Katherine Guo

Bell Laboratories
Networking Research Lab

600-700 Mountain Avenue, Room 2B-315
Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974
USA

+1-908-582-6181 (phone and fax)

kguo@bell-labs.com

Research Interests

The main interests of my research are in networking and distributed systems. I have worked extensively on content distribution network design, streaming web cache design, network support for distributed gaming, 3G wireless network architecture, carrier grade VoIP provisioning and scalability issues in group communication. Currently I am working on multimedia content distribution in 3G wireless networks.

Current Projects

• QoS Support for Carrier Grade VoIP in 3G Wireless Networks: As service providers roll out VoIP service for broadband access networks, the race to deploy VoIP in 3G wireless networks is heating up. There is an urgent need to provide QoS guarantees for VoIP over a EV-DO network by addressing throughput, delay, loss, handoff and capacity issues so that high-quality carrier grade VoIP can be realized. Provision of end-to-end QoS includes devising mechanisms for providing QoS guarantees over a) the air interface, b) the Radio Access Network (RAN) and c) the core network. This project focuses on QoS provisioning over the RAN and the interaction between the RAN and the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to enforce QoS policies.

• End-to-End QoS in 3G Wireless Networks:  As the usage of wireless packet data services increases, wireless carriers today are faced with the challenge of offering multimedia applications within current 3G data networks. Wireless carriers need to support applications with a variety of QoS needs along with multiple classes of subscribers while efficiently utilizing their precious wireless bandwidth. Our goal is to support QoS within the IP Multimedia System (IMS) architecture defined in 3GPP and 3GPP2, with modifications to application-/transport-/network-/link-layer protocols, and scheduling algorithms in Radio Access Network (RAN).  QoS provisioning in RAN requires signaling in the control plane and resource allocation in the data plane. In the control plane, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) with QoS argumentation is required. In the data plane, Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) and Radio Link Protocol (RLP) sessions need to be modified. We propose and build a prototype for a CDMA2000 standard compliant, end-to-end QoS architecture in the IMS framework. The overview of this project is in Providing End-to-End QoS for Multimedia Applications in 3G Wireless Networks, in Proceedings of the SPIE Information Technologies and Communications (ITCom'2003) Conference on Internet Multimedia Management Systems, September 2003, (K. Guo, S. Rangarajan, A. Siddiqui,  and S. Paul). The details of QoS signaling using SIP is in End-to-End QoS Support for SIP Sessions in CDMA2000 Networks, Bell Labs Technical Journal (BLTJ), Vol. 9, No. 3, November 2004, (M. Siddiqui, K. Guo, S. Rangarajan and S. Paul). 

• Multimedia MiRingBack (MmRB) Service: With the saturation of revenue from voice services, the telecom operators are feeling the pressure to introduce new services to increase the average revenue per user. Customized ring-back is one of the services that is gaining momentum across the globe. The service enables the subscriber (i.e., the called party) to provide customized ring-back tone to a calling party, as provisioned by the subscriber in his/her profile, maintained in a network element that provides the service. Lucent’s current product offer to meet the needs of prevailing deployed networks is called MiRingBack (MRB) service. This project takes the existing MRB service to the next level by bringing multimedia capability in broadband IP networks and 3G wireless networks to MRB whereby customized audio/video/text/image can be rendered on the calling party's phone. The details are described in Evolution of MiRingBack Service to Multimedia MiRingBack Service in the IMS Framework, Bell Labs Technical Journal (BLTJ), Vol. 10, No. 4, Dec 2005, (R. Batni, K. Guo, A. Kagalkar, S. Mukherjee, and R. Sharma). 

