This thesis introduces a method for contact-free optical audio reconstruction of phonograph records using laser triangulation. The reconstruction is done using a 3D-profile camera and by scanning the surface of record in a single circumference. The depth-map created by the camera is then used to decode the audio information stored in the record. To evaluate the quality of the decoded audio information, it is tested against digital copies of the same record in order to analyze the correlation between it and the extracted sound. The result of this thesis presents a decoded and high correlated audio which is recognizable to an original digital copy. The method is well suited for fast real-time or faster than real-time decoding implementations.

Motivated by current applications in multihop transmission and ad hoc networks, the classical three-node relay channel consisting of a source-destination pair and a relay has received significant attention. One of the crucial aspects of the relay channel is the design of proper relaying protocols, i.e., how the relay should take part into transmission. The thesis addresses this problem and provides a partial answer to that. In this thesis, we propose and study two novel relaying protocols. The first one is based on constellation rearrangement (CR) and is suitable for higher-order modulation schemes. With CR, the relay uses a bit-symbol mapping that is different from the one used by the source. We find the optimal bit-symbol mappings for both the source and the relay and the associated optimal detectors, and show that the improvement over conventional relaying with Gray mapping at the source and the relay can amount to a power gain of several dB. This performance improvement comes at no additional power or bandwidth expense, and at virtually no increase in complexity. The second one is a half-duplex decode-and-forward (DF) relaying scheme based on partial repetition (PR) coding at the relay. With PR, if the relay decodes the received message successfully, it re-encodes the message using the same channel code as the one used at the source, but retransmits only a fraction of the codeword. We analyze the proposed scheme and optimize the cooperation level (i.e., the fraction of the message that the relay should transmit). We compare our scheme with conventional repetition in which the relay retransmits the entire decoded message, and with parallel coding, and additionally with dynamic DF. The finite SNR analysis reveals that the proposed partial repetition can provide a gain of several dB over conventional repetition. Surprisingly, the proposed scheme is able to achieve the same performance as that of parallel coding for some relay network configurations, but at a much lower complexity. Additionally, the thesis treats the problem of resource allocation for collaborative transmit diversity using DF protocols with different type of CSI feedback at the source. One interesting observation that emerges is that the joint powerbandwidth allocation only provides marginal gain over the relaying protocols with optimal bandwidth allocation. / QC 20101119

Cooperative wireless communication has received significant attention during recent years due to several reasons. First, since the received power decreases rapidly with distance, the idea of multi-hopping is becoming of particular importance. In multi-hopped communication, the source exploits some intermediate nodes as relays. Then the source sends its message via those relays to the destination. Second, relays can emulate some kind of distributed transmit antennas to form spatial diversity and combat multi-path fading effect of the wireless channel. Parallel Relay Channel is an information theoretical model for a communication system whereby a sender aims to communicate to a receiver with the help of relay nodes. It represents the simplest model for a multi–hop wireless network and a full understanding of the limits of communication over such a channel can potentially shed light on the design of more efficient wireless networks. However, the capacity of the relay channel has been established only for few special cases and little progress has been made toward solving the general case since the early 1980s. In this dissertation, motivated by practical constraints, we study the information theoretical limits of the half-duplex Gaussian Parallel Relay channel , as well as, the transmission strategies for the parallel relay channel with bandwidth mismatch between the first and the second hops. Chapter 2 investigates the problem of communication for a network composed of two half-duplex parallel relays with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). There is no direct link between the source and the destination. However, the relays can communicate with each other through the channel between them. Two protocols, i.e., \emph{Simultaneous} and \emph{Successive} relaying, associated with two possible relay scheduling are proposed. The simultaneous relaying protocol is based on \emph{Broadcast-multiaccess with Common Message (BCM)} scheme. For the successive relaying protocol: (i) a \emph{Non-Cooperative} scheme based on the \emph{Dirty Paper Coding (DPC)}, and (ii) a \emph{Cooperative} scheme based on the \emph{Block Markov Encoding (BME)} are considered. The composite scheme of employing BME in \emph{at most} one relay and DPC in \emph{at least} another one is shown to achieve at least the same rate when compared to the \emph{Cooperative} and \emph{Non-Cooperative} schemes. A \emph{``Simultaneous-Successive Relaying based on Dirty paper coding scheme" (SSRD)} is also proposed. The optimum scheduling of the relays and hence the capacity of the half-duplex Gaussian parallel relay channel in the low and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scenarios is derived. In the low SNR scenario, it is revealed that under certain conditions for the channel coefficients, the ratio of the achievable rate of the simultaneous relaying based on BCM to the cut-set bound tends to be 1. On the other hand, as SNR goes to infinity, it is proved that successive relaying, based on the DPC, asymptotically achieves the capacity of the network. Schein and Gallager introduced the Gaussian parallel relay channel in 2000. They proposed the Amplify-and-Forward (AF) and the Decode-and-Forward (DF) strategies for this channel. For a long time, the best known achievable rate for this channel was based on the AF and DF with time sharing (AF-DF). Recently, a Rematch-and-Forward (RF) scheme for the scenario in which different amounts of bandwidth can be assigned to the first and second hops were proposed. In chapter 3, we propose a \emph{Combined Amplify-and-Decode Forward (CADF)} scheme for the Gaussian parallel relay channel. We prove that the CADF scheme always gives a better achievable rate compared to the RF scheme, when there is a bandwidth mismatch between the first hop and the second hop. Furthermore, for the equal bandwidth case (Schein's setup), we show that the time sharing between the CADF and the DF schemes (CADF-DF) leads to a better achievable rate compared to the time sharing between the RF and the DF schemes (RF-DF) as well as the AF-DF.

