In this paper, we examine the Interleaved Polling with Adaptive Cycle Time (IPACT) that was proposed to control upstream traffic for Gigabit Ethernet-PONs, a promising technology for the Fiber To The Home (FTTH). We analyzed the performance for the gated service and the limited service mathematically. To do this, the IPACT protocol was modeled as a polling system and analyzed by using mean-value analysis technique. The traffic arrival rate λ was divided into three regions, and each region was analyzed separately and merged appropriately by using an interpolation method. The average packet delay, average queue size, and average cycle time of both the gated service and the limited service were obtained through the analysis. In order to evaluate the accuracy of the mathematical analysis, discrete event simulation was performed for the IPACT protocol. Simulation results show the accuracy of the mathematical analysis. The analysis results can be widely used in the design of the FTTH system based on EPON, as the performance results in the present study can be obtained in a rather short time. We can design an appropriate system depending on various traffic conditions by adjusting system parameters, such as the number of users N, the maximum transfer window WMAX, and so on.

An encryption scheme is proposed that considers hierarchies in media, such as text, images, sound, and so on, in a composite multimedia content to enable versatile access control. In the proposed scheme, a content provider has only one managed key (the master key) for a particular composite multimedia content, and an user who is permitted to access a reserved content entities in the composite content receives only one key that is subordinately generated from the master key. Another key generated from the identical master key is delivered to another user, and this permits the user to access different entities. This scheme introduces a new key concept, namely "unusable key," to keep all entities encrypted in a particular medium and to simultaneously decrypt several entities in other media. The other new key, "numbering key," is also used in this scheme to support simultaneous partial decryption of multiple images that are coded with a scalable coding technology. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme; in particular, the length of the managed master key and that of keys to be delivered to users are small.

This paper introduces an adaptive GOP structure (AGS), which adaptively defines the GOP structure according to the time-varying temporal properties of video sequences, and thus improves the coding efficiency of the MPEG & ITU-T's Joint Scalable Video Coding (JSVC) scheme, the method proposed in this paper, which adaptively modifies the size of GOP based on the image characteristics of video sequence, improves the coding efficiency up to 0.77 dB compared to the JSVC JSVM (Joint Scalable Video Model).

In this paper, we propose a new technique for the scattering problems of multilayered inhomogeneous columnar dielectric gratings loaded rectangular dielectric constant both TM and TE waves using the combination of improved Fourier series expansion method, the multilayer method, and the eigenvalue matrix method. Numerical results are given for the power transmission coefficients in the parameters ε 3 /ε 0 , c/p, and b/d of rectangular cylinders to obtain the basic characteristic of the power transmission coefficients and reflection coefficients switching or frequency selective devices for both TM and TE waves. The influence of the incident angle and frequency of the transmitted power are also discussed in the connection with the propagation constant β in the free mode.

An electron transfer mediated amperometric enzyme biosensor based on a plasma-polymerized thin film of dimethylaminomethylferrocene (DMAMFc) is reported. A nanoscale thin polymer film containing a redox mediator was plasma-deposited directly onto an electrode with physisorbed glucose oxidase (GOD). Since the redox sites were introduced in the vicinity of the reaction centers of GOD, a highly efficient electron transfer system was formed in which almost all the reaction centers of GOD were connected to redox sites of the polymer matrix. The advantages of this strategy were: no need for prior or further chemical modification of the enzyme molecules, and simplicity of design compared with the use of a conventional polymer matrix. Moreover, the fact that the film deposition was performed using a microfabrication-compatible organic plasma promised great potential for high-throughput production of bioelectronic devices.

In real-time multimedia processing systems a very large part of the power consumption is due to the data storage and data transfer. Moreover, the area cost is often largely dominated by the memory modules. In deriving an optimized (for area and/or power) memory architecture, memory size computation is an important step in the exploration of the possible algorithmic specifications of multimedia applications. This paper presents a novel non-scalar approach for computing exactly the memory size in real-time multimedia algorithms. This methodology uses both algebraic techniques specific to the data-flow analysis used in modern compilers and, also, more recent advances in the theory of polyhedra. In contrast with all the previous works which are only estimation methods, this approach performs exact memory computations even for applications significantly large in terms of the code size, number of scalars, and number of array references.

The Video Quality Experts Group (VQEG) is preparing a programme of subjective multimedia quality tests. The results from these tests will be used to evaluate the performance of competing objective multimedia quality metrics. The reliability of the subjective test data is of great importance for VQEG's task. This paper provides an overview of VQEG's multimedia ad-hoc group. The work of this group will require subjective tests to be performed by laboratories located in Europe, Asia and North America. For VQEG's multimedia work to be successful, the subjective assessment methodology must be precisely defined and produce reliable and repeatable subjective quality data. Although international standards covering multimedia quality assessment methods are in force, there remains some uncertainty regarding the most effective approach to assessing the subjective quality of multimedia. A review of existing methods is provided. Two experiments are presented investigating the suitability of alternative subjective assessment methods (single-stimulus ACR and SAMVIQ). The results of these experiments are discussed within the context of the VQEG multimedia testing programme.

