Search

In this paper, we focus on a particular type of opportunistic ad-hoc networks, namely Pedestrian Ad-hoc NETworks (PANETs). In PANETs, nodes are densely distributed and each node may transmit information to all other nodes in the network via multi-hop broadcasting. Even though flooding is the simplest technique to broadcast information with multi-hop communications, it can be very inefficient because of redundant transmissions which may induce collisions. This problem is known, in the literature, as the “broadcast storm problem.” In this work, we present a novel probabilistic forwarding technique, denoted as Distance-based Silencing IF (DiSIF), which is derived from the probabilistic broadcasting protocol Irresponsible Forwarding (IF) and one of its extensions, denotes Silencing IF (SIF). The performance of the DiSIF protocol is analyzed and compared with those of other existing protocols, investigating the impact of fundamental network parameters. Lower bounds (exact and approximate) on the average number of hops, expedient to evaluate the propagation efficiency of DiSIF, are also derived. Finally, under the assumption that each node (e.g., a smartphone) relies on Global Positioning System (GPS) to estimate its position, the robustness of DiSIF against a GPS positioning error is investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Random beamforming (RBF) is a practically favorable transmission scheme for multiuser multiantenna downlink systems since it requires only partial channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter. Under the conventional single-cell setup, RBF is known to achieve the optimal sum-capacity scaling law as the number of users goes to infinity, thanks to the multiuser diversity enabled transmission scheduling that virtually eliminates the intra-cell interference. In this paper, we extend the study of RBF to a more practical multi-cell downlink system with single-antenna receivers subject to the additional inter-cell interference (ICI). First, we consider the case of finite signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at each receiver. We derive a closed-form expression of the achievable sum-rate with the multi-cell RBF, based upon which we show an asymptotic sum-rate scaling law as the number of users goes to infinity. Next, we consider the high-SNR regime and for tractable analysis assume that the number of users in each cell scales in a certain order with the per-cell SNR. Under this setup, we characterize the achievable degrees of freedom (DoF) (which is defined as the sum-rate normalized by the logarithm of the SNR as SNR goes to infinity) for the single-cell case with RBF. Then, we extend the analysis to the multi-cell RBF case by characterizing the DoF region, which consists of all the achievable DoF tuples for all the cells subject to their mutual ICI. It is shown that the DoF region characterization provides a useful guideline on how to design a cooperative multi-cell RBF system to achieve optimal throughput tradeoffs among different cells. Furthermore, our results reveal that the multi-cell RBF scheme achieves the “interference-free” DoF region upper bound for the multi-cell system, provided that the per-cell number of users has a sufficiently large scaling order with the SNR. Our result thus confirms the optimality of multi-cell RBF in this regime even without the complete CSI at the transmitter, as compared to other full-CSI requiring transmission schemes such as interference alignment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One approach to the distribution of traffic information in a self-organizing traffic information system is multihop broadcasting. In this approach, each vehicle may simply rebroadcast an information packet that it receives from the others. However, rebroadcasting results in redundant retransmissions of the same information, leading to a useless occupation of the radio channel. Minimizing redundancy, while still guaranteeing reachability in the network, is a challenging task in multihop broadcasting. In our previous work, we introduced a new probabilistic-based broadcasting scheme, i.e., Irresponsible Forwarding (IF) , which could effectively reduce the redundancy. However, in the previous work, we only considered the scenario where the intervehicle spacing was exponentially distributed. In this paper, we generalize the concept of IF such that it can be applied to any intervehicle spacing distribution. In addition, we evaluate the performance of the IF protocol when it is applied in a realistic scenario (i.e., using real traffic traces). This paper shows that the IF protocol is able to limit packet redundancy all hours of the day effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard enhances Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS) to provide highly efficient transmission of multicast/broadcast services. This paper aims at clarifying which is the best option for the Enhanced MBMS (E-MBMS) network configuration according to the operator needs. Besides, it describes the main technical features of the new E-MBMS LTE standard, for both streaming and file delivery, and derives optimum operation modes. Some relevant conclusions are drawn from a set of simulation results calibrated with International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication (ITU-R) guidelines. Regarding streaming delivery, results show that increasing the MBMS over a Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) area size allows employing a higher modulation and coding scheme level, which entails more streaming channels per MBSFN area. Concerning file delivery, results show that the reduction in the mean throughput of unicast users matches exactly the percentage of stolen subframes. Besides, the hybrid approach suggested in this paper improves the file delivery efficiency while eliminating the dependency on a MBMS threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper considers maximizing the network-wide minimum supported rate in the downlink of a two-cell system, where each base station (BS) is endowed with multiple antennas. This is done for different levels of cell cooperation. At one extreme, we consider single cell processing where the BS is oblivious to the interference it is creating at the other cell. At the other extreme, we consider full cooperative macroscopic beamforming. In between, we consider coordinated beamforming, which takes account of inter-cell interference, but does not require full cooperation between the BSs. We combine elements of Lagrangian duality and large system analysis to obtain limiting SINRs and bit-rates, allowing comparison between the considered schemes. The main contributions of the paper are theorems which provide concise formulas for optimal transmit power, beamforming vectors, and achieved signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) for the considered schemes. The formulas obtained are valid for the limit in which the number of users per cell, K, and the number of antennas per base station, N, tend to infinity, with fixed ratio \beta=K/N. These theorems also provide expressions for the effective bandwidths occupied by users, and the effective interference caused in the adjacent cell, which allow direct comparisons between the considered schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider a downlink communication system in which a base station (BS) equipped with M antennas and power constraint P communicates with N users each equipped with K receive antennas. It is assumed that the users have perfect channel state information (CSI) of their own channels, while the BS only knows the partial CSI provided by the receivers via a feedback channel. We study the fundamental limits on the amount of feedback required at the BS to achieve the sum-rate capacity of the system (when BS has perfect CSI for all users) in the asymptotic case of N \to \infty , considering various signal to noise ratio (SNR) regimes. The main results of this paper can be expressed as follows. 