Resource-demanding services such as Multi-media-on-Demand (MOD) become possible as Internet and broadband connections are getting more popular. However, as the sizes of multimedia files grow rapidly, storage of such large files becomes a problem. Since multimedia contents will generally become less popular with time, it is desirable to design a prediction algorithm so that the multimedia content can be unloaded from the server if it is no longer popular. This can relieve the storage problem in an MOD system, and hence spare more space for new multimedia files. In this paper, we analyse the MOD viewing trend in order to understand the viewing behaviour of users and predict the viewing trend of a particular category of multimedia based on the knowledge obtained from its trend analysis. In trend analysis, two additive regression models, exponential-exponential-sum (EES) and exponential-power-sum (EPS), are proposed to improve the fitness of the trend. The most suitable model will then be used for trend prediction based on four proposed approaches, namely Fixed Regression Selection (FRS), Continuous Regression Updating (CRU), Historical Updating (HU) and Continuous Regression with Historical Updating (CRHU). From the numerical results, it is found that CRHU, which is constructed by considering historical trend and new incoming data of viewing requests, is in general the best method in forecasting the request trend of a particular category of multimedia clips.

To recover the lost packets in VoIP systems, we propose a dynamic redundant audio transmission mechanism that responds to network status. A receiver computes the QoS information using timestamps and sequence numbers in RTP headers and sends the information to a sender using the RTCP protocol. The sender transmits redundant audio packets to the receiver to recover the lost packets. Experimental results show that the rate of recovering the lost packets is 63% in case of consecutive packet loss and is 42% in case of non-consecutive packet loss.

In this paper, we propose an algorithm that automatically generates the intermediate scenes using the bidirectional disparity morphing (BDM) from the parallel stereo images. The two-step search strategy is used for speeding up the computation of the bidirectional disparity map and three occluding patterns are used for smoothing the computed disparities more elaborately. Using the bidirectional disparity map, we interpolate the left and the right image to their intermediate scenes. Then we dissolve two interpolated images into the desired intermediate scene which the holes are removed and the effect of the disparity estimation errors is minimized. We implemented the proposed algorithm on TM1300 supported by TriMedia using pSOSytem which enables to do multiprocessing. As a result, we can interpolate the high-quality intermediate scenes with real-time process.

In this paper, we present a novel approach for efficient search of high-dimensional databases, such as video shots. The idea is to map feature vectors from the high-dimensional feature space into a point in a low-dimensional distance space. Then, a spatial access method, such as an R-tree, is used to cluster these points based on their distances in the low-dimensional space. Our mapping method, called topological mapping, guarantees no false dismissals in the result of a query. However, the result of a query might contain some false alarms. Hence, two refinement steps are performed to remove these false alarms. Comparative experiments on a database of video shots show the superior efficiency of the topological mapping method over other known methods.

Large number of electronic connectors are widely used in various electronic and telecommunication systems. No matter whether it is optical telecommunications or mobile phone systems, connectors are important links for electronics. Unfortunately connector contacts are exposed in air, they are different from any other electronic components, the contacts are greatly influenced by the environment where they operate. In China, dust and corrosion products are the main contaminants to cause contact failure. Evidently the failed contacts seriously deteriorate the reliability of electronic and telecommunication systems. This paper summarizes the recent achievements obtained by our Lab on the effect of dust and corrosion products to the connector contact failure. Since dust contamination is a very complex problem which is not only popular in China, but also happened in many countries. Continuous studies will be very useful to improve the contact reliability of connectors, setting up new and effective testing methods and standards, building up experimental and computer simulation systems.

The demand for wireless mobile communications has grown at a very high rate, recently. In order to solve the non-uniform traffic rates, the use of cell splits is unavoidable for balancing the traffic rate and maximizing total system capacity. For cell planning, a DS-CDMA cellular system can be comprise of different cell sizes because of different demands and population density of the service area. In this paper, we develop a general model to study the forward link capacity and outage probability of a DS-CDMA cellular system with mixed cell sizes. The analysis of outage probability is carried out using the log-normal approximation. When a macrocell is split into the three microcells, as an example, we calculate the multi-cross interferences between macrocells and microcells, and the forward link capacities for the microcells and the neighboring macrocells. The maximum allowable capacity plane for macrocell and microcell is also investigated. The numerical results and discussions with previous published results of reverse link are summarized.

