This paper develops a design method and theoretical analysis for piecewise nonlinear oscillators that have desired circular limit cycles. Especially, the mathematical proof on existence, uniqueness, and stability of the limit cycle is shown for the piecewise nonlinear oscillator. In addition, the relationship between parameters in the oscillator and rotational directions and periods of the limit cycle trajectories is investigated. Then, some numerical simulations show that the piecewise nonlinear oscillator has a unique and stable limit cycle and the properties on rotational directions and periods hold.

To enhance safety and efficiency in the traffic environment, developing intelligent transportation systems (ITSs) is of paramount importance. In ITSs, roadside units (RSUs) are critical components that enable the environment awareness and connectivity via using radar sensing and communications. In this paper, we focus on RSUs with multiple radar systems. Specifically, we propose a parameter selection method of multiple radar systems to enhance the overall sensing performance. Furthermore, since different radars provide different sensing and tracking results, to benefit from multiple radars, we propose fusion algorithms to integrate the tracking results of different radars. We use two commercial frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radars to conduct experiments at Hsinchu city in Taiwan. The experimental results validate that our proposed approaches can improve the overall sensing performance.

This letter proposes a downlink multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) non-orthogonal multiple access technique that mitigates multi-cell interference (MCI) at cell-edge users, regardless of the number of interfering cells, thereby improving the spectral efficiency. This technique employs specific receive beamforming vectors at the cell-edge users in clusters to minimize the MCI. Based on the receive beamforming vectors adopted by the cell-edge users, the transmit beamforming vectors for a base station (BS) and the receive beamforming vectors for cell-center users are designed to eliminate the inter-cluster interference and maximize the spectral efficiency. As each user can directly obtain its own receive beamforming vector, this technique does not require channel feedback from the users to a BS to design the receive beamforming vectors, thereby reducing the system overhead. We also derive the upper bound of the average sum rate achievable using the proposed technique. Finally, we demonstrate through simulations that the proposed technique achieves a better sum rate performance than the existing schemes and that the derived upper bound is valid.

This paper presents non-destructive millimeter-wave (MMW) imaging of sub-millimeter-wide cracks on a concrete surface covered with paper. We measured the near-field scattering of 76.5 GHz-MMW signals at concrete surface cracks for detection of the sub-millimeter-wide cracks. A decrease in the received signal magnitude by near-field scattering at the fine concrete surface crack was slight, which yielded an unclear MMW image contrast of fine cracks at the concrete surface. We have found that the received signal magnitude at concrete surface crack is larger than that at the surface without a crack, when the paper thickness is almost equal to n/4 of the effective wavelength of the MMW signal in the paper (n=1, 3, 5 ...), thus, making MMW image contrast at the surface crack reversed. By calculating the difference of two MMW images obtained from different paper thickness, we were able to improve the MMW image contrast at the surface crack by up to 3.3 dB.

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a swarm intelligence algorithm and has good search performance and simplicity in implementation. Because of its properties, PSO has been applied to various optimization problems. However, the search performance of the classical PSO (CPSO) depends on reference frame of solution spaces for each objective function. CPSO is an invariant algorithm through translation and scale changes to reference frame of solution spaces but is a rotationally variant algorithm. As such, the search performance of CPSO is worse in solving rotated problems than in solving non-rotated problems. In the reference frame invariance, the search performance of an optimization algorithm is independent on rotation, translation, or scale changes to reference frame of solution spaces, which is a property of preferred optimization algorithms. In our previous study, piecewise-linear particle swarm optimizer (PPSO) has been proposed, which is effective in solving rotated problems. Because PPSO particles can move in solution spaces freely without depending on the coordinate systems, PPSO algorithm may have rotational invariance. However, theoretical analysis of reference frame invariance of PPSO has not been done. In addition, although behavior of each particle depends on PPSO parameters, good parameter conditions in solving various optimization problems have not been sufficiently clarified. In this paper, we analyze the reference frame invariance of PPSO theoretically, and investigated whether or not PPSO is invariant under reference frame alteration. We clarify that control parameters of PPSO which affect movement of each particle and performance of PPSO through numerical simulations.

