This paper investigates limitations of adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) improvement in predistortion (pre-D) linearizer used with nonlinear RF power amplifiers (PAs) when the PA model is not perfectly acquired in pre-D design. The error between the physical PA and the nonlinear model is expanded by pre-D function and its power spectral density (PSD) works as limitations in ACPR improvement of the pre-D linearizer. An analytical estimation of ACPR limitations in RF PAs driven by digitally modulated input signal is derived using a formulation of autocorrelation function. The analysis technique is validated with the example of the memory polynomial PA model with the quasi-memoryless pre-D linearizer. The technique is also verified by comparing predicted ACPR limitation with measured limitation for a RF PA with 802.11g input signal.

Because of the data correlation in the motion estimation (ME) algorithm of H.264/AVC reference software, it is difficult to implement an efficient ME hardware architecture. In order to make parallel processing feasible, four modified hardware friendly ME workflows are proposed in this paper. Based on these workflows, a scalable full search ME architecture is presented, which has following characteristics: (1) The sum of absolute differences (SAD) results of 44 sub-blocks is accumulated and reused to calculate SADs of bigger sub-blocks. (2) The number of PE groups is configurable. For a search range of MN pixels, where M is width and N is height, up to M PE groups can be configured to work in parallel with a peak processing speed of N16 clock cycles to fulfill a full search variable block size ME (VBSME). (3) Only conventional single port SRAM is required, which makes this architecture suitable for standard-cell-based implementation. A design with 8 PE groups has been realized with TSMC 0.18 µm CMOS technology. The core area is 2.13 mm1.60 mm and clock frequency is 228 MHz in typical condition (1.8 V, 25).

A novel method is proposed to synthesize dual-band bandpass filters (BPFs) from a prototype lowpass filter. By implementing successive frequency transformations and circuit conversions, a new filter topology is obtained which consists of only admittance inverters and series or shunt resonators, and is thereby easy to be realized by using conventional distributed elements. A microstrip dual-band BPF with central frequencies of 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz is designed and fabricated using microstrip lines and stubs. The simulated and measured results show a good agreement and validate thereby the proposed theory.

In this paper, we propose a novel peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction method for multi-rate orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFCDM) based on an orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) code. In the method, the base station assigns two signs of code sequence to each user to maintain the orthogonality among the code sequences that have different lengths. After that, one sign of the code sequence is selected for reducing the PAPR of the OFCDM symbol. Based on theoretical analysis and computer simulation, we show that the proposed method reduces the PAPR for two data rate classes.

This paper examines the bit and power allocation problem for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems in which the overall transmission power is minimized by constraining the fixed data rate and bit error rate. To provide the optimal allocation with less computational complexity, we propose new bit and power allocation schemes based on the Lagrangian method. Firstly, we propose an initial search range of the bisection search method to find the optimal Lagrangian multiplier efficiently. The simulation results verify that the proposed initial search range guarantees the optimal solution with less computational complexity. Secondly, a new iterative search method for the optimal Lagrangian multiplier is proposed using Newton's search method. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme has significant computational advantages over the conventional algorithms while providing optimal performance.

IP multicast technology is highly advantageous for various applications and future needs in the Internet. Yet, it is generally recognized that the IP multicast routing protocol is fairly complex and non-scalable and requires additional maintenance and operational cost to network administrators. Although there has been much research related to IP multicast and most router vendors already support basic IP multicast routing protocols, there is still a big gap between what is reported as the state-of-the-art in the literature from what is implemented in practice. In this paper, we clarify the complexities of traditional multicast communication and describe possible solutions using the one-to-many multicast communication model called Source-Specific Multicast (SSM). We explain this communication model and the corresponding routing architecture and examine the statistics obtained for the number of multicast routing entries in our backbone router, which is connected to the international backbone. We also introduce our international collaboration activities that are contributing to the deployment and promotion of IP multicast services in the Internet.

Network congestion and random errors of wireless link are two well-known noteworthy parameters which degrade the TCP performance over heterogeneous networks. We put forward a novel end-to-end TCP congestion control mechanism, namely TCP BaLDE (Bandwidth and Loss Differentiation Estimate), in which the TCP congestion control categorizes the reason of the packet loss by estimating loss differentiation in order to control the packet transmission rate appropriately. While controlling transmission rate depends on the available bandwidth estimation which is apprehended by the bandwidth estimation algorithm when the sender receives a new ACK with incipient congestion signal, duplicates ACKs or is triggered by retransmission timeout event. Especially, this helps the sender to avoid router queue overflow by opportunely entering the congestion avoidance phase. In simulation, we experimented under numerous different network conditions. The results show that TCP BaLDE can achieve robustness in aspect of stability, accuracy and rapidity of the estimate in comparison with TCP Westwood, and tolerate ACK compression. It can achieve better performance than TCP Reno and TCP Westwood. Moreover, it is fair on bottleneck sharing to multiple TCP flows of the same TCP version, and friendly to existing TCP version.

