Various optical fiber connectors have been developed during the 40 years since optical fiber communications systems were first put into practical use. This paper describes the key technologies for optical connectors and recent technical issues.

We have proposed autonomous network diagnosis platform for operation of future large capacity and virtualized network, including 5G and beyond 5G services. As for the one candidate of information collection and analyzing function blocks in the platform, we proposed novel optical sensing techniques that utilized tapped raw signal data acquired from digital coherent optical receivers. The raw signal data is captured before various digital signal processing for demodulation. Therefore, it contains various waveform deformation and/or noise as it experiences through transmission fibers. In this paper, we examined to detect two possible failures in transmission lines including fiber bending and optical filter shift by analyzing the above-mentioned raw signal data with the help of machine learning. For the purpose, we have implemented Docker container applications in WhiteBox Cassini to acquire real-time raw signal data. We generated CNN model for the detections in off-line processing and used them for real-time detections. We have confirmed successful detection of optical fiber bend and/or optical filter shift in real-time with high accuracy. Also, we evaluated their tolerance against ASE noise and invented novel approach to improve detection accuracy. In addition to that, we succeeded to detect them even in the situation of simultaneous occurrence of those failures.

Quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) and 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) formats are deployed in inter-data center networks where high transmission capacity and spectral efficiency are required. However, in intra-data center networks, a four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) format is deployed to satisfy the requirements for a simple and low-cost transceiver configuration. For the seamless and effective connection of such heterogeneous networks without an optical-electrical-optical conversion, an all-optical modulation format conversion technique is required. In this paper, we propose all-optical PAM4 to QPSK and 16QAM modulation format conversions using silicon-rich nitride waveguides. The successful conversions from 50-Gbps-class PAM4 signals to 50-Gbps-class QPSK and 100-Gbps-class 16QAM signals are demonstrated via numerical simulations.

We present our data-collection and deep neural network (DNN)-training scheme for extracting the optical status from signals received by digital coherent optical receivers in fiber-optic networks. The DNN is trained with unlabeled datasets across multiple administrative network domains by combining federated learning and unsupervised learning. The scheme allows network administrators to train a common DNN-based encoder that extracts optical status in their networks without revealing their private datasets. An early-stage proof of concept was numerically demonstrated by simulation by estimating the optical signal-to-noise ratio and modulation format with 64-GBd 16QAM and quadrature phase-shift keying signals.

Multi-band WDM transmission beyond the C+L-band is a promising technology for achieving larger capacity transmission by a limited number of installed fibers. In addition to the C- and L-band, we can expect to use the S-band as the next band. Although the development of optical components for new bands, particularly transceivers, entails resource dispersion, which is one of the barriers to the realization of multi-band systems, wavelength conversion by transparent all-optical signal processing enables new wavelength bandtransmission using existing components. Therefore, we proposed a transmission system including a new wavelength band such as the S-band and made it possible to use a transceiver for the existing band by performing the whole-band wavelength conversion without using a transceiver for the new band. As a preliminary verification to demonstrate multi-band WDM transmission including S-band, we investigated the application of a novel wavelength converter between C-band and S-band, which consists of periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide, to the proposed system. We first characterized the conversion efficiency and noise figure of the wavelength converter and estimated the transmission performance of the system through the wavelength converter. Using the evaluated wavelength converters and test signals of 64 channels arranged in the C-band at 75-GHz intervals, we constructed an experimental setup for S-band transmission through an 80-km standard single-mode fiber. We then demonstrated error-free transmission of real-time 400-Gb/s DP-16QAM signals after forward error correction decoding. From the experimental results, it was clarified that the wavelength converter which realizes the uniform lossless conversion covering the whole C-band effectively achieves the S-band WDM transmission, and it was verified that the capacity improvement of the multi-band WDM system including the S-band can be expected by applying it in combination with the C+L-band WDM system.

