A semi-coherent multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scheme, which only requires one of its receivers to operate coherently while others can be non-coherent, is proposed. In this scheme, the information symbols at the non-coherent receivers are estimated with the aid of a coherent receiver through a covariance estimator, thus allowing signals to be decoded coherently in the final stage. Results show that the proposed system is able to provide performance on par with that of the more complicated fully coherent MIMO systems.

This letter presents an approach to the construction of multiple-rate quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes based on hyperplanes (µ-flats) of two different dimensions in Euclidean geometries. The codes constructed with this method have the same code length, multiple-rate and large stopping sets while maintaining the same basic hardware architecture. The code performance is investigated in terms of the bit error rate (BER) and compared with those of the LDPC codes which are proposed in IEEE 802.16e standard. Simulation results show that our codes perform very well and have low error floors over the AWGN channel.

OFDMA femtocells in the macrocellular network of which frequency reuse factor is 1 cause serious interference to macrocell users, while the femtocells improve the performance of indoor users. In this letter, a novel downlink resource allocation algorithm for OFDMA femtocell networks is proposed to reduce interference between the macrocells and the femtocells. This algorithm allocates femtocell subchannels to avoid interference to macrocell users in the femtocell coverage, and minimizes the total transmission power of the femtocell to reduce the negative effect on the performance of the macrocell. Simulation results are provided to present the performance of the proposed algorithm.

In this paper, we propose a novel target acoustic signal detection approach which is based on non-negative matrix factorization (NMF). Target basis vectors are trained from the target signal database through NMF, and input vectors are projected onto the subspace spanned by these target basis vectors. By analyzing the distribution of time-varying normalized projection error, the optimal threshold can be calculated to detect the target signal intervals during the entire input signal. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can detect the target signal successfully under various signal environments.

In this letter, a statistical uncorrelated near class discriminant (SUNCD) approach is proposed for face recognition. The optimal discriminant vector obtained by this approach can differentiate one class and its near classes, i.e., its nearest neighbor classes, by constructing the specific between-class and within-class scatter matrices and using the Fisher criterion. In this manner, SUNCD acquires all discriminant vectors class by class. Furthermore, SUNCD makes every discriminant vector satisfy locally statistical uncorrelated constraints by using the corresponding class and part of its most neighboring classes. Experiments on the public AR face database demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms several representative discriminant methods.

In this paper, we propose a novel Web service composition framework which dynamically accommodates various failure recovery requirements. In the proposed framework called Adaptive Failure-handling Framework (AdaFF), failure-handling submodules are prepared during the design of a composite service, and some of them are systematically selected and automatically combined with the composite Web service at service instantiation in accordance with the requirement of individual users. In contrast, existing frameworks cannot adapt the failure-handling behaviors to user's requirements. AdaFF rapidly delivers a composite service supporting the requirement-matched failure handling without manual development, and contributes to a flexible composite Web service design in that service architects never care about failure handling or variable requirements of users. For proof of concept, we implement a prototype system of the AdaFF, which automatically generates a composite service instance with Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) according to the users' requirement specified in XML format and executes the generated instance on the ActiveBPEL engine.

We propose a proof-of-concept of a switchable multi-frequency MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) oscillator device, operating in the 60 GHz millimeter wave band, which is implemented in GaAs p-HEMT transistor technology. Oscillators that can switch between two frequencies have been designed, fabricated and evaluated. The oscillator uses a cross-coupled FET topology, combined with a bent asymmetric coplanar stripline for the resonator, and a switched-capacitor for the frequency switching components. The oscillator generates two oscillations at f/2 and f where f is the target frequency of around 60 GHz. The switchable oscillator has been demonstrated for the range of frequency from 44 GHz to 68.9 GHz. Moreover, the designed oscillator exhibits a wide-band negative resistance property that allows fabricating switchable oscillators covering the 50 to 75 GHz V-band. An evaluated switchable oscillator delivers -17.09 dBm and -13.72 dBm output power at 62.45 GHz and 64.78 GHz, for a supplied power of 40.6 mW and 39.1 mW, respectively.

Ultra wideband (UWB) on-body communication is attracting much attention in biomedical applications. In this paper, the performance of UWB on-body communication is investigated based on a statistically extracted on-body channel model, which provides detailed characteristics of the multi-path-affected channel with an emphasis on various body postures or body movement. The possible data rate, the possible communication distance, as well as the bit error rate (BER) performance are clarified via computer simulation. It is found that the conventional correlation receiver is incompetent in the multi-path-affected on-body channel, while the RAKE receiver outperforms the conventional correlation receiver at a cost of structure complexity. Different RAKE receiver structures are compared to show the improvement of the BER performance.