Cooperative wireless communication has received significant attention during recent years due to several reasons. First, since the received power decreases rapidly with distance, the idea of multi-hopping is becoming of particular importance. In multi-hopped communication, the source exploits some intermediate nodes as relays. Then the source sends its message via those relays to the destination. Second, relays can emulate some kind of distributed transmit antennas to form spatial diversity and combat multi-path fading effect of the wireless channel. Parallel Relay Channel is an information theoretical model for a communication system whereby a sender aims to communicate to a receiver with the help of relay nodes. It represents the simplest model for a multi–hop wireless network and a full understanding of the limits of communication over such a channel can potentially shed light on the design of more efficient wireless networks. However, the capacity of the relay channel has been established only for few special cases and little progress has been made toward solving the general case since the early 1980s. In this dissertation, motivated by practical constraints, we study the information theoretical limits of the half-duplex Gaussian Parallel Relay channel , as well as, the transmission strategies for the parallel relay channel with bandwidth mismatch between the first and the second hops. Chapter 2 investigates the problem of communication for a network composed of two half-duplex parallel relays with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). There is no direct link between the source and the destination. However, the relays can communicate with each other through the channel between them. Two protocols, i.e., \emph{Simultaneous} and \emph{Successive} relaying, associated with two possible relay scheduling are proposed. The simultaneous relaying protocol is based on \emph{Broadcast-multiaccess with Common Message (BCM)} scheme. For the successive relaying protocol: (i) a \emph{Non-Cooperative} scheme based on the \emph{Dirty Paper Coding (DPC)}, and (ii) a \emph{Cooperative} scheme based on the \emph{Block Markov Encoding (BME)} are considered. The composite scheme of employing BME in \emph{at most} one relay and DPC in \emph{at least} another one is shown to achieve at least the same rate when compared to the \emph{Cooperative} and \emph{Non-Cooperative} schemes. A \emph{``Simultaneous-Successive Relaying based on Dirty paper coding scheme" (SSRD)} is also proposed. The optimum scheduling of the relays and hence the capacity of the half-duplex Gaussian parallel relay channel in the low and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scenarios is derived. In the low SNR scenario, it is revealed that under certain conditions for the channel coefficients, the ratio of the achievable rate of the simultaneous relaying based on BCM to the cut-set bound tends to be 1. On the other hand, as SNR goes to infinity, it is proved that successive relaying, based on the DPC, asymptotically achieves the capacity of the network. Schein and Gallager introduced the Gaussian parallel relay channel in 2000. They proposed the Amplify-and-Forward (AF) and the Decode-and-Forward (DF) strategies for this channel. For a long time, the best known achievable rate for this channel was based on the AF and DF with time sharing (AF-DF). Recently, a Rematch-and-Forward (RF) scheme for the scenario in which different amounts of bandwidth can be assigned to the first and second hops were proposed. In chapter 3, we propose a \emph{Combined Amplify-and-Decode Forward (CADF)} scheme for the Gaussian parallel relay channel. We prove that the CADF scheme always gives a better achievable rate compared to the RF scheme, when there is a bandwidth mismatch between the first hop and the second hop. Furthermore, for the equal bandwidth case (Schein's setup), we show that the time sharing between the CADF and the DF schemes (CADF-DF) leads to a better achievable rate compared to the time sharing between the RF and the DF schemes (RF-DF) as well as the AF-DF.

