Spectrally‐Efficient Decode‐and‐Forward Scheme Based on Constellation Rotation

A spectrally‐efficient scheme is proposed for orthogonal decode‐and‐forward relaying. By utilizing constellation rotation, the scheme can achieve twice the spectral efficiency as that of the conventional one, with low implementation complexity. It can offer a full diversity order as well, whereas the loss in coding gain is less than 1 dB for practical environments.     

Design of 24 GHz Radar with Subspace‐Based Digital Beam Forming for ACC Stop‐and‐Go System

For an adaptive cruise control (ACC) stop‐and‐go system in automotive applications, three radar sensors are needed because two 24 GHz short range radars are used for object detection in an adjacent lane, and one 77 GHz long‐range radar is used for object detection in the center lane. In this letter, we propose a single sensor‐based 24 GHz radar with a detection capability of up to 150 m and ±30° for an ACC stop‐and‐go system. The developed radar is highly integrated with a high gain patch antenna, four channel receivers with GaAs RF ICs, and back‐end processing board with subspace based digital beam forming algorithm.     

Real‐time performance evaluation of asynchronous time division traffic‐aware and delay‐tolerant scheme in ad hoc sensor networks

Wireless infrastructureless networks demand high resource availability with respect to the progressively decreasing energy consumption. A variety of new applications with different service requirements demand fairness to the service provision and classification, and reliability in an end‐to‐end manner. High‐priority packets are delivered within a hard time delay bound whereas improper power management in wireless networks can substantially degrade the throughput and increase the overall energy consumed. In this work a new scheme is being proposed and evaluated in real time using a state‐based layered oriented architecture for energy conservation (EC). The proposed scheme uses the node's self‐tuning scheme, where each node is assigned with a dissimilar sleep and wake time, based on traffic that is destined for each node. This approach is based on stream's characteristics with respect to different caching behavioral and storage‐capacity characteristics, and considers a model concerning the layered connectivity characteristics for enabling the EC mechanism. EC characteristics are modeled and through the designed tiered architecture the estimated metrics of the scheme can be bounded and tuned into certain regulated values. The real‐time evaluation results were extracted by using dynamically moving and statically located sensor nodes. A performance comparison is done with respect to different data traffic priority classifications following a real‐time asymmetrical transmission channel. Results have shown the scheme's efficiency in conserving energy while the topology configuration changes with time. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive smooth multicast protocol for multimedia transmission: Implementation details and performance evaluation

In this paper we propose a new single‐rate multicast congestion control scheme named Adaptive Smooth Multicast Protocol (ASMP), for multimedia transmission over best‐effort networks. The smoothness lays in the calculation and adaptation of the transmission rate, which is based on dynamic estimations of protocols' parameters and dynamic adjustment of the ‘smoothness factor’, as well. ASMP key attributes are: (a) TCP‐friendly behavior, (b) adaptive scalability to large sets of receivers, (c) high bandwidth utilization, and finally (d) smooth transmission rates, which are suitable for multimedia applications. We evaluate the performance of ASMP and investigate its behavior under various network conditions through extensive simulations conducted with the network simulator software (ns2). Simulation results show that ASMP can be regarded as a serious competitor of TFMCC and PGMCC. In many cases, ASMP outperforms TFMCC in terms of TCP‐friendliness and smooth transmission rates, while PGMCC presents lower scalability than ASMP. We have implemented ASMP on top of RTP/RTCP protocols in ns2 by adding all the RTP/RTCP protocol's attributes that are defined in RFC 3550 and related to quality of service metrics. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comprehensive characterisation and analysis of PV module performance under real operating conditions

The specifications of photovoltaic modules show performance under standard testing conditions (STC), but only limited information relating to performance at non‐STC conditions. While performance is affected by irradiance, temperature, spectral composition of irradiance, angle‐of‐incidence of the irradiance and other parameters, specifications only partly give detail to consumers or retailers about the effect of irradiance and temperature. In this study, we characterise and analyse the performance of eight different, commercially available photovoltaic modules. We establish the effect of four different parameters on module performance: irradiance, temperature, spectral composition of irradiance (via the parameter average photon energy) and angle‐of‐incidence, by performing linear and nonlinear optimisation of physical or empirical models. Furthermore, we characterise the operating conditions and analyse the seasonal and annual development and contribution of the four parameters to energy losses or gains relative to STC operating conditions. We show a comprehensive way of presenting the deviation of performance from STC, combining the variation in operating conditions and the resulting variation in performance. Our results show that some effects on performance are attributable to the semiconductor material used in the modules (spectral composition and temperature), while especially angle‐of‐incidence effects seem more related to the type of glass used on as the front cover of the module. Variation in irradiance and module temperature generally affect performance the strongest, resulting in a performance effect ranging from  + 2.8% to  − 3.2% and  − 0.5% to  − 2.2%, respectively. The combined effect of all parameters results in an annual yield deviation ranging from  + 1.2% to  − 5.9%. © 2016 The Authors. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Facile Synthesis of Manganese‐Loaded Mesoporous Silica Materials by Direct Reaction Between KMnO4 and an In‐Situ Surfactant Template

