87 Search Results for "Scott, Ryan"


Document
Hardness Results on Characteristics for Elastic-Degenerate Strings

Authors: Dominik Köppl and Jannik Olbrich

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 369, 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)


Abstract
Generalizations of plain strings have been proposed as a compact way to represent a collection of nearly identical sequences or to express uncertainty at specific text positions by enumerating all possibilities. While a plain string stores a character at each of its positions, generalizations consider a set of characters (indeterminate strings), a set of strings of equal length (generalized degenerate strings, or shortly GD strings), or a set of strings of arbitrary lengths (elastic-degenerate strings, or shortly ED strings). These generalizations are of importance to compactly represent such type of data, and find applications in bioinformatics for representing and maintaining a set of genetic sequences of the same taxonomy or a multiple sequence alignment. To be of use, attention has been drawn to answering various query types such as pattern matching or measuring similarity of ED strings by generalizing techniques known to plain strings. However, for some types of queries, it has been shown that a generalization of a polynomial-time solvable query on classic strings becomes NP-hard on ED strings, e.g. [Russo et al., 2022]. In that light, we wonder about other types of queries that are of particular interest to bioinformatics: unique substrings, absent words, anti-powers, longest previous factors, and Lempel-Ziv-like compression schemes. While we obtain a polynomial time algorithm for a variation of longest previous factors, we show that all other problems are NP-hard to compute, some of them even under the restriction that the input can be modeled as an indeterminate or GD string.

Cite as

Dominik Köppl and Jannik Olbrich. Hardness Results on Characteristics for Elastic-Degenerate Strings. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 14:1-14:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{koppl_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.14,
  author =	{K\"{o}ppl, Dominik and Olbrich, Jannik},
  title =	{{Hardness Results on Characteristics for Elastic-Degenerate Strings}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-420-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{369},
  editor =	{Bille, Philip and Prezza, Nicola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.14},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259409},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: Elastic-degenerate strings, NP-hardness, longest common factor, minimal unique substring, minimal absent word, anti-power, longest previous factor}
}
Document
Discovering and Repairing Flaws in C Binaries Without Requiring Codebase and Instrumentation

Authors: Diogo Ferreira and Ibéria Medeiros

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 143, 30th Ada-Europe International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies (AEiC 2026)


Abstract
Industrial and embedded software systems frequently integrate various third-party components sourced from diverse providers into their codebases. These systems are commonly developed in C, a language known for its lack of variable bounds checking, making it vulnerable to Buffer Overflows (BOs), which, when exploited, can cause severe damage. Consequently, the binary code resulting from vulnerable C programs is also vulnerable and remains so in the final products. Fixing these software systems is challenging because only binary code is available. This paper presents PatchBin, a binary patching tool to automatically fix BO vulnerabilities and validate the effectiveness of fixes while ensuring no new flaws are introduced. The approach involves a combination of fuzzing, reverse static analysis and static rewriting techniques to, respectively, (i) identify possible malicious inputs that can trigger BOs, (ii) find their root cause by employing reverse data flow analysis, and (iii) remove them by rewriting the binary code with effective validation, thus generating a new binary without the original flaws and new ones. Experimental evaluations with synthetic and real-world applications demonstrated that PatchBin detects and fixes BO in binary programs without introducing new vulnerabilities. The results showed that PatchBin is an important aid for industrial partners, enabling them to test and fix their products, including third-party components, without access to source code, but only to binary code.

