Low-hit-zone frequency-hopping sequences (LHZ-FHSs) are frequency-hopping sequences with low Hamming correlation in a low-hit-zone (LHZ), which have important applications in quasi-synchronous communication systems. However, the strict quasi-synchronization may be hard to maintain at all times in practical FHMA networks, it is also necessary to minimize the Hamming correlation for time-shifts outside of the LHZ. The main objective of this letter is to propose a lower bound on the maximum correlation magnitude outside the low-hit-zone for LHZ-FHS sets. It turns out that the proposed bound is tight or almost tight in the sense that it can be achieved by some LHZ-FHS sets.

Effective user accommodation will be more and more important in passive optical networks (PONs) in the next decade since the number of subscribers has been leveling off as well and it is becoming more difficult for network operators to keep sufficient numbers of maintenance workers. Drastically reducing the number of small-scale communication buildings while keeping the number of accommodated users is one of the most attractive solutions to meet this situation. To achieve this, we propose two types of long-reach repeater-free upstream transmission configurations for PON systems; (i) one utilizes a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as a pre-amplifier and (ii) the other utilizes distributed Raman amplification (DRA) in addition to the SOA. Our simulations assuming 10G-EPON specifications and transmission experiments on a 10G-EPON prototype confirm that configuration (i) can add a 17km trunk fiber to a normal PON system with 10km access reach and 1 : 64 split (total 27km reach), while configuration (ii) can further expand the trunk fiber distance to 37km (total 47km reach). Network operators can select these configurations depending on their service areas.

This paper reviews access system standardization activities and related technologies from the viewpoints of optical-based PON access, mobile access systems including LPWAN, and access network virtualization. Future study issues for the next access systems are also presented.

Frequency-hopping sequence (FHS) sets with low-hit-zone (LHZ) have Hamming correlations maintained at a low level as long as the relative time delay between different sequences are limited in a zone around the origin, and thus can be well applied in quasi-synchronous (QS) frequency-hopping multiple-access (FHMA) systems to reduce the mutual interference between different users. Moreover, the periodic partial Hamming correlation (PPHC) properties of employed LHZ-FHS sets usually act as evaluation criterions for the performances of QS-FHMA systems in practice. In this letter, a new class of LHZ-FHS sets is constructed via interleaving techniques. Furthermore, these new LHZ-FHS sets also possess optimal PPHC properties and parameters not included in the related literature.

This paper describes why we require access system virtualization. The purpose of access system virtualization is different from that of core network virtualization. Therefore, a specific approach should be considered such as the separation of software and hardware, interface standardization, or deep softwarization.

To drastically increase the splitting ratio of extended-reach (40km span) time- and wavelength-division multiplexed passive optical networks (WDM/TDM-PONs), we modify the gain control scheme of our automatic gain controlled semiconductor optical amplifiers (AGC-SOAs) that were developed to support upstream transmission in long-reach systems. While the original AGC-SOAs are located outside the central office (CO) as repeaters, the new AGC-SOAs are located inside the CO and connected to each branch of an optical splitter in the CO. This arrangement has the potential to greatly reduce the costs of CO-sited equipment as they are shared by many more users if the new gain control scheme works properly even when the input optical powers are low. We develop a prototype and experimentally confirm its effectiveness in increasing the splitting ratio of extended-reach systems to 512.

Broadcast encryption scheme with personalized messages (BEPM) is a new primitive that allows a broadcaster to encrypt both a common message and individual messages. BEPM is necessary in applications where individual messages include information related to user's privacy. Recently, Fujii et al. suggested a BEPM that is extended from a public key broadcast encryption (PKBE) scheme by Boneh, Gentry, and Waters. In this paper, we point out that 1) Conditional Access System using Fujii et al.'s BEPM should be revised in a way that decryption algorithm takes as input public key as well, and 2) performance analysis of Fujii et al.'s BEPM should be done depending on whether the public key is transmitted along with ciphertext or stored into user's device. Finally, we propose a new BEPM that is transmission-efficient, while preserving O(1) user storage cost. Our construction is based on a PKBE scheme suggested by Park, Kim, Sung, and Lee, which is also considered as being one of the best PKBE schemes.

