In this letter, we describe an adaptive hybrid SR ARQ scheme using punctured TCM and code combining. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme yields better throughput efficiency than the scheme using TCM at the values of Es/No smaller than 9 dB.

Emerging requirement for higher rate data services and better spectrum efficiency is the main driving force identified for the third generation mobile radio systems. Moreover, it needs the capability of providing predictable qualities of service (QoS) for different applications. To maintain different QoS requirements, mechanisms such as call admission control (CAC) and load control, etc. are needed to achieve the required services. In this paper, we propose a CAC algorithm based on channel assignment in a multi-chip rate direct-sequence CDMA (MCR-DS-CDMA) cellular system supporting multi-rate services. Five multi-MBC (mapping of information bit rates to chip rates) channel assignment schemes and corresponding channel selection rules are proposed herein. Computer simulation, where multimedia applications are considered, is used to evaluate the system performance (e.g., blocking probability and system capacity) with different channel assignment schemes. Numerical results demonstrate that scheme 5 (i.e., Minimum-influence scheme) performs better because it provides the highest system capacity and least blocking probability.

Mobile terminals with Internet services such as i-mode are in wide use, and communication bandwidths are growing even further under 3G technology. However, displays of mobile terminals will remain small in view of their portable size and power consumption. In this paper, we propose a "ubiquitous display" that can be used in combination with mobile terminals. The user operates the mobile terminal and the ubiquitous display shows any content that requires a large screen space.

Emerging real-time and multimedia applications in IP over ATM networks are becoming an indispensable part of the networking world. Considering the different and essential natures of IP and ATM, it seems that they complement each other. Although several approaches have been proposed for IP and ATM integration, so far a key problem (i.e., Quality of Service support) in foreseeable future networking applications remains unsolved. This paper describes a new extension to Classical IP and ARP over ATM (CLIP) protocol, Real-time and Multimedia services using CLIP (RMCLIP), providing ATM service classes to the IP end users. It defines that different service classes are mapped to the associated IP addresses. It enables different IP end user applications (e.g., real-time video, voice and data) to obtain their own dedicated VCs.

In this paper, the analysis, design and experimental results of active array applicator are presented. The injection-locking technique is used to alter the magnitude of the microwave sources so that the steering of near fields can be achieved. This technique can be applied for microwave hyperthermia cancer treatment to provide the large uniform temperature distribution. The complexity of the system can be reduced by using this technique. The study shows that the temperature distribution can be controlled by varying the modulation index, modulating frequency and initial phase of modulating signal. The temperature distribution is also affected by applicator configuration, spacing between applicators, and heating time. The Spectral Domain approach is used to analyze the near field and then the near field data are used to find the temperature distribution by using the Finite Difference method. The study is carried out at frequency of 2,450 MHz. This design is useful for implementation of the low cost steerable applicator.

When solving combinatorial optimization problems with a binary Hopfield-type neural network, the updating process in neural network is an important step in achieving a solution. In this letter, we propose a new updating procedure in binary Hopfield-type neural network for efficiently solving combinatorial optimization problems. In the new updating procedure, once the neuron is in excitatory state, then its input potential is in positive saturation where the input potential can only be reduced but cannot be increased, and once the neuron is in inhibitory state, then its input potential is in negative saturation where the input potential can only be increased but cannot be reduced. The new updating procedure is evaluated and compared with the original procedure and other improved methods through simulations based on N-Queens problem. The results show that the new updating procedure improves the searching capability of neural networks with shorter computation time. Particularly, the simulation results show that the performance of proposed method surpasses the exiting methods for N-queens problem in synchronous parallel computation model.

Recently, demand for multimedia service applicable with wireless ad hoc networks is increasing. Many protocols which support QoS (Quality of Service) defined by ITU H.323 are suitable for the system with a central coordinator (ex. access point), and are not applied to ad hoc networks. Since each mobile station sends a packet randomly in a wireless network, it is necessary to avoid a packet collision which results in the decrement of the channel throughput. IEEE 802.11 is a standard for wireless LANs. The basic access mechanism in its media access control (MAC) protocol is the distributed coordination function (DCF) based on carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). However, this mechanism does not have QoS control, and packet collision may occur frequently with the increase of the number of mobile stations. In this paper, the two queues, voice over IP (VoIP) queue and DATA queue, are set in each mobile station, and we propose a novel MAC protocol using multiple queues for QoS. Our scheme consists of carrier sensing, packet scheduling and collision avoidance, and improves the contention window in DCF. We use two kinds of packet scheduling. One is the scheduling in a mobile station, and the other is the scheduling among mobile stations. We called the proposed scheduling among mobile stations D2VTS (Distributed Double Virtual Time Scheduling). Simulations are conducted to analyze the proposed scheme. The simulation results show that our scheme is able to carry multimedia traffic with a higher performance compared with the conventional DCF.

