For many countries in the world, 5G is of strategic significance. In the 5G era, telecom operators are expected to enable and provide multiple services with different communication characteristics like enhanced broadband, ultra-reliable and extreme real-time communications at the same time. To meet the requirements, the 5G network essentially will be more complex compared with traditional 3G/4G networks. The unique characteristics of 5G resulted from new technologies bring a lot of opportunities as well as significant challenges. In this paper we first introduce 5G vision and check the global status. And then we illustrate the 5G technical essentials and point out the new opportunities that 5G will bring to us. We also highlight the coming challenges and share our 5G experience and solutions toward 5G vision in many aspects, including network, management and business.

We investigate a problem of finding the minimum, in which each user has a real value, and we want to estimate the minimum of these values under the local differential privacy constraint. We reveal that this problem is fundamentally difficult, and we cannot construct a consistent mechanism in the worst case. Instead of considering the worst case, we aim to construct a private mechanism whose error rate is adaptive to the easiness of estimation of the minimum. As a measure of easiness, we introduce a parameter α that characterizes the fatness of the minimum-side tail of the user data distribution. As a result, we reveal that the mechanism can achieve O((ln6N/ε2N)1/2α) error without knowledge of α and the error rate is near-optimal in the sense that any mechanism incurs Ω((1/ε2N)1/2α) error. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our mechanism outperforms a naive mechanism by empirical evaluations on synthetic datasets. Also, we conducted experiments on the MovieLens dataset and a purchase history dataset and demonstrate that our algorithm achieves Õ((1/N)1/2α) error adaptively to α.

Sparse code division multiple access (SCMA) is a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technology that can improve frequency band utilization and allow many users to share quite a few resource elements (REs). This paper uses the modulation of lattice theory to develop a systematic construction procedure for the design of SCMA codebooks under Gaussian channel environments that can achieve near-optimal designs, especially for cases that consider large-scale SCMA parameters. However, under the condition of large-scale SCMA parameters, the mother constellation (MC) points will overlap, which can be solved by the method of the partial dimensions transformation (PDT). More importantly, we consider the upper bounded error probability of the signal transmission in the AWGN channels, and design a codeword allocation method to reduce the inter symbol interference (ISI) on the same RE. Simulation results show that under different codebook sizes and different overload rates, using two different message passing algorithms (MPA) to verify, the codebook proposed in this paper has a bit error rate (BER) significantly better than the reference codebooks, moreover the convergence time does not exceed that of the reference codebooks.

Optical phase conjugation (OPC) is an all-optical signal processing technique for mitigating fiber nonlinearity and is promising for building cost-efficient fiber networks with few optic-electric-optic conversions and long amplification spacing. In lumped amplified systems, OPC has a little nonlinearity mitigation efficiency for nonlinear distortion induced by cross-phase modulation (XPM) due to the asymmetry of power and chromatic dispersion (CD) maps during propagation in transmission fiber. In addition, the walk-off of XPM-induced noise becomes small due to the CD compensation effect of OPC, so the deterministic nonlinear distortion increases. Therefore, lumped amplified transmission systems with OPC are more sensitive to channel spacing than conventional systems. In this paper, we show the channel spacing dependence of NZ-DSF transmission using amplification repeater with OPC. Numerical simulations show comprehensive characteristics between channel spacing and CD in a 100-Gbps/λ WDM signal. An experimental verification using periodically poled LiNbO3-based OPC is also performed. These results suggest that channel spacing design is more important in OPC-assisted systems than in conventional dispersion-unmanaged systems.

Rain attenuation characteristics due to typhoon passage are discussed using the Ku-band BS satellite signal observations conducted by Osaka Electro-Communication University in Neayagawa from 1988 to 2019. The degree of hourly rain attenuation due to rainfall rate is largely enhanced as typhoon passes the east side of the station, while it becomes smaller in the case of west side passage. Compared to hourly ground wind velocities of nearby AMeDAS, the equivalent path lengths of rain attenuation become larger as the wind directions approach the same angle to the satellite, while they become smaller as the wind directions approach the opposite angle to the satellite. The increase and decrease of the equivalent path lengths are confirmed in other Ku-band and Ka-band satellite paths with different azimuth angles, such as CS, SKP, and SBC. Modified equivalent path lengths calculated by a simple propagation path model including horizontal wind speeds along the same direction to the satellite agree well with the equivalent path lengths observed by each satellite. The equivalent path lengths are, for the first time, proved to be largely affected by the direction of typhoon passage and the horizontal wind velocities.

