In this letter, the structural analysis of nonbinary cyclic and quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with α-multiplied parity-check matrices (PCMs) is concerned. Using analytical methods, several structural parameters of nonbinary cyclic and QC LDPC codes with α-multiplied PCMs are determined. In particular, some classes of nonbinary LDPC codes constructed from finite fields and finite geometries are shown to have good minimum and stopping distances properties, which may explain to some extent their wonderful decoding performances.

We developed a polarization-independent and reserved-band-less complementary spectral inverted optical phase conjugation (CSI-OPC) device using dual-band difference frequency generation based on highly efficient periodically poled LiNbO3 waveguide technologies. To examine the nonlinearity mitigation in a long-haul transmission using a large number of OPCs, we installed a CSI-OPC device in the middle of a pure silica core fiber-based recirculating loop transmission line with a length of 320km. First, we examined the fiber-input power tolerance after 5,120-km and 6,400-km transmission using 22.5-Gbaud PDM-16QAM 10-channel DWDM signals and found a Q-factor improvement of over 1.3dB along with enhanced power tolerance thanks to mitigating the fiber nonlinearity. We then demonstrated transmission distance extension using the CSI-OPC device. The use of multiple CSI-OPCs enables an obvious performance improvements attained by extending the transmission distance from 6,400km to 8,960km, which corresponds to applying the CSI-OPC device 28 times. Moreover, there was no Q-factor degradation for the link in a linear regime after applying the CSI-OPC device more than 16 times. These results demonstrate that the CSI-OPC device can improve the nonlinear tolerance of PDM-16QAM signals without an excess penalty.

Mode-by-mode impulse responses, or spectral transfer matrix (STM) of birefringent fibers are measured by using linear optical sampling, with assist of polarization multiplexed probe pulse. By using the eigenvalue analysis of the STM, the differential mode delay and PMD vector of polarization-maintaining fiber are analyzed as a function of optical frequency over 1THz. We show that the amplitude averaging of the complex impulse responses is effective for enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurement, resulting in improving the accuracy and expanding the bandwidth of the measurement.

Visual question answering (VQA) is a task of answering a visual question that is a pair of question and image. Some visual questions are ambiguous and some are clear, and it may be appropriate to change the ambiguity of questions from situation to situation. However, this issue has not been addressed by any prior work. We propose a novel task, rephrasing the questions by controlling the ambiguity of the questions. The ambiguity of a visual question is defined by the use of the entropy of the answer distribution predicted by a VQA model. The proposed model rephrases a source question given with an image so that the rephrased question has the ambiguity (or entropy) specified by users. We propose two learning strategies to train the proposed model with the VQA v2 dataset, which has no ambiguity information. We demonstrate the advantage of our approach that can control the ambiguity of the rephrased questions, and an interesting observation that it is harder to increase than to reduce ambiguity.

The minimum biclique edge cover problem (MBECP) is NP-hard for general graphs. It is known that if we restrict an input graph to the bipartite domino-free class, MBECP can be solved within polynomial-time of input graph size. We show a new polynomial-time solvable graph class for MBECP that is characterized by three forbidden graphs, a domino, a gem and K4. This graph class allows that an input graph is non-bipartite, and includes the bipartite domino-free graph class properly.

At ASIACRYPT 2018, Castryck, Lange, Martindale, Panny and Renes proposed CSIDH, which is a key-exchange protocol based on isogenies between elliptic curves, and a candidate for post-quantum cryptography. However, the implementation by Castryck et al. is not constant-time. Specifically, a part of the secret key could be recovered by the side-channel attacks. Recently, Meyer, Campos, and Reith proposed a constant-time implementation of CSIDH by introducing dummy isogenies and taking secret exponents only from intervals of non-negative integers. Their non-negative intervals make the calculation cost of their implementation of CSIDH twice that of the worst case of the standard (variable-time) implementation of CSIDH. In this paper, we propose a more efficient constant-time algorithm that takes secret exponents from intervals symmetric with respect to the zero. For using these intervals, we need to keep two torsion points on an elliptic curve and calculation for these points. We evaluate the costs of our implementation and that of Meyer et al. in terms of the number of operations on a finite prime field. Our evaluation shows that our constant-time implementation of CSIDH reduces the calculation cost by 28% compared with the implementation by Mayer et al. We also implemented our algorithm by extending the implementation in C of Meyer et al. (originally from Castryck et al.). Then our implementation achieved 152 million clock cycles, which is about 29% faster than that of Meyer et al. and confirms the above reduction ratio in our cost evaluation.

