In an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems, the Peak to Average power Ratio (PAR) is high. The clipping signal scheme is a useful and simple method to reduce the PAR. However, it introduces additional noise that degrades the systems performance. We propose an oversampling scheme to deal with the received signal in order to reduce the clipping noise by using finite impulse response (FIR) filter. Coefficients of the filter are obtained by correlation function of the received signal and the oversampling information at receiver. The performance of the proposed technique is evaluated for frequency selective channel. Results show that the proposed scheme can mitigate the clipping noise significantly for OFDM systems and in order to maintain the system's capacity, the clipping ratio should be larger than 2.5.

The direct optical switching CDMA radio-on-fiber network is proposed as multiplexing method for radio base stations in microcell/picocell technologies. In this system, aliasing distortions degrade the received signal quality and decreases the number of connectable radio base stations (RBSs) when the encoding rate becomes lower than the twice of bandwidth of RF signal. This paper proposes the optical switching speed reduction method and clarifies that the chaotic spreading sequences can suppress the aliasing distortion without additional processing at the receiver even if the encoding rate becomes lower than the RF signal bandwidth. The effect in switching speed reduction is theoretically investigated and the effect in aliasing distortions suppression is experimentally investigated by using the proposed method.

A new and simple image processing approach for the measurement of the length of pedestrian crossings with a view to develop a travel aid for the blind people is described. In a crossing, the usual black road surface is painted with constant width periodic white bands. The crossing length is estimated using vector geometry from the left- and the right-border lines, the first-, the second- and the end-edge lines of the crossing region. Image processing techniques are applied on the crossing image to find these lines. Experimental results using real road scenes with pedestrian crossing confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper presents a VLSI processor for high-speed and reliable stereo matching based on adaptive window-size control of SAD(Sum of Absolute Differences) computation. To reduce its computational complexity, SADs are computed using multi-resolution images. Parallel memory access is essential for highly parallel image processing. For parallel memory access, this paper also presents an optimal memory allocation that minimizes the hardware amount under the condition of parallel memory access at specified resolutions.

In this paper, we propose an OFDM scheme with pre-IDFT/DFT and the frequency domain equalization on frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels. In this scheme, a two-dimensional block interleaving is used to randomize the correlated noise caused by the frequency domain linear equalizer. Then, the pre-DFT averages the interleaved noise enhancement and improves the error performance of the proposed scheme. Computer simulations confirm the bit error probability of the proposed scheme for multilevel modulations.

We have proposed a novel spatial filtering technique named "VIrtual Subcarrier Assignment (VISA)" for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals, which enables the transceiver equipped with an adaptive array antenna (AAA) to selectively receive or reject OFDM signals through coloring them with different virtual subcarrier positions in their frequency spectra. In this paper, we develop the VISA to use multiple virtual subcarrier assignment, which assigns a different combination of multiple virtual subcarrier positions in the frequency spectrum to each OFDM signal. Furthermore, we present two kinds of recursive least square (RLS)-based array weight control methods to support the VISA with multiple subcarrier puncturing in an IEEE802.11a-based system and evaluate the link-level performance in typical indoor wireless environments by computer simulations.

We introduce a method, so called FC method, for maintaining software resources, such as source codes and design documents, in consumer electronics products. Because a consumer electronics product is frequently and rapidly revised, software components in such product are also revised in the same way. However, it is not so easy for software engineers to follow the revision of the product because requirements changes for the product, including the changes of its functionalities and its hardware components, are largely independent of the structure of current software resources. FC method lets software engineers to restructure software resources, especially design documents, stepwise so as to follow the requirements changes for the product easily. We report an application of this method in our company to validate it. From the application, we can confirm that the quality of software was improved about in twice, and that efficiency of development process was also improved over four times.

We describe a transmission system having a data rate of 160 Gbit/s based on the RZ-DPSK modulation format. The 160 Gbit/s single-polarization signal is generated by optical time division multiplexing technology using the base rate of 40 Gbit/s. The setup is explained and results are given with a special focus on the stability issue of the transmission system. The pulse source, the optical gate for demultiplexing, the clock recovery and the balanced photo-detector are based on semiconductor components. We present long-term bit error measurements (10 hours) over two different long-haul fiber links. The first link comprises 3106 km standard single mode fiber and uses a PMD mitigation scheme. The other link consists of 4 dispersion managed 80 km fiber spans without the need for an additional PMD compensation. Using EDFA amplification solely and also no FEC, error-free operation was achieved over several hours, only limited by slow drift effects in the laboratory system.

