CIF: Small: Collaborative Research: From Pliable to Content-Type Coding

CIF：小型：协作研究：从柔性编码到内容类型编码

• 批准号: 1527550
• 负责人: Christina Fragouli
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1527550&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CIF; Small; Collaborative; Research; Pliable

Coding has traditionally aimed to securely and efficiently convey specific information messages, for example speech in a phone call, to one or more receivers. Today?s communication networks, however, increasingly deliver content rather than a specific message. Popular networks that serve content-type traffic include advertising networks, news aggregators, and social media. This proposal formulates a novel theoretical framework aiming to determine the fundamental performance limits and design principles for content-type networks. This new research direction promotes the progress of science and has the potential to transform the way content-type traffic is encoded and transmitted in networks. As a result, this research is expected to benefit society at large by laying the foundation for a more efficient design of network services, and to be of immediate and far-reaching use for both private and public sectors. This proposal integrates discovery research and education: it develops a rich learning experience for students through an integrated inter-university program and curricular development. The investigators will keep serving as a role model for minority students, especially young women, by active engagement at their institutions and within their peer societies.The research work in this proposal is fundamentally motivated by current trends in the Internet traffic: today society increasingly relies on content-type services for educational, professional and social purposes. This proposal explores coding specifically targeted to content-type communication; it can therefore form a solid theoretical foundation for the design and optimization of future network services. This proposal formulates new research directions not explored before by addressing the following main technical objectives: (1) Develop an information theoretical framework by proposing a novel model for classical message-specific index coding and extending it to content-type pliable index coding, deriving inner and outer bounds, and efficient numerical algorithms for their evaluation. (2) Derive fundamental bounds and practical coding strategies for content-type coding, where clients are interested in multiple, as opposed to a single content, identify order approximations and study extensions to noisy network versions of the problem. (3) Develop oblivious strategies for servers with limited knowledge about the clients' side-information (for instance, the server knows the number of downloads of the clients but not necessarily which ones); quantify the amount and quality of the side-information necessary for optimal performance. (4) Investigate the case where all content is not "equal" (for instance, because of personalized recommendations based on the client's past behavior); connect with recommendation systems, and understand how preferences affect the content-type algorithms and bounds.For each technical objective, the investigators will develop tools from information theory, network coding, and algorithms to address the novel questions posed in this research. The new framework is expected to significantly advance the state-of-the-art and fundamental understanding of content-type coding from both a theoretical (information theory) and a more practical (code and algorithm design) perspective. The results of this research will be timely presented at major national and international professional venues in the information theory, network coding, and networking communities. The proposal has also a strong educational and outreach component. In order to reach the general public the investigators will leverage the departmental media tools to demonstrate the developed technology and its practical impact. Students will receive a solid foundation in communications, coding and networking thus acquiring the fundamental skills to be successful in the competitive, diverse, and global workforce market. It is the investigators? goal to serve as a role model for minority students, especially women.

编码传统上旨在安全有效地向一个或多个接收者传送特定的信息消息，例如电话中的语音。然而，当今的通信网络越来越多地传递内容而不是特定消息。提供内容类型流量的流行网络包括广告网络、新闻聚合商和社交媒体。该提案制定了一个新颖的理论框架，旨在确定内容类型网络的基本性能限制和设计原则。这一新的研究方向促进了科学的进步，并有可能改变内容类型流量在网络中编码和传输的方式。因此，这项研究有望为更有效的网络服务设计奠定基础，造福整个社会，并对私营和公共部门产生直接和深远的影响。该提案将发现研究和教育融为一体：通过综合的大学间项目和课程开发，为学生提供丰富的学习体验。调查人员将通过积极参与所在机构和同侪社会，继续成为少数族裔学生，特别是年轻女性的榜样。本提案中的研究工作从根本上受到当前互联网流量趋势的推动：当今社会越来越依赖于教育、专业和社会目的的内容类型服务。该提案探讨了专门针对内容类型通信的编码；可为未来网络服务的设计和优化奠定坚实的理论基础。该提案通过解决以下主要技术目标，制定了以前未探索过的新研究方向：（1）通过提出经典消息特定索引编码的新模型并将其扩展到内容类型柔性索引编码、推导内界和外界以及用于评估的有效数值算法，开发信息理论框架。 (2) 推导内容类型编码的基本界限和实用编码策略，其中客户对多个内容而不是单个内容感兴趣，识别顺序近似值并研究问题的噪声网络版本的扩展。 (3) 针对对客户端辅助信息了解有限的服务器制定不经意策略（例如，服务器知道客户端的下载次数，但不一定知道哪些客户端）；量化最佳性能所需的辅助信息的数量和质量。 （4）调查所有内容不“平等”的情况（例如，因为根据客户过去的行为进行个性化推荐）；与推荐系统联系，并了解偏好如何影响内容类型算法和界限。对于每个技术目标，研究人员将开发信息论、网络编码和算法等工具来解决本研究中提出的新问题。新框架预计将从理论（信息论）和更实用（代码和算法设计）的角度显着推进对内容类型编码的最先进和基本理解。该研究成果将及时在信息论、网络编码和网络社区的国内和国际主要专业场所展示。该提案还具有很强的教育和宣传成分。为了接触公众，调查人员将利用部门媒体工具来展示所开发的技术及其实际影响。 学生将在沟通、编码和网络方面打下坚实的基础，从而获得在竞争激烈、多元化的全球劳动力市场中取得成功的基本技能。是调查员吗？目标是成为少数族裔学生，特别是女性学生的榜样。