This paper proposes a deterministic pilot pattern placement optimization scheme based on the quantum genetic algorithm (QGA) which aims to improve the performance of sparse channel estimation in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. By minimizing the mutual incoherence property (MIP) of the sensing matrix, the pilot pattern placement optimization is modeled as the solution of a combinatorial optimization problem. QGA is used to solve the optimization problem and generate optimized pilot pattern that can effectively avoid local optima traps. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can generate a sensing matrix with a smaller MIP than a random search or the genetic algorithm (GA), and the optimized pilot pattern performs well for sparse channel estimation in OFDM systems.

In this paper, we propose a notion for high-dimensional generalizations of mutually orthogonal Latin squares (MOLS) and mutually orthogonal diagonal Latin squares (MODLS), called mutually dimensionally orthogonal d-cubes (MOC) and mutually dimensionally orthogonal diagonal d-cubes (MODC). Systematic constructions for MOC and MODC by using polynomials over finite fields are investigated. In particular, for 3-dimensional cubes, the results for the maximum possible number of MODC are improved by adopting the proposed construction.

The direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) technique is widely used in various communication systems. When adopting orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) codes, DS-CDMA is particularly suitable for supporting multi-user/multi-rate data transmission services. A useful property of OVSF codes is that no two code sequences assigned to different users will ever interfere with each other, even if their spreading factors are different. Conventional OVSF codes are constructed based on binary orthogonal codes, called Walsh codes, and OVSF code sequences are binary sequences. In this paper, we propose new OVSF codes that are constructed based on polyphase orthogonal codes and consist of complex sequences in which each symbol is represented as a complex number. Construction of the proposed codes is based on a tree structure that is similar to conventional OVSF codes. Since the proposed codes are generalized versions of conventional OVSF codes, any conventional OVSF code can be presented as a special case of the proposed codes. Herein, we show the method used to construct the proposed OVSF codes, after which the orthogonality of the codes, including conventional OVSF codes, is investigated. Among the advantages of our proposed OVSF codes is that the spreading factor can be designed more flexibly in each layer than is possible with conventional OVSF codes. Furthermore, combination of the proposed code and a non-binary phase modulation is well suited to DS-CDMA systems where the level fluctuation of signal envelope is required to be suppressed.

Recently, we demonstrated a rapid-single-flux-quantum NOT gate comprising a toggle storage loop. In this paper, we present our design and operation of a NOR gate that is a straightforward extension of the NOT gate by attaching a confluence buffer. Parameter margins wider than ±28% were confirmed in simulation. Functional tests using Nb integrated circuits demonstrated correct NOR operation with a bias margin of ±21%.

A ring-resonator type of electrode (RRTE) has been proposed to detect the circulating tumor cell (CTC) for evaluation of the current cancer progression and malignancy in clinical applications. Main emphasis is placed on the identification sensitivity for the lossy materials that can be found in biomedical fields. At first, the possibility of the CTC detection was numerically considered to calculate the resonant frequency of the RRTE catching the CTC, and it was evident that the RRTE with the cell has the resonant frequency inherent in the cell featured by its complex permittivity. To confirm the numerical consideration, the BaTiO3 particle, whose size was similar to that of the CTC, was inserted in the RRTE instead of the CTC as a preliminary experiment. Next, the resonant frequencies of the RRTE with internal organs of the beef cattle such as liver, lung, and kidney were measured for evaluation of the lossy materials such as the CTC, and degraded Q curves were observed because the Q-factors inherent in the internal organs were usually low due to the poor loss tangents. To overcome such difficulty, the RRTE, the oscillator circuit consisting of the FET being added, was proposed to improve the identification sensitivity. Comparing the identification sensitivity of the conventional RRTE, it has been improved because the oscillation frequency spectrum inherent in an internal organ could be easily observed thanks to the oscillation condition with negative resistance. Thus, the validity of the proposed technique has been confirmed.

