In this paper, a new method is proposed for solving forbidden state problems in non-ordinary controlled Petri nets (NCPNs) with uncontrollable transitions. Using a precedence subnet and a boundary subnet with decision-free properties, the behavior of markings are analyzed structurally. An efficient algorithm is presented for calculating the number of total tokens in forbidden places reachable from a marking. This paper derives necessary and sufficient conditions for identifying admissible markings and boundary markings in terms of the precedence subnet and the boundary subnet.

This paper is to propose a Markov reliability model which includes the effects of permanent fault, intermittent fault, and transient fault for reliability evaluations. We also provide a new neural network and an improved training algorithm to evaluate the reliability of the fault-tolerant systems. The simulation results show that the neuro-based reliability model can converge faster than that of the other methods. The system state equations for the Markov model are a set of first-order linear differential equations. Usually, the system reliability can be evaluated from the combined state solutions. This technique is very complicated and very difficult in the complex fault-tolerant systems. In this paper, we present a Grey Models (GM(1,1), DF-GM(1,1) and ERC-GM(1,1)) to evaluate the reliability of computer system. It can obtain the system reliability more directly and simply than the Markov model. But the data number for grey model that gets minimal error is different in each time step. Therefore, a feedforward neural network is designed on the basis of more accurate prediction for the grey modeling to evaluate the reliability. Finally, the simulation results show that this technique can lead to better accuracy than the Grey Model.

A homeotropic liquid crystal display utilizing a liquid crystal with positive dielectric anisotropy, 13. 3" XGA TFT-LCD, has been fabricated. The rubbing-free device, appears black in the absence of electric field. When an electric field generated by interdigital electrodes is applied, a bend deformation of molecular director to the direction of the field occurs and thus the cell transmits light, showing brightness uniformity in all directions owing to the dual domainlike director configuration. With an addition of negative-birefringent film, this device shows excellent viewing angle characteristics.

We apply evolutionary algorithms to neural network model of associative memory. In the model, some of the appropriate configurations of the synaptic weights allow the network to store a number of patterns as an associative memory. For example, the so-called Hebbian rule prescribes one such configuration. However, if the number of patterns to be stored exceeds a critical amount (over-loaded), the ability to store patterns collapses more or less. Or, synaptic weights chosen at random do not have such an ability. In this paper, we describe a genetic algorithm which successfully evolves both the random synapses and over-loaded Hebbian synapses to function as associative memory by adaptively pruning some of the synaptic connections. Although many authors have shown that the model is robust against pruning a fraction of synaptic connections, improvement of performance by pruning has not been explored, as far as we know.

Array redistribution is required very often in programs on distributed memory parallel computers. It is essential to use efficient algorithms for redistribution, otherwise the performance of programs may degrade considerably. In this paper, we focus on automatic generation of communication routines for multi-dimensional redistribution. The principal advantage of this work is to gain the ability to handle redistribution between arbitrary source and destination processor sets and between arbitrary source and destination distribution schemes. We have implemented these algorithms using Parallelware communication library. Some experimental results show the efficiency and flexibility of our techniques compared to the other redistribution works.

Packet scheduling is one of the key mechanisms that will be employed in the network nodes (routers and switches) for supporting multiple quality of services. In this paper we propose a new packet scheduling algorithm called Urgency-based Round Robin (URR) which computes an index for flows in order to keep track of instantaneous bursts. Basically the index is employed as a measure of the time-dependent service necessity for each flow thus making it possible to detect those flows which might be in need of momentary service. Also, we propose a novel weight allocation scheme to be used together with the scheduler with the aim of preventing network underutilization. Our algorithm can be considered as a version of Weighted Round Robin (WRR) with improved delay characteristics. We show analytically that URR has the desired capability of upper-bounding unfairness. We also show, by simulation, that URR can improve delay performance even under extremely bursty traffic conditions without bandwidth overprovisioning. We also give simulation results for network traffic which exhibits long range dependency (self-similarity) and show that URR is again more effective than a plain round robin multiplexer.

A partial buffer sharing scheme is proposed as loss-priority control for a finite buffer with batch inputs. A partial batch acceptance strategy is used for a batch arriving at a finite buffer. Customer loss probabilities for high- and low-priority customers are derived under this batch acceptance strategy, using a supplementary variable method that is a standard tool for queueing analysis. A comparison of the partial buffer sharing scheme and a system without loss-priority control is made in terms of admissible offered load.