Due to an increase in multimedia content and the acceleration of digital convergence, demand for next-generation IPTV service is rapidly growing. IPTV service seamlessly provides both real-time broadcasting and content sharing services on diverse terminals through complex networks. In this paper, a secure and scalable content sharing framework is proposed for next-generation IPTV service. The proposed framework has an advantage over conventional content protection techniques in producing scalable content with transcodable, adjustable, and perceptual security features. Moreover, it ensures end-to-end security over the entire service range based on a single security mechanism. The suitability of the proposed approach is demonstrated experimentally using a practical service scenario with real-world environments. The experiments show that the proposed approach can provide several different levels of content security, from a perceptual level to an almost unintelligible level, while keeping the additional time overhead low. Consequently, it is expected that use of this security technology alone can have a practical contribution in creating new business opportunities for IPTV services.

Broadcasters transmit TV programs and often need to transmit an individual message, e.g. an individual contract, to each user. The programs have to be encrypted in order to protect the copyright and the individual messages have to be encrypted to preserve the privacy of users. For these purposes, broadcasters transmit not only encrypted content but also encrypted personalized messages to individual users. Current broadcasting services employ an inefficient encryption scheme based on a symmetric key. Recently, several broadcast encryption schemes using a public key have been proposed in which the broadcaster encrypts a message for some subset S of users with a public key and any user in S can decrypt the broadcast with his/her private key. However, it is difficult to encrypt a personalized message and transmit it to every user efficiently. In this paper, we propose a broadcast encryption scheme that has a personalized message encryption function. We show that our scheme is efficient in terms of the ciphertext size.

10G-EPON systems have attracted a great deal of attention as a way of exceeding to realize over 10 Gb/s for optical subscriber networking. Rapid burst-mode transmitting/receiving techniques are the key technologies enabling the burst-mode upstream transmission of 10G-EPON systems. In this paper, we have developed a OLT burst-mode 3R receiver incorporating a burst-mode AGC optical receiver and an 82.5 GS/s over-sampling burst-mode CDR and a ONU burst-mode transmitter with high launch power DFB-LD of 1.27 µm wavelength to fully compliant with IEEE802.3av 10G-EPON PR30 standards. The transmitting characteristics of a fast LD turn-on/off time of less than 6ns and a high launch power of more than +8.0 dBm, and the receiving characteristics of receiver sensitivity of -30.1 dBm and the upstream power budget of 38.1 dB are successfully achieved.

We propose an optical switch control procedure for the Active Optical Access System (AOAS). Optical switches are used in AOAS instead of optical splitters in PON. In the proposed procedure, an OLT determines the switching schedules of optical switches on OSW (Optical Switching Unit) which is installed between OLT and ONU, and informs the OSW of them with a switch control frame preceding of data frame transmission. Then the switch controller on OSW controls the optical switches based on the switching schedules. We developed the prototype systems of OSW, OLT, and ONU. We implemented the optical switch control function with logic circuits on the prototype systems. We demonstrate the proposed procedure works effectively with logic circuits. We also evaluate the 10 Gps optical signal transmission between OLT and ONU. We demonstrate the receiver sensibility on OLT and ONU achieves the distance of 40 km for optical signals transmission with FEC (Forward Error Correction). These receivers are applicable for both AOAS and 10G-EPON.

The Erlang capacity of multi-service multi-access systems supporting several different radio access technologies was analyzed and compared according to two different operation methods: the separate and common operation methods, by simultaneously considering the link capacity limit per sector as well as channel element (CE) limit in a base station (BS). In a numerical example with GSM-like and WCDMA-like sub-systems, it is shown that we can get up to 60% Erlang capacity improvement through the common operation method using a near optimum so-called service-based user assignment scheme when there is no CE limit in BS. Even with the worst-case assignment scheme, we can still get about 15% capacity improvement over the separate operation method. However, a limited number of CEs in BS reduces the capacity gains of multi-service multi-access systems in both the common operation and separate operation. In order to fully extract the Erlang capacity of multi-service multi-access systems, an efficient method is needed in order to select a proper number of CE in BS while minimizing the equipment cost.

In this paper, an adaptive transmission scheme considering the stay time in a spot mobile access system is proposed. The proposed adaptive transmission scheme selects the modulation format according to the user's stay time in the spot communication zone and the types of data requested by each user. In the proposed system, when the stay time of a user is short, high-speed modulation is selected for this user. When the stay time of a user is long, a more reliable modulation format is selected. The computer simulation results show that the proposed transmission scheme without any channel estimation can achieve the same or better performance than when using the modulation format fixedly when the carrier-to-noise ratio changes rapidly.

