It is well known that satellite communications systems are effective and essential communication infrastructure for disaster relief. NICT sent researchers to Tsunami stricken area in March right after the Great East Japan Earthquake and provided broadband satellite communications link to support rescue activities. Through this experience, we learned many kinds of requirements of communications for such purposes. In this paper, we list up the requirements and report what kind of satellite communications technologies are needed, and research and development issues.

Histogram modification based image enhancement algorithms have been extensively used in 2-D image applications. In this letter, we apply a histogram modification framework to stereoscopic image enhancement. The proposed algorithm estimates the histogram of a stereo image pair without explicitly computing the pixel-wise disparity. Then, the histogram in the occluded regions is estimated and used to determine the target histogram of the stereo image. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

In this paper, we propose a decentralized strategy to find out the linear precoding matrices for a two-hop multiuser relay communication system. From a game-theoretic perspective, we model the source allocation process as a strategic noncooperative game for fixing relay precoding matrix and the multiuser interference treating as additive colored noise. Alternately, from the global optimization perspective, we prove that the optimum relay precoding matrix follows the transceiver Winner filter structure for giving a set of source transmit matrices. Closed-form solutions are finally obtained by using our proposed joint iterative SMSE algorithm and numerical results are provided to give insights on the proposed algorithms.

In block transmissions, inter-block interference (IBI) due to delayed waves exceeding a cyclic prefix severely limits the performance. To suppress IBI in downlink MC-CDMA systems, this paper proposes a novel channel shortening method using a time-domain equalizer. The proposed method minimizes a cost function related to equalizer output autocorrelations without the transmission of training symbols. We prove that the method can shorten a channel and suppress IBI completely. Simulation results show that the proposed method can significantly suppress IBI using relatively less number of received blocks than a conventional method when the number of users is moderate.

In time-varying frequency selective channels, to obtain high-rate joint time-frequency diversity, linear dispersion coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (LDC-OFDM), has recently been proposed. Compared with OFDM systems, single-carrier systems may retain the advantages of lower PAPR and lower sensitivity to carrier frequency offset (CFO) effects, which motivates this paper to investigate how to achieve joint frequency and time diversity for high-rate single-carrier block transmission systems. Two systems are proposed: linear dispersion coded cyclic-prefix single-carrier modulation (LDC-CP-SCM) and linear dispersion coded zero-padded single-carrier modulation (LDC-ZP-SCM) across either multiple CP-SCM or ZP-SCM blocks, respectively. LDC-SCM may use a layered two-stage LDC decoding with lower complexity. This paper analyzes the diversity properties of LDC-CP-SCM, and provides a sufficient condition for LDC-CP-SCM to maximize all available joint frequency and time diversity gain and coding gain. This paper shows that LDC-ZP-SCM may be effectively equipped with low-complexity minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) equalizers. A lower complexity scheme, linear transformation coded SCM (LTC-SCM), is also proposed with good diversity performance.

Recently, asymmetric zero-correlation zone (A-ZCZ) sequence sets that are composed of several sequence subsets have been proposed. In A-ZCZ sequence sets, the zero-cross-correlation zone (ZCCZ) length between different sequence subsets is larger than the zero-correlation zone (ZCZ) length in each sequence subset. However, the ZCCZ length between different sequence subsets was not precisely shown in previous studies. The present letter shows precisely the ZCCZ length between different sequence subsets. This information is useful for estimating the magnitude of inter-cell interference when designing approximately synchronized code-division multiple-access (AS-CDMA) systems.

This paper proposes Burst Error Resilient coding (BRC) technology in mobile broadcasting network. The proposed method utilizes Scalable Video Coding (SVC) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) to overcome service outage due to burst loss in mobile network. The performance evaluation is performed by comparing PSNR of SVC and the proposed method under MBSFN simulation channel. The simulation result shows PSNR of SVC equal error protection (EEP), unequal error protection (UEP) and proposed BRC using Raptor FEC code.

