We present a design procedure of a leaky-wave antenna with low sidelobes based on the stub-loaded ridge-rectangular waveguide. As a typical example, we desig the antenna with the Taylor distribution of -30 dB sidelobes and fabricated it. The agreement between the measured and the numerical results validate the proposed antenna.

We report on the design and experimental results of a fix-tuned Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixer for Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) band 8 (385-500 GHz) receivers. Nb-based SIS junctions of a current density of 10 kA/cm2 and one micrometer size (fabricated with a two-step lift-off process) are employed to accomplish the ALMA receiver specification, which requires wide frequency coverage as well as low noise temperature. A parallel-connected twin-junction (PCTJ) is designed to resonate at the band center to tune out the junction geometric capacitance. A waveguide-microstrip probe is optimized to have nearly frequency-independent impedance at the probe's feed point, thereby making it easy to match the low-impedance PCTJ over a wide frequency band. The RF embedding impedance is retrieved by fitting the measured pumped I-V curves to confirm good matching between PCTJ and signal source. We demonstrate here a minimum double-sideband receiver noise temperature of 3 times of quantum limits for an intermediate-frequency range of 4-8 GHz. The mixers were measured in band 8 cartridge with a sideband separation scheme. Single-sideband receiver noise below ALMA specification was achieved over the whole band.

Popular Web sites form their Web servers into Web server clusters. The Web server cluster operates with a load-balancing algorithm to distribute Web requests evenly among Web servers. The load-balancing algorithms founded on conventional periodic load-information update mechanism are not scalable due to the synchronized update of load-information. We propose a load-balancing algorithm that the load-information update is not synchronized by exploiting variant execution times of executing scripts in dynamic Web pages. The load-information of each server is updated 'individually' by a new load-information update mechanism, and the proposed algorithm supports high scalability based on this individual update. Simulation results have proven the improvement in system performance through another aspect of high scalability. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm guarantees some level of QoS for Web clients by fairly distributing requests. A fundamental merit of the proposed algorithm is its simplicity, which supports higher throughput of the Web switch.

Genetic algorithms are a general problem-solving technique that has been widely used in computational biology. In this paper, we present a framework to map hierarchical parallel genetic algorithms for protein folding problems onto computational grids. By using this framework, the two level communication parts of hierarchical parallel genetic algorithms are separated. Thus both parts of the algorithm can evolve independently. This permits users to experiment with alternative communication models on different levels conveniently. The underlying programming techniques are based on generic programming, a programming technique suited for the generic representation of abstract concepts. This allows the framework to be built in a generic way at application level and thus provides good extensibility and flexibility. Experiments show that it can lead to significant runtime savings on PC clusters and computational grids.

We consider a network, where a special data called certificate is issued between two users, and all certificates issued by the users in the network can be represented by a directed graph. For any two users u and v, when u needs to send a message to v securely, v's public-key is needed. The user u can obtain v's public-key using the certificates stored in u and v. We need to disperse the certificates to the users such that when a user wants to send a message to the other user securely, there are enough certificates in them to get the reliable public-key. In this paper, when a certificate graph and a set of communication requests are given, we consider the problem to disperse the certificates among the nodes in the network, such that the communication requests are satisfied and the total number of certificates stored in the nodes is minimized. We formulate this problem as MINIMUM CERTIFICATE DISPERSAL (MCD for short). We show that MCD is NP-Complete, even if its input graph is restricted to a strongly connected graph. We also present a polynomial-time 2-approximation algorithm MinPivot for strongly connected graphs, when the communication requests satisfy some restrictions. We introduce some graph classes for which MinPivot can compute optimal dispersals, such as trees, rings, and some Cartesian products of graphs.

In this letter, we propose a butterfly structure for rate 2/n convolutional codes to reduce the computational complexity of Viterbi decoders. By using the butterfly structure, the branch metric computation complexity of some best known codes can be reduced by a factor of 2 or 4.

