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While distance function learning for supervised learning tasks has a long history, extending it to learning tasks with weaker supervisory information has only been studied recently. In particular, some methods have been proposed for semisupervised metric learning based on pairwise similarity or dissimilarity information. In this paper, we propose a kernel approach for semisupervised metric learning and present in detail two special cases of this kernel approach. The metric learning problem is thus formulated as an optimization problem for kernel learning. An attractive property of the optimization problem is that it is convex and, hence, has no local optima. While a closed-form solution exists for the first special case, the second case is solved using an iterative majorization procedure to estimate the optimal solution asymptotically. Experimental results based on both synthetic and real-world data show that this new kernel approach is promising for nonlinear metric learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet traffic identification is an important tool for network management. It allows operators to better predict future traffic matrices and demands, security personnel to detect anomalous behavior, and researchers to develop more realistic traffic models. We present here a traffic classifier that can achieve a high accuracy across a range of application types without any source or destination host-address or port information. We use supervised machine learning based on a Bayesian trained neural network. Though our technique uses training data with categories derived from packet content, training and testing were done using features derived from packet streams consisting of one or more packet headers. By providing classification without access to the contents of packets, our technique offers wider application than methods that require full packet/payloads for classification. This is a powerful advantage, using samples of classified traffic to permit the categorization of traffic based only upon commonly available information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]