This paper proposes a built-in self-test (BIST) scheme for noise-tolerant testing of a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC). The proposed BIST calculates the differences in output voltages between a DAC and test modules. These differences are used as the inputs of an integrator that determines integral nonlinearity (INL). The proposed method has an advantage of random noise cancelation and achieves a higher test accuracy than do the conventional BIST methods. The simulation results show high standard noise-immunity and fault coverage for the proposed method.

A low-complexity Reed-Solomon (RS) decoder design based on the modified Euclidean (ME) algorithm proposed by Truong is presented in this paper. Low complexity is achieved by reformulating Truong's ME algorithm using the proposed polynomial manipulation scheme so that a more compact polynomial representation can be derived. Together with the developed folding scheme and simplified boundary cell, the resulting design effectively reduces the hardware complexity while meeting the throughput requirements of optical communication systems. Experimental results demonstrate that the developed RS(255, 239) decoder, implemented in the TSMC 0.18 µm process, can operate at up to 425 MHz and achieve a throughput rate of 3.4 Gbps with a total gate count of 11,759. Compared to related works, the proposed decoder has the lowest area requirement and the smallest area-time complexity.

In this letter, we investigate the Nth-best user selection scheme for amplify-and-forward cooperative systems over Rayleigh fading channels. We deduce the probability density function, the cumulative density function, and the moment generating function of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio of the system. Then, the respective closed-form expressions of the average symbol error probability and the outage probability at the destination are derived. The diversity order obtained in the scheme increases with user number but becomes less as the selection sequence number N increases. Simulation results verify the analytical results.

In this paper, we consider a nonparametric regression problem using a learning machine defined by a weighted sum of fixed basis functions, where the number of basis functions, or equivalently, the number of weights, is equal to the number of training data. For the learning machine, we propose a training scheme that is based on orthogonalization and thresholding. On the basis of the scheme, vectors of basis function outputs are orthogonalized and coefficients of the orthogonalized vectors are estimated instead of weights. The coefficient is set to zero if it is less than a predetermined threshold level assigned component-wise to each coefficient. We then obtain the resulting weight vector by transforming the thresholded coefficients. In this training scheme, we propose asymptotically reasonable threshold levels to distinguish contributed components from unnecessary ones. To see how this works in a simple case, we derive an upper bound for the generalization error of the training scheme with the given threshold levels. It tells us that an increase in the generalization error is of O(log n/n) when there is a sparse representation of a target function in an orthogonal domain. In implementing the training scheme, eigen-decomposition or the Gram–Schmidt procedure is employed for orthogonalization, and the corresponding training methods are referred to as OHTED and OHTGS. Furthermore, modified versions of OHTED and OHTGS, called OHTED2 and OHTGS2 respectively, are proposed for reduced estimation bias. On real benchmark datasets, OHTED2 and OHTGS2 are found to exhibit relatively good generalization performance. In addition, OHTGS2 is found to be obtain a sparse representation of a target function in terms of the basis functions.

We analyze subjective assessments by comparative evaluations of bulk data transmission by using two psychological methods (the method of successive categories and the constant method). From the results of the first experiment, the thresholds at which participants downloading a data file began to feel dissatisfaction with service degradation are 15.7 Mbps and 11.6 Mbps obtained by the two different methods when the throughput without the service degradation is approximately 22 Mbps. In the second experiment, we investigate the threshold of user satisfaction for various network environments. The threshold is 63% of the throughput of the user's usual network environment. Moreover, from the viewpoint of download time, users feel dissatisfaction with the quality when download time becomes 1.5 times longer. These values can be used to more effectively allocate network resources and thereby achieve higher service quality.

In this paper, a new power control scheme is proposed to maximize the network throughput with fairness provisioning. Based on the Stackelberg game model, the proposed scheme consists of two control mechanisms; user-level and system-level mechanisms. Control decisions in each mechanism act cooperatively and collaborate with each other to satisfy efficiency and fairness requirements. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme has excellent network performance, while other schemes cannot offer such an attractive performance balance.

In this letter, a study on the end-to-end outage performance of dual-hop non-regenerative relaying in the presence of co-channel interference is presented. We assume that both the desired and the interfering signals are subjected to Nakagami-m fading. Exact analytical expressions, as well as tight lower bounds of the end-to-end outage probability, are derived. An asymptotic expression for the outage probability at high values of Signal-to-Interference Ratio is also presented. Furthermore, we also propose the optimal power allocation for high values of Signal-to-Interference Ratio. Extensive numerically evaluation and computer simulation results are presented to verify the validity and the accuracy of the proposed analysis.