Finding a kernel mapping function for support vector machines (SVMs) is a key step towards construction of a high-performanced SVM-based classifier. While some recent methods exploited an evolutional approach to construct a suitable multifunction kernel, most of them searched randomly and diversely. In this paper, the concept of a family of identical-structured kernel trees is proposed to enable exploration of structure space using genetic programming whereas to pursue investigation of parameter space on a certain tree using evolution strategy. To control balance between structure and parameter search towards an optimal kernel, simulated annealing is introduced. By experiments on a number of benchmark datasets in the UCI and text classification collection, the proposed method is shown to be able to find a better optimal solution than other search methods, including grid search and gradient search.

In this letter, we develop an anycast-based emergency service for healthcare wireless sensor networks. The new service could operate with sensors to detect and activate an alarm system based on predefined conditions that are specific to the patient and the disease. The new service is implemented on 802.15.4 ZigBee which usually has large control overhead and long transmission times. To improve the service performance, our service identifies the closest emergency service provider to alleviate the control overhead and achieve immediate assistance when a patient requests for an emergency service. We also increase the reliability of packet transmission by using a Recovery Point scheme. Our simulations and experiment demonstrate that our scheme is efficient and feasible for healthcare wireless sensor networks.

Multiple supply voltage (MSV) assignment is a highly effective means of reducing power consumption. Many existing algorithms perform very well for power reduction. However, they do not handle the area issue of level shifters. In some cases, although one gets a superior result to reduce the power consumption, but many extra level shifters are needed to add so that the circuit area will be over the specification. In this paper, we present an effective integer linear programming (ILP)-based MSV assignment approach to solve two problems with different objectives. For the objective of power reduction under timing constraint, compared with GECVS algorithm, the power consumption obtained by our proposed approach can be further reduced 0 to 5.46% and the number of level shifters is improved 16.31% in average. For the objective of power reduction under constraints of both timing and area of level shifters, the average improvement of power consumption obtained by our algorithm is still better than GECVS while reducing the number of level shifters by 22.92% in average. In addition, given a constraint of total power consumption, our algorithm will generate a design having minimum circuit delay. Experimental results show that the proposed ILP-based MSV assignment algorithm solves different problems flexibly.

Due to the distributed nature, mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are vulnerable to various attacks, resulting in distrusted communications. To achieve trusted communications, it is important to build trusted routes in routing algorithms in a self-organizing and decentralized fashion. This paper proposes a trusted routing to locate and to preserve trusted routes in MANETs. Instead of using a hard security mechanism, we employ a new dynamic trust mechanism based on multiple constraints and collaborative filtering. The dynamic trust mechanism can effectively evaluate the trust and obtain the precise trust value among nodes, and can also be integrated into existing routing protocols for MANETs, such as ad hoc on-demand distance vector routing (AODV) and dynamic source routing (DSR). As an example, we present a trusted routing protocol, based on dynamic trust mechanism, by extending DSR, in which a node makes a routing decision based on the trust values on its neighboring nodes, and finally, establish a trusted route through the trust values of the nodes along the route in MANETs. The effectiveness of our approach is validated through extensive simulations.

In network tomography, most work to date is based on exploiting probe packet level correlations to infer the link loss rates and delay distributions. Some other work focuses on identifying the congested links using uncorrelated end-to-end measurements and link prior probability of being congested. In their work, the prior probabilities are identified by the matrix inversion with a number of measurement snapshots, and the algorithm to find the congested links is heuristic and not optimal. In this letter, we present a new estimator for the prior probabilities that is computationally simple, being an explicit function of the measurement snapshots. With these prior probabilities, the identification of the congested link set is equivalent to finding the solution for a probability maximization problem. We propose a fast bottom-up approach named FBA to find the solution for this problem. The FBA optimizes the solution step by step from the bottom up. We prove that the solution by the FBA is optimal.

