Well‐Defined Functional Linear Aliphatic Diblock Copolyethers: A Versatile Linear Aliphatic Polyether Platform for Selective Functionalizations and Various Nanostructures

Low‐temperature anionic ring‐opening homopolymerizations and copolymerizations of two glycidol derivatives (allyl glycidyl ether (AGE) and ethoxyethyl glycidyl ether (EEGE)) are studied using a metal‐free catalyst system, 3‐phenyl‐1‐propanol (PPA) (an initiator) and 1‐tert‐butyl‐4,4,4‐tris(dimethylamino)‐2,2‐bis[tris‐(dimethylamino)phosphoranylidenamino]‐2Λ⁵,4Λ⁵‐catenadi(phosphazene) (t‐Bu‐P₄) (a promoter) in order to obtain well‐defined functional linear polyethers and diblock copolymers. With the aid of the catalyst system, AGE is found to successfully undergo anionic ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) even at room temperature (low reaction temperature) without any side reactions, producing well‐defined linear AGE‐homopolymer in a unimodal narrow molecular weight distribution. Under the same conditions, EEGE also undergoes polymerization, producing a linear EEGE‐homopolymer in a unimodal narrow molecular‐weight distribution. In this case, however, a side reaction (i.e., chain‐transfer reaction) is found to occur at low levels during the early stages of polymerization. The chemical properties of the monomers in the context of the homopolymerization reactions are considered in the design of a protocol used to synthesize well‐defined linear diblock copolyethers with a variety of compositions. The approach, anionic polymerization via the sequential step feed of AGE and EEGE as the first and second monomers, is found to be free from side reactions at room temperature. Each block of the obtained linear diblock copolymers undergoes selective deprotection to permit further chemical modification for selective functionalization. In addition, thermal properties and structures of the polymers and their post‐modification products are examined. Overall, this study demonstrates that a low‐temperature metal‐free anionic ROP using the PPA/t‐Bu‐P₄ catalyst system is suitable for the production of well‐defined linear AGE‐homopolymers and their diblock copolymers with the EEGE monomer, which are versatile and selectively functionalizable linear aliphatic polyether platforms for a variety of post‐modifications, nanostructures, and their applications.     

A reliable overlay video transport protocol for multicast agents in wireless mesh networks

A new video transport protocol for multicast agents in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is proposed in this paper. The proposed protocol enables a significant reduction in the transmission overhead, while providing reliable communication for its use in multicast applications. This proposed reliable protocol provides a practical approach for an overlay peer‐to‐peer multicast facility supported within the application layer. This obviates the need to give upgraded routers capable of handling multicast broadcasting or modify the existing protocol stack. The protocol tolerates partial losses in multimedia transmissions, while supporting control of the delay sensitivity of such transmissions in WMNs. The key issue in this protocol is the ability to detect packet loss, anticipate retransmission requests, and use the anticipated retransmission requests to transmit the lost packets prior to requests from other receiving agents. The proposed protocol allows for the receiver to determine if retransmission of lost packets is required, ensuring the greatest flexibility needed for a reliable multicast protocol. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enabling multiparty karaoke over Internet based on low‐level computers: practice and experiment

Karaoke is a system for amateur singing. The traditional online karaoke system does not allow multi‐singers to sing a song in one session. This study designs and implements multiparty karaoke over Internet (MKI) based on low‐level computers. The MKI is an online karaoke system of distributed architecture that allows multi‐singers to sing a song in one session. The MKI must deal with the problems of feedback, asynchronous audio latency at singers’ nodes, round‐trip latency at an inviter's node, and multi‐singers singing a song in one session. The acoustic isolation between microphone and speakers avoids feedback. Network Time Protocol avoids asynchronous audio latency. The third method's round‐trip latency in this study is within 86 ms, and all participants experience the simultaneous singing of the inviter and the invitees. MKI can be used for increasing leisure time, singing skills, and interpersonal relationships. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of maximum elevation angle probability density function to macroscopic selection diversity in low earth orbiting satellite constellation systems