This paper proposes a new signal peak power reduction technique, Peak Reduction based on Control Signal Insertion (PRCSI), for broadband mobile communications based on multi-channel signaling schemes. PRCSI reduces the peak power with a peak control signal that is generated symbol-by-symbol; no signal band expansion is incurred because the peak control signal is inserted into the transmission signal band. PRCSI can achieve 4 dB peak power reduction for 8-carrier signaling, while the Eb/N0 value required to achieve 10-3 average BER is 1 dB larger with PRCSI than without it. This BER performance degradation can effectively be compensated by the proper use of Trellis coding. The proposed technique is applied to OFDM transmission systems with large carrier number. The proposed technique can achieve 3-dB peak power ratio for 128-carrier OFDM signals with less than 1-dB performance degradation at the BER of 10-3.

In this paper, to enhance the power efficiency a new simple space-time coding scheme is devised with application to the OFDM based Wireless LAN system. The basic idea is from the receiver's point of view and is referred to as Virtual Constellation Mapping (VCM). We designed a new combination of the channel coding (Turbo Code) along with multiple transmit antennas (Two antennas) to achieve transmit diversity and space division multiplexing transmission. Computer simulation results showed that with the same transmission data rate, our proposed scheme can achieve better bit error rate (BER) compared with the conventional space-time trellis coded OFDM scheme in high Doppler fading channels.

A review of the basic passive components available in mixed-signal silicon IC technologies for applications up to millimetre-wave frequencies is presented. These include: inductors, capacitors, resistors, and quasi-distributed devices such as transmission lines and transformers. Applications for these devices range from resonant tanks to impedance matching, phase shifting and feedback networks. Device physics and electrical models of these passives are reviewed along with their physical layout, verification data from computer simulation, and experimental characterization. The emphasis is on lumped-element equivalents for linear and non-linear circuit design of wireless and wireline circuits in silicon VLSI technologies.

A new algorithm for efficient arithmetic in an optimal extension field is proposed. The new algorithm improves the speeds of multiplication, squaring, and inversion by performing two subfield multiplications simultaneously within a single integer multiplication instruction of a CPU. Our algorithm is used to improve throughputs of elliptic curve operations.

A novel optical packet switch architecture is proposed that can support simultaneous processing and routing of packets in bands, without disturbing the granularity of the system. The packet router consists of a waveband converter and an AWG, combined in such a way that processing and switching of packets within and between the wavebands is allowed. The waveband converter is based on four-wave mixing in semiconductor optical amplifiers. Experimental results of the waveband conversion technique are presented to prove the feasibility of such a scheme. Simulation results of an 12 packet router are used to explain the operation of such a subsystem for a synchronous optical packet switched network.

Wavelength conversion using the cross-gain modulation (XGM) of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in a traveling-wave type semiconductor optical amplifier (TW-SOA) is theoretically studied. Taking into account the spatial and temporal variations of carrier density along the SOA length, output signal and converted ASE waveforms are analyzed. We also reveal the dependency of the signal and converted ASE waveforms on input signal power and repetition frequency, and confirm that numerical analyses well agree with the experimental results. Finally we qualitatively clarify the way to improve frequency response by simulating eye-diagrams for long SOAs and assist light pumping for the first time.

In this paper, the efficient structure of an LUT (look-up table) for an asynchronous reconfigurable PCA (Plastic Cell Architecture) device is investigated. A total of 15 types of implementation alternatives for LUTs are evaluated and compared in an empirical manner in which full custom layout design is developed and simulated. The evaluation results show that by introducing transmission gates in memory cells in an LUT, read time can be improved by 14.3% at the cost of 13.6% area increase compared to a conventional speed oriented implementation. It is also shown that use of transmission gates reduces 6.4% of area and 19.2% of read time against a conventional area oriented LUT implementation.

The c-Secure CRT code is a collusion-secure fingerprinting code whose code length is reduced by using the Chinese Remainder Theorem. The tracing algorithm for the c-secure CRT code drops its performance of traitor tracing when random errors are added to the codewords. In this paper, we show two approaches to enhance random-error-resilience to the tracing algorithm of the c-secure CRT code. The first approach is introducing thresholds for the distinction of the detected part of the embedded data called detected blocks. We propose a method to derive appropriate values of the thresholds on an assumption that the tracer can estimate the random error rate. This modification extends the capability of traitor tracing to the attacks in which the alteration rate of the detected blocks is not fixed to 0.5. The second approach is extending the scope of the search for the detected blocks. With numerical results by computer simulations, we confirmed an impressive improvement of random-error-resilience of a c-secure CRT code.