Lawful Interception (LI) refers to a lawfully authorized process of looking into private communication under a court-issued warrant. Quite a number of countries have been drafting and enacting laws authorizing the LI procedures on packet-switched IP networks including traditional circuit-switched ones. As the IP mobility becomes more ubiquitous, propelled by wireless networks, it becomes an issue in the LI domain to keep track of a migrating target. However, with the world's focus on the current LI architectures, little consideration has been given to a seamless LI triggering, which accommodates IP mobility and vertical handover. Proposed herein are a seamless LI architecture and relevant triggering algorithms for the heterogeneous wireless networks. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed architecture secures a seamless LI by capturing all the suspected target traffics without any time delay, which usually occurs during an LI triggering between different service providers. Furthermore, when compared with the existing LI architectures, the architecture significantly helps reduce transmission and the time consumed for analysis of the content of communication (CC) and intercept related information (IRI).

This paper presents generating stable and sparse reluctance/inductance matrix from the inductance matrix which is extracted under insufficient discretization. To generate the sparse reluctance matrix with guaranteed stability, the original matrix has to be (strictly) diagonally dominant M matrix. Hence, the repeated inductance extractions with a smaller grid size are necessary in order to obtain the well-defined matrix. Alternatively, this paper provides some ideas for generating the sparse reluctance matrix, even if the extracted reluctance matrix is not diagonally dominant M matrix. These ease the extraction tasks greatly. Furthermore, the sparse inductance matrix is also generated by using double inverse methods. Since reluctance components are not still supported in SPICE-like simulators, generating the sparse inductance matrix is more useful than the sparse reluctance one.

For automatic repeat request (ARQ)-aided TSTD (Time Switched Transmit Diversity) system, a receiver sends the acknowledgement signal (ACK or NACK) to a transmitter in order to predict the condition of the channel. In this paper, two antenna switching schemes, in which the NACK trigger the transmit antenna switching in the proposed antenna switching patterns, are proposed for the TSTD with the ARQ in WCDMA LCR-TDD systems. In addition, the system performances are investigated. Simulation results demonstrate that the performances of the TSTD systems can be improved by applying the ARQ scheme. Furthermore, the performances of ARQ-aided TSTD systems may be significantly improved by applying the proposed antenna switching schemes, especially when the mobile's speed is low.

In this letter, we present a route discovery protocol for ad hoc multi-hop cellular networks which uses directional information towards the base station. The proposed protocol, based on the reactive approach, reduces flooding as much as possible. To quantify this, we analyze its performance in terms of how much progress it makes per hop and how much reduction in routing packet number it achieves per route discovery. The analytical, as well as simulation, results demonstrate that the proposed protocol significantly reduces flooding overheads and finds a route to the base station in a robust manner.

This paper proposes a method for detecting ellipses from an image despite (1) multiple colors within the ellipses, (2) partially occluded ellipses' boundaries, (3) noisy, locally deformed boundaries of ellipses, (4) presence of multiple objects other than the ellipses in the image, and (5) combinations of (1) through (4). After boundary curves are obtained by edge detection, by utilizing the first-order difference curves of the edge orientation of each pixel in the boundary curves, a segment-reconnect method obtains boundary clusters. Then, a modified RANSAC detects ellipses by choosing five pixels randomly from the boundary clusters, where overlapped ellipses are merged. Experimental results using synthesized images and real images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method together with comparison with the Randomized Hough Transform, a well-known conventional method.

In this paper, we address the on-demand end-to-end optical network construction problem for grid applications in new generation large-scale multi-domain wavelength switched optical networks (WSON). According to users' requests for high-performance distributed computing, groups of dedicated end-to-end lightpaths among geographically distributed grid resources can be established dynamically forming multiple-lightpath optical networks for grid applications, namely, optical grid network (OGN). To facilitate the automated OGN construction, we introduce an optical grid network infrastructure providing an integrated and self-contained OGN service to grid users with totally distributed control. In this infrastructure, for easy construction, especially in a large-scale multi-domain WSON environment, we propose an overlay approach to construct OGNs in a peer-to-peer fashion, which conceals the communication architecture of the underlying heterogeneous optical networks. In particular, we propose an adaptive construction mechanism that can develop the OGN flexibly by adapting to the dynamically changed optical network circumstance. To enable users to take the advantage of the end-to-end lightpaths of WSON directly, a wavelength-oriented end-host configuration scheme is proposed. Experimental results on a developed prototype and an optical-fibre test-bed network successfully validate the proposal.

Network virtualization has become a common research topic that many researchers consider a basis for defining a new generation network architectures. In this paper, we attempt to clarify the concept of network virtualization with its brief history, to introduce the benefit of network virtualization for the future network, to posit our strong belief in that the future network should adopt a form of a meta-architecture that accommodates multiple competing multiple architectures, and to identify challenges to achieving this architecture.