1) In the fixed-SNR regime (where the SNR does not scale with N) and low-SNR regime (where the SNR is much smaller than 1\over \ln (N)), to achieve the (1 - \varepsilon)-portion of the sum-rate capacity, the total amount of feedback should scale at least with \ln (\varepsilon ^-1). In the fixed-SNR regime, to reduce the gap between the achievable sum rate and the sum-rate capacity of the system (which is defined as the sum-rate gap) to zero, the amount of feedback should scale at least logarithmically with the sum-rate capacity, which is achievable by using the random beam-forming (RBF) scheme proposed by Sharif and Hassibi. In the low-SNR regime, we propose an opportunistic beam-forming (OBF) scheme, which is shown to be asymptotically feedback optimal. 2) In the high-SNR regime (where the SNR grows to infinity as N \to \infty ), the total amount of feedback depends on the number of receive antennas. In particular, to reduce the sum-rate gap to zero in the case of K < M, the amount of feedback in the SNR regime of \ln (P)\over \ln (N) > 1\over M-1, should scale at least logarithmically with the SNR. In the case of K \geq M, the amount of feedback does not need to scale with the SNR. Moreover, we show that RBF is asymptotically feedback optimal in the high-SNR regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helicopter-based digital electronic news gathering (H-DENG) systems play a crucial role for the live televised news broadcast, especially for disastrous or catastrophic events. In this paper, a special H-DENG system will be investigated thoroughly. Major aspects including resource allocation in spectrum, necessary services and mechanisms, wave propagation and channel modeling, as well as design rules have to be addressed for this system. Our studies are based on the actual prototype of the integrated H-DENG system. The evaluation and analysis of this system are also presented in this paper according to the measurement and simulation results from our test bed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper considers the transmission of scheduling information in orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access (OFDMA)-based cellular communication systems such as the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) long-term evolution (LTE). These systems provide efficient usage of radio resources by allowing users to be dynamically scheduled in both frequency and time. This requires considerable amounts of scheduling information to be sent to the users. This paper compares two basic transmission strategies: transmitting a separate scheduling message to each user versus broadcasting a joint scheduling message to all users. Different scheduling granularities are considered, as are different scheduling algorithms. The schemes are evaluated in the context of the LTE downlink using multiuser system simulations, assuming a full-buffer situation. The results show that separate transmission of the scheduling information requires a slightly lower overhead than joint broadcasting when proportional fair scheduling is employed and the users are spread out over the cell area. The results also indicate that the scheduling granularity standardized for LTE provides a good tradeoff between scheduling granularity and overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It has been shown that random beamforming using partial channel state information (CSI) achieves the same throughput scaling as obtained from dirty paper coding for a broadcast (downlink) channel with M transmit antennas and K users where K is large [1]. In this paper, we apply this scheme to wideband MIMO broadcast channels. By using OFDM, an L-tap wideband channel can be decomposed to N parallel narrowb- and channels (subcarriers), where N > L. Neighboring subcarriers are highly correlated. Therefore, we consider neighboring subcarriers as a cluster and find the closed form solution for the joint characteristic function of SINR values at two subcarriers in a cluster. We show numerically how the knowledge of the quality of the center subcarrier sheds light about the quality of other subcarriers in the same cluster, and address the issue of cluster size. In addition, through complex and asymptotic analysis, we show that for cluster size of order N/L√logR (for large K), users need only feedback the best SINR at the center subcarrier of each cluster in order for the transmitter to perform opportunistic beamforming and maintain the same throughput scaling as when full CSI is available. Using simulation results, we verify our analytical result and show that even fewer feedback can be tolerated, and larger clusters (N/2L) can be implemented for a small throughput hit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of optimizing access and bandwidth sharing among Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections in the mobile digital video broadcasting return channel via satellite (DVB-RCS) is tackled in this paper. After sketching the general system architecture, we explicitly deal with the dynamic assignment of bandwidth to TCP connections on the return link, which is accomplished by a network control center (NCC) placed onboard the satellite. Mobile users access the satellite in multifrequency time-division multiple access (MF-TDMA), whereas they receive data from the NCC in time-division multiplexing (TDM). Two different techniques, based on deterministic and random access, are compared in terms of bandwidth usage and average completion time per connection, when the mobile user acts as both server and client. In the server case, to increase the TCP throughput, both packet-level forward error correction (FEC) on data sent by mobile users and a duplicated and delayed acknowledgment technique for TCP acknowledgment traffic from the NCC to the mobile users are applied. An analysis of the packet losses and a simulation campaign of file transfers by employing a realistic channel model has been carried out. The results of the analysis show the convenience of adopting a technique, in addition to the optimal data redundancy in different cases, such as the server or client role of users, their willingness to pay, the file size, and the environment type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an architecture for using multiple-input multiple-output techniques for a multimode fiber broadcast channel, allowing simultaneous transmission of unique streams to different users on the same fiber while using square-last detection. The resulting system throughput scales nearly linearly with the number of transmitters and receivers. The paper also proposes a training scheme appropriate