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As the demand for real-time IP media transport over multi-point delivery environments increases, it is essential to monitor the time-varying status of both network metrics (i.e., delay, jitter, and loss) and system metrics (i.e., CPU and memory utilization). In this paper, we propose and implement a new monitoring system for the high-quality real-time media delivery over multicast-enabled network. It monitors the time-varying conditions of both the multicast network and the node system. When the media performance degrades, the proposed monitoring system attempts to pinpoint the cause of performance degradation to improve the end-to-end performance. The experimental results show that we can effectively infer the cause of performance degradation using the implemented prototype of the proposed monitoring system. Index Terms--Network measurement, extended hybrid (network/system) monitoring scheme, and end-to-end QoS performance.

In this paper, we present an efficient H.264 intra frame coder system that achieves real-time performance for portable consumer electronics applications with low hardware cost. The system includes a low cost intra prediction hardware design that implements all intra prediction modes used in H.264 video coding standard based on a novel organization of the intra prediction equations. The proposed hardware is implemented in Verilog HDL. The Verilog RTL code works at 71 MHz in a Xilinx Virtex II FPGA and it can code 35 CIF (352x288) frames per second. The system also includes software running on an Arm926EJS processor for implementing pre-processing and post-processing functions. The H.264 intra frame coder system is demonstrated to work correctly on an Arm Versatile Platform development board and it is verified to be compliant with H.264 standard. Index Terms--H.264, Video Coding, Intra Frame Coder, Intra Prediction, Hardware Implementation, FPGA.

This research is concerned with the practical use of real-time location systems (RTLSs) in complex manufacturing processes. Starting from the case example of an RFID-based RTLS implementation in a semiconductor fab, we investigate the value of RTLS information on the locations of physical objects in a production system to the problem of efficient job scheduling. For this purpose, we develop a simplified simulation model that captures the main characteristics of the real manufacturing process and propose a set of RTLS-enabled dispatching rules. Our results indicate that the use of RTLS technology provides the opportunity for new levels of process visibility and control in comparison to conventional material-tracking systems. The benefits that can be drawn from the technology include not only an overall acceleration of the existing process but also an additional efficiency gain through novel dispatching rules that take into account real-time information on the logistic processes on the shop floor. Keywords: RFID; Real-time location systems; Semiconductor manufacturing; Dispatching heuristics

A shipping yard of an automotive assembly plant is one of the key business processes as well as a starting point of outbound logistics, which holds finished vehicles temporarily until their shipment. The shipping yard involves various dynamically changing events and operations associated with vehicle movement, deployment, and shipment. Location-enabled radio-frequency identification tracking of vehicles can significantly improve the performance of delivery operations by facilitating better decision making. This paper analyzes the value of wireless location information for logistic operations during vehicle deployment and load makeup planning (DLMP) using a comprehensive simulation framework that simulates real operations of the yard. Keywords: Radio-frequency identification (RFID); Location tracking; Real-time information; Load makeup; Logistics; Simulation; Delivery supply chain

Whether an embedded system is a handheld Internet device, a telephone switch, or a complex aircraft control setup, the real-time operating system (RTOS) running it must guarantee uninterrupted service. Fault [...]

To reduce the cost of DVD player, we have integrated peripheral functions to audio and video decoder LSI. The peripheral functions are controlled by the I/O processing tasks on single I/O control processor. I/O processing tasks are switched in constant cycle without overhead, to achieve real-time performance and flexibility of software control. In the case of video output handling, software can control each line parameter. Therefore, software with line level support of hardware can perform many kinds functions; image resizing, copy guard and dynamic blending of image and graphics. Index terms - media processor, video processing, multi-task processing, real time control