This paper presents a realization of a simple antenna system for land vehicle satellite communication that is tested in experiments conducted on the Engineering Test Satellite-VIII (ETS-VIII). The developed antenna system which was mounted onto a vehicle roof is compact, light weight with simple satellite-tracking operation. In order to realize compact antennas, an onboard-power divider and switching circuit for antenna feeding control are mounted under the array antenna. A Global Positioning System (GPS) module is used to provide accurate information on the vehicle's position and bearing during travelling. A personal computer (PC) is used as the control unit and data logger, which was specifically designed for this application, allow the switching circuit control as well as the retrieving of the received power levels and error rate. The field tests reported in this paper mainly address the tracking performance of the proposed antenna system. Satisfactory results were obtained. Good received power levels and bit error rate (BER) for tracking the ETS-VIII satellite were confirmed. Furthermore, in order to grasp the environmental factors that impact the quality of land vehicle communications, we carefully captured data at obstacles such as buildings, foliages, utility poles and highway overpasses. The results showed blockage and shadowing was confirmed. Additionally, when the antenna was tested at the inclined-road for simple propagation characteristics in elevation direction, stable reception of the satellite signals was realized.

An exact expression of error rate is developed for maximal ratio combining (MRC) in an independent but not necessarily identically distributed frequency selective Nakagami fading channel taking into account inter-symbol, co-channel and adjacent channel interferences (ISI, CCI and ACI respectively). The characteristic function (CF) method is adopted. While accurate analysis of MRC performance cannot be seen in frequency selective channel taking ISI (and CCI) into account, such analysis for ACI has not been addressed yet. The general analysis presented in this paper solves a problem of past and present interest, which has so far been studied either approximately or in simulations. The exact method presented also lets us obtain an approximate error rate expression based on Gaussian approximation (GA) of the interferences. It is shown, especially while the channel is lightly faded, has fewer multipath components and a decaying delay profile, the GA may be substantially inaccurate at high signal-to-noise ratio. However, the exact results also reveal an important finding that there is a range of parameters where the simpler GA is reasonably accurate and hence, we don't have to go for more involved exact expression.

Motivated by different error characteristics of each path, we propose a study-based error recovery scheme for Networks-on-Chip (NoC). In this scheme, two study processes are executed respectively to obtain the characteristics of the errors in every link first; and then, according to the study results and the selection rule inferred by us, this scheme selects a better error recovery scheme for every path. Simulation results show that compared with traditional simple retransmission scheme and hybrid single-error-correction, multi-error-retransmission scheme, this scheme greatly improves the throughput and cuts down the energy consumption with little area increase.

A 4+12+16 amplitude phase shift keying (APSK) modulation outperforms other 32-APSK modulations such as rectangular or cross 32-quadrature amplitude modulations (QAMs) which have a high peak to average power ratio that causes non-negligible AM/AM and AM/PM distortions when the signal is amplified by a high-power amplifier (HPA). This modulation scheme has therefore been recommended as a standard in the digital video broadcasting-satellite2 (DVB-S2) system. In this letter, we present a new bits-to-symbol mapping with a better bit error rate (BER) for a 4+12+16 APSK signal in a nonlinear satellite channel.

A composite patch array antenna with built-in polarizer has been developed to reduce road clutter noise by 20 dB for 76 GHz automotive radars. A polarizer is placed in front of Tx and Rx patch arrays within their reactive near-field region to suppress cross-polarized sidelobe radiation from their feeding lines while maintaining a low-profile characteristic with 4 mm thickness. Additional metal-lined absorbers within the composite antenna structure, while terminating cross-polarized waves undesirably excited by the patch arrays, also serve as miniature clutter plates to further reduce sidelobes toward the road surface. The resultant composite antenna achieved sidelobe levels of -45 dB, a 20 dB improvement over standard patch arrays, at elevation angles close to 90.

This paper presents an evaluation of various cooperative diversity techniques applied to future satellite digital multimedia broadcasting (S-DMB) systems. The increasing importance of hybrid and/or integrated satellite and terrestrial networks is associated with the utilization of spatial diversity techniques such as antenna diversity using space-time coding. The space-time coding schemes can be expected to result in more diversity gain as the number of transmit antennas are increased. However, we cannot design a rate-1 scheme that achieves full diversity for more than two transmit antennas. To overcome this limitation, quasi-orthogonal schemes were proposed, at the expense of the decoder complexity and diversity gain. In this paper, we introduce an efficient quasi-orthogonal space time coding scheme, and evaluate various aspects associated with the application of the proposed scheme to satellite systems. The proposed scheme in this paper provides the full rate as well as maximum-likelihood decoding via simple linear detection.

