Alejandro López-Ortiz

Bio: Alejandro López-Ortiz is an academic researcher from University of Waterloo. The author has contributed to research in topics: Competitive analysis & List update problem. The author has an hindex of 33, co-authored 193 publications receiving 3719 citations. Previous affiliations of Alejandro López-Ortiz include Open Text Corporation & University of New Brunswick.

Space-Efficient Data Structures, Streams, and Algorithms Papers in Honor of J. Ian Munro, on the Occasion of His 66th Birthday

Abstract: The Query Complexity of Finding a Hidden Permutation -- Bounds for Scheduling Jobs on Grid Processors -- Quake Heaps: A Simple Alternative to Fibonacci Heaps -- Variations on Instant Insanity -- A Simple Linear-Space Data Structure for Constant-Time Range -- Closing a Long-Standing Complexity Gap for Selection: V3(42) = 50 -- Frugal Streaming for Estimating Quantiles -- From Time to Space: Fast Algorithms That Yield Small and Fast Data -- Computing (and life) Is all About Tradeoffs: A Small Sample of Some Computational Tradeoffs -- A History of Distribution-Sensitive Data Structures -- A Survey on Priority Queues -- On Generalized Comparison-Based Sorting Problems -- A Survey of the Game “Lights Out!” -- Random Access to High-Order Entropy Compressed Text -- Succinct and Implicit Data Structures for Computational Geometry -- In Pursuit of the Dynamic Optimality Conjecture -- A Survey of Algorithms and Models for List Update -- Orthogonal Range Searching for Text Indexing -- A Survey of Data Structures in the Bitprobe Model -- Succinct Representations of Ordinal Trees -- Array Range Queries -- Indexes for Document Retrieval with Relevance.

The Ultimate Strategy to Search on m Rays

Abstract: We consider the problem of searching on m current rays for a target of unknown location. If no upper bound on the distance to the target is known in advance, then the optimal competitive ratio is 1 + 2mm/(m - 1)m-1. We show that if an upper bound of D on the distance to the target is known in advance, then the competitive ratio of any searchst rategy is at least 1 + 2mm/(m - 1)m-1 - O(1/ log2 D) which is also optimal--but in a stricter sense. We also construct a search strategy that achieves this ratio. Astonishingly, our strategy works equally well for the unbounded case, that is, if the target is found at distance D from the starting point, then the competitive ratio is 1 + 2mm/(m - 1)m-1 - O(1/ log2 D) and it is not necessary for our strategy to know an upper bound on D in advance.

FIFO queueing policies for packets with heterogeneous processing

Abstract: We consider the problem of managing a bounded size First-In-First-Out (FIFO) queue buffer, where each incoming unit-sized packet requires several rounds of processing before it can be transmitted out. Our objective is to maximize the total number of successfully transmitted packets. We consider both push-out (when the policy is permitted to drop already admitted packets) and non-push-out cases. In particular, we provide analytical guarantees for the throughput performance of our algorithms. We further conduct a comprehensive simulation study which experimentally validates the predicted theoretical behaviour.

Search Algorithms for Unstructured Peer-to-Peer Networks

Abstract: We study the performance of several search algorithms on unstructured peer-to-peer networks, both using classic search algorithms such as flooding and random walk, as well as a new hybrid algorithm proposed in this paper. This hybrid algorithm first uses flooding to find sufficient number of nodes and then starts random walks from these nodes. We compare the performance of the search algorithms on several graphs corresponding to common topologies proposed for peer- to-peer networks. In particular, we consider binomial random graphs, regular random graphs, power-law graphs, and clustered topologies. Our experiments show that for binomial random graphs and regular random graphs all algorithms have similar performance. For power-law graphs, flooding is effective for small number of messages, but for large number of messages our hybrid algorithm outperforms it. Flooding is ineffective for clustered topologies in which random walk is the best algorithm. For these topologies, our hybrid algorithm provides a compromise between flooding and random walk. We also compare the proposed hybrid algorithm with the fc-walker algorithm on power-law and clustered topologies. Our experiments show that while they have close performance on clustered topologies, the hybrid algorithm has much better performance on power-law graphs. We theoretically prove that flooding is effective for regular random graphs which is consistent with our experimental results.

