ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper investigates the sum-rate capacity of a cognitive multiple access (MAC) sensor network. The multiple access network consists of K sensors communicating to a common base station. Outside of the network exists another user of the radio spectrum. Each sensor of the MAC network is aware (i.e. cognitive) of this user, denoted the primary user, and transmits in a manner to avoid any interference to this user. No interference transmission is achieved using the dirty-paper coding technique. The sum-rate capacity is the theoretical maximum of the sum of the simultaneously achievable rates of each sensor within the network. Using a recently derived iterative algorithm, we quantify the sum-rate capacity of this network and investigate its behavior as a function of the number of sensors, cognitive signal-to-noise ratio (CSNR) and primary SNR (PSNR) in a Rayleigh fading environment. We also derive bounds and scaling results for the ergodic sum-rate capacity.

ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / An acoustic modem employing direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) signaling is considered with LDPC coding. The underwater acoustic channel is tracked using a Kalman filter which requires accurate data decisions. To improve KF performance and reduce the overall error rate, joint iterative LDPC decoding and channel estimation is proposed based on a factor graph and sum-product algorithm approximation. In this scheme, the decoder posterior log likelihood ratios (LLRs) provide data decisions for the KF. Decoder extrinsic LLRs are similarly incorporated into the detector LLRs to yield improved priors for decoding. Error rate simulations of the overall modem are provided for a shallow-water channel model with Ricean/Rayleigh fading.

ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Modern aircraft now employ widely accepted and standardized technology commonly found in COTS applications. One such technology, Fibre Channel, has been deployed to transport both low and high-speed measurement data. Data as varied as “command and control”, “Radar Sensors” and “video” are being transmitted over fibre channel on many aircrafts. Some of these applications require data monitoring in listening mode only where transmission from the instrumentation equipment is not allowed or possible. As a result, standard off the shelf Fibre Channel devices cannot be used, and a development of a general purpose Fibre Channel monitor/ analyzer device and product is required. This paper discusses the concept, merits, and implementation of fibre channel bus monitoring in modern data acquisition systems. Techniques for tapping into an optical fibre channel network, as well as, a recording format for IRIG106 Chapter 10 are included. An overview of fibre channel topologies and protocols is also provided.

Mobile wireless positioning has recently received great attention. For mobile wireless communication networks, an inherently suitable approach is to obtain the parameters that are used for positioning estimates from the radio signal measurements between a mobile device and one or more xed base stations. However, obtaining accurate estimates of these location-dependent channel parameters is a challenging task. The focus of this thesis is on the estimation of these channel parameters for mobile wireless positioning applications. In particular, we investigate novel estimators that jointly estimate more than one type of channel parameters. We rst perform a comprehensive critical review on the most recent and popular joint channel parameter estimation techniques. Secondly, we improve a state-of-the-art technique, namely the Space Alternating Generalised Expectation maximisation (SAGE) algorithm by employing adaptive interference cancellation to improve the estimation accuracy of weaker paths. Thirdly, a novel intelligent channel parameter estimation technique using Evolution Strategy (ES) is proposed to overcome the drawbacks of the existing iterative maximum likelihood methods. Furthermore, given that in reality it is di cult to obtain the number of multipath in advance, we propose a two tier Hierarchically Organised ES to jointly estimate the number of multipath as well as the channel parameters. Finally, we extend the proposed ES method to further estimate the Doppler shift in mobile environments. Our proposed intelligent joint channel estimation techniques are shown to exhibit excellent performance even with low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) channel conditions as well as robust against uncertainties in initialisations.

A powerful technique is presented for joint blind channel estimation and carrier offset method for code- division multiple access (CDMA) communication systems. The new technique combines singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis with carrier offset parameter. Current blind methods sustain a high computational complexity as they require the computation of a large SVD twice, and they are sensitive to accurate knowledge of the noise subspace rank. The proposed method overcomes both problems by computing the SVD only once. Extensive simulations using MatLab demonstrate the robustness of the proposed scheme and its performance is comparable to other existing SVD techniques with significant lower computational as much as 70% cost because it does not require knowledge of the rank of the noise sub-space. Also a kernel based equalization for CDMA communication systems is proposed, designed and simulated using MatLab. The proposed method in CDMA systems overcomes all other methods.

Cys-loop receptors are membrane proteins that are key players for the fast synaptic neurotransmission. Their ion transport initiates new nerve signals after activation by small agonist molecules, but this function is also highly sensitive to allosteric modulation by a number of compounds such as anesthetics, alcohol or anti-parasitic agents. For a long time, these modulators were believed to act primarily on the membrane, but the availability of high- resolution structures has made it possible to identify several binding sites in the transmembrane domains of the ion channels. It is known that ligand binding in the extracellular domain causes a conformational earthquake that interacts with the transmembrane domain, which leads to channel opening. The investigations carried out in this thesis aim at understanding the connection between ligand binding and channel opening. I present new models of the mammalian GABAA receptor based on the eukaryotic structure GluCl co-crystallized with an anti-parasitic agent, and show how these models can be used to study receptor-modulator interactions. I also show how removal of the bound modulator leads to gradual closing of the channel in molecular dynamics simulations. In contrast, simulations of the receptor with both the agonist and the modulator remain stable in an open-like conformation. This makes it possible to extract several key interactions, and I propose mechanisms for how the extracellular domain motion is initiated. The rapid increase in the number of cys-loop receptor structures the last few years has further made it possible to use principal component analysis (PCA) to create low-dimensional descriptions of the conformational landscape. By performing PCA on the crystal structure ensemble, I have been able to divide the structures into functional clusters and sample the transitions between them using various sampling methods. The studies presented in this thesis contribute to our understanding of the gating mechanism and the functional clustering of the cys-loop receptor structures, which both are important to design new allosteric modulator drugs that influence the channel function, in particular to treat neurological disorders. / <p>QC 20160518</p>

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Data from ARTM channel sounding test flights is examined to characterize the dynamic channel behavior of aeronautical telemetry channels. The dynamic behavior is characterized using the Doppler power spectrum. The width of the Doppler power spectrum is the Doppler bandwidth of the channel which indicates the required bandwidth of adaptive detection techniques such as adaptive equalization, adaptive modulation, adaptive channel selection and adaptive error control coding. Data collected from ARTM Flight 11 suggest a Doppler bandwidth exceeding 6.7 Hz for the channel, but greater accuracy and resolution will only be possible with more data.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Gigabits and hundreds of megabit communication buses are starting to appear as the avionic buses of choice for new or upgraded airborne systems. This trend presents new challenges for instrumentation engineers in the areas of high speed data multiplexing, data recording, and data transmission of flight safety information. This paper describes the approach currently under development to acquire data from several types of high-speed avionic buses using distributed multiplexer and acquisition units. Additional input data may include PCM, wideband analog data, discrete, real-time video and others. The system is capable of multiplexing and recording all incoming data channels, while at the same time providing data selection down to the parameter level from input channels for transmission of flight safety information. Additionally, an extensive set of data capture trigger/filter/truncation mechanisms are supported.

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 / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The CCSDS SCPS FP file transfer performance is compared with that of TCP/IP FTP in a simulated satellite channel environment. The comparison is made as a function of channel bit error rate and forward/return data rates. From these simulations, we see that both protocols work well when the channel error rate is low (below 10^-6) and the SCPS FP generally performs better when the error rate is higher. We also noticed a strong effect on the SCPS FP throughput as a function of forward transmission rate when running unbalanced channel tests.