With the gradually increase of the application of new energy in microgrids, Electric Spring (ES), as a new type of distributed compensation power electronic device has been widely studied. The Generalized Electric Spring (G-ES) is an improved topology, and the space limitation problem in the traditional topology is solved. Because of the mode of G-ES use in the power grid, a reasonable solution to the voltage loss of the critical section feeder is needed. In this paper, the voltage balance equation based on the feedforward compensation coefficient is established, and a two cascade control strategy based on the equation is studied. The first stage of the two cascade control strategy is to use communication means to realize the allocation of feedforward compensation coefficients, and the second stage is to use the coefficients to realize feedforward fixed angle control. Simulation analysis shows that the proposed control strategy does not affect the control accuracy of the critical load (CL), and effectively improves the operational range of the G-ES.

Multi-core fiber (MCF) is one of the promising space-division multiplexing technologies to increase the capacity of optical networks. MCF-based networks have two challenges. One is the inter-core crosstalk (XT) that degrades the quality of optical signals in two neighboring fiber cores. The other is network protection against link failures that cause massive data loss. One way to protect against multiple link failures is to prepare physically separated links as a backup network. Probabilistic protection improves the efficiency of protection by allowing a certain probability of protection failure. Existing studies on backup network design with probabilistic protection do not target MCF-based networks, which raises problems such as protection failure due to the inter-core XT and excessive consumption of optical resources. To address these problems, this paper proposes a XT-aware backup network design model for the MCF optical path networks. The proposed model protects the network against probabilistic multiple link failures. We adopt probabilistic protection that allows a certain probability of protection failure due to the inter-core XT and minimizes the required number of links in the backup network. We present an algorithm to satisfy the probabilistic protection requirement and formulate the model as an integer linear programming problem. We develop a heuristic approach to apply the proposed model to larger networks. Numerical results observe that the proposed model requires fewer links than the dedicated allocation model, which provisions the backup paths in the same manner as the primary paths.

The Common Media Application Format (CMAF) is a standard for adaptive bitrate live streaming. The CMAF adapts chunk encoding and enables low-latency live streaming. However, conventional bandwidth estimation for adaptive bitrate streaming underestimates bandwidth because download time is affected not only by network bandwidth but also by the idle times between chunks in the same segment. Inaccurate bandwidth estimation decreases the quality of experience of the streaming client. In this paper, we propose a chunk-grouping method to estimate the available bandwidth for adaptive bitrate live streaming. In the proposed method, by delaying HTTP request transmission and bandwidth estimation using grouped chunks, the client estimates the available bandwidth accurately due to there being no idle times in the grouped chunks. In addition, we extend the proposed method to dynamically change the number of grouping chunks according to buffer length during downloading of the previous segment. We evaluate the proposed methods under various network conditions in order to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

When mission-critical applications are provided over a network, high availability is required in addition to a low delay. This paper proposes a multi-homing network design model, named MHND, that achieves low delay, high availability, and the order guarantee of events. MHND maintains the event occurrence order with a multi-homing configuration using conservative synchronization. We formulate MHND as an integer linear programming problem to minimize the delay. We prove that the distributed server allocation problem with MHND is NP-complete. Numerical results indicate that, as a multi-homing number, which is the number of servers to which each user belongs, increases, the availability increases while increasing the delay. Noteworthy, two or more multi-homing can achieve approximately an order of magnitude higher availability compared to that of conventional single-homing at the expense of a delay increase up to two times. By using MHND, flexible network design is achieved based on the acceptable delay in service and the required availability.

Non-Terrestrial-Network (NTN) can provide seamless and ubiquitous connectivity of massive devices. Thus, the feeder links between satellites and gateways need to provide essentially high data transmission rates. In this paper, we focus on a typical high-capacity scenario, i.e., LEO-IoT, to find an optimal satellite selection schema to maximize the capacity of feeder links. The proposed schema is able to obtain the optimal mapping among all the satellites and gateways. By comparing with maximum service time algorithm, the proposed schema can construct a more balanced and reasonable connection pattern to improve the efficiency of the gateways. Such an advantage will become more significant as the number of satellites increases.

