A site-general type prediction formula is created based on the measurement results in an urban area in Japan assuming that the prediction frequency range required for Fourth -- Generation (4G) Mobile Communication Systems is from 3 to 6 GHz, the distance range is 0.1 to 3 km, and the base station (BS) height range is from 10 to 100 m. Based on the measurement results, the path loss (dB) is found to be proportional to the logarithm of the distance (m), the logarithm of the BS height (m), and the logarithm of the frequency (GHz). Furthermore, we examine the extension of existing formulae such as the Okumura -- Hata, Walfisch -- Ikegami, and Sakagami formulae for 4G systems and propose a prediction formula based on the Extended Sakagami formula.

A statistical model based on a partitioned Markov-chains model has previously been developed to represent time domain behavior of the asynchronous impulsive noise over a broadband power line communication (PLC) network. However, the estimation of its model parameters using the Simplex method can easily trap the final solution at a local optimum. This study proposes an estimation scheme based on the genetic algorithm (GA) to overcome this difficulty. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme yields estimates that more closely match the experimental data statistics.

This paper proposes a new control scheme in which the base station (BS) controls terminal's transmit beamforming in time-division duplex (TDD)/multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems. In the proposed scheme, the BS transmits pilot signals using appropriate downlink beams to instruct a terminal on target transmit beamforming. Using responses of the downlink pilot signals, the terminal can perform transmit beamforming close to the target one. Our theoretical investigation reveals that the BS can control multiple terminals' transmit beamforming simultaneously. Furthermore, an efficient signal processing at the terminal is investigated to obtain precise weight of transmit beamforming in noise environments. Numerical results show that the terminal can perform precise transmit beamforming close to the target one in noise environments. It is also shown that the amount of downlink control signalling in the proposed scheme is much less than that in codebook-based approach.

Our research goal is to facilitate the sharing of stories with digital photographs. Some map websites now collect stories associated with peoples' relationships to places. Users map collections of places and include their intangible emotional associations with each location along with photographs, videos, etc. Though this framework of mapping stories is important, it is not sufficiently expressive to communicate stories in a narrative fashion. For example, when the number of the mapped collections of places is particularly large, it is neither easy for viewers to interpret the map nor is it easy for the creator to express a story as a series of events in the real world. This is because each narrative, in the form of a sequence of textual narratives, a sequence of photographs, a movie, or audio is mapped to just one point. As a result, it is up to the viewer to decide which points on the map must be read, and in what order. The conventional framework is fairly suitable for mapping and expressing fragments or snapshots of a whole story and not for conveying the whole story as a narrative using the entire map as the setting. We therefore propose a new framework, Spatial Slideshow, for mapping personal photo collections and representing them as stories such as route guidances, sightseeing guidances, historical topics, fieldwork records, personal diaries, and so on. It is a fusion of personal photo mapping and photo storytelling. Each story is conveyed through a sequence of mapped photographs, presented as a synchronized animation of a map and an enhanced photo slideshow. The main technical novelty of this paper is a method for creating three-dimensional animations of photographs that induce the visual effect of motion from photo to photo. We believe that the proposed framework may have considerable significance in facilitating the grassroots development of spatial content driven by visual communication concerning real-world locations or events.

This paper discusses the design of configurations of videophone equipment aimed at online sign interpretation. We classified interpretation services into three types of situations: on-site interpretation, partial online interpretation, and full online interpretation. For each situation, the spatial configurations of the equipment are considered keeping the issue of nonverbal signals in mind. Simulation experiments of sign interpretation were performed using these spatial configurations and the qualities of the configurations were assessed. The preferred configurations had the common characteristics that the hearing subject could see the face of his/her principal conversation partner, that is, the deaf subject. The results imply that hearing people who do not understand sign language utilize nonverbal signals for facilitating interpreter-mediated conversation.

This paper proposes a new minimum BER (MBER) criterion precoding method that is robust to imperfect channel state information (CSI) for MIMO-OFDM mobile communications. The proposed MBER precoding aims to minimize BER of the maximum likelihood detection (MLD), on the condition that the transmitter can obtain only imperfect CSI owing to channel estimation and quantization errors of the feedback CSI. The proposed scheme controls its precoding parameters under a transmit power constraint by minimizing an upper bound of BER which is derived from the pairwise error probability and averaged with respect to the CSI error. In contrast with a conventional power allocation MBER precoding method that is also robust to the CSI error, the proposed scheme does not make any assumption on the precoding parameters so as to reduce complexity. Thus, it is expected to outperform the conventional scheme at the cost of higher complexity. Computer simulations demonstrate that the proposed precoding method outperforms a conventional nonrobust MBER precoder and the conventional robust power allocation MBER precoding method when the amount of the CSI error is not considerable.

Previously proposed batch signature schemes do not allow a signer to generate a signature immediately for sequentially asked signing queries. In this letter, we propose flexible batch signatures which do not need any waiting period and have very light computational overhead. Therefore our schemes are well suited for low power devices.

