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IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications

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Advance publication (published online immediately after acceptance)

Volume E94-B No.6  (Publication Date:2011/06/01)

    Special Section on New Generation Mobile and Sensor Networking and Future Networks
  • FOREWORD Open Access

    Toru HASEGAWA  

     
    FOREWORD

      Page(s):
    1525-1525
  • COLA: COmmon Layer Architecture for Adaptive Power Control and Access Technology Assignment in New Generation Networks

    John Paul TORREGOZA  Pham Ngoc THAI  Won Joo HWANG  Yun Sop HAN  Fumio TERAOKA  Martin ANDRE  Hiroaki HARAI  

     
    PAPER

      Page(s):
    1526-1535

    Cognitive radio in network core devices, such as basestations, is being considered as a spectrum management solution for future society's communication demands. Aside from new resource allocation algorithms, efficient inter- and intra-protocol processing should be considered. In this paper, we propose an opportunistic cross layer architecture called COmmon Layer Architecture (COLA) for information exchange between arbitrary layers in New Generation Networks with network-oriented cognitive radio. COLA provides a means for faster information exchange between OSI layers by introducing abstraction at each layer and designing primitives for communication between each abstraction layer. Emulation and simulation results showed improvements, compared to conventional networks, in disrupted service (42% reduction), average delay (47% reduced) and packet drop ratio (22% reduced) in the scenario analyzed.

  • A Network-Based Localized Mobility Approach for Locator/ID Separation Protocol

    Ping DONG  Jia CHEN  Hongke ZHANG  

     
    PAPER

      Page(s):
    1536-1545

    Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP) is an efficient proposal for solving the severe routing scalability problems existing in the current IPv4-based Internet and the future IPv6-based Internet. However, the basic LISP architecture does not specify how to support mobility in detail. As mobility is a fundamental issue faced by the future Internet, LISP mobility architecture (LISP-MN) was proposed recently to extend LISP to support mobility. Nevertheless, LISP-MN is a host-based mobility approach which requires software changes in end systems. To some extent, such a design breaks the primary design principles of LISP, which is a network-based protocol and requires no modification to the hosts. In addition, LISP-MN faces the same inherent problems as other host-based approaches (e.g., MIPv4, MIPv6), such as handover latency, packet loss, and signalling overhead. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes MobileID, which is a network-based localized mobility approach for LISP. In our design, a mobile node is not aware of its mobility and does not participate in handover signalling. Instead, the network takes the responsibility for managing mobility on behalf of the mobile node. We present a general overview of MobileID architecture, and introduce the detailed protocol operations in terms of the basic MobileID handover process and the route optimization procedures. Furthermore, we describe a MobileID analytic model, and compare MobileID handover performance with three representative mobility solutions, i.e., LISP-MN, MIPv6 and PMIPv6. Numerical results show the superior performance of MobileID. The handover latency of MobileID is much lower than those of LISP-MN and MIPv6, and it becomes lower than that of PMIPv6 in case of a long wireless link delay.

  • Virtual Single Network Path by Integrating Multiple and Heterogeneous Challenged Networks

    Akira NAGATA  Shinya YAMAMURA  Masato TSURU  

     
    PAPER

      Page(s):
    1546-1555

    Motivated by the question of how to quickly transfer large files if multiple and heterogeneous networks are available but each has insufficient performance for a requested task, we propose a data transfer framework for integrating multiple and heterogeneous challenged access networks, in which long delays, heavy packet losses, and frequent disconnections are observed. An important feature of this framework is to transmit the control information separately from the transmission of data information, where they are flexibly transferred on different types of communication media (network paths) in different ways, and to provide a virtual single network path between the two nodes. We describe the design of the mechanisms of this framework such as the retransmission, the rate adjustment of each data flow, and the data-flow setup control. We validate a prototype implementation through two different experiments using terrestrial networks and a satellite communication system.

  • Delay-Guaranteed Scheduling and Flow Control for New Generation Mobile Networks

    Ngoc-Thai PHAM  Rentsent ENKHBAT  Won-Joo HWANG  

     
    PAPER

      Page(s):
    1556-1564

    Since video traffic has become a dominant flow component on the Internet, the Future Internet and New Generation Network must consider delay guarantees as a key feature in their designs. Using the stochastic network optimization, optimal control policies are designed for delay-constrained traffic in single-hop wireless networks. The resulting policy is a scheduling policy with delay guarantees. For a cross-layer design that involves both flow control and scheduling, the resulting policy is a flow control and scheduling policy that guarantees delay constraints and achieves utility performance within O(1/V) of the optimality.

