Low noise terahertz (THz) receivers based on superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers have been designed, fabricated and measured for applications in astronomy and cosmology. The NbN HEB mixer consists of a planar antenna and an NbN bridge connecting across the antenna's inner terminals on a high-resistivity Si substrate. To eliminate the influence of direct detection and instability of the local oscillation (LO) power, a wire grid has been used to change the input LO power for compensating the shift of bias current during Y-factor measurement. The double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperatures at 4.2 K without corrections have been measured from 0.65 to 3.1 THz. The excess quantum noise factor β of about 4 has been obtained, which agrees well with the calculated value. Allan variance of the HEB has been characterized, and Allan time TA longer than 0.4 s is obtained. We also estimated the temperature resolution of the HEB from the Allan variance and obtained the minimum temperature resolution of 1.1 K using a Gunn oscillator with its multipliers at 0.65 THz as an LO source.

Estimating the conditional mean of an input-output relation is the goal of regression. However, regression analysis is not sufficiently informative if the conditional distribution has multi-modality, is highly asymmetric, or contains heteroscedastic noise. In such scenarios, estimating the conditional distribution itself would be more useful. In this paper, we propose a novel method of conditional density estimation that is suitable for multi-dimensional continuous variables. The basic idea of the proposed method is to express the conditional density in terms of the density ratio and the ratio is directly estimated without going through density estimation. Experiments using benchmark and robot transition datasets illustrate the usefulness of the proposed approach.

Lawful Interception (LI) refers to a lawfully authorized process of looking into private communication under a court-issued warrant. Quite a number of countries have been drafting and enacting laws authorizing the LI procedures on packet-switched IP networks including traditional circuit-switched ones. As the IP mobility becomes more ubiquitous, propelled by wireless networks, it becomes an issue in the LI domain to keep track of a migrating target. However, with the world's focus on the current LI architectures, little consideration has been given to a seamless LI triggering, which accommodates IP mobility and vertical handover. Proposed herein are a seamless LI architecture and relevant triggering algorithms for the heterogeneous wireless networks. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed architecture secures a seamless LI by capturing all the suspected target traffics without any time delay, which usually occurs during an LI triggering between different service providers. Furthermore, when compared with the existing LI architectures, the architecture significantly helps reduce transmission and the time consumed for analysis of the content of communication (CC) and intercept related information (IRI).

The first global interoperability experiment of GMPLS controlled Ethernet with VLAN tag swapping between two different implementations is successfully demonstrated. High definition video streaming is realized through a newly established Layer 2 Label Switched Path (L2-LSP). The results of this experiment can be applied to designing reliable Layer 2 networks.

The current Internet is not capable of meeting the future communication requirements of society, i.e., reliable connectivity in a ubiquitous networking environment. The shortcomings of the Internet are due to the lack of support for mobility, multihoming, security and heterogeneous network layer protocols in the original design. Therefore, to provide ubiquitous networking facilities to the society for future innovation, we have to redesign the future Internet, which we call the New Generation Network. In this paper, we present the Heterogeneity Inclusion and Mobility Adaptation through Locator ID Separation (HIMALIS) architecture for the New Generation Network. The HIMALIS architecture includes a new naming scheme for generating host names and IDs. It also includes a logical control network to store and distribute bindings between host names, IDs, locators and other information useful for providing support for network operation and control. The architecture uses such information to manage network dynamism (i.e., mobility, multihoming) and heterogeneity in network layer protocols. We verify the basic functions of the architecture by implementing and testing them using a testbed system.

We propose a surface profiling algorithm by white-light interferometry that extends sampling interval to twice of the widest interval among those used in conventional algorithms. The proposed algorithm uses a novel function called an in-phase component of an interferogram to detect the peak of the interferogram, while conventional algorithms used the squared-envelope function or the envelope function. We show that the in-phase component has the same peak as the corresponding interferogram when an optical filter has a symmetric spectral distribution. We further show that the in-phase component can be reconstructed from sampled values of the interferogram using the so-called quadrature sampling technique. Since reconstruction formulas used in the algorithm are very simple, the proposed algorithm requires low computational costs. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Phase information on wave scattering is not unique and greatly depends on a choice of the origin of coordinates in the measurement system. The present paper argues that the center of scattering for polygonal cylinders should not be a geometrical center of the obstacle such as a center of gravity but be a position that acts as a balance to the electrostatic field effects from edge points. The position is exactly determined in terms of edge positions, edge parameters and lengths of side of polygons. A few examples are given to illustrate a difference from the center of geometry.