On Advice Complexity of the k-server Problem under Sparse Metrics

Abstract: We consider the k-server problem under the advice model of computation when the underlying metric space is sparse. On one side, we show that an advice of size {\Omega}(n) is required to obtain a 1-competitive algorithm for sequences of size n, even for the 2-server problem on a path metric of size N >= 5. Through another lower bound argument, we show that at least (n/2)(log {\alpha} - 1.22) bits of advice is required to obtain an optimal solution for metric spaces of treewidth {\alpha}, where 4 <= {\alpha} < 2k. On the other side, we introduce {\Theta}(1)-competitive algorithms for a wide range of sparse graphs, which require advice of (almost) linear size. Namely, we show that for graphs of size N and treewidth {\alpha}, there is an online algorithm which receives $O(n (log {\alpha} + log log N))$ bits of advice and optimally serves a sequence of length n. With a different argument, we show that if a graph admits a system of {\mu} collective tree (q,r)-spanners, then there is a (q+r)-competitive algorithm which receives O(n (log {\mu} + log log N)) bits of advice. Among other results, this gives a 3-competitive algorithm for planar graphs, provided with O(n log log N) bits of advice.

Random graphs

Abstract: We will review some of the major results in random graphs and some of the more challenging open problems. We will cover algorithmic and structural questions. We will touch on newer models, including those related to the WWW.

Mining time-changing data streams

Abstract: Most statistical and machine-learning algorithms assume that the data is a random sample drawn from a stationary distribution. Unfortunately, most of the large databases available for mining today violate this assumption. They were gathered over months or years, and the underlying processes generating them changed during this time, sometimes radically. Although a number of algorithms have been proposed for learning time-changing concepts, they generally do not scale well to very large databases. In this paper we propose an efficient algorithm for mining decision trees from continuously-changing data streams, based on the ultra-fast VFDT decision tree learner. This algorithm, called CVFDT, stays current while making the most of old data by growing an alternative subtree whenever an old one becomes questionable, and replacing the old with the new when the new becomes more accurate. CVFDT learns a model which is similar in accuracy to the one that would be learned by reapplying VFDT to a moving window of examples every time a new example arrives, but with O(1) complexity per example, as opposed to O(w), where w is the size of the window. Experiments on a set of large time-changing data streams demonstrate the utility of this approach.

Taming the underlying challenges of reliable multihop routing in sensor networks

Abstract: The dynamic and lossy nature of wireless communication poses major challenges to reliable, self-organizing multihop networks. These non-ideal characteristics are more problematic with the primitive, low-power radio transceivers found in sensor networks, and raise new issues that routing protocols must address. Link connectivity statistics should be captured dynamically through an efficient yet adaptive link estimator and routing decisions should exploit such connectivity statistics to achieve reliability. Link status and routing information must be maintained in a neighborhood table with constant space regardless of cell density. We study and evaluate link estimator, neighborhood table management, and reliable routing protocol techniques. We focus on a many-to-one, periodic data collection workload. We narrow the design space through evaluations on large-scale, high-level simulations to 50-node, in-depth empirical experiments. The most effective solution uses a simple time averaged EWMA estimator, frequency based table management, and cost-based routing.

Data streams: algorithms and applications

Abstract: In the data stream scenario, input arrives very rapidly and there is limited memory to store the input. Algorithms have to work with one or few passes over the data, space less than linear in the input size or time significantly less than the input size. In the past few years, a new theory has emerged for reasoning about algorithms that work within these constraints on space, time, and number of passes. Some of the methods rely on metric embeddings, pseudo-random computations, sparse approximation theory and communication complexity. The applications for this scenario include IP network traffic analysis, mining text message streams and processing massive data sets in general. Researchers in Theoretical Computer Science, Databases, IP Networking and Computer Systems are working on the data stream challenges. This article is an overview and survey of data stream algorithmics and is an updated version of [1].