This paper presents a closed form expression of an exact average bit error rate (BER) for a time-division duplex (TDD) transmit diversity scheme employing maximal ratio combining (MRC) over time selective flat Rayleigh fading channels. In the proposed analysis, the feed back delay which degrades the BER performance is taken into account. The results are generally applicable to an arbitrary modulation scheme, as well as an arbitrary number of transmitting branches. To confirm the validity of the proposed analysis, the theoretical results are compared with the simulated ones.

This paper presents an analysis of the cavity length modulation of a Z-cut quartz etalon equipped with a weight for Laser Diode (LD) wavelength lockers. The electro-optic effect, piezoelectric effect and photo-elastic effect are considered, and the mechanical movement of the etalon with a weight is analyzed by using a mechanical circuit. Approximate equations that clearly explain the mechanical force, mechanical resonance frequency, and Q factor of the mechanical resonance are obtained. The mechanism for improving the modulation efficiency by placing a weight is clarified. We also compare the analysis with experimental results, and show that most of the experimental values are in accord with the calculated values.

By using multiple transmit antennas, wireless systems have a large capacity in time-varying multipath fading channels. Space-time block code (STBC), space-frequency block code (SFBC), and space-time-frequency (STF) block code are well-known techniques in transmitter diversity schemes. While the SFBC (or the STF block coded) system gives full diversity at frequency-nonselective channels, it breaks down when used in a frequency-selective environment. This is because the SFBC (or the STF block code) scheme disregards frequency selectivity of the channel by assuming that channel frequency responses (CFRs) at adjacent subcarriers are the same. In this paper, we propose efficient channel estimation and symbol decoding methods, which consider the difference between CFRs at the adjacent subcarriers of the SFBC (or the STF block coded) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system in multipath fading channels. The proposed method gives initial channel information by designing a simple training symbol, and the CFRs at all the subcarriers and the differences between the CFRs are easily calculated by using an interpolation method or a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) operation.

A space-time RAKE (ST-RAKE) receiver with a blind interference-blocking (IB) pre-processor, termed as the IB-RAKE receiver, is proposed for spread spectrum communications systems. The design of the proposed architecture consists of three components. A blind IB transformer is first constructed based on the received data, and then applied on the undespread data for the suppression of strong interference. After despreading, optimal beamforming is then performed on the IB despread data to extract the signals of interest (SOIs) from the desired user. Finally, a RAKE receiver with a maximum ratio combining technique is employed to constructively collect all the SOI energies. Since strong interference has been removed in the first stage, the RAKE receiver combines only those SOIs plus negligible interference, leading to robustness against strong interference. Numerical results have shown that substantial improvement can be obtained from the proposed ST-RAKE receiver with the blind IB pre-processing scheme.

In wideband code division multiaccess (W-CDMA) uplink, immediate accommodation of high data rate packet causes power control error and makes active users' signal quality deteriorate in a beginning of a frame. To avoid the deterioration, we propose a new radio resource management (RRM) which accommodates high data rate traffic gradually in several frames. The proposed RRM reduces the signal quality deterioration in the beginning of the frame. We also propose an effective power control scheme, where a power increase command is sent to all users before a new high data rate packet is transmitted. Simulation results show that joint utilization of the proposed two methods is effective to keep signal quality good for all users.

This paper presents a wavelength lock system using a Z-cut quartz etalon supported at the middle point. The Z-cut quartz etalon possesses the cavity length modulation and the low temperature coefficient. We propose a Z-cut quartz etalon supported at the middle point in order to improve the modulation index and response time. The mechanism of the center supported Z-cut quartz etalon is described. We also show that the etalon possesses a high modulation index, a high Q factor, and a rapid response time in experimental results. A self-tuning dither oscillator realized by using quartz etalon is also described.

This paper newly proposes a method to automatically decompose real scene images into multiple object-oriented component regions. First, histogram patterns of a specific image feature, such as intensity or hue value, are estimated from image sequence and stored up. Next, Gaussian distribution parameters which correspond to object components involved in the scene are estimated by applying the EM algorithm to the accumulated histogram. The number of the components is simultaneously estimated by evaluating the minimum value of Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). This method can be applied to a variety of computer vision issues, for example, the color image segmentation and the recognition of scene situation transition. Experimental results applied for indoor and outdoor scenes showed the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper presents the analysis of the stopping maneuver of the human driver by using a new three-dimensional driving simulator that uses CAVE, which provides stereoscopic immersive vision. First of all, the difference in the driving behavior between 3D and 2D virtual environments is investigated. Secondly, a GMDH is applied to the measured data in order to build a mathematical model of driving behavior. From the obtained model, it is found that the acceleration information has less importance in stopping maneuver under the 2D and 3D environments.

