A fuzzy control scheme for video transmission in Bluetooth wireless

This paper is concerned with transmission of Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) video over a Bluetooth wireless network using a fuzzy approach. MPEG Variable Bit Rate (VBR) video sources suffer from long delay and excessive loss due to the sudden bursts in bit rate. Constant Bit Rate (CBR) encoding scheme may work well for a network with a guaranteed bandwidth. However, a Bluetooth channel is subject to wireless interference and can never guarantee a constant bandwidth. Subsequently, it is impossible to transmit a CBR video over Bluetooth wireless without data loss or image quality degradation. To resolve this problem, a fuzzy control system is introduced at the Host Controller Interface (HCI). The system consists of a traffic-shaping buffer whose role is to prevent excessive back-to-back cells being generated during the peak transmissions of MPEG video sources. The output bit rate of the traffic-shaping buffer is controlled by a fuzzy controller to ensure that the video stream from the host conforms to the traffic condition of the Bluetooth channel. Another fuzzy controller regulates the average arrival bit rate to the traffic-shaper to guarantee that the buffer is neither full nor empty. Computer simulation results demonstrate that the use of the fuzzy controllers reduces excessive data loss at the HCI as compared with an open loop VBR/CBR video transmission in Bluetooth.     

A QoS Estimation-Based Scheduler for Real-Time Traffic in IEEE 802.11e Mobile Ad hoc Networks

ABSTRACT

For mobile ad hoc networks, the IEEE 802.11e standard specification provides Quality of Service (QoS) facility support in the MAC layer by Enhanced Distribution Channel Access (EDCA), which provides differentiated and distributed access to the wireless medium with four access categories (AC). It works efficiently for constant bit rate (CBR) types of traffic; however, for the case of variable bit rate (VBR) types of traffic, it shows poor performance due to the static nature of computing the number of packets and the time required to transmit these packets. In this paper, we present an EDCA scheduling algorithm that allocates transmission opportunities (TXOP) for fluctuating VBR traffic depending on their queue length estimations for mobile ad hoc networks. We classify the channel state as good or bad based on the channel error conditions. Then the scheduler determines the mean application data rate and estimates the TXOP for the next interval on the same Traffic Stream (TS). By simulation results, we show that the proposed scheduling scheme achieves good throughput and fairness with reduced delay for the VBR traffic class.     

The interdeparture time distribution for each class in the ∑Mi/Gi/1 queue with set-up times and repeated server vacations

This paper studies the interdeparture time distribution of one class of customers who arrive at a single server queue where customers of several classes are served and where the server takes a vacation whenever the system becomes empty or is empty when the server returns from a vacation. Furthermore, the first customer in the busy period is allowed to have an exceptional service time (set-up time), depending on the class to which this customer belongs. Batches of customers of each class arrive according to independent Poisson processes and compete with each other on a FIFO basis. All customers who belong to the same class are served according to a common generally distributed service time. Service times, batch sizes and the arrival process are all assumed to be mutually independent. Successive vacation times of the server form independent and identically distributed sequences with a general distribution.For this queueing model we obtain the Laplace transform of the interdeparture time distribution for each class of customers whose batch size is geometrically distributed. No explicit assumptions of the batch size distributions of the other classes of customers are necessary to obtain the results.The paper ends by showing how the mathematical results can be used to evaluate a protocol that controls access to a shared medium of an ATM passive optical network. The numerical results presented in the last section of this paper show that the bundle spacing principle that is used by the permit distribution algorithm of this protocol introduces high delays and in many cases also more variable interdeparture times for the ATM cells of individual connections. An alternative algorithm is proposed that does not cope with these performance short comings and at the same time conserves the good properties of the protocol.     

Hitting the wall: errors in developing and code inspecting a ‘simple' spreadsheet model

Field audits and experiments have found substantial error rates when students and professionals have built spreadsheet models. In this study, 102 undergraduate MIS majors and 50 MBA students developed a model from a word problem that was relatively simple and free of domain knowledge. Even so, 35% of their 152 models were incorrect. There was no significant difference in errors per model between undergraduates and MBAs. Even among the 17 MBAs with 250 h or more of experience, 24% of the models contained errors. The cell error rate (CER)—the percentage of cells with errors—was 2.0%. When 23 undergraduates attempted to audit their models through code inspection, only three with incorrect spreadsheets (15%) produced clean spreadsheets when they finished the audit.     

EO characteristics for a photoaligned VA‐1/4 π cell on a photopolymer layer

The generation of a liquid‐crystal (LC) tilt angle on a copolymer with chalconyl and cholesteryl moiety characteristics was performed, and the electro‐optical (EO) performance of the photoaligned vertical‐alignment (VA) 1/4 π cell by polarized UV exposure on a homeotropic photopolymer surfaces was studied. The LC tilt angles decreased as UV exposure time increased on the copolymer surfaces. A tilt angle of 87° in NLC was observed with an UV exposure of 3 min on the photoalignment‐2 surface. The LC tilt angle is attributed to increased chalcone moiety with increasing UV exposure time. Excellent voltage‐transmittance (V‐T) curves of the photoaligned VA 1/4 π cell by polarized UV exposure on the photopolymer surface for 3 min containing a cholesteryl moiety of 8% were obtained. The V‐T and response‐time characteristics can be improved by the presence of a cholesteryl moiety in the photopolymer.