This paper describes feasibility of a proposed fixed wireless access system with CDMA technology. The system adopts a primary modulation of 16 QAM and the same frequency allocation in all cells to improve spectral efficiency. The system capacity is 1 Gbps per cell within 120 MHz bandwidth. The number of available orthogonal codes corresponds to the orthogonal code length in the system. All subscribers can attain an error free condition with output power control in the presence of inter-cell interference. The following two items are considered to examine the proposed system feasibility. 1) A test modem is fabricated, and a back-to-back modem BER performance is measured. An inter-symbol interference (ISI) level of the modem is estimated with the measured performance. 2) A computer simulation of down-link power control is carried out considering inter-cell interference and impairment factors of the power control such as intra-sector interference caused by the ISI and limited ranges of total and relative output power controls. The simulation results show that the proposed system would be feasible because the obtained power penalties caused by the above impairment factors are negligible.

In this paper, the bit error rate (BER) performance of the Spread Spectrum communication with Constrained Spreading Code system is studied under the synchronous CDMA system. Particularly, BER considering the tracking error is derived by theoretical analysis. The synchronizing spreading sequence is employed to track the signals in the receiver. As the result, the BER performance is degraded by increasing the number of users. However, the BER performance can be improved by canceling the co-channel interference and by suppressing the cross-correlation value between the information spreading sequence and the synchronizing spreading sequence.

It is important to know phase offsets of a binary code in the field of mobile communications because different phase offsets of the same code are used to distinguish signals received at a mobile station from those of different base stations. When the period of the code is not very long, the relative phase offset between the code and its shifted code can be found by counting the number of bits delayed from the code of the same bit streams. But as the period of the code increases, it becomes difficult to find the phase offset. This paper proposes a new method to calculate the phase offset of a binary code. We define an accumulator function, which is used to calculate the phase offsets between the code and its shifted code. Also the properties of the accumulator function are investigated. This number theoretical approach and its results show that this method is very easy for the phase offset calculation. Its application to the code division multiple access (CDMA) system to define a reference code is given. The simple circuit realization of the accumulator function to calculate the phase offset between the received code and receiver stored replica code is described.

This paper analyzed the connection points of Main Distribution Frames (MDF), which are installed between outside plants and inside plants (service nodes). This paper also proposes a connecting system for forthcoming FITL (Fiber In The Loop) networks. NTT has developed the Subscriber Line Cross-Connecting Module (LXM) for the FITL network and will continue to introduce LXMs and deploy optic subscriber networks in big cities throughout Japan.

A new ATM switch architecture, named shared multibuffering, features great advantages on memory access speed for a large switch, and overall size of buffer memories to achieve excellent cell-loss performance. We have developed a 622-Mb/s 88 shared multibuffer ATM switch with multicast functions and hierarchical queueing functions to accommodate 156-Mb/s, 622-Mb/s and 2.4-Gb/s interfaces. Implementation of the shared multibuffer ATM switch is described with respect to the four sorts of 0.8-µm BiCMOS LSIs and ATM switch boards. The switch board/type-1, with C1-LSI, allows to accommodate effectively 156-Mb/s and 622-Mb/s interfaces, which is suitable for an ATM access system. The switch board/type-2, with C2-LSI, can provide multicast functions and accommodate a 2.4-Gb/s interface. By using four switch boards, it is possible to apply them to a 2.4-Gb/s ATM loop system.

A group-based random access communication system which consists of two groups of many users is considered. The two different groups share a common random multiple access channel. Users from a group are allocated a high transmitting power level and have a high probability of correct reception among overlapping packets. We set a threshold, θ, which is such that the group with the high power level will occupy the channel if less than or equal to θ packets are transmitted from the group with the low power level. We obtain a two-dimensional Markovian model by tracing the number of backlogged users in the two groups. The two-dimensional Markov chain is shown to be not ergodic and thus the system is not stable. A two-dimensional retransmission algorithm is developed to stabilize the system and the retransmission control parameters are chosen so as to maximize the channel throughput. An equilibrium point analysis is performed by studying the drift functions of the system backlog and it is shown that there is a unique global equilibrium point. The channel capacity for the system is found to be in the range from 0.47 up to 0.53, which is a remarkable increase compared to the conventional slotted ALOHA system.