Software reliability estimations for telecommunications products

Reliability of software used in telecommunications networks is a crucial determinant of network performance. Software reliability (SR) estimation is an important element of a network product's reliability management. In particular, SR estimation can guide the product's system testing process and releasability decisions. SR estimation is performed using an appropriate SR estimation model. However, the art of SR estimation is still evolving. There are many available SR estimation models to select from, with different models being appropriate for different applications. Although there is no “ultimate” and “universal” SR model on the horizon (and there may not be one in the foreseeable future), methods have been developed for selecting a trustworthy SR model for each application. The present authors have been analyzing and adapting these methods for applicability to network software. Their results indicate that there already exist methods for SR model selection which are practical to use for telecommunications software. If utilized, these methods can promote significant improvements in SR management. The paper presents the results to date     

A software tool to support the reliability design and evaluation oftelecommunication networks

Highly reliable telecommunication networks require new technologies, such as the reliability specification, design, and evaluation method used at NTT. This paper describes the basic concepts of this method, and the ARDES-NET (Availability Reliability Design and Evaluation System for NETworks) software tool is used to support the reliability design and evaluation. ARDESNET has a user-friendly interface and can be easily put into practice     

Advanced service provisioning in a partly digitalized networkenvironment

Considering the given situation in the Hungarian telecommunications infrastructure and the prompt demands for advanced services, this paper describes an individual solution to provide intelligent services in the mixed analog and partly digitalized Hungarian public telephone network. The preIN system is based on co-located stand-alone units equipped with SSP/SCP functionality     

Focusing characteristics of a wide-striped laser diode integratedwith a microlens

We developed a wide-striped laser diode integrated with a microlens that provides good focusing characteristics through a small focusing spot. We calculated and demonstrated that a 60-μm-wide core and a 1.9-μm-high ridge is the best structure for fundamental index-guiding mode oscillation of a wide-striped laser diode. We integrated a wide-striped laser diode with the developed microlens in the Fresnel diffraction held, and demonstrated that a device with a 60-μm-wide core has a minimum focusing spot width of 2.0 μm in the horizontal direction. Also, we estimated the wavefront in the Fresnel diffraction field from the working distance error of a lens designed for a collimated incident beam, and showed that the working distance error, focusing spot width, and sidelobe can be improved by this estimated wavefront     

A tractable large-signal dynamic model-application to stronglycoupled distributed feedback lasers

The modulation characteristics of DFB semiconductor lasers have been studied using a transfer matrix method combined with an appropriate rate equation analysis. The model takes into account longitudinal mode spatial hole burning, as well as the nonuniform current injection resulting from the axially varying Fermi voltage, and can be used for the efficient simulation of static, small-signal, and large-signal dynamic properties. The program is applied to the interpretation of experimental data from a strongly coupled InGaAsP/InP DFB laser. The experimental high-frequency properties of this device are well described by the simulations     

Ultralow sidelobe-level integrated acoustooptic tunable filtersusing tapered-gap surface acoustic wave directional couplers

We propose a new weighted-coupling scheme using tapered-gap surface acoustic wave directional couplers for realization of ultralow sidelobe-level integrated acoustooptic tunable filters (IAOTF's). Appropriate design analysis has been carried out for 30-mm-long filters operating at an optical wavelength of 1.55 μm in an X-cut Y-propagating LiNbO₃ substrate. New synthesized weighting functions have been used for the improvement of sidelobe level suppression over existing single-stage filters by as much as 27 dB. The -20 dB mainlobe width of the resulting IAOTF's varies from 2.7 to 3.9 nm only for the worst sidelobe levels ranging from -30.6 to -44.7 dB, respectively. It has also been shown that further suppression of sidelobe levels by 3-9 dB is possible if the filter is underdriven at 80% mode-conversion efficiency     

Computationally efficient methods for bit-error rate evaluation inweakly coherent optical systems

A semianalytical method to estimate the bit-error rate performance of nonsynchronous ASK and FSK optical heterodyne systems is presented. This approach takes into account numerous system details with an accuracy similar to Monte-Carlo simulation, but with a computation time reduced by several orders of magnitude. An analytical approximation, based on a closed-form expression for the decision variable moment generating function, is also presented. The results obtained with the semianalytical method and the analytical approximation are compared to Monte-Carlo simulation results and to measurements obtained on a practical FSK system     

A time domain approach for avoiding crosstalk in optical blockingmultistage interconnection networks

Crosstalk in multistage interconnection networks can be avoided by ensuring that a switch is not used by two connections simultaneously, in order to support crosstalk-free communications among N inputs and N outputs, a space domain approach dilates an N×N network into one that is essentially equivalent to a 2N×2N network. Path conflicts, however may still exist in dilated networks. This paper proposes a time domain approach for avoiding crosstalk. Such an approach can be regarded as “dilating” a network in time, instead of space. More specifically, the connections that need to use the same switch are established during different time slots. This way, path conflicts are automatically avoided. The time domain dilation is useful for overcoming the limits on the network size while utilizing the high bandwidth of optical interconnects. We study the set of permutations whose crosstalk-free connections can be established in just two time slots using the time domain approach. While the space domain approach trades hardware complexity for crosstalk-free communications, the time domain approach trades time complexity. We compare the proposed time domain to the space domain approach by analyzing the tradeoffs involved in these two approaches     

Bounds on the symmetric binary cutoff rate for dispersive Gaussianchannels

Bounds on the symmetric binary cutoff rate for a pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) signaling over dispersive Gaussian channels are evaluated and discussed. These easily calculable bounds can be used to estimate the reliable rate of information transmission and the error exponent behavior for binary (two-level) PAM schemes, operating through a prefiltered additive white Gaussian channel, the memory of which is long enough to make the exact evaluation of the cutoff rate formidable. The core of the bounding technique relies on a probabilistic interpretation of a fundamental theorem in matrix theory, regarding the logarithm of the largest eigenvalue of a nonnegative primitive matrix, commonly applied in large deviation problems. These bounds are calculated for some examples and their respective tightness is considered. Further potential applications of the proposed bounding technique are pointed out     

Parallel implementation of large-scale structural optimization

Advances in computer technology and performance allow researchers to pose useful optimization problems that were previously too large for consideration. For example, NASA Langley Research Center is investigating the large structural optimization problems that arise in aircraft design. The total number of design variables and constraints for these nonlinear optimization problems is now an order of magnitude larger than anything previously reported. To find solutions in a reasonable amount of time, a coarse-grained parallel-processing algorithm is recommended. This paper studies the effects of problem size on sequential and parallel versions of this algorithm.For initial testing of this algorithm, a hub frame optimization problem is devised such that the size of the problem can be adjusted by adding members and load cases. Numerous convergence histories demonstrate that the algorithm performs correctly and in a robust manner. Timing profiles for a wide range of randomly generated problems highlight the changes in the subroutine timings that are caused by the increase in problem size. The potential benefits and drawbacks associated with the parallel approach are summarized.