In this paper, we consider the Integrate-and-Fire Model (ab. IFM) with two periodic inputs. The IFM outputs a pulse-train which is governed by a one dimensional return map. Using the return map, the relationship between the inputs and the output is clarified: the first input determines the global shape of the return map and the IFM outputs various periodic and chaotic pulse-trains; the second input quantizes the state of the return map and the IFM outputs various periodic pulse-trains. Using a computer aided analysis method, the quantized return map can be analyzed rigorously. Also, some typical phenomena are confirmed in the laboratory.

This paper discusses microwave path-loss characteristics as a function of mobile antenna height in an urban line-of-sight environment. Measurements were made in metropolitan Tokyo with high-density buildings, using base station antenna heights of 4 and 8 m. We describe the path-loss characteristics of vehicle-mounted mode (mobile antenna height is 2.7 m) and portable mode (mobile antenna heights are 1.6 and 0.5 m). Dependence of path loss on the distance between base and mobile stations was analyzed. This reveals that the break points shift to the near side in the vehicle-mounted mode. This phenomenon can be interpreted by the existence of an effective height h of the road. The typical value of h was found approximately 1.4 m. In the portable mode, on the other hand, break points were not observed. The mobile antenna heights (1.6 and 0.5 m) in this mode are close to or less than the average height (1-2 m) of pedestrians on the sidewalk; and the received waves at the mobile station are often disturbed by pedestrians. This explains the nonexistence of break points in portable mode. The average attenuation coefficients is observed 3.2 in this mode. The attenuation coefficients tend to be larger at lower base station antenna heights and narrower road widths.

In this paper, a general formula of disparity estimation based on Bayesian Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) algorithm is derived and implemented with simplified probabilistic models. The formula is the generalized probabilistic diffusion equation based on Bayesian model, and can be implemented into some different forms corresponding to the probabilistic models in the disparity neighborhood system or configuration. The probabilistic models are independence and similarity among the neighboring disparities in the configuration. The independence probabilistic model guarantees the discontinuity at the object boundary region, and the similarity model does the continuity or the high correlation of the disparity distribution. According to the experimental results, the proposed algorithm had good estimation performance. This result showes that the derived formula generalizes the probabilistic diffusion based on Bayesian MAP algorithm for disparity estimation. Also, the proposed probabilistic models are reasonable and approximate the pure joint probability distribution very well with decreasing the computations to O(n()) from O(n()4) of the generalized formula.

Newton based adaptive algorithms are among the algorithms which are known to exhibit a higher convergence speed in comparison to the least mean square (LMS) algorithms. In this paper we propose a simplified Newton based adaptive algorithm for an adaptive infinite impulse response (IIR) filter implemented using cascades of second order allpass filters and a finite impulse response (FIR) filter. The proposed Newton based algorithm avoids the complexity that may arise in the direct differentiation of the mean square error. The analysis and simulation results presented for the algorithm, show that the property of convergence of the poles of the IIR ADF to those of the unknown system will be maintained for both white and colored input signal. Computer simulation results confirm an increase in convergence speed in comparison to the LMS algorithm.

This paper presents two man-machine reliability models. A system consists of one machine unit, one operator, and one event detecting monitor. The machine unit has three states, normal, abnormal, and failed. The event detecting monitor may fail in two ways. If a machine unit becomes abnormal, the event detecting monitor sends a signal, and the operator takes necessary actions. If the operator fails in the action in the cause of human error, the machine unit goes down. The condition of the operator is classified into two types, good and bad. The time to repair, and the human error rate both depend on the condition of the operator. The MTTF is obtained by using a Markov model and numerical computation. Furthermore, the optimal operating period which minimizes the overall cost is decided by using computer methods. Some numerical examples are shown.

The concept of controlled resource sharing and dynamic quality of service (QoS) on the next generation Internet has attracted much attention recently. It is suggested that, by imposing real-time revision of shared resource allocated to individual media streams or data flows according to user/application QoS demand and resource availability, more balanced and efficient multimedia services can be provided. In this paper, we present an Adaptive Control Framework (ACF), which is developed for controlled resource sharing and dynamic QoS in real-time multimedia service. We discuss main elements of ACF including 1) Control schemes applicable in the framework, and 2) Control mechanisms used in ACF. It is clearly shown in this paper that, with control schemes and mechanisms incorporated in ACF and supportive algorithms and protocols for ACF applications on the Internet, more flexible service and better overall performance in terms of packet loss, latency, signal-noise ratio and re-synchronization delay, can be offered.

