Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) is a computing para-digm which utilizes human-centric systems and applications. With the widespread use of information appliances, robots and sensors, the ubicomp paradigm is expected to become a reality in the near future. Because close interaction between a person and the computing environment is required for ubicomp, autonomous decentralized control will play an important role. In this paper, we discuss autonomous decentralized control in ubicomp from the viewpoint of typical ubicomp applications, smart environments and context-awareness.

A reconfigurable CMOS mixer for multi-standard application is presented. The mixer can be tuned and adjusted to multi-frequency bands using a flexible matching network which is a kind of variable reactance transformer. The flexible matching network consists of a few switched inductors and capacitors. The mixer has acceptable conversion gain, IIP3 and NF. It operates with a return loss of less than -10 dB through 2-6 GHz except for a few narrow frequency bands.

In the move toward higher clock rates and advanced process technologies, designers of the latest electronic products are finding increasing silicon failure with respect to noise. On the other hand, the minimum dimension of patterns on LSIs is much smaller than the wavelength of exposure, making it difficult for LSI manufacturers to obtain high yield. In this paper, we present a solution to reduce power-supply noise in LSI microchips. The proposed design methodology also considers design for manufacturability (DFM) at the same time as power integrity. The method was successfully applied to the design of a system-on-chip (SOC), achieving a 13.1-13.2% noise reduction in power-supply voltage and uniformity of pattern density for chemical mechanical polishing (CMP).

In this letter, new results on the BER performance of multitone DS-CDMA systems for transmissions over Nakagami-m fading channels with exponentially decaying multipath intensity profile are presented. The results show that, in viewpoint of the BER performance, there is a critical relation between the number of resolvable paths and the effect of the rate of average power decay.

The radiation properties of oscillating electric dipoles are studied theoretically for three and four layered systems including a single metallic slab based on angular spectrum representation of vector spherical waves. One of the remarkable results obtained is the transmission energy spectrum showing strong dependence on the thickness of a dielectric layer placed between oscillating electric dipole and metallic surface, which explains the experimental results of molecular fluorescence into surface plasmon modes. The theory based on angular spectrum representation and tunneling current provides us with a clear identification of plasmonic excitation transfer, transmission loss associated with plasmon transport in metallic layer, and energy dissipation or quenching of excitation due to surface plasmon excitation at the metallic surface in relation to the characteristic complex wave number of evanescent waves.

We make a theoretical study about the laser-induced radiation force exerted on nano materials under a quantum mechanical resonance condition of electronic systems [1] confined in them. In our recent study, we have clarified that the remarkable effects of the electronic resonance appear in the radiation force on the small object whose size is much smaller than the light wavelength; (A) the acceleration on the object gets larger as the size decreases, (B) the peaks with less heat appear in the force spectra even under the resonance condition, (C) the peak position sensitively varies with the nanoscale-size changes. These are useful for the optical manipulation to precisely control the mechanical motions of nano materials. In this paper, toward the experiment to verify the above results, we discuss the dependence of the mechanical motion of nano objects on the width of the incident laser light, and on the diffusion and friction effects assuming that they are floating in the superfluid helium-4 with the cryogenic condition where the electronic resonance effects become conspicuous. The results of calculations show that the particular nano objects, whose resonance energy corresponds to the center frequency of incident laser, can move away from others over macroscopic distance beyond diffusion length. This means that we can observe the distribution of sizes and qualities of nano objects as a macroscopic spatial distribution of them if we prepare appropriate conditions of incident light. We call this new technique 'Nano Optical Chromatography (NOC).'

This paper reports experimental results on far-field radiated emission for different on-chip chip power supply networks. Two types of test chips were developed as noise generators. One was with on-chip decoupling capacitance, and the other was without intentional on-chip decoupling capacitance. They were assembled in a CSP (Chip scale package). The effects of on-chip decoupling capacitance on far-field radiated emission were investigated for the operation of core logic circuits and output buffer circuits. Reduced radiated emission was observed for every harmonics for the operation of core logic circuits by the on-chip decoupling capacitance. While, reduced radiated emission was observed for the even-order harmonics for the operation of output buffer circuits due to the existence of on-chip decoupling capacitance.