Abstract This thesis is devoted to studying two wireless relay network models, namely wireless tandem multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) relay networks and wireless two-hop multicast relay networks. Regarding wireless tandem MIMO relay networks, we develop a systematic approach to analyze their fundamental diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) under the assumption that the relays implement a class of practical full-duplex techniques that enable them to opt for either full-duplex or half-duplex mode. Based on the analysis, we make contribution from the following aspects: First of all, we thoroughly compare the performance of full-duplex and half-duplex mode operations in the framework of wireless tandem relay networks. We find that both full-duplex and half-duplex modes have opportunity to outperform each other. Specifically, for many tandem relay networks, in the low multiplexing gain region, the best relay-mode configuration is to let all the relays operate in half-duplex mode since this relay-mode configuration achieves the best diversity gain in the low multiplexing gain region. However, in the high multiplexing gain region, the best diversity gain is usually achieved by switching some relays to full-duplex mode. Furthermore, we study how residual interference at relays working in full-duplex mode affects the DMT of a tandem network. We find that residual interference not only derogates the performance of full-duplex mode, but also affects the optimal power allocation of the network. Specifically, if residual interference is zero or has a sufficiently low power level, a linear power allocation scheme can achieve the optimal DMT of the network. Otherwise, the optimal DMT is achieved by a nonlinear power allocation scheme. Finally, the DMT analysis illustrates an effective principle to deal with general multi-hop wireless networks, which is to break them down into small scale subnetworks with certain key structures. Then, studying the general multi-hop wireless networks essentially becomes studying those small scale subnetworks and the relationship among them. Regarding wireless two-hop multicast relay networks, we focus on a case study where a single source multicasts to two destinations through the assistance of two relays. We propose and analyze the performance of a partial decode-and-forward protocol for the network, which includes the full decode-and-forward protocol as a special case and achieves a better performance in general. Specifically, we prove that the achievable rate of the partial decode-and-forward protocol can either reach arbitrarily close to the cut-set upper bound of the network or reach within 1 bit/s/Hz to that, asymptotically with respect to the transmit power. We also show that the partial decode-and-forward protocol can achieve the optimal DMT of the network. Then, we discuss the perspective of implementing the partial decode-and-forward strategy to more general multicast relay networks. / Tiivistelmä Tämä opinnäytetyö tutkii kahta langatonta välitysverkkomallia, nimittäin langatonta tandem multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) välitysverkkoa ja langatonta monilähetysvälitysverkkoa kahdelle hypylle. Kehitämme systemaattisen lähestymistavan diversiteetti-multipleksointi vaihtokaupan (DMT) analysointiin langattomiin tandem MIMO välitysverkkoihin, olettaen välittäjien käyttävän käytännöllisiä full-duplex lähetystekniikoita, jotka mahdollistavat valinnan joko full-duplex tai half-duplex lähetystilan välillä. Analyysin perusteella kontribuoimme seuraavilla tavoilla: Ensinnäkin, vertailemme perusteellisesti full-duplex sekä half-duplex lähetystiloja langattomissa tandem välitysverkoissa. Huomaamme, että molemmat full-duplex ja half-duplex lähetystilat voivat suoriutua toinen toistaan paremmin. Tarkemmin sanoen, monissa tandem välitysverkoissa silloin kun multipleksoinnin hyöty on alhainen, paras välitystapa on antaa kaikkien välittäjien käyttää half-duplex lähetystilaa, koska silloin saavutetaan paras diversiteettilisäys. Toisaalta, kun multipleksointilisäys on suuri, paras diversiteettilisäys saadaan yleensä asettamalla jotkin välittäjät full-duplex lähetystilaan. Lisäksi, tutkimme kuinka full-duplex lähetystilaa käyttävien välittäjien jäljelle jäävä interferenssi vaikuttaa tandemverkon DMT:aan. Huomaamme, että jäljelle jäävä interferenssi vähentää full-duplex mallin tehokkuutta ja lisäksi vaikuttaa optimaaliseen tehonjakamiseen verkossa. Tarkemmin sanoen, jos jäljelle jäävä interferenssin tehotaso on nolla tai tarpeeksi lähellä sitä, lineaarisella tehojaolla voi saavuttaa verkon optimaalisen DMT:n. Muutoin, optimaalinen DMT saavutetaan epälineaarisella tehojaolla. Lopuksi, DMT analyysi havainnollistaa tehokkaan periaatteen yleisluontoisten monihyppyverkkojen käsittelemiseen, eli verkon jakamisen pienempiin osiin erilaiin avainrakenteisiin. Tämän jälkeen yleisluntoisten langattoimen monihyppyverkkojen tutkiminen tapahtuu tutkimalla näitä pieniä osia ja niiden välisiä vuorovaikutussuhteita. Langattomaan kahden hypyn monilähetysvälitysverkkon osalta keskitymme tapaustutkimukseen, jossa yksi lähettäjä monilähettää kahdelle vastaanottajalle kahden välittäjän avulla. Ehdotamme tälle verkolle osittaista decode-and-forward protokollaa, joka sisältää täyden decode-and-forward protokollan erikoistapauksena ja saavuttaa yleisesti tätä protokollaa paremman tehokkuuden. Tarkemmin sanoen, todistamme että tällä protokollalla siirtonopeus lähetystehon suhteen joko lähenee asymptoottisesti verkon cut-set ylärajaa mielivaltaisen lähelle tai saavuttaa sen 1 bit/s/Hz sisään. Osoitamme myös, että osittainen decode-and-forward protokolla voi saavuttaa verkon optimaalisen DMT:n. Tämän jälkeen, käsittelemme osittaisen decode-and-forward strategian impelentointia yleisluontoisille monilähetysvälitysverkoille.