  • Secure Sensor Sharing Framework for Mobile and Sensor Access Platform Network

    Ruidong LI  Masugi INOUE  

     
    PAPER

      Page(s):
    1565-1576

    We are researching a mobile and sensor access platform network for the future called NerveNet, which accommodates ubiquitous sensors and provides services in local areas. The realization of reliable and accountable information collection, processing and provision over NerveNet poses a challenging and fundamental issue in promotion of the sensor business field. As a first step toward a reliable NerveNet, we investigate privacy preservation and the collection of reliable sensor information for prospective personalized sensor applications. The privacy requirement impels the logic separation between sensor networks and the communication platform in the design of NerveNet architecture. To enable sensor network users (SNUs) to reliably interact with sensors managed by different sensor network owners (SNOs), we designed a secure sensor sharing framework (S3F) based on two business models – the Ad Hoc Sales Model (AHSM) and Shopping Center Sales Model (SCSM). With S3F-AHSM, an SNU acquires permission from an SNO each time she wants to obtain information from a sensor. On the other hand, with S3F-SCSM, an SNU can obtain the access privilege to a flexible set of sensors based on the queried preferences via a third party called a sensor network service provider (SNSP). In S3F-SCSM, SNSPs that share the sensors owned by various SNOs have the ability to search the preferred sensors and provide the authorization certificate to the SNUs.

  • A Dynamic Secure Access Mechanism for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Usage Control and Agent Technology

    Jun WU  Shigeru SHIMAMOTO  

     
    PAPER

      Page(s):
    1577-1586

    Secure access is one of the key concerns of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In WSNs, because there are many dynamically mutable attributes, continuous access decisions and dynamic attribute updates should be important properties of access control. In addition, WSNs need low-complexity authentication protocols because of the constrained resources. However, the authentication protocols of most current security access schemes have relatively high complexity. More importantly, the access control models of existing schemes cannot provide attribute mutability and continuous decisions dynamically. To address above issues, we propose a dynamic secure access mechanism for WSNs. Firstly, we design a lightweight secure authentication protocol and dynamic access control based on security token and usage control (UCON), respectively. Then, the agent technology is adopted to implement the proposed secure access scheme. Secondly, we analyze the probability of the dynamic attribute update and decisions. Thirdly, we implement an instance of UCON. The implementation results indicate the feasibility of using UCON in WSNs. Finally, by evaluating and comparing with current schemes, the authentication protocol in our scheme presents several advantages including the low expenses in calculation, storage and communication. To our best knowledge, this paper is the first to realize next generation dynamic access control with attribute mutability and continuous decisions in WSNs.

  • SAEP: Secure, Accurate and Energy-Efficient Time Synchronization Protocol in WSNs

    Kyeong Tae KIM  

     
    PAPER

      Page(s):
    1587-1597

    Existing time synchronization schemes in sensor networks were all developed to be energy-efficient, precise, and robust, but none of them were developed with security in mind. We have developed a secure, accurate and energy-efficient time synchronization protocol (SAEP). SAEP achieves accurate time synchronization service with significantly reducing the number of message exchanges. Also, it safeguards against Byzantine failure, in which nodes drop, modify, or delay time information in an attempt to disrupt the time synchronization service in multi-hop networks. SAEP takes a distributed approach where each sensor independently makes decisions based only on the information collected from multiple adjacent nodes, thus achieving a high level of resistance to various attacks while minimizing the energy cost. We investigate the misbehavior of a maliciously compromised node and analyze how SAEP can combat these attacks. In our experiment SAEP outperforms the existing time synchronization protocol in accuracy, energy consumption and it is even resilient to multiple capture attacks.

  • Adaptive Sensor Management Based on Spatial Correlation in Wireless Sensor Networks

    Mohammad Reza ZOGHI  Mohammad Hossein KAHAEI  

     
    PAPER

      Page(s):
    1598-1605

    This paper addresses the problem of sensor selection in wireless sensor networks (WSN) subject to a distortion constraint. To do so, first, a cost function is derived based on the spatial correlation obtained using the best estimation of the event source. Then, a new adaptive algorithm is proposed in which the number of active sensors is adaptively determined and the best topology of the active set is selected based on the add-one-sensor-node-at-a-time method. Simulations results show that the active sensors selected using the proposed cost function have less event distortion. Also, it is shown that the proposed sensor selection algorithm is near optimum and it has better performance than other algorithms with regard to the computational burden and distortion.

