International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / The presence of multipath fading has been shown to degrade the performance of a wireless channel. This paper quantifies the effects of multipath interference on signal performance based on the estimated parameters of the multipath signal. Theoretical results are compared with actual results obtained through the Advanced Range Telemetry (ARTM) program.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / November 04-07, 1991 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Shortened cyclic codes are not cyclic, but many cyclic shifts of various code words are still part of the shortened code set. This paper addresses the probability of false synchronization obtained through polynomial division of a serial shortened cyclic code stream in a “sliding” window correlator.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Commercial FQPSK-B receivers traditionally use symbol-by-symbol detection and have a 2 dB Eb=No loss relative to ideal QPSK at a bit error rate (BER) of 10^(-5). An enhanced FQPSK-B receiver using a Viterbi algorithm (VA) to perform trellis decoding is simulated and shown to have a 1.2 dB Eb=No improvement over symbol-by-symbol detection for 10^(-5)5 BER at the cost of increased complexity. A simplified Viterbi receiver with a reduced trellis and significantly less complexity is introduced with only a slight BER degradation compared to the full Viterbi receiver. In addition, a theoretical bit error probability expression for the symbol-by-symbol FQPSK-B receiver is derived and compared with simulation results.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / The selection of the Intermediate Frequency (IF) bandwidth filter for a data receiver for processing PCM data is based on using a peak deviation of 0.35 times the bit rate. The optimum IF bandwidth filter is equal to the bit rate. An IF bandwidth filter of 1.5 times the bit rate degrades the data by approximately 0.7 dB. The selection of the IF bandwidth filter for tracking receivers is based on the narrowest “noise bandwidth” that will yield the best system sensitivity. In some cases the noise bandwidth of the tracking receiver is the same as the IF bandwidth of the data receiver because it is the same receiver. If this is the case, the PCM bit rate determines the IF bandwidth and establishes the system sensitivity. With increasing bit rates and increased transmitter stability characteristics, the IF bandwidth filter selection criteria for a tracking receiver must include system sensitivity considerations. The tracking receiver IF bandwidth filter selection criteria should also be based on the narrowest IF bandwidth that will not cause the tracking errors to be masked by high bit rates and alter the pedestal dynamic response. This paper describes a selection criteria for a tracking receiver IF bandwidth filter based on measurements of the tracking error signals versus antenna pedestal dynamic response. Different IF bandwidth filters for low and high bit rates were used.

The world's demand for energy is an ongoing challenge, which has yet to be overcome. The efforts to find clean energy alternatives to fossil fuels have been hampered by the lack of investment in technology and research. Among these clean energy alternatives are ocean waves and wind. Wind power is generated through the use of wind generators that harness the wind's kinetic energy; it has gained worldwide popularity as a large-scale energy source, but only provides less than one percent of global energy consumption. Due to infrastructure limitations on installations of wind turbines at locations where high winds exist, wind energy faces critical challenges difficult to overcome to continue improving electricity generation. Ocean wave energy on the other hand seems like a promising adjunction to wind energy. Ocean energy comes in a variety of forms such as marine currents, tidal currents, geothermal vents and waves. Most of today's research however is based on wave energy. It has been estimated that approximately 257 Terawatt hour per year (TWh/year) could be extracted from ocean waves alone. This amount of energy could be enough to meet the U.S. energy demands of 28 TWh/year. Technologies such as point absorbers, attenuators and overtopping devices are examples of wave energy converters. Point absorbers use a floating structure with components that move relative to each other due to the wave action. The relative motion is used to drive electromechanical or hydraulic energy converters. The total energy throughput of a single point absorber however, does not justify for the great engineering cost and effort by researchers. Thus the need to explore other alternatives of wave conversion that result in no extra-added cost but yet increases throughput. Our research focuses on exploring a novel method to maximize wave energy conversion of an array-based point absorber wave farm. Unlike previous research, our method incorporates a predictive control algorithm to aid the wave farm with the prediction of dynamics and optimal control trajectory over a finite time and space horizon of ocean waves. By using a predictive control algorithm, wave energy conversion throughput can be increased as opposed to a system without. This algorithm requires that the wave characteristics of the incoming wave be provided in advance for appropriate processing. This thesis focuses on designing an efficient and reliable wireless communications system capable of delivering wave information such as speed, height and direction to each point absorber in the network for further processing by the predictive control algorithm. This process takes place in the presence of harsh environmental conditions where the random shape of waves and moving surface can further affect the communication channel. In this work we focus on the physical layer where the transmission of bits over the wireless medium takes place. Specifically we are interested in reducing the bit error rate with a unique relaying protocol to increase packet transmission reliability. We make use of cooperative diversity and existing protocols to achieve our goal of merit and improve end-to-end system performance. / Graduation date: 2012