Very high-speed data services are demanded in the next generation wireless systems. However, the available bandwidth is limited. The use of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) multiplexing can increase the transmission rate without bandwidth expansion. For high-speed data transmission, however, the channel becomes severely frequency-selective and the achievable bit error rate (BER) performance degrades. In our previous work, we proposed the joint use of iterative frequency-domain parallel interference cancellation (PIC) and two-dimensional (2D) MMSE-FDE for the non-spread single-carrier (SC) transmission in a frequency-selective fading channel. The joint use of PIC and 2D MMSE-FDE can effectively suppress the inter-path interference (IPI) and the inter-code interference (ICI), resulting from the channel frequency-selectivity, and the interference from other antennas simultaneously. An iterative PIC with 2D MMSE-FDE has a high computational complexity. In this paper, to well suppress the interference from other antennas while reducing the computational complexity, we propose to replace 2D MMSE-FDE by 1D MMSE-FDE except for the initial iteration stage and to use multicode spread-spectrum (SS) transmission instead of the non-spread SC transmission. The BER performance of the proposed scheme in a frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channel is evaluated by computer simulation to show that the proposed scheme can basically match the BER performance of 2D MMSE-FDE with lower complexity.

We address reliable key distribution scheme for lossy channels such as wireless or power line. In the key distribution over these lossy channels, if key information is lost, there is critical issue that the subsequent communication is disabled. In this paper, we show that our proposal has more reliable property than the related works and has the reliable property equivalent to the dedicated communication channels such as Ethernet.

This paper considers the problem of contention resolution algorithm for multi-class with quality of service (QoS) constrained for wireless communication. Five different channel reservation schemes are proposed, namely, UNI+MLA, UNI+DS, UNI+DS+MLA, Partial UNI and Partial UNI+MLA schemes for multimedia traffic, all are extensions of our recently proposed UNI scheme for single-class traffic. The goal is to achieve the highest system performance and enable each traffic type to meet its QoS requirements. We evaluate the performance of each scheme by mathematical analysis. The numerical results show that our proposed schemes are effective in enabling each traffic type to achieve the best successful rate possible in this kind of environment. Finally when comparing between our proposed schemes and conventional technique in terms of both throughput performance and QoS requirements it is found that the UNI+MLA, UNI+DS+MLA and Partial UNI+MLA schemes are relatively efficient and suitable for practical applications.

This paper presents an asynchronous design technique, an enabler for the emerging technology of flexible microelectronics that feature low-temperature processed polysilicon (LTPS) thin-film transistors (TFT) and surface-free technology by laser annealing/ablation (SUFTLA®). The first design instance chosen is an 8-bit microprocessor. LTPS TFTs are good for realizing displays having integrated VLSI circuit at lower costs. However, LTPS TFTs have drawbacks, including substantial deviations in characteristics and the self-heating phenomenon. To solve these problems, the authors adopted the asynchronous circuit design technique and developed an asynchronous design language called Verilog+, which is based on a subset of Verilog HDL® and includes minimal primitives used for describing the communications between modules, and the dedicated tools including a translator called xlator and a synthesizer called ctrlsyn. The flexible 8-bit microprocessor stably operates at 500 kHz, drawing 180 µA from a 5 V power source. The microprocessor's electromagnetic emissions are 21 dB less than those of the synchronous counterpart.

This paper proposes a new parameter estimation method for the MIMO-OFDM MAP receiver with spatial-temporal filters. The proposed method employs eigenvalue decomposition (EVD) so as to attain precise estimates especially under interference-limited conditions in MIMO-OFDM mobile communications. Recursive EVD is introduced to reduce the computational complexity compared to the nonrecursive EVD. The spatial-temporal prewhitening is placed prior to FFT because this arrangement is superior to that of conventional prewhitening posterior to FFT in accuracy of the parameter estimation. In order to improve tracking capability to fast fading, the proposed scheme applies a decision-directed algorithm to the parameter estimation by using log-likelihood ratios of coded bits. Computer simulations demonstrate that the proposed scheme can track fast fading and reduce the complexity to 18 percents of the conventional one, and that the spatial-temporal filtering prior to FFT outperforms the conventional one posterior to FFT.

The present paper describes a method for the construction of a zero-correlation zone sequence set from a perfect sequence. Both the cross-correlation function and the side-lobe of the auto-correlation function of the proposed sequence sets are zero for phase shifts within the zero-correlation zone. These sets can be generated from an arbitrary perfect sequence, the length of which is the product of a pair of odd integers ((2n+1)(2k+1) for k ≥ 1 and n ≥ 0). The proposed sequence construction method can generate an optimal zero-correlation zone sequence set that achieves the theoretical bounds of the sequence member size given the size of the zero-correlation zone and the sequence period. The peak in the out-of-phase correlation function of the constructed sequences is restricted to be lower than the half of the power of the sequence itself. The proposed sequence sets could successfully provide CDMA communication without co-channel interference, or, in an ultrasonic synthetic aperture imaging system, improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the acquired image.