Cite as

Diogo Ferreira and Ibéria Medeiros. Discovering and Repairing Flaws in C Binaries Without Requiring Codebase and Instrumentation. In 30th Ada-Europe International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies (AEiC 2026). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 143, pp. 2:1-2:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{ferreira_et_al:OASIcs.AEiC.2026.2,
  author =	{Ferreira, Diogo and Medeiros, Ib\'{e}ria},
  title =	{{Discovering and Repairing Flaws in C Binaries Without Requiring Codebase and Instrumentation}},
  booktitle =	{30th Ada-Europe International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies (AEiC 2026)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:19},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-425-3},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{143},
  editor =	{Filieri, Antonio and Backeman, Peter},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.AEiC.2026.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259209},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.AEiC.2026.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities, Binary Patching, Reverse Engineering, Static Analysis, Software Security}
}
Document
When to Ask a Question: Understanding Communication Strategies in Generative AI Tools

Authors: Charlotte Park, Kate Donahue, and Manish Raghavan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 368, 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)


Abstract
Generative AI models differ from traditional machine learning tools in that they allow users to provide as much or as little information as they choose in their inputs. This flexibility often leads users to omit certain details, relying on the models to infer and fill in under-specified information based on distributional knowledge of user preferences. Such inferences may privilege majority viewpoints and disadvantage users with atypical preferences, raising concerns about fairness. Unlike more traditional recommender systems, LLMs can explicitly solicit more information from users through natural language. However, while directly eliciting user preferences could increase personalization and mitigate inequality, excessive querying places a burden on users who value efficiency. We develop a stylized model of user-LLM interaction and develop an objective that captures tradeoff between user burden and preference representation. Building on the observation that individual preferences are often correlated, we analyze how AI systems should balance inference and elicitation, characterizing the optimal amount of information to solicit before content generation. Ultimately, we show that information elicitation can mitigate the systematic biases of preference inference, enabling the design of generative tools that better incorporate diverse user perspectives while maintaining efficiency. We complement this theoretical analysis with an empirical evaluation illustrating the model’s predictions and exploring their practical implications.

Cite as

Charlotte Park, Kate Donahue, and Manish Raghavan. When to Ask a Question: Understanding Communication Strategies in Generative AI Tools. In 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 368, pp. 7:1-7:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{park_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2026.7,
  author =	{Park, Charlotte and Donahue, Kate and Raghavan, Manish},
  title =	{{When to Ask a Question: Understanding Communication Strategies in Generative AI Tools}},
  booktitle =	{7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-419-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{368},
  editor =	{Lin, Huijia (Rachel)},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259782},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: human-AI interaction, user modeling, personalization}
}
Document
Privacy, Prediction, and Allocation

Authors: Ben Jacobsen and Nitin Kohli

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 368, 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)


Abstract
Algorithmic predictions are increasingly used to inform the allocation of scarce resources. The promise of these methods is that, through machine learning, they can better identify the people who would benefit most from interventions. Recently, however, several works have called this assumption into question by demonstrating the existence of settings where simple, unit-level allocation strategies can meet or even exceed the performance of those based on individual-level targeting. Separately, other works have objected to individual-level targeting on privacy grounds, leading to an unusual situation where a single solution, unit-level targeting, is recommended for reasons of both privacy and utility. Motivated by the desire to fully understand the interplay of privacy and targeting levels, we initiate the study of aid allocation systems that satisfy differential privacy, synthesizing existing works on private optimization with the economic models of aid allocation used in the non-private literature. To this end, we investigate private variants of both individual and unit-level allocation strategies in both stochastic and distribution-free settings under a range of constraints on data availability. Through this analysis, we provide clean, interpretable bounds characterizing the tradeoffs between privacy, efficiency, and targeting precision in allocation.

Cite as

Ben Jacobsen and Nitin Kohli. Privacy, Prediction, and Allocation. In 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 368, pp. 20:1-20:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{jacobsen_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2026.20,
  author =	{Jacobsen, Ben and Kohli, Nitin},
  title =	{{Privacy, Prediction, and Allocation}},
  booktitle =	{7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)},
  pages =	{20:1--20:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-419-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{368},
  editor =	{Lin, Huijia (Rachel)},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.20},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259935},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.20},
  annote =	{Keywords: Differential privacy, fair allocation, limits of prediction}
}
Document
Contracts: A Unified Lens on Congestion Control Robustness, Fairness, Congestion, and Generality

Authors: Anup Agarwal, Venkat Arun, and Srinivasan Seshan

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 139, 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)


