Region-of-interest based rate control for UAV video coding

To meet the requirement of high-quality transmission of videos captured by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with low bandwidth, a novel rate control (RC) scheme based on region-of-interest (ROI) is proposed. First, the ROI information is sent to the encoder with the latest high efficient video coding (HEVC) standard to generate an ROI map. Then, by using the ROI map, bit allocation methods are developed at frame level and large coding unit (LCU) level, to avoid inaccurate bit allocation produced by camera movement. At last, by using a better robustness R-λ model, the quantization parameter (QP) for each LCU is calculated. The experimental results show that the proposed RC method can get a lower bitrate error and a higher quality for reconstructed video by choosing appropriate pixel weight on the HEVC platform.     

Formalizing REST APIs for web-based communication and SIP interworking

This paper proposes an instantaneous recovery route design scheme using multiple coding-aware link protection scenarios to achieve higher link cost reduction in the network. In this scheme, two protection scenarios, namely, (i) traffic splitting (TS), and (ii) two sources and a common destination (2SD) are used to integrate multiple sources and a common destination. The proposed scheme consists of two phases. In the first phase, the proposed scheme determines routes for 2SD and TS scenarios of all possible source-destination pairs to minimize the total link cost. In this phase, the network coding is applied to the common path within each scenario, individually. In the second phase, network coding is applied to the common path between two scenarios (or a scenario pair) in order to enhance the resource saving. This phase develops conditions that select the most appropriate combination of scenario pairs, such as TS–TS, 2SD–2SD, and 2SD–TS for network coding, including their proofs. Using these conditions, a heuristic algorithm is introduced in order to select the most appropriate combination of scenario pairs for further enhancing of resource saving. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional 1 + 1 protection scheme, the TS scenario, and the 2SD scenario in terms of link cost reduction in the network.     

Computation-skip Error Mitigation Scheme for Power Supply Voltage Scaling in Recursive Applications

Aggressive power supply voltage V_dd scaling is widely utilized to exploit the design margin introduced by the process, voltage and environment variations. However, scaling beyond the critical V_dd results to numerous setup timing errors, and hence to an unacceptable output quality. In this paper, we propose computation-skip (CS) scheme to mitigate setup timing errors, for recursive digital signal processors with a fixed cycles per instruction (CPI). A coordinate rotation digital computer (CORDIC) with the proposed CS scheme still functions when scaling beyond the error-free voltage. It enables better-than-worst-case design constraint and achieves 1.82 X energy saving w.r.t. nominal V_dd condition, another 1.49 X energy saving without quality degradation, and another 1.09 X energy saving when sacrificing 8.35 dB output quality.     

Design and Analysis of Hierarchically Modulated BICM-ID Receivers With Low Inter-Layer Interferences

In this article, we present a novel methodology to optimize Hierarchically Modulated Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation with Iterative Decoding (HM-BICM-ID). This methodology allows designing a receiver which supports several configurations. Each configuration is able to decode the same transmitted signal over the air with different fidelity. This concept permits using radios with varying processing capabilities, e.g. handheld radios, vehicular based radios etc. However, earlier simulation results have shown that HM-BICM-ID loses, if compared to non-hierarchical schemes, in Bit Error Rate (BER) performance due to Inter-Layer Interferences and design restrictions. Our proposed iterative tunable procedure optimizes hierarchical modulation schemes considering two criteria, the Harmonic Mean of the minimum squared Euclidean Distance and the bit error probability. The optimization is done by moving critical constellation points towards the optimal direction. A novel modulation scheme has been found and simulation results show an improved asymptotic BER performance in a wide range of channel conditions for an exemplary two-layered HM-BICM-ID. Finally, we present an analysis of HM-BICM-ID in context of Extrinsic Information Transfer Charts.     