This letter evaluates a transmitter architecture using harmonic images in D/A conversion for generating RF signals. In generating harmonic images, the problems such as intermodulation distortion of DAC were investigated. We developed an evaluation system with two bandpass filter and a buffer amplifier. It was experimentally found that the RF signal up to around 400 MHz can be generated by a commonly used 14-bit DAC at the sampling rates of around 40 MHz with EVM less than 6.6%. This letter also presents a more feasible transmitter example having an IF stage with harmonic image extraction scheme and a typical RF upconversion stage.

Ultrasonic distance measurement using the pulse-echo method is based on the determination of the time of flight of ultrasonic waves. The pulse-compression technique, in which the cross-correlation function of a detected ultrasonic wave and a transmitted ultrasonic wave is obtained, is the conventional method used for improving the resolution of distance measurement. However, the calculation of a cross-correlation operation requires high-cost digital signal processing. This paper presents a new method of sensor signal processing within the pulse-compression technique using a delta-sigma modulated single-bit digital signal. The proposed sensor signal processing method consists of a cross-correlation operation employing single-bit signal processing and a smoothing operation involving a moving average filter. The proposed method reduces the calculation cost of the digital signal processing of the pulse-compression technique.

Despite the extensive literature on current conveyor-based universal (namely, low-pass, band-pass, high-pass, notch, and all-pass) biquads with three inputs and one output, no filter circuits have been reported to date which simultaneously achieve the following seven important features: (i) employment of only two current conveyors, (ii) employment of only grounded capacitors, (iii) employment of only grounded resistors, (iv) high-input and low-output impedance, (v) no need to employ inverting type input signals, (vi) no need to impose component choice conditions to realize specific filtering functions, and (vii) low active and passive sensitivity performances. This letter describes a new voltage-mode biquad circuit that satisfies all the above features simultaneously, and without trade-offs.

A design method is proposed for a low-profile dual-shaped reflector antenna for the mobile satellite communications. The antenna is required to be low-profile because of mount restrictions. However, reduction of its height generally causes degradation of antenna performance. Firstly, an initial low-profile reflector antenna with an elliptical aperture is designed by using Geometrical Optics (GO) shaping. Then a Physical Optics (PO) shaping technique is applied to optimize the gain and sidelobes including mitigation of undesired scattering. The developed design method provides highly accurate design procedure for electrically small reflector antennas. Fabrication and measurement of a prototype antenna support the theory.

This work presents an FFT/IFFT core compiler particularly suited for the VLSI implementation of OFDM communication systems. The tool employs an architecture template based on the pipelined cascade principle. The generated cores support run-time programmable length and transform type selection, enabling seamless integration into multiple mode and multiple standard terminals. A distinctive feature of the tool is its accuracy-driven configuration engine which automatically profiles the internal arithmetic and generates a core with minimum operands bit-width and thus minimum circuit complexity. The engine performs a closed-loop optimization over three different internal arithmetic models (fixed-point, block floating-point and convergent block floating-point) using the numerical accuracy budget given by the user as a reference point. The flexibility and re-usability of the proposed macrocell are illustrated through several case studies which encompass all current state-of-the-art OFDM communications standards (WLAN, WMAN, xDSL, DVB-T/H, DAB and UWB). Implementations results of the generated macrocells are presented for two deep sub-micron standard-cells libraries (65 and 90 nm) and commercially available FPGA devices. When compared with other tools for automatic FFT core generation, the proposed environment produces macrocells with lower circuit complexity expressed as gate count and RAM/ROM bits, while keeping the same system level performance in terms of throughput, transform size and numerical accuracy.

Space-time block codes (STBCs) from coordinate interleaved orthogonal designs (CIODs) have attracted a great deal of attention due to their full-diversity and linear maximum likelihood (ML) decodability. In this letter, we propose a simple detection technique, particularly for full-rate STBCs from CIODs to overcome the performance degradation caused by time-selective fading channels. Furthermore, we evaluate the effects of time-selective fading channels and imperfect channel estimation on STBCs from CIODs by using a newly-introduced index, the results of which demonstrate that full-rate STBCs from CIODs are more robust against time-selective fading channels than conventional full-rate STBCs.

The paper presents a novel approach to estimate the performance of MPI collective communications. Our objective is to help researchers to make appropriate decisions on their message-passing applications. For each collective communication, we attempt to apply LogGP and P-LogP standard point-to-point models. The resulted models are compared with the empirical data in order to identify the most suitable for performance characterization of collective operations. For the communications on large clusters with large size messages, the network contention problem can significantly affect the performance. Hence, to reduce the relative gap between the prediction and the measured runtime, the contention issue is also modeled, by a queuing theory analysis method, and taken in account with the total performance estimation. The experiments performed on a cluster which consists of 64 processors interconnected by Gigabit Ethernet network show encouraging results. For any collective operation, given a number of processors and a range of message sizes, there is at least one model that predicts the performance precisely. We could achieve a gap between the predicted and the measured run-time around 15%. Thus, by handling the contention problem, we could reduce around 80% of the relative gap.