Abstract
Congestion control algorithms (CCAs) operate in partially observable environments. They cannot directly observe link capacities or competing flows. To share network resources fairly, CCAs (implicitly) communicate fair shares through observable signals. For instance, Reno encodes the fair share as ∝ 1/√{loss rate}. We call such communication mechanisms as contracts. We find that the choice of contract fixes key steady-state performance metrics, including (1) robustness to errors in congestion signals, (2) fairness, (3) amount of congestion (e.g., delay, loss), and (4) generality (e.g., range of supported link rates). This leads to fundamental tradeoffs between these metrics. Further, we show that many contracts lead to starvation (extreme unfairness), and must be avoided. Hence, contracts are a powerful way to analyze tradeoffs and avoid pitfalls in CCA design and analysis. We empirically validate our findings and discuss their implications on CCA design and network measurement.

Cite as

Anup Agarwal, Venkat Arun, and Srinivasan Seshan. Contracts: A Unified Lens on Congestion Control Robustness, Fairness, Congestion, and Generality. In 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 139, pp. 8:1-8:30, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{agarwal_et_al:OASIcs.NINeS.2026.8,
  author =	{Agarwal, Anup and Arun, Venkat and Seshan, Srinivasan},
  title =	{{Contracts: A Unified Lens on Congestion Control Robustness, Fairness, Congestion, and Generality}},
  booktitle =	{1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:30},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-414-7},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{139},
  editor =	{Argyraki, Katerina and Panda, Aurojit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255933},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: Transport Protocols, Congestion Control, Fairness}
}
Document
No Signal to Rule Them All: A Systematic Analysis of In-Network Congestion Signals

Authors: Sarah McClure, Nandita Dukkipati, Sylvia Ratnasamy, and Scott Shenker

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 139, 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)


Abstract
In this paper, we address the following question: what in-network signals should a network provide to congestion control algorithms? To answer this guiding question, we use prior work to automatically generate congestion control algorithms optimized for a given performance objective and set of in-network congestion signals. We then make observations about the relative value of these congestion signals across a range of performance objectives. Our analysis yields a surprising central finding: for the average case, sophisticated In-Network Telemetry (INT) offers minimal performance benefits over traditional end-to-end (E2E) signals, with performance typically within 3%. We also find no single "best" INT signal, but rather a clear trade-off that manifests in many scenarios: link-based signals often excel at controlling delay, while queue-based signals are better for maximizing throughput. To make these findings concrete, we validate them by examining the extent to which in-network signals improve the performance of the BBR congestion control algorithm.

Cite as

Sarah McClure, Nandita Dukkipati, Sylvia Ratnasamy, and Scott Shenker. No Signal to Rule Them All: A Systematic Analysis of In-Network Congestion Signals. In 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 139, pp. 12:1-12:30, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{mcclure_et_al:OASIcs.NINeS.2026.12,
  author =	{McClure, Sarah and Dukkipati, Nandita and Ratnasamy, Sylvia and Shenker, Scott},
  title =	{{No Signal to Rule Them All: A Systematic Analysis of In-Network Congestion Signals}},
  booktitle =	{1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)},
  pages =	{12:1--12:30},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-414-7},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{139},
  editor =	{Argyraki, Katerina and Panda, Aurojit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255974},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: Congestion control, in-network telemetry}
}
Document
In-Kernel Aggregation and Broadcast Acceleration for Distributed Communication

Authors: Jianchang Su, Yifan Zhang, and Wei Zhang

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 139, 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)