for use with square-law detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the two-hop relay broadcast channel (BC) for a relay-assisted wireless cellular network where the multiuser independent downlink signals from the base station (BS) are first transmitted to a fixed relay station (RS), and then forwarded by the RS to multiple mobile users. Assuming both the BS and RS are equipped with multiantennas, we study the joint optimization of linear beamforming and power control at the BS and RS so as to minimize their weighted sum-power consumption under the user minimum signal-to-interference-noise-ratio (SINR) - quality-of-service (QoS) - constraints. We apply two well-known criteria in the literature, namely, the "SINR balancing" and the "channel-inversion," for the design of linear precoding in the traditional nonrelay-assisted multiantenna BC to the relay-assisted multiantenna BC. First, a convergence-ensured iterative SINR-balancing algorithm is proposed to successively in turn optimize the transmit parameters at one station (BS or RS) with those at the other station being fixed. Second, a joint BS and RS channel-inversion algorithm is proposed together with a novel technique, termed "eigenmode switching," at the RS to reduce the power penalty of the channel inversion. Simulation results show that the proposed joint beamforming and power control schemes provide substantial power savings to achieve the assigned user QoS constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the integration of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and broadcasting with buffer-aided (BA) full-duplex (FD) relaying to improve the spectral efficiency of a single-source two-user network. Furthermore, opportunistic relay selection is employed, activating one or two FD relays to support the end-to-end communication. The network performance is improved through buffers, allowing to switch to half-duplex (HD) transmission/reception when FD operation is not feasible. A hybrid BA FD/HD NOMA relay selection algorithm is proposed, herein called $\mathop {\mathrm{BAHyNOMA}}$ , orchestrating the three aforementioned techniques, towards a simple yet efficient and robust relay selection. $\mathop {\mathrm{BAHyNOMA}}$ is evaluated in terms of outage probability, average sum-rate and average delay, and it is observed that the average sum-rate can be doubled, while maintaining low latency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owning the merits of flexible networking, rapid deployment, strong line-of-sight communications and so on, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has been regarded as a promising technology for the Fifth-Generation (5G) wireless network to realise its ambition of ubiquitous connectivity to support the various applications, e.g., broadcasting/multicasting services. However, the unique features of the UAV systems, e.g., highly agile mobility in the three-dimensional space, and the significant size, weight and power constraints, pose new challenges for 5G broadcasting communications. In order to fully harvest the benefits of UAV-aided 5G communications for broadcasting services, a new position based lightweight beamforming technology is proposed in this paper to enhance the capability of signal reception in 5G UAV broadcasting communications. Instead of relying on the channel estimation to form beams, which would cause significant broadband consumption, the position and mobility information of UAV system is exploited to predict UAV movement and form narrow beams to track UAV for signal enhancement and interference cancellation. To flight against the inherent position error, a new position correction method is designed to jointly utilise the DoA information of 5G system and the position information of the UAV system. Comprehensive simulation experiments are conducted based on 3GPP 5G specifications and the results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the benchmark Zero-Forcing (ZF) without position prediction and position-based beamforming without position correction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Commission requires all European Union (EU) Member States to use telecommunications networks to alert the population of an ongoing crisis or an upcoming threat by June 2022. Public Warning System in Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 5G System currently supports a text-based warning using Cell Broadcast technology. Cell Broadcast does not support multimedia warning message delivery. This paper analyses requirements that need to be fulfilled to support multimedia warning message delivery in the 5G System and describes trials of a broadcast multimedia public warning alert system. The trials demonstrate delivery of multimedia public warning messages using Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS), dynamic spectrum management and bonded connections. By using eMBMS the public warning messages can be sent with additional robustness and in multicast mode, resulting also in less congestion to the network as the messages do not need to be sent separately to each user. Dynamic spectrum management system allows to dynamically obtain spectrum resources for the public warning system messages and the bonded connections improves the throughput and reliability of the delivery by combining the capacity of several different networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifth-Generation (5G) mobile networks are expected to perform according to the stringent performance targets assigned by standardization committees. Therefore, significant changes are proposed to the network infrastructure to achieve the expected performance levels. Network Function Virtualization, cloud computing and Software Defined Networks are some of the main technologies being utilised to ensure network design, with optimum performance and efficient resource utilization. The aforementioned technologies are shifting the network architecture into service-based rather device-based architecture. In this regard, we introduce Media Casting as a service (MCaaS) and IoRL-Cache service (IoRL-C). The former is a service that proposed as an integration solution between the broadcasting industry and Mobile Network Operators, while the latter proposed as a solution for improving IoRL small-cells caching efficiency. IoRL is an emerging 5G small-cell for indoor environment, which utilises mmWave and Visible Light Communications (VLC) as access technologies, while exploiting Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) technologies to offer flexible and intelligent services to its clients. In this paper, we introduce MCaaS and IoRL-C services, we perform simulation work for testing IoRL-C as a proof of concept for both services. The network was simulated using OMNeT++ simulation tool, and we validated the services efficiency by comparing their performance with traditional deployments. We have also examined the cache service performance at different link lengths, and found out that IoRL-C is able to support IoRL small-cells with more than 50+Km separation distances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents Internet protocol (IP)-based convergence of broadcast and broadband networks using Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0–the next generation terrestrial broadcasting