In a low earth orbiting satellite constellation of communication satellites, the so‐called macroscopic selection‐diversity (SD) scheme selects the satellite with the maximum elevation angle among the visible satellites as being capable of providing the best quality link for signal propagation. To evaluate the performance of this scheme, we developed a model based on macroscopic SD to describe the probability density function of the maximum elevation angles from an earth station to each visible satellite. The model has the advantage of not involving orbital simulations for data collection, thus avoiding statistical processing as well as curve fitting. We evaluated the model by using it to simulate the bit‐error‐rate performance of binary‐phase‐shift‐keying modulation in the Globalstart‐like Walker 48/8/1 satellite constellation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Joint Optimization of User Set Selection and Transmit Power Allocation for Orthogonal Random Beamforming in Multiuser MIMO Systems

When the number of users is finite, the performance improvement of the orthogonal random beamforming (ORBF) scheme is limited in high signal‐to‐noise ratio regions. In this paper, to improve the performance of the ORBF scheme, the user set and transmit power allocation are jointly determined to maximize sum rate under the total transmit power constraint. First, the transmit power allocation problem is expressed as a function of a given user set. Based on this expression, the optimal user set with the maximum sum rate is determined. The suboptimal procedure is also presented to reduce the computational complexity, which separates the user set selection procedure and transmit power allocation procedure.     

Link optimization for energy‐constrained wireless networks with packet retransmissions

With the objective to minimize the energy consumption for packet based communications in energy‐constrained wireless networks, this paper establishes a theoretical model for the joint optimization of the parameters at the physical layer and data link layer. Multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) and automatic repeat request (ARQ) techniques are considered in the system model. The optimization problem is formulated into a three dimensional nonlinear integer programming (NIP) problem with the modulation order, packet size, and retransmission limit as variables. For the retransmission limit, a simple search method is applied to degenerate the three dimensional problem into a two dimensional NIP problem, for which two optimization algorithms are proposed. One is the successive quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm, combining with the continuous relaxation based branch‐and‐bound method, which can obtain the global optimal solution since the continuous relaxation problem is proved to be hidden convex. The other is a low‐complexity sub‐optimal iterative algorithm, combining with the nearest‐neighboring method, which can be implemented with a polynomial complexity. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the optimization solution, which suggests that the joint optimization of the physical/data link layer parameters contributes noticeably to the energy saving in energy‐constrained wireless networks. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inkjet Printing of Self‐Assembled 2D Titanium Carbide and Protein Electrodes for Stimuli‐Responsive Electromagnetic Shielding

2D titanium carbides (MXene) possess significant characteristics including high conductivity and electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency (EMI SE) that are important for applications in printed and flexible electronics. However, MXene‐based ink formulations are yet to be demonstrated for proper inkjet printing of MXene patterns. Here, tandem repeat synthetic proteins based on squid ring teeth (SRT) are employed as templates of molecular self‐assembly to engineer MXene inks that can be printed as stimuli‐responsive electrodes on various substrates including cellulose paper, glass, and flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET). MXene electrodes printed on PET substrates are able to display electrical conductivity values as high as 1080 ± 175 S cm^?1, which significantly exceeds electrical conductivity values of state‐of‐the‐art inkjet‐printed electrodes composed of other 2D materials including graphene (250 S cm^?1) and reduced graphene oxide (340 S cm^?1). Furthermore, this high electrical conductivity is sustained under excessive bending deformation. These flexible electrodes also exhibit effective EMI SE values reaching 50 dB at films with thicknesses of 1.35 µm, which mainly originate from their high electrical conductivity and layered structure.     

Effect of laser chirp on optical systems?initial tests using a 1480 nm DFB laser

Initial assessment of the effect of laser ?chirp? on optical systems is described. Measurements of the wavelength shift and its effect on the received pulse after 4 km and 80 km of dispersive fibre are presented. The results are in good agreement with simple modelling, which predicts no penalty for this system Further tests are needed to determine whether this behaviour is typical.