In this paper, we propose a user-assisted QoS control scheme that utilizes media adaptive buffering to enhance QoE of audiovisual and haptic IP communications. The scheme consists of two modes: a manual mode and an automatic mode. It enables users to switch between these two modes according to their inclinations. We compare four QoS control schemes: the manual mode only, the automatic mode only, the switching scheme starting with the manual mode, and the switching scheme starting with the automatic mode. We assess the effects of the four schemes, user attributes, and tasks on QoE through a subjective experiment which provides information on users' behavior in addition to QoE scores. As a result of the experiment, we show that the user-assisted QoS control scheme can enhance QoE. Furthermore, we notice that the proper QoS control scheme depends on user attributes and tasks.

A spectrum suppressed transmission that increases the frequency utilization efficiency, defined as throughput/bandwidth, by suppressing the required bandwidth has been proposed. This is one of the most effective schemes to solve the exhaustion problem of frequency bandwidths. However, in spectrum suppressed transmission, its transmission quality potentially degrades due to the ISI making the bandwidth narrower than the Nyquist bandwidth. In this paper, in order to improve the transmission quality degradation, we propose the spectrum suppressed transmission applying both FEC (forward error correction) and LE (linear equalization). Moreover, we also propose a new channel allocation scheme for the spectrum suppressed transmission, in multi-channel environments over a satellite transponder. From our computer simulation results, we clarify that the proposed schemes are more effective at increasing the system throughput than the scheme without spectrum suppression.

Road traffic collisions are an extremely serious and often fatal issue. One promising approach to mitigate such collisions is the use of connected car services that share road traffic information obtained from vehicles and cameras over mobile networks. In connected car services, it is important for data chunks to arrive at a destination node within a certain deadline constraint. In this paper, we define a flow from a vehicle (or camera) to the same vehicle (or camera) via an MEC server, as a mission critical (MC) flow, and call a deadline of the MC flow the MC deadline. Our research objective is to achieve a higher arrival ratio within the MC deadline for the MC flow that passes through both the radio uplink and downlink. We previously developed a deadline-aware scheduler with consideration for quality fluctuation (DAS-QF) that considers chunk size and a certain deadline constraint in addition to radio quality and utilizes these to prioritize users such that the deadline constraints are met. However, this DAS-QF does not consider that the congestion levels of evolved NodeB (eNB) differ depending on the eNB location, or that the uplink congestion level differs from the downlink congestion level in the same eNB. Therefore, in the DAS-QF, some data chunks of a MC flow are discarded in the eNB when they exceed either the uplink or downlink deadline in congestion, even if they do not exceed the MC deadline. In this paper, to reduce the eNB packet drop probability due to exceeding either the uplink and downlink deadline, we propose a deadline coordination function (DCF) that adaptively sets each of the uplink and downlink deadlines for the MC flow according to the congestion level of each link. Simulation results show that the DAS-QF with DCF offers higher arrival ratios within the MC deadline compared to DAS-QF on its own

Many studies of deep neural networks have reported inference accelerators for improved energy efficiency. We propose methods for further improving energy efficiency while maintaining recognition accuracy, which were developed by the co-design of a filter-by-filter quantization scheme with variable bit precision and a hardware architecture that fully supports it. Filter-wise quantization reduces the average bit precision of weights, so execution times and energy consumption for inference are reduced in proportion to the total number of computations multiplied by the average bit precision of weights. The hardware utilization is also improved by a bit-parallel architecture suitable for granularly quantized bit precision of weights. We implement the proposed architecture on an FPGA and demonstrate that the execution cycles are reduced to 1/5.3 for ResNet-50 on ImageNet in comparison with a conventional method, while maintaining recognition accuracy.