standard. In the broadcast network, the combination of Layered Division Multiplexing (LDM) and Scalable High Efficiency Video Codec (SHVC) is used, enabling efficient use of spectrum when mobile and fixed services are intended in a single radio frequency (RF) channel. The proposed use case of IP-based convergence is that a service is largely consumed through the high power high tower (HPHT) based broadcast network, and then alternative streams are requested via unicast for areas where broadcast signals are not receivable. The implementation details of broadcast and broadband convergence include MPEG Media Transport (MMT)/Real-time Objective delivery over Unidirectional Transport (ROUTE) description for broadcast useand Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) for broadband use. To achieve seamless convergence between broadcast and broadband, transmission and reception systems based on ATSC 3.0 are hardware-developed and their implementation details are described. The proposed IP-based convergence use case of ATSC 3.0 broadcast and broadband is verified in a real-field environment using a public cellular network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the challenge of broadcast and unicast convergence by proposing a PHY/MAC (Physical Layer/Medium Access Control) architecture for 5G New Radio (NR). The solution is based on Power domain Non Orthogonal Multiple Access (P-NOMA). The main PHY/MAC configuration parameters have been analyzed theoretically and their impact on the service configurations is presented in this manuscript. The system concept has been translated into a prototype model and different evaluation tests are presented. First, simulations show that the PHY layer performs better than Time Division Multiplexing/Frequency Division Multiplexing (TDM/FDM) choices of current broadband access systems. Second, performance tests using a network simulation tool are described. The results for capacity, latency and reliability demonstrate that the proposed solution offers an excellent broadcast/unicast convergence choice with significant gain values with respect to legacy PHY/MAC alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to meet the tremendous requirements on the convergence between broadband and broadcast, this paper proposes to incorporate layered division multiplexing (LDM), an important variant of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technologies, into Millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system with device-to-device (D2D) communications to simultaneously provide broadcast and unicast services. The performance of the proposed full-duplex D2D-aided mmWave MIMO-NOMA with randomly deployed users is then analyzed under practical assumptions. Closed-form expressions of both the outage probability and the ergodic capacity are then derived by using the Laplace transform technique. Finally, detailed numerical results reveal the performance gains of the proposed scheme compared with the LDM without D2D communications and conventional time division multiplexing based scheme. The impacts of the antenna array gain and the transmission power of both the base station and the full-duplex link on system performance are also presented. Besides, we observe that it is vital to optimal the transmission power of the full-duplex link which ensures less self-interference to enhance the system capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents eight demonstrators and one showcase developed within the 5G-Xcast project. They experimentally demonstrate and validate key technical enablers for the future of media delivery, associated with multicast and broadcast communication capabilities in 5th Generation (5G). In 5G-Xcast, three existing testbeds: IRT in Munich (Germany), 5GIC in Surrey (U.K.), and TUAS in Turku (Finland), have been developed into 5G broadcast and multicast testing networks, which enables us to demonstrate our vision of a converged 5G infrastructure with fixed and mobile accesses and terrestrial broadcast, delivering immersive audio-visual media content. Built upon the improved testing networks, the demonstrators and showcase developed in 5G-Xcast show the impact of the technology developed in the project. Our demonstrations predominantly cover use cases belonging to two verticals: Media & Entertainment and Public Warning, which are future 5G scenarios relevant to multicast and broadcast delivery. In this paper, we present the development of these demonstrators, the showcase, and the testbeds. We also provide key findings from the experiments and demonstrations, which not only validate the technical solutions developed in the project, but also illustrate the potential technical impact of these solutions for broadcasters, content providers, operators, and other industries interested in the future immersive media delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The requirements for future DVB-TIH networks demand that broadcasters design and deploy networks that provide ubiquitous reception in challenging indoors and other obstructed situations. It is essential that such networks are designed cost-effectively and with minimized environmental impact. The EC funded project PLUTO has since its start in 2006 explored the use of diversity to improve coverage in these difficult situations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance of Transmit Delay Diversity (DD) with two antennas to improve the reception of DVB-TIH systems operating in different realistic propagation conditions through a series of tests using a SPIRENT SR5500 dual channel emulator. The relationship between correlation coefficient between channels, receiver velocity and diversity gain is investigated. It is shown that transmit delay diversity significantly improves the quality of reception particularly in simulated fast fading mobile broadcasting applications. This paper documents research conducted by Brunel University and Broadreach Systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of new TV media such as digital cable and satellite, the task of finding one's favorite program among hundreds of channels becomes a time consuming job. Furthermore, the channel zapping time of DTV is much longer than that of analogue one. To relieve the time overhead in channel navigation, this paper presents an intelligent channel navigation scheme for DTV channel selectors. The proposed navigation scheme analyzes each person's previous watching behavior in terms of recency and frequency, and then utilizes this information in the control of the up-down channel selector. Simulation studies show that the proposed scheme reduces the seek distance of the DTV channel navigation system by up to 68.7% under various conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a simple but effective IPTV channel control algorithm that keeps channel zapping time in the tolerable range with high network utilization. The proposed algorithm controls channel zapping time by adjusting the number of broadcasting channels that are located close to users over IP networks and the number of additional I-frames inserted into each channel, based on the user's channel preference information. Finally, experimental results are provided to show the performance of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an efficient design of dual