most difficult computing systems to program. Temporal logic is a formal tool/language which yields excellent results in specifying reactive systems. This volume, the first of two, subtitled Specification, has a self-contained introduction to temporal logic and, more important, an introduction to the computational model for reactive programs, developed by Zohar Manna and Amir Pnueli of Stanford University and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, respectively.

The growth of telecommunications has been largely based on mobile and data services in the past 10 years and this growth will continue. For instance, it is forecasted that after 2005 the mobile traffic turnover in Europe will exceed that of fixed telephone traffic, and the penetration of Internet access through mobile will exceed that of fixed access. It is expected that new value-added services will be Internet-based and that IP traffic will outweigh the amount of traditional ISDN based telephone traffic. The transition from existing telecommunications services to mobile and Internet-based services will change the service infrastructure as well as the customer and service management structures. This volume comprises the proceedings of the Working Conference on Personal Wireless Communications (PWC'2001), which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and organized by IFIP Working Group 6.8. It was held in Lappeenranta, Finland in August 2001. The PWC'2001 conference is a forum for tutorials, discussions and presentations of new developments in mobile and wireless research.The contributions to this volume have been divided into six categories that vary from voice over IP implementations to quality of service issues; from service aspects to performance and modelling issues; from modern cellular networks to future wireless systems. This volume will be essential reading for IT students and researchers as well as for theoreticians interested in the current state of the telecommunication systems.

Performance Evaluation, Prediction and Visualization in Parallel Systems presents a comprehensive and systematic discussion of theoretics, methods, techniques and tools for performance evaluation, prediction and visualization of parallel systems. Chapter 1 gives a short overview of performance degradation of parallel systems, and presents a general discussion on the importance of performance evaluation, prediction and visualization of parallel systems. Chapter 2 analyzes and defines several kinds of serial and parallel runtime, points out some of the weaknesses of parallel speedup metrics, and discusses how to improve and generalize them. Chapter 3 describes formal definitions of scalability, addresses the basic metrics affecting the scalability of parallel systems, discusses scalability of parallel systems from three aspects: parallel architecture, parallel algorithm and parallel algorithm-architecture combinations, and analyzes the relations of scalability and speedup. Chapter 4 discusses the methodology of performance measurement, describes the benchmark- oriented performance test and analysis and how to measure speedup and scalability in practice. Chapter 5 analyzes the difficulties in performance prediction, discusses application-oriented and architecture-oriented performance prediction and how to predict speedup and scalability in practice. Chapter 6 discusses performance visualization techniques and tools for parallel systems from three stages: performance data collection, performance data filtering and performance data visualization, and classifies the existing performance visualization tools. Chapter 7 describes parallel compiling-based, search-based and knowledge-based performance debugging, which assists programmers to optimize the strategy or algorithm in their parallel programs, and presents visual programming-based performance debugging to help programmers identify the location and cause of the performance problem. It also provides concrete suggestions on how to modify their parallel program to improve the performance. Chapter 8 gives an overview of current interconnection networks for parallel systems, analyzes the scalability of interconnection networks, and discusses how to measure and improve network performances. Performance Evaluation, Prediction and Visualization in Parallel Systems serves as an excellent reference for researchers, and may be used as a text for advanced courses on the topic.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) has become one of the main candidates for the next generation of mobile land and satellite communication systems. CDMA is based on spread spectrum techniques, which have been used in military applications for over half a century. Only recently, however, has it been recognised that spread spectrum techniques, combined with some additional steps, can provide higher capacity and better flexibility for the mobile cellular radio communications. Code Division Multiple Access Communications comprises a set of contributions from the most distinguished world scientists in the field. These papers review the basic theory and some of the most important problems related to spread spectrum and CDMA. The topics covered centre on the information theory aspects of CDMA; interference suppression and performance analysis. The material presented in this book summarises the main problems in modern CDMA theory and practice and gives a solid starting point for studying this complex and still challenging field. As such Code Division Multiple Access Communications is essential reading for all researchers and designers working in mobile communication systems and provides an excellent text for a course on the subject.

