Jon Crowcroft

Bio: Jon Crowcroft is an academic researcher from University of Cambridge. The author has contributed to research in topics: The Internet & Multicast. The author has an hindex of 87, co-authored 672 publications receiving 38848 citations. Previous affiliations of Jon Crowcroft include Memorial University of Newfoundland & Information Technology University.

TCP/IP and Linux protocol implementation : systems code for the Linux Internet

Abstract: Boasting high performance, high availability, and open source code, Linux has emerged as an optimal choice for an operating system Yet for Linux to be adopted by the mainstream of Unix-based corporate and ISP networks, it must be capable of supporting the TCP/IP Internet protocol, like any other network operating system This book provides the rapidly growing audience of Linux site managers, as well as researchers and developers worldwide, with the information they need on how Linux TCP/IP keeps the network running The authors walk readers through the Linux TCP/IP protocol stack, offering detailed explanations on how Linux implements its communications protocols

An in-depth characterisation of Bots and Humans on Twitter.

Abstract: Recent research has shown a substantial active presence of bots in online social networks (OSNs). In this paper we utilise our past work on studying bots (Stweeler) to comparatively analyse the usage and impact of bots and humans on Twitter, one of the largest OSNs in the world. We collect a large-scale Twitter dataset and define various metrics based on tweet metadata. We divide and filter the dataset in four popularity groups in terms of number of followers. Using a human annotation task we assign 'bot' and 'human' ground-truth labels to the dataset, and compare the annotations against an online bot detection tool for evaluation. We then ask a series of questions to discern important behavioural bot and human characteristics using metrics within and among four popularity groups. From the comparative analysis we draw important differences as well as surprising similarities between the two entities, thus paving the way for reliable classification of automated political infiltration, advertisement campaigns, and general bot detection.

Peer-to-Peer Technologies

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the working of scalable, self-organizing distributed systems that are often referred to as peer-to-peer (P2P) systems. P2P systems push the limits of scalability and robustness, but tend to focus on more homogeneous resources and slower network connections than do contemporary Grids. P2P systems are a potential source of resources for Grid applications; a peer-to-peer research can be a source of scalable and robust algorithms that can be applied to Grid services. P2P systems are Internet applications that harness the resources of a large number of autonomous participants. P2P and Grid computing are both concerned with enabling resource sharing within distributed communities. However, different base assumptions have led to distinct requirements and technical directions. P2P systems have focused on resource sharing in environments characterized by potentially millions of users, most with homogenous desktop systems and low bandwidth, intermittent connections to the Internet. P2P computing has had a dramatic effect on mainstream computing, even blurring the distinctions among computer science, engineering, and politics. An unfortunate side effect is that due consideration often has not been given to the classic research in distributed systems.

Has Anyone Seen My Goose? Social Network Services in Developing Regions

Abstract: In developing regions, Internet connectivity is extremely poor, while mobile phone penetration is much higher. The inhabitants of developing countries still rely on traditional social mechanisms, such as word-of-mouth, to gather most information that they use in everyday life. In this paper, we propose Goose, a Social Network Service (SNS) architecture for developing regions, which provides services including friend searching, resource sharing and information seeking. Goose uses both the limited GSM coverage and Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) technology on mobile phones, to enable social information exchange even without cellular data coverage.

Highways: proximity clustering for scalable peer-to-peer network

Abstract: The "location-aware" construction of overlay networks requires the identification of nodes that are efficient with respect to network delay and available bandwidth. In this short paper, we propose Highways to create clusters of nodes using a novel "location-aware" method, based on a scalable and distributed network coordinate system. This helps to build overlay routing tables to achieve better proximity accuracy, thus, providing a mechanism to boost performance in application overlay routing.

I and i

Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality. Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

Community detection in graphs

Abstract: The modern science of networks has brought significant advances to our understanding of complex systems. One of the most relevant features of graphs representing real systems is community structure, or clustering, i. e. the organization of vertices in clusters, with many edges joining vertices of the same cluster and comparatively few edges joining vertices of different clusters. Such clusters, or communities, can be considered as fairly independent compartments of a graph, playing a similar role like, e. g., the tissues or the organs in the human body. Detecting communities is of great importance in sociology, biology and computer science, disciplines where systems are often represented as graphs. This problem is very hard and not yet satisfactorily solved, despite the huge effort of a large interdisciplinary community of scientists working on it over the past few years. We will attempt a thorough exposition of the topic, from the definition of the main elements of the problem, to the presentation of most methods developed, with a special focus on techniques designed by statistical physicists, from the discussion of crucial issues like the significance of clustering and how methods should be tested and compared against each other, to the description of applications to real networks.