Recently, neural networks (NNs) have been extensively applied to many signal processing problem due to their robust abilities to form complex decision regions. In particular, neural networks add flexibility to the design of equalizers for digital communication systems. Recurrent neural network (RNN) is a kind of neural network with one or more feedback loops, whereas self-organizing map (SOM) is characterized by the formation of a topographic map of the input patterns in which the spatial locations (i.e., coordinates) of the neurons in the lattice are indicative of intrinsic statistical features contained in the input patterns. In this paper, we propose a novel receiver structure by combining adaptive RNN equalizer with a SOM detector under serious ISI and nonlinear distortion in QAM system. According to the theoretical analysis and computer simulation results, the performance of the proposed scheme is shown to be quite effective in channel equalization under nonlinear distortion.

In this paper, we propose an equalizer for indoor infrared wireless systems using on-off keying code-division multiple-access (OOK-CDMA). The proposed equalizer has a decision-feedforward filter to mitigate the effects of inter symbol interference (ISI) at the previous chip position of the sampling instant. We evaluate the performance of indoor infrared wireless systems using OOK-CDMA with three kinds of equalizers: the decision-feedback qualizer (DFE), the feedforward equalizer (FE), and the proposed equalizer. To estimate the impulse response, we use the training sequence that alternates '1' and '0' sequentially. Among three kinds of equalizers, we show that the system with the proposed equalizer can achieve the best bit error rate (BER) performance at high bit rate, while the system with the FE achieves the best BER performance when the bit rate is low.

A simplified model is set up to study the high frequency response in a thin film head, where two pieces of Fe-Al-N films are placed parallel to each other with opposite alternating external magnetic field applied. In this model, the frequency response of magnetic clusters is calculated by a micromagnetic model based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations, and the initial permeability of mesoscopic Fe-Al-N thin films is analyzed in a wide frequency region from 10 to 5000 MHz. The model of a soft magnetic thin film is built up on the ripple structure of the anisotropy field of magnetic clusters. The magnetization interaction between the two Fe-Al-N films is carefully computed to find its effect on the frequency response. The frequency response in a single mesoscopic Fe-Al-N thin film is carefully studied in advance.

It has been established that the criteria for space-time convolutional code (STCC) are based on the maximization of the minimum rank and the minimum determinant of distance matrix over quasistatic flat Rayleigh fading channel. This letter presents a new criterion, i.e., modified trace criterion which maximizes both the minimum trace and the average trace of distance matrix for a new STCC. A new STCC is systematically searched so as to maximize the minimum trace and the average trace, and shown to be superior to other known codes in quasistatic flat Rayleigh fading channel.

In this paper, we propose an efficient requantization method for INTRA-frames in MPEG-1/MPEG-4 transcoding. The quantizer for an MPEG-1 INTRA block usually uses a quantization weighting matrix, while the quantizer for an MPEG-4 simple profile does not. As a result, the quantization step sizes of the two quantizers may not be the same even for the same quantization parameter. Due to this mismatch in the quantization step size, a transcoded MPEG-4 sequence can suffer from serious quality degradation and the number of bits produced by transcoding increases from the original MPEG-1 video sequence. To solve these problems, an efficient method is proposed to identify a near-optimum reconstruction level in the transcoder. In addition, a Laplacian-model based PDF (probability distribution function) estimation for the original DCT coefficients from an input MPEG-1 bitstream is presented, which is required for the proposed requantization. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides a 0.3-0.7 dB improvement in the PSNR over the conventional method, even at a reduced bit-rate of 3-7%.