Pairing computations on elliptic curves with odd prime degrees are rarely studied as low efficiency. Recently, Clarisse, Duquesne and Sanders proposed two new curves with odd prime embedding degrees: BW13-P310 and BW19-P286, which are suitable for some special cryptographic schemes. In this paper, we propose efficient methods to compute the optimal ate pairing on this types of curves, instantiated by the BW13-P310 curve. We first extend the technique of lazy reduction into the finite field arithmetic. Then, we present a new method to execute Miller's algorithm. Compared with the standard Miller iteration formulas, the new ones provide a more efficient software implementation of pairing computations. At last, we also give a fast formula to perform the final exponentiation. Our implementation results indicate that it can be computed efficiently, while it is slower than that over the (BLS12-P446) curve at the same security level.

With the rapid increase in the number of CPU cores, software that can utilize these many cores is required. A lock-free algorithm based on compare-and-swap (CAS) operations is one of the concurrency control methods to implement such multi-threading software. A multi-word CAS (MwCAS) operation is an extension of a CAS operation to swap multiple words atomically. However, we noticed that the performance of the existing MwCAS implementation is limited because of garbage collection even if in a low-contention environment. To achieve high performance in low-contention workloads, we propose a new MwCAS algorithm without garbage collection. Experimental results show that our approach is three to five times faster than implementation with garbage collection in low-contention workloads. Moreover, the performance of the proposed method is also superior in a high-contention environment.

Use case modeling is popular to represent the functionality of the system to be developed, and it consists of two parts: a use case diagram and use case descriptions. Use case descriptions are structured text written in natural language, and the usage of natural language can lead to poor descriptions such as ambiguous, inconsistent, and/or incomplete descriptions. Poor descriptions lead to missing requirements and eliciting incorrect requirements as well as less comprehensiveness of the produced use case model. This paper proposes a technique to automate detecting bad smells of use case descriptions, i.e., symptoms of poor descriptions. At first, to clarify bad smells, we analyzed existing use case models to discover poor use case descriptions concretely and developed the list of bad smells, i.e., a catalog of bad smells. Some of the bad smells can be refined into measures using the Goal-Question-Metric paradigm to automate their detection. The main contributions of this paper are the developed catalog of bad smells and the automated detection of these bad smells. We have implemented an automated smell detector for 22 bad smells at first and assessed its usefulness by an experiment. As a result, the first version of our tool got a precision ratio of 0.591 and a recall ratio of 0.981. Through evaluating our catalog and the automated tool, we found additional six bad smells and two metrics. Then, we obtained the precision of 0.596 and the recall of 1.000 by our final version of the automated tool.

Through the concept of network slicing, a single physical network infrastructure can be split into multiple logically-independent Network Slices (NS), each of which is customized for the needs of its respective individual user or industrial vertical. In the beyond 5G (B5G) system, this customization can be done for many targeted services, including, but not limited to, 5G use cases and beyond 5G. The network slices should be optimized and customized to stitch a suitable environment for targeted industrial services and verticals. This paper proposes a novel Quality of Service (QoS) framework that optimizes and customizes the network slices to ensure the service level agreement (SLA) in terms of end-to-end reliability, delay, and bandwidth communication. The proposed framework makes use of network softwarization technologies, including software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV), to preserve the SLA and ensure elasticity in managing the NS. This paper also mathematically models the end-to-end network by considering three parts: radio access network (RAN), transport network (TN), and core network (CN). The network is modeled in an abstract manner based on these three parts. Finally, we develop a prototype system to implement these algorithms using the open network operating system (ONOS) as a SDN controller. Simulations are conducted using the Mininet simulator. The results show that our QoS framework and the proposed resource allocation algorithms can effectively schedule network resources for various NS types and provide reliable E2E QoS services to end-users.

