A Cross-Layer Approach to Enhance QoS for Multimedia Applications Over Satellite

The need for on-demand QoS support for communications over satellite is of primary importance for distributed multimedia applications. This is particularly true for the return link which is often a bottleneck due to the large set of end-users accessing a very limited uplink resource. Facing this need, Demand Assignment Multiple Access (DAMA) is a classical technique that allows satellite operators to offer various types of services, while managing the resources of the satellite system efficiently. Tackling the quality degradation and delay accumulation issues that can result from the use of these techniques, this paper proposes an instantiation of the Application Layer Framing (ALF) approach, using a cross-layer interpreter (xQoS-Interpreter). The information provided by this interpreter is used to manage the resource provided to a terminal by the satellite system in order to improve the quality of multimedia presentations from the end user’s point of view. Several experiments are carried out for different loads on the return link. Their impact on QoS is measured through different application as well as network level metrics.

Effect of Electromigration on the Mechanical Performance of Sn-3.5Ag Solder Joints with Ni and Ni-P Metallizations

The effect of moderate electric current density (1 × 10³ to 3 × 10³ A/cm²) on the mechanical properties of Ni-P/Sn-3.5Ag/Ni-P and Ni/Sn-3.5Ag/Ni solder joints was investigated using a microtensile test. Thermal aging was carried out at 160°C for 100 h while the current was passed. The interfacial microstructure and intermetallic compound (IMC) growth were analyzed. It was found that, at these levels of current density, there were no observable voids or hillocks. Samples aged at 160°C without current stressing failed mostly inside the bulk solder with significant prior plastic deformation. The passage of current was found to cause brittle failure of the solder joints and this tendency for brittle failure increased with increasing current density. Fractographic analysis showed that, in most of the electrically stressed samples, fracture occurred at the interface region between the solder and the joining metals. The critical current density that caused brittle fracture was about 2 × 10³ A/cm². Once brittle fracture occurred, the tensile toughness, defined as the energy per unit fractured area, was usually lower than ~5 kJ/m², compared with the case of ductile fracture where this value was typically greater than ~9 kJ/m². When comparing the two types of joint, the brittle failure was found to be more severe with the Ni than with the Ni-P joint. This work also found that the passage of electric current affects the IMC growth rate more significantly in the Ni than in the Ni-P joint. In the case of the Ni joint, the Ni₃Sn₄ IMC at the anode side was appreciably thicker than that formed at the cathode side. However, in the case of electroless Ni-P metallization, this difference was much smaller.     

Combining Coarse-Grained Software Pipelining with DVS for Scheduling Real-Time Periodic Dependent Tasks on Multi-Core Embedded Systems

In this paper, we combine coarse-grained software pipelining with DVS (Dynamic Voltage/Frequency Scaling) for optimizing energy consumption of stream-based multimedia applications on multi-core embedded systems. By exploiting the potential of multi-core architecture and the characteristic of streaming applications, we propose a two-phase approach to solve the energy minimization problem for periodic dependent tasks on multi-core processors with discrete voltage levels. With our approach, in the first phase, we propose a coarse-grained task-level software pipelining algorithm called RDAG to transform the periodic dependent tasks into a set of independent tasks based on the retiming technique (Leiserson and Saxe, Algorithmica 6:5–35, 1991). In the second phase, we propose two DVS scheduling algorithms for energy minimization. For single-core processors, we propose a pseudo-polynomial algorithm based on dynamic programming that can achieve optimal solution. For multi-core processors, we propose a novel scheduling algorithm called SpringS which works like a spring and can effectively reduce energy consumption by iteratively adjusting task scheduling and voltage selection. We conduct experiments with a set of benchmarks from E3S (Dick 2008) and TGFF () based on the power model of the AMD Mobile Athlon4 DVS processor. The experimental results show that our technique can achieve 12.7% energy saving compared with the algorithms in Zhang et al. (2002) on average.

Projection based statistical feature extraction with multispectral images and its applications on the Yellow River mainstream line detection

Mainstream line is significant for the Yellow River situation forecasting and flood control. An effective statistical feature extraction method is proposed in this paper. In this method, a between-class scattering matrix based projection algorithm is performed to maximize between-class differences, obtaining effective component for classification; then high-order statistics are utilized as the features to describe the mainstream line in the principal component obtained. Experiments are performed to verify the applicability of the algorithm. The results both on synthesized and real scenes indicate that this approach could extract the mainstream line of the Yellow River automatically, and has a high precision in mainstream line detection. Communication author: Zhang Haichao, born in 1986, male, Ph.D. candidate.     

Design and Evaluation of DNS as Location Manager for HIP

Host Identity Protocol (HIP) is designed to provide secure and continuous communication by separating the identifier and locator roles of the Internet Protocol (IP) address. HIP also has efficient solutions to support host mobility. In this paper, we propose a location management scheme based on Domain Name System (DNS) for HIP. In the proposed scheme, a new DNS HIP resource record is used to translate a domain name into a host identity tag and an IP address. We also develop an analytical model to study the performance of DNS as location manager in terms of success rate, which takes into account the velocity of mobile nodes, the radius of a subnet, the regional network size, the packet transmission delay between the mobile node and the rendezvous server, and the packet processing delay at the DNS and the rendezvous server. The performance results show that for a reasonable range, the DNS is a feasible solution for location management with high success rate for HIP.

