In this report a phenomenological characterization technique of received bottom echoes has been developed and studied, to evaluate the potential of locating typical sandeel grounds. Data from a calibrated multi--frequency echosounder collected during a Survey Methods for Abundance Estimation of Sandeel (Ammodytes marinus) Stocks (SMASSC) survey in the sandeel fishing grounds of "Vestbanken" and "Elbow Spit North", were processed with developed scripts in Matlab to extract first received bottom echo parameters. Together with Simrad SEABEC results and sandeel samples, possible distinctive parameters were found for what could be sandeel grounds. However, ambiguities caused by ping to ping fluctuations and complex behavior of the sandeel species make the characterization difficult. Many of the calculated echo parameters showed possible discrimination power for a future multi-variate analysis.

The final goal of this document is the construction of multi-band terminal for the CVIS project to allow the communication among cars and between the cars and the roadside infrastructure. For the construction of this multi-band terminal, this document takes as starting point, a new compact disk antenna described in [1]. It consists in a circular patch antenna shorted by a central metallic post. This allows reducing the dimensions of a classical circular patch antenna so it is very useful for our application given that the terminal is going to be place on the top of a car and it should be small enough to be attractive for the final users. Specifically, we are going to analyze the behaviour of this kind of antenna when it radiates in the TM01 mode, because the radiation pattern of this mode is particularly interesting for the applications of the CVIS project. This document is divided into two main parts. In the first one, a study in depth of the behaviour of the antenna proposed in [1] was performed. Firstly, through an analytical model and afterward with the help of two simulation tools (WIPL-D and EMDS), we analyze the influence of the main parameters of the antenna (outer and inner radiuses, height, electrical permittivity and the position of the feed) on its properties (resonant frequency, bandwidth, entrance impedance, the shape of the radiation pattern and so on). A general methodology for the design of this kind of antennas was proposed, and it was put in practice with the design of a prototype for a band around 2 GHz. In addition to the conclusions about the influence of the different parameters of the antenna, another important conclusion was done. It was discovered that the use of the simulation tool WIPL-D Lite was not suitable for the simulation of this kind of antenna. In the second part, this document tackles the construction of a dual-frequency antenna for the bands of 2.4-2.484 GHz and 5.75-5.95 GHz. For this, the present document studies the possibility of stacking two compact circular patch antennas, so we put the one which covers the higher band (the smaller) on the top of the one which covers the lower band (the lager). The two patch antennas have a coaxial feed and the feed of the upper antenna goes inside the central post of the lower antenna to minimize the influence of it on the radiation pattern of the lower antenna. This proposal works out not to be feasible, because we need a lower antenna with a large inner radius to allow the variation of the feed position of the upper antenna in a wide range. This is necessary to get a good matching for the upper antenna. The problem is that the radiation pattern becomes very asymmetric when we increase the inner radius of the patch antenna. To solve that, two alternative were analyzed in this document. The first consists in putting a second feed symmetrically placed with respect to the central post. It leads to a more symmetric radiation pattern so we can choose a larger inner radius. In addition, the introduction of the second feed increases the bandwidth of the antenna. The second alternative is a simplification of the first one. It consists in replacing the upper antenna with a monopole on the top of the lower antenna. It is simpler but it prevents the possibility of stacking other patch antennas to cover more frequency bands in a future. Due to this disadvantage, the first alternative was chosen. Finally, a proposal based on the first alternative, which fulfils quite well all the requirements which were raised in the wording of this master thesis, was presented and studied in depth.

In the last two decades, magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has had an increasing success in biomedical research. This technique has the faculty of discerning several metabolites in human tissue non-invasively and thus offers a multitude of medical applications. In clinical routine, quantification plays a key role in the evaluation of the different chemical elements. The quantification of metabolites characterizing specific pathologies helps physicians establish the patient's diagnosis. Estimating quantities of metabolites remains a major challenge in MRS. This thesis presents the implementation of a promising quantification algorithm called selective-frequency singular value decomposition (SELF-SVD). Numerous tests on simulated MRS data have been carried out to bring an insight on the complex dependencies between the various components of the data. Based on the test results, suggestions have been made on how best to set the SELF-SVD parameters depending on the nature of the data. The algorithm has also been tested for the first time with in-vivo 1H MRS data, in which SELF-SVD quantification results allow the localization of a brain tumor.