External interferences can severely degrade the performance of an Over-the-horizon radar (OTHR), so suppression of external interferences in strong clutter environment is the prerequisite for the target detection. The traditional suppression solutions usually began with clutter suppression in either time or frequency domain, followed by the interference detection and suppression. Based on this traditional solution, this paper proposes a method characterized by joint clutter suppression and interference detection: by analyzing eigenvalues in a short-time moving window centered at different time position, clutter is suppressed by discarding the maximum three eigenvalues at every time position and meanwhile detection is achieved by analyzing the remained eigenvalues at different position. Then, restoration is achieved by forward-backward linear prediction using interference-free data surrounding the interference position. In the numeric computation, the eigenvalue decomposition (EVD) is replaced by singular values decomposition (SVD) based on the equivalence of these two processing. Data processing and experimental results show its efficiency of noise floor falling down about 10-20 dB.

We develop an optimum code allocation scheme by investigating the peak to average power ratio (PAPR) characteristic of a down-link multi-carrier (MC)-CDMA system using Walsh-Hadamard code. It is shown that PAPR of a MC-CDMA system is highly dependent upon the selection of code combination. Based on this fact, we develop the allocation method which minimizes PAPR according to the number of active users. In addition, an efficient suboptimum code combination search scheme is also proposed for near minimum PAPR.

We investigate and propose the utilization of regenerative and non-regenerative relaying terminals in downlink cooperative MIMO communications, such as in base-station/router-relay-user transmission under different schemes. The source is equipped with multiple antennas, while the relays and destination are single-antenna terminals. From the source to the relays, symbols are transmitted using MIMO spatial-multiplexing technique. Depending on the type of relaying scheme, the relays either fully decode or amplify the received signal before retransmitting it to the destination using simple TDM transmission or Alamouti's space-time coding. We show that the proposed system realizes MIMO performance in single-antenna system environment, and performance-wise it is superior to existing transmission schemes, especially in low-SNR conditions. Furthermore, the proposed system is shown to give a diversity order of N-M+1, similar to that of MIMO V-BLAST system.

On the use of a surveillance camera, there is a case where privacy protection should be considered. This paper proposes a new privacy protection method by automatically degrading the face region in surveillance images. The proposed method consists of ROI coding of JPEG2000 and a face detection method based on template matching. The experimental result shows that the face region can be detected and hidden correctly.

In Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks, the user distributions are unbalanced due to the geography and the population dispersion. As a result, some satellites have few traffic loads, while others have heavy traffic loads which often lead to congestion events. In this paper, we propose a novel load balancing method based on congestion prediction. In the proposed method, each satellite detects areas where congestion often occurs and conveys their positions to its adjacent satellites. In those areas, the concerned satellites perform load balancing algorithms to prevent congestion. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through a number of simulations. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme improves packet drop rate, end-to-end delay, and throughput.

In this paper, throughput and error performance analysis is conducted on the proposed space-time resource management (STRM) scheme to realize a multi-Gbps millimeter-wave wireless personal area network (WPAN) system. The proposed STRM allows multiple peer-to-peer communication links to occupy the same time-division-multiple-access (TDMA) time slot, in contrary to the conventional TDMA system that allocates only one time slot to one communication link. Theoretical analysis is performed to investigate the achievable system throughput in the presence of co-channel interference (CCI) generated by communication links co-sharing the same time slot. To increase accuracy, the analysis results are validated by Monte Carlo simulations. Firstly, it is found that the upper bound of the achievable throughput increases linearly with the number of communication links sharing the same time slot. However, optimum throughput exists corresponding to the CCI present in the system. Secondly, by manipulating a parameter that controls the allowable CCI in the network, the system throughput can be optimized. Lastly, it is also found that in a millimeter-wave band system, a victim system with transmitter-receiver separation of 1-meter can achieve bit error rate (BER) of 10-6 provided that the interferer is at least 6-meters away.

This research proposes efficient calculation methods for the transition matrices in discrete event systems, where the adjacency matrices are represented by directed acyclic graphs. The essence of the research focuses on obtaining the Kleene Star of an adjacency matrix. Previous studies have proposed methods for calculating the longest paths focusing on destination nodes. However, in these methods the chosen algorithm depends on whether the adjacency matrix is sparse or dense. In contrast, this research calculates the longest paths focusing on source nodes. The proposed methods are more efficient than the previous ones, and are attractive in that the efficiency is not affected by the density of the adjacency matrix.

