Convolutional encoder state estimation

To estimate the convolutional encoder state from received data, one may use the inverse to the encoder G. However, channel errors make this method unreliable. We propose a method that uses the received data in the following way. We calculate the syndrome, and after a specific number of received syndrome values equal to zero, we expect that the corresponding received data is also error-free. The received data is then used to build the inverse and give an estimate for the encoder state. The method can be used in situations where knowledge of the encoder state helps the decoding process or for synchronization purposes. We analyze the performance of the described method with respect to state estimation error probability and the average time it takes before we can estimate the encoder state with a certain desired reliability     

Syndrome Decoding of Convolutional Codes

The classical Viterbi decoder recursively finds the trellis path (code word) closest to the received data. Given the received data, the syndrome decoder first forms a syndrome, instead. A recursive algorithm like Viterbi's is used to determine the noise sequence of minimum Hamming weight that can be a possible cause of this syndrome. Given the estimate of the noise sequence, one derives an estimate of the original data sequence. While the bit error probability of the syndrome decoder is no different from that of the classical Viterbi decoder, the syndrome decoder can be implemented using a read only memory (ROM), thus obtaining a considerable saving in hardware.     

Structural safety and reliability of primary system pressure boundaries for water cooled power reactors: Panel Discussion at the Second International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology, Berlin, Germany, 10–14 September, 1973

A stochastic model is presented for predicting the elastic response of light multi-degree-of-freedom secondary systems to strong motion earthquakes. Secondary systems may include light mechanical or electrical equipment, piping, or other light systems attached at one or several points to walls or floors of the supporting or primary structures. The critical functions of these secondary systems in nuclear power plants make the accurate prediction of their maximum responses important. The response of such secondary structures may be obtained by a direct time-history analysis, or more approximately, by the response spectrum method. The time-history solution is, of course, expensive; moreover, there is no single representative earthquake and thus a number of possible earthquake ground motions have to be considered. On the other hand, the response spectrum method applied to secondary systems can lead to unreliable results.Within the framework of the normal mode method, a decoupled stationary random vibration model is developed based on the assumption of Gaussian response process and Poisson barrier crossings. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified by comparing the calculated responses, at the 10 and 50% probability of exceedance level, with the second highest and average of the time-history responses from eight normalized accelerograms. The influence of decoupling, i.e. ignoring the dynamic interaction between the primary and the secondary systems, on the response is examined.The influence of nonstationarity is also evaluated. It is observed that nonstationarity is unimportant for earthquakes of relatively long duration, and that for a given damping most of the error can be accounted for by a simple scaling. It is also shown that one aspect of the proposed method constitutes the basis for some of the approximations in the response spectrum method; however, the proposed method yields results that are consistently more reliable than the response spectrum method. Moreover, results obtained with the proposed method represent maximum response statistics from an ensemble of earthquakes rather than a single earthquake.     

On constant-composition codes over Z/sub q/

A constant-composition code is a special constant-weight code under the restriction that each symbol should appear a given number of times in each codeword. In this correspondence, we give a lower bound for the maximum size of the q-ary constant-composition codes with minimum distance at least 3. This bound is asymptotically optimal and generalizes the Graham-Sloane bound for binary constant-weight codes. In addition, three construction methods of constant-composition codes are presented, and a number of optimum constant-composition codes are obtained by using these constructions.     

Hearing protection in industry: Companies' policy and workers' perception

Personal hearing protectors are widely used to prevent occupational noise-induced hearing loss. These devices have to be worn both correctly and consistently while exposed to noise, therefore substantial research has been devoted to barriers and opportunities associated with effective hearing conservation.     

A decoding algorithm with restrictions for array codes

We present a simple and efficient error correction scheme for array-like data structures. We assume that the channel behaves such that each row of a received array is either error-free or corrupted by many symbol errors. Provided that row error vectors are linearly independent, the proposed decoding algorithm can correct asymptotically one erroneous row per redundant row, even without having reliability information from the channel output. This efficient decoding algorithm can be used for correction of error clusters and for decoding of concatenated codes. We also derive a random access scheme that has many similarities with the Aloha system     

Iterative decoding of codes over complex numbers for impulsive noise channels

We discuss the decoding of error-correcting block codes over complex numbers for the transmission over impulsive noise channels. The encoder multiplies a vector of complex information symbols resulting from a modulation scheme, e.g., quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), with a unitary generator matrix G. Choosing the inverse Fourier transform as G, the encoding procedure is similar to orthogonal frequency-division multiplex (OFDM) modulation. The maximum a posteriori (MAP) receiver is analyzed and a suboptimum decoder based on the turbo decoding principle is derived. Simulation results show the excellent performance of the iterative decoder.     

PSK to CSK mapping for hybrid systems involving the radio frequency and the visible spectrum

This paper presents an efficient technique to map phase shift keying (PSK) signalling to colour shift keying (CSK) constellation, to establish a full link in hybrid systems involving the radio frequency (RF) and the visible spectrum. It fits in systems combining (first link) wireless communication technologies such as the wireless fidelity (WiFi) or wired communication technologies such as power line communications (PLC) to visible light communications (VLC) technology (second link). On the first link, PSK technique is used to convey the information, while, on the second link, a technique based on colour variation is deployed. WiFi standards targeted are those that employ PSK as sub-carrier modulation techniques (IEEE 802.11a/11g/11n). The PSK complex constellation observed at the output of the first link is converted into colours using the hue-saturation-value/intensity (HSV/I) colour models. The constant lighting required in VLC corresponds with the coordinate I of the HSI and the colour constraint is met by assigning adequate current intensities to the red-green-blue LEDs (RGB-LEDs) used. The design meets the requirements of CSK constellation design outlined in IEEE 802.15.7. The performance of the system is analysed through bit error rate curves obtained by simulations, for binary PSK (BPSK) and quadrature PSK (QPSK), 8PSK and 16PSK constellations. The results show that as the constellation size increases, the performance of the system decreases.