Design issues and performance analysis for DSR routing with reclaim‐based caching in MANETs

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) have been positioned as one of the most important emerging wireless communication scenarios. Temporally formed by a collection of wireless mobile hosts, a MANET does not require the aid of any centralized administration. From this stems a suite of challenges in achieving an efficient MANET routing and content delivery in order to make the best use of precious resources and reduce the routing overhead at each MANET host. One of the reported approaches for solving the issue is the use of caching, which is expected to minimize the routing overhead by taking advantage of the limited memory at each mobile host. This paper introduces a novel scheme for addressing the above issue, called Reclaim‐Based Caching (RBC) policy, which dynamically utilizes a cache replacement mechanism of reclaiming stale routes to efficiently verify and validate a recoverable caching mechanism in Dynamic Source Routing. The main design purposes of RBC are to reduce the routing control overhead, lower the end‐to‐end routing delay, enhance the packet delivery ratio, and obtain a higher throughput for improving routing performance and accelerating the Route Discovery process due to low temporary link failure and high cache utilization. Hence, we can gather all feasible and historical route information into the cache library to be reclaimed as a threshold of efficient routing control. Consequently, the proposed RBC of this paper can be used in the universal wireless network environment to achieve better routing performance and to provide a more flexible real‐time application. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Low‐Complexity 128‐Point Mixed‐Radix FFT Processor for MB‐OFDM UWB Systems

In this paper, we present a fast Fourier transform (FFT) processor with four parallel data paths for multiband orthogonal frequency‐division multiplexing ultra‐wideband systems. The proposed 128‐point FFT processor employs both a modified radix‐2⁴ algorithm and a radix‐2³ algorithm to significantly reduce the numbers of complex constant multipliers and complex booth multipliers. It also employs substructure‐sharing multiplication units instead of constant multipliers to efficiently conduct multiplication operations with only addition and shift operations. The proposed FFT processor is implemented and tested using 0.18 µm CMOS technology with a supply voltage of 1.8 V. The hardware‐ efficient 128‐point FFT processor with four data streams can support a data processing rate of up to 1 Gsample/s while consuming 112 mW. The implementation results show that the proposed 128‐point mixed‐radix FFT architecture significantly reduces the hardware cost and power consumption in comparison to existing 128‐point FFT architectures.     

Low‐Power 512‐Bit EEPROM Designed for UHF RFID Tag Chip

In this paper, the design of a low‐power 512‐bit synchronous EEPROM for a passive UHF RFID tag chip is presented. We apply low‐power schemes, such as dual power supply voltage (VDD=1.5 V and VDDP=2.5 V), clocked inverter sensing, voltage‐up converter, I/O interface, and Dickson charge pump using Schottky diode. An EEPROM is fabricated with the 0.25 μm EEPROM process. Power dissipation is 32.78 μW in the read cycle and 78.05 μW in the write cycle. The layout size is 449.3 μm × 480.67 μm.     

Shorted Microstrip Patch Antenna Using Inductively Coupled Feed for UHF RFID Tag

A very small patch‐type RFID tag antenna (UHF band) using ceramic material mountable on metallic surfaces is presented. The size of the proposed tag is 25 mm×25 mm×3 mm. The impedance of the antenna can be easily matched to the tag chip impedance by adjusting the size of the shorting plate of the patch and the size of the feeding loop. The measured maximum reading distance of the tag at 910 MHz was 5 m when it was mounted on a 400 mm × 400 mm metallic surface. The proposed design is verified by simulation and measurements which show good agreement.     

iPTT: peer‐to‐peer push‐to‐talk for VoIP

This paper proposes iPTT, a peer‐to‐peer (P2P) Push‐to‐Talk (PTT) service for Voice over IP (VoIP). In iPTT, a distributed and mobile‐operator independent network architecture is presented to accelerate the deployment of the PTT service. Based on the serverless architecture, we develop two mechanisms, that is, flooding‐based floor control mechanism (FFC) and tree‐based floor control mechanism (TFC), for real‐time talk‐burst determination. The determination algorithms and the corresponding message flows for these two mechanisms are designed to show the feasibility of FFC and TFC. The performance of FFC and TFC is investigated through our analytical and simulation models in terms of the determination latency and the number of floor‐control message exchanges. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

As Doping in (Hg,Cd)Te: An Alternative Point of View

Acceptor doping of many II–VI compound semiconductors has proved problematic and doping of epitaxial mercury cadmium telluride (MCT, Hg_1−x Cd _x Te) with arsenic is no exception. High-temperature (>400°C) anneals followed by a lower temperature mercury-rich vacancy-filling anneal are frequently required to activate the dopant. The model frequently used to explain p-type doping with arsenic invokes an amphoteric nature of group V atoms in the II–VI lattice. This requires that group VI substitution with arsenic only occurs under mercury-rich conditions either during growth or the subsequent annealing and involves site switching of the As. However, there are inconsistencies in the amphoteric model and unexplained experimental observations, including arsenic which is 100% active as grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE). A new model, based on hydrogen passivation of the arsenic, is therefore proposed.     

