AT&T Labs

About: AT&T Labs is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Network packet & The Internet. The organization has 1879 authors who have published 5595 publications receiving 483151 citations.

Auditable Metering with Lightweight Security

Abstract: In this work we suggest a new mechanism for metering the popularity of web-sites: the compact metering scheme. Our approach does not rely on client authentication or on a third party. Instead, we suggest the notion of a timing function, a computation that can be performed incrementally, whose output is compact, and whose result can be used to eeciently verify the eeort spent with high degree of conndence. We use the diiculty of computing a timing function to leverage the security of a metering method by involving each client in computing the timing function (for some given input) upon visiting a web site, and recording the result of the computation along with the record of the visit. Thus, to forge client visits requires a known investment of computational resources, which grows proportionally to the amount of fraud, and is infeasible for visit counts commonly found in the World Wide Web (WWW). The incremental nature of the timing function is used to create a new measure of client accesses, namely their duration. This paper describes the foundations of the timing scheme and its deployment in the WWW.

Vision: mClouds - computing on clouds of mobile devices

Abstract: When we think of mobile cloud computing today, we typically refer to empowering mobile devices - in particular smartphones and tablets - with the capabilities of stationary resources residing in giant data centers. But what happens when these mobile devices become as powerful as our personal computers or more? This paper presents our vision of a future in which mobile devices become a core component of mobile cloud computing architectures. We envision a world where mobile devices will be capable of forming mobile clouds, or mClouds, to accomplish tasks locally without relying, when possible, on costly and, sometimes, inefficient backend communication. We discuss a possible mClouds architecture, its benefits and tradeoffs, and the user incentive scheme to support the mCloud design.

An industrial-strength description logic-based configurator platform

Abstract: Modern communications equipment is highly modular and can scale to a wide range of applications. Usually, the equipment's cost and complexity requires that it be manufactured to order, or at least assembled-to-order. In this context, orders double as specifications, describing what should be manufactured as well as how the product should be installed. Producing a correct and complete order for such equipment can be challenging when requirements are incomplete, inconsistent, or when the final product is large and complicated. A good order is technically correct and meets customer requirements for network capacity and growth without over-engineering. Incomplete configurations can lead to cost overruns if the missing elements are discovered during manufacturing. If they are not, faulty products can result. Either way, the customers are unhappy. We have tackled the configuration problem for a number of large telecommunications products. Our Prose configurators are based on CLASSIC, a description logic-based knowledge representation system. We have found it to be well suited to our configurator needs. Because it attempts to provide predictable performance in all cases, CLASSIC is less expressive than many description logic systems, but it has been widely used in both industrial applications and academic systems. Some of our configurators have been in use since 1990. They have processed more than $4.5 billion in orders and have documented many benefits, including reduced order processing time, reduced staffing, and product-knowledge consistency checking.

Multiple-antenna techniques in LTE-advanced

Abstract: In this article we discuss the different multiple antenna techniques introduced in LTE-Advanced. Rather than describing the technical details of the adopted solutions, we approach the problem starting from the design targets and the antenna deployments prioritized by the operators. Then we present the main enabling solutions introduced for downlink and uplink transmissions, and subsequently assess the performance of these solutions in different scenarios. Finally, we discuss some possible future developments.