The effect of provision of “Neither-Good-Nor-Bad” (NGNB) information on the perceived trustworthiness of agents has been investigated in previous studies. The experimental results have revealed several conditions under which the provision of NGNB information works effectively to make users perceive greater trust of agents. However, the experiments in question were carried out in a situation in which a user is able to choose, with the agent's advice, one of a limited number of options. In practical problems, we are often at a loss as to which to choose because there are too many possible options and it is not easy to narrow them down. Furthermore, in the above-mentioned previous studies, it was easy to predict the size of profits that a user would obtain because its pattern was also limited. This prompted us, in this paper, to investigate the effect of provision of NGNB information on the users' trust of agents under conditions where it appears to the users that numerous options are available. Our experimental results reveal that an agent that reliably provides NGNB information tends to gain greater user trust in a situation where it appears to the users that there are numerous options and their consequences, and it is not easy to predict the size of profits. However, in contradiction to the previous study, the results in this paper also reveal that stable provision of NGNB information in the context of numerous options is less effective in a situation where it is harder to obtain larger profits.

In this paper, we propose rate adaptation mechanisms for robust and low-latency video transmissions exploiting multiple access points (Multi-AP) wireless local area networks (WLANs). The Multi-AP video transmissions employ link-level broadcast and packet-level forward error correction (FEC) in order to realize robust and low-latency video transmissions from a WLAN station (STA) to a gateway (GW). The PHY (physical layer) rate and FEC rate play a key role to control trade-off between the achieved reliability and airtime (i.e., occupancy period of the shared channel) for Multi-AP WLANs. In order to finely control this trade-off while improving the transmitted video quality, the proposed rate adaptation controls PHY rate and FEC rate to be employed for Multi-AP transmissions based on the link quality and frame format of conveyed video traffic. With computer simulations, we evaluate and investigate the effectiveness of the proposed rate adaptation in terms of packet delivery rate (PDR), airtime, delay, and peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR). Furthermore, the quality of video is assessed by using the traffic encoded/decoded by the actual video encoder/decoder. All these results show that the proposed rate adaptation controls trade-off between the reliability and airtime well while offering the high-quality and low-latency video transmissions.

The 2020 International Conference on Emerging Technologies for Communications (ICETC2020) was held online on December 2nd—4th, 2020, and 213 research papers were accepted and presented in each session. It is expected that the accepted papers will contribute to the development and extension of research in multiple research areas. In this survey paper, all accepted research papers are classified into four research areas: Physical & Fundamental, Communications, Network, and Information Technology & Application, and then research papers are classified into each research topic. For each research area and topic, this survey paper briefly introduces the presented technologies and methods.

Recently, control theory using machine learning, which is useful for the control of unknown systems, has attracted significant attention. This study focuses on such a topic with optimal control problems for unknown nonlinear systems. Because optimal controllers are designed based on mathematical models of the systems, it is challenging to obtain models with insufficient knowledge of the systems. Kernel functions are promising for developing data-driven models with limited knowledge. However, the complex forms of such kernel-based models make it difficult to design the optimal controllers. The design corresponds to solving Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) equations because their solutions provide optimal controllers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to derive certain kernel-based models for which the HJ equations are solved in an exact sense, which is an extended version of the authors' former work. The HJ equations are decomposed into tractable algebraic matrix equations and nonlinear functions. Solving the matrix equations enables us to obtain the optimal controllers of the model. A numerical simulation demonstrates that kernel-based models and controllers are successfully developed.

Global software engineering education faces unique challenges to reflect as close as possible real-world distributed team development in various forms. The complex nature of planning, collaborating, and upholding partnerships present administrative difficulties on top of budgetary constrains. These lead to limited opportunities for students to gain international experiences and for researchers to propagate educational and practical insights. This paper presents an empirical view on three different course structures conducted by the same research and educational team over a four-year time span. The courses were managed in Japan and Germany, facing cultural challenges, time-zone differences, language barriers, heterogeneous and homogeneous team structures, amongst others. Three semesters were carried out before and one during the Covid-19 pandemic. Implications for a recent focus on online education for software engineering education and future directions are discussed. As administrational and institutional differences typically do not guarantee the same number of students on all sides, distributed teams can be 1. balanced, where the number of students on one side is less than double the other, 2. unbalanced, where the number of students on one side is significantly larger than double the other, or 3. one-sided, where one side lacks students altogether. An approach for each of these three course structures is presented and discussed. Empirical analyses and reoccurring patterns in global software engineering education are reported. In the most recent three global software engineering classes, students were surveyed at the beginning and the end of the semester. The questionnaires ask students to rank how impactful they perceive factors related to global software development such as cultural aspects, team structure, language, and interaction. Results of the shift in mean perception are compared and discussed for each of the three team structures.