A method obtaining a monochrome image which can rebuild colors is proposed. In this method, colors in an input image are quantized under a lightness constraint and a palette, which represents relationship between quantized colors and gray-levels, is generated. Using the palette, an output monochrome image is obtained. Experiments show that the proposed method obtains good monochrome and rebuilt color images.

In contemporary communications, Golay, periodic and Z- complementary sequence sets play a very important role, since such sequence sets possess impulse-like or zero correlation zone (ZCZ) autocorrelation. On the other hand, the advantages of the signals over the quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation are more and more prominent. Hence, the design of such sequence sets over the QAM constellation has turned into one of the all-important issues in communications. Therefore, the construction methods of such sequence sets over the 16-QAM constellation are investigated, in this letter, and our goals are arrived at by the known quaternary Golay, periodic and Z- complementary sequence sets. Finally, many examples illuminate the validity of the proposed methods.

In this paper, training symbol designs for estimation of frequency selective channels and compensation of in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) imbalances on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmitters and receivers are studied. We utilize cross entropy (CE) optimization techniques together with convex optimization to design training sequences having low channel estimate mean squared error (MSE) and minimum effects of I/Q mismatch, while lowering the peak power of the training signals. The proposed design provides better channel estimate MSE and bit error rate (BER) performances and is applicable to OFDM systems with and without null subcarriers. The efficacies of the proposed designs are corroborated by analysis and simulation results.

A reverse mode liquid crystal (LC) display has been investigated. A driving voltage strongly depends on a morphology which changes by reactive mesogens, photo initiators and LCs. It becomes higher when the domain size of the liquid crystal and the particle of the polymer reactive mesogen are smaller.

This paper precisely characterizes secret sharing schemes based on arbitrary linear codes by using the relative dimension/length profile (RDLP) and the relative generalized Hamming weight (RGHW). We first describe the equivocation Δm of the secret vector =[s1,...,sl] given m shares in terms of the RDLP of linear codes. We also characterize two thresholds t1 and t2 in the secret sharing schemes by the RGHW of linear codes. One shows that any set of at most t1 shares leaks no information about , and the other shows that any set of at least t2 shares uniquely determines . It is clarified that both characterizations for t1 and t2 are better than Chen et al.'s ones derived by the regular minimum Hamming weight. Moreover, this paper characterizes the strong security in secret sharing schemes based on linear codes, by generalizing the definition of strongly-secure threshold ramp schemes. We define a secret sharing scheme achieving the α-strong security as the one such that the mutual information between any r elements of (s1,...,sl) and any α-r+1 shares is always zero. Then, it is clarified that secret sharing schemes based on linear codes can always achieve the α-strong security where the value α is precisely characterized by the RGHW.

A scheme that modulates the training sequence is proposed to support two-layer data streams in the time domain synchronous orthogonal frequency division multiplex (TDS-OFDM) systems. A theoretical analysis and computer simulation show that the proposed scheme works well and that the two layer data streams are compatible with each other.

Recently a simple algorithm was presented by the first author which enables one to successively compute the transformation matrix of various order for the general 1-D to 1-D polynomial transformation. This letter extends the result to the general 1-D to 2-D polynomial transformation. It is also shown that the matrix obtained can be used for the 2-D to 2-D polynomial transformation as well.

A new information detection method has been proposed for a very fast and efficient search engine. This method is implemented on hardware system using FPGA. We take advantages of Content Addressable Memory (CAM) which has an ability of matching mode for designing the system. The CAM blocks have been designed using available memory blocks of the FPGA device to save access times of the whole system. The entire memory can return multi-match results concurrently. The system operates based on the CAMs for pattern matching, in a parallel manner, to output multiple addresses of multi-match results. Based on the parallel multi-match operations, the system can be applied for pattern matching with various required constraint conditions without using any search principles. The very fast multi-match results are achieved at 60 ns with the operation frequency 50 MHz. This increases the search performance of the information detection system which uses this method as the core system.