Adaptive Volterra filters (AVFs) are usually used to identify nonlinear systems, such as loudspeaker systems, and ordinary adaptive algorithms can be used to update the filter coefficients of AVFs. However, AVFs require huge computational complexity even if the order of the AVF is constrained to the second order. Improving calculation efficiency is therefore an important issue for the real-time implementation of AVFs. In this paper, we propose a novel sub-band AVF with high calculation efficiency for second-order AVFs. The proposed sub-band AVF consists of four parts: input signal transformation for a single sub-band AVF, tap length determination to improve calculation efficiency, switching the number of sub-bands while maintaining the estimation accuracy, and an automatic search for an appropriate number of sub-bands. The proposed sub-band AVF can improve calculation efficiency for which the dominant nonlinear components are concentrated in any frequency band, such as loudspeakers. A simulation result demonstrates that the proposed sub-band AVF can realize higher estimation accuracy than conventional efficient AVFs.

This letter presents a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique for a two-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system that exploits the alignments of inter-cell interference channels and signal channels within a cluster in a cell. The proposed technique finds combiner vectors for users that align the inter-cell interference channels and the signal channels simultaneously. This technique utilizes the aligned interference and signal channels to obtain precoder matrices for base stations through which each data stream modulated by NOMA can be transmitted to the intended cluster without interference. In addition, we derive the sufficient condition for transmit and receive antenna configurations in the MIMO NOMA systems to eliminate inter-cell interference and inter-cluster interference simultaneously. Because the proposed technique effectively suppresses the inter-cell interference, it achieves a higher degree of freedom than the existing techniques relying on an avoidance of inter-cell interference, thereby obtaining a better sum rate performance in high SNR regions. Furthermore, we present the hybrid MIMO NOMA technique, which combines the MIMO NOMA technique exploiting channel alignment with the existing techniques boosting the received signal powers. Using the benefits from these techniques, the proposed hybrid technique achieves a good performance within all SNR regions. The simulation results successfully demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques on the sum rate performance.

In this paper, we propose a new asymptotically stabilizing control law for a four-wheeled vehicle with a steering limitation. We adopt a locally semiconcave control Lyapunov function (LS-CLF) for the system. To overcome the nonconvexity of the input-constraint set, we utilize a saturation function and a signum function in the control law. The signum function makes the vehicle velocity nonzero except at the origin so that the angular velocity can be manipulated within the input constraint. However, the signum function may cause a chattering phenomenon at certain points of the state far from the origin. Thus, we integrate a lazy-switching mechanism for the vehicle velocity into the control law. The mechanism makes a sign of the vehicle velocity maintain, and the new control input also decreases the value of the LS-CLF. We confirm the effectiveness of our method by a computer simulation and experiments.

In this paper, operator-based reset control for a class of nonlinear systems with unknown bounded disturbance is considered using right coprime factorization approach. In detail, firstly, for dealing with the unknown bounded disturbance of the nonlinear systems, operator-based reset control framework is proposed based on right coprime factorization. By the proposed framework, robust stability of the nonlinear systems with unknown bounded disturbance is guaranteed by using the proposed reset controller. Secondly, under the reset control framework, an optimal design scheme is discussed for minimizing the error norm based on the proposed operator-based reset controller. Finally, for conforming effectiveness of the proposed design scheme, a simulation example is given.