This study proposed a novel decoupling method for four planar inverted-F antennas (PIFAs) operating at 2.0GHz (f0). The edge-to-edge and center-to-center spacings of the adjacent PIFAs are extremely small (0.05λ0 and 0.17λ0, respectively), resulting in strong mutual coupling among them. In our previous study, we proposed a structure consisting of parasitic elements (PEs) and a bridge line (BL) for the decoupling of two PIFAs. One attractive feature of the proposed method is that no adjustment of the original structure and size of the PIFAs is necessary. However, as the number of PIFAs increases to four, their decoupling becomes considerably more complicated, and impedance mismatch is also an issue to be considered. Therefore, in this study, PEs and BLs are functionally developed to simultaneously achieve low mutual coupling and improved impedance matching of the four PIFAs. The simulated results showed that loading the proposed PEs and BLs onto the four PIFAs could reduce as well as maintain all mutual coupling for less than -10dB, and simultaneously improve impedance matching. Therefore, the total antenna efficiency at 2.0GHz could be significantly improved from 64.2% to 84.8% for PIFA1 and PIFA4, and from 35.9% to 74.2% for PIFA2 and PIFA3. Four PIFAs with PEs and BLs were fabricated and measured to validate the simulation results.

Vibrating intrinsic reverberation chamber is being used as an in-situ EMC test equipment for large and complex systems such as automobiles and aircrafts. In this paper, the stirring conditions, such as tightness and shaking amplitude of the walls, of a vibrating intrinsic reverberation chamber have been analyzed using the method of moments. From the viewpoint of quantitative evaluation of the flexible moving walls configuration, it was found that the random electromagnetic environment can be generated under the stirring conditions of loose configuration and a shaking amplitude more than one eighth of the wavelength at the test frequency above the lowest usable frequency.

A metasurface absorber capable of monitoring two-dimensional (2-d) electric field distributions has been developed, where a matrix of lumped resistors between surface patches formed on a mushroom-type structure works as a 2-d array of short dipole sensors. In this paper absorption and reflection of a spherical wave incident on the metasurface absorber are analyzed by numerical computation by the plane-wave spectrum (PWS) technique using 2-d Fourier analysis. The electromagnetic field of the spherical wave incident on the absorber surface is expanded into a large number of plane waves, for each of which the TE and TM reflection and absorption coefficients are applied. Then by synthesizing all the plane wave fields we obtain the spatial distributions of reflected and absorbed fields. The detailed formulation of the computation is described, and the computed field distributions are compared with those obtained by simulation and actual measurement when the spherical wave from a dipole is illuminated onto a metasurface absorber. It is demonstrated that the PWS technique is effective and efficient in obtaining the accurate field distributions of the spherical wave on and around the absorber. This is useful for evaluating the performance of the metasurface absorber to absorb and measure the spherical wave field distributions around an EM source.

In this paper, a nonlinear quantized precoding scheme for low-resolution digital-analog converters (DACs) in a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system is proposed. The nonlinear quantized precoding determines transmit antenna outputs with a transmit symbol and channel state information. In a full-digital massive MIMO system, low-resolution DACs are used to suppress power consumption. Conventional precoding algorithms for low-resolution DACs do not optimize transmit antenna gains individually. Thus, in this paper, a precoding scheme that optimizes individual transmit antenna gains as well as the DAC outputs is proposed. In the proposed scheme, the subarray of massive MIMO antennas is treated virtually as a single antenna element. Numerical results obtained through computer simulation show that the proposed precoding scheme achieves bit error rate performance close to that of the conventional precoding scheme with much smaller antenna gains on a CDL-A channel.

In this study, an overloaded large-scale distributed antenna network is considered, for which the number of active users is larger than that of antennas distributed in a base station coverage area (called a cell). To avoid overload, users in each cell are divided into multiple user groups, and, to reduce the computational complexity required for multi-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO), users in each user group are grouped into multiple user clusters so that cluster-wise distributed MU-MIMO can be performed in parallel in each user group. However, as the network size increases, conventional computational methods may not be able to solve combinatorial optimization problems, such as user scheduling and user clustering, which are required for performing cluster-wise distributed MU-MIMO in a finite amount of time. In this study, we apply quantum computing to solve the combinatorial optimization problems of user scheduling and clustering for an overloaded distributed antenna network and propose a quantum computing-based user scheduling and clustering method. The results of computer simulations indicate that as the technology of quantum computers and their related algorithms evolves in the future, the proposed method can realize large-scale dense wireless systems and realize real-time optimization with a short optimization execution cycle.

