18395542
Adaptive Web Services Testing
Web services (WS) and service-oriented architecture (SOA) present a set of unique testing challenges. As services are distributed, it is necessary to test them using a distributed architecture. Furthermore, as these services may keep on changing, testing needs to be adaptive. This paper proposes an adaptive testing framework which can continuously learn and improve the built-in test strategies. The framework allows different test cases to be selected based on the recent test results. The framework also has a windowing mechanism to evaluate and select test cases.
5650965
L-Tree: A Dynamic Labeling Structure for Ordered XML Data
With the ever growing use of XML as a data representation format, we see an increasing need for robust, high performance XML database systems While most of the recent work focuses on efficient XML query processing, XML databases also need to support efficient updates To speed up query processing, various labeling schemes have been proposed However, the vast majority of these schemes have poor update performance In this paper, we introduce a dynamic labeling structure for XML data: L-Tree and its order-preserving labeling scheme with O(log n) amortized update cost and O(log n) bits per label L-Tree has good performance on updates without compromising the performance of query processing We present the update algorithm for L-Tree and analyze its complexity.
5453537
Testability of Software in Service-Oriented Architecture
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a system architecture in which a collection of loosely coupled services communicate with each other using standard interfaces and message-exchanging protocols. As an emerging technology in software development, the SOA presents a new paradigm, and it affects the entire software development cycle including analysis, specification, design, implementation, verification, validation, maintenance and evaluation. This paper proposes several testability evaluation criteria for SOA software, which serves as a reference for both service providers and application builders to evaluate the test support to SOA software. The proposed evaluation criteria are illustrated in a stock-trading case study
2511748
QPIAD: Query Processing over Incomplete Autonomous Databases
Incompleteness due to missing attribute values (aka "null values") is very common in autonomous Web databases, on which user accesses are usually supported through mediators. Traditional query processing techniques that focus on the strict soundness of answer tuples often ignore tuples with critical missing attributes, even if they wind up being relevant to a user query. Ideally we would like the mediator to retrieve such relevant uncertain answers and gauge their relevance by accessing their likelihood of being relevant answers to the query. However, the autonomous nature of the databases poses several challenges, such as the restricted access privileges, limited query patterns, and sensitivity of database and network resource consumption in the Web environment. We introduce a novel query rewriting and optimization framework QPIAD that tackles these challenges to retrieve relevant uncertain answers. Our technique involves reformulating the user query based on approximate functional dependencies (AFDs) among the database attributes and ranking these queries using value distributions learned from naive Bayes classifiers. Empirical studies demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in retrieving relevant uncertain answers with high precision, high recall and manageable cost.
37282807
Testing Web Services Using Progressive Group Testing
This paper proposes progressive group testing techniques to test large number of Web services (WS) available on Internet. At the unit testing level, the WS with the same functionality are tested in group using progressively increasing number of test cases. A small number of WS that scored best will be integrated into the real environment for operational testing. At the integration testing level, many composite services will be constructed and tested by group integration testing. The results of group testing at both unit and integration levels are verified by weighted majority voting mechanisms. The weights are based on the reliability history of the WS under test. A case study is designed and implemented, where the dependency among the test cases in WS is analyzed and used to generate progressive layers of test cases.
3132727
Query Processing over Incomplete Autonomous Databases
Incompleteness due to missing attribute values (aka "null values") is very common in autonomous web databases, on which user accesses are usually supported through mediators. Traditional query processing techniques that focus on the strict soundness of answer tuples often ignore tuples with critical missing attributes, even if they wind up being relevant to a user query. Ideally we would like the mediator to retrieve such possible answers and gauge their relevance by accessing their likelihood of being pertinent answers to the query. The autonomous nature of web databases poses several challenges in realizing this objective. Such challenges include the restricted access privileges imposed on the data, the limited support for query patterns, and the bounded pool of database and network resources in the web environment. We introduce a novel query rewriting and optimization framework QPIAD that tackles these challenges. Our technique involves reformulating the user query based on mined correlations among the database attributes. The reformulated queries are aimed at retrieving the relevant possible answers in addition to the certain answers. QPIAD is able to gauge the relevance of such queries allowing tradeoffs in reducing the costs of database query processing and answer transmission. To support this framework, we develop methods for mining attribute correlations (in terms of Approximate Functional Dependencies), value distributions (in the form of Naive Bayes Classifiers), and selectivity estimates. We present empirical studies to demonstrate that our approach is able to effectively retrieve relevant possible answers with high precision, high recall, and manageable cost.
