Complexity reduction in subspace-based blind channel identificationfor DS/CDMA systems

Direct-sequence code-division multiple access is emerging as a potential multiple-access communication scheme for future digital wireless communications systems. Such wide-band systems usually operate in a frequency-selective fading channel that introduces intersymbol interference and thus potential performance degradation. Previously proposed subspace-based blind channel identification algorithms, which provide estimates of channel parameters for effective equalization, suffer from high numerical complexity for systems with large spreading gains. In this paper, it is shown that, through the use of matched filter outputs, reduction in numerical complexity can be obtained. The complexity reduction is considerable when the channel length is small and the system is moderately loaded. The results show that the new algorithm suffers a slight performance loss. Although the employed matched filter outputs do not form a set of sufficient statistics for the unknown channels, the difference between the matched filter outputs and the sufficient statistics becomes negligible for large observation lengths and the asymptotic normalized Fisher information does not change. Performance is evaluated through simulations, the derivation of a tight approximation of the mean-squared channel estimation error, and through comparisons to the Cramer-Rao bound for the estimation error variance. It is shown that the approximation of the mean-squared error can be obtained in terms of the correlation of the spreading codes and the channels. This representation of the error supplies a tool for investigating the relationship between performance and spreading sequence correlations     

Fast motion estimation for H.264

Several specific features have been incorporated into Motion estimation (ME) in H.264 coding standard to improve its coding efficiency. However, they result in very high computational load. In this paper, a fast ME algorithm is proposed to reduce the computational complexity. First, a mode discriminant method is used to free the encoder from checking the small block size modes in homogeneous regions. Second, a condensed hierarchical block matching method and a spatial neighbor searching scheme are employed to find the best full-pixel motion vector. Finally, direction-based selection rule is utilized to reduce the searching range in sub-pixel ME process. Experimental results on commonly used QCIF and CIF format test sequences have shown that the proposed algorithm achieves a reduction of 88% ME process time on average, while incurring only 0.033 dB loss in PSNR and 0.50% increment on the total bit rate compared with that of exhaustive ME process, which is a default approach adopted in the JM reference software.     

Development on astable multivibrators using the combination of linear and non-linear materials as switching elements based on all optial method

In this communication we propose a method to implement an all-optical astable multivibrator using the non-linear material based switches and logic gates. The scheme can operate in real time. The delay time can achieve ps(pico-second). The pulse duration can be made very low and may cross the THz easily by selecting proper material and laser source.     

An improved blind adaptive MMSE receiver for fast fading DS-CDMAchannels

Blind adaptive minimum mean-squared errors (MMSE) receivers for multiuser direct-sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems that assume knowledge of the steering vector, i.e., the cross-correlation between the desired output and the input signal, are known for their robustness against channel fading as they do not attempt to explicitly track the channel of the user of interest. However, these receivers often have higher excess mean squared error and, hence, poorer performance than training-sequence based adaptive MMSE receivers. In this paper, an improved correlation matrix estimation scheme for blind adaptive MMSE receivers is provided. The new scheme takes advantage of the fact that the desired linear receiver can be expressed as a function of the interference correlation matrix only, rather than the total data correlation matrix. A theoretical analysis is performed for the flat fading case which predicts that the new estimation scheme will result in significant performance improvement. Blind adaptive MMSE receivers with the new estimation scheme appear to achieve performance comparable to the training-sequence based adaptive MMSE receivers. Detailed computer simulations for the fast multipath fading environment verify that the proposed scheme yields strong performance gains over previous methods     

Performance and Modeling of the MWIR HgCdTe Electron Avalanche Photodiode

The operation of the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) HgCdTe cylindrical electron injection avalanche photodiode (e-APD) is described. The measured gain and excess noise factor are related to the collection region fill factor. A two-dimensional diffusion model calculates the time-dependent response and steady-state pixel point spread function for cylindrical diodes, and predicts bandwidths near 1 GHz for small geometries. A 2 μm diameter spot scan system was developed for point spread function and crosstalk measurements at 80 K. An electron diffusion length of 13.4 μm was extracted from spot scan data. Bandwidth data are shown that indicate bandwidths in excess of 300 MHz for small unit cells geometries. Dark current data, at high gain levels, indicate an effective gain normalized dark density count as low as 1000 counts/μs/cm² at an APD gain of 444. A junction doping profile was determined from capacitance–voltage data. Spectral response data shows a gain-independent characteristic.     