Low-profile inverter power supplies are increasingly required for backlight systems of liquid crystal displays (LCDs). A great deal of attention has been focused on the application of piezoelectric transformers (PTs) to such power supplies. To miniaturize PT inverters still further, PTs need to have sufficient high voltage-step-up-ratio, which can be achieved by a multilayered PT. First, this paper describes a method for simulating such performance using a distributed constant equivalent circuit model. The results of the simulation for a multilayered PT operated in the third order longitudinal vibration mode show that the resistance of internal electrodes causes the dominant loss factor. Next, a power inverter incorporating the multilayered PT was fabricated. This power inverter can be operated over a wide input DC voltage range from 7-20 V. Regarding a conventional inverter drive circuit, when input DC voltage range was extended, the inverter efficiency remarkably decreased. For the reason, we developed a new inverter circuit, which is equipped with an automatic drive voltage control circuit to maintain the drive voltage to the PT at a constant value. As a result, the fabricated power inverter exhibited more than 90% overall efficiency and 3.5 W output power, which is enough to light up a 12.1-inch color LCD. The maximum luminance efficiency on a light transmission plate of the backlight was as high as 30 cd/m2/W.

We developed a priority queueing method that can keep the loss ratio of high-priority packets at a target value. It regulates the number of input low-priority packets when the queue length exceeds the threshold that is adjusted so as to minimize the Lyapunov function of the system. We showed that the number of calculations for the optimum threshold is sufficiently small and derived a sufficient condition for the proposed method to be robust against unknown load fluctuations. From the viewpoint of guaranteeing the loss ratio of high-priority packets, we showed, by computer simulation and theoretical analysis, that the proposed method is superior to conventional methods such as the fixed-threshold method and the pushout method.

In this paper we propose two diagnosis methods for crosstalk-induced pulse faults in sequential circuits using crosstalk fault simulation. These methods compare observed responses and simulated values at primary outputs to identify a set of suspected faults that are consistent with the observed responses. The first method is a restart-based method which determines the suspected fault list by using the knowledge about the first and last failures of the test sequence. The advantage of the restart-based method over a method using full simulation is its reduction of the number of simulated faults in a process of diagnosing faults. The second method is a resumption-based method which uses stored state information. The advantage of the resumption-based method over the restart-based method is its reduction of the CPU time for diagnosing the faults. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is evaluated by experiments conducted on ISCAS '89 benchmark circuits. From the experimental results we show that the number of suspected faults obtained by our methods is sufficiently small, and the resumption-based method is substantially faster than the restart-based method.

We investigated the suppression of multiuser interference in uplink multicarrier CDMA systems using the minimum mean squared error combining (MMSEC) method. In MMSEC, many pilot symbols are required to converge the weight vectors, and if we use just a few pilot symbols, the performance cannot be improved very much. We therefore developed a method for calculating weight vectors for MMSEC that uses just a few pilot symbols. The impulse responses of all users are first estimated using the pilot symbols in the time domain and modulated by a discrete Fourier transform. Next, the correlation matrices and correlation vectors are estimated from the impulse responses and the spreading codes of all users. Finally, the weight vectors that are obtained from the correlation matrices and correlation vectors are multiplied by the received signal to suppress the multiuser interference. The results of computer simulations indicated that the bit-error-ratio performance obtained using this method was better than that obtained when using the conventional fading compensation scheme or when using conventional MMSEC with the recursive least squares algorithm.

A procedure to remove redundancies in sequential circuits is proposed using strongly unreachable states, which are the states with no incoming transitions. Test generation is used to find undetectable faults related to two or more strongly unreachable states. Experimental results show the new procedure can find more redundancies of sequential circuits.

Test compression/decompression is an efficient method for reducing the test application cost. In this paper we propose a test generation method for obtaining test-patterns suitable to test compression by statistical coding. In general, an ATPG generates a test-pattern that includes don't-care values. In our method, such don't-care values are specified based on an estimation of the final probability of 0/1 occurrence in the resultant test set. Experimental results show that our method can generate test patterns that are able to be highly compressed by statistical coding, in small computational time.

In this paper, a useful technique is proposed for realizing high speed IDDQ tests. By using the technique, load capacitors of the CMOS logic gates can be charged quickly, whose output logic values change from L to H by applying a test input vector to a circuit under test. The technique is applied to built-in IDDQ sensor design and external IDDQ sensor design. It is shown experimentally that high speed IDDQ tests can be realized by using the technique.

The transient phenomenon of electromagnetic waves caused by a time dependent resistive screen in a waveguide is treated by using Wiener-Hopf technique. A boundary-value problem is formulated to describe the phenomenon, in which the resistivity of screen varies from infinite to zero in dependence on time. Application of the Fourier transformation with respect to time derives a Wiener-Hopf equation, which is solved by a commonly known decomposition procedure. The transient field is derived from the solution of the equation in terms of the Fourier inverse transform. By using the incomplete Lipschitz-Hankel integral for the computation of the field, numerical examples are given and the transient phenomenon is discussed.