Implementation of a High Throughput 3GPP Turbo Decoder on GPU

Turbo code is a computationally intensive channel code that is widely used in current and upcoming wireless standards. General-purpose graphics processor unit (GPGPU) is a programmable commodity processor that achieves high performance computation power by using many simple cores. In this paper, we present a 3GPP LTE compliant Turbo decoder accelerator that takes advantage of the processing power of GPU to offer fast Turbo decoding throughput. Several techniques are used to improve the performance of the decoder. To fully utilize the computational resources on GPU, our decoder can decode multiple codewords simultaneously, divide the workload for a single codeword across multiple cores, and pack multiple codewords to fit the single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instruction width. In addition, we use shared memory judiciously to enable hundreds of concurrent multiple threads while keeping frequently used data local to keep memory access fast. To improve efficiency of the decoder in the high SNR regime, we also present a low complexity early termination scheme based on average extrinsic LLR statistics. Finally, we examine how different workload partitioning choices affect the error correction performance and the decoder throughput.     

A New Union Bound on the Error Probability of Binary Coded OFDM Systems in Wireless Environments

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems are commonly used to mitigate frequency-selective multipath fading and provide high-speed data transmission. In this paper, we derive new union bounds on the error probability of a coded OFDM system in wireless environments. In particular, we consider convolutionally coded OFDM systems employing single and multiple transmit antennas over correlated block fading (CBF) channels with perfect channel state information (CSI). Results show that the new union bound is tight to simulation results. In addition, the bound accurately captures the effect of the correlation between sub-carriers channels. It is shown that as the channel becomes more frequency-selective, the performance get better due to the increased frequency diversity. Moreover, the bound also captures the effect of multi-antenna as space diversity. The proposed bounds can be applied for coded OFDM systems employing different coding schemes over different channel models.     

Dynamic properties of AlGaAs vertical cavity surface emitting lasers with active region based on submonolayer InAs insertions

It has been shown that the use of submonolayer InAs insertions as an active region of AlGaAs vertical cavity surface emitting lasers make it possible to attain resonant frequencies as high as 17 GHz. In this case, single-mode devices with a smaller diameter of the current aperture make it possible to attain higher frequencies at lower current densities than those of multimode devices with a larger aperture diameter. The maximum error-free data transmission rate in the direct modulation mode in NRZ format is 20 Gb/s and is limited by the parasitic cutoff frequency. The high resonant frequency suggests that further optimization of the device design, directed to decreasing the electrical capacitance and resistances, the data transmission rate in lasers based on submonolayer insertions can be increased to 40 Gb/s.     

An energy efficient joint localization and synchronization solution for wireless sensor networks using unmanned aerial vehicle

Localization and synchronization are fundamental services for many applications in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), since it is often required to know the sensor nodes’ position and global time to relate a given event detection to a specific location and time. However, the localization and synchronization tasks are often performed after the sensor nodes’ deployment on the sensor field. Since manual configuration of sensor nodes is usually an impractical activity, it is necessary to rely on specific algorithms to solve both localization and clock synchronization problems of sensor nodes. With this in mind, in this work we propose a joint solution for the problem of 3D localization and time synchronization in WSNs using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A UAV equipped with GPS flies over the sensor field broadcasting its geographical position. Therefore, sensor nodes are able to estimate their geographical position and global time without the need of equipping them with a GPS device. Through simulation experiments, we show that our proposed joint solution reduces time synchronization and localization errors as well as energy consumption when compared to solutions found in the literature.     

Mimo radar imaging model and algorithm

Based on the array architecture of multiple transmitting/receiving antennas, Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) radar provides a new mechanism for radar imaging technology. In order to explore the processing approach to this imaging mechanism, the two dimensional (2D) imaging model of MIMO radar is established first, and the spatial sampling ability is analyzed from the concept of spatial convolution of the antenna elements. The target spatial spectral filling format of MIMO radar with monochromatic transmitting signal is described. High-resolution imaging capability of MIMO radar is analyzed according to spatial spectral coverage and the corresponding imaging algorithm is presented. Finally, field imaging experiment is used to demonstrate the superior imaging performance of MIMO radar.     

