In this paper, a new narrowband beamformer with derivative constraint is developed for wideband and coherent jammers suppression. The so-called IQML algorithm with linear constraint, which is used to estimate the unknown directions of the jammers in signal-free environment, is shown to be an inappropriate constraint estimator. In this paper, a new IQML algorithm with a norm constraint is considered, which is a consistent estimator and can be used to achieve desired performance. It can be also employed in the CDMA system for MAI suppression. We show that it outperforms the approach with the linear constraint used in the narrowband beamformer, in terms of directional pattern, output SINR and nulling capability for wideband and coherent jammers suppression.

In this paper we describe collaborative constraint functional logic programming and the system called Open CFLP that supports this programming paradigm. The system solves equations by collaboration of various equational constraint solvers. The solvers include higher-order lazy narrowing calculi that serve as the interpreter of higher-order functional logic programming, and specialized solvers for solving equations over specific domains, such as a polynomial solver and a differential equation solver. The constraint solvers are distributed in an open environment such as the Internet. They act as providers of constraint solving services. The collaboration between solvers is programmed in a coordination language embedded in a host language. In Open CFLP the user can solve equations in a higher-order functional logic programming style and yet exploit solving resources in the Internet without giving low-level programs of distributions of resources or specifying details of solvers deployed in the Internet.

The modern network service of finding the optimal path subject to multiple constraints on performance metrics such as delay, jitter, loss probability, etc. gives rise to the multi-constrained optimal-path (MCOP) QoS routing problem, which is NP-complete. In this paper, this problem is solved through both exact and heuristic algorithms. We propose an exact algorithm E_MCOP, which first constructs an aggregate weight and then uses a K-shortest-path algorithm to find the optimal solution. By means of E_MCOP, the performance of the heuristic algorithm H_MCOP proposed by Korkmaz et al. in a recent work is evaluated. H_MCOP only runs Dijkstra's algorithm (with slight modifications) twice, but it can find feasible paths with a success ratio very close to that of the exact algorithm. However, we notice that in certain cases its feasible solution has an unsatisfactorily high average cost deviation from the corresponding optimal solution. For this reason, we propose some modified algorithms based on H_MCOP that can significantly improve the performance by running Dijkstra's algorithm a few more times. The performance of the exact algorithm and heuristics is investigated through computer simulations on networks of various sizes.

This paper proposes a high-level energy-optimizing algorithm which can synthesize low energy system VLSIs. Given an initial system hardware obtained from an abstract behavioral description, the proposed algorithm applies to it the three energy reduction techniques, 1) reducing supply voltage, 2) selecting lower energy modules, and 3) applying gated clocks. By incorporating our area/delay/power estimation, the proposed algorithm can obtain low energy system VLSIs meeting the constraints of area, delay, and execution time. The proposed algorithm has been incorporated into a high-level synthesis system and experimental results demonstrate effectiveness and efficiency of the algorithm.

A problem of obtaining an optimal file transfer of a file transmission net N is to consider how to transmit, with the minimum total cost, copies of a certain file of information from some vertices, called sources, to other vertices of N by the respective vertices' copy demand numbers. This problem is NP-hard for a general file transmission net N. Some classes of N, on each of which a polynomial time algorithm for obtaining an optimal file transfer can be designed, are known. In the characterization, we assumed that file given originally to the source remains at the source without being transmitted. In this paper, we relax the assumption to the one that a sufficient number of copies of the file are given to the source and those copies can be transmitted from the source to other vertices on N. Under this new assumption, we characterize a class of file transmission nets, on each of which a polynomial time algorithm for obtaining an optimal file transfer can be designed. A minimum spanning tree with degree constraints plays a key role in the algorithm.

The development of efficient quality of service (QoS) routing algorithms in a high-speed network environment is a very important and at the same time very difficult task due to the need to provide divergent services with multiple QoS requirements. Recently heuristic algorithms based on Lagrange relaxation techniques have been proposed to resolve the contradiction between the time complexity and the quality of solution. In this paper, we investigate the performance of two heuristic algorithms, LR_DCLC and NR_DCLC, for the delay-constrained least-cost (DCLC) routing problem. Algorithm LR_DCLC is based on linear relaxation, while algorithm NR_DCLC, which is proposed in this paper, is based on nonlinear relaxation. A large number of simulations demonstrate that even though both algorithms have very good performance, NR_DCLC can obtain much better solutions than LR_DCLC by running Dijkstra's algorithm on average a few more times, especially in the case when the optimal solutions are hard to find.

It is widely known that the family of projection filters includes the generalized inverse filter, and that the family of parametric projection filters includes parametric generalized projection filters. However, relations between the family of parametric projection filters and constrained least squares filters are not sufficiently clarified. In this paper, we consider relations between parameter estimation and image restoration by these families. As a result, we show that the restored image by the family of parametric projection filters is a maximum penalized likelihood estimator, and that it agrees with the restored image by constrained least squares filter under some suitable conditions.

