A tensor-network-based big data fusion framework for Cyber–Physical–Social Systems (CPSS)

Abstract

Big data has been continuously generated from the rapidly developing of cloud/fog/edge computing, Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G technology. This big data not only brings great benefits and opportunities to human beings but also brings many risks and challenges. One major challenge is how to represent and treat higher-order and heterogeneous data from multi-sources. Tensors are emerging as powerful tools for representation and modeling of this data. Tensor decomposition can be used to extract potentially useful information from this data. Thus, it has attracted much attention from the big data community. The main target of this paper is to propose a novel data fusion framework to solve several main challenges of CPSS data applications, including CPSS big data representation, fusion, efficient computing, storage, robustness, and security issues. In this paper, we use many graphics to visualize complex tensor decomposition and transformation processes. The visualization may help the readers better understand tensor and tensor decomposition. It also provides a general guideline and a good starting point for those who are interested in tensor and tensor decomposition. Specifically, we first introduce the most extensively used matrix and tensor decomposition methods. Second, the current popular data fusion methods are reviewed and summarized. Third, we propose a novel tensor-network-conversion-based data fusion approach which can simultaneously analyze multiple matrices and multiple tensors. To better understand this approach, we give a brief review of tensor network. Fourth, based on the proposed approach, a novel CPSS big data fusion framework is proposed in this paper. Meanwhile, we verify it by a concise case study. Finally, some challenges and open problems of the proposed framework are discussed. The discussion also includes some exciting future research directions in the big data fusion field.