Multitier Wireless Communications

Next-generation computing systems will be highly integrated using wireless networking. The Rice Everywhere NEtwork (RENÉ) project is exploring the integration of WCDMA cellular systems, high speed wireless LANs, and home wireless networks to produce a seamless multitier network interface. We are currently developing a simulation acceleration testbed and a multitier network interface card (mNIC) consisting of DSP processors, custom VLSI ASICs, and FPGAs for baseband signal processing to interact with the various RF units and the host processor. This testbed will also allow us to explore high performance algorithm alternatives through computer aided design tools for rapid prototyping and hardware/software co-design of embedded systems.     

Kirigami-Design-Enabled Hydrogel Multimorphs with Application as a Multistate Switch

Morphing materials have promising applications in soft robots, intelligent devices, and so forth. Among the various design strategies, kirigami structures are recognized as a powerful tool to obtain sophisticated 3D configurations and unprecedented properties from planar designs on common materials. Here, some kirigami designs are demonstrated for programmable, multistable 3D configurations from composite hydrogel sheets. Via photolithographic polymerization, perforated composite hydrogel sheets are fabricated, in which soft and active hydrogel strips are patterned in stiff and passive hydrogel frames. When immersed in water, the gel strips buckle out of plane due to swelling mismatch. In the kirigami structures, the geometric continuity is disrupted by the introduction of cutouts, and thus the degrees of deformation freedom increases remarkably. Multiple configurations are obtained in a single composite hydrogel by controlling the buckling direction of each strip. Multitier configurations are also obtained by using a hierarchically designed kirigami structure. A multicontact switch of an electric circuit is designed by harnessing the multitier gel configurations. Furthermore, a rotation mode is realized by introducing chirality in the kirigami design. The versatile design of the kirigami structure for programmable deformations should be applicable for other intelligent materials toward promising applications in biomedical devices and flexible electronics.     

多层蜂窝系统的研究及发展

本文首先介绍了多层蜂窝系统的基本概念，然后讨论了多层蜂窝系统的架构，层次间的资源共享以及层次间的切换策略。     

基于PB环境下分布式应用系统的开发

基于信息系统向多层分布式计算发展的趋势,分析多层分布式计算模型的特点,讨论PB进行多层应用开发的原理,通过一个实例阐述PB开发多层应用的具体方法和技术.     

Performance modeling of multitier PCS system

The emergence of multitier wireless access is being driven by the different compromises in technology required to provide wireless service in different environments. Three major tiers of wireless access are likely to emerge to providepersonal communications services (PCS): high-tier, low-tier, and unlicensed. Because of the service costs of the three tiers, the unlicensed system is given the highest priority to deliver the calls, and the high-tier system has the lowest priority to deliver the calls. To maintain this delivery priority, two multitier mobility management strategies have been proposed: the single registration strategy (SR) and the modified multiregistration strategy (MR). This paper proposes a new strategy called the lazy deregistration strategy (LDR) and compares the performance of the three strategies. We show that in most cases, LDR outperforms both SR and MR. The registration cost of SR is always no less than the cost of MR. The advantage of MR over SR is more significant if (i) when the user moves into the low-tier system, it is more likely that the currently visited low-tier VLR (visitor location register) is the same as the previously visited VLR, and (ii) the mobile station (MS) is more likely to move between the low-tier system and the high-tier system. The call delivery cost of MR is always no less than the cost of SR. The advantage of SR over MR is more significant if (i) the call arrival rate is large, (ii) the cost of delivering a call to the low-tier system is large, and (iii) the MS is likely to stay in the high-tier system.