The present paper proposes orthogonal variable spreading factor codes over finite fields for multi-rate communications. The proposed codes have layered structures that combine sequences generated by discrete Fourier transforms over finite fields, and have various code lengths. The design method for the proposed codes and examples of the codes are shown.

In unlicensed spectrum, wireless communications employing carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) suffer from longer transmission delay time as the number of user terminals (UTs) increases, because packet collisions are more likely to occur. To cope with this problem, this paper proposes a new multiuser detection (MUD) scheme that uses both request-to-send (RTS) and enhanced clear-to-send (eCTS) for high-reliable and low-latency wireless communications. As in conventional MUD scheme, the metric-combining MUD (MC-MUD) calculates log likelihood functions called metrics and accumulates the metrics for the maximum likelihood detection (MLD). To avoid increasing the number of states for MLD, MC-MUD forces the relevant UTs to retransmit their packets until all the collided packets are correctly detected, which requires a kind of central control and reduces the system throughput. To overcome these drawbacks, the proposed scheme, which is referred to as cancelling MC-MUD (CMC-MUD), deletes replicas of some of the collided packets from the received signals, once the packets are correctly detected during the retransmission. This cancellation enables new UTs to transmit their packets and then performs MLD without increasing the number of states, which improves the system throughput without increasing the complexity. In addition, the proposed scheme adopts RTS and eCTS. One UT that suffers from packet collision transmits RTS before the retransmission. Then, the corresponding access point (AP) transmits eCTS including addresses of the other UTs, which have experienced the same packet collision. To reproduce the same packet collision, these other UTs transmit their packets once they receive the eCTS. Computer simulations under one AP conditions evaluate an average carrier-to-interference ratio (CIR) range in which the proposed scheme is effective, and clarify that the transmission delay time of the proposed scheme is shorter than that of the conventional schemes. In two APs environments that can cause the hidden terminal problem, it is demonstrated that the proposed scheme achieves shorter transmission delay times than the conventional scheme with RTS and conventional CTS.

This study has developed a system that performs data communications using high frequency bands of sound signals. Unlike radio communication systems using advanced wireless devices, it only requires the legacy devices such as microphones and speakers employed in ordinary telephony communication systems. In this study, we have investigated the possibility of a machine learning approach to improve the recognition accuracy identifying binary symbols exchanged through sound media. This paper describes some experimental results evaluating the performance of our proposed technique employing a neural network as its classifier of binary symbols. The experimental results indicate that the proposed technique may have a certain appropriateness for designing an optimal classifier for the symbol identification task.

In view of the different spatial and temporal resolutions of observed multi-source heterogeneous carbon dioxide data and the uncertain quality of observations, a data fusion prediction model for observed multi-scale carbon dioxide concentration data is studied. First, a wireless carbon sensor network is created, the gross error data in the original dataset are eliminated, and remaining valid data are combined with kriging method to generate a series of continuous surfaces for expressing specific features and providing unified spatio-temporally normalized data for subsequent prediction models. Then, the long short-term memory network is used to process these continuous time- and space-normalized data to obtain the carbon dioxide concentration prediction model at any scales. Finally, the experimental results illustrate that the proposed method with spatio-temporal features is more accurate than the single sensor monitoring method without spatio-temporal features.

With the advent of 5G and external pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, wireless transceivers with low power consumption are strongly desired for future cellular systems. At the same time, increased modulation order due to the evolution of cellular systems will force power amplifiers to operate at much larger output power back-off to prevent EVM degradation. This paper begins with an analysis of load modulation and asymmetrical Doherty amplifiers. Measurement results will show an apparent 60% efficiency plateau for modulated signals with a large peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). To exceed this efficiency limitation, the second part of this paper focuses on a new amplification topology based on the amalgamation between Doherty and outphasing. Measurement results of the proposed Doherty-outphasing power amplifier (DOPA) will confirm the feasibility of the approach with a modulated efficiency greater than 70% measured at 10 dB output power back-off.

In this letter, we will prove that chaotic binary sequences generated by the tent map and Walsh functions are i.i.d. (independent and identically distributed) and orthogonal to each other.