The problem of estimating code timings in DS-CDMA systems with multiple antennas is considered in the presence of multipath time-varying fading channels and near-far environments. We present an efficient algorithm for an approximate maximum likelihood approach of jointly estimating the multipath timings of a desired user for DS-CDMA systems that consist of multiple antennas either uncorrelated or fully correlated in space. The procedures of the algorithm to estimate code-timings are developed in order to better exploit the time-varying characteristics of the fading process. In the multipath fading channels, the solution of the proposed algorithms is based on successively optimizing the criterion for increasing numbers of multipath delays. It is shown via simulation results that the modified approaches of the approximate maximum likelihood algorithm much more improve its acquisition performance in the time-varying fading channels. It is seen that the acquisition performance of multiple antennas based acquisition scheme is much better than that of a single antenna based timing estimator in the presence of multipath fading channels and the near-far problem. Furthermore, it is observed that the proposed algorithms outperform the correlator and MUSIC estimator in the multiuser environments with near-far situation on time-varying Rayleigh fading channels.

Use of directional antenna in the context of ad hoc wireless networks can largely reduce radio interference, thereby improving the utilization of wireless medium. Our major contribution in this paper is to devise a MAC protocol that exploits the advantages of directional antenna in ad hoc networks for improved system performance. In this paper, we have illustrated a MAC protocol for ad hoc networks using directional antenna with the objective of effective utilization of the shared wireless medium. In order to implement effective MAC protocol in this context, a node should know how to set its transmission direction to transmit a packet to its neighbors and to avoid transmission in other directions where data communications are already in progress. In this paper, we are proposing a receiver-centric approach for location tracking and MAC protocol, so that, nodes become aware of its neighborhood and also the direction of the nodes for communicating directionally. A node develops its location-awareness from these neighborhood-awareness and direction-awareness. In this context, researchers usually assume that the gain of directional antennas is equal to the gain of corresponding omni-directional antenna. However, for a given amount of input power, the range R with directional antenna will be much larger than that using omni-directional antenna. In this paper, we also propose a two level transmit power control mechanism in order to approximately equalize the transmission range R of an antenna operating at omni-directional and directional mode. This will not only improve medium utilization but also help to conserve the power of the transmitting node during directional transmission. Our proposed directional MAC protocol can be effective in both ITS (Intelligent Transportation System), which we simulate in String and Parallel Topology, and in any community network, which we simulate in Random Topology. The performance evaluation on QualNet network simulator clearly indicates the efficiency of our protocol.

Multi-carrier code division multiplexing (MC-CDM) is one of promising multiplexing techniques for fourth-generation mobile downlink communications systems, where high data rate services should be provided even for high speed-cruising mobiles. For MC-CDM-based packet communication, a frequency scheduling method, which adaptively assigns different sub-carriers to different users, is proposed. This paper proposes a frequency scheduling method, which utilizes pre-assignmented subcarriers in the frequency domain for the MC-CDM scheme. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed system in frequency selective fading channels is compared with that of a no-scheduled MC-CDM scheme by computer simulation in both single- and multi-cell environments. From the results, it is found that the proposed system achieves better bit error rate performance than the no-scheduled MC-CDM scheme and can control quality of service (QoS) for active users.

To support high data rate wireless communications, in this paper, based on the linearly constrained constant modulus (LCCM) criterion, the reverse link performance of the multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) receiver, with frequency combiner, and having smart antenna arrays beamformer in base station, has been investigated over the Rayleigh fading channel. By using the Kronecker product an equivalent direct formulation, which integrates the information of spatial-domain as well as temporal-domain, with constraint matrix could be obtained. In consequence, the modified normalized LCCM-gradient algorithm is devised to adaptively implement the direct constrained optimal weights solution of the fully space-time MC-CDMA detector. We show that the proposed method outperforms the constrained minimum output energy (CMOE) algorithm and is more robust against to the signal mismatch, due to imperfect channel and direction-of-arrival estimation used in the array beamformer.