RAHUL SIMHA: Research

Some Current and Past Research Projects

• Preventing Attacks on Encrypted Execution Platforms (Sponsor: AFOSR, 2005-07)
• A Compiler/Hardware Approach to Software Protection (Sponsor: NSF, medium-ITR), 2004-08. Goals: develop compiler/hardware approaches to software protection.
• JVM's for Embedded Systems, 2004-05. Goals: study JVM optimizations for embedded systems.
• Electronic Voting: Citizen Verified Voting project (Sponsor: NSF), 2005-06. Goals: develop standards for electronic voting, study system issues related to Chaum-voting.
• Pervasive Computing: Future-Home infrastructure (sponsor: America Online/Time Warner), 2002-04. Goals: Design and build device management infrastructure.
• Tablet computing: Blaise project, 2002-05. Goals: develop a tablet-based platform for writing courses.
• Fault and Attack Management in Optical Networks (sponsor: DARPA), 2000-03. Goals: design of fault-tolerant WDM optical networks.
• Compiler-driven instruction-level parallelism for VLIW architectures (sponsor: LUCITE), 1999-2001.
• Power-aware computing toolset (sponsor: NASA), 2001-03. Goals: Design and build a compiler to optimize power consumption; investigate algorithms for resource allocation.
• Pervasive Computing: Communication with vibrotactile feedback (sponsor: DARPA), 2001-02. Goals: Investigate approaches to enhancing communication via tactile feedback.

Publications

• Journal articles
  • "A Compiler-Hardware Approach to Software Protection for Embedded Systems", to appear in International Journal of Computers and Electrical Engineering, Special Issue: Circuits and Systems for Real-Time Security and Copyright Protection of Multimedia (with O.Gelbart, E.Leontie and B. Narahari) ( PDF)
  • "Pathway Switching Explains the Sharp Response Characteristic of Hypoxia Response Network", PLoS Computational Biology Vol.3, No.8, August 2007 (with Y.Yu, G.Wang, W.Peng, F.Turano and C.Zeng). ( PDF)
  • ``Privacy Preserving Programming Using Sython,'' J. Computers and Security (COSE), Vol.26, 2007, pp.130-136 (with M.Gaiman and B.Narahari). ( PDF)
  • "SPEE: A Secure Program Execution Environment tool using code integrity checking", Journal of High Speed Networks, Volume 15, Number 1, 2006 pp. 21-32 (with O. Gelbart, B. Narahari). ( PDF)
  • ``High Performance Software Protection using Reconfigurable Architectures'', (Invited Paper) Proc. IEEE, Vol.94, No.2, Feb. 2006 (with J.Zambreno, D.Honbo, A.Choudhary, B.Narahari). ( PDF)
  • ``Simulated Chemotaxis: A Biologically Inspired Framework for a Class of Wireless Coverage Problems'', Int. J. Adhoc and Sensor Wireless Networks, Vol.2, No.4, 2006 (with O.Sanli and B.Narahari). ( PDF)
  • ``SAFE-OPS: A Compiler/Architecture Approach to Embedded Software Security'', ACM Trans. Embedded Computing, Vol. 4, No.1, Feb 2005 (with J.Zambreno, A.Choudhary, B.Narahari and N.Memon). ( PDF)
  • ``Strong Minimum Energy Topology: NP Completeness and Heuristics'' IEEE Trans. Mobile Computing}, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp.248-256, July-Sept 2003. (with X.Cheng, B.Narahari, X.Cheng and D.Liu).
