4.9-GHz low-phase-noise transformer-based superharmonic-coupled GaInP/GaAs HBT QVCO

The low-phase-noise GaInP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) quadrature voltage controlled oscillator (QVCO) using transformer-based superharmonic coupling topology is demonstrated for the first time. The fully integrated QVCO at 4.87GHz has phase noise of -131dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset frequency, output power of -4dBm and the figure of merit (FOM) -198dBc/Hz. The state-of-the-art phase noise FOM is attributed to the superior GaInP/GaAs HBT low-frequency device noise and the high quality transformer formed on the GaAs semi-insulating substrate.     

Improved cochannel interference cancellation for MFSK/FH-SSMAsystems

There has been much interest in the application of frequency hopping-spread spectrum multiple access (FH-SSMA) to wireless systems because of its frequency diversity and resistance to the near-far problem. In FH-SSMA systems, cochannel interference (CCI) is the dominant factor limiting the user capacity. Various techniques used to resolve the CCI problem have been extensively investigated. We propose several multiuser detection schemes based on canceling CCI to increase user capacity in a multilevel frequency shift keying (MFSK)/FH-SSMA system. The performance of systems with the proposed interference cancellers over a Rayleigh fading channel are analyzed and compared with those of the conventional and other interference cancellers. Our results show that the proposed schemes have the best performance in both nonfading and fading channels     

An authenticated re‐encryption scheme for secure file transfer in named data networks

With the fast progress of the Internet and communication technologies, the digital communication is increasingly based on the architecture of TCP/IP. Nevertheless, in TCP/IP's architecture, there are limitations such as data uncertainty and flow overloading. In response to this, a novel architecture has been proposed, which is known as the named data network (NDN). Named data network is an alternative network architecture based on the data each user accesses. Users gain accesses to the data by using an adjacent router (node) that verifies the correctness of the data. In NDN, the router has the capability to store and search for the data. Hence, this architecture largely improves the disadvantages in TCP/IP's architecture. Named data network is a new proposal and relatively under‐researched now. Thus far, an adequate secure file transfer protocol is still unavailable for NDN. In some cases, files are broken or the source fails to authenticate, which results in the need to discover the owner of the file. Furthermore, we believe that NDN should involve an authentication mechanism in the secure file transfer protocol. In view of the above, this paper presents an authenticated re‐encryption scheme for NDN, which offers sender authentication, data confidentiality, and support for potential receivers. Finally, we also propose a security model for sender authentication and prove that the proposed scheme is secure.     

A parallel decoding algorithm for IFS codes without transientbehavior

Iterated function systems (IFSs) have received great attention in encoding and decoding fractal images. Barnsley (1988) has shown that IFSs for image compression can achieve a very high compression ratio for a single image. However, the major drawback of such a technique is the large computation load required to both encode and decode a fractal image. We provide a novel algorithm to decode IFS codes. The main features of this algorithm are that it is very suitable for parallel implementation and has no transient behavior. Also, from the decoding process of this method we can understand the encoding procedure explicitly. One example is illustrated to demonstrate the quality of its performance.     

Amulti-channel model for initial and handoff accesses in a mobile computing environment

The communication infrastructure of a mobile computing environment can be based on the structure of a cellular/microcellular telephone system or a PCS network. In such a system, the occurrence of handoffs cannot be avoided and when handoffs occur, wireless links held by mobile computers crossing cell boundaries may be forced to terminate. The probability that a handoff access request will result in forced termination has a significant effect on the performance of a mobile computing environment, as does the probability that an initial access request will be blocked. Although some research has been done on initial and handoff accesses in cellular/microcellular telephone systems and PCS networks, the analytical models used in this research are not appropriate for mobile computing, since unlike a telephone, a mobile computer may use several channels at once. In this paper, we develop an analytical model to study initial and handoff accesses in a mobile computing environment. The model is based on a multi-dimensional continuous time Markov chain. The accuracy of the model is verified by comparison with simulation results. We then use the model to find a practical approach to balancing the initial access blocking probability and avarage forced termination probability of a connection in a mobile computing network.This research was supported by the National Science Council, ROC, under grant NSC 85-2213-E-009-063.     