Directional antennas provide numerous benefits, such as higher gains, increased transmission range, and lower interferences. In this paper, we propose a reliable broadcast protocol for directional antenna referred to as beam table-based reliable broadcast for directional antennas (BTRB). The BTRB employs (1) ACK-based scheme to provide full reliability; (2) spatio-temporal ACK combination to resolve the problems of ACK implosion and transmission delay; and (3) beam table caching to represent spatial relationship among destination nodes in the broadcast group. Performance evaluation has shown that the proposed BTRB shows full reliability and outperforms existing reliable broadcast schemes with respect to transmission delay by about 55%.

The need for the OpenGL-family of the 3D rendering API's are highly increasing, especially for graphical human-machine interfaces on various systems. In the case of safety-critical market for avionics, military, medical and automotive applications, OpenGL SC, the safety critical profile of the OpenGL standard plays the major role for graphical interfaces. In this paper, we present an efficient way of implementing OpenGL SC 3D graphics API for the environments with hardware-supported OpenGL 1.1 and its multi-texture extension facility, which is widely available on recent embedded systems. Our approach achieved the OpenGL SC features at the low development cost on the embedded systems and also on general personal computers. Our final result shows its compliance with the OpenGL SC standard specification. From the efficiency point of view, we measured its execution times for various application programs, to show a remarkable speed-up.

For an adaptive system identification filter with a stochastic input signal, a coefficient vector updated with an NLMS algorithm converges in the sense of ensemble average and the expected convergence vector has been revealed. When the input signal is periodic, the convergence of the adaptive filter coefficients has also been proved. However, its convergence vector has not been revealed. In this paper, we derive the convergence vector of adaptive filter coefficients updated with the NLMS algorithm in system identification for deterministic sinusoidal inputs. Firstly, we derive the convergence vector when a disturbance does not exist. We show that the derived convergence vector depends only on the initial vector and the sinusoidal frequencies, and it is independent of the step-size for adaptation, sinusoidal amplitudes, and phases. Next, we derive the expected convergence vector when the disturbance exists. Simulation results support the validity of the derived convergence vectors.

The Internet infrastructure is evolving with various approaches such as cloud computing. Interest in cloud computing is growing with the rise of services and applications particularly in business community. For delivering service securely, cloud computing providers are facing several security issues, including controlling access to services and ensuring privacy. Most of access control approaches tend to a centralization of policy administration and decision by introducing a mediator central third party. However, with the growth of the Internet and the increase of cloud computing providers, a centralized administration is no longer supported. In this paper, we present a new collaborative access control infrastructure for distributed cloud computing environment, supporting collaborative delegations across multiple domains in order to authorize users to access services at a visited domain that does not have a direct cooperative relationship with the user's home domain. For this purpose, we propose an extension of the XACML (eXtensible Access Control Markup Language) model with a new entity called Delegation Validation Point (DVP) to support multi-domain delegation in a distributed environment. We describe the new extended model and functionalities of the new component. In addition, we define new XACML messages for acquiring delegation across domains. For exchanging delegation between domains we use SAML (Security Association Markup Language) and Diameter protocol. Two Diameter applications are defined for transporting securely multiple delegation requests and answers and for building a trusted path of cooperation to acquire the chain of delegations. We detail the implemented prototype and evaluate performance within a testbed of up to 20 domains.

High-performance FFT processor is indispensable for real-time OFDM communication systems. This paper presents a CORDIC based design of variable-length FFT processor which can perform various FFT lengths of 64/128/256/512/1024/2048/4096/8192-point. The proposed FFT processor employs memory based architecture in which mixed radix 4/2 algorithm, pipelined CORDIC, and conflict-free parallel memory access scheme are exploited. Besides, the CORDIC rotation angles are generated internally based on the transform of butterfly counter, which eliminates the need of ROM making it memory-efficient. The proposed architecture has a lower hardware complexity because it is ROM-free and with no dedicated complex multiplier. We implemented the proposed FFT processor and verified it on FPGA development platform. Additionally, the processor is also synthesized in 0.18 µm technology, the core area of the processor is 3.47 mm2 and the maximum operating frequency can be up to 500 MHz. The proposed FFT processor is better trade off performance and hardware overhead, and it can meet the speed requirement of most modern OFDM system, such as IEEE 802.11n, WiMax, 3GPP-LTE and DVB-T/H.