  • Connectivity Modeling Analysis in Flight-Path Based Aviation Ad Hoc Networks

    Thi Xuan My NGUYEN  Yoshikazu MIYANAGA  Chaiyachet SAIVICHIT  

     
    PAPER

      Page(s):
    1606-1616

    In this paper, we propose a framework of connectivity analysis for aviation ad hoc networks on flight paths. First, a general analytical connectivity model for the common one-dimensional ad hoc network is newly developed. Then it is applied for modeling the connectivity of ad hoc networks among aircraft along flight paths where aircraft arrival process follows a Poisson distribution. Connectivity is expressed in terms of connectedness probability of two nodes in the network, connected distance, and network coverage extension factor. An exact closed form derivation of connectedness probability is proposed. The radical effect of mobility on the network connectedness of aircraft over a single flight path is analyzed. The network connectedness probability depends on node density and node distribution, which are derived from node arrival rate and node velocity. Based on these results, the proposed model is extended to the practical case of paths with multi-velocity air traffic classes. Using this model, the critical values of system parameters for the network of aircraft with certain connectivity requirements can be derived. It helps to evaluate network extension capability under the constraints of various system parameters.

  • Proposal of a Next Generation Network Architecture Based on Web Service Technologies

    Yoshitoshi MURATA  Tsuyoshi TAKAYAMA  Nobuyoshi SATO  Kei KIKUCHI  

     
    LETTER

      Page(s):
    1617-1620

    The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) establishes a session between end terminals as a client/server application in the Next Generation Network (NGN). These days, many application services are being provided as Web services. In this letter, we propose a new NGN architecture conforming to the architectural styles of Representational State Transfer (REST), which is a Web service technology for solving interoperability and traffic concentration problems in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

  • A POMDP Based Distributed Adaptive Opportunistic Spectrum Access Strategy for Cognitive Ad Hoc Networks

    Yichen WANG  Pinyi REN  Zhou SU  

     
    LETTER

      Page(s):
    1621-1624

    In this letter, we propose a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) based Distributed Adaptive Opportunistic Spectrum Access (DA-OSA) Strategy for Cognitive Ad Hoc Networks (CAHNs). In each slot, the source and destination choose a set of channels to sense and then decide the transmission channels based on the sensing results. In order to maximize the throughput for each link, we use the theories of sequential decision and optimal stopping to determine the optimal sensing channel set. Moreover, we also establish the myopic policy and exploit the monotonicity of the reward function that we use, which can be used to reduce the complexity of the sequential decision.

  • Precondition of a Routing Algorithm Dealing with Multiple Security Metrics

    Atsufumi MORIYAMA  Hiroshi ISHINISHI  Katsuichi NAKAMURA  Yoshiaki HORI  

     
    LETTER

      Page(s):
    1625-1629

    In routing, we usually use OSPF with Dijkstra or RIP with Bellman-Ford, but they can only treat single metric routing problem. With multiple metrics, we would use the weighted average of the metrics or techniques from operations research, but they are not suitable for routing because they lack validity and simplicity. Here, we propose a routing algorithm to deal with the three security metrics proposed by I. A. Almerhag and M. E. Woodward, and show an example routing policy. Besides, we make a study on the constraints of the metrics and the routing policies, and come to the precondition of the proposed routing algorithm.

  • Regular Section
  • Network Design Methods for Minimizing Number of Links Added to a Network to Alleviate Performance Degradation Following a Link Failure

    Nozomu KATAYAMA  Takeshi FUJIMURA  Hiroyoshi MIWA  Noriaki KAMIYAMA  Haruhisa HASEGAWA  Hideaki YOSHINO  

     
    PAPER-Fundamental Theories for Communications

      Page(s):
    1630-1639

    When a link or node fails in a network, the affected flows are automatically rerouted. This increases the hop counts of the flows, which can drastically degrade network performance. Keeping the hop lengths as stable as possible, i.e., minimizing the difference in hop length between the original flow and the rerouted flow is important for network reliability. Therefore, network service providers need a method for designing networks that stabilizes the flow hop length and maintains connectivity during a link or node failure with limited investment cost. First, we formulate the network design problem used for determining the set of links to be added that satisfies the required constraints on flow hop length stability, connectivity, and node degree. Next, we prove that this problem is NP-complete and present two approximation algorithms for the optimization problem so as to minimize the number of links added. Evaluation of the performance of these algorithms by using 39 backbone networks of commercial ISPs and networks generated by two well-known models showed that the proposed algorithms provide effective solutions in sufficiently short computation time.