In this thesis we have evaluated the Quality of Experience (QoE) of Internet television through user tests of Absolutt Fotball. Absolutt Fotball is a Norwegian live football streaming service powered by adaptive streaming from Move Networks Inc. In our tests we found that the users rated the overall quality better than other Internet video services, such as Youtube, TV2 Sumo and NRK Nett-TV, but worse than football on TV. The main problems were coding artifacts, such as blurring, edge ringing and color bleeding, as well as problems with the smoothness of playback. Response time and adaptation period were in general satisfactory; all users preferred adaptive streaming with quick starts and no interruptions over traditional streaming with constant quality and buffering in the start and sometimes during sequences. The tests also revealed that factors other than video quality could have significance in the user’s overall QoE. Most notably was the delay from other live services, such as SMS updates, radio and live updates on the Internet. We also found in our analyses tendencies of content and context dependencies to the QoE. E.g. the result of a user’s favorite team, as well as his/her viewing environment, could have an impact on his/her perception of the quality. In order to improve the QoE the service provider should evaluate the encoding stage in particular. By increasing the bit rate of the encoding, many of the problems related to coding artifacts and smoothness of playback could be reduced. The client should be optimized with regards to adaptation period, response time and live-delay, however there is a compromise to be made with the robustness and reliability of the media player. The service provider can receive feedback on the QoE in three stages: 1. Full reference objective quality assessment at headend, such as VQM, 2. Bit rate statistics from the clients, and 3. An extended user profile and a QoE tool at user end. The proposed QoE tool in the form of a menu could include guides and tests related to user equipment and viewing environment, real-time feedback and support chat related to video quality problems, and service personalization in relation to quality/price and features. We found that controlling the QoE in Internet television is very difficult. QoE monitoring is however possible for the service provider, but a true end-to-end solution would require a better integration of client and user than is today.

This thesis is based on work done at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in the field of serious gaming. The motivation for the work is to create a serious game with the purpose of recruiting high school students that undertake studies at NTNU within engineering and science. After considerations of several available tools, Blender was chosen as the best development tool for this kind of game, and used to create "Student Quest - A First Person Student Game". The game analysis shows that the game's Primary Learning Principle is Marketing, the Primary Educational Content is Knowledge Gain through Exploration, the Target Age Group is Middle and High School, and it is developed for a Computer Platform. By extracting the fun factors, we conclude that the game passes the Playability threshold and reaches the Enjoyability threshold. By implementing the potential features suggested, the game may reach the Super Fun threshold and thus has the potential of becoming an extremely entertaining serious game.

This report will describe the simulation of a Wilkinson Power Divider, realised using lumped components to minimize its size. Every step in the process, from calculating the lumped component values to the final momentum s-parameter simulation is discussed. All relevant theory is described in the theory section. The main goal of this project is to produce the Wilkinson Power Divider using TriQuints 0.5 um TQPED process in as small area as possible. The response of the circuit should also be made as close as possible to the ideal Wilkinson Power Divider. An important additional goal is to learn to use a relevant high-frequency design tool (Agilent ADS) and to get a good understanding of MMIC technology, including the components used and various effects such as cross-talk. During the project a practical measurement on components produced using the TriQuint process will be done, which gives a good understanding of practical measurements using probe station and network analyzer. The final layout, that is arrived at in three steps from a regular Wilkinson Power Divider, should be ready for production, and shows good performance while occupying only a 403 um * 271 um area. The design is thoroughly simulated using Momentum simulation and compared to the ideal response. Any discrepancy between the two responses is explained and commented. All the measurements is compared to simulation results, and deviations between the two is pointed out, and the most probable causes of these are described.

Challenged by the LTE system, Mobile WiMAX is set to be the next generation broadband wireless system. Providing high data rates over large distances gives unlimited possibilities for services provided to the end users. As for all undeveloped systems, Mobile WiMAX has also been exposed to rumors and hypes. This thesis is based on the work performed in cite{prosjekt}, and aims to provide radio planning of a Mobile WiMAX network in the populated areas of Trondheim, Norway. Moreover, preparatory work and suggestions for field testing of the deployed system have been provided. The coverage prediction have been performed by using Astrix 5.0, the radio planning tool of Teleplan. A total of 32 base stations have been suggested to provide ubiquitous coverage of -94 dBm using 92 sectors within the $35.63 km^2$ large area. Furthermore, it has been recommended that fixed or nomadic users purchases the si-CPE or CPE PRO for better channel quality and throughput performances at indoor locations. In the preparatory phase prior to field testing, a python script has been created to perform automated performance testing. The reason for automating the performance measurements has been to increase the test efficiency, and to reduce the possibility of human errors in parameter setting, and file naming. This thesis will hopefully serve as a guide for future radio planners, where an Astrix user case, measurement scripts, and data processing codes are provided for revision and editing. The work has been performed on the initiative of Wireless Trondheim.