This letter describes unequal-power transmission for multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) systems with a parallel interference canceller (PIC) applied to a maximum likelihood detector (MLD) or complexity-reduced MLD at the receiver. Unequal-power transmission reduces the possibility that all substreams are incorrectly decoded. Canceling the correctly decoded substreams enables more reliable detection in the next stage. The simulation results demonstrated that unequal-power transmission improves the transmission performance of the PIC applied to MLDs or complexity-reduced MLDs, compared with equal-power transmission cases.

The port-to-port isolation of the micromixer is studied using three different p-type downconversion micromixers in 0.35-µm CMOS technology. Both the body effect and the well isolation influence the port-to-port isolation significantly. The body effect degrades the LO-to-IF isolation and also deteriorates the LO-to-RF isolation. Without the well isolation, the LO-to-RF isolation drops. However, the RF-to-IF isolation is independent of the body effect and well isolation. The p-type micromixer with a separate N-well and without body effect has the best port-to-port isolation properties; its LO-to-IF, LO-to-RF, and RF-to-IF isolations are -59 dB, -58 dB, and -30 dB, respectively.

The label placement problem is one of the most important problems in geographic information systems, cartography, graph drawing, and graphical interface design. In this paper, we considered the label size maximization problem for points with axes-parallel rectangular labels that correspond to character strings and have different widths based on the number of characters. We propose an algorithm for computing the optimum size for the label size maximization problem in the 2-position model and a polynomial time algorithm for the problem in the 4-position model. Our algorithm cannot obtain the maximum value in the 4-position model because the label size maximization problem in the 4-position model is NP-hard. However, our algorithm is efficient in practice, as shown by computational experiments. Further, computational results for JR trains, subways and major private railroads in Tokyo are presented.

An authenticated encryption scheme provides a mechanism of signing and encrypting simultaneously, and furthermore, the receiver can verify and decrypt the signature at the same time. Tseng et al. proposed two efficiently authenticated encryption schemes which can check the validity of the sent data before message recovery, but in fact their schemes cannot achieve completely the function. In this article, we point out the flaw and propose an improved scheme of revision.

In this paper, we propose a modified bursting neuron model, which is a natural extension of an original one proposed by the author et al. We will show that chaotic bursts appear in the modified model though there exhibit quasi-periodic bursts in the original one. Moreover, we will show that such chaotic bursts appear by breaking down a pair of invariant closed curves, which is generated by a Hopf bifurcation for a pair of two-periodic points.

Recently, system level design languages (SLDL), which can describe both hardware and software aspects of the design, are receiving attention. Mixed-signal extensions of SLDL enable current discrete-oriented SLDLs to describe and simulate not only digital systems but also digital-analog mixed-signal systems. The synchronization between discrete and continuous behaviors is widely regarded as a critical part in the extensions. In this paper, we present an event-driven synchronization mechanism for both timed and untimed system level designs through which discrete and continuous behaviors are synchronized via AD events and DA events. We also demonstrate how the synchronization mechanism can be incorporated into the kernel of SLDL, such as SpecC. In the extended kernel, a new simulation cycle, the AMS cycle, is introduced. Three case studies show that the extended SpecC-based system level design environment using our synchronization mechanism works well with timed/untimed mixed-signal system level description.

Refactoring is one of the promising techniques for improving program design by means of program transformation with preserving behavior, and is widely applied in practice. However, it is difficult for engineers to identify how and where to refactor programs, because proper knowledge and skills of a high order are required of them. In this paper, we propose the technique to instruct how and where to refactor a program by using a sequence of its modifications. We consider that the histories of program modifications reflect developers' intentions, and focusing on them allows us to provide suitable refactoring guides. Our technique can be automated by storing the correspondence of modification patterns to suitable refactoring operations. By implementing an automated supporting tool, we show its feasibility. The tool is implemented as a plug-in for Eclipse IDE. It selects refactoring operations by matching between a sequence of program modifications and modification patterns.