While mobile networks have been enhanced to support a variety of mobile multimedia services such as video telephony and rich data content delivery, a new challenge is being created by the remarkable development of micro-device technologies such as micro processor-chips, sensors, and RF tags. These developments suggest the rapid emergence of the ubiquitous computing environment; computers supporting human life without imposing any stress on the users. The combination of broadband global networks and ubiquitous computing environment will lead to an entirely new class of services, which we call ubiquitous networking services. This paper discusses how to create ubiquitous service environments comparing global networking approaches which are based on fixed and mobile networks. It is shown that the mobile approach is better from service applicability and reliability viewpoints. Networking architecture is proposed which expand 4G mobile cellular networks to real space via gateways on the edges of the mobile network (i.e. mobile terminals). A new set of technical requirements will emerge via this approach, which may accelerate the paradigm shift from the current mobile network architecture and even from the Internet of today.

In order to miniaturize a very low-level dc current amplifier and to speed up its output response speed, we proposed to employ the switched-capacitor circuit (SCC) as its negative feedback circuit, instead of the conventionally used high-ohmage resistor. However, in the case of using SCC, the output waveform had unnecessary components. To decrease the effect of these components and to speed up the response speed, we used a switched-capacitor filter (SCF), an offset controller, and a positive feedback circuit. As a result, we demonstrated that it was useful to use the amplifier using the SCC.

This paper presents the analysis of hybrid cascode compensation scheme, merged Ahuja and improved Ahuja style compensation methods, which is used in two-stage CMOS operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs). The open loop signal transfer function is derived to allow the accurate estimation of the poles and zeros. This analytical approach shows that the non-dominant poles and zeros of the hybrid cascode compensation are about 40 percent greater than those of the conventional cascode compensation. Circuit level simulation results are provided to show the accuracy of the calculated expressions and also the usefulness of the proposed cascode compensation technique.

When a fixed free-running crystal is used for sampling time generation at a DMT receiver, Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) and Inter-Carrier Interference (ICI) are introduced by sampling time error. The ICI becomes more serious as the DMT symbol length increases. In this letter, the effects of sampling clock offset are investigated in the time domain using a new notion of Inter-sample Interference (IsI) instead of ISI and ICI. Based on the IsI analysis, we propose a new frequency domain timing error correction scheme.

In this paper, firstly, effects of third order dispersion (TOD) on coupled pulses are analyzed. Then, averaging method is modified and proved to be an effective way for obtaining non-radiative bi-soliton solution of the TOD perturbed nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE), which models a dispersion managed (DM) optical transmission system. Finally, the obtained bi-soliton evolution behavior is studied, and compared with that of uni-soliton. With the increase of average TOD, pulse velocity of bi-soliton largely deviates from that of uni-soliton. Thus, even though TOD cannot be exactly vanished in fabrication, it is suggested to compensate average TOD as low as possible.

We design and demonstrate a high repetition-rate similariton generation system using normal dispersion fiber amplifiers (NDFA's). We numerically calculate the pulse evolution in NDFA's and clarify the condition to generate similariton pulses in a finite-length NDFA. Then we design the similariton generation system in consideration of the use of Erbium-doped fibers (EDF's) and show that a km-long fiber amplifier with low normal dispersion can generate a high repetition-rate similariton train from practical pico-second pulse sources. In the experiment, we demonstrate a 10-GHz similariton source using a 1.2-km-long EDF. For application to multi-wavelength light sources, we measure the bit-error rate of the spectrally sliced similariton, and show that it exhibits low-noise performance, which is attributed to the spectral flatness.

In this paper, we describe a development of a Bluetooth Access Point for the WAN connection of home network devices. Especially, users can access the PSTN at home instead of expensive CDMA network through the AP, using the 'one-phone,' which is the Bluetooth enabled cellular phone. The one-phone service becomes a convergence of wired and wireless communication through the AP.

