1912999
Improving wireless link throughput via interleaved FEC
Wireless communication is inherently vulnerable to errors from the dynamic wireless environment. Link layer packets discarded due to these errors impose a serious limitation on the maximum achievable throughput in the wireless channel. To enhance the overall throughput of wireless communication, it is necessary to have a link layer transmission scheme that is robust to the errors intrinsic to the wireless channel. To this end, we present interleaved-forward error correction (I-FEC), a clever link layer coding scheme that protects link layer data against random and busty errors. We examine the level of data protection provided by I-FEC against other popular schemes. We also simulate I-FEC in Bluetooth, and compare the TCP throughput result with Bluetooth's integrated FEC coding feature. We show that I-FEC consistently and significantly outperforms other link layer coding schemes by providing an impressive amount of protection against heavy channel burst errors.
8213932
End-to-End Asymmetric Link Capacity Estimation
Knowledge of link capacity is important for network design, management, and utilization. With the increasing popularity of asymmetric link technologies (such as DSL, 1xRTT, and satellite links), it is desirable to have a capacity estimation technique, which can simultaneously measure forward and backward direction link capacities on an Internet path. Moreover, this estimation must often be “sender only”, because of receiver limitations or lack of standards. In this study, we propose a simple, fast and accurate technique, called AsymProbe, to estimate asymmetric link capacities. AsymProbe is a “sender only”, round trip procedure. It achieves asymmetric link capacity estimation by strategically altering the ratio of probe and acknowledgement packet sizes. Using simulation and testbed experiments, we validate AsymProbe with a variety of network configurations. The results show that AsymProbe can correctly estimate the asymmetric link capacities as long as an appropriate packet size ratio can be employed.
10161187
Accuracy of link capacity estimates using passive and active approaches with CapProbe
CapProbe is an inexpensive and accurate means to estimate capacity. CapProbe combines both dispersion and end-to-end delay to estimate the capacity of the narrowest link on a path. We evaluate in this paper the accuracy of CapProbe estimation, and its dependence on end systems speed, packet sizes, narrow link speeds, and other system parameters. We test kernel and user level implementations of CapProbe and find the kernel implementation to be much more accurate. We also evaluate through experiments the effect of probing packet size on the accuracy of CapProbe estimation. Finally, we explore the idea of a "passive CapProbe" within the context of a TCP flow. Passive here means that the dispersion and delay observed for the TCP flow data and ACK packets, without introducing any additional probing packets. We test active and passive versions of CapProbe with TCP. The active version is found to produce more accurate capacity estimates than the passive version.
8697404
Audio streaming over Bluetooth: an adaptive ARQ timeout approach
Streaming audio has become a popular form of media on the Internet. As wireless personal area network architectures (e.g. Bluetooth) are now targeted to support multimedia traffic, streaming audio over these technologies give rise to interesting applications. But, the variable nature of the wireless medium will not lend itself easily to supporting audio streaming. We focus on Bluetooth and propose, an enhancement to the Bluetooth link layer ARQ mechanism to compensate for channel degradation and to better support audio streaming. Specifically, our scheme adoptively sets the ARQ timeout value based on current channel measurements. We show through testbed experiments that the adaptive ARQ improves the streaming quality significantly compared to the "vanilla" link layer of Bluetooth, especially in noisy environments. Our proposed approach is simple to implement and can actually be extended to the link layer of any wireless technology.
5124709
Embedded hardware and software self-testing methodologies for processor cores
At-speed testing of GHz processors using external testers may not be technically and economically feasible. Hence, there is an emerging need for low-cost, high-quality self-test methodologies, which can be used by processors to test themselves at-speed. Currently, Built-In Self-Test (BIST) is the primary self-test methodology available and is widely used for testing embedded memory cores. In this paper, we report our experiences in applying a commercial BIST methodology to two processor cores and analyze the problems associated with the current hardware-based BIST methodologies. We propose a new software-based self-testing methodology for processors, which uses a software tester embedded in the processor memory as a vehicle for applying structural tests. The software tester consists of programs for test generation and test application. Prior to the test, structural tests are prepared for processor components in the form of self-test signatures. During the process of self-test, the test generation program expands the self-test signatures into test sets, and the test application program applies the tests to the components-under-test at the speed of the processor. Application of the novel software-based self-test method demonstrates its significant cost/fault coverage benefits and its ability to apply at-speed test while alleviating the need for high-speed testers.
