D.Ing. (Electrical And Electronic Engineering) / We address the issue of synchronization, using sync-words (or markers), for encoded data. We focus on data that is encoded using permutation codes or Reed-Solomon codes. For each type of code (permutation code and Reed-Solomon code) we give a synchronization procedure or algorithm such that synchronization is improved compared to when the procedure is not employed. The gure of merit for judging the performance is probability of synchronization (acquisition). The word acquisition is used to indicate that a sync-word is acquired or found in the right place in a frame. A new synchronization procedure for permutation codes is presented. This procedure is about nding sync-words that can be used speci cally with permutation codes, such that acceptable synchronization performance is possible even under channels with frequency selective fading/jamming, such as the power line communication channel. Our new procedure is tested with permutation codes known as distance-preserving mappings (DPMs). DPMs were chosen because they have de ned encoding and decoding procedures. Another new procedure for avoiding symbols in Reed-Solomon codes is presented. We call the procedure symbol avoidance. The symbol avoidance procedure is then used to improve the synchronization performance of Reed-Solomon codes, where known binary sync-words are used for synchronization. We give performance comparison results, in terms of probability of synchronization, where we compare Reed-Solomon with and without symbol avoidance applied.

D.Ing. / In this study we consider the application of Reed-Solomon codes on two distinct channels. The first channel is the packet erasure channel, where packets are either received errorfree,or packets are lost. The second channel is the power line channel where additive Gaussian noise,, impulsive noise and narrowband noise are encountered In this thesis we focus on M-FSK modulation for the power line channel. For the packet erasure channel,we develop two new erasures-only decoders .The distinction between the two decoders is that the one is optimized for burst erasure correction, while the second decoder is optimized for random erasure correction.It is found that for single burst erasures, or bursterasures contained within n - k elements (where n is the code length and k is the number of information elements to be encoded), the best performance is obtained with the burst erasure decoder. When used in conjunction with a modified interleaver found in the literature, the developed random erasure decoder yields the best all-round performance. The main contribution to the power line channel is the development of a combined demodulation and decoding strategy to detect narrowband interference When standard Reed-Solomon codes operate in a channel where narrowband interference is present, undetected errors result. With the proposed decoding strategy it is found that wideband noise (a generalization of impulsive noise) affects the performance more negatively than narrowband noise for M-FSK modulation. .

Reliable communication is an important part of everyday living. When transmitting a message over a physical channel, noise is introduced that causes errors in the message. These errors can be inversion errors or synchronization errors. The aim of this thesis is to investigate coding techniques to minimise the effect of synchronization errors that occurred in a transmitted message. Watermarks are inserted into the encoded sequence. A neural network system is implemented before the decoder to detect the watermark and regain synchronization. / Prof. H. C. Ferreira

The Government of Ontario plans to ban the land application of untreated septage; however, most town wastewater treatment plants do not have the capacity to accept septage. A combined reed bed – freezing bed technology has been successfully developed to dewater and treat septage. Lab column studies established that freeze-thaw conditioning can restore drainage in clogged sand drying beds dosed with common biological sludges and that septage can be dosed at 10 cm/week for 2.5-5.0 months before clogging is observed. Pilot studies showed that freezing beds can operate without the need for a cover with the applied sludge effectively melting any snow cover in regions with moderate snowfall. Septage freezing was successfully modelled following an accepted model for ice formation on water bodies while septage thawing was modelled using a regression analysis with initial frozen depth and precipitation found to be insignificant and degree days of warming controlling the rate of thawing. Model results were utilized to produce a freezing bed design loading map for North America based on temperature normals. Field scale planted and unplanted reed bed – freezing bed systems were constructed and tested with varying hydraulic loading rates (1.9-5.9 m/y) and solid loading rates (43-144 kg/m2/y) over a 5 year period resulting in a recommended design hydraulic loading rate of 2.9 m/y or 75 kg/m2/y. Drainage rates doubled after freeze-thaw conditioning compared to during the growing season, suggesting that freeze-thaw conditioning restores filter hydraulic conductivity. No effect of solid loading rate, planted versus unplanted filters and 7 versus 21 d dosing cycles on filter drainage was observed; however, drainage varied significantly with hydraulic loading rate. The filters separated almost all contaminants with filtrate equivalent to a low-strength domestic wastewater which can be easily treated in any municipal or decentralized wastewater system. The dewatered sludge cake had similar nutrient and solid content to a solid dairy manure and met biosolid land application standards in terms of metals and pathogens. The combined reed bed-freezing bed technology can provide a low-cost solution for the treatment and reuse of septage in cold-climate regions.

Thesis discuss about effort to ensure from error, which may occur during transmission over noisy channel. There's used Reed Solomon code. It's block, cyclic and systematic code, which is symbol orientated. Computational process of decoding is mathematically time-consuming. In thesis is closely described Berlekamp-Masey algorithm, used in decoding to evaluate error polynomial. Process is illustrated in application in Matlab. Practical realization uses Reed Solomon code in communication over RS232. Communication is established between computer and microcomputer.