  • Performance Analysis of Optical Packet Switches with Reconfiguration Overhead

    Kuan-Hung CHOU  Woei LIN  

     
    PAPER-Fundamental Theories for Communications

      Page(s):
    1640-1647

    In optical packet switches, the overhead of reconfiguring a switch fabric is not negligible with respect to the packet transmission time and can adversely affect switch performance. The overhead increases the average waiting time of packets and worsens throughput performance. Therefore, scheduling packets requires additional considerations on the reconfiguration frequency. This work intends to analytically find the optimal reconfiguration frequency that minimizes the average waiting time of packets. It proposes an analytical model to facilitate our analysis on reconfiguration optimization for input-buffered optical packet switches with the reconfiguration overhead. The analytical model is based on a Markovian analysis and is used to study the effects of various network parameters on the average waiting time of packets. Of particular interest is the derivation of closed-form equations that quantify the effects of the reconfiguration frequency on the average waiting time of packets. Quantitative examples are given to show that properly balancing the reconfiguration frequency can significantly reduce the average waiting time of packets. In the case of heavy traffic, the basic round-robin scheduling scheme with the optimal reconfiguration frequency can achieve as much as 30% reduction in the average waiting time of packets, when compared with the basic round-robin scheduling scheme with a fixed reconfiguration frequency.

  • Optimized Fuzzy Adaptive Filtering for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks

    Hae Young LEE  Tae Ho CHO  

     
    PAPER-Network

      Page(s):
    1648-1656

    In ubiquitous sensor networks, extra energy savings can be achieved by selecting the filtering solution to counter the attack. This adaptive selection process employs a fuzzy rule-based system for selecting the best solution, as there is uncertainty in the reasoning processes as well as imprecision in the data. In order to maximize the performance of the fuzzy system the membership functions should be optimized. However, the efforts required to perform this optimization manually can be impractical for commonly used applications. This paper presents a GA-based membership function optimizer for fuzzy adaptive filtering (GAOFF) in ubiquitous sensor networks, in which the efficiency of the membership functions is measured based on simulation results and optimized by GA. The proposed optimization consists of three units; the first performs a simulation using a set of membership functions, the second evaluates the performance of the membership functions based on the simulation results, and the third constructs a population representing the membership functions by GA. The proposed method can optimize the membership functions automatically while utilizing minimal human expertise.

  • A Self-Scheduling Multi-Channel Cognitive Radio MAC Protocol Based on Cooperative Communications

    Seyoun LIM  Tae-Jin LEE  

     
    PAPER-Network

      Page(s):
    1657-1668

    As the demand for spectrum for future wireless communication services increases, cognitive radio technology has been developed for dynamic and opportunistic spectrum access, which enables the secondary users to use the underutilized licensed spectrum of the primary users. In particular, the recent studies on the MAC protocol for dynamic and opportunistic access have focused on sensing and using the vacant spectrum efficiently. Under the ad-hoc network environment, how the secondary users use the unused channels by the primary users affects the efficient utilization of channels and a cognitive radio system is required to follow the rapid and frequent changes in channel status. In this paper, we propose a self-scheduling multi-channel cognitive MAC (SMC-MAC) protocol, which allows multiple secondary users to transmit data though the sensed idle channels by two cooperative channel sensing algorithms, i.e., fixed channel sensing (FCS) and adaptive channel sensing (ACS), and by slotted contention mechanism to exchange channel request information for self-scheduling. The performance of the proposed SMC-MAC protocol is investigated via analysis and simulations. According to the results, the proposed SMC-MAC protocol is effective in allowing multiple secondary users to transmit data frames effectively on multi-channels and adaptively in response to the primary users' traffic dynamics.

  • Introduction of the Parameter “Approach Ratio” for the Improvement of Higher Delivery Rate with Suppressing Network Resource Consumption in Delay Tolerant Network

    Masato HAYASHI  Susumu MATSUI  Naoki WAKAMIYA  Masayuki MURATA  

     
    PAPER-Network

      Page(s):
    1669-1679

    The delay/disruption tolerant network (DTN) has been researched actively in the last years because of its high applicability to ubiquitous network services such as sensor networks and intelligent transport system (ITS) networks. An efficient data forwarding method for those network services is one of the key components in DTN due to the limitation of wireless network resources. This paper proposes a new DTN scheme for vehicle network systems by introducing the parameter, “approach ratio”, which represents node movement history. The proposal utilizes passive copy strategy, where nodes within one hop area of packet forwarders receive, copy and store packets (namely, passive copies) for future forwarding, in order to obtain higher delivery rate and lower delivery delay whilst suppressing the network resource consumption. Depending on its approach ratio, a node with passive copy decides whether it forwards the passive copy or not by referring to the approach ratio threshold. The approach ratio allows our proposal to adjust the property of both single-copy type scheme, that can lower network resource consumption, and multi-copy type scheme, that can enhance the performance of delivery rate and delay time. In simulation evaluation, the proposal is compared with three typical existing schemes with respect to network consumption, delivery rate and delivery delay. Our proposal shows the superior performance regarding the targeted purpose. It is shown that the approach ratio plays the significant role to obtain the higher delivery rate and lower delay time, while keeping network resource consumption lower.