  • ``An Algorithm for Gradient-Free Simulation Optimization Using Sampling-Control,'' Int. J. Modeling and Simulation, Vol. 23, No. 4, 2003. ( postscript)
  • ``An Efficient Algorithm for Reducing the Number of Add-Drop Multiplexers in WDM Optical Ring Networks'', J. High Speed Networks, Vol. 11, No. 1, Jan-March 2002 (with G.Li). ( postscript)
  • ``Nature's Algorithms: Natural and Social Metaphors in Algorithm Design,'' IEEE Potentials, Vol. 20, No. 2, April 2001, pp. 21-24 (with J.Carnahan) ( postscript)
  • ``On the Wavelength Assignment Problem in Multifiber WDM Star and Ring Networks'', IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Vol. 9, No. 1, Feb 2001, pp. 60-68 (with G.Li). ( postscript)
  • ``Simulated N-Body: New Particle Physics-Based Heuristics for a Euclidean Location-Allocation Problem'', J. Heuristics, Vol. 7, No. 1, Jan 2001, pp. 23-36 (with W.Cai and V.Spitkovsky). ( postscript)
  • ``On Bounds for the Wavelength Assignment Problem on Optical Ring Networks'', J. High-Speed Networks, Vol. 8, No. 4, 1999, pp. 303-309 (with G.Li). ( postscript)
  • ``Routing and Scheduling I/O Transfers on a Wormhole-Routed Mesh'', {\em J. Parallel and Distributed Computing}, Vol. 57, No. 1, April 1999, pp. 1-13 (with B.Narahari, S.Shende and S.Subramanya).
  • ``Fast Simulation of a Voice-Data Multiplexer'', Int. J. Modelling and Simulation, Vol.18, No.4, 1998 (with P.Heidelberger). ( postscript)
  • ``An Urn Model and its Application to Database Performance Evaluation'', J. Computers and Operations Research, Vol. 24, No. 4, 1997, pp. 289-300. ( postscript)
  • ``Efficient Algorithms for Erasure Node Placement on Slotted Dual Bus Networks'', IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking, Vol. 4, No. 5, 1996, pp. 779-784 (with B.Narahari and S.Shende). ( postscript)
  • ``Static versus Dynamic Load Balancing in a Pipeline Computation'', Int. J. Modelling & Simulation, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 317-327. (with A.Brunstrom). ( postscript)
  • ``A Distributed List Update Problem'', J. Computing and Information, special issue, 1995, pp. 331-343 (with S.Shende). ( postscript)
  • ``Static Assignment of Stochastic Tasks Using Majorization'' IEEE Trans. Computers, Vol. 45, No. 6, June 1996, pp. 730-740 (with D.Nicol and D.Towsley). ( postscript)
  • ``Efficient Algorithms for Partitioning Grid-Structured Parallel Computations'', J. Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing, Vol. 21, pp.3-24, June 1996 (with B.Narahari). ( postscript)
  • ``Analysis of Individual Packet Loss in a Finite Buffer Queue with Heterogeneous Markov Modulated Arrival Processes: A Study of Traffic Burstiness and Priority Packet Discarding'', J. Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, Vol. 28, 1996, pp. 653-673 (with J.Bae and T.Suda). ( postscript)
  • ``Routing and Scheduling File Transfers in Packet-Switched Networks'', J. Information and Computing}, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 560-575 (with W.Mao). ( postscript)
  • ``On Lookahead in the List Update Problem'', Information Processing Letters, Vol. 50, 1994, pp. 105-110 (with A.Majumdar). ( postscript Old version - without figures)
  • ``Reducing Global Address Recognition Delays in Local Area Networks with Spatial Bandwidth Reuse'', J. Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, Vol. 26, 1994, pp. 1375-1384 (with Y.Ofek). ( postscript)
  • ``Optimal Processor Assignment for Pipeline Computations'', IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Vol. 5, No. 4, April 1994, pp. 439-445 (with A.Choudhary, B.Narahari and D.Nicol). ( postscript)
  • ``On-line Minimization of Call Setup Time via Load Balancing: A Stochastic Approximation Approach'', IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 1141-1152, 1994 (with James Kurose). ( postscript Old version without figures).
  • ``Single Path Routing with Delay Considerations'', J. Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, Vol. 24, 1992, pp. 405-419 (with B.Narahari). ( postscript)
  • ``Some Theorems on Conditional Pasta: A Stochastic Integral Approach'', Operations Research Letters, Vol. 11, April 1992, pp. 173-177 (with W.Rosenkrantz). ( postscript)
  • ``A Starvation-free Access Protocol for Full-duplex Buffer Insertion Ring Local Area Networks'', J. Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, Vol. 21, 1991, pp. 109-120 (with Y.Ofek). ( postscript Old version without figures).