The problem of finding a path with two additive constraints, in particular finding a path that satisfies both the cost and the delay constraints, is called multi-constrained path (MCP) problem in the literature. In this paper, we explore the MCP problem based on the idea of single mixed weight --a mixed weight for each link is first obtained by combining its delay and cost, and then Dijkstra's algorithm is used to find the corresponding shortest path. Given two infeasible paths, it can be theoretically proved that a better path can possibly be found if we choose an appropriate parameter to construct the mixed weight. An approximate algorithm is thus proposed to solve the MCP problem. Theoretical analysis demonstrates that this algorithm can make a correct judgment whether there is a feasible path or not with a very high probability even in the strict case where the delay bound is between the delays of the least delay path and the least cost path, while the cost bound is between the costs of the two paths. On the other hand, the time complexity of this algorithm is very small since it only needs to execute Dijkstra's algorithm a limited number of times. The excellent performance of the proposed algorithm is verified by a large number of experiments on networks of different sizes.

Blind adaptive channel identification of communication channels is a problem of important current theoretical and practical concerns. Recently proposed solutions for this problem exploit the diversity induced by antenna array or time oversampling, leading to the so-called, second order statistics techniques. Adaptive blind channel identification techniques based on a off-line least-squares approach have been proposed but this method assumes noise-free case. The method resorts to an adaptive filter with a linear constraint. This paper proposes a new approach based on eigenvalue decomposition. Indeed, the eigenvector corresponding to the minimum eigenvalue of the covariance matrix of the received signals contains the channel impulse response. And we present a adaptive algorithm to solve this problem. The performance of the proposed technique is evaluated over real measured channel and is compared to existing algorithms.

Enhancement of inversion-layer mobility and inversion-layer capacitance becomes more important in realizing scaled CMOS, from both viewpoints of higher performance and lower power consumption. This paper presents an engineering scenario of the subband structure in inversion layer for the enhancement of inversion-layer mobility and capacitance in MOSFETs. A key factor for the electron mobility enhancement is to increase the energy difference in the subband energy between the two-fold and the four-fold valleys and the resultant electron occupancy of the two-fold valleys. The electrical characteristics of two device structures based on this subband engineering, strained-Si MOSFETs and ultra-thin SOI MOSFETs, are studied. Also, it is shown that the reduction in SOI films down to less than inversion-layer thickness of bulk MOSFETs is an effective way to increase inversion-layer capacitance.

Adaptive Fourier analysis of sinusoidal signals in noise is of essential importance in many engineering fields. So far, many adaptive algorithms have been developed. In particular, a filter bank based algorithm called constrained notch Fourier transform (CNFT) is very attractive in terms of its cost-efficiency and easily controllable performance. However, its performance becomes poor when the signal frequencies are non-uniformly spaced (or spaced with unequal intervals) in the frequency domain. This is because the estimates of the discrete Fourier coefficients (DFCs) in the CNFT are inevitably corrupted by sinusoidal disturbances in such a case. This paper proposes, at first, a modified CNFT (MCNFT), to compensate the performance of the CNFT for noisy sinusoidal signals with known and non-uniformly spaced signal frequencies. Next, performance analysis of the MCNFT is conducted in detail. Closed form expression for the steady-state mean square error (MSE) of every DFC estimate is derived. This expression indicates that the MSE is proportional to the variance of the additive noise and is a complex function of both the frequency of each frequency component and the pole radius of the bandpass filter used in the filter bank. Extensive simulations are presented to demonstrate the improved performance of the MCNFT and the validity of the analytical results.

We have developed a distributed optical fiber strain sensor for detecting the collapse of river embankments. The sensor uses a Brillouin optical time domain reflectometer (BOTDR) and consists of an optical fiber cable and pieces of nonwoven cloth. Pieces of cloth are fixed to the cable at 1.5-meter intervals and it is then embedded in a U-shaped configuration in a river embankment. The pieces of cloth are displaced when there is movement of the soil in which they are embedded. If one of two adjacent pieces of cloth remains stationary while the other moves, the optical fiber between the two pieces is stretched. The collapse of an embankment can be detected by using a BOTDR to monitor any such stretching in the 1.5-m lengths of fiber. The developed sensor operates at a sensitivity of 0.025%/kgf, which is equivalent to 0.067%/mm, and is thus capable of detecting soil movements of a few mm in river embankments. The sensor is also able to provide effective advance warning of the collapse of a river embankment resulting from water penetration. We subjected the sensor system to field tests that demonstrated the effectiveness of its construction and its long-term stability. The developed sensor system is an effective tool for use in river management systems of the very near future.