This paper extends our previously reported non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-based highly-efficient and low-latency hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) method for ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) to the case with inter-base station cooperation. In the proposed method, delay-sensitive URLLC packets are preferentially multiplexed with best-effort enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) packets in the same channel using superposition coding to reduce the transmission latency of the URLLC packet while alleviating the throughput loss in eMBB. Although data transmission to the URLLC terminal is conducted by multiple base stations based on inter-base station cooperation, the proposed method allocates radio resources to URLLC terminals which include scheduling (bandwidth allocation) and power allocation at each base station independently to achieve the short transmission latency required for URLLC. To avoid excessive radio resource assignment to URLLC terminals due to independent resource assignment at each base station, which may result in throughput degradation in eMBB terminals, we employ an adaptive path-loss-dependent weighting approach in the scheduling-metric calculation. This achieves appropriate radio resource assignment to URLLC terminals while reducing the packet error rate (PER) and transmission delay time thanks to the inter-base station cooperation. We show that the proposed method significantly improves the overall performance of the system that provides simultaneous eMBB and URLLC services.

This paper proposes overloaded multiple input multiple output (MIMO) bi-directional communication with physical layer network coding (PLNC) to enhance the transmission speed in heterogeneous wireless multihop networks where the number of antennas on the relay is less than that on the terminals. The proposed overloaded MIMO communication system applies precoding and relay filtering to reduce computational complexity in spite of the transmission speed. An eigenvector-based filter is proposed for the relay filter. Furthermore, we propose a technique to select the best filter among candidates eigenvector-based filters. The performance of the proposed overloaded MIMO bi-directional communication is evaluated by computer simulation in a heterogeneous wireless 2-hop network. The proposed filter selection technique attains a gain of about 1.5dB at the BER of 10-5 in a 2-hop network where 2 antennas and 4 antennas are placed on the relay and the terminal, respectively. This paper shows that 6 stream spatial multiplexing is made possible in the system with 2 antennas on the relay.

Radar-based sensing and concealed weapon detection technologies have been attracting attention as a measure to enhance security screening in public facilities and various venues. For these applications, the security check must be performed without impeding the flow of people, with minimum human effort, and in a non-contact manner. We developed technologies for a high-throughput walk-through security screening called Invisible Sensing (IVS) and implemented them in a prototype system. The IVS system consists of dual planar radar panels facing each other and carries out an inspection based on a multi-region screening approach as a person walks between the panels. Our imaging technology constructs a high-quality radar image that compensates for motion blur caused by a person's walk. Our detection technology takes multi-view projected images across the multiple regions as input to enable real-time whole-body screening. The IVS system runs its functions by pipeline processing to achieve real-time screening operation. This paper presents our IVS system along with these key technologies and demonstrates its empirical performance.

In this study, we propose a method for localizing an unknown moving emitter by measuring a sequence of the frequency-of-arrival using a single moving observation platform. Furthermore, we introduce the position and velocity errors of the moving observation platform into the theoretical localization error equation to analyze the effect of these errors on the localization accuracy without Monte-Carlo simulations. The proposed theoretical error equation can propagate toward the time direction; therefore, the theoretical localization error can be evaluated at an arbitral time. We demonstrate that the localization error value obtained by the proposed equation and the RMSE evaluated by the Monte-Carlo simulation sufficiently coincide with one another.

This paper proposes a dual-polarized filtering antenna with extracted-pole unit (EPU) using LTCC substrate. The EPU realizes the high skirt characteristic of the bandpass filter with transmission zeros (TZs) located near the passband without cross coupling. The filtering antenna with EPU is designed and fabricated in 28GHz band for 5G Band-n257 (26.5-29.5GHz). The measured S11 is less than -10.6dB in Band-n257, and the isolation between two ports for dual polarization is greater than 20.0dB. The measured peak antenna gain is 4.0dBi at 28.8GHz and the gain is larger than 2.5dBi in Band-n257. The frequency characteristics of the measured antenna gain shows the high skirt characteristic out of band, which are in good agreement with electromagnetic (EM)-simulated results.