With the advent of OFDM for WLAN communications, as exemplified by IEEE 802.11a, it has become imperative to have efficient and reliable synchronization algorithms for OFDM WLAN receivers. The main challenges with synchronization deal with the delay spread and frequency offset introduced by the wireless channel. In this work, rigorous research is done into OFDM WLAN synchronization algorithms, and a thorough synchronizer implementation is presented. This synchronizer performs packet detection, frequency offset estimation, and time offset estimation. Competing timing offset estimation algorithms are compared under a variety of channel conditions, with varying delay spreads, frequency offsets, and channel SNR. The metrics used to select between competing algorithms are statistical variance, and incremental hardware complexity. The timing offset estimation algorithms chosen are a dropoff detection algorithm for coarse timing offset estimation, and a quantized cross-correlator with a maximum detector for fine timing offset estimation.

Pilot Symbol Assisted Modulation (PSAM) is a good method to compensate for the channel fading effect in wireless mobile communications. In PSAM, known pilot symbols are periodically inserted into the transmitted data symbol stream and the receiver uses these symbols to derive amplitude and phase reference. <p> One aspect of this procedure, which has not received much attention yet, is the frame synchronization, i.e. the method used by the receiver to locate the time position of the pilot symbols. In this study, two novel non-coherent frame synchronization methods are introduced in which only the magnitude of received signal is used to obtain the timing of the pilot symbol. The methods are evaluated for both AWGN and frequency non-selective slow Rayleigh fading channels. <p> One synchronization technique is derived by standard maximum likelihood (ML) estimation formulation, and the other is obtained by using maximum a Posteriori probability (MAP) with a threshold test. Signal processing in the receiver uses simplifying approximations that rely on relatively high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as consistent with the reception of 16-QAM. Computer simulation has been used to test the acquisition time performance and the probability of false acquisition. Several lengths and patterns of pilot symbol sequences were tested where every 10th symbol was a pilot symbol and all other symbols were randomly selected data symbols. When compared with the other published synchronizers, results from this study show better performance in both AWGN and fading channels. Significantly better performance is observed in the presence of receiver frequency offsets.

Recent government regulations for Enhanced 911 locating of wireless handsets require accuracy to within 50 and 300 meters. Two technologies under consideration are triangulation using existing wireless base stations and location using global positioning satellites (GPS). Satellite positioning is the leading candidate, however, reception of GPS signals within large buildings is difficult and considerable research is devoted to this topic. Conventional GPS receivers require line of sight to at least four satellites and, under outdoor conditions, the expected signal level is about -160 dBW. Within large buildings, detection is very difficult because there is high thermal noise and some satellite signals can be attenuated to less than -185 dBW while others can suffer little attenuation. In order to construct the pseudo-ranges necessary for position finding, the receiver must synchronize to the incoming codephase of each satellite and must operate with substantial Doppler frequency offset caused by satellite motion.<p> This thesis investigates the application of a parallel non-coherent spread spectrum synchronizer previously implemented as a very-large-scale integration (VLSI) circuit. The circuit processes one millisecond of incoming signal and uses a segmented matched filter (SMF) by which the segmentation provides some tolerance to Doppler shift. The thesis presents simulation results of averaging for tens of seconds. Through simulation, the SMF is compared with a transversal matched filter (TMF) under conditions of no Doppler shift; coherent and non-coherent integration are discussed. The simulation is conducted at 290 K (17°C) such that the Boltzmann noise is -204 dBW/Hz, with a GPS signal bandwidth of 2 MHz and signal level of -185 dBW, and the receiver input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is -44 dB.<p> The SMF is applied using differing segment lengths to high-sensitivity GPS data from indoor and urban simulated GPS data. The results demonstrate the SMFs ability to tolerate Doppler frequency offsets while allowing for long integration times to detect the weak GPS signals.

Recent years have seen a tremendous growth in the development of small sensing devices capable of data processing and wireless communication through their embed- ded processors and radios. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are ad hoc networks consisting of such devices gaining importance due to their emerging applications. For a meaningful processing of the information sensed by WSN nodes, the clocks of these individual nodes need to be matched through some well de¯ned procedures. This dissertation focuses on deriving e±cient estimators for the clock parameters of the network nodes for synchronization with the reference node and the estimators variance thresholds are obtained to lower bound the maximum achievable performance. For any general time synchronization protocol involving a two way message ex- change mechanism, the BLUE-OS and the MVUE of the clock o®set between them is derived assuming both symmetric and asymmetric exponential network delays. Next, with the inclusion of clock skew in the model, the joint MLE of clock o®set and skew under both the Gaussian and the exponential delay model and the corresponding al- gorithms for ¯nding these estimates are presented. Also, for applications where even clock skew correction cannot maintain long-term clock synchronization, a closed-form expression for the joint MLE for a quadratic model is obtained. Although the derived MLEs are not computationally very complex, two compu- tationally e±cient algorithms have been proposed to estimate the clock o®set and skew regardless of the distribution of the delays. Afterwards, extending the idea of having inactive nodes in a WSN overhear the two-way timing message communication between two active (master and slave) nodes, the MLE, the BLUE-OS, the MVUE and the MMSE estimators for the clock o®sets of the inactive nodes located within the communication range of the active nodes are derived, hence synchronizing with the reference node at a reduced cost. Finally, focusing on the the one-way timing exchange mechanism, the joint MLE for clock phase o®set and skew under exponential noise model and the Gibbs Sampler for a receiver-receiver protocol is formulated and found via a direct algorithm. Lower and upper bounds for the MSE of JMLE and Gibbs Sampler are introduced in terms of the MSEs of the MVUE and the conventional BLUE, respectively.