Dependable Network Computing provides insights into various problems facing millions of global users resulting from the 'internet revolution'. It covers real-time problems involving software, servers, and large-scale storage systems with adaptive fault-tolerant routing and dynamic reconfiguration techniques. Also included is material on routing protocols, QoS, and dead- and live-lock free related issues. All chapters are written by leading specialists in their respective fields. Dependable Network Computing provides useful information for scientists, researchers, and application developers building networks based on commercially off-the-shelf components.

The subject of this book is Command Control Communication and Information 3 (C I) which is the management infrastructure for any large or complex dynamic resource systems. Here command means the determination of what to do, and control means the ongoing managementofthe execution ofa command. 3 Decision making is the essence of C I which is accomplished through a phased implementation of a set of facilities, communications, personnel, equipment and procedures for monitoring, forecasting, planning, directing, allocating resources, and generating options to achieve specific and general objectives. 3 The C I system that is in question here is for a strategic military command including its subordinate commands. Although the design methodology that will be expounded in the book is for a military system, it can, to a large extent, apply also to tactical military as well as to civilian management information systems (MIS). 3 A C I system is a decision making network that reflects a hierarchical organization 3 of C I nodes. Each node is responsible for the management of some portion ofthe available resources, where the higher level nodes are responsible for a 3 correspondingly greater portion of the resources. Within a C I system both command and control decision making occur at every level of the hierarchy. Command decisions at one level determine how to satisfy the management decisions at a higher level.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Membrane Computing, CMC 2011, held in Fontainebleau, France, in August 2011. The 19 revised selected papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 27 papers and 5 posters presented at the conference. The book also contains full papers or extended abstracts of the 5 invited presentations. The papers address all the main directions of research in membrane computing, ranging from theoretical topics in the mathematics and computer science to application issues.

The purpose of this book is to provide tools for a better understanding of the fundamental tradeo's and interdependencies in wireless networks, with the goal of designing resource allocation strategies that exploit these int- dependencies to achieve signi?cant performance gains. Two facts prompted us to write it: First, future wireless applications will require a fundamental understanding of the design principles and control mechanisms in wireless networks. Second, the complexity of the network problems simply precludes the use of engineering common sense alone to identify good solutions, and so mathematics becomes the key avenue to cope with central technical problems in the design of wireless networks. In this book, two ?elds of mathematics play a central role: Perron-Frobenius theory for non-negative matrices and optimization theory. This book is a revised and expanded version of the research monograph "Resource Allocation in Wireless Networks" that was published as Lecture Notes in Computer Sciences (LNCS 4000) in 2006. Although the general structure has remained unchanged to a large extent, the book contains - merous additional results and more detailed discussion. For instance, there is a more extensive treatment of general nonnegative matrices and interf- ence functions that are described by an axiomatic model. Additional material on max-min fairness, proportional fairness, utility-based power control with QoS (quality of service) support and stochastic power control has been added.

The four-volume set LNCS 7333-7336 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, ICCSA 2012, held in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, in June 2012. The four volumes contain papers presented in the following workshops: 7333 - advances in high performance algorithms and applications (AHPAA); bioinspired computing and applications (BIOCA); computational geometry and applicatons (CGA); chemistry and materials sciences and technologies (CMST); cities, technologies and planning (CTP); 7334 - econometrics and multidimensional evaluation in the urban environment (EMEUE); geographical analysis, urban modeling, spatial statistics (Geo-An-Mod); 7335 - optimization techniques and applications (OTA); mobile communications (MC); mobile-computing, sensind and actuation for cyber physical systems (MSA4CPS); remote sensing (RS); 7336 - software engineering processes and applications (SEPA); software quality (SQ); security and privacy in computational sciences (SPCS); soft computing and data engineering (SCDE). The topics of the fully refereed papers are structured according to the four major conference themes: 7333 - computational methods, algorithms and scientific application; 7334 - geometric modelling, graphics and visualization; 7335 - information systems and technologies; 7336 - high performance computing and networks.