  • A Scheme of IEEE 802.11e HCCA Polling and Queue Management for Bandwidth Guarantee per Session

    Young-Hwan KIM  Jung-Bong SUK  

     
    PAPER-Wireless Communication Technologies

      Page(s):
    1680-1689

    Video applications such as video conferencing among multiple users and video surveillance systems require multiple video connections and QoS guarantee. These days the video systems equipped with IEEE 802.11 LAN interfaces allows a broadband wireless access to the Internet at a reasonable price. However, according to the current IEEE 802.11e HCCA standard, if more than two video sessions are to be established simultaneously, some of them must share the TXOP because the available number of TSIDs for video transmission is restricted to two. In order to resolve this problem, we devise a scheme which can establish up to 13 video sessions by slightly modifying the frame structure while maintaining the compatibility with the current standard. Our scheme is implemented on the NCTUns 4.0 network simulator, and evaluated numerically in terms of throughput, delay, and PSNR. Also real video clips are used as input to our simulation. The results showed that our scheme guarantees the transmission bandwidth requested by each video session.

  • Channel Estimation Improvement with Frequency Domain MMSE Equalization for PCP-SC System

    Yafei HOU  Tomohiro HASE  

     
    PAPER-Wireless Communication Technologies

      Page(s):
    1690-1698

    In this paper, we propose a simple but effective way of improving the performance of channel estimation (CE) for pilot cyclic prefixed single carrier (PCP-SC) system. The proposed method utilizes the property that the shifting signal of the PCP pilot signal can also be utilized to estimate the channel information. The receiver can continuously estimate the channel information by just shifting the received pilot signal. Regardless of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the pilot type, the proposed method can achieve about a 1.72 dB performance gain in terms of the mean squared error (MSE) of channel estimation with a slight increase in computational complexity. The BER performance with the proposed CE improvement are evaluated in a multipath fading channel using a zero-forcing (ZF) equalizer and an minmum mean squared error (MMSE) equalizer by computer simulation. It is shown that the proposed CE improvment method using an MMSE equalizer which has an unbiased vlaue of noise variance (NV) estimator gives a promising BER performance. The proposed method also benefits the estimation of the SNR for the single carrier system.

  • Considerations for Reducing Channel Zapping Time for Protected Services in IP Datacast over DVB-H

    Byoung-Dai LEE  

     
    PAPER-Terrestrial Wireless Communication/Broadcasting Technologies

      Page(s):
    1699-1706

    IP Datacast over DVB-H has been adopted as a core technology to build complete end-to-end mobile broadcast TV systems. In order for this technology to be successful in the market, provisioning of acceptable QoE (Quality of Experience) to the users, as well as a wide range of business models to the service providers, is essential. In this paper, we analyze the channel zapping time, which is an important metric to measure QoE for mobile broadcast TV services. In particular, we clarify primary components that determine the channel zapping time for protected services in IP Datacast over DVB-H. Our analysis is based on the data gathered during the trial service of the OMA-BCAST Smartcard profile in Singapore, Asia. Based on the analysis, we show that a significant reduction in channel zapping time can be achieved by optimizing the transmission parameters related to the key derivation time and the synchronization time between the content stream and the key stream.

  • Digitally-Controlled Polarization-Forming Transmitting Antenna for Mobile Satellite Communication Systems

    Yoshinori SUZUKI  Kiyoshi KOBAYASHI  

     
    PAPER-Satellite Communications

      Page(s):
    1707-1715

    This paper presents a novel electrical polarization forming antenna for mobile satellite communication systems using linear polarization. To electrically form the desired polarization, it is necessary to excite the two orthogonal polarization antenna planes with appropriate weights. The proposed antenna uses digitally-based polarization and calibration functions to characterize the two RF paths. The calibration techniques used are critical to accurately forming the desired polarization. Proposed calibration techniques are very simple; the feedback signal consists of just amplitude levels. The proposals are validated by polarization forming measurements conducted on a fabricated antenna.