Effect of Colloidal Silver on Optical Transmittance Characteristics of Bulk Cadmium Zinc Telluride Crystals

Colloidal silver is observed to affect the transmittance of p-type Cd_1−y Zn _y Te (CZT) single-crystal substrate material at room temperature. The optical transmittance spectra have been analyzed in the near-infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) regions. The transmittance characteristics of CZT showed significant reduction in absorption due to split-off valance band transitions in the NIR region and intervalence band absorption in the MIR region upon coating CZT substrates with silver paste. This reduction in absorption has been explained to be due to the compensation of the acceptor defects (native and foreign). Silver atoms incorporated from the silver coating help in compensation of these defects. A similar effect on transmittance characteristics of mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) epilayers grown on CZT substrates after coating silver paste on the CZT substrate side was also observed. An improvement in the transmittance of CZT substrates after the application of silver paste was observed. A similar improvement in transmittance is usually achieved by annealing the substrates in a Cd/Zn atmosphere. The results are explained by considering the formation of neutral complexes of acceptors (cadmium vacancies) and the interstitial silver. This study also points to the important conclusion that silver paste on CZT should be applied with caution for measurement purposes since it diffuses even at room temperature and modifies the optical characteristics.     

Electrical Conductivity of Graphene Composites with In and In-Ga Alloy

Samples of composites of graphene with indium or indium-gallium alloy as the matrix were prepared by a process of spreading exfoliated graphene oxide on the foils, repeatedly folding and rolling. The foils were intermittently annealed and the process repeated by addition of more graphene oxide. Indium flux was used to remove any indium or gallium oxide. The samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction, and optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Electrical resistivity and temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) were measured using a four-probe method in the temperature range of 260 K to 340 K, and the results were used to determine the volume fraction of graphene from effective mean-field analysis. The volume fraction of graphene remained between 0.11 and 0.14 in samples of In with graphene and between 0.12 and 0.13 in samples of In-Ga with graphene. The results indicate that the electrical resistivity and the TCR of the composite were reduced by the addition of graphene. The resistivity of graphene remained between 1.19 × 10⁻⁶ ohm cm and 1.87 × 10⁻⁶ ohm cm in all samples and was thus almost independent of the matrix composition. The electrical resistivity of graphene was found to be an order of magnitude smaller than that of indium or the indium-gallium alloy.     

Timely Effective Handover Mechanism in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Next-generation wireless networks should be able to coordinate and integrate different communication systems. It has been a challenging problem to support a seamless handover in these diverse wireless network environments. Link level triggers can provide information about events which can help handover decision and layer 3 entities better streamline their handover related activities. In most conventional layer 2 triggering approaches, a pre-defined threshold for a specific perspective such as the received signal strength is used. This may cause too late or too early handover executions. In this paper we propose a new predictive handover framework that uses the neighbor network information to generate timely the link triggers so that the required handover procedures can appropriately finish before the current link goes down. First we estimate a required handover time for the given neighbor network conditions, then using a predictive link triggering mechanism the handover start time is dynamically determined to minimize handover costs. The handover costs are analyzed in terms of the total required handover time and the service disruption time. The numerical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed method significantly enhances the handover performance in heterogeneous wireless networks.     

A Distributed Node Localization Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

A distributed node localization scheme for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is presented in this paper, and it includes three generic phases: (1) determine node-beacon distances, (2) compute node positions, and (3) refine the positions. Different from previous researches, we propose an algorithm combination Min–max + LI for the position derivation and SD method for the refinement in our scheme. Simulation shows that our proposed scheme can perform more robust than some representative distributed node localization schemes presented in previous researches in terms of the trade-off among accuracy, coverage, computation cost, and communication overhead.     

Buffering-deflection tradeoffs in optical burst switching

A very important issue in optical burst switching (OBS) networks is the excessive burst drop when no suitable network resources are found during path reservation. In this study, a network scenario is evaluated in which AWG-based optical nodes are used as burst router nodes within the optical network. The two classical solutions to solve the burst contentions on the channels outgoing from the node are considered, that is, either based on buffering within the node, or by exploiting deflection routing. A performance evaluation is carried out to evaluate and compare these solutions for different network topologies with different node and traffic parameters. Our main contribution is to set numerical tradeoffs between burst deflection through the network and buffering in the node, so that a guidance in optical network design is provided where node buffering is inherently technologically limited.