A new analog correlator circuit is proposed for direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) demodulator. The circuit consists of only 16 switches, 4 capacitors and 2 level shifters. Control sequence requires only three clock phases. Simulation with code length of 127 reveals that the proposed circuit has a good ability to cancel off the charge error and dissipates 3.4mW at 128MHz. The circuit had been designed using a 0.6µm CMOS process. The area of 256µm 245µm is estimated to be 9 times smaller compared to other reported equivalent analog correlators.

A type of carbon nanoform (carbon nanowalls: CNWs) has been successfully deposited on both Ni wafers and Ni wires using dc plasma chemical-vapor-deposition (CVD) method. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize CNWs' microstructure. It is found that CNWs are well crystallized, and each CNW consists of several pieces of curved graphene sheets, presenting a quasi-two-dimensional geometry. The average length and width of CNWs are about 2-4µm, while their thickness is less than 7nm. Field emission measurement showed that such CNW films exhibited the excellent electron emission efficiency, comparable to the high-grade carbon nanotube (CNT) emitters. The threshold field defined as the field to obtained 1µA/cm2 is less than 1V/µm and the electrical field for 1mA/cm2 current density is only about 1.5V/µm. Moreover, the CNWs have stable emission behaviors, and we have successfully fabricated a kind of high-brightness lamps based on the CNW coated Ni wires.

It is found that the supercontinuum spectrum is generated from cross-phase modulated soliton pulses which are propagated through a dispersion-flattened/decreasing fiber with low birefringence. The cross-phase modulation is achieved by exciting two orthogonally polarized modes in a birefringent fiber and the effect of input azimuth of linearly polarized pulses is discussed theoretically and numerically.

We have formed simple polarization-controller arrays by inserting liquid crystal (LC) in trenches cut across planar lightwave circuits (PLCs). We fabricated LC layers for use as polarization controllers on PLCs in two ways; in one, the ultra-thin layer of LC is held in a cell that is inserted into a trench on the PLC while in the other, the trench is directly filled with the LC. The ultra-thin LC cell can change the phase of 1.55-µm light from 0 to 3π while the LC filling can change the phase of light at the same wavelength from 0 to 12π below 5Vrms. Two former parallel-aligned ultra-thin LC cells, where the directions of alignment of the liquid crystals are rotated by 45 relative to each other, are capable of converting light with an arbitrary input polarization to TE or TM polarization. Ultra-thin cells of twisted nematic LC can switch the polarization between TE and TM modes with an extinction ratio of -15dB. The array we fabricated had a pitch of 1 mm and 5 elements, but an array with more than 100 elements and a pitch below 125µm will easily be possible by using finely patterned transparent electrodes. We have also applied our techniques to the fabrication of LC-based variable optical attenuators (VOA) on the PLC.

Electron field emission from diamond, diamond-like carbon, carbon nanotubes and nano-structured carbon is compared. It is found that in all practical cases, emission occurs from regions of positive electron affinity with an emission barrier of 5eV, the work function, and with a large field enhancement. The field enhancement in nanotubes arises from their geometry. In diamond, the field enhancement occurs by depletion of grain boundary states. In diamond-like carbon we propose that it occurs by the presence of sp2-rich channels formed by the soft conditioning process.

Electron emissions from single-crystalline diamond surfaces by internally exciting electrons from the valence to conduction bands have been investigated. Monte Carlo simulations have been employed to estimate the impact ionization rates of carriers in diamond under high electric fields up to 1107V/cm. The calculations demonstrate substantial impact ionization rates which rapidly increase with increasing electric fields above 8105V/cm. Highly efficient electron emissions with high emission current efficiencies of approximate unity have been attained from a MIS-type diamond layered structure that are composed of heavily ion-implanted buried layer (M), undoped diamond (I) and hydrogenated p-type diamond (S) with an emission surface of a negative electron affinity. The highly efficient emission mechanism is discussed in relation to the field excitation of electrons from the valence band to the conduction band in the undoped diamond layer and the carrier transport to the diamond surface.