Abstract
Broadcasting and aggregation dominate the communication overhead in distributed systems, from machine learning training to data analytics. Current acceleration approaches require specialized hardware (RDMA) or dedicated resources (DPDK), limiting their deployment in commodity clouds. However, we present a counter-intuitive alternative: rather than bypassing the kernel, we move operations into it using eBPF. While this imposes severe constraints including no floating-point, limited memory, and stateless execution, we show these restrictions paradoxically drive innovative protocol designs that yield unexpected benefits. We introduce AggBox, which implements broadcast and aggregation operations entirely within eBPF’s constrained environment. Our key innovations include stateless group acknowledgments for reliability, edge quantization for floating-point aggregation using only integer arithmetic, and tail-call chains that create virtual memory beyond eBPF’s 512-byte stack limit. These designs emerge from and exploit the constraints rather than fighting them. AggBox achieves remarkable performance on commodity hardware: 84.5% reduction in broadcast latency, 43× speedup for MapReduce workloads, and 56.1% faster ML gradient aggregation, all without specialized NICs or dedicated cores. Beyond performance, our work demonstrates that constrained environments can drive fundamental innovation in protocol design, offering insights for future resource-limited and verified systems.

Cite as

Jianchang Su, Yifan Zhang, and Wei Zhang. In-Kernel Aggregation and Broadcast Acceleration for Distributed Communication. In 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 139, pp. 13:1-13:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{su_et_al:OASIcs.NINeS.2026.13,
  author =	{Su, Jianchang and Zhang, Yifan and Zhang, Wei},
  title =	{{In-Kernel Aggregation and Broadcast Acceleration for Distributed Communication}},
  booktitle =	{1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)},
  pages =	{13:1--13:23},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-414-7},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{139},
  editor =	{Argyraki, Katerina and Panda, Aurojit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.13},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255981},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.13},
  annote =	{Keywords: eBPF, distributed communication, broadcast, aggregation, in-kernel processing, XDP}
}
Document
OpenFLAME: A Federated Spatial Naming Infrastructure

Authors: Sagar Bharadwaj, Ziyong Ma, Ivan Liang, Michael Farb, Anthony Rowe, and Srinivasan Seshan

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 139, 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)


Abstract
Spatial applications, i.e., applications that tie digital information with the physical world, have improved many of our daily activities, such as navigation and ride-sharing. This class of applications also holds significant promise of enabling new industries such as augmented reality and robotics. The development of these applications is enabled by a system that can resolve real-world locations to names, or a spatial naming system. Today, mapping platforms provided by organizations like Google and Apple serve as spatial naming systems. These maps are centralized and primarily cover outdoor spaces. We envision that future spatial applications, such as persistent world-scale augmented reality, would require detailed and precise spatial data across indoor and outdoor spaces. The scale of cartography efforts required to survey indoor spaces and their privacy needs inhibit existing centralized maps from incorporating such spaces into their platform. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of OpenFLAME, a federated spatial naming system, or in other words, a federated mapping infrastructure. OpenFLAME enables independent parties to manage and serve their own maps of physical regions. This unlocks scalability of map management, isolation, and privacy of maps. The discovery system that identifies maps hosted at a given location is a primary component of OpenFLAME. We implement OpenFLAME on top of the existing Domain Name System (DNS), which enables us to leverage its existing infrastructure. We implement map services such as address-to-location mapping, routing, and localization on top of our federated mapping infrastructure.

Cite as

Sagar Bharadwaj, Ziyong Ma, Ivan Liang, Michael Farb, Anthony Rowe, and Srinivasan Seshan. OpenFLAME: A Federated Spatial Naming Infrastructure. In 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 139, pp. 20:1-20:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{bharadwaj_et_al:OASIcs.NINeS.2026.20,
  author =	{Bharadwaj, Sagar and Ma, Ziyong and Liang, Ivan and Farb, Michael and Rowe, Anthony and Seshan, Srinivasan},
  title =	{{OpenFLAME: A Federated Spatial Naming Infrastructure}},
  booktitle =	{1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)},
  pages =	{20:1--20:26},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-414-7},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{139},
  editor =	{Argyraki, Katerina and Panda, Aurojit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.20},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-256051},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.20},
  annote =	{Keywords: Geographic naming system, Augmented reality, Robotics}
}
Document
Accio: Rethinking OS-Architecture Co-Design for Next-Gen I/O

Authors: Amirmohammad Nazari, Rajit Manohar, and Robert Soulé

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 139, 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)


