In this paper the quality of adaptive bit rate video streaming is investigated and two state-of-the-art models, i.e., the NTT audiovisual quality-estimation and ITU-T P.1203 models, are considered. This paper shows how these models can be applied to new conditions, e.g., 4K ultra high definition (4K-UHD) videos encoded using H.265, considering that they were originally designed and trained for HD videos encoded with H.264. Six subjective evaluations involving up to 192 participants and a large variety of test conditions, e.g., durations from 10sec to 3min, coding-quality variation, and stalling events, were conducted on both TV and mobile devices. Using the subjective data, this paper addresses how models and coefficients can be transferred to new conditions. A comparison between state-of-the-art models is conducted, showing the performance of transferred and retrained models. It is found that other video-quality estimation models, such as VMAF, can be used as input of the NTT and ITU-T P.1203 long-term pooling modules, allowing these other video-quality-estimation models to support the specificities of adaptive bit-rate-streaming scenarios. Finally, all retrained coefficients are detailed in this paper allowing future work to directly reuse the results of this study.

Two frequency sharing criteria for BSS (Broadcasting-Satellite Service) are enacted in Sect.1 of Annex 1 to Appendix 30 to Radio Regulations. These two criteria are pfd (power flux-density) and EPM (Equivalent Protection Margin) values. In this paper, the two criteria are compared and studied from the view point of applicability to the sharing cases between BSS and BSS. In particular, it is shown that in some cases, the EPM criterion contributes to alleviate the problem of “sensitive satellite network”, i.e., one that has relatively low transmission power and is very weak against interference and blocks the new satellite to enter. Disclaimer The views and positions expressed by the authors are strictly personal and do not constitute, nor can be interpreted as, the position of the International Telecommunication Union on the topics addressed in this paper.

A one-dimensional lattice of tunnel-diode oscillators is investigated for potential high-speed frequency divider. In the evolution of the investigated lattice, the high-frequency oscillation dominates over the low-frequency oscillation. When a base oscillator is connected at the end, and generates oscillatory signals with a frequency higher than that of the synchronous lattice oscillation, the oscillator output begins to move in the lattice. This one-way property guarantees that the oscillation dynamics of the lattice have only slight influence on the oscillator motion. Moreover, counter-moving pulses in the lattice exhibit pair annihilation through head-on collisions. These lattice properties enable an efficient frequency division method. Herein, the operating principles of the frequency divider are described, along with a numerical validation.

An algebraic group is an essential mathematical structure for current communication systems and information security technologies. Further, as a widely used technology underlying such systems, pseudorandom number generators have become an indispensable part of their construction. This paper focuses on a theoretical analysis for a series of pseudorandom sequences generated by a trace function and the Legendre symbol over an odd characteristic field. As a consequence, the authors give a theoretical proof that ensures a set of subsequences forms a group with a specific binary operation.

The windowed interpolation DFT methods have been utilized to estimate the parameters of a single frequency and multi-frequency signal. Nevertheless, they do not work well for the real-valued sinusoids with closely spaced positive- and negative- frequency. In this paper, we describe a novel three-point windowed interpolation DFT method for frequency measurement of real-valued sinusoid signal. The exact representation of the windowed DFT with maximum sidelobe decay window (MSDW) is constructed. The spectral superposition of positive- and negative-frequency is considered and calculated to improve the estimation performance. The simulation results match with the theoretical values well. In addition, computer simulations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm provides high estimation accuracy and good noise suppression capability.

This paper reports a high-quality hardware-friendly integer motion estimation (IME) scheme. According to different characteristics of CTU content, the proposed method adopts different adaptive multi-resolution strategies coupled with accurate full-PU modes IME at the finest level. Besides, by using motion vector derivation, IME for the second reference frame is simplified and hardware resource is saved greatly through processing element (PE) sharing. It is shown that the proposed architecture can support the real-time processing of 4K-UHD @60fps, while the BD-rate is just increased by 0.53%.