  • Doppler Velocity Measurement of Portable X-Band Weather Radar Equipped with Magnetron Transmitter and IF Digital Receiver

    Masayuki K. YAMAMOTO  Tomoaki MEGA  Nobuyuki IKENO  Toyoshi SHIMOMAI  Hiroyuki HASHIGUCHI  Mamoru YAMAMOTO  Masahisa NAKAZATO  Takuya TAJIRI  Takashi ICHIYAMA  

     
    PAPER-Sensing

      Page(s):
    1716-1724

    This study demonstrates the ability of a portable X-band Doppler weather radar (XDR) to measure Doppler velocity (Vd). Existing portable X-band weather radars are housed in a container and hence have to be carried by a truck. Therefore they have limitations in their installation places. For installations at small areas where the existing X-band weather radars cannot be installed (e.g., rooftop area of small building), XDR is designed to be carried by a cart. Components of the outdoor unit (a parabolic antenna with a diameter of 1.2 m, magnetron transmitter, and radio frequency (RF) and intermediate frequency (IF) analog components) are housed in a compact body with a weight less than 300 kg. The radar operation, IF digital processing, and data storage are carried out by a desktop computer having a commercial IF digital receiver. In order to attain the required portability and reduced purchase and running costs, XDR uses a magnetron transmitter. Because XDR is the first that utilizes an IF digital receiver for the signal processing specific to magnetron transmitters (i.e., the phase correction of received signals due to the randomness of the transmitted pulse phase), Vd measured by XDR (hereafter VdXDR) was assessed. Using the dataset collected from 25 to 26 October 2009 at the Shigaraki MU Observatory (3451'N, 13606'E), the equivalent radar reflectivity factor (Ze) and VdXDR were assessed using Ze and Vd measured by a Micro Rain Radar and a L-band Doppler radar named LQ-7. The results using correlation coefficients and regression lines demonstrate that XDR measured Ze and Vd accurately. The results also show that IF digital receivers are useful for providing magnetron weather radars with the function of Vd measurement, and further suggest that a combination of IF digital receiver and magnetron transmitter contributes to future development of Doppler weather radars, because high cost performance is strongly required for a precipitation monitoring radar network.

  • Parity-Check Matrix Extension to Lower the Error Floors of Irregular LDPC Codes

    Jianjun MU  Xiaopeng JIAO  Jianguang LIU  Rong SUN  

     
    LETTER-Fundamental Theories for Communications

      Page(s):
    1725-1727

    Trapping sets have been identified as one of the main factors causing error floors of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes at high SNR values. By adding several new rows to the original parity-check matrix, a novel method is proposed to eliminate small trapping sets in the LDPC code's Tanner graph. Based on this parity-check matrix extension, we design new codes with low error floors from the original irregular LDPC codes. Simulation results show that the proposed method can lower the error floors of irregular LDPC codes significantly at high SNR values over AWGN channels.

  • Efficient Scheduling Algorithm with Utilization of Unused Resources for EPON

    Man-Soo HAN  

     
    LETTER-Transmission Systems and Transmission Equipment for Communications

      Page(s):
    1728-1731

    This letter proposes a new scheduling method to improve scheduling efficiency of EPON. The proposed method uses a credit pool for each optical network unit (ONU) and for each service class. For high scheduling efficiency, the credit pool of an ONU can be negative amount to utilize the unused ONU credits. Also the proposed method dynamically excludes the lowest service class from scheduling to decrease a transmission cycle length. Using simulations, we show that the proposed method is better than the existing methods in mean delay.

  • Optimum Frame Synchronization for OFDM Systems

    Heon HUH  

     
    LETTER-Transmission Systems and Transmission Equipment for Communications

      Page(s):
    1732-1735

    Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing has emerged as a promising air interface scheme for wireless broadband communications. For OFDM systems, frame synchronization has received much attention in the literature, though simple correlators are still widely used in real systems. In this letter, we present the analytical expression of the optimal frame synchronizer for OFDM systems. Frame synchronization is posed as a maximum a posteriori probability estimation. We show that the resulting frame synchronizer consists of a correlation term and a correction term. The correction term accounts for the random data surrounding a synchronization word. Numerical results show the performance gain of the proposed frame synchronizer over a correlation scheme.

  • Genetic Agent-Based Framework for Energy Efficiency in Wireless Sensor Networks

    Jangsu LEE  Sungchun KIM  

     
    LETTER-Network

      Page(s):
    1736-1739

    Wireless sensor networks (WSN) is composed of so many small sensor nodes which have limited resources. So the technique that raises energy efficiency is the key to prolong the network life time. In the paper, we propose an agent based framework which takes the biological characteristics of gene. The gene represents an operation policy to control agent behavior. Agents are aggregated to reduce duplicate transmissions in active period. And it selects next hop based on the information of neighbor agents. Among neighbors, the node which has enough energy is given higher priority. The base station processes genetic evolution to refine the behavior policy of agent. Each agent is taken latest gene and spread recursively to find the optimal gene. Our proposed framework yields sensor nodes that have the properties of self-healing, self-configuration, and self-optimization. Simulation results show that our proposed framework increases the lifetime of each node.