• Enabling Always-On Services: With the popularity of services like Push-to-Talk, the need for “always-on” services is becoming important for service providers. We define a service to be “always-on” if (i) Network can reach an end-user instantly at any time regardless of the user’s location, (ii) User can access the service instantly, and once connected receives desired quality of service and improved experience. The goal of this project is to build intelligence into Lucent’s Network Platforms to enable “always-on” services. Under the long-term scope of the project, we are developing a content and application distribution overlay network that can provide a common platform to enable “always-on” into multiple “push-to-X” applications. As a short-term project, we selected two existing Lucent applications, namely MiRingBack (MRB) and MiVideoPortal (MVP) and enable “always-on” into them. The MRB service is an example of network pushing content to the user whereby the subscriber can provide customized ringback tone to a caller, based on called party's (i.e., subscriber's) provisionable screening criteria. The MVP service provides a portal located within the service provider network that enables users at mobile terminals to access particular streaming video content and then have it streamed to their handsets for viewing.

Past Projects

• Distributed Gaming: Real-time, online multi-player games are becoming increasingly popular due to advances in game design and the proliferation of broadband Internet access. However, fairness remains a major challenge when players over large geographic areas participate in a client-server based game together. We proposed a game-independent, network-based framework for services that balance the trade-off between response time and fairness. Specifically, we proposed message delivery algorithms that remove the unfair advantage that players with smaller message delays from the game server receive over players with large message delays from the server. We first proposed the Sync-MS algorithm as described in Sync-MS: Synchronized Messaging Service for Real-Time Multi-Player Distributed Games, in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP'2002), Nov 2002, (Y. Lin, K. Guo and S. Paul). As a further improvement, we extended the framework to be more general such that it does not require assumptions of synchronized clocks at the players and servers; neither does it require a mechanism to compute the one-way delay from the players to the server accurately. The details can be found in A Fair Message Exchange Framework for Distributed Multi-Player Games, in Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Network and System Support for Games (NetGames'2003), May 2003, (K. Guo, S. Mukherjee, S. Rangarajan, and S. Paul).

• Lucent IMMINET WebCache S Product Line: This project focuses on the design and implementation of a web cache for streaming media in content distribution networks (CDN).  The WebCache S appliance interoperates with RealNetwork' RealServer, Microsoft's Windows Media Server and Apple's QuickTime Server, the three dominate streaming servers on the market. The streaming cache design incorporates novel mechanisms to reduce network congestion, server load, and client's access delay.

• Streaming Protocols and Proxies: We have extensively worked in the area of network support for streaming applications, especially in the design and implementation of streaming proxy caches, and scalable streaming distribution systems. In streaming cache design, we proposed novel mechanisms in streaming cache design to reduce network congestion, server load, and client's access delay. We built a prototype system to demonstrate the benefits of these mechanisms. This work is captured in Design and Implementation of a Caching System for Streaming Media over the Internet, in Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE Real-Time Technology and Applications Symposium (RTAS'2000), May 2000, (E. Bommaiah, K. Guo, M. Hofmann and S. Paul). After studying a single cache, we further investigated how a system of distributed streaming caches would function. Specifically, we proposed data layout and replacement algorithms for distributed streaming caches in the Internet or Akamai-style data centers, in order to optimize storage usage, playback startup latency, playback switch-over latencies, and account for clip popularity. We designed (1) new data layout schemes: Randomized Caching (RCache) and Silo layouts, (2) a global data replacement scheme using Tokens to minimize inter-cache traffic for state exchange, and (3) a local cache replacement scheme Rainbow that uses a concept of "segment caching potential". We conducted a detailed simulation study and developed an analytical model that is verified by our simulation results. Papers that captured this work are Silo, Rainbow, and Caching Token: Schemes for Scalable Fault Tolerant Stream Caching, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC) on Internet Proxy Services, September 2002, (Y. Chae, K. Guo, M. Buddhikot, S. Suri and E. Zegura) and RCache: Design and Analysis of Scalable Fault Tolerant Multimedia Stream Caching Schemes, in Proceedings of SPIE Information Technologies and Communications (ITCom'2001) Conference on Scalability and Traffic Control in IP Networks, August 2001, (K. Guo, M. Buddhikot, Y. Chae, and S. Suri). In terms of designing streaming distribution systems, we proposed a closed-loop approach towards video-on-demand service in an environment where broadband streaming caches are provided near the users. We proposed two adaptive techniques called Multicast with Caching (Mcache) and Segmented Multicast with Caching (SMcache), that use prefix caches to provide zero-delay video-on-demand service. Extensive simulation was conducted to evaluate these techniques. The details are described in Multicast with Cache (MCache): An Adaptive Zero Delay Video-on-Demand Service, in IEEE Transactions of Circuits and Systems for Video Technology (CSVT), Vol 11, Issue 3, March 2001, pp.440-456. (S. Ramesh I. Rhee, and K. Guo).