Overlay Access Technology can compensate for the spectrum underutilization problem by exploiting Cognitive Radios capabilities. MAC design is an important aspect of Overlay Access research. In this paper we present the overlay access environment and the challenges it poses to MAC design. Then, we propose the use of a modified Distributed Coordination Function as the MAC protocol for distributed Overlay Access networks. The resulted Intermittent DCF performs with robustness in the demanding overlay access environment, which is characterized by frequent spectrum scan procedure interruptions and low achievable transmission rates. The most recent DCF Markov Chain Model is extended in order to include the overlay operation modifications. Our extension concerns the slot duration expectations calculation which, in the overlay environment, have not constant values but depend on overlay operation parameters. Using the analytical model we evaluate the performance of the DCF under the effect of certain overlay access parameters. The new analytical model predictions are validated with simulations, and are found to accurately capture many interesting features of the overlay operation. Our model can be used in feasibility studies of realistic overlay scenarios and in admission control algorithms of QoS enabled distributed overlay access networks that engage the Intermittent DCF.

High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) are recently considered as a green infrastructure to provide high speed multimedia services. The critical issue of HAPS is frequency sharing with satellite systems. Regulating antenna beam pattern using adaptive antenna schemes is one of means to facilitate the sharing with a space receiver for fixed satellite services on the uplink of a HAPS system operating in U bands. In this letter, we investigate antenna beam pattern characteristics of HAPS user terminals with various values of scan angles of main beam, null position angles, and null width.

This paper proposes a frequency asynchronous cross-polarization interference canceller for Vertical/Horizontal (V/H) polarization multiplexing satellite communications. In satellite communications, V/H polarization signals are likely to experience different frequency fluctuations, and so the cross-polarization undergoes two different frequency fluctuations. To cancel this cross-polarization interference, a new frequency asynchronous cross-polarization interference canceller that removes interference and frequency offsets is proposed. Computer simulations are carried out to evaluate its fundamental performance. The results show that the proposed canceller can remove the cross-polarization interference created by the two different frequency offsets, simultaneously.

This paper describes a novel channel allocation scheme that enables data to be collected from observation points throughout the ultra-wide area covered by a satellite communication system. Most of the earth stations in the system acquire pre-scheduled type data such as that pertaining to rainfall and temperature measurements, but a few of them acquire event-driven type data such as that pertaining to earthquakes. Therefore, the main issue pertaining to this scheme is how to effectively accommodate demand for the channels by a huge number of earth stations with limited satellite frequency bandwidth regardless of their acquired data types. To tackle this issue, we propose a channel allocation scheme built on a pre-assigned scheme to gather pre-scheduled type data but that also includes an additional procedure to gather event-driven type data reliably. Performance evaluations show that the proposed scheme achieves higher throughput and lower packet loss rate than conventional schemes.

Current trend in telecommunications is "broadband" and "ubiquitous." To achieve this goal, satellite communications systems are expected to play an important role in cooperation with terrestrial communications systems. Along with the advancement of optical fiber transmission systems, the role of satellite communications was dramatically changed from long distance transmission to various applications utilizing unique features of satellite communications. This paper overviews recent Japanese R&D in satellite communications.

This paper proposes a new antenna array calibration technique which uses frequency selection in orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)/time division duplexing (TDD) systems. In the proposed method, subbands or frequencies of good channel conditions are initially selected for channel measurements. The relative calibration is performed at the selected subbands, which compensates for mismatch of analogue gains in multiple antennas using the measured uplink and downlink channel parameters. Furthermore, the calibration parameters are interpolated in the frequency domain for the whole bandwidth. The proposed calibration maintains accurate channel reciprocity for the whole bandwidth compared to the conventional calibration which does not use the frequency selection. The proposed calibration technique is effective in exploiting channel reciprocity at both base station and terminals with feasible amount of feedback and low-cost operation.

This paper proposes a preamble structure that raises the throughput of the physical layer of a MIMO-OFDM system that complies with IEEE 802.11n. The proposed preamble is based on two important criteria that have not been considered in conventional preamble structures but have an important bearing on realization of IEEE 802.11n. One is backward compatibility with legacy devices, such as IEEE 802.11a or IEEE 802.11g. The other is accurate AGC for MIMO data payload of the packet. Computer simulations and a laboratory test demonstrate that the proposed preamble is superior to the other preambles with respect to those two important criteria. The results were submitted to the task group N under the IEEE 802.11 working group and contributed to development of the current draft of IEEE 802.11n.