We present a 60-GHz wireless through-repeater system based on self-heterodyne transmission scheme with the potential to optimize the carrier-to-interference and noise ratio (CINR) performance according to the transmission distance. The phase-noise degradation through a 60-GHz repeater link is not a serious concern when we employ the self-heterodyne transmission scheme. Multichannel interferences caused by third-order intermodulation distortions are efficiently suppressed by setting a high power ratio of LO carrier to RF signals in the self-heterodyne transmission. However, this high power ratio results in a lower carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) and becomes unsuitable for improving link performance if the transmission distance increases. In order to facilitate a solution, we propose and make an embodiment of 60 GHz self-heterodyne transmitters that provide flexible control over the power ratio of LO to RF in a range of 10 dB ranges. With them, we successfully demonstrate terrestrial digital broadcasting signals on five channels and optimize their performance for wireless through-repeater applications.

Indium-sulfide-oxide thin films have been successfully deposited on indium-tin-oxide-coated glass from an aqueous solution containing Na2S2O3 and In2(SO4)3 by electrochemical deposition using a periodic 2-step-pulse voltage. The films have been annealed in nitrogen atmosphere for an hour at different temperatures; namely, 100, 200, 300 and 400. Then, the as-deposited and annealed films were characterized structurally, morphologically and optically. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study was performed in order to understand the chemical states of the oxygen involved in the film composition. The photosensitivity was observed by means of photoelectrochemical measurements, which confirmed that the as-deposited and annealed films showed n-type conduction. Moreover, a heterostructure solar cell that has indium sulfide as a buffer layer and tin sulfide as an absorber was fabricated and characterized.

Electrical characteristics of P3HT/Aluminum organic/ inorganic heterojunction diodes were investigated V-I and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. The V-I measurement exhibited current rectification inherent in the Schottky diode, suggesting their availabilities as rectification diodes in organic flexible circuits. C-V analysis indicated the fact that the depletion layer was generated in the P3HT film in the reversed bias condition. The flat band voltage analysis suggested that the interfacial charge affected the built-in potential of the diodes. Al/P3HT heterojunction is possible to be used as not only the rectification diodes but also gate junctions for junction type field effect or static induction transistors.

This paper considers the problem of target location estimation in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks and proposes a novel algorithm using a factor graph to fuse the heterogeneous measured data. In the proposed algorithm, we map the problem of target location estimation to a factor graph framework and then use the sum-product algorithm to fuse the heterogeneous measured data so that heterogeneous sensors can collaborate to improve the accuracy of target location estimation. Simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm provides high location estimation accuracy.

If ranging processes are not frequent in an uplink OFDMA system, timing synchronization between the base and mobile stations may not be maintained and the performance may be degraded. This paper proposes a random access scheme in which a short OFDMA symbol is transmitted to maintain the orthogonality with timing offsets. A short symbol is constructed by inserting zero-padding to an OFDMA symbol.

Decision diagrams (DDs) are data structures commonly used for representation of discrete functions with large number of variables. Binary DDs (BDDs) are used for representation and manipulation with Boolean functions. Complexity of a BDD is usually measured by its size, that is defined as the number of non-terminal nodes in the BDD. Minimization of the sizes of DDs is a problem greatly considered in literature and many related algorithms (exact and heuristic) have been proposed. However, there are many functions for which BDDs when minimized are still large and can have even an exponential size in the number of variables. An approach to derive compact decision diagram representations for such functions is transformation of BDDs into Multi-valued DDs (MDDs) and Heterogeneous MDDs (HMDDs). Complexity of MDDs and HMDDs is measured by the cost which is a generalization of the notion of the size by taking into account complexity of nodes in MDDs and HMDDs. This paper presents a method for transformation of BDD into HMDD with minimal cost. The proposed method reduces the time for determination of the type of nodes in HMDDs by introducing a matrix expressing dependency (interconnections) among nodes at different levels. Comparing to other methods for conversion of BDDs into HMDDs, the method reduces the number of traverses of a BDD necessary for collecting enough information to construct an equivalent HMDD. For an experimental verification of its efficiency, the method is applied to construction of HMDDs for some benchmark functions and their arithmetic and Walsh spectra.