Secure Relay Selection of Cognitive Two-Way Denoise-and-Forward Relaying Networks

In this paper, secrecy performance of a cognitive two-way denoise-and-forward relaying network consisting of two primary user (PT and PD) nodes, two secondary source (SA and SB) nodes, multiple secondary relay (\({\textit{SR}}_i\)) nodes and an eavesdropper (E) node is considered, where SA and SB exchange their messages with the help of one of the relays using a two-way relaying scheme. The eavesdropper tries to wiretap the information transmitted between SA and SB. To improve secrecy performance of the network, two relay selection schemes called maximum sum rate and maximum secrecy capacity based relay selection (MSRRS and MSCRS) are proposed and analyzed in terms of intercept probability. It is proved that the MSRRS and MSCRS schemes have the same secrecy performance. Two parameters called average number gain and average cost gain are proposed to show the performance of the proposed relay selection schemes. Numerical results demonstrated that with 10 relay nodes, the proposed relay selection schemes can achieve, respectively, 3.7 dB and 1.9 dB’s improvements in terms of the reduced intercept probability and the enhanced secrecy capacity compared to the traditional round-robin scheme.     

Weighted dominating set based routing for ad hoc communications in emergency and rescue scenarios

Disasters create emergency situations and the services provided must be coordinated quickly via a communication network. Mobile adhoc networks (MANETs) are suited for ubiquitous communication during emergency rescue operations, since they do not rely on infrastructure. The route discovery process of on-demand routing protocols consumes too much bandwidth due to high routing overhead. Frequent route changes also results in frequent route computation process. Energy efficiency, quick response time, and scalability are equally important for routing in emergency MANETs. In this paper, we propose an energy efficient reactive protocol named Weighted-CDSR for routing in such situations. This protocol selects a subset of network nodes named Maximum Weighted Minimum Connected Dominating Set (MWMCDS) based on weight, which consists of link stability, mobility and energy. The MWMCDS provides the overall network control and data forwarding support. In this protocol, for every two nodes u and v in the network there exists a path between u and v such that all intermediate nodes belong to MWMCDS. Incorporating route stability into routing reduces the frequency of route failures and sustains network operations over an extended period of time. With fewer nodes providing overall network control and data forwarding support, the proposed protocol creates less interference and consumes less energy. The simulation results show that the proposed protocol is superior to other protocols in terms of packet delivery ratio, control message overhead, transmission delay and energy consumption.     

A System for Logical Design of Custom CMOS VLSI Functional Blocks with Reduced Power Consumption

We describe a CMOSLD system to automate the design of irregular logic circuits of CMOS library elements. The main criteria of circuits optimization are the area and the power consumption. This system is integrated with software packages Questa Sim, LeonardoSpectrum, and Accusim II (Mentor Graphics). This makes it possible to perform efficiently logical simulation, synthesis, resynthesis and estimation of energy consumption based on logical and circuit simulation.     

Optimal Node Clustering and Scheduling in Wireless Sensor Networks

Selection and rotation of cluster head (CH) is a well known optimization problem in hierarchical Wireless sensor networks (WSNs), which affects its overall network performance. Population-based metaheuristic particularly Artificial bee colony (ABC) has shown to be competitive over other metaheuristics for solving optimization problems in WSNs. However, its search equation contributes to its insufficiency due to poor exploitation phase and low convergence rate. This paper, presents an improved artificial bee colony (iABC) metaheuristic with an improved search equation, which will be able to search an optimal solution to improve its exploitation capabilities moreover, in order to increase the global convergence of the proposed metaheuristic, an improved approach for population sampling is introduced through Student’s-t distribution. The proposed metaheuristic maintain a balance between exploration and exploitation search abilities with least memory requirements, with the use of first of its kind compact Student’s-t distribution, which is particularly suitable for WSNs limited hardware environment. Further utilising the capabilities of the proposed metaheuristic, an improved artificial bee colony based clustering and scheduling (iABC-CS) scheme is introduced, to obtain optimal cluster heads (CHs) along with optimal CH scheduling in WSNs. Simulation results manifest that iABC-CS outperform over other well known clustering algorithms on the basis of packet delivery ratio, energy consumption, network lifetime and end to end delay.     