Abstract
In this paper, we propose a novel software/hardware design to improve I/O performance while maintaining existing POSIX-standard APIs. Our approach stands in contrast to existing kernel-bypass strategies that improve performance at the expense of abandoning familiar programming abstractions. Our key insight is that navigating the performance-functionality trade-off requires changes to the processor; it cannot be done without support of the CPU micro-architecture. Our design, called Accio, includes: dedicated hardware for interrupt management, a hardware assist for thread scheduling, tables in hardware that manage I/O state, and modifications to the operating system to support the new hardware. Our evaluation demonstrates that Accio saturates the bus bandwidth, reduces CPU usage by up to 66% compared to state-of-the-art kernel-bypass systems, and reduces latency to 1/12th of that of the Linux kernel, matching that of kernel-bypass systems.

Cite as

Amirmohammad Nazari, Rajit Manohar, and Robert Soulé. Accio: Rethinking OS-Architecture Co-Design for Next-Gen I/O. In 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 139, pp. 21:1-21:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{nazari_et_al:OASIcs.NINeS.2026.21,
  author =	{Nazari, Amirmohammad and Manohar, Rajit and Soul\'{e}, Robert},
  title =	{{Accio: Rethinking OS-Architecture Co-Design for Next-Gen I/O}},
  booktitle =	{1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)},
  pages =	{21:1--21:24},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-414-7},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{139},
  editor =	{Argyraki, Katerina and Panda, Aurojit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.21},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-256063},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.21},
  annote =	{Keywords: Networks, Operating Systems, I/O Optimization}
}
Document
Understanding Partial Reachability in the Internet Core

Authors: Guillermo Baltra, Tarang Saluja, Yuri Pradkin, and John Heidemann

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 139, 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)


Abstract
Routing strives to connect all the Internet, but compete: political pressure threatens routing fragmentation; architectural changes such as private clouds, carrier-grade NAT, and firewalls make connectivity conditional; and commercial disputes create partial reachability for days or years. This paper suggests persistent, partial reachability is fundamental to the Internet and an underexplored problem. We first derive a conceptual definition of the Internet core based on connectivity, not authority. We identify peninsulas: persistent, partial connectivity; and islands: when computers are partitioned from the Internet core. Second, we develop algorithms to observe each across the Internet, and apply them to two existing measurement systems: Trinocular, where 6 locations observe 5M networks frequently, and RIPE Atlas, where 13k locations scan the DNS roots frequently. Cross-validation shows our findings are stable over three years of data, and consistent with as few as 3 geographically-distributed observers. We validate peninsulas and islands against CAIDA Ark, showing good recall (0.94) and bounding precision between 0.42 and 0.82. Finally, our work has broad practical impact: we show that peninsulas are more common than Internet outages. Factoring out peninsulas and islands as noise can improve existing measurement systems; their "noise" is 5× to 9.7× larger than the operational events in RIPE’s DNSmon. We show that most peninsula events are routing transients (45%), but most peninsula-time (90%) is due to a few (7%) long-lived events. Our work helps inform Internet policy and governance, with our neutral definition showing no single country or organization can unilaterally control the Internet core.

Cite as

Guillermo Baltra, Tarang Saluja, Yuri Pradkin, and John Heidemann. Understanding Partial Reachability in the Internet Core. In 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 139, pp. 4:1-4:32, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{baltra_et_al:OASIcs.NINeS.2026.4,
  author =	{Baltra, Guillermo and Saluja, Tarang and Pradkin, Yuri and Heidemann, John},
  title =	{{Understanding Partial Reachability in the Internet Core}},
  booktitle =	{1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)},
  pages =	{4:1--4:32},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-414-7},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{139},
  editor =	{Argyraki, Katerina and Panda, Aurojit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.4},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255892},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: Internet, Internet reliability, Network outages, Active measurements}
}
Document
OrbitalBrain: A Distributed Framework for Training ML Models in Space

Authors: Om Chabra, Chenning Li, Kevin Hsieh, Santiago Segarra, Behnaz Arzani, Peder Olsen, and Ranveer Chandra

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 139, 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)