  • ``On Sampling-controlled Stochastic Approximation'', IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. 36, No. 8, August 1991, pp. 915-924 (with P.Dupuis). ( postscript)
  • ``Relative Reward Strength Algorithms for Learning Automata'', IEEE Transactions on Man, Systems & Cybernetics, Vol. 19, No. 2, March 1989, pp. 388-398 (with J.F.Kurose). ( postscript Old version without figures).
  • ``A Microeconomic Approach to Optimal Resource Allocation in Distributed Computer Systems'', IEEE Transactions on Computers, Vol. 38, No. 5, May 1989, pp. 705-717 (with J.F.Kurose).
• Conference publications
  • "Assessing the Energy Costs of Computing Devices for Developing Countries", 2nd IFIP Int. Symp. on Wireless Communications and Information Technology in Developing Countries, Pretoria, South Africa, October 2008 (with K.Gopinath). ( PDF)
  • ``Application-Kernel Collaboration Mechanisms for Real-Time Cluster Server under Overloading'', 10th IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC-08), Dalian, China, Sept, 2008 (with Y.Tang, S.Chen, C.Bu, G.Chang). ( PDF)
  • "Architectural support for Securing Application Data in Embedded Systems", IEEE Conf. Electronics and Info Tech (EIT), May 2008 (with O.Gelbart, E.Leontie and B.Narahari). ( PDF)
  • ``Vote Verification Using CAPTCHA-like Primitives'', IAVoSS Workshop On Trustworthy Elections (WOTE 2007). Ottawa, CANADA. June 20 - June 21, 2007. Held in conjunction with 7th Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (with P.Vora). ( PDF)
  • "Compiler-Directed Region-Based Security for Low-Overhead Software Protection" DASC 2007 (with V.Kongubangaram, O.Gelbart and B.Narahari). ( PDF)
  • "A Simple Compiler-FPGA Technique to Detect Memory Spoofing in Encrypted Execution Platforms", 6th Annual Security Conf, Las Vegas, March 2007 (with E.Leontie, B.Narahari). ( PDF)
  • "Secure execution with components from Untrusted Foundries", Advanced Networking and Communications Hardware Workshop (ANCHOR), held in conjunction with Int. Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA 2006), June 2006 (with B. Narahari, J. Zambreno, A. Choudhary). ( PDF)
  • "Insurable Storage Services: Long-Term Document Archival" ICCS, June 2006 (with K.Gopinath). ( PDF)
  • ``A Joint Design Approach for Communication Schedule and Layout of Wireless Sensor Networks'', Int. Conf. Wireless Networks, Las Vegas, June 2005 (with H.O.Sanli). ( PDF)
  • ``A Hierarchical Key Pre-Distribution Scheme'' Proc. IEEE EIT Conf., Lincoln, NE, May 2005 (with M.Ramkumar and N.Memon). ( PDF)
  • ``Performance Study of the SAFE-OPS Compiler/Hardware Approach to Embedded Systems Security'' Proc. IEEE Conf. Intelligence and Security Informatics, Atlanta, GA, 2005 (with K.Mohan, B.Narahari, A.Choudhary, J.Zambreno). ( PDF)
  • ``Codesseal: A Compiler/FPGA Approach to Secure Applications'', Proc. IEEE Conf. Intelligence and Security Informatics, Atlanta, GA, 2005 (with O.Gelbart, P.Ott, B.Narahari, A.Choudhary, J.Zambreno). ( PDF)
  • ``SPEE: A Secure Program Execution Environment Tool Using Static and Dynamic Code Verification'' 3rd Int. Trusted Internet Workshop 2004 (part of HiPC 2004), Bangalore, India, 2004 (with O.Gelbart and B.Narahari). ( PDF)
  • ``Energy-Aware Allocation of Dynamic Variables in Partitioned Memory Architectures'', Workshop on New Horizons in Compiler Analysis, Bangalore, India, December 2004 (with R.Levy and B.Narahari). ( PDF)
  • ``An Overview of Security-Driven Compilation'', Workshop on New Horizons in Compiler Analysis, Bangalore, India, December 2004 (with A.Choudhary, B.Narahari and J.Zambreno). ( PDF)
  • ``Assembly Code Level Power-Aware Optimization for Partitioned Memory Architectures'' ACST 2004, St.Thomas, November 2004 (with R.Levy and B.Narahari).