In this paper, we propose a received signal interpolation method for enhancing the performance of multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm. In general, the performance of the conventional MUSIC algorithm is very sensitive to signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal. When array elements receive the signals with nonuniform SNR values, the resolution performance is degraded compared to elements receiving the signals with uniform SNR values. Hence, we propose a signal calibration technique for improving the resolution of the algorithm. First, based on original signals, rough direction of arrival (DOA) estimation is conducted. In this stage, using frequency-domain received signals, SNR values of each antenna element in the array are estimated. Then, a deteriorated element that has a relatively lower SNR value than those of the other elements is selected by our proposed scheme. Next, the received signal of the selected element is spatially interpolated based on the signals received from the neighboring elements and the DOA information extracted from the rough estimation. Finally, fine DOA estimation is performed again with the calibrated signal. Simulation results show that the angular resolution of the proposed method is better than that of the conventional MUSIC algorithm. Also, we apply the proposed scheme to actual data measured in the testing ground, and it gives us more enhanced DOA estimation result.

This paper discusses key technologies specific for fifth generation (5G) cellular systems which are expected to connect internet of things (IoT) based vertical sectors. Because services for 5G will be expanded drastically, from information transfer services to mission critical and massive connection IoT connection services for vertical sectors, and requirement for cellular systems becomes quite different compared to that of fourth generation (4G) systems, after explanation for the service and technical trends for 5G, key wireless access technologies will be discussed, especially, from the view point of what is new and how import. In addition to the introduction of new technologies for wireless access, flexibility of networking is also discussed because it can cope with QoS support services, especially to cope with end-to-end latency constraint conditions. Therefore, this paper also discuss flexible network configuration using mobile edge computing (MEC) based on software defined network (SDN) and network slicing.

In this paper, we propose a new paradigm of deterministic PSO, named piecewise-linear particle swarm optimizer (PPSO). In PPSO, each particle has two search dynamics, a convergence mode and a divergence mode. The trajectory of each particle is switched between the two dynamics and is controlled by parameters. We analyze convergence condition of each particle and investigate parameter conditions to allow particles to converge to an equilibrium point through numerical experiments. We further compare solving performances of PPSO. As a result, we report here that the solving performances of PPSO are substantially the same as or superior to those of PSO.

In this paper, a new method of model predictive control (MPC) for a multi-hop control network (MHCN) is proposed. An MHCN is a control system in which plants and controllers are connected through a multi-hop wireless network. In the proposed method, (i) control inputs and (ii) paths used in transmission of control inputs are computed with constant period by solving the finite-time optimal control problem. First, a mathematical model for expressing an MHCN is proposed. This model is given by a switched linear system, and is compatible with MPC. Next, the finite-time optimal control problem using this model is formulated, and is reduced to a mixed integer quadratic programming problem. Finally, a numerical example is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In this study we investigate the synchronization of relaxation oscillators having individual differences by using non-periodic signal injection. When a common non-periodic signal is injected into the relaxation oscillators, the oscillators exhibit synchronization phenomena. Such synchronization phenomena can be classified as injection locking. We also consider the relation between the synchronization state and the individual difference. Further, we pay attention to the effect of the fluctuation range of the non-periodic injected signal. When the fluctuation range is wide, we confirm that the synchronization range increases if the individual difference is small.

Research into closed-form Gaussian sum smoother has provided an attractive approach for tracking in clutter, joint detection and tracking (in clutter), and multiple target tracking (in clutter) via the probability hypothesis density (PHD). However, Gaussian sum smoother with nonlinear target model has particular nonlinear expressions in the backward smoothed density that are different from the other filters and smoothers. In order to extend the closed-form solution of linear Gaussian sum smoother to nonlinear model, two closed-form approximations for nonlinear Gaussian sum smoother are proposed, which use Gaussian particle approximation and unscented transformation approximation, separately. Since the estimated target number of PHD smoother is not stable, a heuristic approximation method is added. At last, the Bernoulli smoother and PHD smoother are simulated using Gaussian particle approximation and unscented transformation approximation, and simulation results show that the two proposed algorithms can obtain smoothed tracks with nonlinear models, and have better performance than filter.