The theme of this thesis is simulation of DVB-C2 transmission. The first part of this thesis is focused mainly on theory, where it describes differences between digital and analog television transmission. The project also explains principle of operation DVB-C and DVB-C2 systems with focus on channel coding a modulation. Application for simulation of DVB-C2 transmission, which is developed in the MATLAB environment is described in the second part. The last part of this thesis includes results of simulations of DVB-C2 transmission and their comparison with measured values of DVB-C transmission.

Contrairement aux protocoles cryptographiques fondés sur la théorie des nombres, les systèmes de chiffrement basés sur les codes correcteurs d’erreurs semblent résister à l’émergence des ordinateurs quantiques. Un autre avantage de ces systèmes est que le chiffrement et le déchiffrement sont très rapides, environ cinq fois plus rapide pour le chiffrement, et 10 à 100 fois plus rapide pour le déchiffrement par rapport à RSA. De nos jours, l’intérêt de la communauté scientifique pour la cryptographie basée sur les codes est fortement motivé par la dernière annonce de la “National Institute of Standards and Technology" (NIST), qui a récemment initié le projet intitulé “Post-Quantum cryptography Project". Ce projet vise à définir de nouveaux standards pour les cryptosystèmes résistants aux attaques quantiques et la date limite pour la soumission des cryptosystèmes à clé publique est fixée pour novembre 2017. Une telle annonce motive certainement à proposer de nouveaux protocoles cryptographiques basés sur les codes, mais aussi à étudier profondément la sécurité des protocoles existants afin d’écarter toute surprise en matière de sécurité. Cette thèse suit cet ordre d’idée en étudiant la sécurité de plusieurs protocoles cryptographiques fondés sur la théorie des codes correcteurs d’erreurs. Nous avons commencé par l’étude de la sécurité d’une version modifiée du cryptosystème de Sidelnikov, proposée par Gueye et Mboup [GM13] et basée sur les codes de Reed-Muller. Cette modification consiste à insérer des colonnes aléatoires dans la matrice génératrice (ou de parité) secrète. La cryptanalyse repose sur le calcul de carrés du code public. La nature particulière des codes de Reed-Muller qui sont définis au moyen de polynômes multivariés binaires, permet de prédire les valeurs des dimensions des codes carrés calculés, puis permet de récupérer complètement en temps polynomial les positions secrètes des colonnes aléatoires. Notre travail montre que l’insertion de colonnes aléatoires dans le schéma de Sidelnikov n’apporte aucune amélioration en matière de sécurité. Le résultat suivant est une cryptanalyse améliorée de plusieurs variantes du cryptosystème GPT qui est un schéma de chiffrement en métrique rang utilisant les codes de Gabidulin. Nous montrons qu’en utilisant le Frobenius de façon appropriée sur le code public, il est possible d’en extraire un code de Gabidulin ayant la même dimension que le code de Gabidulin secret mais avec une longueur inférieure. Le code obtenu corrige ainsi moins d’erreurs que le code secret, mais sa capacité de correction d’erreurs dépasse le nombre d’erreurs ajoutées par l’expéditeur et par conséquent, un attaquant est capable de déchiffrer tout texte chiffré, à l’aide de ce code de Gabidulin dégradé. Nos résultats montrent qu’en fin de compte, toutes les techniques existantes visant à cacher la structure algébrique des codes de Gabidulin ont échoué. Enfin, nous avons étudié la sécurité du système de chiffrement de Faure-Loidreau [FL05] qui est également basé sur les codes de Gabidulin. Inspiré par les travaux précédents et, bien que la structure de ce schéma diffère considérablement du cadre classique du cryptosystème GPT, nous avons pu montrer que ce schéma est également vulnérable à une attaque polynomiale qui récupère la clé privée en appliquant l’attaque d’Overbeck sur un code public approprié. Comme exemple, nous arrivons en quelques secondes à casser les paramètres qui ont été proposés comme ayant un niveau de sécurité de 80 bits. / Contrary to the cryptosystems based on number theory, the security of cryptosystems based on error correcting codes appears to be resistant to the emergence of quantum computers. Another advantage of these systems is that the encryption and decryption are very fast, about five times faster for encryption, and 10 to 100 times faster for decryption compared to RSA cryptosystem. Nowadays, the interest of scientific community in code-based cryptography is highly motivated by the latest announcement of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). They initiated the Post-Quantum cryptography Project which aims to define new standards for quantum resistant cryptography and fixed the deadline for public key cryptographic algorithm submissions for November 2017. This announcement motivates to study the security of existing schemes in order to find out whether they are secure. This thesis thus presents several attacks which dismantle several code-based encryption schemes. We started by a cryptanalysis of a modified version of the Sidelnikov cryptosystem proposed by Gueye and Mboup [GM13] which is based on Reed-Muller codes. This modified scheme consists in inserting random columns in the secret generating matrix or parity check matrix. The cryptanalysis relies on the computation of the square of the public code. The particular nature of Reed-Muller which are defined by means of multivariate binary polynomials, permits to predict the values of the dimensions of the square codes and then to fully recover in polynomial time the secret positions of the random columns. Our work shows that the insertion of random columns in the Sidelnikov scheme does not bring any security improvement. The second result is an improved cryptanalysis of several variants of the GPT cryptosystem which is a rank-metric scheme based on Gabidulin codes. We prove that any variant of the GPT cryptosystem which uses a right column scrambler over the extension field as advocated by the works of Gabidulin et al. [Gab08, GRH09, RGH11] with the goal to resist Overbeck’s structural attack [Ove08], are actually still vulnerable to that attack. We show that by applying the Frobeniusoperator appropriately on the public key, it is possible to build a Gabidulin code having the same dimension as the original secret Gabidulin code, but with a lower length. In particular, the code obtained by this way corrects less errors than thesecret one but its error correction capabilities are beyond the number of errors added by a sender, and consequently an attacker is able to decrypt any ciphertext with this degraded Gabidulin code. We also considered the case where an isometrictransformation is applied in conjunction with a right column scrambler which has its entries in the extension field. We proved that this protection is useless both in terms of performance and security. Consequently, our results show that all the existingtechniques aiming to hide the inherent algebraic structure of Gabidulin codes have failed. To finish, we studied the security of the Faure-Loidreau encryption scheme [FL05] which is also a rank-metric scheme based on Gabidulin codes. Inspired by our precedent work and, although the structure of the scheme differs considerably from the classical setting of the GPT cryptosystem, we show that for a range of parameters, this scheme is also vulnerable to a polynomial-time attack that recovers the private key by applying Overbeck’s attack on an appropriate public code. As an example we break in a few seconds parameters with 80-bit security claim.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Recreation and Tourism at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2013. / uMkhosi Womhlanga is a traditional ceremony that is celebrated annually. This event attracts event tourists and generates revenue for the host communities of KwaNongoma, KwaZulu-Natal, and South Africa as a whole. It is assumed that the event has a massive tourism potential and platform to yield socio-economic benefits for the local community. Comprehensive planning and management are essential tools for hosting successful events. Event organizers or managers require extensive knowledge, skills, good intuition and an eye for beauty in the planning and management of special events. These are essential factors in this booming events sector of the tourism industry. The premises of this study involve understanding the meaning and objectives of celebrating uMkhosi Womhlanga as a traditional ceremonial event and ascertaining the extent to which uMkhosi Womhlanga is planned and managed in order to realize its full potential as a tourism enterprise. The study also highlights the policy framework that governs the event, the benefits, practices, participation levels and perceptions of all stakeholders linked to this ceremonial event. The research study area is KwaZulu- Natal. This paper has the following objectives: a) To find out whether stakeholders involved understand the origins and meaning of celebrating uMkhosi Womhlanga as a traditional and ceremonial event. b) To find out whether there are policies and procedures in place that govern the planning and management of the event. c) To indicate the extent to which the uMkhosi Womhlanga event is perceived as a tourist attraction in the study area. d) To establish the extent to which stakeholders participate in the uMkhosi Womhlanga event.