Microwave surface impedances of BCS superconducting thin films

The microwave propagation-dominated problem in the multilayer structure made of a BCS superconducting film and a dielectric substrate is investigated theoretically by using the modified two-fluid model and transmission line theory. The effective microwave surface impedances are studied as functions of temperature, frequency, and film thickness, as well as substrate thickness. Special attention is paid to the substrate resonance phenomenon in the resonant structure. The influence of BCS coherence effects on surface impedance and resonant behavior is clearly demonstrated. The resonant effect in the stack structure is well interpreted with the help of the transverse resonance technique in the microwave theory     

AC permeability of the flux-line liquid in the anisotropic high-Tc superconducting crystals

AC properties of the flux-line liquid in the anisotropic high-temperature superconducting crystals in a parallel field are theoretically investigated. The ac responses in the simple flux-flow regime are analyzed from associated effective ac-magnetic permeability calculated on the hydrodynamic theory basis. The responses are studied as functions of anisotropic ratio and sample dimensions. The results illustrate the influence of the platelet crystal's size on permeability in the anisotropic superconductors while in the isotropic superconductors, the relationship of responses between a square rod and cylinder is found. It indicates that the permeability of a cylinder can be essentially replaced by that of a square rod and vice versa. The geometric effect on response is also elucidated in the isotropic superconductors     

Isolated-utterance speech recognition using hidden Markov modelswith bounded state durations

Hidden Markov models (HMMs) with bounded state durations (HMM/BSD) are proposed to explicitly model the state durations of HMMs and more accurately consider the temporal structures existing in speech signals in a simple, direct, but effective way. A series of experiments have been conducted for speaker dependent applications using 408 highly confusing first-tone Mandarin syllables as the example vocabulary. It was found that in the discrete case the recognition rate of HMM/BSD (78.5%) is 9.0%, 6.3%, and 1.9% higher than the conventional HMMs and HMMs with Poisson and gamma distribution state durations, respectively. In the continuous case (partitioned Gaussian mixture modeling), the recognition rates of HMM/BSD (88.3% with 1 mixture, 88.8% with 3 mixtures, and 89.4% with 5 mixtures) are 6.3%, 5.0%, and 5.5% higher than those of the conventional HMMs, and 5.9% (with 1 mixture), 3.9% (with 3 mixtures) and 3.1% (with 1 mixture), 1.8% (with 3 mixtures) higher than HMMs with Poisson and gamma distributed state durations, respectively     

The Orphan Problem in ZigBee Wireless Networks

ZigBee is a communication standard which is considered to be suitable for wireless sensor networks. In ZigBee, a device (with a permanent 64-bit MAC address) is said to join a network if it can successfully obtain a 16-bit network address from a parent device. Parent devices calculate addresses for their child devices by a distributed address assignment scheme. This assignment is easy to implement, but it restricts the number of children of a device and the depth of the network. We observe that the ZigBee address assignment policy is too conservative, thus usually making the utilization of the address pool poor. Those devices that cannot receive network addresses will be isolated from the network and become orphan nodes. In this paper, we show that the orphan problem can be divided into two subproblems: the bounded-degree-and-depth tree formation (BDDTF) problem and the end-device maximum matching (EDMM) problem. We then propose algorithms to relieve the orphan problem. Our simulation results show that the proposed schemes can effectively reduce the number of orphan devices compared to the ZigBee strategy.     

Simulations and experiments for optimal deployment of an RFID‐based location‐aware system

The proliferation of communication and mobile computing devices and local‐area wireless networks has cultivated a growing interest in location‐aware systems and services. An essential problem in location‐aware computing is the determination of physical locations. RFID technologies are gaining much attention, as they are attractive solutions to indoor localization in many healthcare applications. In this paper, we propose a new indoor localization methodology that aims to deploying RFID technologies in achieving accurate location‐aware undertakings with real‐time computation. The proposed algorithm introduces means to improve the accuracy of the received RF signals. Optimal settings for the parameters in terms of reader and reference tag properties were investigated through simulations and experiments. The experimental results indicate that our indoor localization methodology is promising in applications that require fast installation, low cost and high accuracy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.