In a switched-capacitor (SC) circuit, the major block is an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) designed in order to form a feedback loop. However, the OTA is the block that consumes most of the power in SC circuits. This paper proposes the use of a class-C inverter instead of the OTA in SC circuits and a corresponding switches configuration for extremely low power applications. A detailed analysis and design trade-offs are also provided. Simulation and experimental results show that sufficient performance can be obtained even though a class-C inverter is used. The second-order biquad filter and the second-order SC sigma-delta (ΣΔ) modulator based on a class-C inverter are designed. These circuits have been fabricated with a 0.35-µm CMOS process. The measurement results of the fabricated SC biquad filter show a 59-dB signal-to-noise-plus-distortion ratio (SNDR) for a 0.2-Vp-p input signal and 0.9-V dynamic ranges. The power consumption of the biquad filter is only 0.4 µW with a 1-V power supply. The measurement results of the fabricated ΣΔ modulator show a 61-dB peak SNR for a 1.6-kHz bandwidth with a sample rate of 200 kHz. The modulator consumes 0.8 µW with a 1-V power supply.

We present and demonstrate a novel method of generating a π phase-alternated return-to-zero (RZ) signal together with pulse-amplitude equalization in a rational harmonic mode-locked fiber ring laser, by using a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator. By adjusting the voltages applied to both arms of the modulator, amplitude-equalization and π phase shift can be achieved successfully at a 9.95 GHz repetition rate. The generated alternate-phase RZ signals show enhanced transmission performance in the single-mode fiber (SMF) links without dispersion compensation.

We propose a new type of revocation scheme for efficient public-key black-box traitor tracing. Our revocation scheme is flexible and efficient in the sense that (i) any number of subscribers can be revoked in each distribution under an assumption that the number of revoked subscribers who collude in one coalition is limited to a threshold and (ii) both each subscriber's storage and the transmission overhead are independent of n, while (i) the maximum number of revoked ones cannot be changed or (ii) they depend on n in previous schemes, where n is the total number of subscribers. The flexibility in revocation is significant since flexible revocation can be integrated with efficient black-box tracing and this integration can be achieved without a substantial increase in the transmission overhead over the previous schemes. In this paper, we present a concrete construction of an efficient public-key black-box traceable and revocable scheme by combining flexible revocation with a known black-box tracing algorithm which works under the same attack model as assumed in the previous schemes. Our scheme achieves that (i) the transmission overhead remains efficient, especially linear only in k in case of bulk revocation and (ii) the tracing algorithm runs in O(log n) time, while the previous ones cannot satisfy both of these properties, where k is the maximum number of traitors in a coalition.

To realize a high-density on-chip memory, the authors have proposed a novel logic-process-compatible memory cell. This cell consists of two logic transistors, and placing a planar MIM (metal insulator metal) capacitor on a copper wire above the transistors produces a memory area of 26 F2, which is approximately 60% smaller than a 6T SRAM cell. A suitable cell-bias design and a dual precharge scheme solve the coupling problem inherent in the cell and allow standard logic transistors to be used. This cell--applying the proposed schemes--can handle 10-ns cycle time at a bit-line voltage of 0.7 V. The random cycle is about three times faster than that of a conventional VBL precharge scheme. These results indicate that the umbrella cell is a strong candidate for providing a high-density memory for SOC applications.

Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) demands new security and privacy enhancing technologies for the new information and communication environments where a huge number of computers interact with each other in a distributed and ad hoc manner to access various resources and services. This paper surveys emerging security and privacy enhancing technologies, focusing on access control in ubiquitous computing environments because this is the underlying core technology to enforce security and privacy policies. We classify access control technologies into three types associated with the three access control phases of prevention, avoidance, and detection, and provide an overview of ubiquitous computing-oriented technologies and solutions, ranging from security and privacy models and policies to the enforcement of policies and system implementation.

The current scheme of access control judges the legality of each access based on immediate information without considering associate information hidden in a series of accesses. Due to the deficiency, access control systems do not efficiently limit attacks consist of ordinary operations. For trusted operating system developments, we extended RBAC and added negative procedural constraints to refuse those attacks. With the procedural constraints, the access control of trusted operating systems can discriminate attack trials from normal behaviors. This paper shows the specification of the extended concept and model, and presents simple analysis results.