Over time, wireless technology advancements in the field of communications have been attracting every individual to turn into a wireless user. To accommodate the increasing number of users and to avoid the problem of spectrum scarcity, the concept of Cognitive Radio Network (CRN) has been developed. Cognitive Radio (CR) is an intelligent radio which efficiently detects and allocates the spectrums of primary licensed users (PUs) to the secondary unlicensed users (SUs). The SUs can utilize these spectrums as long as they do not cause harmful interfere to the PUs. Interference may occur because of the following reasons: misdetection of spectrum availability, the high transmission power of SU when both SU and PU are present in the same channel at the same time. In order to avoid interference, the radio has to have a very accurate spectrum sensing method, transmit power at SU should be constrained by the peak interference power of PU and the CR should continuously sense the presence of PUs. To increase the wireless coverage area and reliability of CRN, a new technology called Cooperative Cognitive Radio Network (CCRN), which is a combination of CRN and cooperative communications was developed. A CCRN not only increases the reliability and wireless coverage area of CR but also improves the overall performance of the system. In this context, the main objective of this research work is to evaluate the outage performance of a CCRN in an environment where fading and shadowing also come into the picture and to study the importance of relay networks in CRN. To fulfill the objectives of this research work, a two-hop decode-and-forward CCRN is considered. The recently introduced κ − µ shadowed fading channel is employed over the CCRN to generate a realistic environment.  In order to implement such system as a whole, a deep literature study is performed beforehand. Analytical expressions for the Probability Density Function (PDF) and Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) are obtained. The analytical expressions and simulation results for Outage Probability (OP) are obtained and compared under different fading parameters. The importance of a multiple-relay system in CRN is presented. From the results obtained in this research work, we can conclude that the OP decreases with increase in allowable peak interference power at the PU. The transmit power at SU should always be constrained by the peak interference power at the PU to avoid interference. The overall system performance increases with increasing number of relays.