Quantized feedback MIMO scheduling for heterogeneous broadcast networks

One-bit quantization of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio is discussed in literature for user scheduling in homogeneous network where users are assumed to have equal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). It is mentioned in literature that 1-bit quantization with fixed quantization threshold does not achieve multiuser diversity. Moreover, the system sum-rate achieved by this lags significantly behind that of full feedback scheme. Two multi-bit quantized feedback scheduling schemes are proposed for broadcast network with heterogeneous users experiencing different channel statistics. It is presented that these two schemes with fixed optimum quantization thresholds profit from the diversity provided by independent and identically distributed channels. Moreover, proposed optimistic multi-bit quantized scheduling scheme achieves higher system sum-rate than the proposed multi-bit quantized scheme by addressing the limitations of the later one. The optimum quantization thresholds depend on the number of transmit antennas and system SNR. Moreover, these multi-bit quantized feedback scheduling schemes also ensure user fairness. Simulation results are presented to support the numerical analysis.     

Tuning the Electronic Properties of Graphene Oxide Nanoribbons Through Different Oxygen Doping Configurations

The electronic properties of armchair graphene oxide nanoribbons (AGONRs) with different doped oxygen configurations are studied based on density functional theory using first principle calculations. The electronic properties of the AGONRs are tuned by different oxygen configurations for top edges, center, bottom edges and fifth width. The AGONRs for top-edge O doping configuration are indirect band gap semiconductors with an energy gap of 1.268 eV involving hybridization among C-2p and O-2s, 2p electrons and electrical conductivity of oxygen atoms. The center and bottom edges are direct band gap semiconductors with 1.317 eV and 1.151 eV, respectively. The valence band is contributed from C-2p, O-2p and H-1s for top-edge O doping. The electronic properties of AGONRs are changed due to localization in ?2.94 eV of O-2p states. The center O-doped AGONRs are n-type semiconductors with Fermi levels near the conduction band bottom. This is due to hybridization among C-2s, 2p and O-2p electrons. However, bottom-edge O-doped AGONRs are p-type semiconductors, due to the electrical conductivity of oxygen atoms. The fifth-width O-doped AGONRs are indirect band gap semiconductors with an energy gap of 0.375 eV. The projected density of states shows that the localization and hybridization between C-2 s, 2p, O-2p and H-1s electronic states are rising in the conduction band and valence band from the projected density of states. The localization is induced by O-2p electronic states at a Fermi level.     

Computationally Efficient Motion Estimation Algorithm for HEVC

In this paper, we present a novel computationally efficient motion estimation (ME) algorithm for high-efficiency video coding (HEVC). The proposed algorithm searches in the hexagonal pattern with a fixed number of search points at each grid. It utilizes the correlation between contiguous pixels within the frame. In order to reduce the computational complexity, the proposed algorithm utilizes pixel truncation, adaptive search range, sub-sampling and avoids some of the asymmetrical prediction unit techniques. Simulation results are obtained by using the reference software HM (e n c o d e r_l o w d e l a y_P_m a i n and e n c o d e r_r a n d o m a c c e s s_m a i n profile) and shows 55.49% improvement on search points with approximately the same PSNR and around 1% increment in bit rate as compared to the Test Zonal Search (TZS) ME algorithm. By utilizing the proposed algorithm, the BD-PSNR loss for the video sequences like B a s k e t b a l l P a s s_416 × 240@50 and J o h n n y_1280 × 720@60 is 0.0804 dB and 0.0392 dB respectively as compared to the HM reference software with the e n c o d e r_l o w d e l a y_P_m a i n profile.     

Radiation-induced bistable centers with deep levels in silicon <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> <Superscript>+</Superscript>–<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> structures

The method of deep level transient spectroscopy is used to study electrically active defects in p-type silicon crystals irradiated with MeV electrons and α particles. A new radiation-induced defect with the properties of bistable centers is determined and studied. After keeping the irradiated samples at room temperature for a long time or after their short-time annealing at T ～ 370 K, this defect does not display any electrical activity in p-type silicon. However, as a result of the subsequent injection of minority charge carriers, this center transforms into the metastable configuration with deep levels located at E_V + 0.45 and E_V + 0.54 eV. The reverse transition to the main configuration occurs in the temperature range of 50–100°C and is characterized by the activation energy ～1.25 eV and a frequency factor of ～5 × 10¹⁵ s^–1. The determined defect is thermally stable at temperatures as high as T ～ 450 K. It is assumed that this defect can either be a complex of an intrinsic interstitial silicon atom with an interstitial carbon atom or a complex consisting of an intrinsic interstitial silicon atom with an interstitial boron atom.     