Abstract
Earth observation nanosatellites capture high-resolution photos of the Earth in near real-time. These images increasingly support ML applications that are critical for safety and response, such as forest fire and flood detection. However, the downlink bandwidth is limited, resulting in days or weeks of delay from image capture to training. In this work, we propose OrbitalBrain, an efficient in-space distributed ML training framework that leverages limited and predictable satellite compute, bandwidth, and power to intelligently balance data transfer, model aggregation, and local training. Our evaluations demonstrate that OrbitalBrain achieves 1.52×-12.4× speedup in time-to-accuracy while always reaching a higher final model accuracy compared to state-of-the-art ground-based or federated learning baselines. Furthermore, our approach is complementary to satellite imagery capturing and downloading, enhancing the overall efficiency of satellite-based applications.

Cite as

Om Chabra, Chenning Li, Kevin Hsieh, Santiago Segarra, Behnaz Arzani, Peder Olsen, and Ranveer Chandra. OrbitalBrain: A Distributed Framework for Training ML Models in Space. In 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 139, pp. 5:1-5:32, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{chabra_et_al:OASIcs.NINeS.2026.5,
  author =	{Chabra, Om and Li, Chenning and Hsieh, Kevin and Segarra, Santiago and Arzani, Behnaz and Olsen, Peder and Chandra, Ranveer},
  title =	{{OrbitalBrain: A Distributed Framework for Training ML Models in Space}},
  booktitle =	{1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)},
  pages =	{5:1--5:32},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-414-7},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{139},
  editor =	{Argyraki, Katerina and Panda, Aurojit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255907},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: Satellite networks, Distributed machine learning, Federated learning, Earth observation, In-orbit computing}
}
Document
New Algebrization Barriers to Circuit Lower Bounds via Communication Complexity of Missing-String

Authors: Lijie Chen, Yang Hu, and Hanlin Ren

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
The algebrization barrier, proposed by Aaronson and Wigderson (STOC '08, ToCT '09), captures the limitations of many complexity-theoretic techniques based on arithmetization. Notably, several circuit lower bounds that overcome the relativization barrier (Buhrman-Fortnow-Thierauf, CCC '98; Vinodchandran, TCS '05; Santhanam, STOC '07, SICOMP '09) remain subject to the algebrization barrier. In this work, we establish several new algebrization barriers to circuit lower bounds by studying the communication complexity of the following problem, called XOR-Missing-String: For m < 2^{n/2}, Alice gets a list of m strings x₁, … , x_m ∈ {0, 1}ⁿ, Bob gets a list of m strings y₁, … , y_m ∈ {0, 1}ⁿ, and the goal is to output a string s ∈ {0, 1}ⁿ that is not equal to x_i⊕ y_j for any i, j ∈ [m]. 1) We construct an oracle A₁ and its multilinear extension A₁̃ such that PostBPE^{A₁̃} has linear-size A₁-oracle circuits on infinitely many input lengths. That is, proving PostBPE ̸ ⊆ i.o.- SIZE[O(n)] requires non-algebrizing techniques. This barrier follows from a PostBPP communication lower bound for XOR-Missing-String. This is in contrast to the well-known algebrizing lower bound MA_E (⊆ PostBPE) ̸ ⊆ P/_poly. 2) We construct an oracle A₂ and its multilinear extension A₂̃ such that BPE^{A₂̃} has linear-size A₂-oracle circuits on all input lengths. Previously, a similar barrier was demonstrated by Aaronson and Wigderson, but in their result, A₂̃ is only a multiquadratic extension of A₂. Our results show that communication complexity is more useful than previously thought for proving algebrization barriers, as Aaronson and Wigderson wrote that communication-based barriers were "more contrived". This serves as an example of how XOR-Missing-String forms new connections between communication lower bounds and algebrization barriers. 3) Finally, we study algebrization barriers to circuit lower bounds for MA_E. Buhrman, Fortnow, and Thierauf proved a sub-half-exponential circuit lower bound for MA_E via algebrizing techniques. Toward understanding whether the half-exponential bound can be improved, we define a natural subclass of MA_E that includes their hard MA_E language, and prove the following result: For every super-half-exponential function h(n), we construct an oracle A₃ and its multilinear extension A₃̃ such that this natural subclass of MA_E^{A₃̃} has h(n)-size A₃-oracle circuits on all input lengths. This suggests that half-exponential might be the correct barrier for MA_E circuit lower bounds w.r.t. algebrizing techniques.