In the conventional antenna system for the handset, some gain degradation has been observed when an operator holds the handset. This is caused by the variation of the current on the conducting box used in the handset due to the body effect. This paper presents (1) design concept of antenna for the handset and (2) analysis of a newly proposed loop antenna system, which has the balance structure for the antenna feed to reduce the effect of currents on the conducting box. In order to confirm the effectiveness of using the balance-fed loop antenna, a simple model using a small loop antenna mounted on a ground plane is analyzed. The current distribution for the balance-fed loop antenna system is obtained calculatedly and also experimentally and is compared with that for the unbalance-fed loop antenna system. In a result, remarkable decrease in the current distribution on the ground plane for the case of the balance-fed antennas system is shown. Calculated results are in good agreement with measured results.

This paper presents the radiation characteristics of a circularly polarized conical beam spherical slot array antenna for applying to the mobile satellite communication subscriber. The structure of the antenna is easy to fabricate i. e. , a ring of perpendicular slot pairs cut on an outer surface of a concentric conducting spherical cavity enclosed by the conducting conical surface with the simple feeding structure, and a linear electric probe excited at the center of the inner surface of the cavity. Radiation fields of a spherical slot array antenna are calculated by superposing the patterns of all the slots. From the numerical results of the radiation pattern, in both elevational and azimuthal planes, it is obvious that the conical beam is realized. The elevational beam direction is low, which is suitable for installing in the land mobile subscriber unit located far from the equator. The tracking system is not necessary because the azimuthal pattern is omnidirectional. Directivity of the antenna for various spherical radii and angles of slot positions are illustrated as the guidelines for the design. Experimental results are in good agreement with the predictions.

This paper presents a new approach to computer image generation via three proposed methods for translating the evolution of a Petri net into fractal image synthesis. The idea is derived from the concept of fractal iteration principles in the escape-time algorithm and chaos game. The approach uses a Petri net as a powerful abstract modeling tool for fractal image synthesis via its duality, deadlock, inhibitor arc, firing sequence and marking reachability. The objective of this approach is to enhance the analysis technique of a Petri net and use it as a novel technique for fractal image synthesis. Generating fractal images via the dynamics of a Petri net allows an easy and direct proof for the similarity and correspondence between the dynamics of complex quadratic fractals by the recursive procedure of the escape-time algorithm and the state of a Petri net via a reachability problem. The reachability problem will be manipulated in terms of the dynamics of the fractal in order to generate images via three proposed methods. Validation of our approach is given by discussion and an illustration of some experimental results.

This paper presents a novel four-sector shaped-beam antenna suitable for base station antennas in 60-GHz wireless local area networks (LANs). The antenna has a plateau configuration, whose four side walls have four linearly arranged microstrip antennas. Each trapezoidal facet excites a shaped beam in the elevation plane in order to meet link-budget requirement between base station and remote terminal, taking account of directional patters of remote terminal antennas. Low-loss curved microstrip-line is applied to connect the three-dimensional antennas with active circuits mounted on a flat carrier plate. This antenna has been adopted as the base station antenna in 60-GHz wireless LANs. The first-stage transmission experiment confirms the usefulness of shaped-beam antennas in the 60-GHz band.

We propose an optical spread-time code-division multiple-access (ST-CDMA) with pulse position modulation (PPM) signaling for high-speed communication networks. We obtain a union upper bound on the bit error rate (BER) considering the multi-access interference (MAI), shot noise and thermal noise at the receiver. As a result, we show that the optical ST-CDMA with PPM signaling improves the BER performance at the same received power and bit rate compared to that with OOK signaling. This leads to an increase of the bit rate at the same BER. Moreover, we show that the proposed system can relax the requirement for spectral resolution compared to the optical ST-CDMA with OOK signaling under the received power and bit rate constraints.

This paper proposes a group synchronization mechanism which synchronizes slave destinations with the master destination for stored media in multicast communications. At the master and slave destinations, an intra-stream and an inter-stream synchronization mechanisms which were previously proposed by the authors are employed to output the master media stream and slave media streams synchronously. We achieve group synchronization by adjusting the output timing of the master media stream at each slave destination to that at the master destination. We also deal with control of joining an in-progress multicast group. The paper presents experimental results using an interconnected ATM-Ethernet LAN, which is a kind of heterogeneous network. In our experimental system, stored voice and video streams are multicast from a source to plural destinations distributed among distinct networks, and then they are synchronized and output. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the mechanism.

In this letter, we propose the channel estimation technique in the uplink of a DS/CDMA system with M-ary orthogonal signaling over multipath fading channels. The channel estimation is carried out using the maximum correlator output of RAKE receiver. With the estimated channel parameters, the RAKE receiver can coherently combines the received multipath signals, resulting in a significant performace improvement. The hardware complexity of the proposed detection technique is slightly increased when compared to that of noncoherent detection.