21848565
Discrete signal matching using coarse-to-fine wavelet basis functions
In this paper, we propose a matching algorithm to estimate accurate and dense displacements between two signals. The displacements are characterized by a coarse-to-fine wavelet representation, which is a linear combination of hierarchical basis functions developed by Cai and Wang (SIAM Numer. Anal. 33(3) (1996) 937). The coarser-scale basis function has larger support while the finer-scale basis function has smaller support. During the iterative minimization process, the basis functions are utilized as large-to-small windows in selecting global-to-local regions for signal matching. The estimated wavelet coefficients are then used to reconstruct the signal in a coarse-to-fine manner. Two sets of synthetic examples, one with small displacement and the other with large displacements, have been employed to illustrate the advantages of the wavelet-based method. This method has been applied to estimate the dense disparity between stereo images in several real examples and the results demonstrate its effectiveness.
3257950
Robustness of Regional Matching Scheme over Global Matching Scheme
Analyzing the effect of concentrated noise on a typical decision-making process of a simplified two-candidate voting model, we have demonstrated that a local approach using a regional matching process is more robust and stable than a direct approach using a global matching process, by establishing that the former is capable of accommodating a higher level of noise than the latter before the result of the decision overturns. To extend the theory to imagery analysis, we pose a conjecture that our conclusion on the robustness of the regional matching processes remains valid not only for the simpler vote counting schemes but also for practically more important decision-making schemes in image analysis which involve dimension-reducing transforms or other features extraction processes such as principal component analysis or Gablor transforms. Two convincing experimental verifications are provided, supporting not only the theory by a white-black flag recognition problem on a pixel-by-pixel basis, but also the validity of the conjecture by a facial recognition problem in the presence of localized noise typically represented by clutter or occlusion in imagery.
17373350
VLSI architecture design of MPEG-4 shape coding
This paper presents an efficient VLSI architecture design of MPEG-4 shape coding, which is the key technology for supporting the content-based functionality of the MPEG-4 video standard. The real-time constraint of MPEG-4 shape coding leads to a heavy computational bottleneck on today's computer architectures. To overcome this problem, design analysis and optimization of MPEG-4 shape coding are addressed. By utilizing the RISC-based model, computational behaviors of the MPEG-4 shape coding tool are carefully examined and analyzed. The characteristic of a large amount of bit-level data processing and data transfer of MPEG-4 shape coding motivates the optimization of bit-level data operations. Applying data-flow optimization and data reuse techniques, bit-level computation-efficient architectures, such as data-dispatch-based binary-shaped motion estimation, the delay-line model, and configurable context-based arithmetic coding, are designed to accelerate bit-level processing. These hardware blocks are integrated and scheduled in a very efficient data flow to achieve real-time performance for MPEG-4 CPL2 (core profile level 2) specification at 23.5 MHz clock rate. The system architecture is implemented using Verilog HDL and synthesized with a 0.35 /spl mu/m four-layer CMOS standard library.
4781375
SERFing the web: The Re-Web approach for web re-structuring
In our emerging digital paper-less society, massive amount of information is being maintained in on-line repositories and diverse web site representations of this information must be served over the Internet to different user groups. E-commerce and digital libraries are two representative sample applications with such needs. In this paper we present a database-centric approach called Re-Web that addresses this need for flexible web site generation, re-structuring, and maintenance. Re-Web is based on two key ideas. First, we exploit the web site structure by associating web semantics (XML equivalents) with the modeling constructs of the ODMG object model to aid the web site generation process. By capturing the logical structure of web views within the OODB system, we can efficiently maintain the web views using standard database techniques. Secondly, to ease the process of specification and construction of multiple customized web view sites, we also propose the notion of generic web view transformations that are encapsulated into re-usable templates. Thus desired new web view sites can be generated simply by applying the corresponding transformations on the underlying database to produce web view classes and then by applying the web semantics on the newly built view classes. The Re-Web system has been implemented using PSE by Object Design Inc. as object repository, ODMG as object model, OQL as transformation language, SERF as OODB evolution facility and IBM XML parser and LotusXSL processor to aid the web site generation. A case study using Re-Web is also presented to illustrate the working of the system. To the best of our knowledge, Re-Web is the first web site management system focusing on the issue of re-usable view generation templates at the content and not at the presentation style level of abstraction.