Journal Publications

1. Evolution of MiRingBack Service to Multimedia MiRingBack Service in the IMS Framework, Bell Labs Technical Journal (BLTJ), Vol. 10, No. 4, Dec 2005, (with R. Batni, A. Kagalkar, S. Mukherjee, and R. Sharma). 

2. Routing Bandwidth Guaranteed Paths with Local Restoration in Label Switched Networks, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC) Special Issue on Intelligent Services and Applications in Next Generation Networks, Jan 2005, (with  L. Li, M. Buddhikot, and C. Chekuri).

3. End-to-End QoS Support for SIP Sessions in CDMA2000 Networks, Bell Labs Technical Journal (BLTJ), Vol. 9, No. 3, November 2004, (with M. Siddiqui, S. Rangarajan and S. Paul).

4. Scalable Stability Detection Using Logical Hypercube, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Vol. 13, No. 9, September 2002, (with R. Friedman and S. Manor). (ps, pdf)

5. Silo, Rainbow, and Caching Token: Schemes for Scalable Fault Tolerant Stream Caching, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC) on Internet Proxy Services, September 2002, (with Y. Chae, M. Buddhikot, S. Suri and E. Zegura). (ps, pdf)

6. Multicast with Cache (MCache): An Adaptive Zero Delay Video-on-Demand Service, in IEEE Transactions of Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Vol 11, Issue 3, March 2001, pp.440-456. (with S. Ramesh and I. Rhee). (ps, pdf)
   

7. A Dynamic Light-Weight Group Service, in Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, Vol 60, pp. 1449-1479, December 2000, (with L. Rodrigues, P. Verissimo and K. Birman).  (ps, pdf)
   
   

Conference Publications

1. Multicast Scheduling in Cellular Data Networks, in Proceedings of 26th Annual IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (IEEE INFOCOM'2007), May 6-12, 2007, (with H. Won, H. Cai, D. Y. Eun, A. Netravali, I. Rhee and K. Sabnani).

2. PPP Migration: A Technique for Low-Latency Handoff in CDMA2000 Networks, in Proceedings of 2nd Annual International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Networking and Services (MobiQuitous 2005), July 17-21, 2005, (with A. Kagalkar, S. Mukherjee, and S. Rangarajan).

3. Optimal Customer Provisioning in Network-Based Mobile VPNs, in Proceedings of the 1^st Annual International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Networking and Services (MobiQuitous 2004), Aug 22-26, 2004, (with S. Mukherjee, S. Rangarajan and S. Paul). (ps, pdf)

4. Providing End-to-End QoS for Multimedia Applications in 3G Wireless Networks, in Proceedings of the SPIE Information Technologies and Communications (ITCom'2003) Conference on Internet Multimedia Management Systems, September 2003, (with S. Rangarajan, A. Siddiqui,  and S. Paul). (ps, pdf)

5. A Fair Message Exchange Framework for Distributed Multi-Player Games, in Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Network and System Support for Games (NetGames'2003), May 2003, (with S. Mukherjee, S. Rangarajan, and S. Paul). (ps, pdf)