One of the objectives of ABR traffic control is a fair allocation of transmission rate to every connection. Algorithms which have been proposed can achieve the fair allocation of transmission rate in persistent traffic, even though the connections have different number of hops. In bursty traffic, however, the transmission rate during the burst period, called average burst throughput, may become degraded when the number of hops increases. In this paper, we evaluate the average burst throughput characteristics of ERICA switch algorithm and investigate the effect of the number of hops. We propose a new bandwidth allocation method which can improve the performance degradation by taking the number of hops into account. The effectiveness of our method is evaluated by computer simulation.

Loosely wound short-arm two-wire Archimedean spiral antennas are investigated. It is shown that good circularly polarized waves with axial ratio less than 2 dB are obtained when the outer circumference C of the spiral antenna is in the range of about 1. 3λ < C < 1. 5λ, where λ is the free-space wavelength. To improve the antenna characteristics further, spiral antennas combined with a parasitic loop are examined. It is clarified that the parasitic loop greatly contributes to the improvement of the axial ratio and power gain.

This paper describes a factorization-based algorithm that reconstructs 3D object structure as well as motion from a set of multiple uncalibrated perspective images. The factorization method introduced by Tomasi-Kanade is believed to be applicable under the assumption of linear approximations of imaging system. In this paper we describe that the method can be extended to the case of truly perspective images if projective depths are recovered. We established this fact by interpreting their purely mathematical theory in terms of the projective geometry of the imaging system and thereby, giving physical meanings to the parameters involved. We also provide a method to recover them using the fundamental matrices and epipoles estimated from pairs of images in the image set. Our method is applicable for general cases where the images are not taken by a single moving camera but by different cameras having individual camera parameters. The experimental results clearly demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed method.

An enhanced priority reservation algorithm for ATM multicast switches with a one-shot scheduling scheme is proposed. This algorithm is an input reservation method in which priority is selected among input ports considering the number of rejected copy requests and the blocked age of head-of-line (HOL) cells. The operation procedure of the proposed algorithm is described, and the average cell-delay and throughput performance is evaluated by simulation. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm yields better performance than the conventional algorithms.

This paper presents a performance comparison between the single-stream and the multi-stream approaches to lip synchronization of live media (voice and video). The former transmits a single transport stream of interleaved voice and video, while the latter treats the two media as separate transport streams. Each approach has an option not to exert the synchronization control at the destination, which leads to four basic schemes. On an interconnected ATM-wireless LAN, we implemented the four basic schemes with RTP/RTCP on top of UDP and two variants which exercise dynamic resolution control of JPEG video. Making the performance measurement of the six schemes, we compare them to identify and evaluate advantages and disadvantages of each approach. We then show that the performance difference between the two approaches is small and that the dynamic resolution control improves the synchronization quality.

When multiple flows including continuous media streams are simultaneously sent from a computer, allocation and management of both processor capacity and network bandwidth need to be considered. We propose a framework of Quality of Service (QoS) management inside a sending host that controls execution of sending threads in consideration of utilization of processor capacity and network bandwidth. To distinguish from flows which require only best-effort service, we call a flow which requires a specific rate of service "reserved flow. " To guarantee QoS of such reserved flow both in processor- and network-intensive cases in a sending host, processor capacity reserve is allocated such that the rate of each reserved flow is attained and non-conforming data are policed before they are transmitted. Processor Capacity Manager and the network device driver exchange information in a cooperative manner to support the rate adaptive allocation of processor capacity reserve. In this paper, we describe design and implementation of our framework on RT-Mach. The results of performance evaluations demonstrate that our scheme performs well for full-duplex Ethernet.

Low bit-rate speech and audio codings are key technologies for multimedia communications. A number of coding scheme have been developed for various applications. In Internet application, good speech and audio quality at very low bit-rate (8-16 kb/s) is valuable. Two recently proposed speech and audio-coding schemes, CS-ACELP (Conjugate Structure Algebraic Code Excited Linear Prediction, standardized by the ITU-T in Recommendation G. 729) and TwinVQ (Transform-domain Weighted INterleave Vector Quantization, one of the candidates for MPEG-4 audio) were compared from the viewpoints of coding schemes and quality. Although there are significant differences in their basic structures and frame lengths, this paper describes that both use the same compression techniques, such as LPC (Linear Predictive Coding)-analysis pitch-period estimation and vector quantization. While CS-ACELP provides toll quality for speech at 8 kb/s, the quality it provides for music signals is insufficient. The TwinVQ transform coder is based on LPC and vector quantization and is also capable of operating at 8 kb/s. Evaluation of these two schemes in terms of their fundamental technologies, quality, delay, and complexity showed that the quality of TwinVQ for music signals is better than that of CS-ACELP, and that the quality of CS-ACELP is better for speech signals. Therefore, TwinVQ may be better suited for one-directional Internet applications, and CS-ACELP may be better for two-directional communication.