MQTT is one of the promising protocols for various data exchange in IoT environments. Typically, those environments have a characteristic called “edge-heavy”, which means that things at the network edge generate a massive volume of data with high locality. For handling such edge-heavy data, an architecture of placing multiple MQTT brokers at the network edges and making them cooperate with each other is quite effective. It can provide higher throughput and lower latency, as well as reducing consumption of cloud resources. However, under this kind of architecture, heterogeneity could be a vital issue. Namely, an appropriate product of MQTT broker could vary according to the different environment of each network edge, even though different products are hard to cooperate due to the MQTT specification providing no interoperability between brokers. In this paper, we propose Interworking Layer of Distributed MQTT brokers (ILDM), which enables arbitrary kinds of MQTT brokers to cooperate with each other. ILDM, designed as a generic mechanism independent of any specific cooperation algorithm, provides APIs to facilitate development of a variety of algorithms. By using the APIs, we also present two basic cooperation algorithms. To evaluate the usefulness of ILDM, we introduce a benchmark system which can be used for both a single broker and multiple brokers. Experimental results show that the throughput of five brokers running together by ILDM is improved 4.3 times at maximum than that of a single broker.

Based on the number of cyclotomy of order eight, a class of balanced almost 8-QAM sequences with odd prime periods is presented. The resultant sequences have low two-level nontrivial autocorrelation values, and their distribution is determined. Furthermore, the smallest possible absolute sidelobes (SPASs) of autocorrelation functions of balanced almost 8-QAM sequences are derived. Compared with the obtained SPASs, some of the proposed sequences is optimal or suboptimal.

In this paper, we explore how to enhance the physical layer security performance in downlink cellular networks through cooperative jamming technology. Idle user equipments (UE) are used to cooperatively transmit jamming signal to confuse eavesdroppers (Eve). We propose a threshold-based jammer selection scheme to decide which idle UE should participate in the transmission of jamming signal. Threshold conditions are carefully designed to decrease interference to legitimate channel, while maintain the interference to the Eves. Moreover, fewer UE are activated, which is helpful for saving energy consumptions of cooperative UEs. Analytical expressions of the connection and secrecy performances are derived, which are validated through Monte Carlo simulations. Theoretical and simulation results reveal that our proposed scheme can improve connection performance, while approaches the secrecy performance of [12]. Furthermore, only 43% idle UEs of [12] are used for cooperative jamming, which helps to decrease energy consumption of network.

Free/libre open source software (FLOSS) are being rapidly employed in several companies and organizations, because it can be modified and used for free. Hence, the use of FLOSS could contribute to its originally intended benefits and to the competence of its users. In this study, we analyzed the effect of using FLOSS on related competences. We investigated the change in the competences through an empirical study before and after the use of FLOSS among project participants. Consequently, it was confirmed that the competences of the participants improved after utilizing FLOSS.

This paper investigates the spectrum allocation problem. Under the current spectrum management mode, large amount of spectrum resource is wasted due to uncertainty of user's demand. To reduce the impact of uncertainty, a presale mechanism is designed based on spectrum pool. In this mechanism, the spectrum manager provides spectrum resource at a favorable price for presale aiming at sharing with user the risk caused by uncertainty of demand. Because of the hierarchical characteristic, we build a spectrum market Stackelberg game, in which the manager acts as leader and user as follower. Then proof of the uniqueness and optimality of Stackelberg Equilibrium is given. Simulation results show the presale mechanism can promote profits for both sides and reduce temporary scheduling.

Linear complexity and the k-error linear complexity of periodic sequences are the important security indices of stream cipher systems. This paper focuses on the distribution of p-error linear complexity of p-ary sequences with period pn. For p-ary sequences of period pn with linear complexity pn-p+1, n≥1, we present all possible values of the p-error linear complexity, and derive the exact formulas to count the number of the sequences with any given p-error linear complexity.

SPHINCS+, an updated version of SPHINCS, is a post-quantum hash-based signature scheme submitted to the NIST post-quantum cryptography standardization project. To evaluate its performance, SPHINCS+ gives the theoretical number of function calls and the actual runtime of a reference implementation. We show that the theoretical number of function calls for SPHINCS+ verification is inconsistent with the runtime and then present the correct number of function calls.