mode deinterleaver for both IEEE 802.16 and digital video broadcasting (DVB) standards is presented. The paper first proposes a systematic data allocation method for the design of matrix transposer which can be used to realize the block deinterleaver adopted by IEEE 802.16 based on the multi- bank memory architecture. In addition, multiple input/output data can be grouped together in order to further reduce the memory access frequency such that the required number of banks and ports for the memory can be both reduced. Similarly, the multi-bank memory design approach can also be applied for the byte-level convolutional deinterleaver adopted in DVB system by realizing the multiple delay branches as the circular buffer. Finally, these two different deinterleaving standards can be further integrated . into a single design suitable for those dual-mode communication systems. Our implementation results show that the dual mode deinterleaver can run up to 150 Mhz, and consume about 38.5k gates. The same design methodology can also be applied for the design of interleavers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital video broadcasting for handhelds (DVB-H) is the standard for broadcasting Internet Protocol (IP) data services to mobile portable devices. To provide interactive services for DVB-H, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) can be used as a terrestrial interaction channel for the unidirectional DVB-H network. The converged DVB-H and UMTS network can be used to address the congestion problems due to the limited multimedia channel accesses of the UMTS network. In the converged network, intersystem soft handover between DVB-H and UMTS is needed for an optimum radio resource allocation, which reduces network operation cost while providing the required quality of service. This paper deals with the intersystem soft handover between DVB-H and UMTS in such a converged network. The converged network structure is presented. A novel soft handover scheme is proposed and evaluated. After considering the network operation cost, the performance tradeoff between the network quality of service and the network operation cost for the intersystem soft handover in the converged network is modeled using a stochastic tree and analyzed using a numerical simulation. The results show that the proposed algorithm is feasible and has the potential to be used for implementation in the real environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are playing more and more important role in digital broadcasting standards due to their excellent error correction performance. In this paper, we study the combination of LDPC codes over GF(q) with q-ary modulations for bandwidth efficient transmission over AWGN channel and consider the design of the codes. Specifically, we develop the concept of quasi-regular codes, and propose an improved Monte Carlo method to optimize the quasi-regular codes. To justify the performance of our proposed scheme, simulation results are presented and analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter-destination media synchronization (IDMS) is a key requirement to enable successful networked shared media experiences between remote users. This paper presents an adaptive, accurate and standard-compliant IDMS solution for hybrid broadcast and broadband delivery. Apart from providing multi- and cross-technology support, the presented IDMS solution is able to accomplish synchronization when different formats/versions of the same, or even related, contents are being played out in a shared session. It is also able to independently manage the playout processes of different groups of users. The IDMS solution has been integrated within an end-to-end platform, which is compatible with the hybrid broadcast broadband TV standard. It has been applied to digital video broadcasting—terrestrial technology and tested for a Social TV scenario, by also including an ad-hoc chat tool as an interaction channel. The results of the conducted (objective and subjective) evaluations prove the statisfactory behavior and performance of the IDMS solution and platform as well as in terms of the perceived quality of experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS) in mobile networks has been widely addressed, however an investigation of such a technology in emerging, multi-tier, scenarios is still lacking. Notably, user clustering and resource allocation are extremely challenging in multi-tier networks, and imperative to maximize system capacity and improve quality of user-experience (QoE) in MBMS. Thus, in this paper we propose a clustering and resource allocation approach, named EMB, which specifically addresses heterogeneous networks and accounts for the fact that multimedia content is adaptively encoded into scalable layers depending on the QoE requirements and channel conditions of the heterogeneous users. Importantly, we prove that our clustering algorithm yields Pareto efficient broadcasting areas, multimedia encoding parameters, and resource allocation, in a way that is also fair to the users. Furthermore, numerical results obtained under realistic conditions and using real-world video content, show that the proposed EMB results in lower churn count (i.e., higher number of served users), higher throughput, and increased QoE, while using fewer network resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-user multiple access channel is considered, in which the channels undergo slow block fading and the state of each channel is known only to its corresponding transmitter. This paper proposes a novel broadcast strategy for multiple access communication in this channel. In the broadcast approach, in principle, a transmitter with CSI uncertainty sends multiple independent superimposed information layers where the rate of each layer is adapted to a specific channel realization. In the existing broadcast approaches to multiuser communication, the transmitters often directly adopt a single-user strategy and each transmitter adapts its transmission to one unknown channel. The novel aspect of the proposed strategy is that it adapts the designed codebooks to the state of the entire network. This is motivated by the fact that the contribution of each user to the network-wide measures (e.g., capacity region) depends not only on the user’s direct channel to the receiver, but also on the qualities of other channels. Average achievable rate region and outer bounds on the capacity region are characterized. Furthermore, the expected capacity region is investigated, where most part of the capacity region boundary is characterized. Finally, an asymptotic capacity region is also characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadcast is a fundamental network operation, widely used in wireless networks to disseminate messages. The energy-efficiency of broadcast is important particularly when devices in the network are energy constrained. To improve the efficiency of broadcast, different approaches have been taken in the literature. One of these approaches is broadcast with energy accumulation. Through simulations, it has been shown in the literature that broadcast with energy accumulation can result in energy saving. The amount of this saving, however, has only been analyzed for linear multi-hop wireless networks. In this paper, we extend this