In this paper, we analyze the stability of XCP (eXplicit Control Protocol) in a network with heterogeneous XCP flows (i.e., XCP flows with different propagation delays). Specifically, we model a network with heterogeneous XCP flows using fluid-flow approximation. We then derive the conditions that XCP control parameters should satisfy for stable XCP operation. Furthermore, through several numerical examples and simulation results, we quantitatively investigate effect of system parameters and XCP control parameters on stability of the XCP protocol. Our findings include: (1) when XCP flows are heterogeneous, XCP operates more stably than the case when XCP flows are homogeneous, (2) conversely, when variation in propagation delays of XCP flows is large, operation of XCP becomes unstable, and (3) the output link bandwidth of an XCP router is independent of stability of the XCP protocol.

This paper proposes a blind image-band interference canceller that enables heterodyne receivers with only a single receiver chain to demodulate signals in any frequency band. In this paper, such a receiver is called "multimode/multiband heterodyne receiver." If multimode/multiband receivers are desired to receive signals with carrier frequency ranging from several MHz to GHz, then, such receivers are not allowed to have a narrow band RF-BPF (Radio Frequency Band Pass Filter) at the RF front end. However, although heterodyne receivers have been applied to wireless systems due to their high performance, it is known that without an RF-BPF heterodyne receivers suffer from severe image-band interference. Therefore, a blind image-band interference canceller is proposed in this paper to mitigate the image-band interference. Moreover, a novel algorithm based on the CM (Constant Modulus) criterion is proposed to carry out the cancellation. Performance of the blind image-band interference canceller is theoretically analyzed and the performance of the proposed canceller is verified by computer simulation. As a result, it is shown that the blind image-band interference canceller achieves superior performance even in the presence of strong image-band interference, for example, CIR=-40 dB. In summary, the proposed canceller makes it possible for the receiver with the single receiver chain to achieve multimode/multiband communications with high quality.

In this paper, the feasibility of composite right/left-handed transmission lines for realizing proximity coupled interconnects is reported. The proposed interconnects' resonant length can be miniaturized due to the zeroth order resonance supported by a composite right/left-handed transmission line resonator. In addition, the proposed interconnects can achieve broadside coupling because the zeroth order resonance occurs in the fast-wave region. Simulated and measured electric field distributions are shown to explain the broadside coupling phenomenon. To validate the arbitrary size and broadside coupling of the proposed interconnects, simulated and measured transmission characteristics are presented. The results show that low insertion loss can be achieved by using single and double broadside coupling between interconnects.

We present recent progress of high-speed Mach-Zehnder modulator technologies for advanced modulation formats. Multi-level quadrature amplitude modulation signal can be synthesized by using parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators. We can generate complicated multi-level optical signals from binary data streams, where binary modulated signals are vectorially summed in optical circuits. Frequency response of each Mach-Zehnder interferometer is also very important to achieve high-speed signals. We can enhance the bandwidth of the response, with thin substrate. 87 Gbaud modulation was demonstrated with a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator.

The performance of ultra-wideband (UWB) multiple input multiple output (MIMO) receiver based on the RAKE maximal ratio combiner (MRC) followed by a zero forcing (ZF) detector is analytically examined. For a UWB MIMO system with NT transmit antennas, NR receive antennas, and L resolvable multipath components, the proposed MIMO detection scheme is shown to have the diversity order of LNR-NT+1 and its analytical error rate expression is presented in a log-normal fading channel. We also compare the analytical BERs with the simulated results.

An antenna-permutation (AP) scheme is described for channel-vector quantization (CVQ) in zero-forcing beamforming (ZFBF) multiuser multiple-input and multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing systems with multiple receive antennas. Different sets of multiple channel sub-matrices are selected for different subcarriers and then quantized to multiple quantization vectors for finite rate feedback. Based on the quantization vectors, ZFBF provides a single stream or multiple streams to users while increasing frequency selectivity. Simulation results demonstrate that AP-CVQ with four-bit quantization that incorporates with pre-whitening maximum likelihood detection for two stream reception achieved better average packet error rates than minimum mean square error receive beamforming for single stream reception when the frequency selectivity was not severe.

The IEEE 802.11 standard has been extensively deployed all over the world. Many studies have been put on its performance, especially throughput. Most research focused on the analysis of saturated throughput, but non-saturated situation is more usual in practice. By extending a saturation throughput model, a concise and novel model is proposed in this paper, which can be used to analyze both saturated and non-saturated conditions. Moreover, the model can also deal with the heterogeneous condition, which allows stations to have different traffic. Different access mechanisms and packet payloads are used in simulation to validate it, and the results show that the model is accurate.