6. Sync-MS: Synchronized Messaging Service for Real-Time Multi-Player Distributed Games, in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP'2002), November 2002, (with Y. Lin and S. Paul). (ps, pdf)
   

7. Routing Bandwidth Guaranteed Paths with Local Restoration in Label Switched Networks, in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP'2002), November 2002, (with L. Li, M. Buddhikot, and C. Chekuri). (ps, pdf)
   

8. RCache: Design and Analysis of Scalable Fault Tolerant Multimedia Stream Caching Schemes, in Proceedings of SPIE Information Technologies and Communications (ITCom'2001) Conference on Scalability and Traffic Control in IP Networks, August 2001, (with M. Buddhikot, Y. Chae, and S. Suri). (ps, pdf)
   

9. Multicast with Cache (MCache): An Adaptive Zero Delay Video-on-Demand Service, in Proceedings of 20th Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (IEEE INFOCOM'2001), April 22-26, 2001, (with S. Ramesh and I. Rhee). (ps, pdf)
   

10. Design and Implementation of a Caching System for Streaming Media over the Internet, in Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE Real-Time Technology and Applications Symposium (RTAS'2000), May 2000, (with E. Bommaiah, M. Hofmann and S. Paul) (ps, pdf), (slides: pdf).
    

11. Partitionable Light-Weight Groups, in Proceedings of the 20th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS'2000), April 2000, (with L. Rodrigues). (ps, pdf)
    

12. Message Stability Detection for Reliable Multicast, in Proceedings of 19th Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (IEEE INFOCOM'2000), March 26-30, 2000, (with I. Rhee)  (ps, pdf) (slides: pdf).
    

13. Scalable Stability Detection Using Logical Hypercube, in Proceedings of 18th IEEE Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems (SRDS'1999), October 1999, (with R. Friedman and S. Manor). (ps, pdf)
    

14. Proposal for Collecting Access Statistics for Continues Media Access on the WWW, W3C Workshop on Web Characterization, December 1998, (with M. Hofmann and S. Paul).
    

15. Scalability of the Microsoft Cluster Service, in Proceedings of the second USENIX Windows NT Symposium, August 1998, (with W. Vogels, D. Dumitriu, A. Agrawal and T. Chia).
    

16. Moving the Ensemble Groupware System to Windows NT and Wolfpack, in Proceedings of USENIX Windows NT Workshop, August 1997, (with K. Birman, W. Vogels, M. Hayden, T. Hickey, R. Friedman, S. Maffeis, R. van Renesse and A.Vaysburd).  
    

17. Dynamic Light-Weight Groups, in Proceedings of the 17th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS'1997), pages 33-42. Baltimore, Maryland, USA, May 1997, (with L. Rodrigues) (ps, pdf) (slides: ps, pdf).
    

18. A Transparent Light-Weight Group Service, in Proceedings of the 15th IEEE Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems (SRDS'1996), pages 130-139. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, October 1996, (with L. Rodrigues, A. Sargento, R. van Renesse, B. Glade, P. Verisimo and K. Birman) (ps, pdf) (slides: ps, pdf). 
    

19. Structured Virtual Synchrony: Exploring the Bounds of Virtually Synchronous Group Communication, in Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGOPS European Workshop, Connemara, Ireland, September 1996, (with W. Vogels and R. van Renesse). (ps, pdf)

Technical Reports

1. Bandwidth Guaranteed Provisioning in Network-Based Mobile VPNs, K. Guo, S. Mukherjee, S. Rangarajan, and S. Paul, Bell Labs Technical Memorandum BL10009670-030829-02TM, August 2003.

2. Optimal Customer Provisioning in Network-Based Mobile VPNs, K. Guo, S. Mukherjee, S. Paul, and S. Rangarajan, Bell Labs Technical Memorandum BL 10009670-030731-01TM, July 2003.

