In this paper, we propose a new speaker-class modeling and its adaptation method for the LVCSR system and evaluate the method on the Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese (CSJ). In this method, closer speakers are selected from training speakers and the acoustic models are trained by using their utterances for each evaluation speaker. One of the major issues of the speaker-class model is determining the selection range of speakers. In order to solve the problem, several models which have a variety of speaker range are prepared for each evaluation speaker in advance, and the most proper model is selected on a likelihood basis in the recognition step. In addition, we improved the recognition performance using unsupervised speaker adaptation with the speaker-class models. In the recognition experiments, a significant improvement could be obtained by using the proposed speaker adaptation based on speaker-class models compared with the conventional adaptation method.

This paper proposes a printed tag antenna for the universal ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) band (860-960 MHz) using the R2R process. To widen impedance bandwidth, a π-shaped matching network is suggested. The overall dimension of the proposed tag antenna is 83.4 mm 30.2 mm and it has a gain of over 1 dBi for the entire UHF RFID band. The performances of the proposed tag antenna, printed with conductivity silver ink using an R2R process, are compared with those of a copper antenna.

This paper presents a domain-ontology driven multi-agent based scheme for representing the knowledge of the communication network management system. In the proposed knowledge-intensive framework, the static domain-related concepts are articulated as the domain knowledge ontology. The experiential knowledge for managing the network is represented as the fault-case reasoning models, and it is explicitly encoded as the core knowledge of multi-agent middleware layer as heuristic production-type rules. These task-oriented management expertise manipulates the domain content and structure during the diagnostic sessions. The agents' rules along with the embedded generic java-based problem-solving algorithms and run-time log information, perform the automated management tasks. For the proof of concept, an experimental network system has been implemented in our laboratory, and the deployment of some test-bed scenarios is performed. Experimental results confirm a marked reduction in the management-overhead of the network administrator, as compared to the manual network management techniques, in terms of the time-taken and effort-done during a particular fault-diagnosis session. Validation of the reusability/modifiability aspects of our system, illustrates the flexible manipulation of the knowledge fragments within diverse application contexts. The proposed approach can be regarded as one of the pioneered steps towards representing the network knowledge via reusable domain ontology and intelligent agents for the automated network management support systems.

We have developed an odor-emitting apparatus for application of odor to information technology. This apparatus consists of a chemical capsule cartridge including chemical capsules of odor ingredients and valves to control odor emission using an artificial metal muscle. In this method, multiple valves can be opened using the current for a single artificial muscle because the expansion and contraction time constant for the artificial muscles is large. We have developed a new multi-valve sequence mode that uses multiple odor capsules to increase odor strength, and we have been able to increase the strength produced by a factor of two. In addition, we evaluated the change in odor strength using a mock-up of the back seat of an automobile, and all of the ten test subjects reported sensing a stronger odor.

Evolvable hardware (EHW) is a new research field about the use of Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) to construct electronic systems. EHW refers in a narrow sense to use evolutionary mechanisms as the algorithmic drivers for system design, while in a general sense to the capability of the hardware system to develop and to improve itself. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is one of typical EAs. We propose optimal circuit design by using GA with parameterized uniform crossover (GApuc) and with fitness function composed of circuit complexity, power, and signal delay. Parameterized uniform crossover is much more likely to distribute its disruptive trials in an unbiased manner over larger portions of the space, then it has more exploratory power than one and two-point crossover, so we have more chances of finding better solutions. Its effectiveness is shown by experiments. From the results, we can see that the best elite fitness, the average value of fitness of the correct circuits and the number of the correct circuits of GApuc are better than that of GA with one-point crossover or two-point crossover. The best case of optimal circuits generated by GApuc is 10.18% and 6.08% better in evaluating value than that by GA with one-point crossover and two-point crossover, respectively.

Network resiliency has become crucial as the failure of a group of networks happens more frequently, being caused by either natural disasters or malicious attacks. In order to enhance the resiliency of the Internet, we show that changing the evolving strategy is more important than increasing the number of links by multihoming, which connects a single network with two or more links. From the simulation with Internet topologies, it is shown that the resiliency of the Internet can be enhanced by replacing the current evolving strategy only in part.