The detection of timing constraint violation is crucial in reactive systems. A method of detecting deadline violation based on Floyd-Warshall shortest path algorithm has been proposed by Chodrow et al. We extend this method to detect the violation of minimum delay time in reactive systems where the repetition of event sequences frequently occurs.

We applied a Brillouin-OTDR, which is a distributed optical fiber strain sensor, to two actual concrete piles. The piles were made for use as highway foundations by on-site-pouring at construction sites and underwent load testing to ensure that their characteristics satisfied the required levels. Compressive strain caused by the load exerted on the piles was measured to an accuracy of 0.01% and a spatial resolution of 1 m. This measurement was obtained by embedding a strain-sensing optical fiber in the piles during construction. The results showed that there was good agreement between the measured strain and both the theoretical values and the values obtained with a conventional strain gauge based on electric resistance. Furthermore, the obtained strain distribution reflected the effects of friction between the pile surface and the ground. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the Brillouin-OTDR for this kind of testing and also as a means of obtaining detailed data on the strain in concrete piles.

This paper proposes constructive timing-violation (CTV) and evaluates its potential. It can be utilized both for increasing clock frequency and for reducing energy consumption. Increasing clock frequency over that determined by the critical paths causes timing violations. On the other hand, while supply voltage reduction can result in substantial power savings, it also causes larger gate delay and thus clock must be slow down in order not to violate timing constraints of critical paths. However, if any tolerant mechanisms are provided for the timing violations, it is not necessary to keep the constraints. Rather, the violations would be constructive for high clock frequency or for energy savings. From these observations, we propose the CTV, which is supported by the tolerant mechanism based on contemporary speculative execution mechanisms. We evaluate the CTV using a cycle-by-cycle simulator and present its considerably promising potential.

Space-variant approaches subject to local image characteristics are useful in practical image restoration because many natural images are nonstationary. Motivated by the success of denoising approaches in the wavelet domain, we propose a region-adaptive restoration approach which adopts a wavelet denoising technique in flat regions after an under-regularized constrained least squares restoration. Experimental results verify that this approach not only improves image quality in mean square error but also contributes to ringing reduction.

In this paper we addresses the problem of finding feasible solutions for the Group Multicast Routing Problem (GMRP). This problem is a generalization of the multicast routing problem whereby every member of the group is allowed to multicast messages to other members from the same group. The routing problem involves the construction of a set of low cost multicast trees with bandwidth requirements for all the group members in the network. We first prove that the problem of finding feasible solutions to GMRP is NP-complete. Following that we propose a new heuristic algorithm for constructing feasible solutions for GMRP. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm is able to achieve good performance in terms of its ability of finding feasible solutions whenever one exist.

We summarize recent studies on performance improvement in the correlation-based continuous-wave technique for optical fiber distributed strain measurement using Brillouin scattering, that had been proposed previously. The correlation-based technique enables the spatial resolution of 1 cm, which is difficult for conventional sensing techniques using Brillouin scattering to achieve. Though the correlation-based technique left a problem with measurement range, we have proposed methods to overcome it with keeping high spatial resolution. In addition, we verified usefulness of the technique for smart materials by measuring strain distribution along surface of a ring structure.

Boundary Constraints of VLSI floorplanning require a set of blocks to be placed along the boundaries of the chip. Thus, this set of blocks can be adjacent to I/O pads for external communication. Furthermore, these blocks are kept away from the central area so that they do not form blockage for internal routing. In the paper, we devise an algorithm of VLSI floorplanning with boundary constraints using a Corner Block List (CBL) representation. We identify the necessary and sufficient conditions of the CBL representation for the boundary constraints. We design a linear time approach to scan the conditions and formulate a penalty function to punish the constraint violation. A simulated annealing process is adopted to optimize the floorplan. Experiments on MCNC benchmarks show promising results.

We have developed advanced SOI n- and p-MOSFETs with strained-Si channel on insulator (strained-SOI) structure fabricated by SIMOX (separation-by-implanted-oxygen) technology. The characteristics of this strained-SOI substrate and electrical properties of strained-SOI MOSFET's have been experimentally studied. Using strained-Si/relaxed-SiGe epitaxy technology and usual SIMOX process, we have successfully formed the layered structure of fully-strained-Si (20 nm)/fully-relaxed-SiGe film (290 nm) on uniform buried oxide layer (85 nm) inside SiGe layer. Good drain current characteristics have been obtained in strained-SOI MOSFET's. It is found that both electron and hole mobility is enhanced in strained-SOI MOSFET's, compared to the universal mobility in an inversion layer and the mobility of control SOI MOSFET's. These mobility enhancement factors are almost the same as the theoretical results.