The variation in activity of recombination centers in silicon <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> structures under the conditions of acoustic loading

Using the method of differential coefficients of current-voltage characteristics, deep levels in the Cz-Si p-n structures are studied under the ultrasonic loading conditions (longitudinal waves of a frequency of 4–26 MHz and intensity as high as 0.6 W/cm²). The levels with thermal activation energy of 0.44, 0.40, 0.37, 0.48, and 0.46 eV are revealed. It is assumed that these levels are associated with the E center, bistable B_SO_2i complex, and interstitial atoms captured by dislocation loops, respectively. It is established that ultrasound induces an increase in the contribution to the recombination processes of shallower levels and a decrease in activation energy of defects. The possibility of acoustoinduced reversible reconstruction of the configuration of the B_SO_2i complex is analyzed.     

Channel-quality-aware multihop broadcast for asynchronous multi-channel wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we propose Multi-channel EMBA (M-EMBA), efficient multihop broadcast for asynchronous multi-channel wireless sensor networks. Our scheme employs two channel-quality-aware forwarding policies of improved forwarder’s guidance and fast forwarding to improve multihop broadcast performance. The improved forwarder’s guidance allows forwarders to transmit broadcast messages with guidance to their receivers through channels with good quality. The guidance indicates how each receiver should forward the broadcast message to its neighbor nodes. The improved forwarder’s guidance tremendously reduces redundant transmissions and collisions. Fast forwarding allows adjacent forwarders to send their broadcast messages simultaneously through different channels that have good quality, which helps to reduce multihop broadcast latency and improve multi-channel broadcast utility. In this work, we evaluate the multihop broadcast performance of M-EMBA through theoretical analysis of the system design and empirical simulation-based analysis. We implement M-EMBA in ns-2 and compare it with the broadcast schemes of ARM, EM-MAC, and MuchMAC. The performance results show that M-EMBA outperforms these protocols in both light and heavy network traffic. M-EMBA reduces message cost in terms of goodput, total bytes transmitted, as well as broadcast redundancy and collision. M-EMBA also achieves a high broadcast success ratio and low multihop broadcast latency. Finally, M-EMBA significantly improves energy efficiency by reducing average duty cycle.     

A Novel Cooperative Communication System Based on Multilevel Convolutional Codes

The authors propose a system where single antenna mobile users share antennas to transmit their information cooperatively to the common base station. Each mobile user overhears the coded information transmitted by other users, detects it and further encodes it along with its own information. The encoding is done using multilevel coding scheme with convolutional codes as component codes. The proposed system considers the self-information of user u at level u to reduce complexity while decoding. The coded symbols are mapped to M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation constellation using multi-resolution modulation partitioning. This enables the component codes to be designed for lower order constellation. Each cooperative user transmits multilevel coded symbols to the common base station, thus creating transmit diversity. The base station receives noisy superposition of independent Rayleigh faded signals transmitted by cooperative users and pass it through a multistage decoder. The multistage decoder employs maximum likelihood based Viterbi decoder at each stage to detect the information of each user. The Viterbi decoder applies max-log approximation to reduce the branch metric complexity. The proposed cooperative multilevel coding system outperforms non-cooperative multilevel coding system and is less complex than the existing cooperative multilevel coding system.     