Providing multimedia services with a quality-of-service guarantee in mobile wireless networks presents more challenges due to user's mobility and limited bandwidth resource. In order to provide seamless multimedia services in the next-generation wireless networks, efficient call admission control algorithm must be developed. A novel borrowing-based call admission control policy is proposed in this paper as a solution to support quality-of-service guarantees in the mobile multimedia wireless networks. Based on the existing network conditions, the proposed scheme makes an adaptive decision for bandwidth allocation and call admission by employing attribute-measurement mechanism, dynamic time interval reservation strategy, and service-based borrowing strategy in each base station. We use the dynamically adaptive approaches to reduce the connection-blocking probability and connection-dropping probability, and to increase the bandwidth utilization, while the quality-of-service guarantees can be maintained at a comfortable level for mobile multimedia wireless networks. Extensive simulation results show that our proposed scheme outperforms the previously proposed scheme in terms of connection-blocking probability, connection-dropping probability, and bandwidth utilization, while providing highly satisfying degree of quality-of-service in mobile communication systems.

To support multimedia applications effectively in mobile networks, the handover latency or packet losses during handover should be very small. Addressing this issue, we present a cooperative mobile router-based handover (CoMoRoHo) scheme for long-vehicular multihomed mobile networks. The basic idea behind CoMoRoHo is to enable different mobile routers to access different subnets during a handover and cooperatively receive packets destined for each other. In general, packet losses are directly proportional to handover latency; however, the overlapped reception of packets from different subnets makes possible to minimize packet losses even without reducing handover latency. To evaluate the scheme, we carried out performance modeling of the CoMoRoHo scheme in comparison with the Fast Handover for Mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6) protocol in regard to the handover latency, packet loss, signaling overhead, and packet delivery overhead in access networks. The analysis results show that CoMoRoHo outperforms FMIPv6 by reducing the packet losses as well as signaling overheads by more than 50%. Moreover, CoMoRoHo imposes lower packet delivery overheads required for preventing packets from being dropped from access routers. We thus conclude that CoMoRoHo is a scalable scheme because its performance remains intact even when the access network is overloaded.

Scheduling algorithms are playing a key role in overall system performance of broadband wireless systems (BWS). Maximal SNR (MaxSNR) and Round Robin (RR) are two conventional scheduling strategies which emphasize efficiency and fairness respectively. Proportional Fair (PF) algorithm provides tradeoff between efficiency and fairness. In this paper, we apply PF to IEEE 802.16a OFDM based BWS and name it OPF. We also propose a new algorithm for multimedia services: Normalized Multimedia Adaptive OPF (NMAOPF). Adaptive modulation and coding scheme is applied in time varying and frequency selective fading wireless channel. System performances are compared in efficiency and fairness with and without user mobility. Efficiency is in terms of throughput, mean packet delay and packet drop ratio; fairness is in terms of user satisfaction rate and average user rate. Joint PHY and MAC layer simulation results show that: within the traffic range of 55 to 70 Mbps, compared with RR and MaxSNR, the performance of OPF is in between. Our proposed NMAOPF outperforms all others without user mobility, while under mobility, it is not as good as MaxSNR but better than OPF and RR.

A nonreciprocal left-handed transmission line is proposed and investigated, which is composed of a normally magnetized ferrite microstrip line periodically loaded with inductive stubs but without capacitive loading. The circuit configuration becomes simpler than that of a nonreciprocal left-handed transmission line with both shunt inductive and series capacitive loadings. In the proposed structure, ferrite medium is employed as the substrate not only for the nonreciprocal characteristics but also for negative effective permeability that is essential to establish the left-handedness. After calculations of dispersion curves using equivalent circuit model, scattering parameters along with field patterns are estimated numerically with the help of electromagnetic simulation, and the experiments are also carried out. It is found that the band width of the proposed left-handed transmission line is relatively narrow but the structure still has the high isolation ratio of more than 30 dB.

A brief review of metamaterials and their applications to antenna systems is given. Artificial magnetic conductors and electrically small radiating and scattering systems are emphasized. Single negative, double negative, and zero-index metamaterial systems are discussed as a means to manipulate their size, efficiency, bandwidth, and directivity characteristics.