Fully Solution‐Processed Photonic Structures from Inorganic/Organic Molecular Hybrid Materials and Commodity Polymers

Managing the interference effects from thin (multi‐)layers allows for the control of the optical transmittance/reflectance of widely used and technologically significant structures such as antireflection coatings (ARCs) and distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). These rely on the destructive/constructive interference between incident, reflected, and transmitted radiation. While known for over a century and having been extremely well investigated, the emergence of printable and large‐area electronics brings a new emphasis: the development of materials capable of transferring well‐established ideas to a solution‐based production. Here, demonstrated is the solution‐fabrication of ARCs and DBRs utilizing alternating layers of commodity plastics and recently developed organic/inorganic hybrid materials comprised of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVAl), cross‐linked with titanium oxide hydrates. Dip‐coated ARCs exhibit an 88% reduction in reflectance across the visible compared to uncoated glass, and fully solution‐coated DBRs provide a reflection of >99% across a 100 nm spectral band in the visible region. Detailed comparisons with transfermatrix methods (TMM) highlight their excellent optical quality including extremely low optical losses. Beneficially, when exposed to elevated temperatures, the hybrid material can display a notable, reproducible, and irreversible change in refractive index and film thickness while maintaining excellent optical performance allowing postdeposition tuning, e.g., for thermo‐responsive applications, including security features and product‐storage environment monitoring.     

Large‐area epitaxial silicon solar cells based on industrial screen‐printing processes

Thin‐film epitaxial silicon solar cells are an attractive future alternative for bulk silicon solar cells incorporating many of the process advantages of the latter, but on a potentially cheap substrate. Several challenges have to be tackled before this potential can be successfully exploited on a large scale. This paper describes the points of interest and how IMEC aims to solve them. It presents a new step forward towards our final objective: the development of an industrial cell process based on screen‐printing for > 15% efficient epitaxial silicon solar cells on a low‐cost substrate. Included in the discussion are the substrates onto which the epitaxial deposition is done and how work is progressing in several research institutes and universities on the topic of a high‐throughput epitaxial reactor. The industrial screen‐printing process sequence developed at IMEC for these epitaxial silicon solar cells is presented, with emphasis on plasma texturing and improvement of the quality of the epitaxial layer. Efficiencies between 12 and 13% are presented for large‐area (98 cm²) epitaxial layers on highly doped UMG‐Si, off‐spec and reclaim material. Finally, the need for an internal reflection scheme is explained. A realistically achievable internal reflection at the epi/substrate interface of 70% will result in a calculated increase of 3 mA/cm² in short‐circuit current. An interfacial stack of porous silicon layers (Bragg reflectors) is chosen as a promising candidate and the challenges facing its incorporation between the epitaxial layer and the substrate are presented. Experimental work on this topic is reported and concentrates on the extraction of the internal reflection at the epi/substrate interface from reflectance measurements. Initial results show an internal reflectance between 30 and 60% with a four‐layer porous silicon stack. Resistance measurements for majority carrier flow through these porous silicon stacks are also included and show that no resistance increase is measurable for stacks up to four layers. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhanced fair earliest due date first scheduling strategy for multimedia applications in LTE downlink framework

Guaranteeing a certain delay threshold for delay‐sensitive applications in long term evolution (LTE) cellular communication system is a very challenging mission. By implementing an optimal scheduling strategy, this mission will be achieved. In this article, a novel scheduler is introduced in order to meet a predefined level of service quality by guaranteeing a specific delay threshold for delay‐sensitive applications in LTE cellular systems. The proposed scheduler assigns the available resource blocks (RBs) to active user equipments (UEs) tacking into consideration several attributes. The expiration date of each packet, the channel quality, the average data rate previously achieved by each UE, and the number of dropped packets for each UE compared with the average number of packets totally dropped are all considered in the proposed scheduler working mechanism. Consequently, the proposed scheduling strategy reduces the number of packets dropped for multimedia applications, and at the same time maximizes the overall throughput of the network. Simulation results are provided to study and evaluate the performance of the proposed scheduling strategy. A comparative study is presented between the proposed strategy and the most recent scheduling techniques. The obtained results prove that the proposed scheduling strategy has considerably acceptable and appreciated results compared with the results of the state‐of‐the‐art scheduling techniques.     

A Critical Review on Functionalization of Air‐Cathodes for Nonaqueous Li–O2 Batteries

This review reports on the most updated technological aspects of Li–air battery cathode materials. It provides the reader with recent developments, alongside critical views. The requirements for air‐cathodes, as well as the classification and characterization of carbon‐based and carbon‐free air cathodes, are listed. The effects of two major substituent groups of materials, namely carbon and advanced materials (metals, metal‐oxides, metal‐carbides, and metal‐nitrides) aimed at replacing carbon, are discussed in terms of their chemical and electrochemical stability. The report covers aspects of surface chemistry and structure influence on the electrolyte and discharge products stability. The review also reports on the efforts to suppress side reactions and deterioration of the polymeric binders (if a composite electrode is being considered). This is recognized as a means to enhance Li–air battery performance. The report concludes with an outlook and perspective, providing the readers with some insight on other factors and their impact on the long road toward a viable air‐cathode suitable for Li–air battery operations.