Handbook of Constraint Programming

Abstract: Constraint programming is a powerful paradigm for solving combinatorial search problems that draws on a wide range of techniques from artificial intelligence, computer science, databases, programming languages, and operations research. Constraint programming is currently applied with success to many domains, such as scheduling, planning, vehicle routing, configuration, networks, and bioinformatics. The aim of this handbook is to capture the full breadth and depth of the constraint programming field and to be encyclopedic in its scope and coverage. While there are several excellent books on constraint programming, such books necessarily focus on the main notions and techniques and cannot cover also extensions, applications, and languages. The handbook gives a reasonably complete coverage of all these lines of work, based on constraint programming, so that a reader can have a rather precise idea of the whole field and its potential. Of course each line of work is dealt with in a survey-like style, where some details may be neglected in favor of coverage. However, the extensive bibliography of each chapter will help the interested readers to find suitable sources for the missing details. Each chapter of the handbook is intended to be a self-contained survey of a topic, and is written by one or more authors who are leading researchers in the area. The intended audience of the handbook is researchers, graduate students, higher-year undergraduates and practitioners who wish to learn about the state-of-the-art in constraint programming. No prior knowledge about the field is necessary to be able to read the chapters and gather useful knowledge. Researchers from other fields should find in this handbook an effective way to learn about constraint programming and to possibly use some of the constraint programming concepts and techniques in their work, thus providing a means for a fruitful cross-fertilization among different research areas. The handbook is organized in two parts. The first part covers the basic foundations of constraint programming, including the history, the notion of constraint propagation, basic search methods, global constraints, tractability and computational complexity, and important issues in modeling a problem as a constraint problem. The second part covers constraint languages and solver, several useful extensions to the basic framework (such as interval constraints, structured domains, and distributed CSPs), and successful application areas for constraint programming. - Covers the whole field of constraint programming - Survey-style chapters - Five chapters on applications Table of Contents Foreword (Ugo Montanari) Part I : Foundations Chapter 1. Introduction (Francesca Rossi, Peter van Beek, Toby Walsh) Chapter 2. Constraint Satisfaction: An Emerging Paradigm (Eugene C. Freuder, Alan K. Mackworth) Chapter 3. Constraint Propagation (Christian Bessiere) Chapter 4. Backtracking Search Algorithms (Peter van Beek) Chapter 5. Local Search Methods (Holger H. Hoos, Edward Tsang) Chapter 6. Global Constraints (Willem-Jan van Hoeve, Irit Katriel) Chapter 7. Tractable Structures for CSPs (Rina Dechter) Chapter 8. The Complexity of Constraint Languages (David Cohen, Peter Jeavons) Chapter 9. Soft Constraints (Pedro Meseguer, Francesca Rossi, Thomas Schiex) Chapter 10. Symmetry in Constraint Programming (Ian P. Gent, Karen E. Petrie, Jean-Francois Puget) Chapter 11. Modelling (Barbara M. Smith) Part II : Extensions, Languages, and Applications Chapter 12. Constraint Logic Programming (Kim Marriott, Peter J. Stuckey, Mark Wallace) Chapter 13. Constraints in Procedural and Concurrent Languages (Thom Fruehwirth, Laurent Michel, Christian Schulte) Chapter 14. Finite Domain Constraint Programming Systems (Christian Schulte, Mats Carlsson) Chapter 15. Operations Research Methods in Constraint Programming (John Hooker) Chapter 16. Continuous and Interval Constraints(Frederic Benhamou, Laurent Granvilliers) Chapter 17. Constraints over Structured Domains (Carmen Gervet) Chapter 18. Randomness and Structure (Carla Gomes, Toby Walsh) Chapter 19. Temporal CSPs (Manolis Koubarakis) Chapter 20. Distributed Constraint Programming (Boi Faltings) Chapter 21. Uncertainty and Change (Kenneth N. Brown, Ian Miguel) Chapter 22. Constraint-Based Scheduling and Planning (Philippe Baptiste, Philippe Laborie, Claude Le Pape, Wim Nuijten) Chapter 23. Vehicle Routing (Philip Kilby, Paul Shaw) Chapter 24. Configuration (Ulrich Junker) Chapter 25. Constraint Applications in Networks (Helmut Simonis) Chapter 26. Bioinformatics and Constraints (Rolf Backofen, David Gilbert)