This paper investigates the gain of inter-Node B macro diversity for a scheduled-based shared channel using single-carrier FDMA radio access in the Evolved UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access) uplink based on system-level simulations. More specifically, we clarify the gain of inter-Node B soft handover (SHO) with selection combining at the radio frame length level (=10 msec) compared to that for hard handover (HHO) for a scheduled-based shared data channel, considering the gains of key packet-specific techniques including channel-dependent scheduling, adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) with packet combining, and slow transmission power control (TPC). Simulation results show that the inter-Node B SHO increases the user throughput at the cell edge by approximately 10% for a short cell radius such as 100-300 m due to the diversity gain from a sudden change in other-cell interference, which is a feature specific to full scheduled-based packet access. However, it is also shown that the gain of inter-Node B SHO compared to that for HHO is small in a macrocell environment when the cell radius is longer than approximately 500 m due to the gains from hybrid ARQ with packet combining, slow TPC, and proportional fairness based channel-dependent scheduling.

This paper describes a reading miscue detection system based on the conventional Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition (LVCSR) framework [1]. In order to incorporate the knowledge of reference (what the reader ought to read) and some error patterns into the decoding process, two methods are proposed: Dynamic Multiple Pronunciation Incorporation (DMPI) and Dynamic Interpolation of Language Model (DILM). DMPI dynamically adds some pronunciation variations into the search space to predict reading substitutions and insertions. To resolve the conflict between the coverage of error predications and the perplexity of the search space, only the pronunciation variants related to the reference are added. DILM dynamically interpolates the general language model based on the analysis of the reference and so keeps the active paths of decoding relatively near the reference. It makes the recognition more accurate, which further improves the detection performance. At the final stage of detection, an improved dynamic program (DP) is used to align the confusion network (CN) from speech recognition and the reference to generate the detecting result. The experimental results show that the proposed two methods can decrease the Equal Error Rate (EER) by 14% relatively, from 46.4% to 39.8%.

In the Evolved UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access) downlink, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based radio access was adopted because of its inherent immunity to multipath interference and flexible accommodation of different spectrum arrangements. This paper presents the optimum adaptive modulation and channel coding (AMC) scheme when resource blocks (RBs) is simultaneously assigned to the same user when frequency and time domain channel-dependent scheduling is assumed in the downlink OFDMA radio access with single-antenna transmission. We start by presenting selection methods for the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) employing mutual information both for RB-common and RB-dependent modulation schemes. Simulation results show that, irrespective of the application of power adaptation to RB-dependent modulation, the improvement in the achievable throughput of the RB-dependent modulation scheme compared to that for the RB-common modulation scheme is slight, i.e., 4 to 5%. In addition, the number of required control signaling bits in the RB-dependent modulation scheme becomes greater than that for the RB-common modulation scheme. Therefore, we conclude that the RB-common modulation and channel coding rate scheme is preferred, when multiple RBs of the same coded stream are assigned to one user in the case of single-antenna transmission.

This paper presents the optimum control interval for intra-cell fractional transmission power control (TPC) for a shared data channel employing frequency domain channel-dependent scheduling and adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) in the Evolved UTRA uplink using single-carrier (SC)-FDMA radio access. The simulation results show that the best attenuation factor in the fractional TPC is approximately 0.6 for achieving the maximum user throughput when the maximum target received signal power, P0 is -60 dBm. Then, we show that the optimum averaging interval for the desired signal level, which corresponds to a substantial control interval for the fractional TPC, is approximately 100-200 msec regardless of the maximum Doppler frequency up to 222 Hz and the distance at the shadowing correlation of 0.5. Throughout the simulation results, we verify that slow intra-cell fractional TPC associated with fast AMC is effective in achieving the maximum cell throughput and cell-edge user throughput.

This paper investigates the best cell-common reference signal (RS) structure and transmit diversity scheme for Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) signals considering frequency diversity in a single-frequency network (SFN) in the OFDM based Evolved UTRA downlink. Link-level simulation results show that cyclic delay diversity (CDD) is the most promising transmit diversity scheme for the MBMS signals considering the RS overhead. It is also elucidated that the required average received signal energy per symbol-to-noise power spectrum density ratio (Es/N0) using CDD is reduced by approximately 0.5 dB even though the MBMS signal obtains a sufficient frequency diversity gain in SFN operation. Furthermore, we clarify the achievable data rate for the MBMS signal at the cell edge of the centered MBMS cell that satisfies the required block error rate (BLER) using two-antenna transmit CDD and diversity reception by system-level simulation. Then, the simulation results show that the offered data rates with the required BLER of less than 10-2 at 95% coverage are 0.211 (0.17), 0.243 (0.196), 1.168 (1.084), and 2.754 (2.754) bps/Hz with the number of cells providing MBMS, NMBMS = 1, 3, 21, and 57, respectively, employing transmit CDD with two antennas (single-antenna transmission) for ISD = 500 m.