Radio frequency energy transfer (RET) technology has been introduced as a promising energy harvesting (EH) method to supply power in both wireless communication (WLC) and power-line communication (PLC) systems. However, current RET modified MAC (medium access control) protocols have been proposed only for WLC systems. Due to the difference in the MAC standard between WLC and PLC systems, these protocols are not suitable for PLC systems. Therefore, how to utilize RET technology to modify the MAC protocol of PLC systems (i.e., IEEE 1901), which can use the radio frequency signal to provide the transmission power and the PLC medium to finish the data transmission, i.e., realizing the ‘cooperative communication’ remains a challenge. To resolve this problem, we propose a RET modified MAC protocol for PLC systems (RET-PLC MAC). Firstly, we improve the standard PLC frame sequence by adding consultation and confirmation frames, so that the station can obtain suitable harvested energy, once it occupied the PLC medium, and the PLC system can be operated in an on-demand and self-sustainable manner. On this basis, we present the working principle of RET-PLC MAC. Then, we establish an analytical model to allow mathematical verification of RET-PLC MAC. A 2-dimension discrete Markov chain model is employed to derive the numerical analysis results of RET-PLC MAC. The impacts of buffer size, traffic rate, deferral counter process of 1901, heterogeneous environment and quality of information (QoI) are comprehensively considered in the modeling process. Moreover, we deduce the optimal results of system throughput and expected QoI. Through extensive simulations, we show the performance of RET-PLC MAC under different system parameters, and verify the corresponding analytical model. Our work provides insights into realizing cooperative communication at PLC's MAC layer.

This paper addresses the problem of finding, evaluating, and selecting the best set of codewords for the 4b/10b line code, a dependable line code with forward error correction (FEC) designed for real-time communication. Based on the results of our scheme [1], we formulate codeword search as an instance of the maximum clique problem, and enumerate all candidate codeword sets via maximum clique enumeration as proposed by Eblen et al. [2]. We then measure each set in terms of resistance to bit errors caused by noise and present a canonical set of codewords for the 4b/10b line code. Additionally, we show that maximum clique enumeration is #P-hard.

Recently, GaN devices are often adopted in microwave power amplifiers to improve the performances. And many new design methods of microwave power amplifier were proposed. As a result, a high-efficiency and super compact microwave signal source has become easily available. It opens up the way for new microwave heating systems. In this paper, the recent progress on design methods of microwave power amplifier and the applications for microwave heating are described. In the first, a device model of GaN transistor is explained. An equivalent thermal model is introduced into the electrical non-linear equivalent device model. In the second, an active load-pull (ALP) measurement system to design a high-efficiency power amplifier is explained. The principle of the conventional closed-loop ALP system is explained. To avoid the risk of oscillation for the closed-loop ALP system, novel ALP systems are proposed. In the third, a microwave heating system is explained. The heating system monitors the reflection wave. Then, the frequency of the signal source and the phase difference between antennas are controlled to minimize the reflection wave. Absorption efficiency of more than 90% was obtained by the control of frequency and phase. In the last part, applications for a medical instrument is described.

This paper proposes an ultra-low quiescent current low-dropout regulator (LDO) with a flipped voltage follower (FVF)-based load transient enhanced circuit for wireless sensor network (WSN). Some characteristics of an FVF are low output impedance, low voltage operation, and simple circuit configuration [1]. In this paper, we focus on the characteristics of low output impedance and low quiescent current. A load transient enhanced circuit based on an FVF circuit configuration for an LDO was designed in this study. The proposed LDO, including the new circuit, was fabricated in a 0.6 µm CMOS process. The designed LDO achieved an undershoot of 75 mV under experimental conditions of a large load transient of 100 µA to 10 mA and a current slew rate (SR) of 1 µs. The quiescent current consumed by the LDO at no load operation was 204 nA.

Plane wave scattering from a circular conducting cylinder and a circular conducting strip has been formulated by equivalent surface currents which are postulated from the scattering geometrical optics (GO) field. Thus derived radiation far fields are found to be the same as those formulated by a conventional physical optics (PO) approximation for both E and H polarizations.