In this letter, we propose two low complexity algorithms for least square (LS) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) based multi-cell joint channel estimation (MJCE). The algorithm for LS-MJCE achieves the same complexity and mean square error (MSE) performance as the previously proposed most efficient algorithm, while the algorithm for MMSE-MJCE is superior to the conventional ones, in terms of either complexity or MSE performance.

In this paper a third-order inter-modulation cancellation technique using Pre-Post-Distortion is proposed to design a wideband high linear low-power LNA in deep submicron. The IM3 cancellation is achieved by post-distorting signal inversely after it is pre- distorted in the input trans-conductance stage during amplification process. The operating frequency range of the LNA is 800 MHz–5 GHz. The proposed technique increases input-referred third-order intercept point (IIP3) and input 1 dB Compression point (P-1 dB) to 12–25 dBm and -1.18 dBm, respectively. Post layout simulation results show a noise figure (NF) of 4.1–4.5 dB, gain of 13.7–13.9 dB and S11 lower than -13 dB while consumes 8 mA from 1.2 V supply. The LNA is designed in a 65 nm standard CMOS technology. The layout schematic shows that the LNA occupies 0.150.11 mm2 of silicon area.

Packet pacing is a well-known technique for reducing the short-time-scale burstiness of traffic, and software-based packet pacing has been categorized into two approaches: the timer interrupt-based approach and the gap packet-based approach. The former was originally hard to implement for Gigabit class networks because it requires the operating system to handle too frequent periodic timer interrupts, thus incurring a large overhead. On the other hand, a gap packet-based packet pacing mechanism achieves precise pacing without depending on the timer resolution. However, in order to guarantee the accuracy of rate control, the system must be able to transmit packets at the wire rate. In this paper, we propose a high-resolution timer-based packet pacing mechanism that determines the transmission timing of packets by using a sub-microsecond resolution timer. The high-resolution timer is a light-weight mechanism compared to the traditional low-resolution periodic timer. With recent progress in hardware protocol offload technologies and multicore-aware network protocol stacks, we believe high-resolution timer-based packet pacing has become practical. Our experimental results show that the proposed mechanism can work on a wider range of systems without degrading the accuracy of rate control. However, a higher CPU load is observed when the number of traffic classes increases, compared to a gap packet-based pacing mechanism.

The applicability in harsh optical environments, such as dark smog, or strong backlight of ultra-wide band (UWB) pulse radar has a definite advantage over optical ranging techniques. We have already proposed the extended Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) algorithm employing double scattered waves, which aimed at enhancing the reconstructible region of the target boundary including shadow region. However, it still suffers from the shadow area for the target that has a sharp inclination or deep concave boundary, because it assumes a mono-static model, whose real aperture size is, in general, small. To resolve this issue, this study proposes an extension algorithm of the double scattered SAR based on a multi-static configuration. While this extension is quite simple, the effectiveness of the proposed method is nontrivial with regard to the expansion of the imaging range. The results from numerical simulations verify that our method significantly enhances the visible range of the target surfaces without a priori knowledge of the target shapes or any preliminary observation of its surroundings.

Different encoding modes for variable block size are available in the H.264/AVC standard in order to offer better coding quality. However, this also introduces huge computation time due to the exhaustive check for all modes. In this paper, a fast spatial DIRECT mode decision method for profiles supporting B frame encoding (main profile, high profile, etc.) in H.264/AVC is proposed. Statistical analysis on multiple video sequences is carried out, and the strong relationship of mode selection and rate-distortion (RD) cost between the current DIRECT macroblock (MB) and the co-located MBs is observed. With the check of mode condition, predicted RD cost threshold and dynamic parameter update model, the complex mode decision process can be terminated at an early stage even for small QP cases. Simulation results demonstrate the proposed method can achieve much better performance than the original exhaustive rate-distortion optimization (RDO) based mode decision algorithm by reducing up to 56.8% of encoding time for IBPBP picture group and up to 67.8% of encoding time for IBBPBBP picture group while incurring only negligible bit increment and quality degradation.

In this letter, we propose a new construction of quaternary low correlation zone (LCZ) sequence set using binary LCZ sequence sets and an inverse Gray mapping. The new construction method provides optimal quaternary LCZ sequence sets even if the employed binary LCZ sequence set is suboptimal. The optimality is improved at the price of alphabet extension.