Priority control and call admission control are indispensable traffic management methods to guarantee each QoS requirement of connections in ATM networks. The key technique of call admission control under priority control is to estimate required bandwidth of each connection to satisfy all QoSs of calls in progress. In this paper, we propose a novel approximation method to calculate the required bandwidth of ATM connections through priority queues and show a practical call admission control scheme using the proposed method. The essence of the approximation method is to model prioritized parallel queues as a series of queues in tandem with no priority control by focusing on the number of cells in queues. The tandem queue approximation method enables us to model each queue under priority control as a single non-priority FIFO queue in terms of its queue length. This results in that effective bandwidth techniques are applicable to priority queues. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is evaluated by some numerical examples.

This paper investigates an ATM multiplexer with a resume level, which uses a selective cell discarding strategy as a priority control, and a Markov-modulated deterministic process (MMDP) as the burst input traffic. Assuming that a system is loaded with a superposition of several independent and homogeneous On-Off bursty sources with two priority classes, we obtain the cell loss probability of each priority class of an ATM multiplexer with a resume level. The performance analysis derived here includes as special cases one without priority and one with a threshold level. From the numerical results, we compare the cell loss probability, the mean queue length, the mean queuing delay, the level crossing rate, and the queue length distribution at the embedded points for the case of a threshold level with those for the case of a resume level. By selecting an appropriate resume level, we can reduce the sensitive state change around the threshold level.

A highly reliable and highly efficient fuel-cell energy system is being developed that can run on various fuels and is suitable for a cogeneration system for telecommunications facilities. In this system, electrical power supplants the mains power and heat energy is used for air conditioning. Using this fuel-cell power plant as an emergency generator and ensuring the reliability of telecommunications requires the use of alternate fuels. This plant can run on liquefied petroleum gas(LPG)if the pipeline gas supply stops. Fuel substitution characteristics, and DC and AC interconnection characteristics have been experimentally demonstrated for connections by using a 200-kW phosphoric acid fuel cell and a 150-kW engine generator.

In this paper, Orthogonal Multicode OFDM-DS/CDMA system using Partial Bandwidth Transmission is proposed. By using the flexible carrier allocation of OFDM, Partial Bandwidth Transmission is considered for high quality communication. Furthermore, multicode packet data transmission is presented. Multicode packet data transmission is very effective to handle variable data. Since the proposed system can detect the header information without complex control, it is also suitable for packet data transmission. The computer simulation results show that the BER performance of the proposed system with the ideal channel estimation is improved compared with the case of the conventional Orthogonal Multicode DS/CDMA system with ideal RAKE receivers. Moreover the proposed system with the channel estimation by MLS algorithm also shows the good BER performance. In packet data transmission, the delay and throughput performances are also improved in the proposed system.

A simple near-orthogonal code is used as frequency-hopping patterns for the frequency-hopped multiple access systems. Extended RS code is used as channel coding to deplete the effects of hits from simultaneous users. Packet error probability and channel throughput for the system utilizing the near-orthogonal code are evaluated and compared to the corresponding values obtained from the system utilizing random patterns. Results show that the former can provide substantial improvement over the latter. In our illustrated examples, we also show that under the constraint of packet error probability PE 10-2, the maximum achievable number of users with most (n,k) RS codes of interest is less than the number of distinct codewords in the near-orthogonal code. Thus, the number of codewords of the near-orthogonal code is large enough to support the practical application.

We have studied the electro-optical properties in Polymer Network Liquid Crystal Displays which are composed of a three-dimensional polymer network formed in continuous liquid crystal layers prepared by photo-polymerization induced phase separation processes. In view of the behavior in the orientation of the liquid crystal molecule at the polymers surface, it can be clarified that the electro-optical properties are strongly governed by the polymer. By a combination of two different characteristics of the polymers with respect to a temperature dependence, a variation in the driving voltage for a temperature change can be improved.