Noise radar systems have become more prevalent over the past couple of decades due to their superior performance over conventional continuous-wave and pulsed-wave radar systems in certain applications. However, one limiting factor of noise radar systems has been the generation of ultrabroadband waveforms. This thesis proposes a novel application of programmable pseudo-random bit generators (PRBGs) for use in noise radar applications. A long-sequence high-speed PRBG was designed using a low-cost and low-power complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The proposed circuit has a sequence length of approximately 4.3 Gbits and was designed to operate at 1 GHz providing a data rate of 1 Gbit/s. This new waveform generation technique would eliminate the requirement of a large variable delay-line (transmission-line) and reduce the power required by noise radar systems. It would allow such systems to become much more compact and create the opportunity for the move towards hand-held devices. It would further allow easier implementation of bistatic radar systems where the transmitting and receiving sites are physically far from one another. In addition, this programmable long-sequence PRBG could have applications in cryptology, communications, and other areas where the generation of high-speed random bit sequences is paramount. Unfortunately, an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) design process documentation error rendered the fabricated IC's unusable. The error was caused by not enabling the input pads of the IC, which required an undocumented edit to the gate-level design file generated by Synopsys \textit{Design Vision}. Consequently, the circuit had to be realized on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), which performed as expected, albeit at a lower frequency of 50 MHz. The PSD of the FPGA implementation created the expected output of a sinc-squared function with the first null at the clock frequency. This result proves that a LFSR PRBG is a viable noise source for use in noise radar systems. / Thesis (Master, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2013-10-31 14:48:27.422

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 17-20, 1994 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / It is known that a PCM telemetry system features with good accuracy, great dynamic range, and low noise. And when more than fourteen data channels are required, the PCM is generally the best choice. The paper describes the general ideas involved in developing a PCM telemetry system with fibre transmission.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 17-20, 1994 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / This paper analyzes the probability of bit error for PCM-FM over a standard IRIG channel subject to multipath interference modeled by the aeronautical fading channel. The aeronautical channel model assumes a mobile transmitter and a stationary receiver and specifies the correlation of the fading component. This model describes fading which is typical of that encountered at military test ranges. An expression for the bit error rate on the fading channel with a delay line demodulator is derived and compared with the error rate for the Gaussian channel. The increase in bit error rate over that of the Gaussian channel is determined along with the power penalty caused by the fading. In addition, the effects of several channel parameters on the probability of bit error are determined.

The fabrication of Bit Patterned Media has become highly developed, with samples fabricated of over 1.5 Tb/in2. However, writing BPM presents significant challenges and for a system to be developed studies must be made into writing. This work has investigated a number of effects on the writing of Bit Pattterned Media (BPM). Magnetostatic interactions between islands have been used to investigate the effect of patterns of magnetisation on the write-window of a BPM system. A method of acquiring a distribution of patterns was determined and used to vary the probability of a target island switching. This showed that magnetostatic interactions between islands could be modelled as a variation in the anisotropy field. The relationship between island parameter distributions, the write-window and error rates was also explored. The effect of non-Gaussian distributions on the error in a BPM system was studied. It was concluded that tails of island parameter distributions have a significant effect on errors occurring in the write process of a BPM system. Therefore an accurate distribution of island parameters must be known and the necessary accuracy of such a distribution was established. Furthermore a model of BPM writing where the shape of the head field is approximated from the value at the maximum head field gradient will not account for switching in the tail of a real head field. This led onto a study of the ideal write point in BPM. In conventional recording theory the medium is designed to switch when the applied head field is at the position of its maximum gradient, which produces sharp transitions between magnetisation regions. A natural assumption in BPM is that the system could be optimised by setting the island switching field in a similar manner. This strategy of optimisation was investigated to see what gives the minimum error, or maximum write-window. It was concluded that optimisation could not be solely based on the maximum head field gradient, furthermore assuming the shape of the head field from this point will not produce an accurate estimation of the error in a BPM system.

This thesis implemented a field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based face detector using a neural network (NN), as well as a bit-width reduced floating-point unit (FPU). An NN was used to easily separate face data and non-face data in the face detector. The NN performs time consuming repetitive calculation. This time consuming problem was solved by a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device and a bit-width reduced FPU in this thesis. A floating-point bit-width reduction provided a significant saving of hardware resources, such as area and power.<p>The analytical error model, using the maximum relative representation error (MRRE) and the average relative representation error (ARRE), was developed to obtain the maximum and average output errors for the bit-width reduced FPUs. After the development of the analytical error model, the bit-width reduced FPUs and an NN were designed using MATLAB and VHDL. Finally, the analytical (MATLAB) results, along with the experimental (VHDL) results, were compared. The analytical results and the experimental results showed conformity of shape. It was also found that while maintaining 94.1% detection accuracy, a reduction in bit-width from 32 bits to 16 bits reduced the size of memory and arithmetic units by 50%, and the total power consumption by 14.7%.