In our previous paper we presented a path-tracing method of multiple gate delay fault diagnosis in combinational circuits. In this paper, we propose an improved method that uses the ambiguous delay model. This delay model makes provision for parameter variations in the manufacturing process of ICs. For the effectiveness of the current method, we propose a timed 8-valued simulation and some new diagnostic rules. Furthermore, we introduce a preparatory process that speeds up diagnosis. Also, at the end of diagnosis, additional information from the results of the preparatory process makes it possible to distinguish between non-existent faults and undiagnosed faults.

A shared buffer ATM switch loaded with bursty input traffic is modeled by a discrete-time queueing system. Also, the unbalanced and correlated routing traffic patterns are considered. An approximation method to analyze the queueing system under consideration is developed. To overcome the problem regarding the size of state space to be dealt with, the entire switching system is decomposed into several subsystems, and then each subsystem is analyzed in isolation. We first propose an efficient algorithm for superposing all the individual bursty cell arrival processes to the switch. And then, the maximum entropy method is applied to obtain the steady-state probability distribution of the queueing system. From the obtained steady-state probabilities, we can derive some performance measures such as cell loss probability and average delay. Numerical examples of the proposed approximation method are given, which are compared with simulation results.

Non-stationary glint noise is often observed in a radar tracking system. The distribution of glint noise is non-Gaussian and heavy-tailed. Conventional recursive identification algorithms use the stochastic approximation (SA) method. However, the SA method converges slowly and is invalid for non-stationary noise. This paper proposes an adaptive algorithm, which uses the stochastic gradient descent (SGD) method, to overcome these problems. The SGD method retains the simple structure of the SA method and is suitable for real-world implementation. Convergence behavior of the SGD method is analyzed and closed-form expressions for sufficient step size bounds are derived. Since noise data are usually not available in practice, we then propose a noise extraction scheme. Combining the SGD method, we can perform on-line adaptive noise identification directly from radar measurements. Simulation results show that the performance of the SGD method is comparable to that of the maximum-likelihood (ML) method. Also, the noise extraction scheme is effective that the identification results from the radar measurements are close to those from pure glint noise data.

An efficient procedure is presented to determine the implicit exact solution of an arbitrary nonuniform transmission line (NTL), and its first order approximation (F. O. A. ) as an explicit expression. The method of the solution is based on the steplines approximation of the nonuniform transmission lines and quasi-TEM assumptions. Using steplines approximation the NTL is subdivided into a large number of uniform line segments (steps). Using time-domain approach and invoking the boundary conditions at the discontinuities of the adjacent steps, each step is modeled as continuous time domain linear filter characterized by a transfer function. The frequency domain transfer function of this filter is then obtained for linear termination networks. For very large number of steplines this transfer function approaches transfer function of the NTL. In the next step a F. O. A. , as an explicit expression of the exact response will be obtained. This F. O. A. is more suitable for very short transmission lines which is often the case in integrated circuits and some of printed circuit boards. Then, the F. O. A. of the ABCD matrix will be obtained.

In this paper, a type of multi-carrier direct sequence code division multiple access (MC-DS-CDMA) system which uses frequency spread coding is proposed and investigated for the down-link. An MC-DS-CDMA system is a combined system of CDMA and multi-carrier modulation. This system is often categorized as a "serial to parallel (S/P) type" system because serial to parallel converted data symbols are transmitted. They use different sub-carriers which are narrow-band DS waveforms. In this system, benefits of path or frequency diversity can not be obtained because of the narrow-band transmission of each data symbol. In order to benefit from the diversity, we propose to adopt frequency spread coding in an MC-DS-CDMA system. The proposed system exploits frequency diversity without additional redundancy, i. e. , no frequency or time redundancy is required to improve the performance. Computer simulation is carried out in a frequency selective fading channel and the results show its effectiveness in terms of average bit error rate (BER). Furthermore, the proposed system is compared with a multi-carrier (MC-) CDMA system which is often categorized as a "copy type" system and a single-carrier (SC-) DS-CDMA system using a RAKE receiver.

This paper proposes a novel DS/CDMA system with code-diversity techniques constituted by a simple system to suppress multiple access interference (MAI) without estimating the PN sequence of interference at the receiver. In the transmitter, the data signal is modulated with a sum of several PN sequences, and, two types of code- diversity reception are proposed, (1) maximal-ratio combining (MRC) code-diversity by autocorrelation, and (2) MRC code-diversity by anti-crosscorrelation. By computer simulations, it is shown that MRC code-diversity by anti-crosscorrelation is superior to the other one. It is also shown that MRC code-diversity by anti-crosscorrelation can improve BER more effectively for the interference which takes the phase to degrade BER at the worst. Next, to design the optimum number of branches for code-diversity, average BERs are calculated for several combinations of codes in code-diversity. As a result, the optimum number of branches varies for each combination of codes, however, it is decided from 3 to 7 branches. Finally, the effectivity of the proposed system in a near-far problem is presented.