Cite as

Lijie Chen, Yang Hu, and Hanlin Ren. New Algebrization Barriers to Circuit Lower Bounds via Communication Complexity of Missing-String. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 37:1-37:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.37,
  author =	{Chen, Lijie and Hu, Yang and Ren, Hanlin},
  title =	{{New Algebrization Barriers to Circuit Lower Bounds via Communication Complexity of Missing-String}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{37:1--37:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.37},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253246},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.37},
  annote =	{Keywords: circuit lower bound, algebrization barrier, missing string, communication complexity}
}
Document
Lower Bounds and Separations for Torus Polynomials

Authors: Vaibhav Krishan and Sundar Vishwanathan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
The class ACC⁰ consists of Boolean functions that can be computed by constant-depth circuits of polynomial size with AND, NOT and MOD_m gates, where m is a natural number. At the frontier of our understanding lies a widely believed conjecture asserting that MAJORITY does not belong to ACC⁰. A few years ago, Bhrushundi, Hosseini, Lovett and Rao (ITCS 2019) introduced torus polynomial approximations as an approach towards this conjecture. Torus polynomials approximate Boolean functions when the fractional part of their value on Boolean points is close to half the value of the function. They reduced the conjecture that MAJORITY ∉ ACC⁰ to a conjecture concerning the non-existence of low degree torus polynomials that approximate MAJORITY. We reduce the non-existence problem further, to a statement about finding feasible solutions for an infinite family of linear programs. The main advantage of this statement is that it allows for incremental progress, which means finding feasible solutions for successively larger collections of these programs. As an immediate first step, we find feasible solutions for a large class of these linear programs, leaving only a finite set for further consideration. Our method is inspired by the method of dual polynomials, which is used to study the approximate degree of Boolean functions. Using our method, we also propose a way to progress further. We prove several additional key results with the same method, which include: - A lower bound on the degree of symmetric torus polynomials that approximate the AND function. As a consequence, we get a separation that symmetric torus polynomials are weaker than their asymmetric counterparts. - An error-degree trade-off for symmetric torus polynomials approximating the MAJORITY function, strengthening the corresponding result of Bhrushundi, Hosseini, Lovett and Rao (ITCS 2019). - The first lower bounds against torus polynomials approximating AND, showcasing the power of the machinery we develop. This lower bound nearly matches the corresponding upper bound. Hence, we get an almost complete characterization of the torus polynomial approximation degree of AND. - Lower bounds against asymmetric torus polynomials approximating MAJORITY, or AND, in the very low error regime. This partially answers a question posed in Bhrushundi, Hosseini, Lovett and Rao (ITCS 2019) about error-reduction for torus polynomials.

Cite as

Vaibhav Krishan and Sundar Vishwanathan. Lower Bounds and Separations for Torus Polynomials. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 88:1-88:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{krishan_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.88,
  author =	{Krishan, Vaibhav and Vishwanathan, Sundar},
  title =	{{Lower Bounds and Separations for Torus Polynomials}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{88:1--88:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.88},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253751},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.88},
  annote =	{Keywords: Circuit complexity, ACC, lower bounds, polynomials}
}
Document
The Hardness of Learning Quantum Circuits and Its Cryptographic Applications