2888098
Evolutionary interactive music composition
This paper proposes the CFE framework---Composition, Feedback, and Evolution---and presents an interactive music composition system. The system composes short, manageable pieces of music by interacting with users. The most important features of the system include creating customized music according to the user preference and providing the facilities specifically designed for producing large amounts of music. We present the structure as well as the implementation of the system and the auxiliary functionalities that enhance the system. We also introduce the auto-feedback test with which we verify and evaluate the interactive music composition system.
8362551
Using simulation to facilitate the study of software product line evolution
A product line approach is a disciplined methodology for strategic reuse of source code, requirement specifications, software architectures, design models, components, test cases, and the processes for using the aforementioned artifacts. Software process simulation modeling is a valuable tool for enabling decision making for a wide variety of purposes, ranging from adoption and strategic management to process improvement and planning. In this paper, discrete event simulation is used to provide a framework for the simulation of software product line engineering. We have created an environment that facilitates strategic management and long-term forecasting with respect to software product line development and evolution.
62612563
Enabling location-based services in wireless LAN hotspots
The wide deployment of IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN (WLAN) makes possible application services developed in WLAN hotspots. Owing to the small cell size in WLAN hotspots, it is practical to develop location-based services with the awareness of the WLAN access points (APs) that mobile devices currently access. In this paper, we propose an effective location determination technique using the inherent SNMP support in WLAN APs. It is shown that the current location of a mobile device can be determined from the SNMP traps sent by APs. Since the SNMP-based approach doesn't need any particular software or hardware in mobile devices, location-based services can be widely deployed, especially in public WLAN hotspots. To further enable location-based services through the WWW, this paper also considers the location determination of a mobile device from its IP address, retrieved in a WWW environment. In addition, we propose a web service framework for location-based services in WLAN hotspots. Thus, location-based services can be developed in a standard way.
8090728
The SAHARA Model for Service Composition across Multiple Providers
Services are capabilities that enable applications and are of crucial importance to pervasive computing in next-generation networks. Service Composition is the construction of complex services from primitive ones; thus enabling rapid and flexible creation of new services. The presence of multiple independent service providers poses new and significant challenges. Managing trust across providers and verifying the performance of the components in composition become essential issues. Adapting the composed service to network and user dynamics by choosing service providers and instances is yet another challenge. In SAHARA, we are developing a comprehensive architecture for the creation, placement, and management of services for composition across independent providers. In this paper, we present a layered reference model for composition based on a classification of different kinds of composition. We then discuss the different overarching mechanisms necessary for the successful deployment of such an architecture through a variety of case-studies involving composition.
12984676
Hybrid Evolutionary And Annealing Algorithms For Nonlinear Discrete Constrained Optimization
This paper presents a procedural framework that unifies various mechanisms to look for discrete-neighborhood saddle points in solving discrete constrained optimization problems (DCOPs). Our approach is based on the necessary and sufficient condition on local optimality in discrete space, which shows the one-to-one correspondence between the discrete-space constrained local minima of a problem and the saddle points of the corresponding Lagrangian function. To look for such saddle points, we study various mechanisms for performing ascents of the Lagrangian function in the original-variable subspace and descents in the Lagrange-multiplier subspace. Our results show that CSAEA, a combined constrained simulated annealing and evolutionary algorithm, performs well when using mutations and crossovers to generate trial points and accepting them based on the Metropolis probability. We apply iterative deepening to determine the optimal number of generations in CSAEA and show that its performance is robust with respect to changes in population size. To test the performance of the procedures developed, we apply them to solve some continuous and mixed-integer nonlinear programming (NLP) benchmarks and show that they obtain better results than those of existing algorithms.