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.

传统上，编码的目的是将特定的信息消息(例如，电话呼叫中的语音)安全且高效地传送给一个或多个接收者。然而，如今，S的通信网络越来越多地提供内容，而不是特定的信息。为内容类型流量提供服务的流行网络包括广告网络、新闻聚合器和社交媒体。该建议提出了一个新的理论框架，旨在确定内容类型网络的基本性能限制和设计原则。这一新的研究方向推动了科学的进步，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，这项研究预计将为更高效的网络服务设计奠定基础，从而造福整个社会，并对私营和公共部门都具有直接和深远的用途。这一建议将发现、研究和教育结合在一起：它通过整合的大学间计划和课程开发为学生发展丰富的学习体验。调查人员将继续作为少数族裔学生，特别是年轻女性的榜样，在他们的机构和同龄人社会中积极参与。这项建议的研究工作从根本上受到当前互联网流量趋势的推动：今天的社会越来越依赖内容类型的服务，用于教育、专业和社会目的。这项建议探索了专门针对内容类型通信的编码；因此，它可以为未来网络服务的设计和优化形成坚实的理论基础。该方案通过解决以下主要技术目标提出了新的研究方向：(1)提出了一种新的信息理论框架，提出了一种新的特定于消息的索引编码模型，并将其扩展到内容类型的柔性索引编码，推导了它们的内界和外界，以及用于评估它们的高效数值算法。(2)导出内容类型编码的基本界限和实用编码策略，其中客户对多个而不是单个内容感兴趣，识别顺序近似并研究问题的噪声网络版本的扩展。(3)为对客户端端信息了解有限的服务器开发不经意策略(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)；量化优化性能所需的端信息的数量和质量。(4)调查所有内容不“相等”的情况(例如，基于客户过去的行为进行个性化推荐)；与推荐系统连接，了解偏好如何影响内容类型算法和边界。对于每个技术目标，调查人员将从信息论、网络编码和算法开发工具来解决本研究中提出的新问题。新的框架有望从理论(信息论)和更实用(代码和算法设计)的角度，显著提高对内容类型编码的最新水平和基本理解。这项研究的结果将在信息理论、网络编码和网络社区的主要国内和国际专业场所及时公布。该提案还包含很强的教育和宣传内容。为了向公众宣传，调查员将利用部门的媒体工具来展示所开发的技术及其实际影响。学生将获得在通信、编码和网络方面的坚实基础，从而获得在竞争激烈、多样化和全球劳动力市场中取得成功的基本技能。是调查人员吗？目标是成为少数族裔学生，特别是女性学生的榜样。