Wireless Channel Tracking Based on Optimum Predictive LMS

A frequency domain analysis is presented to optimize the Predictive Least Mean Square (PLMS) algorithm used for wireless channel tracking. Simulation results show that the PLMS offers significant improvement in tracking performance compared to that of the conventional LMS based method. The algorithm parameters should be carefully selected in order to gain such improvements. The objective of this paper is to use frequency domain analysis to determine an expression for the Mean Square Tracking Error (MSTE) and use it to obtain the optimum PLMS algorithm parameters such as step size (μ) and smoothing constant (θ) with numerical optimization methods.

Lead-Free Bumping Using an Alternating Electromagnetic Field

A novel lead-free bumping technique using an alternating electromagnetic field (AEF) was investigated. Lead-free solder bumps reflowed onto copper pads through AEF have been achieved. A comparison was conducted between the microstructures of the lead-free solder joints formed by the conventional thermal reflow and AEF reflow. Keeping the substrate temperature lower than that of the solder bumps, AEF reflow successfully created metallurgical bonding between the lead-free solders and metallizations through an interfacial intermetallic compound (IMC). The AEF reflow could be finished in several seconds, much faster than the conventional hot-air reflow. Considering the morphology of the interfacial Cu₆Sn₅ IMC, a shorter heating time above the melting point would be a better choice for solder joint reliability. The results show that AEF reflow is a promising localized heating soldering technique in electronic packaging.     

Electrochemical Migration Characteristics of Eutectic Sn-Pb Solder Alloy in NaCl and Na<Subscript>2</Subscript>SO<Subscript>4</Subscript> Solutions

Anodic dissolution and the electrochemical migration characteristics of eutectic Sn-Pb solder alloy in deaerated 0.001% NaCl and Na₂SO₄ solutions were investigated using anodic polarization and water drop tests. Anodic polarization results revealed that a Pb-rich phase was preferentially ionized in deaerated 0.001% NaCl solution and an Sn-rich phase was predominantly ionized in deaerated 0.001% Na₂SO₄ solution, which coincides well with the composition of the dendrites formed during water drop tests. X-ray diffraction and photoelectron spectroscopy results showed that the surface oxide film formed on pure Sn in deaerated 0.001% NaCl solution is more stable than that formed on pure Sn in deaerated 0.001% Na₂SO₄ solution. The surface oxide film formed on pure Pb in deaerated 0.001% Na₂SO₄ solution is more stable than that formed on pure Sn in deaerated 0.001% NaCl solution. Therefore, the quality of the surface film of eutectic Sn-Pb solder in a chemical environment seems to be critical not only for corrosion resistance, but also for electrochemical migration resistance.     

Low Fatigue in Epitaxial Pb(Zr<Subscript>0.2</Subscript>Ti<Subscript>0.8</Subscript>)O<Subscript>3</Subscript> on Si Substrates with LaNiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> Electrodes by RF Sputtering

Epitaxial PZT (001) thin films with a LaNiO₃ bottom electrode were deposited by radio-frequency (RF) sputtering onto Si(001) single-crystal substrates with SrTiO₃/TiN buffer layers. Pb(Zr_0.2Ti_0.8)O₃ (PZT) samples were shown to consist of a single perovskite phase and to have an (001) orientation. The orientation relationship was determined to be PZT(001)[110]∥LaNiO₃(001)[110]∥SrTiO₃ (001)[110]∥TiN(001)[110]∥Si(001)[110]. Atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements showed the PZT films to have smooth surfaces with a roughness of 1.15 nm. The microstructure of the multilayer was studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Electrical measurements were conducted using both Pt and LaNiO₃ as top electrodes. The measured remanent polarization P _r and coercive field E _c of the PZT thin film with Pt top electrodes were 23 μC/cm² and 75 kV/cm, and were 25 μC/cm² and 60 kV/cm for the PZT film with LaNiO₃ top electrodes. No obvious fatigue after 10¹⁰ switching cycles indicated good electrical endurance of the PZT films using LaNiO₃ electrodes, compared with the PZT film with Pt top electrodes showing a significant polarization loss after 10⁸ cycles. These PZT films with LaNiO₃ electrodes could be potential recording media for probe-based high-density data storage.     

A Zero-Pole Reposition Based, 0.95-mW, 68-dB,Linear-in-dB,Constant-Bandwidth Variable Gain Amplifier

A variable-gain amplifier with very low power consumption and wide tuning range is presented. The operational principle of this unique structure is discussed, its most important formulas are derived and its outstanding performance is verified by simulation in TSMC 0.18-μm N-well CMOS fabrication process. Owing to the novel zero-pole repositioning technique, the proposed circuit demonstrates very high frequency bandwidth of 79 MHz while drawing only 0.52 mA from 1.8 V power supply. The interesting results such as a very small core area of about 0.0025 mm² as well as a wide linear-in-dB and constant-bandwidth tuning range of 68.2 dB along with a very low power consumption of 0.95 mW are achieved utilizing standard CMOS technology. The stability of the proposed VGA is verified through transient sinusoidal response analysis. Full process, voltage and temperature (PVT) variation analysis of the circuit is also investigated through Monte Carlo and corner case analysis in order to approve the robustness of the structure. Monte Carlo simulations show standard deviation values of 4.6 dB and 78.3 MHz in gain and gain-bandwidth product, respectively. These results show that our zero-pole repositioning method would lend itself well for use in low-power and high-frequency applications, especially in high-speed automatic gain control amplifiers.