analysis to two-dimensional (2D) multi-hop networks. The analysis of saving in 2D networks is much more challenging than that in linear networks. It is because, unlike in linear networks, in 2D networks, finding minimum-energy broadcasts with or without energy accumulation are both NP-hard problems. Nevertheless, using a novel approach, we prove that this saving is constant when the path loss exponent $\alpha $ is strictly greater than two. Also, we prove that the saving is $\theta (\log n)$ when $\alpha =2$ , where $n$ denotes the number of nodes in the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Gallager's bounding techniques have been used to derive tight performance bounds for coded systems in fading channels. Most works in this field have thus far dealt with coherent decoding. This paper develops Gallager bounds for noncoherent systems in fading channels. Unlike coherent decoding, the exact error probability of a noncoherent decoder/detector conditioned on the fading coefficients does not admit a closed-form expression. This difficulty is overcome in this paper by employing the Chernoff technique. Although it weakens the bounds to some extent, the Chernoff technique enables the derivations of the limit-before-average (LBA) bound and Gallager bounds in closed form for noncoherent fading channels. Numerical examples show that the proposed bounds are convergent and are tighter than the conventional union bound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This correspondence considers communication over two Gaussian channels with additive state interference anti noiseless output feedback-the multiple access channel (MAC) and the augmented broad- cast channel (ABC) (a special class of the physically degraded broadcast channel). The state interference is assumed to be available noncausally at the transmitters. Deterministic coding schemes for these two channels were suggested by Ozarow when there is no state present. Recently, Merhav and Weissman derived an optimal feedback coding scheme for the single-user Gaussian channel with additive state interference. Combining ideas from these two schemes, we extend Ozarow's coding algorithms to the state-dependent case, showing that the capacity regions of the MAC and the ABC are not affected, even though not all parts of the system have knowledge of the state. The proposed schemes attain a better error performance and reduce the coding complexity with respect to the standard random binning coding technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we suggest a synchronization receiver for MIMO-OFDM based mobile broadcasting system. A MIMO-OFDM receiver with algorithms for tracking of residual frequency offset (RFO) and sampling frequency offset (SFO) is designed and simulated. The proposed synchronization and compensation schemes are applied to IEEE 802.16e WiMAX and its performance is investigated by computer simulations in terms of mean square error (MSE) and bit error rate (BER). The proposed RFO and SFO estimator has a fast convergence and a small residual degradation even for high speed mobile station. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are numerous research challenges that need to be addressed until a wide deployment of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) becomes possible. One of the critical issues consists of the design of scalable routing algorithms that are robust to frequent path disruptions caused by vehicles' mobility. This paper argues the use of information on vehicles' movement information (e.g., position, direction, speed, and digital mapping of roads) to predict a possible link-breakage event prior to its occurrence. Vehicles are grouped according to their velocity vectors. This kind of grouping ensures that vehicles, belonging to the same group, are more likely to establish stable single and multihop paths as they are moving together. Setting up routes that involve only vehicles from the same group guarantees a high level of stable communication in VANETs. The scheme presented in this paper also reduces the overall traffic in highly mobile VANET networks. The frequency of flood requests is reduced by elongating the link duration of the selected paths. To prevent broadcast storms that may be intrigued during path discovery operation, another scheme is also introduced. The basic concept behind the proposed scheme is to broadcast only specific and well-defined packets, referred to as "best packets" in this paper. The performance of the scheme is evaluated through computer simulations. Simulation results indicate the benefits of the proposed routing strategy in terms of increasing link duration, reducing the number of link-breakage events and increasing the end-to-end throughput. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previously proposed streaming protocols using broadcast or multicast are able to deliver multimedia files on-demand with required server bandwidth that grows much slower than linearly with request rate, or with the inverse of client start-up delay. The same efficiencies can be achieved for network bandwidth if delivery is over a true broadcast channel. This paper considers the required network bandwidth for on-demand streaming over multicast delivery trees. We consider both simple canonical delivery trees, and more complex cases in which delivery trees are constructed using both existing and new algorithms for randomly generated network topologies and client site locations. Results in this paper quantify the potential savings from use of multicast trees that are configured to minimize network band width rather than the latency to the content server. Further, we determine the network bandwidth usage of particular immediate service and periodic broadcast on-demand streaming protocols. The periodic broadcast protocol is able to simultaneously achieve close to the minimum possible network and server bandwidth usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this correspondence, we show that solutions to the multiple description coding problem and the broadcast channel coding problem share a common encoding procedure: successive source encoding. We use this connection as the basis for establishing connections between the achievable multiple description rate region and Marton's region for broadcast channels. Specifically, we show that Marton's encoding scheme can be viewed as a multiple description coding procedure. We also explore the dual problem, namely, the relationship between successive channel decoding in multiple access communication and distributed source coding. By illuminating these connections to multiple description, we hope to motivate a solution to what remains a mostly unsolved problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid mobile communication network as considered in this paper consists of a point-to-point network (UMTS) and a point-to-multipoint network (DVB-H). The benefit of combining these two networks is an optimized transfer of data by collecting several user requests for a single response via the broadcast network. Thus, capacity can be saved, UMTS cells can be unloaded and the mean response time of the system can be reduced. Besides these advantages, hybrid networks can be applied to decrease electromagnetic exposure, especially at hot spot areas. In this paper, it is analysed