  • Performance Analysis of the Improved Droptail Router

    Pengxuan MAO  Yang XIAO  Kiseon KIM  

     
    LETTER-Network

      Page(s):
    1740-1743

    In this letter, we propose an improved Droptail algorithm that introduces the random packet drop strategy. Our theoretical analysis and experiments prove that the improved Droptail can match the most performance of AQM algorithms in stabilizing the TCP system and solving the global synchronization problem, while significantly reducing the complexity of the router control. This fact shows that our algorithm is superior to the most popular AQM algorithms such as RED, PI, etc.

  • A Compact Loop Antenna System for Monitoring Local Electromagnetic Environments in Geospace

    Satoshi YAGITANI  Mitsunori OZAKI  Hirotsugu KOJIMA  

     
    LETTER-Antennas and Propagation

      Page(s):
    1744-1747

    A sensor network consisting of a number of palm-sized nodes with small electric and magnetic sensors has been proposed to monitor local electromagnetic activities in space plasmas. In the present study, a compact loop antenna system is designed and fabricated for use in sensor nodes that can capture magnetic vector fields from ELF to MF frequencies. The performance of the developed system is shown to be sufficient to allow measurement of the magnetic field activity around artificial structures in addition to intense natural plasma waves in geospace.

  • Dual-Band Aperture-Coupled Shorted-Patch Antenna with a U-Shaped Slot

    Kun-Joon LEE  Tae-Hak LEE  Young-Sik KIM  

     
    LETTER-Antennas and Propagation

      Page(s):
    1748-1751

    A dual-band patch antenna with a shorting wall and a U-shaped slot is presented in this paper. The shorted-patch is coupled with the aperture slot that is closely placed to the shorting wall for achieving good impedance matching. A U-shaped slot is embedded in the shorted-patch and is located near the radiating edge to yield a dual-band operation. By changing the side slot length of the U-shaped slot, the tunable frequency ratio of the proposed antenna is varied from 1.73 to 2.05.

  • Numerical Analysis on MIMO Performance of the Modulated Scattering Antenna Array in Indoor Environment

    Lin WANG  Qiang CHEN  Qiaowei YUAN  Kunio SAWAYA  

     
    LETTER-Antennas and Propagation

      Page(s):
    1752-1756

    The multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) performance of the modulated scattering antenna array (MSAA) is analyzed numerically for the first time in indoor environment based on an approach to hybridization of the Volterra series method and method of moments (MoM) in this letter. Mutual coupling effect between the Modulated scattering element (MSE) and the normal antenna element is also considered in this analysis. It is found that MIMO performance of the MSAA is improved with reducing the array spacing of the MSAA in 4 different indoor receiving areas. At the same time, the simulated results of the MSAA are compared with those of the dipole antenna array at the same condition.

  • A Head-Local-Exposure System for Rats Using a Figure-8 Loop Antenna in the 2 GHz Band

    Hiroki KAWAI  Kanako WAKE  Takuji ARIMA  Soichi WATANABE  

     
    LETTER-Electromagnetic Compatibility(EMC)

      Page(s):
    1757-1760

    This paper proposes a head-local-exposure system using a figure-8 loop antenna for 2-GHz band operation. This system allows us to observe biological effects through microcirculation of the rat brain simultaneously with exposure through a cranial window, i.e., the window made by transparent glass and implanted on the surface of the rat brain. The specific absorption rate (SAR) in a rat exposed to microwaves due to the new exposure system is estimated numerically and experimentally. The ratio of averaged SAR between the target area, which is the brain's surface just under the cranial window, and the whole body is about 59 for the 8-week rat model and 13 for the 2-week rat model. This antenna achieves local exposure for the rat brain for 2-GHz band operation.

  • Performance Analysis of RFID Tag Anti-Collision Protocols with Channel Error

    Jun-Bong EOM  Tae-Jin LEE  

     
    LETTER-Wireless Communication Technologies

      Page(s):
    1761-1764

    Channel errors may exist in Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) systems due to low power backscattering of tags. These errors prevent the rapid identification of tags, and reducing this deterioration is an important issue. This paper presents performance analysis of various tag anti-collision algorithms and shows that the performances of RFID systems can be improved by applying a proposed robust algorithm in error-prone environments.