Fourier transform is a significant tool in image processing and pattern recognition. By introducing a hypercomplex number, hypercomplex Fourier transform treats a signal as a vector field and generalizes the conventional Fourier transform. Inspired from that, hypercomplex polar Fourier analysis that extends conventional polar Fourier analysis is proposed in this paper. The proposed method can handle signals represented by hypercomplex numbers as color images. The hypercomplex polar Fourier analysis is reversible that means it can be used to reconstruct image. The hypercomplex polar Fourier descriptor has rotation invariance property that can be used for feature extraction. Due to the noncommutative property of quaternion multiplication, both left-side and right-side hypercomplex polar Fourier analysis are discussed and their relationships are also established in this paper. The experimental results on image reconstruction, rotation invariance, color plate test and image retrieval are given to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed method as an image analysis tool.

The VoIP-based Internet Phonesystem is now seen as one of the killer applications in the high speed and broadband internet environment. Given the wide-spread use of the Internet Phone, it is necessary to provide security services for guaranteeing users' privacy. However, providing security service in Internet Phone has the possibility of incurring additional overheads such as call setup delay time. In this paper, we present a one-way key agreement model based on VoIP in order to reduce call setup time as well as protecting user privacy. The proposed approach decreases the delay time of the call setup in comparison with the previous models because our model enables the key generation in caller side without waiting the response from the receiver.

In this paper, a new construction method of quaternary sequences of even period 2N having the ideal autocorrelation and balance properties is proposed. These quaternary sequences are constructed by applying the inverse Gray mapping to binary sequences of odd period N with the ideal autocorrelation. Autocorrelation distribution of the proposed quaternary sequences is derived. These sequences can be used to construct quaternary sequence families of even period 2N. Family size and the maximum absolute value of correlation spectrum of the proposed quaternary sequence families are also derived.

Kennedy has proposed the bare bones particle swarm (BBPS) by the elimination of the velocity formula and its replacement by the Gaussian sampling strategy without parameter tuning. However, a delicate balance between exploitation and exploration is the key to the success of an optimizer. This paper firstly analyzes the sampling distribution in BBPS, based on which we propose an adaptive BBPS inspired by the cloud model (ACM-BBPS). The cloud model adaptively produces a different standard deviation of the Gaussian sampling for each particle according to the evolutionary state in the swarm, which provides an adaptive balance between exploitation and exploration on different objective functions. Meanwhile, the diversity of the swarms is further enhanced by the randomness of the cloud model itself. Experimental results show that the proposed ACM-BBPS achieves faster convergence speed and more accurate solutions than five other contenders on twenty-five unimodal, basic multimodal, extended multimodal and hybrid composition benchmark functions. The diversity enhancement by the randomness in the cloud model itself is also illustrated.

In this paper, side information refinement methods for Wyner-Ziv video codec are presented. In the proposed method, each block of a Wyner-Ziv frame is separated into a predefined number of groups, and these groups are interleaved to be coded. The side information for the first group is generated by the motion compensated temporal interpolation using adjacent key frames only. Then, the side information for remaining groups is gradually refined using the knowledge of the already decoded signal of the current Wyner-Ziv frame. Based on this basic concept, two progressive side information refinement methods are proposed. One is the band-wise side information refinement (BW-SIR) method which is based on transform domain interleaving, while the other is the field-wise side information refinement (FW-SIR) method which is based on pixel domain interleaving. Simulation results show that the proposed methods improve the quality of the side information and rate-distortion performance compared to the conventional side information refinement methods.

This paper presents a grid-based, real-time surface modeling algorithm in which the generation of a precise 3D model is possible by considering the user's intention during the course of the spatial input. In order to create the corresponding model according to the user's input data, plausible candidates of wand traversal patterns of grid edges are defined by considering the sequential and directional characteristics of the wand input. The continuity of the connected polygonal surfaces, including the octree space partitioning, is guaranteed without the extra crack-patching algorithm and the pre-defined patterns. Furthermore, the proposed system was shown to be a suitable and effective surface generation tool for the spatial sketching system. It is not possible to implement the unusual input intention of the 3D spatial sketching system using the conventional Marching Cubes algorithm.

This paper proposes a new resource allocation algorithm for uplink OFDMA-based cooperative relay networks, assuming multiple user nodes, multiple relay nodes and a single destination. The aim is to maximise the total sum of the users' data rates, while guaranteeing fairness among them with different QoS requirements. Assuming perfect channel state information (CSI) at the resource allocation controller, the optimisation problem is formulated such that each user is assigned a weight factor based on its QoS requirements. The ones with higher weights are given higher priorities to select their resources (relay stations and subcarriers) first. Once the required QoS is achieved for all users, the weight factor for all users is reduced to a small uniform value. The remaining resources are then allocated to the users with higher instantaneous rates in order of magnitude. The results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the greedy and static algorithms in terms of outage probability and fairness, and at the same time outperforms Jeong's algorithm by 58% in terms of total sum rate, with an average 74% reduction in system complexity.