This paper proposes block-wise resource block (RB)-level distributed OFDMA transmission with ND-block division in order to obtain the frequency diversity effect even for low-rate traffic (here ND indicates the number of virtual RBs within one physical RB) in Evolved UTRA downlink. More specifically, we propose a constraint rule such that distributed transmission is multiplexed into a different physical RB from that of localized transmission in order to achieve the same resource assignment and independent decoding between the distributed and localized transmissions. Based on the proposed rule, a virtual RB for distributed transmission is segmented into ND blocks with the size of 1/ND of the original virtual RB. Then, the ND virtual blocks with the size of 1/ND are mapped together into each ND physical RB in a distributed manner, resulting in a large frequency diversity effect. Numerical calculations show that the block-wise RB-level distributed transmission can reduce the number of control signaling bits required for resource assignment compared to the subcarrier-level distributed transmission scheme, which provides the best performance. Moreover, a system-level simulation shows that the loss in the cell throughput employing the block-wise RB-level distributed transmission compared to that using the subcarrier-level transmission is only within 3-4% when the channel load is 0.5 and 1.0, i.e., the maximum loss is 3-4% at approximately 90% in the cumulative distribution function (CDF).

This paper proposes applying the Layered Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) radio access scheme and its radio access techniques to LTE (Long-Term Evolution)-Advanced to satisfy its system requirements, which are much stricter than those of the Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) and UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). Layered OFDMA comprises layered transmission bandwidth assignment (bandwidth is assigned to match the required data rate), a layered control signaling structure, and support for layered environments for both the downlink and uplink. Especially in the uplink, an adaptive multi-access scheme with hybrid single-carrier and multicarrier based radio access is applied. Layered OFDMA radio access will support all the functionalities specified in Release 8 LTE and later enhancements. Key radio access techniques such as fast inter-cell radio resource management that takes advantage of remote radio equipment (RRE) so as to realize inter-cell orthogonality, multi-antenna transmission with more antennas, and coverage enhancing techniques are used to achieve a high level of capacity and cell-edge spectrum efficiency.

This paper presents the optimum physical random access channel (PRACH) structure in terms of the number of control signaling bits accommodated and the transmission bandwidth based on the link budget in order to satisfy the coverage requirement for the single-carrier (SC)-FDMA based E-UTRA uplink. First, we present the design concept of the PRACH structure considering the purposes of the random access procedure in the E-UTRA. Simulation evaluations including a system-level simulation show that a PRACH comprising a 0.5-msec preamble sequence can convey a 6-bit control signal at the cell edge when the inter-site distance (ISD) is 500 m under full channel load conditions with one-cell frequency reuse. It is also shown, however, that a PRACH longer than one-sub-frame, e.g., 1.0 msec, is necessary to support the ISD of 1732 m assuming the same conditions. We also show that the best transmission bandwidth for the PRACH is approximately 1.08-4.5 MHz from the viewpoint of the misdetection probability, and a 1.08-MHz transmission bandwidth is suitable considering other aspects such as flexible resource assignment in the time domain and a small number of options in the transmission bandwidth.

In prior work, contact welding phenomena were observed in automotive relays during break of motor inrush current. The switching performance of the type of relay investigated could be correlated with the parameters: over-travel, coil suppression, and the break current. In the present work the author further explores the impact of both the contact material (silver tin oxide versus fine grain silver) and the contact surface topography (brand new and pre-aged contacts). He further assesses the robustness of the system "relay" with those parameters using the Taguchi methods for robust design. Furthermore, the robustness of two alternative automotive relay types will be discussed.