  • Adaptive Resource Allocation for a Two-Way OFDM Relay Network with Fairness Constraints

    Yookeun KANG  Dongwoo LEE  Jae Hong LEE  

     
    LETTER-Wireless Communication Technologies

      Page(s):
    1765-1769

    In this letter, we propose a new resource allocation scheme for a two-way OFDM relay network with fairness constraints. To maximize sum capacity, subcarriers and their power are successively allocated to the relays based on channel conditions. Also, the power constraint is imposed on each relay to achieve fairness for the relays. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme improves sum capacity and fairness significantly.

  • Precoding for OFDM Systems with Imperfect Channel State Information at the Transmitter

    Chongbin XU  Hao WANG  Xiaokang LIN  

     
    LETTER-Wireless Communication Technologies

      Page(s):
    1770-1773

    We study the transmission techniques in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with imperfect channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). We focus on the issue of utilizing the available CSIT by a single forward error control (FEC) code. We first analyze the system performance for the ideal coding case. We then develop a simple but efficient scheme for the practical coding case, which is based on joint FEC coding and linear precoding at the transmitter and iterative linear minimum-mean-square-error (LMMSE) detection at the receiver. Numerical results show that significant performances gains can be achieved by the proposed scheme.

  • Optimal Power Allocation for Amplify-and-Forward Relaying Systems Using Maximum Ratio Transmission at the Source

    Jianxiong HUANG  Taiyi ZHANG  Runping YUAN  Jing ZHANG  

     
    LETTER-Wireless Communication Technologies

      Page(s):
    1774-1777

    This letter investigates the performance of amplify-and-forward relaying systems using maximum ratio transmission at the source. A closed-form expression for the outage probability and a closed-form lower bound for the average bit error probability of the system are derived. Also, the approximate expressions for the outage probability and average bit error probability in the high signal-to-noise ratio regime are given, based on which the optimal power allocation strategies to minimize the outage probability and average bit error probability are developed. Furthermore, numerical results illustrate that optimizing the allocation of power can improve the system performance, especially in the high signal-to-noise ratio regime.

  • Velocity Based Random Access Scheme for Mobile Communications Systems

    Jung Suk JOO  

     
    LETTER-Terrestrial Wireless Communication/Broadcasting Technologies

      Page(s):
    1778-1780

    Recently, global positioning system (GPS)-enabled mobile units have been popular in wireless mobile communications systems, and thus it becomes possible for mobile units to estimate the velocity before a random access for initiating communications. Motivated by this, we propose a new random access scheme establishing two or more access slot groups corresponding to velocity ranges of mobile units, where each mobile unit attempts a random access only at the slot group corresponding to its current velocity. It gives advantages that access slots can be flexibly grouped according to vehicle traffic conditions and detection algorithms can be optimized to each velocity range.

  • Coexistence of WiFi and WiMAX Systems Based on Coexistence Zone within WiMAX Frame Structure and Modified Power Saving Mode of WiFi System

    Jongwoo KIM  Suwon PARK  Seung Hyong RHEE  Yong-Hoon CHOI  Ho Young HWANG  Young-uk CHUNG  

     
    LETTER-Terrestrial Wireless Communication/Broadcasting Technologies

      Page(s):
    1781-1784

    Various co-sited wireless communication systems may share the same frequency band. This causes mutual interference between the wireless communication systems, and degrades the performance of each wireless communication system. In this paper, we analyze the effect of mutual interference between WiFi and WiMAX systems sharing the same frequency band. We propose novel methods based on a proposed coexistence zone within the WiMAX frame structure and a modified power saving mode of the WiFi system to solve the problem. We evaluate the performance of the proposed methods by computer simulation.

  • Dynamic Leveling Scheme for Traffic Prediction in Satellite Networks

    SungIl LEE  JaeSung LIM  Jae-Joon LEE  

     
    LETTER-Satellite Communications

      Page(s):
    1785-1787

    We propose a new resource prediction method for the Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) scheme in satellite networks. Inaccurate prediction of future traffic causes degradation of QoS and utilization due to the long delay in satellite networks. The Dynamic Leveling Scheme (DLS) use a leveling method to modify its prediction to a discrete one to change the precision of the prediction result. This new scheme has two features: 1) It enhances the probability of successful prediction and 2) it can be applied to any type of existing prediction method. Simulations show enhanced utilization and performance of the satellite link.

  • Adaptive Selective Retransmission Algorithm for Video Communications in Congested Networks

    Bin SONG  Hao QIN  Xuelu PENG  Yanhui QIN  

     
    LETTER-Multimedia Systems for Communications

      Page(s):
    1788-1791

    An adaptive selective retransmission algorithm for video communications based on packet importance value is proposed. The algorithm can adaptively select the retransmission threshold in realtime and efficiently manage the retransmission process in heavy loaded networks while guaranteeing acceptable video quality at the receiver.