In this paper, we define a stopping set of turbo codes with the iterative decoding in the binary erasure channel. Based on the stopping set analysis, we study the block and bit erasure probabilities of turbo codes and the performance degradation of the iterative decoding against the maximum-likelihood decoding. The error floor performance of turbo codes with the iterative decoding is dominated by the small stopping sets. The performance degradation of the iterative decoding is negligible in the error floor region, so the error floor performance is asymptotically dominated by the low weight codewords.

This paper proposes a robust fuzzy integral controller for output regulating a class of affine nonlinear systems subject to a bias reference to the origin. First, a common biased fuzzy model is introduced for a class of continuous/discrete-time affine nonlinear systems, such as dc-dc converters, robotic systems. Then, combining an integrator and parallel distributed compensators, the fuzzy integral regulator achieves an asymptotic regulation. Moreover, when considering disturbances or unstructured certainties, a virtual reference model is presented and provides a robust gain design via LMI techniques. In this case, H∞ performances is guaranteed. Note that the information regarding the operational point and bias terms are not required during the controller implementation. Thus, the controller can be applied to a multi-task regulation. Finally, three numerical simulations show the expected results.

A cell search technique utilizing a known postfix for OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) cellular systems is described. The known postfix is generated in the time domain by inserting pilots in the frequency domain and plays the role of the cyclic prefix in general OFDM systems. Since it demonstrates good correlation properties, it can be facilitated to synchronize each symbol with an identified postfix. In this paper, two different known postfixes are allocated to each cell. One is used for cell identification and symbol synchronization, which is designed to be different among neighboring cells. The other is used for frame synchronization and is the same for all cells. In the simulation, the cell search is accomplished with a probability greater than 10-3 at -27 dB in a vehicular channel. Even at -30 dB, the cell search probability is greater than 10-2 in a pedestrian channel as well as 10-3 in the AWGN (additive white gaussian noise) channel.

Fingerprints are useful for biometric purposes because of their well known properties of distinctiveness and persistence over time. However, owing to skin conditions or incorrect finger pressure, original fingerprint images always contain noise. Especially, some of them contain useless components, which are often mistaken for the terminations that are an essential minutia of a fingerprint. Mathematical Morphology (MM) is a powerful tool in image processing. In this paper, we propose a linear time algorithm to eliminate impulsive noise and useless components, which employs generalized and ordinary morphological operators based on Euclidean distance transform. There are two contributions. The first is the simple and efficient MM method to eliminate impulsive noise, which can be restricted to a minimum number of pixels. We know the performance of MM is heavily dependent on structuring elements (SEs), but finding an optimal SE is a difficult and nontrivial task. So the second contribution is providing an automatic approach without any experiential parameter for choosing appropriate SEs to eliminate useless components. We have developed a novel algorithm for the binarization of fingerprint images [1]. The information of distance transform values can be obtained directly from the binarization phase. The results show that using this method on fingerprint images with impulsive noise and useless components is faster than existing denoising methods and achieves better quality than earlier methods.

The speech noise reduction system based on the frequency domain adaptive line enhancer using a windowed modified DFT (MDFT) pair is presented. The adaptive line enhancer (ALE) is effective for extracting sinusoidal signals blurred by a broadband noise. In addition, it utilizes only one microphone. Therefore, it is suitable for the realization of speech noise reduction in portable electronic devices. In the ALE, an input signal is generated by delaying a desired signal using the decorrelation parameter, which makes the noise in the input signal decorrelated with that in the desired one. In the present paper, we propose to set decorrelation parameters in the frequency domain and adjust them to optimal values according to the relationship between speech and noise. Such frequency domain decorrelation parameters enable the reduction of the computational complexity of the proposed system. Also, we introduce the window function into MDFT for suppressing spectral leakage. The performance of the proposed noise reduction system is examined through computer simulations.

A novel frequency domain training sequence and the corresponding carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimator are proposed for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems over frequency-selective fading channels. The proposed frequency domain training sequence comprises two types of pilot tones, namely distinctively spaced pilot tones with high energies and uniformly spaced ones with low energies. Based on the distinctively spaced pilot tones, integer CFO estimation is accomplished. After the subcarriers occupied by the distinctively spaced pilot tones and their adjacent subcarriers are nulled for the sake of interference cancellation, fractional CFO estimation is executed according to the uniformly spaced pilot tones. By exploiting a predefined lookup table making the best of the structure of the distinctively spaced pilot tones, computational complexity of the proposed CFO estimator can be decreased considerably. With the aid of the uniformly spaced pilot tones generated from Chu sequence with cyclically orthogonal property, the ability of the proposed estimator to combat multipath effect is enhanced to a great extent. Simulation results illustrate the good performance of the proposed CFO estimator.