how the hybrid network structure influences the electromagnetic exposure. Therefore, different scenarios have been developed consisting of different user behavior and different network structures. In order to evaluate the grade of exposure, criteria have been defined. These criteria have been used for comparing a hybrid network with a single UMTS network in terms of electromagnetic exposure. The results are shown for the different network structures and network configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work is to research and analyse the performance of Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD) with two transmit antenna on DVB-H systems operating in spatially correlated channel. It is shown in this paper that CDD can achieve desirable transmit diversity gain over uncorrelated channel with or without receiver diversity. However, in reality, the respective signal paths between spatially separated antennas and the mobile receiver is likely to be correlated because of insufficient antenna separation at the transmitter and the lack of scattering effect of the channel. Under this spatially correlated channel, it is apparent that CDD cannot achieve the same diversity gain as obtained under the uncorrelated channel. In this paper, a new upper bound on the pairwise error probability (PEP) of the CDD with spatial correlation of two transmit antennas is derived. The upper bound is used to study the CDD theoretical error performance and diversity gain losses over a generalized spatially correlated Rayleigh channel. This theoretical analysis is validated by the simulation of DVB-H systems with two transmit antennas and the CDD scheme. Both the theoretical and simulated results give the valuable insight that the CDD ability to perform well with a certain amount of channel correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the potential for an HDTV delivery format with 1920 x 1080 pixels progressive scanning and 50 frames per second in broadcast applications. The paper discusses the difficulties in characterizing the display to be assumed for reception. It elaborates on the required bit rate of the 1080p/50 format when critical content is coded in MPEG-4 H.264 AVC Part 10 and subjectively viewed on a large, flat panel display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. The paper describes the initial subjective quality evaluations that have been made in these conditions. The results of these initial tests suggest that the required bit-rate for a 1080p/50 HDTV signal in emission could be kept equal or lower than that of 2nd generation HDTV formats, to achieve equal or better image quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-healing key distribution schemes allow group managers to broadcast session keys to large and dynamic groups of users over unreliable channels. Roughly speaking, even if during a certain session some broadcast messages are lost due to network faults, the self-healing property of the scheme enables each group member to recover the key from the broadcast messages he has received before and after that session. Such schemes are quite suitable in supporting secure communication in wireless networks and mobile wireless ad-hoc networks. Recent papers have focused on self-healing key distribution, and have provided definitions, stated in terms of the entropy function, and some constructions. The contribution of this paper is the following. • We analyze current definitions of self-healing key distribution and, for two of them, we show that no protocol can achieve the definition. • We show that a lower bound on the size of the broadcast message, previously derived, does not hold. • We propose a new definition of self-healing key distribution, and we show that it can be achieved by concrete schemes. • We give some lower bounds on the resources required for implementing such schemes, i.e., user memory storage and communication complexity. We prove that the bounds are tight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadcast news (BN) transcription has been a challenging research area for many years. In the last couple of years, the availability of large amounts of roughly transcribed acoustic training data and advanced model training techniques has offered the opportunity to greatly reduce the error rate on this task. This paper describes the design and performance of BN transcription systems which make use of these developments. First, the effects of using lightly supervised training data and advanced acoustic modeling techniques are discussed. The design of a real-time broadcast news recognition system is then detailed using these new models. As system combination has been found to yield large gains in performance, a range of frameworks that allow multiple recognition outputs to be combined are next described. These include the use of multiple types of acoustic models and multiple segmentations. As a contrast a system developed by multiple sites allowing cross-site combination, the "SuperEARS" system, is also described. The various models and recognition configurations are evaluated using several recent BN development and evaluation test sets. These new BN transcription systems can give gains of over 25% relative to the CU-HTK 2003 BN system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OFDM has been applied in a wide variety of wireless communications in recent years since it has the advantage over the conventional single-carrier modulation schemes when enduring the frequency-selective fading. However, intercarrier-interference (ICI) and interblock interference (IBI) due to the Doppler effect, carrier frequency drift of local oscillators and multipath fading limit the capability of OFDM systems. In this paper, a new generalized mathematical model for intercarrier and interblock interferences is derived for wireless mobile OFDM systems, in which Doppler frequency drift, local carrier frequency offset, multipath fading, and cyclic prefix coding are all present in reality. Such a new ICI/IBI model can be applied for OFDM performance evaluation in different environments. This new formulation of IBI and ICI provides a generalized framework which includes special ICI models appearing in the previous literature. Besides, the derived OFDM performance evaluation analysis in this paper can greatly benefit OFDM designers for wireless multimedia networks and digital video broadcasting technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the possible system gain for a multiresolution broadcast system using multilayer transmission of multiresolution data by utilizing nonuniform layer transmission energies. It shows how to find the energy distribution that maximizes the system performance, measured in the form of a sum of a weighted layer values × population product (representing possible revenue for service providers). Through the introduction of the relative population coverage function P (ai) it is shown for a N layer system that in many cases when P(ai) is a concave function (equivalent to -P(ai) being convex) it is possible to reduce what seems to be an N-dimensional problem to N line searches. The paper also shows how the relative population coverage function can be constructed in two ways. The first uses analytic models for signal strength and population coverage (Uniform and Rayleigh). The