Simulation of Electronic Center Formation by Irradiation in Silicon Crystals

We present the results of a study on localized electronic centers formed in crystals by external influences (impurity introduction and irradiation). The main aim is to determine the nature of these centers in the forbidden gap of the energy states of the crystal lattice. For the case of semiconductors, silicon (Si) was applied as model material to determine the energy levels and concentration of radiation defects for application to both doped and other materials. This method relies on solving the appropriate equation describing the variation of the charge carrier concentration as a function of temperature n(T) for silicon crystals with two different energy levels and for a large set of N ₁, N ₂ (concentrations of electronic centers at each level), and n values. A total of almost 500 such combinations were found. For silicon, energy level values of ε ₁ = 0.22 eV and ε ₂ = 0.34 eV were used for the forbidden gap (with corresponding slopes determined from experimental temperature-dependent Hall-effect measurements) and compared with photoconductivity spectra. Additionally, it was shown that, for particular correlations among N ₁, N ₂, and n, curve slopes of ε ₁/2 = 0.11 eV, ε ₂/2 = 0.17 eV, and α = 1/2(ε ₁ + ε ₂) = 0.28 eV also apply. Comparison between experimental results for irradiation of silicon crystals by 3.5-MeV energy electrons and Co⁶⁰ γ-quanta revealed that the n(T) curve slopes do not always coincide with the actual energy levels (electronic centers).     

Energy parameters of two-electron tin centers in PbSe

Relations that make it possible to use an experimentally measured temperature dependence of carrier concentration to determine the Hubbard energy U and temperature dependence of the Fermi level F for two-electron tin centers in lead selenide are derived. A study of Pb_1?x?ySn_xNa_ySe solid solutions shows that their Fermi level in the temperature region 100–600 K lies below the valence band top E _v and that their F(T) dependences are linear, with extrapolation to T = 0 yielding E _V ?F = 210±10 meV. The Hubbard energy of the two-electron tin centers in PbSe is found to be U = ?80±20 meV.     

An online cost-efficient protection scheme for quick recovery in all-optical WDM mesh networks

Since a single fiber carries a huge amount of data in optical WDM networks, a fiber cut even for a brief period is a very serious event. Designing schemes to prevent disruption of user traffic and recovery techniques from failures is thus an important area of research. Since a single fiber cut is the most common type of fault, in this paper we address the problem of protecting all-optical WDM mesh networks from single link failure. Our proposed online protection scheme is an improvement over an existing approach and is not only cost-efficient in terms of network resource consumption but can also provide quick recovery from a link failure. We first provide an ILP formulation for the problem and then propose a heuristic solution iStreams that can provide near-optimal solution in polynomial time. Performance comparisons with some well-known schemes of protection show that our heuristic algorithm can be a better choice for conserving resource while providing quick recovery from a link failure.     

DE-BAR: Device Energy-Centric Backlight and Adaptive Region of Interest Mechanism for Wireless Mobile Devices

One of the main challenges in the smart-phone world is that they are battery constrained and the development of battery technologies have not kept pace with the required energy demand. In particular, there are still significant technological gaps on developing energy-aware solutions that would prolong the battery life of devices without affecting the quality of the distributed video/multimedia content. In this aspect, this paper proposes DE-BAR—a process based innovation that will provide a seamless battery saving mechanism, based on backlight and adaptive region of interest of the streamed multimedia content. This work intends to look at the nature of the video/multimedia content that is received in the device and adapts the energy consumption dynamically at three levels: Screen Colour, backlight and Intensity; and adaptive Region-of-Interest (RoI) based variation in the multimedia content. Notably, the work provides the mechanism for real-time adaptation. The colour intensity, number of RoI for the video sequence and the frame rate is decided by the spatial and temporal complexity of the video. The energy consumption is measured using an Arduino board while video quality is analyzed using extensive subjective tests. The results indicate that more than 50% energy could be saved in the device while retaining above average perceptual video quality.     

Incentive Mechanisms for Cooperative Wireless Networks with Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard

Cooperative communication is a promising technique to improve utilization of the wireless spectrum resource. However, due to the limited wireless network resource, the selfish relay nodes may be unwilling to offer their relay help without any extra incentive. In this work, we study a contract-based mechanism for incentivizing cooperative relay in the presence of the dual asymmetric information. By modelling multi-user cooperative relay as a labour market, a principal-agent model is proposed with the combination of relay power, basic wage and relay bonus in the continuous type scenario. And an optimization problem of multi-user relay incentive is formulated to achieve the twin objectives of ability-discrimination and effort-incentive. Numerical results show that the optimal contract design scheme is effective in improving the performance of cooperative communication.