This paper presents comparisons between common and dedicated reference signals (RSs) for channel estimation in MIMO multiplexing using codebook-based precoding for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) radio access in the Evolved UTRA downlink with frequency division duplexing (FDD). We clarify the best RS structure for precoding-based MIMO multiplexing based on comparisons of the structures in terms of the achievable throughput taking into account the overhead of the common and dedicated RSs and the precoding matrix indication (PMI) signal. Based on extensive simulations on the throughput in 2-by-2 and 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing with precoding, we clarify that channel estimation based on common RSs multiplied with the precoding matrix indicated by the PMI signal achieves higher throughput compared to that using dedicated RSs irrespective of the number of spatial multiplexing streams when the number of available precoding matrices, i.e., the codebook size, is less than approximately 16 and 32 for 2-by-2 and 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing, respectively.

This paper presents the best transmit diversity schemes for three types of common/shared control signals from the viewpoint of the block error rate (BLER) performance in the Evolved UTRA downlink employing OFDM radio access. This paper also presents the coverage performance of the common/shared control signals using transmit diversity with respect to the outage probability that satisfies the required BLER performance, which is a major factor determining the cell configuration. Simulation results clarify that Space-Frequency Block Code (SFBC) and the combination of SFBC and Frequency Switched Transmit Diversity (FSTD) are the best transmit diversity schemes among the open-loop type transmit diversity candidates for two-antenna and four-antenna transmission cases, respectively. Furthermore, we show through system-level simulations that SFBC is very effective in reducing the outage probability at the required BLER for the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), for the common control signal with resource block (RB)-level assignment such as the dynamic broadcast channel (D-BCH) and paging channel (PCH), and in increasing the number of accommodated L1/L2 control signals over one transmission time interval duration, using mini-control channel element (CCE)-level assignment.

This paper investigates the uplink throughput performance and the interference power to other cells using an Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA) laboratory and field experimental system. In E-UTRA uplink, the near-far problem is not an issue since the orthgonality among the users within the target cell is maintained. Therefore, the fractional transmission power control (TPC), in which the target level of TPC is adjusted according to the path loss level, can be adopted. Thus, it is expected the high cell throughput and the large coverage area by combining fractional TPC, adaptive modulation and channel coding (AMC), and variable resource block (RB) allocation. The indoor and field experimental results show that the peak throughput of approximately 45 Mbps is achieved by allocating a wider bandwidth and setting higher target level for the UE located near the cell site while keeping the adjacent cell interference level almost the constant. We also showed that the system capacity can be improved by 50% in simple cell model by applying the AMC and the fractional TPC.

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of frequency error compensation provided by demodulation automatic frequency control (AFC) using the Synchronization Channel (SCH) in downlink OFDM radio access. The implemented OFDM receiver compensates for the frequency error caused by the difference in frequency between a base station (BS) and a user equipment (UE) using a time-division multiplexed SCH signal and that caused by the Doppler shift generated by the mobility of a user using reference signals with staggered multiplexing. Experimental results show that even when the standard oscillator frequency of the UE cannot be made to track the more accurate frequency of a BS, demodulation AFC can suppress the residual frequency error to a sufficiently low level, i.e., within 0.3 ppm, using the SCH so that the degradation in the block error rate of the physical broadcast channel control signals is slight, i.e., within approximately 0.1 dB, with respect to the case without frequency error for speeds greater than 350 km/h.

This paper proposes the use of inter-cell transmission power control (TPC) with overload indicator (OLI) signaling to user equipment (UE) in addition to intra-cell TPC for the Evolved UTRA uplink. In the proposed inter-cell OLI transmission method, a cell site (Node B) selects UEs offering high-level interferences to the cell site based on the measured path loss difference, and then, the cell site transmits the OLI signal to the selected UEs. The simulation results show that the inter-cell TPC improves both the average user throughput and cell-edge user throughput at 5% in the cumulative distribution function (CDF) curve, assuming the same sector throughput. For instance, when the sector throughput is 1 Mbps using 1.08 MHz bandwidth, the inter-cell TPC with the proposed UE-common OLI scheme increases the average user throughput and the 5%-cell edge user throughput by approximately 41% and 53%, respectively, compared to the case with intra-cell TPC only. Furthermore, when the inter-cell TPC with the proposed UE-individual OLI is employed, the corresponding average user throughput and the 5% user throughput are increased by approximately 87% and 94%, respectively.