A series of manganese oxide‐loaded SBA‐15 (MnSBA‐xh, x = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; h: hour(s)) mesoporous materials are synthesized via a facile, in‐situ reduction method with a surfactant template. The composite materials are characterized using Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, N₂ sorption isotherms, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy, energy‐dispersive spectroscopy, and CO oxidation catalysis. The results show that a high content of manganese (an atomic ratio of Mn/Si from 0.12 up to approximately 1) could be loaded into the channels of SBA‐15 when treated with an aqueous solution of potassium permanganate, while retaining the ordered mesostructure and large surface area of SBA‐15. Increasing the manganese oxide content results in a gradual decrease in the specific surface area, pore size, and pore volume. XPS spectra are employed to confirm the redox reaction between KMnO₄ and the surfactant. CO‐conversion tests on the calcined MnSBA‐2h sample (MnSBA‐2h‐cal) shows that it has a repeatable, and relatively high, catalytic activity.     

Water‐Stable,Magnetic Silica–Cobalt/Cobalt Oxide–Silica Multishell Submicrometer Spheres

A method to produce monodisperse magnetic composite spheres with diameters from less than 100 nm to more than 1 μm in water solution is reported. The spheres consist of a dielectric silica core and a cobalt/cobalt oxide shell which can be protected from further oxidation with an outer shell of silica or, alternatively, they can be covered with the polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone as a stabilizer. The formation of a uniform magnetic shell proceeds with the adsorption of metallic cobalt seeds, produced by the reduction of cobalt chloride with sodium borohydride, on a self‐assembled layer of polyelectrolytes on the silica core. In the second step, an outer silica shell can be formed by the hydrolysis and condensation of (3‐aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane and tetraethoxysilane. The double‐shell composite spheres show excellent sphericity, monodispersity, and a magnetic hysteresis loop at room temperature.     

1‐Methyl‐2‐(anthryl)‐imidazo[4,5‐f][1,10]‐phenanthroline: A Highly Efficient Electron‐Transport Compound and a Bright Blue‐Light Emitter for Electroluminescent Devices

A new organic blue‐light emitter 1‐methyl‐2‐(anthryl)‐imidazo[4,5‐f][1,10]‐phenanthroline ( 1 ) has been synthesized and fully characterized. The utility of compound 1 as a blue‐light emitter in electroluminescent (EL) devices has been evaluated by fabricating a series of EL devices A where compound 1 functions as an emitter. The EL spectrum of device series A has the emission maximum at 481 nm with the CIE (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage) color coordinates 0.198 and 0.284. The maximum luminance of devices in series A is 4000 cd m^–2 and the best external quantum efficiency of device series A is 1.82 %. The utility of compound 1 as an electron injection–electron transport material has been evaluated by constructing a set of EL devices B where 1 is used as either the electron‐injection layer or the electron injection–electron transport layer. The performance of device series B is compared to the standard device in which Alq₃ (tris(8‐hydroxyquinoline) aluminum) is used as the electron injection–electron transport layer. The experimental results show that the performance of 1 as an electron injection–electron transport material is considerably better than Alq₃. The stability of device series B is comparable to that of the standard Alq₃ device. The excellent performance of 1 as an electron injection/transport material may be attributed to the strong intermolecular interactions of 1 in the solid state as revealed by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis. In addition, compound 1 is a colorless material with a much larger highest occupied molecular orbital–lowest unoccupied molecular (HOMO–LUMO) gap than Alq₃, which renders it potentially useful for a wide range of applications in EL devices.     

Simple Synthesis of Hollow Tin Dioxide Microspheres and Their Application to Lithium‐Ion Battery Anodes

Hollow tin dioxide (SnO₂) microspheres were synthesized by the simple heat treatment of a mixture composed of tin(IV ) tetrachloride pentahydrate (SnCl₄·5H₂O) and resorcinol–formaldehyde gel (RF gel). Because hollow structures were formed during the heat treatment, the pre‐formation of template and the adsorption of target precursor on template are unnecessary in the current method, leading to simplified synthetic procedures and facilitating mass production. Field‐emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM) images showed 1.7–2.5 μm sized hollow spherical particles. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images showed that the produced spherical particles are composed of a hollow inner cavity and thin outer shell. When the hollow SnO₂ microspheres were used as a lithium‐battery anode, they exhibited extraordinarily high discharge capacities and coulombic efficiency. The reported synthetic procedure is straightforward and inexpensive, and consequently can be readily adopted to produce large quantities of hollow SnO₂ microspheres. This straightforward approach can be extended for the synthesis of other hollow microspheres including those obtained from ZrO₂ and ZrO₂/CeO₂ solid solutions.     

Network traffic prediction based on a new time series model

Fast and accurate methods for predicting traffic properties and trend are essential for dynamic network resource management and congestion control. With the aim of performing online and feasible prediction of network traffic, this paper proposes a novel time series model, named adaptive autoregressive (AAR). This model is built upon an adaptive memory‐shortening technique and an adaptive‐order selection method originally developed by this study. Compared to the conventional one‐step ahead prediction using traditional Box–Jenkins time series models (e.g. AR, MA, ARMA, ARIMA and ARFIMA), performance results obtained from actual Internet traffic traces have demonstrated that the proposed AAR model is able to support online prediction of dynamic network traffic with reasonable accuracy and relatively low computation complexity. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.