Recently, it is required to transfer continuous media over networks without QoS guarantee. In these networks, network congestion will cause transmission delay variance which degrades the quality of continuous media itself. This paper proposes a new protocol using a congestion control with two level rate control in the data transfer level and the coding level. It introduces a TCP-like congestion control mechanism to the rate control of data transfer level, which can detect the QoS change quickly, and adjust the coding rate of continuous media with time interval long enough for its quality. The performance evaluation through software simulation with multiplexing continuous media traffics and TCP traffics shows that the proposed protocol works effectively in the case of network congestion.

This paper proposes a new distributed connection establishment scheme involving several competing network providers in a multimedia telecommunications environment. This connection establishment scheme, which is based on the concept of open competitive bidding, enables mutual selection by users and network providers. By employing this proposed scheme, both network providers and users can pursue their own objectives, according to their own bidding and awarding strategies. In this paper, a simple bidding strategy for network providers is presented, and the effectiveness of this strategy is evaluated by means of computer simulation. It is shown that each network provider can improve its profit by adopting this strategy. In this paper, an example of utility functions for users is presented, and the effectiveness of the mechanism with which users can select a network provider is also evaluated by means of computer simulation. Each user can improve his/her utility by selecting an appropriate network provider based on this utility function.

A content-based image retrieval scheme based on scale-space theory is proposed. Instead of considering all scales for image retrieval, the proposed algorithm utilizes a modified histogram intersection method to compute the relative scale between a query image and a candidate image. The proposed method has been applied to various images and the performance improvement has been verified.

Future cellular systems are envisioned to support mixed traffic, and ultimately multimedia services. However, a mixture of voice and data requires novel service mechanisms that can guarantee quality of service. In order to transfer high-speed data, multislot channel allocation is seen as a favoured solution to the present systems with the least compromise to circuit- switched services. This paper evaluates the performance of narrowband voice calls and multislot data packet transmission in such integrated systems by using a matrix-analytic approach. This method achieves quadratic convergence compared to the conventional spectral methods. Mobility is also considered in a prioritized cellular environment where frequent handoff has the potential of degrading data performance. The voice call distribution, data packets throughput, delay and waiting time distribution are derived. Moreover, a new multiple priority-based distributed control algorithm and a voice rate control scheme are enforced to mitigate the queuing congestion of data packets. The numerical results derived from this study show that larger data packets incur longer latency and the use of these flexible schemes can improve the overall performance.

To design and develop user-oriented, flexible and distributed applications which can deal with various users' requirements, new technologies to manage, control and utilize the services of communication networks have to be provided. In this paper, the current challenges faced by large-scale distributed applications are discussed and a framework for the next generation network operation and management is presented on the basis of agent-based computing technologies. Examples of flexible distributed applications are presented to clarify the role of application-centric flexible network operation and management.

In this paper, we investigate the bit error rate (BER) performance of Direct Sequence-Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) systems under impulsive radio noise environments, and propose a novel DS-CDMA receiver which is designed to be robust against impulsive noise. At first, employing the Middleton's Class-A impulsive noise model as a typical model of impulsive radio noise, we discuss the statistical characteristics of impulsive radio noise and demonstrate that the quadrature components of impulsive noise are statistically dependent. Next, based on the computer simulation, we evaluate the BER performance of a conventional DS-CDMA system under a Class-A impulsive noise environment, and illustrate that the performance of the conventional DS-CDMA system is drastically degraded by the effects of the impulsive noise. To deal with this problem, motivated by the statistical dependence between the quadrature components of impulsive radio noise, we propose a new DS-CDMA receiver which can eliminate the effects of the channel impulsive noise. The numerical result shows that the performance of the DS-CDMA system under the impulsive noise environment is significantly improved by using this proposed receiver. Finally, to confirm the effectiveness of this proposed receiver against actual impulsive radio noise, we evaluate the BER performance of the DS-CDMA system employing the proposed receiver under a microwave oven (MWO) noise environment and discuss the robustness of the proposed receiver against MWO noise.

The ATM Forum specifies several fairness criteria, thus the scheduling mechanisms should allocate enough bandwidth to each connection to achieve one of such fairness criteria. However, two fairness criteria (MCR plus equal share, maximum of MCR or Max-Min share) cannot be achieved by conventional scheduling mechanisms. In this letter, we have developed new scheduling mechanisms that achieve these fairness criteria. We also present simulation results to show that our mechanisms can allocate bandwidth fairly.