This paper proposes a subjective model for estimating the quality of video streaming services with dynamic bit-rate control. In a subjective quality assessment test, we clarify users' perceptions of distributed video signals whose quality is time-variant due to dynamic bit-rate control. Using this result, we constructed an estimation model considering the following three characteristics: 1) the influence of the video section where quality degradation is large will strongly affect the overall quality, 2) the impression of a past quality weakens with the passage of time, and 3) the range of evaluation scores becomes wider when the time duration of an evaluation is longer. We found that the proposed model enables the accuracy of estimating overall subjective quality to be dramatically improved compared with that of a model that averages segmental quality. The estimation error of the proposed model is less than the statistical reliability of the subjective score even for verification data. We also show that our findings are applicable to QoS design/management issues for video streaming services with dynamic bit-rate control.

Seamless interconnection with wireless LAN and 3G technologies is essential for the future wireless environment. The Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) integrated mobile device is designed to extend the reach of enterprise applications and to create new collaboration environments. Also rapid new service development has started to change traffic mixes in the cellular networks towards IP dominating carriers like GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and WLAN. These drastic changes require new research in the network as well as system inter-working areas for both the cellular and WLAN technology areas. This is the main challenge our research is trying to solve giving answers to rising inter-working and interoperability questions.

A novel error detection method based on coded block pattern (CBP) information verification is proposed for error concealment of inter-coded video frames transmitted in wireless channel. This method firstly modifies the original video stream structure by the aggregation of certain important information, and then inserts some error verification bits into the video stream for each encoded macro block (MB), these bits can be used as reference information to determine whether each encoded MB is corrupted. Experimental results on additive Gauss white noise simulation wireless channel and H.263+ baseline codec show that the proposed method can outperform other reference approaches on error detection performance. In addition, it can preserve the original video quality with a small coding overhead increase.

In recent works [1],[4], it has been shown that the damping of a linear time invariant system relates to the so-called characteristic ratios (αk, k=1,…, n-1) which are defined by coefficients of the denominator of the transfer function. However, the exact relations are not yet fully understood. For the purpose of exploring the issue, this paper presents the analysis of time response sensitivity to the characteristic ratio change. We begin with the sensitivity of output to the perturbations of coefficients of the system denominator and then the first order approximation of the αk perturbation effect is computed by an explicit transfer function. The results are extended to all-pole systems in order to investigate which characteristic ratios act dominantly on step response. The same analysis is also performed to a special class of systems whose denominator is composed of so called K-polynomial. Finally, some illustrative examples are given.

In this letter, my proposals for a Floating node voltage-controlled Variable Resistor circuit (FVR) are based upon its advantages as linear and compact. The performance of the proposed circuit was confirmed by PSpice simulation. The simulation results are reported in this letter.

Collective transverse plasma modes in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) can be excited by the moving fluxon lattices. Progressive transformation of the standing-wave-like fluxon-lattice configuration from a triangular lattice to a rectangular lattice takes place as the dynamic fluxon-lattice modes are in resonance with the collective transverse plasma modes. In this paper, we review the progress in terahertz-frequency-range electromagnetic wave generation from the IJJs using the resonance between moving fluxon lattice and the collective transverse plasma modes.

The 2-terminal shortest path problem is to find a shortest path between two specified vertices in a given graph G. In this paper, we consider this problem in the following situation: G is given before the two vertices are specified so that some preprocessing is allowed to reduce the response time. We present a method for calculating lower bounds of the length of the shortest path for any pair of vertices. Experimental results show that the A* algorithm with our method performs much better than previous methods.