Authors: Bill Fefferman, Soumik Ghosh, Makrand Sinha, and Henry Yuen

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
We show that concrete hardness assumptions about learning or cloning the output state of a random quantum circuit can be used as the foundation for secure quantum cryptography. In particular, under these assumptions we construct secure one-way state generators (OWSGs), digital signature schemes, quantum bit commitments, and private key encryption schemes. We also discuss evidence for these hardness assumptions by analyzing the best-known quantum learning algorithms, as well as proving black-box lower bounds for cloning and learning given state preparation oracles. Our random circuit-based constructions provide concrete instantiations of quantum cryptographic primitives whose security do not depend on the existence of one-way functions. The use of random circuits in our constructions also opens the door to {NISQ-friendly quantum cryptography}. We discuss noise tolerant versions of our OWSG and digital signature constructions which can potentially be implementable on noisy quantum computers connected by a quantum network. On the other hand, they are still secure against {noiseless} quantum adversaries, raising the intriguing possibility of a useful implementation of an end-to-end cryptographic protocol on near-term quantum computers. Finally, our explorations suggest that the rich interconnections between learning theory and cryptography in classical theoretical computer science also extend to the quantum setting.

Cite as

Bill Fefferman, Soumik Ghosh, Makrand Sinha, and Henry Yuen. The Hardness of Learning Quantum Circuits and Its Cryptographic Applications. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 56:1-56:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{fefferman_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.56,
  author =	{Fefferman, Bill and Ghosh, Soumik and Sinha, Makrand and Yuen, Henry},
  title =	{{The Hardness of Learning Quantum Circuits and Its Cryptographic Applications}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{56:1--56:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.56},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253431},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.56},
  annote =	{Keywords: quantum learning, quantum circuits, cryptographic hardness, one-way state generators}
}
Document
Total Search Problems in ZPP

Authors: Noah Fleming, Stefan Grosser, Siddhartha Jain, Jiawei Li, Hanlin Ren, Morgan Shirley, and Weiqiang Yuan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
We initiate a systematic study of TFZPP, the class of total NP search problems solvable by polynomial time randomized algorithms. TFZPP contains a variety of important search problems such as Bertrand-Chebyshev (finding a prime between N and 2N), refuter problems for many circuit lower bounds, and Lossy-Code. The Lossy-Code problem has found prominence due to its fundamental connections to derandomization, catalytic computing, and the metamathematics of complexity theory, among other areas. While TFZPP collapses to FP under standard derandomization assumptions in the white-box setting, we are able to separate TFZPP from the major TFNP subclasses in the black-box setting. In fact, we are able to separate it from every uniform TFNP class assuming that NP is not in quasi-polynomial time. To do so, we extend the connection between proof complexity and black-box TFNP to randomized proof systems and randomized reductions. Next, we turn to developing a taxonomy of TFZPP problems. We highlight a problem called Nephew, originating from an infinity axiom in set theory. We show that Nephew is in PWPP∩ TFZPP and conjecture that it is not reducible to Lossy-Code. Intriguingly, except for some artificial examples, most other black-box TFZPP problems that we are aware of reduce to Lossy-Code: - We define a problem called Empty-Child capturing finding a leaf in a rooted (binary) tree, and show that this problem is equivalent to Lossy-Code. We also show that a variant of Empty-Child with "heights" is complete for the intersection of SOPL and Lossy-Code. - We strengthen Lossy-Code with several combinatorial inequalities such as the AM-GM inequality. Somewhat surprisingly, we show the resulting new problems are still reducible to Lossy-Code. A technical highlight of this result is that they are proved by formalizations in bounded arithmetic, specifically in Jeřábek’s theory APC₁ (JSL 2007). - Finally, we show that the Dense-Linear-Ordering problem reduces to Lossy-Code.

Cite as

Noah Fleming, Stefan Grosser, Siddhartha Jain, Jiawei Li, Hanlin Ren, Morgan Shirley, and Weiqiang Yuan. Total Search Problems in ZPP. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 60:1-60:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{fleming_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.60,
  author =	{Fleming, Noah and Grosser, Stefan and Jain, Siddhartha and Li, Jiawei and Ren, Hanlin and Shirley, Morgan and Yuan, Weiqiang},
  title =	{{Total Search Problems in ZPP}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{60:1--60:26},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.60},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253473},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.60},
  annote =	{Keywords: TFNP, lossy code, randomized proof systems, query complexity}
}
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