Parameter estimation theorems for LFM signals have been developed due to the advantages of fractional Fourier transform (FrFT). The traditional estimation methods in the fractional Fourier domain (FrFD) are almost based on two-dimensional search which have the contradiction between estimation performance and complexity. In order to solve this problem, we introduce the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) into the FrFD, propose a modified optimization method to estimate initial frequency and final frequency of fractional bandlimited LFM signals. In this algorithm, the differentiation fractional spectrum which is used to form observation matrix in OMP is derived from the spectrum analytical formulations of the LFM signal, and then, based on that the LFM signal has approximate rectangular spectrum in the FrFD and the correlation between the LFM signal and observation matrix yields a maximal value at the edge of the spectrum (see Sect.3.3 for details), the edge spectrum information can be extracted by OMP. Finally, the estimations of initial frequency and final frequency are obtained through multiplying the edge information by the sampling frequency resolution. The proposed method avoids reconstruction and the traditional peak-searching procedure, and the iterations are needed only twice. Thus, the computational complexity is much lower than that of the existing methods. Meanwhile, Since the vectors at the initial frequency and final frequency points both have larger modulus, so that the estimations are closer to the actual values, better normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE) performance can be achieved. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm bears a relatively low complexity and its estimation precision is higher than search-based and reconstruction-based algorithms.

Liquid crystal director distributions between strong and weak polar anchoring surfaces in hybrid aligned cells are numerically analyzed. When the anchoring is a critical one, homogeneously or homeotropicly liquid crystal alignment can be obtained. Such cells have no threshold voltage and a driving voltage can be reduced less than 0.5 volt.

In this study, we examined the mechanical durability and self-recovery characterization of liquid crystal gel films with lysine-based gelator. The results indicated that the structural destruction in liquid crystal gel films is attributed to dissociation among network structure. The cracked LC gel films can be recovered by formation of sol-sate films.

Pseudo-random sequences with good statistical property, such as low autocorrelation, high linear complexity and 2-adic complexity, have been widely applied to designing reliable stream ciphers. In this paper, we explicitly determine the 2-adic complexities of two classes of generalized cyclotomic binary sequences with order 4. Our results show that the 2-adic complexities of both of the sequences attain the maximum. Thus, they are large enough to resist the attack of the rational approximation algorithm for feedback with carry shift registers. We also present some examples to illustrate the validity of the results by Magma programs.

Multi-Mouse Quiz (MMQ) is a quiz application based on the Single Display Groupware (SDG)[1] concept through which several users can answer quizzes by sharing a computer to take the quiz in a classroom or any other learning environment. We conducted a practice, where we used the MMQ to support collaborative learning, which was combined with a museum visit. In the previous research, we found that the 3rd-grade children were able to operate the MMQ without any special assistance from the researchers, and that their use of the MMQ was characterized by high engagement[2]. In this study, we also conducted qualitative evaluation in the form of observation data and a free description of the questionnaire; we found that, compared to previous studies, which used MMQ with 6th-grade children, the 3rd-grade were more willing to use body language to express their emotions, and this tendency made the whole class more active. Furthermore, MMQ quiz learning inspired children with reflection perspectives to participate in the museum activity and activities in the computer room.

Current image quality assessment (IQA) methods require the original images for evaluation. However, recently, IQA methods that use machine learning have been proposed. These methods learn the relationship between the distorted image and the image quality automatically. In this paper, we propose an IQA method based on deep learning that does not require a reference image. We show that a convolutional neural network with distortion prediction and fixed filters improves the IQA accuracy.

When individuals make a purchase from online sources, they may lack first-hand knowledge of the product. In such cases, they will judge the quality of the item by the reviews other consumers have posted. Therefore, it is significant to determine whether comments about a product are credible. Most often, conventional research on comment credibility has employed supervised machine learning methods, which have the disadvantage of needing large quantities of training data. This paper proposes an unsupervised method for judging comment credibility based on the Biterm Sentiment Latent Dirichlet Allocation (BS-LDA) model. Using this approach, first we derived some distributions and calculated each comment's credibility score via them. A comment's credibility was judged based on whether it achieved a threshold score. Our experimental results using comments from Amazon.com demonstrated that the overall performance of our approach can play an important role in determining the credibility of comments in some situation.