  • ``HomeOS: Context-Aware Home Connectivity'', Int. Conf. on Pervasive Computing and Applications, Las Vegas, June 21-24, 2004 (with N.Rosen, R.Sattar, R.Lindeman and B.Narahari).
  • Addressing Application Integrity Attacks Using a Reconfigurable Architecture. In Proceedings of the 12th ACM International Symposium on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), 2004 (with J.Zambreno, A.Choudhary).
  • Flexible Software Protection Using Hardware/Software Codesign Techniques. In Proceedings of Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), 2004 (with J.Zambreno, A.Choudhary, B.Narahari). ( postscript)
  • ``Preloaded Key Based Multicast and Broadcast Authentication in Mobile Adhoc Networks'', Globecom 2003, San Francisco, December 2003 (with M.Ramkumar and N.Memon). ( postscript)
  • ``Optically Disjoint Paths in an All-Optical Network'', Optical Fiber Communications Conference, March 2003 (with N.Garg and L.Kohli). ( PDF)
  • ``Energy Balance in Wireless Networks using Connection Segmentation and Range Control'', IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conf., New Orleans, LA, March 2003 (with N.K.Singh and B.Narahari). ( postscript)
  • ``Augmentation Algorithms for Survivable Network Topologies in Wired and Optical Networks'', Int. Conf. Comm., 2002. ( postscript)
  • ``TRITANIUM: Augmenting the Trimaran Compiler Infrastructure to Support IA-64 Code Generation'', First Workshop on EPIC Architectures and Compiler Technology, Austin, Texas, 2001 (with Y.Chobe, B.Narahari and W-F.Wong).
  • ``The Partition Coloring Problem and its Application to Wavelength Assignment in Optical Networks'', First Workshop on Optical Networks, Dallas, TX, 2000, (with G.Li). ( postscript)
  • ``On the Wavelength Assignment Problem in Multifiber WDM Star and Ring Networks'', INFOCOM 2000, March 2000, (with G.Li).
  • ``A New Algorithm for Reducing the Number of Add-Drop Multiplexers in WDM Optical Ring Networks'', SPIE Photonics East, Boston, MA, October 1999 (with G.Li).
  • ``Use of Transforms for Indexing in Audio Databases'', Int. Conf. on Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Applications, New Delhi, India, September 1999 (with S.Subramanya, A.Youssef and B.Narahari).
  • ``I/O Performance of X-Y Routing in 2-D Meshes under various Disk Load Balancing Schemes,'' Int. Conf. on Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems (PDCS-99), Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, August 1999 (with S.R.Subramanya and B.Narahari). ``Memory Issues in Power-Aware Design of Embedded Systems: An Overview'', CASES 99, Washington DC, August 1999 (with R.Levy, B.Crilly and B.Narahari).
  • ``Automated Classification of Audio Data and Retrieval Based on Audio Cla-ses,'' Int. Conf. on Computers and Their Applications, Cancun, Mexico, April 1999 (with S.R.Subramanya, A.Youssef and B.Narahari).
  • ``Dynamic Load Balancing Schemes for Computing Accessible Surface Areas of Protein Molecules'' IEEE Int. Conf. High Performance Computing, Madras, India, 1998 (with E.Suh and B.Narahari).
  • ``New Results for the Wavelength Assignment Problem in Optical Networks'', ACM Southeastern Conf., 1998 (with G.Li).
  • ``Algorithms for Mapping Task Graphs to a Network of Heterogeneous Workstations'', ADCOMP 1997, Chennai, India (with H.Choi and B.Narahari).
  • ``Transform-Based Indexing of Audio Data for Multimedia Databases'', Proc. IEEE Multimedia Conf. Ottawa, 1997 (with B.Narahari, S.Subramanya and A.Youssef).
  • ``A Lower Bound for On-line File Transfer Routing and Scheduling'', Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems, Baltimore, MD, pp. 936-941, 1997 (with J.Havill and W.Mao).
  • ``File Allocation for a Parallel Webserver'', Int. Conf. High Performance Computing, December 1996, Trivandrum, India (with H.Choi and B.Narahari).