3. Provisioning Network-Based Mobile VPNs. Bell Labs Technical Memorandum BL10009670-021023-15TM ,  October 2002, (with L. Li, S. Mukherjee, and S. Paul)

4. Analysis of Distributed Data Placement and Replacement Schemes for Cluster Based Streaming Caches, Bell Labs Technical Memorandum BL1009670-001017-04TM, October 2000, (with Y. Chae and M. Buddhikot).

5. Caching Silos and Tokens: Novel Schemes for Data Layout and Replacement in Distributed Streaming Caches over the Internet, Bell Labs Technical Memorandum BL1009670-001017-03TM,  October 2000, (with M. Buddhikot, S. Suri and Y. Chae).

6. Design and Implementation of a Caching System for Streaming Media over the Internet, Bell Labs Technical Memorandum BL011345-990628-05TM, June 1999, (with E. Bommaiah, M. Hofmann and S. Paul).

7. Caching Techniques for Streaming Multimedia over the Internet, Bell Labs Technical Memorandum BL011345-990409-04TM, April 1999, (with M. Hofmann, E. Ng, S. Paul and H. Zhang) (ps, pdf)

8. GSGC: An Efficient Gossip-Style Garbage Collection Scheme for Scalable Reliable Multicast, Computer Science Technical Report CS-TR 97-1656, Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, December 1997, (with M. Hayden, R. van Renesse, W. Vogels and K. Birman). (ps, pdf)

9. Hierarchical Message Stability Tracking Protocols, Computer Science Technical Report CS-TR 97-1647, Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, September 1997, (with R. van Renesse, W. Vogels and K. Birman). (ps, pdf)

10. Dynamic Light-Weight Groups, Computer Science Technical Report CS-TR 96-1612, Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, October 1996, (with L. Rodrigues). (ps, pdf)

11. A Dynamic Light-Weight Group Service, Computer Science Technical Report CS-TR 96-1611, Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, October 1996, (with L. Rodrigues, A. Sargento, R, van Renesse, B. Glade, P. Verissimo and K. Birman). (ps, pdf)

12. A Transparent Light-Weight Group Service, Computer Science Technical Report CS-TR 96-1585, Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, May 1996, (with L. Rodrigues, A. Sargento, R, van Renesse, B. Glade, P. Verissimo and K. Birman). (ps, pdf)

13. Horus: A Flexible Group Communications System, Computer Science Technical Report CS-TR 95-1500, Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, March 1995, (with R. van Renesse, K. P. Birman, B. Glade, M. Hayden, T. Hickey, D. Malki, A. Vaysburd and W. Vogels) (ps, pdf)

Patent Issued

1. Method And Apparatus For Supporting Real-Time Multi-User Distributed Applications, U.S. Patent Number 7133927, issued on November 7, 2006.

2. Method and System for Data Layout and Replacement in Distributed Steaming Caches on a Network, U.S. Patent Number 7085843, issued on August 1, 2006.

3. Method and System for Data Layout and Replacement in Distributed Steaming Caches on the Internet, U.S. Patent Number 6999988, issued on February 14, 2006.

4. Method for Streaming Multimedia Information over Public Networks, U.S. Patent Number 6708213, issued on March 16, 2004. 

Professional Activities

• Editor, Wireless Networks, The Journal of Mobile Communication, Computation and Information (WINET Journal)

• Program Co-Chair, 1st and 2nd ACM International Workshop on Mobility in the Evolving Internet Architecture (MobiArch'2006, MobiArch'2007)

• General Chair, 16th IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (IEEE ICCCN'2007).

• Program Co-Chair, 15th IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (IEEE ICCCN'2006).

• Program Vice-Chair, 26th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (IEEE ICDCS'2006). 

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1998 - Advisor: Ken Birman
Dissertation: Scalable Message Stability Detection Protocols (ps, pdf)
M.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1995.

B.S. in Computer Science and B.A. in Mathematics from University of Texas at Austin, 1992.

Katherine Guo

Mail to kguo@bell-labs.com to send comments or suggestions concerning this page.

Last updated 4/5/2007
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