Ring head recording on single-layer perpendicular recording media was studied by a simple simulation analysis based on a loop tracing method considering only the perpendicular component. Although the assumed model was primitive, the simulation results qualitatively well explained the experimental results such as a decrease in output at high recording currents and its relaxation upon using a smaller gap-length head. The simulation results revealed that achievable recorded magnetization is, in general, much smaller than the saturation value due to a broad distribution of the ring head field, but a medium with a steeper slope in the perpendicular M-H loop could improve the recording performance. This was confirmed experimentally for the medium with a steeper loop slope, though the medium exhibited a larger medium noise at high densities. It was suggested that the development of perpendicular recording for higher output and lower noise could be performed for both media with a small and steep loop slope. The former should be improved by means of the recording head while the latter by the media. A large improvement is expected for both cases.

To improve frequency efficiency or user capacity in multi-path fading environments, we introduce and investigate an orthogonal multi-carrier frequency hopping-code division multiple access (FH-CDMA). These improvements are achieved by combining the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and FH-CDMA schemes. The basic idea has been previously proposed by the authors. The aim of study in this paper is to evaluate the performance of this scheme in various environments. The theoretical analysis of bit error rate (BER) performance in this paper includes the effects of frequency selective fading in land mobile communications and of nonlinear amplification in satellite communications. A modified scheme of controlling transmission power to be controlled according to the number of simultaneously accessing users is also discussed. This modified scheme improves BER performance for frequency selective fading when the number of simultaneously accessing users in a cellular zone is small. Furthermore, an error-correcting code and its erasure decoding are applied in order to reduce errors due to hits in asynchronous FH/CDMA for reverse link as well as errors due to fading and noise.

This paper proposes an associative memory neural network whose limiting state is the nearest point in a polyhedron from a given input. Two implementations of the proposed associative memory network are presented based on Dykstra's algorithm and a fixed point theorem for nonexpansive mappings. By these implementations, the set of all correctable errors by the network is characterized as a dual cone of the polyhedron at each pattern to be memorized, which leads to a simple amplifying technique to improve the error correction capability. It is shown by numerical examples that the proposed associative memory realizes much better error correction performance than the conventional one based on POCS at the expense of the increase of necessary number of iterations in the recalling stage.

This paper proposes a novel spread spectrum (SS) modem for random access satellite communication systems that employs digital matched filters. The proposed modem employs a parallel structure to ensure detection of packet arrival. Code timing detection with a combination of a coarse detector and a fractional error detector reduces the sampling rate while maintaining the BER performance. An in-symbol pilot multiplexing scheme is also proposed for fast and stable carrier synchronization with a simple hardware. A performance evaluation shows that the proposed modem achieves the UW miss-detection probability of 10-4 at the Eb/No of 0 dB. The overall BER performance achieved in experiments well agrees simulation.

Future cellular communication systems will be called upon to provide multimedia services (voice, data, and video) for various user platforms (pedestrians, cars, and trains) that have a variety of mobility characteristics. Knowledge of mobility characteristics is essential for planning, designing and operating communication networks. The position data of selected vehicles (taxis) have been measured by using the Global Positioning System at 1-s intervals. Those data are used for evaluating mobility characteristics, such as probabilistic distributions of speed, cell dwell time, and cell crossover rate of vehicles, assuming that cells are hypothetically laid over the loci of the vehicles. The cell dwell time of vehicles is found to follow a lognormal distribution, rather than a conventionally-presumed negative exponential distribution. When the holding time distribution and random origination of calls along the loci are assumed, the properties of the cell dwell time and the handoff rate of terminals communicating in the hypothetical cellular systems are also estimated from the measured data.

This paper proposes a simple adaptive channel estimation scheme for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) in order to realize high-rate wireless local area networks (LANs). The proposed estimator consists of simple frequency-domain FIR filters, which are adaptively selected according to the difference vector between adjacent subcarriers and channel amplitude of the subcarrier. No precomputation or matrix signal processing is required in the derivation of these characteristics. Computer simulations show that the packet error rate performance of the proposed scheme is superior to that of the least-squares scheme by 1.1 dB in terms of required Eb/N0 at PER=0.1 in AWGN channels. They also show, for the same criterion, a 0.7 dB improvement in a frequency selective fading channel with delay spread values of 100 ns.

This paper proposes a new vector error measurement scheme for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems that is used to define transmit modulation accuracy. The transmit modulation accuracy is defined to guarantee inter-operability among wireless terminals. In OFDM systems, the transmit modulation accuracy measured by the conventional vector error measurement scheme can not guarantee inter-operability due to the effect of phase noise. To overcome this problem, the proposed vector error measurement scheme utilizes pilot signals in multiple OFDM symbols to compensate the phase rotation caused by the phase noise. Computer simulation results show that the vector error measured by the proposed scheme uniquely corresponds to the C/N degradation in packet error rate even if phase noise exists in the OFDM signals. This means that the proposed vector error measurement scheme makes it possible to define the transmit modulation accuracy and so guarantee inter-operability among wireless terminals.