The proportional delay differentiation (PDD) model provides consistent packet delay differentiation between classes of service. Currently, the present schedulers performing the PDD model cannot achieve desired delay proportion observed in short timescales under light/moderate load. Thus, we propose a Non-Work-Conserving (NWC) scheduler, which utilizes the pseudo-waiting time for an empty queue and forces each class to compare its priority with those of all other classes. Simulation results reveal that NWC outperforms all current schedulers in achieving the PDD model. However, NWC suspends the server from transmitting packets immediately if an empty class has the maximum priority, resulting in an idle server. Therefore, we further propose two approaches, which will serve a best-effort class during this idle time. Compared with other schedulers, the proposed approaches can provide more predictable and controllable delay proportion, accompanied with satisfactory throughput and average queuing delay.

An H.264-based selective FGS coding scheme is proposed. It selectively uses the interframe-prediction data inside the enhancement-layer only when those data can significantly reduce the temporal-redundancies. Since this minimizes the drift effects, the overall coding efficiency is improved. Simulations show that average PSNR of the proposed scheme is higher by 1-3 dB and 3-5 dB than those of the H.264-based FGS and the MPEG-4 video FGS profile, respectively.

For hybrid Multimedia-on-Demand (MoD) systems which support broadcast, batch and interactive services, the charging scheme employed plays an important role in the delivery of good service quality to users, while also determining the revenue generated for the service provider. In this letter a new charging scheme is proposed. This scheme provides the same quality of service to the users as previous charging schemes while providing higher revenue. Numerical results are presented to evaluate the performance of the new charging scheme in comparison with previous schemes.

In this paper, we propose an interactive instruction system named IMPRESSION, which allows performance of interactive presentations using multimedia educational materials in class. In recent years, although many practices of educational methodology with information technology and presentation tools using multimedia resources as educational materials have come into common use, instructors can only present such materials in a slide-sheet form through the use of such presentation tools in class. Therefore, instructors can neither do formative evaluations nor can they present suitable materials according to students' reactions in class. Our proposed methodology employs a scenario-based approach in a double loop instructional design process to overcome such problems. Instructors design an instructional plan as a scenario, and subsequently implement and modify the plan through formative evaluation during the class. They then conduct a summative evaluation based on planned and implemented instructions for redesign. To realize our methodology, in this paper we propose and design an instruction system that provides functions to select and present multimedia materials interactively provided on the Internet during the class; we then record these instructions. After implementing it, we confirmed that we can conduct the class flexibly based on our methodology through its practical use in an actual classroom environment.

This paper proposes an adaptive transmission scheme for MIMO systems to provide different bit error rates and transmission rates for multimedia traffic. The adaptive transmission scheme allocates antennas, rate and power jointly according to the feedback information to satisfy the diverse QoS requirements of the multimedia traffic. Furthermore, an efficient search algorithm with low complexity is proposed for practical implementation. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme improves the spectral efficiency while guaranteeing the QoS requirements of multimedia traffic. Moreover, the proposed search algorithm achieves close optimal performance with great complexity reduction.

This letter describes experiments conducted to measure the interference effects of two kinds of UWB sources, which are OFDM UWB source and pulse radio UWB source, to broadcasting relay system and SDMB system. The received power degradation of a broadcasting system is presented. experimental results show that UWB system can coexist 35 m distance as close as to in-band broadcasting network and can also coexist 1.8 m as close as with the SDMB terminal without causing any dangerous interference.

We describe attempts to have robots behave as embodied knowledge media that will permit knowledge to be communicated through embodied interactions in the real world. The key issue here is to give robots the ability to associate interactions with information content while interacting with a communication partner. Toward this end, we present two contributions in this paper. The first concerns the formation and maintenance of joint intention, which is needed to sustain the communication of knowledge between humans and robots. We describe an architecture consisting of multiple layers that enables interaction with people at different speeds. We propose the use of an affordance-based method for fast interactions. For medium-speed interactions, we propose basing control on an entrainment mechanism. For slow interactions, we propose employing defeasible interaction patterns based on probabilistic reasoning. The second contribution is concerned with the design and implementation of a robot that can listen to a human instructor to elicit knowledge, and present the content of this knowledge to a person who needs it in an appropriate situation. In addition, we discuss future research agenda toward achieving robots serving as embodied knowledge media, and fit the robots-as-embodied-knowledge-media view in a larger perspective of Conversational Informatics.

In this letter, we derive an efficient audio/video synchronization method for video telephony. For synchronization, this method does not require any further RTCP packet processing except for the first one. The derived decision rule is far more compact than the conventional method. This decision rule is incorporated in an actual video telephony system adopting Texas Instruments (TI) OMAP 1510 processor and Qualcomm MSM 5500. The computational requirement was compared with the conventional method and through simulations the superiority of the proposed method is proved.