Adaptive decorrelating detectors for CDMA systems

Multi-user detection allows for the efficient use of bandwidth in Code-Division Multiple-Access (CDMA) channels through mitigation of near-far effects and multiple-access noise limitations. Due to its inherent noise and multipath immunity, CDMA multi-access is being considered as a platform for personal communication systems (PCS). As CDMA based digital communication networks proliferate, the need to determine the presence of a new user and integrate knowledge of this new user into the detection scheme becomes more important. The decorrelating detector is a linear multi-user detector that is asymptotically optimal in terms of near far resistance; however, in the presence of a new unknown user, performance of the decorrelator is severely degraded. Adaptive decorrelators are constructed which adaptively augment an existing conventional decorrelator to demodulate a new active user in addition to existing users. Several likelihood ratio based schemes are employed. Both synchronous and asynchronous communication are investigated.This research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office under Grant DAAH04-93-G-0219.     

A simple method for designing high-quality prototype filters forM-band pseudo QMF banks

Discusses a new method for designing the prototype filters necessary to implement M-band pseudo QMF banks. This method does not rely on the traditional nonlinear optimization used in past work but rather optimizes a single parameter on a convex error surface, consistently delivering the best equiripple filter possible while minimizing the overlapped passband distortion. A very simple algorithm for designing lowpass prototype filters suitable for use in pseudo QMF banks is described. To illustrate the applicability of this algorithm, two different filters are designed, both for such applications as wideband audio coding that require high quality reconstructed signals     

Modeling subjectively perceived annoyance of H.264/AVC video as a function of perceived artifact strength

This paper is concerned with the subjective perception of video coding artifacts in H.264/AVC encoded and decoded video. Our objective is to model the perceived annoyance of such low bit rate video sequences as a function of perceived artifact strength. We introduce a new method for determining this function and apply it to the data from two psychophysical experiments. Both experiments produced numerical judgments of the subjectively perceived annoyance of artifact combinations and the perceived strength of the respective coding artifacts. Our method produces a discrete multi-dimensional representation of the relationships in the data from which the function relating annoyance to artifact strength is derived. The method is applied to the data of the first experiment and the resulting function is shown to describe the data from the second experiment as well.     

Reduced-rank multistage receivers for DS-CDMA in frequency-selective fading channels

Multistage (MS) implementation of the minimum mean-square error (MMSE), minimum output energy (MOE), best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE), and maximum-likelihood (ML) filter banks (FBs) is developed based on the concept of the MS Wiener filtering (MSWF) introduced by Goldstein et al. These FBs are shown to share a common MS structure for interference suppression, modulo a distinctive scaling matrix at each filter's output. Based on this finding, a framework is proposed for joint channel estimation and multiuser detection (MUD) in frequency-selective fading channels. Adaptive reduced-rank equal gain combining (EGC) schemes for this family of FBs (MMSE, MOE, BLUE, and ML) are proposed for noncoherent blind MUD of direct-sequence code-division multiple-access systems, and contrasted with the maximal ratio combining counterparts that are also formed with the proposed common structure under the assumption of known channel-state information. The bit-error rate, steady-state output signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR), and convergence of the output SINRs are investigated via computer simulation. Simulation results indicate that the output SINRs attain full-rank performance with much lower rank for a highly loaded system, and that the adaptive reduced-rank EGC BLUE/ML FBs outperform the EGC MMSE/MOE FBs, due to the unbiased nature of the implicit BLUE channel estimators employed in the EGC BLUE/ML schemes.     

MOVPE growth of HgCdTe for high performance 3–5 µm photodiodes operating at 100–180K

New results are reported on the growth of high performance medium wavelength infrared (3–5 μm) (MWIR) HgCdTe photodiodes in the three-layer P-n-N configuration. The detector structures were grown in situ by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) on (211)B oriented CdZnTe substrates. The mobilities of the single n-type layers with x-values of ∼0.30 are in the range of (3–4.5)×10⁴ cm²/V-s at 80K. The lifetimes on unpassivated films range from 1–5 and 4–10 μs at 80 and 180K, respectively, which are within a factor of two or less of the lifetimes calculated for Auger-1 and radiative recombination. The P-n-N films were processed into variable-area backside-illuminated diagnostic arrays and tested for quantum efficiency, spectral response, R_DA, I–V curves and 1/f noise in the 120–180K range. The internal one-dimensional quantum efficiencies are in the range of 85–100%. The optical collection lengths are typically ∼25 μm. I–V curves showed that diffusion current is the dominant junction current mechanism for temperatures ≥100K. R₀A values are at the one-dimensional limit for n-side diffusion currents over the 100–180K range. 1/f noise was measured to be very low at 120K and is the same as that measured in similarly processed arrays from recent LPE grown P-on-N heterojunctions. The results demonstrate that MOVPE growth can be used for large area, high performance MWIR HgCdTe detector arrays operating in the 120–180K temperature range.