Massimiliano Ruocco

Circle Attention: Forecasting Network Traffic by Learning Interpretable Spatial Relationships from Intersecting Circles (2023)

Circle Attention: Forecasting Network Traffic by Learning Interpretable Spatial Relationships from Intersecting Circles (2023)

ECML-PKDD 2023

Abstract Accurately forecasting traffic in telecommunication networks is essential for operators to efficiently allocate resources, provide better services, and save energy. We propose Circle Attention, a novel spatial attention mechanism for telecom traffic forecasting, which directly models the area of effect of neighboring cell towers. Cell towers typically point in three different geographical directions, called sectors. Circle Attention models the relationships between sectors of neighboring cell towers by assigning a circle with learnable parameters to each sector, which are: the azimuth of the sector, the distance from the cell tower to the center of the circle, and the radius of the circle.
Navigating the Metric Maze: A Taxonomy of Evaluation Metrics for Anomaly Detection in Time Series (2023)

Navigating the Metric Maze: A Taxonomy of Evaluation Metrics for Anomaly Detection in Time Series (2023)

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery

Abstract The field of time series anomaly detection is constantly advancing, with several methods available, making it a challenge to determine the most appropriate method for a specific domain. The evaluation of these methods is facilitated by the use of metrics, which vary widely in their properties. Despite the existence of new evaluation metrics, there is limited agreement on which metrics are best suited for specific scenarios and domain, and the most commonly used metrics have faced criticism in the literature.
Persistence initialization: A novel adaptation of the transformer architecture for time series forecasting (2023)

Persistence initialization: A novel adaptation of the transformer architecture for time series forecasting (2023)

Applied Intelligence

Abstract Time series forecasting is an important problem, with many real world applications. Transformer models have been successfully applied to natural language processing tasks, but have received relatively little attention for time series forecasting. Motivated by the differences between classification tasks and forecasting, we propose PI-Transformer, an adaptation of the Transformer architecture designed for time series forecasting, consisting of three parts: First, we propose a novel initialization method called Persistence Initialization, with the goal of increasing training stability of forecasting models by ensuring that the initial outputs of an untrained model are identical to the outputs of a simple baseline model.
Global Transformer Architecture for Indoor Room Temperature Forecasting (2023)

Global Transformer Architecture for Indoor Room Temperature Forecasting (2023)

CISBAT 2023

Abstract A thorough regulation of building energy systems translates in relevant energy savings and in a better comfort for the occupants. Algorithms to predict the thermal state of a building on a certain time horizon with a good confidence are essential for the implementation of effective control systems. This work presents a global Transformer architecture for indoor temperature forecasting in multi-room buildings, aiming at optimizing energy consumption and reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with HVAC systems.