second uses numerical signal strength and population estimates in grid format. The paper also includes examples to illustrate how the method works and the performance gain it provides. One of the examples uses actual grid estimates for an example transmitter located in Luleå, Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the generalized dirty-paper channel Y = X + S + N, E{X²} ≤ Px, where N is not necessarily Gaussian, and the interference S is known causally or non causally to the transmitter. We derive worst case capacity formulas and strategies for "strong" or arbitrarily varying interference. In the causal side information (SI) case, we develop a capacity formula based on minimum noise entropy strategies. We then show that strategies associated with entropy-constrained quantizers provide lower and upper bounds on the capacity. At high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions, i.e., if N is weak relative to the power constraint Px, these bounds coincide, the optimum strategies take the form of scalar lattice quantizers, and the capacity loss due to not having S at the receiver is shown to be exactly the "shaping gain" ½ log( ...) ≈ 0.254 bit. We extend the schemes to obtain achievable rates at any SNR and to noncausal SI, by incorporating minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) scaling, and by using k-dimensional lattices. For Gaussian N, the capacity loss of this scheme is upper-bounded by ½ log πeG(Λ), where G(Λ) is the normalized second moment of the lattice. With a proper choice of lattice, the loss goes to zero as the dimension k goes to infinity, in agreement with the results of Costa. These results provide an information-theoretic framework for the study of common communication problems such as precoding for intersymbol interference (ISI) channels and broadcast channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a performance comparison of database replication techniques based on total order broadcast. While the performance of total order broadcast-based replication techniques has been studied in previous papers, this paper presents many new contributions. First, it compares with each other techniques that were presented and evaluated separately, usually by comparing them to a classical replication scheme like distributed locking. Second, the evaluation is done using a finer network model than previous studies. Third, the paper compares techniques that offer the same consistency criterion (one-copy serializability) in the same environment using the same settings. The paper shows that, while networking performance has little influence in a LAN setting, the cost of synchronizing replicas is quite high. Because of this, total order broadcast-based techniques are very promising as they minimize synchronization between replicas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noise can significantly impact the effectiveness of video processing algorithms. This paper proposes a fast white-noise variance estimation that is reliable even in images with large textured areas. This method finds intensity-homogeneous blocks first and then estimates the noise variance in these blocks, taking image structure into account This paper proposes a new measure to determine homogeneous blocks and a new structure analyzer for rejecting blocks with structure. This analyzer is based on high-pass operators and special masks for corners to stabilize the homogeneity estimation. For typical video quality (PSNR of 29-40 dB), the proposed method outperforms other methods significantly and the worst-case estimation error is 3 dB, which is suitable for real applications such as video broadcasts. The method performs well both in highly noisy and good-quality images. It also works well in images including few uniform blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the cell broadcast service architecture, this paper proposes an efficient multicast mechanism for the universal mobile telecommunications system to support multimedia messaging service (MMS). We define a new interface between the serving GPRS support node and the cell broadcast center to track the current locations of the multicast members. Then we describe the location tracking procedures (including, attach, detach, and location update) of the multicast members and the multicast message delivery procedure. We use an analytic model to investigate the performance of our approach. This paper indicates that our MMS multicast mechanism outperforms the previous proposed approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper characterizes the sum capacity of a class of potentially nondegraded Gaussian vector broadcast channels where a single transmitter with multiple transmit terminals sends independent information to multiple receivers. Coordination is allowed among the transmit terminals, but not among the receive terminals. The sum capacity is shown to be a saddle-point of a Gaussian mutual information game, where a signal player chooses a transmit covariance matrix to maximize the mutual information and a fictitious noise player chooses a noise correlation to minimize the mutual information. The sum capacity is achieved using a precoding strategy for Gaussian channels with additive side information noncausally known at the transmitter. The optimal precoding structure is shown to correspond to a decision-feedback equalizer that decomposes the broadcast channel into a series of single-user channels with interference pre-subtracted at the transmitter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadcasting is a prospective approach to support near video-on-demand services with light communication overhead. By letting clients share channels, such approaches involve partitioning a video into segments and repeatedly broadcasting these segments in multiple channels. An early paper proposed a broadcasting scheme called RFS (recursive frequency splitting), which can significantly reduce clients' waiting time. While efficient, RFS suffers from a high computational complexity of O(n log n), where n is the number of segments of the video, which is typically very large. This paper proposes an efficient segmentation scheme, which can significantly reduce the computational overhead by slightly sacrificing the number of segments that can be arranged as compared to RFS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new national standard for Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) has been announced in Korea to provide high quality digital audio, video, and data broadcasting services to fixed, mobile, and portable receivers. We have developed the world's first DSP/FPGA implementation of the portable DMB receiver, complete with an RF receiver, a 6.4-inch LCD display, and audio/video/data decoders. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and performance of this portable DMB receiver. First, we provide a brief overview of the DMB system and the audio/video coding tools supported by it, i.e., MPEG-4 BSAC and MPEG-4 Part 10 A VC/H. 264. We discuss the low-power high-performance design of the DMB receiver, focusing particularly on the audio/video decoding parts. Finally, we illustrate the performance of the portable DMB receiver that operates in real-time at the overalifrequency of 25 MHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]