For some of the applications of the Second-order UltRasound Field (SURF) imaging technique, a real-time delay-estimation algorithm has been developed for estimating spatially range-varying delays in RF signals. This algorithm is a phase-based approach for subsample delay estimation, and makes no assumption on the local delay variation. Any parametric model can be used for modeling the local delay variation. The phase-based delay estimator uses estimates of the instantaneous frequency and the phase difference and the relationship between the two to estimate the delay. The estimated delay may be used to calculate an improved estimate of the instantaneous frequency, which in turn may be used to calculate new, updated values for the delay using an iterative scheme. Although an iterative scheme introduces a larger bias, the estimated delay values have a significantly lowered standard deviation in comparison to the original method. The delay estimator originally developed for estimating propagation delays for SURF imaging, can also be used for elastography purposes. By not being restricted to locally constant delays, the delay estimator is able to more robustly estimate sharp changes in tissue stiffness, and in estimating small differences in strain more closely. Two different parametric models for the local delay have been tried, one linear, and one polynomial of the first degree. The two various models have been tested on an elastography recording provided by the Ultrasonix company (Ultrasonix Medical Corporation, Vancouver, Canada), and in vitro. Using a polynomial of the second degree as parametric model for the delay is better than a linear model in detecting edges of inclusions located at a depth where the strain is lower than closer to the transducer surface. The differences may be further emphasized by performing spatial filtering with a median filter. The downside of updating the model is an increased computational time of approximately 50%. Multiple reflections, also known as reverberations, appear as acoustic noise in ultrasound images and may greatly impair time-delay estimation, particularly in elastography. Today reverberation suppression is achieved by second harmonic imaging, but this method has the disadvantage of low penetration, and little or no signal in the near field. The SURF imaging technique has the advantages of reverberation suppression in addition to imaging in the fundamental frequency. A reverberation model has been established, and the effect reverberations have on estimated elastography images is studied. When using a layered silicon plate as reverberation model, and imaging through this initial reverberation model placed on top of the imaging phantom, elastography images were not obtained as the quality of the recording was degraded as a result of power loss. By adding reverberations by computer simulations after a recording with a SURF probe with reverberation suppression was performed, a markedly difference between elastography estimates done on the image with reverberations, and the image with reverberations and reverberation suppression was observed. Estimating on a signal with reverberations, the phase-based time-delay algorithm was unable to distinguish any differences in elasticity at all. Estimating time delays on a signal with reverberations and SURF reverberation suppression however, the algorithm was able to clearly estimate differences in strain, and display the presence of an inclusion.

Calculation of the coverage area of mobile broadband communications. Focus on land

In this thesis the optimal transmission rate in ad hoc wireless networks is analyzed. The performance metric used in the analysis is probability of outage. In our system model, users/packets arrive randomly in space and time according to a Poisson point process, and are thereby transmitted to their intended destinations using either ALOHA or CSMA as the MAC protocol. Our model is based on an SINR requirement, i.e., the received SINR must be above some predetermined threshold value, for the whole duration of a packet, in order for the transmission to be considered successful. If this is not the case an outage has occurred. In order to analyze how the transmission rate affects the probability of outage, we assume packets of K bits, and let the packet duration, T, vary. The nodes in the network then transmit packets with a requested transmission rate of Rreq=K/T bits per second. We incorporate transmission rate into already existing lower bounds on the probability of outage of ALOHA and CSMA, and use these expressions to find the optimal packet duration that minimizes the probability of outage. For the ALOHA protocol, we derive an analytic expression for the optimal spectral efficiency of the network as a function of path loss, which is used to find the optimal packet duration Topt . For the CSMA protocol, the optimal packet duration is observed through simulations. We find that in order to minimize the probability of outage in our network, we should choose our system parameters such that our requested transmission rate divided by system bandwidth is equal to the optimal spectral efficiency of our network.