  • ``Experimental Evaluation of Dynamic Data Evaluation Strategies in a Database System with Changing Workload'', Conf. Info. and Knowledge Management, Baltimore, 1995, pp. 395-402, (with A.Brunstrom and S.Leutenegger).
  • ``Routing and Scheduling I/O Transfers on a Wormhole-Routed Mesh'', Int. Conf. High Performance Comput.}, New Delhi, India, 1995 (with B.Narahari, S.Shende and S.Subramanya).
  • ``Database Compression using Multi-field Pattern Matching'', Proc. Int. Symp. Knowledge Retrieval, Use and Storage for Efficiency, Santa Cruz, California, August, 1995, pp. 199-203 (with W.Mao).
  • ``Efficient Algorithms for Erasure Node Placement on DQDB Networks'', Proc. Int. Conf. Comm. 95, Seattle, WA, June 1995, pp. 935-939 (with B.Narahari and S.Shende).
  • ``Fast Data Structures for Shortest Path Routing: A Comparative Evaluation'', Proc. Int. Conf. Comm. 95, Seattle, WA, June 1995, pp. 1597-1601 (with G.Oberhauser).
  • ``Bicolored Shortest Paths in Graphs with Applications to Network Overlay Design'', Proc. Conf. Info. Sciences and Systems, Baltimore, MD, March 1995, pp. 731-736 (with H.Choi, H.Choi and W.Mao).
  • ``Dynamic Processor Assignment in a Task System with Time-varying Load'', Proc. IEEE Southeastcon, Raleigh, NC, March 1995, pp. 300-306 (with A.Brunstro).
  • ``Fast Simulation of a Voice-Data Multiplexer'', IEEE INFOCOM 95, Boston, MA, April 1995, pp. 361-368 (with P.Heidelberger).
  • ``On Partitioning Grid-Structured Parallel Computations'', Int. Workshop. Para. Proc., Bangalore, India, 1994, pp. 271-276 (with B.Narahari).
  • ``Static vs. Dynamic Load Balancing in a Pipeline Computation'', Proceedings of the Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems Conference, Washington, DC, October 1994, pp. 433-436 (with A.Brunstrom).
  • ``Routing and Scheduling File Transfers'', International Conference on Computing and Information, Toronto, Canada, 1994, June 1994 (with W.Mao).
  • ``A General File Transfer Scheduling Problem'', TIMS/ORSA Joint Conf., May, 1993, Chicago (with W.Mao and D.Nicol).
  • ``Load Balancing of Complex Stochastic Tasks Using Stochastic Majorization'', Proceedings of INFOCOM 93}, San Francisco, pp. 1306-1313 (with D.Nicol and D.Towsley).
  • ``Analysis of Individual Packet Loss in a Finite Buffer Queue with Heterogeneous Markov Modulated Arrival Processes: A Study of Traffic Burstiness and Priority Packet Discarding'', Proceedings of INFOCOM 92, pp. 219-230, Florence, Italy, May 1992 (with J.Bae and T.Suda).
  • ``On-line Minimization of Call Setup Time via Load Balancing: A Stochastic Approximation Approach'', Proceedings of INFOCOM 91, April 1991, Bal Harbour, Florida (with J.F.Kurose). Condensed version of journal paper above.
  • ``Stochastic Approximation Schemes for a Load Balancing Problem'', Proceedings of the 27th Allerton Conference on Communications, Control and Computing, 1989, pp. 839-848 (with J.F.Kurose).
  • ``A Starvation-free Access Protocol for a Full-duplex Buffer Insertion Ring Local Area Network'', Proceedings of the 9th International Phoenix Conference on Computers and Communication, 1990, pp. 531-538 (with Y.Ofek). Condensed version of journal paper above.
  • ``Optimal Single Path Routing in Computer Networks'', Proceedings of the 25th Annual Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Switching, Syracuse, August 1987 (with J.F.Kurose and D.Towsley).
  • ``Second Derivative Algorithms for Optimal Resource Allocation in Distributed Computer Systems'', Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, Berlin, Sept. 1987 (with J.F.Kurose).
  • ``A Microeconomic Approach to Optimal File Allocation'', Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, Boston, May 1986 (with J.F.Kurose).