abstract: Neural interfacing applications have advanced in complexity, with needs for increasingly high degrees of freedom in prosthetic device control, sharper discrimination in sensory percepts in bidirectional interfaces, and more precise localization of functional connectivity in the brain. As such, there is a growing need for reliable neurophysiological recordings at a fine spatial scale matching that of cortical columnar processing. Penetrating microelectrodes provide localization sufficient to isolate action potential (AP) waveforms, but often suffer from recorded signal deterioration linked to foreign body response. Micro-Electrocorticography (μECoG) surface electrodes elicit lower foreign body response and show greater chronic stability of recorded signals, though they typically lack the signal localization necessary to isolate individual APs. This dissertation validates the recording capacity of a novel, flexible, large area μECoG array with bilayer routing in a feline implant, and explores the ability of conventional μECoG arrays to detect features of neuronal activity in a very high frequency band associated with AP waveforms. Recordings from both layers of the flexible μECoG array showed frequency features typical of cortical local field potentials (LFP) and were shown to be stable in amplitude over time. Recordings from both layers also showed consistent, frequency-dependent modulation after induction of general anesthesia, with large increases in beta and gamma band and decreases in theta band observed over three experiments. Recordings from conventional μECoG arrays over human cortex showed robust modulation in a high frequency (250-2000 Hz) band upon production of spoken words. Modulation in this band was used to predict spoken words with over 90% accuracy. Basal Ganglia neuronal AP firing was also shown to significantly correlate with various cortical μECoG recordings in this frequency band. Results indicate that μECoG surface electrodes may detect high frequency neuronal activity potentially associated with AP firing, a source of information previously unutilized by these devices. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Biomedical Engineering 2018

The concept of multihop communications (where the source communicates with the destination via many intermediate nodes) has been revisited and adapted to mitigate wireless channel impairments and ensure broader coverage. It has been shown in the literature that, in addition to extending coverage, overcoming shadowing and reducing the transmit power, multihop communications can increase the capacity of the network at a low additional cost. On the other hand, the problem of energy efficiency is one of the current biggest challenges towards green radio communications. Morevover, electromagnetic radiation is at its limit in many contexts, while for battery-powered devices, transmit and circuit energy consumption has to be minimized for better battery lifetime and performance. In this work, the performance of multihop communication over Nakagami-m fading is investigated for both cases without and with diversity combining. Closed form expressions of the average ergodic capacity are derived for each of these cases. Then, an expression of the outage probability is obtained using the inverse of Laplace transform and the average bit error rate is bounded using the Moment-Generating-Function approach. The energy efficiency is analyzed using the "consumption factor" as a metric, and it is derived in closed-form. And based on the obtained expressions, we propose a power allocation strategy maximizing this consumption factor.

Cooperative wireless communication uses relays to enhance the capacity and reliability of data transmission. Adaptive transmission is typically used in conventional non-cooperative communications to exploit the time-varying nature of the wireless channel. In this thesis, we combine these two techniques. We consider decode-and-forward (DF) and amplify-and-forward (AF) relays. The wireless environment is modeled by using the Nakagami-m distribution. The achievable channel capacity with rate adaptive transmission is analytically derived for DF and AF cooperative networks. The performance of a DF cooperative network is analyzed with a constant power rate adaptive scheme consisting of a discrete set of transmission modes. The effect of decoding errors on DF cooperative networks is also analyzed. To this end, a new heuristic approximation of the total received signal-to-noise ratio at the destination is developed. This approximation enables simple yet accurate performance analysis. / Communications

In the wireless sensor network environment (WSN), the system transmits signals often need to rely on the stability and reliability of the relay node of each path of cooperation with each other to achieve balance between leisure and stability. In general, relay adopted Amplify-and-Forward (AF) and Decode-and-Forward (DF) to relaying the signal to destination. Unfortunately, in reality, the relay node itself had a problem of limited energy supplies, would make the overall performance degrade before reaching the optimal performance. Therefore, we propose two novel relay selection schemes and through the multi-hop transmission with cooperation. We also derived the optimal power allocation algorithms for all relay nodes. Finally, simulation results show that our proposed scheme obtained the better lifetime and performance where compared with the traditional schemes in a fair environment.