Recent development in network technology can realize the control of a remote plant by a digital controller. However, there is a delay caused by data transmission of control inputs and outputs. The delay degrades the control performance without taking it into consideration. In general, it is a difficult problem to identify the delay beforehand. We also assume that the plant's parameters have uncertainty. To solve the problem, we use reinforcement learning to achieve optimal digital control. First, we consider state feedback control. Next, we consider the case where the plant's outputs are observed, and apply reinforcement learning to output feedback control. Finally, we demonstrate by simulation that the proposed control method can search for the optimal gain and that it can adapt to the change of the delay.

In cognitive radar systems (CRSs), target scattering coefficients (TSC) can be utilized to improve the performance of target identification and classification. This work considers the problem of TSC estimation for temporally correlated target. Multiple receive antennas are adopted to receive the echo waveforms, which are interfered by the signal-dependent clutter. Unlike existing estimation methods in time domain, a novel estimation method based on Kalman filtering (KF) is proposed in frequency domain to exploit the temporal TSC correlation, and reduce the complexity of subsequent waveform optimization. Additionally, to minimize the mean square error of estimated TSC at each KF iteration, in contrary to existing works, we directly model the design process as an optimization problem, which is non-convex and cannot be solved efficiently. Therefore, we propose a novel method, similar in some way to semi-definite programming (SDP), to convert the non-convex problem into a convex one. Simulation results demonstrate that the estimation performance can be significantly improved by the KF estimation with optimized waveform.

This paper investigates a downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) combined with single user MIMO (SU-MIMO) for future LTE (Long-Term Evolution) enhancements. In particular, we propose practical schemes to efficiently combine NOMA with open-loop SU-MIMO (Transmission Mode 3: TM3) and closed-loop SU-MIMO (Transmission Mode 4: TM4) specified in LTE. The goal is also to clarify the performance gains of NOMA combined with SU-MIMO transmission, taking into account the LTE radio interface such as frequency-domain scheduling, adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), and NOMA specific functionalities such as, multi-user pairing/ordering, transmit power allocation and successive interference cancellation (SIC) at the receiver side. Based on computer simulations, we evaluate NOMA link-level performance and show that the impact of error propagation associated with SIC is marginal when the power ratio of cell-edge and cell-center users is sufficiently large. In addition, we evaluate NOMA system-level performance gains for different granularities of scheduling and MCS (modulation and coding scheme) selection, for both genie-aided channel quality information (CQI) estimation and approximated CQI estimation, and using different number of power sets. Evaluation results show that NOMA combined with SU-MIMO can still provide a hefty portion of its expected gains even with approximated CQI estimation and limited number of power sets, and also when LTE compliant subband scheduling and wideband MCS is applied.

We propose an inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) method that employs inter-cell coordinated transmission power control (TPC) based on inter-cell interference power in addition to conventional received signal power-based TPC in the cellular uplink. We assume orthogonal multiple-access as is used in 3GPP LTE. In the proposed method, an ICIC effect similar to that for conventional fractional frequency reuse (FFR) is obtained. This is achieved by coordinating the allowable inter-cell interference power level at the appropriate frequency blocks within the system bandwidth among neighboring cells in a semi-static manner. Different from conventional FFR, since all users within a cell can access all the frequency blocks, the reduction in multiuser diversity gain is abated. Computer simulation results show that the proposed method enhances both the cell-edge and average user throughput simultaneously compared to conventional universal frequency reuse (UFR) and FFR.

Generally, in order to extend the cell coverage of a mobile station, relay stations are used at a cell edge in a cellular system. But, received signals in a relay station of a cell edge have a large error because a neighboring cell transmits the signals for other users. Since the transmitted signals for other users are interference for received signals in the relay station of the cell edge, the relay station has a negative effect on the bit error ratio performance. The cell coverage can not be extended stably. In order to expand the cell coverage stably, the inter-cell interference has to cancel. Thus, in this paper, the technique that the inter-cell interference (ICI) is canceled by cooperative relays is proposed. Also, diversity gain is obtained by cooperative relays.