This paper presents a simple, yet effective hybrid of the minimum mean square error (MMSE) multi-user detection (MUD) and successive interference cancellation (SIC) for direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems. The proposed hybrid MUD first divides the users into groups, with each group consisting of users with a close power level. The SIC is then used to distinguish users among different groups, while the MMSE MUD is used to detect signals within each group. To further improve the performance impaired by the propagation errors, an information reuse scheme is also addressed, which can be used in conjunction with the hybrid MMSE/SIC MUD to adequately cancel the multiple access interferences (MAIs) so as to attain more accurate detections. Furthermore, the asymptotic multiuser efficiency (AME), a measure to characterize the near-far resistance capability, is also conducted to provide further insights into the new detectors. Furnished simulations, in both additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels and slow flat Rayleigh fading channels, show that the performances of the proposed hybrid MMSE/SIC detectors, with or without the decision aided scheme, are superior to that of the SIC and, especially, the one with decision aided is close to that of the MMSE MUD but with substantially lower computational complexity.

This paper presents a method of predicting future human driving behavior under the condition that its resultant behavior and past observations are given. The proposed method makes use of a dynamic Bayesian network and the junction tree algorithm for probabilistic inference. The method is applied to behavior prediction for a vehicle assumed to stop at an intersection. Such a predictive system would facilitate warning and assistance to prevent dangerous activities, such as red-light violations, by allowing detection of a deviation from normal behavior.

A two-dimensional network for motion detection constructed of simple analog circuits was proposed and designed based on the frog visual system. In the frog visual system, the two-dimensional motion of a moving object can be detected by performing simple information processing in the tectum and thalamus of the frog brain. The measured results of the test chip fabricated by a 1.2 µm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process confirmed the correct operation of the basic circuits in the network. The results obtained with the simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE) showed that the proposed network can detect the motion direction and velocity of a moving object. Thus, a chip for two-dimensional motion detection was realized using the proposed network.

Montgomery algorithm has demonstrated its effectiveness in applications like cryptosystems. Most of the existing works on finding the Montgomery inverse of an element over the Galois field are based on the software implementation, which is then extended to derive the scalable hardware architecture. In this work, we consider a fundamental change at the algorithmic level and eliminate the potential problems in hardware implementation which makes the resulting modified Montgomery inverse algorithm over GF(2m) very suitable for hardware realization. Due to its structural simplicity, the modified algorithm can be easily mapped onto a high-speed and possibly low-complexity circuit. Experimental results show that our development can achieve both the area and speed advantages over the previous work when the inversion operation over GF(2m) is under consideration and the improvement becomes more significant when we increase the value of m as in the applications of cryptosystems. The salient property of our development sustains the high-speed operation as well as low hardware complexity over a wide range of m for commercial cryptographic applications and makes it suitable for both the scalable architecture and direct hardware implementation.

This paper presents a new generative approach for generating two-dimensional signals having both a low peak factor (crest factor) and a flat power spectrum. The flat power spectrum provides zero auto-correlation, except at the zero shift. The proposed method is a generative scheme, not a search method, and produces a two-dimensional signal of size 2(2n1+1)2(2n2+1)2 for an arbitrary pair of positive integers n1 and n2 without any computer search. The peak factor of the proposed signal is equal to the peak factor of a single trigonometric function.

Linearity of a transconductor with a theoretical linear characteristic is deteriorated by mobility degradation, in practice. In this paper, a technique to improve the linearity by combining a source-coupled pair with the transconductor is proposed. The proposed transconductor is the circuit that the deteriorated linearity of the conventional part is compensated by the transconductance characteristic of the source-coupled pair. In order to confirm the validity of the proposed technique, SPICE simulation is carried out. The transconductance change ratio of the proposed technique is about 1% and is 1/10 or less of the conventional circuit.

This paper describes a numerical design procedure of element values of RC polyphase filters with equal minima in stopband and equal ripple in passband. Determination of element values of RC polyphase filters with equal-ripple characteristic have not been solved to the best knowledge of the authors. There found a paper tackling with the problem; however, it can only give sub-optimal solutions via numerical calculation [3]. We propose a numerical element value design procedure for RC polyphase filters with equi-ripple gain in both stopband and passband by using the coefficient matching method. Some design examples are given.