For this study 14 lambs were obtained, which were split into two groups; a control group (CON) and a group that was supplemented Reed Sedge Peat (RSP). We wanted to test whether RSP could decrease stress at weaning, increase immune response and also increase digestibility of the animal. Lambs were subjected to an ACTH challenge 48 hours post weaning. After weaning (d 28 of study) 10 of the lambs (5 CON; 5 RSP) also underwent a digestibility challenge. We found that there was no difference (P = 0.8764) within cortisol concentration during the weaning portion of the study between the two treatment groups. During the ACTH challenger there was a difference between RSP group and CON, where RSP had a decrease in cortisol concentration (P = 0.0892). There was no difference in blood cell parameters, except for SEG, % (P = 0.0890) where RSP had greater % of SEG than CON group. Within the digestibility trail there was a decrease in digestibility within the RSP group compared to CON, within DM, OM, NDF and ADF (P = 0.0458; P = 0.0430; P = 0.0509; P = 0.0786; respectively).

This work presents an energy efficient adaptive error correction system utilizing the Reed-Solomon errors-and-erasures algorithm, targeted to an Altera Stratix FPGA device. The system adapts to changing channel conditions by reconfiguring the system with different decoders to allow for the lowest possible energy consumption rate that the current channel conditions will allow. A series of energy saving optimizations were applied to a set of previous designs, resulting in a reduction in the energy required to decode a megabit of data of more than 70%. In addition, a new channel model was used to assess the effects of differing reconfiguration rates on codeword error rate, energy consumption, and decoding speed.