Measurements of delay spread were performed at microwave frequencies of 3.35, 8.45 and 15.75 GHz along quasi line-of-sight streets in metropolitan Tokyo. It is found that the delay spreads increase with the measurement distance and reach around 600 ns up to 1 km. It is also confirmed that a cumulative probability of the delay spreads follows a log-normal distribution. The gradients of delay spreads against the distance are greater for a lower mobile antenna height hm = 1.6 m than for hm = 2.7 m in these measurements because of blocking effect by the traffic of vehicles and pedestrians on the road. When the mobile antenna height is 2.7 m, the delay spreads within the range before the break points are observed relatively small: 90 ns (3.35 GHz), 140 ns (8.45 GHz) and 150 ns (15.75 GHz) at the cumulative probability of 90%. The gradients of delay spreads against the distance are greater for wider streets in our measurements.

This paper describes a digital delay-lock Loop (DLL) to which delta-sigma (Δ Σ) modulation technique is applied in order to reduce circuit elements. The DLL is evaluated in both transient and steady-state behavior by theoretical analysis, computer simulations and circuit experiments. Not deteriorated by the internally generated Δ Σ-modulation noise, the DLL shows good tracking performance in transient response and steady-state RMS jitter of phase error against additive white Gaussian noise. Using the proposed DLL most parts of receiving circuits are realized by digital integrated circuits. After realizing the circuit, power-line communication system with spread spectrum is possibly expected in a small size with low cost.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals suffer nonlinear distortion within the transmitter, in the high-power amplifiers in particular. This paper proposes a nonlinear distortion compensation technique for OFDM signals, which incorporates a baseband predistortion with a constant peak-power OFDM (CP-OFDM). CP-OFDM fixes the envelope-peak amplitude to a constant value while maintaining the linearity of the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) outputs; consequently, the baseband predistorter entirely compensates the nonlinear distortion. Simulation and experimental results verify that the proposed technique significantly reduces out-of-band power emission and adjacent channel interference (ACI) more than 10 dB respectively.

Image coding with vector quantization (VQ) reveals several defects which include edge degradation and high encoding complexity. This paper presents an edge-preserving coding system based on VQ to overcome these defects. A signal processing unit first classifies image blocks into low-activity or high-activity class. A high-activity block is then decomposed into a smoothing factor, a bit-plane and a smoother (lower variance) block. These outputs can be more efficiently encoded by VQ with lower distortion. A set of visual patterns is used to encode the bit-planes by binary vector quantization. We also develop a modified search-order coding to further reduce the redundancy of quantization indexes. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves much better perceptual quality with higher compression ratio and significant lower computational complexity, as compared to the direct VQ.

Multi-carrier (MC) signal has a large peak to mean envelope power ratio, so that the MC signal suffers from a high level of inter-modulation distortion due to the nonlinearity of the power amplifier stage. For portable terminals, it is undesirable to use linear amplifiers because high power efficiency is needed. To solve this problem, we propose a time division duplex (TDD)-code division multiple access (CDMA) communication system which uses an asymmetric modulation scheme between the forward and reverse links. The system consists of multicarrier modulation for the forward link and single carrier modulation for the reverse link. A pre-equalization method for the forward link transmission is also presented in this paper. In frequency selective fading, the system achieves a path diversity effect without any channel estimation unit at the mobile station by using the pre-phase equalizer. From the simulation results, it it found that the proposed system achieves better BER performance than the conventional MC-CDMA system and the single carrier RAKE system equipped at the mobile unit since the proposed system has the ability to suppress other user interfering signals.

An accurate and efficient numerical solution is presented for a two-dimensional electromagnetic wave scattering from a multilayered resistive strip grating embedded in a dielectric slab. Both E- and H-waves are treated. The problem is formulated into a set of integral equations, which is solved by the moment method accompanied by a regularization procedure. The resultant set of linear algebraic equations has the form of the Fredholm second kind, and therefore yields stable and accurate numerical solutions. The power distribution is computed for several grating parameters. Attention is paid to seek a set of parameters that maximizes absorption in the strips. The low frequency approximate formulas are also derived. This analysis would be useful in designing electromagnetic wave absorbers.

Multimedia mobile communication systems are expected to be realized in the near future. In such systems, multipath fading can cause severe degradations of the quality of the communications due to its wide bandwidth, especially in urban areas. Adaptive array antennas can be attractive solution for overcoming the multipath fading. Suppression can be achieved with the adaptive array by cophasing and combining multipath signals in the space and time domain. On the other hand, the concept of software antenna has been proposed. The software antenna recognizes radiowave environments and appropriately reconfigures itself for the signal processing required by the recognized environment. Efficient implementations can be expected if these functions are realized by the software. In this paper, we propose two types of the adaptive array systems which is reconfigurable depending on the radiowave environment as a realization of the concept of the software antenna. They recognize the environment by using the eigenvalue decomposition of space domain correlation matrices and reconfigure their structures of the signal processing. The principle and performance are examined by theoretical means and through computer simulations.