Our investigation was to study the feasibility of piece-wise synchronization of chaotic circuits. In conventional experiments of electronic-circuit chaotic synchronization, two circuits were real-time and continuous connected together. In our research, a computer was used as the master subsystem that output chaotic signals to a slave circuit to study the performance of synchronization. The circuit was based on Cuomo¡¦s design. Several methods of piece-wise control were tested to find out the key point of chaotic synchronization. The experimental results revealed that the most important synchronized waveforms were the chaotic orbits near the region that the attractor change quadrants. A conditional piece-wise synchronization method was developed based on our discoveries. Comparing to the periodic piece-wise synchronization method, our method is more robust to sustain the circuit noise. Another advantage is that, in our method, the experimental results fit the computer simulation quite well.

A homogeneous group of thirty-one crossbred ewes was used to determine the effect of administering a progesterone Controlled Intravaginal Drug Releasing Device (CIDR) on circulating levels of progesterone in the subsequent cycle following CIDR removal. Circulating progesterone levels were determined for each ewe through daily blood collection via jugular venipuncture. Each ewe underwent a pretreatment 25 day sampling period (Period 1), a 12 day treatment period characterized by the presence of the CIDR (Period 2), and another 25 day sampling period following CIDR removal (Period 3). During the initial period of the study, progesterone levels in peripheral circulation changed (P < 0.0001, effect of day) in accordance with stage of the estrous cycle and were elevated during the luteal phase. In the second period of the study, progesterone levels were elevated (P < 0.0001) in ewes due to exogenous progesterone from the CIDR device (Period 1 versus Period 2: 1.3 ± 0.1 ng/ml versus 2.4 ± 0.1 ng/ml, respectively). After withdrawal of the CIDR in the third period of the study, circulating progesterone levels were not (P > 0.10) different from those observed in the initial period of the study (Period 1 versus Period 3: 1.3 ± 0.1 ng/ml versus 1.4 ± 0.1 ng/ml, respectively). Data collected in this study revealed that treatment with exogenous progesterone via CIDR for a 12- day treatment period does not influence circulating levels of progesterone in subsequent estrous cycles.

Clock synchronization is one of fundamental requirements in distributed networks. However, the imperfection of crystal oscillators is a potential hurdle for network-wide collaboration and degrades the performance of cooperative applications. Since clock discrepancy among nodes is inevitable, many software and hardware attempts have been introduced to meet synchronization requirements. Most of the attempts are built on communication protocols that demand timestamp exchanges to improve synchronization accuracy or resource efficiency. However, link delay and environmental changes sometimes impede these synchronization efforts that achieve in desired accuracy. First, the clock synchronization problem was examined in networks where nodes lack the high accuracy oscillators or programmable network interfaces some previous protocols depend on. Next, a stochastic and practical clock model was developed by using information criteria which followed the principle of Occam's razor. The model was optimized in terms of the number of parameters. Simulation by using real measurements on low-powered micro-controllers validated the derived clock model. Last, based on the model, a clock tracking algorithm was proposed to achieve high synchronization accuracy between unstable clocks. This algorithm employed the Kalman filter to track clock offset and skew. Extensive simulations demonstrated that the proposed synchronization algorithm not only could follow the clock uncertainties shown in real measurements but also was tolerant to corrupted timestamp deliveries. Clock oscillators are vulnerable to noises and environmental changes. As a second approach, clock estimation technique that took circumstances into consideration was proposed. Through experiments on mobile devices, the obstacles were clarified in synchronization over wireless networks. While the causes of clock inaccuracy were focused on, the effect of environmental changes on clock drifting was investigated. The analysis of the observations inspired an M-estimator of clock error that was accurate but under dominant disturbances such as oscillator instability and random network delay. A Kalman filter was designed to compensate with temperature changes and estimate clock offset and skew. The proposed temperature-compensated Kalman filter achieved the better estimates of clock offset and skew by adjusting frequency shifts caused by temperature changes. The proposed Kalman filter-based clock synchronization was implemented in C. A real-time operation was proved by clock tracking between two mobile platforms that the synchronization technique was implemented on. Moreover, the technique was converted to fixed-point algorithm, which might degrade performance, to evaluate the synchronizing operation on fixed-point processors. The fixed-point simulation reported performance degradation caused by limited hardware resources; however, it also corroborated the applicability of the synchronization technique.

SUMMARY There are numerous methodologies available in solving the problem in synchronizing timing oscillators of the communication networks: pleziosynchronization, forced synchronization or mutual synchronization. In the presented work the mutual synchronization system composed of four oscillators is analyzed. The mathematical model of the synchronization system is matrix differential equation with delayed argument. Applying the method of “steps” and Laplace transform we find the solution of the matrix differential equation and the step responses matrix of the synchronization system. Exact analytical and graphical expressions of transition functions and exact expressions of the phase differences between signals of oscillators of this synchronization system are obtained.

No description available.

As an increasing number of distributed power generation systems (DPGS) are being connected to the utility grid, there is a growing requirement for the DPGS to be able to ride through short grid disturbances. This requires improvements to be made to the grid-side control scheme of the DPGS. An important part of the grid-side control scheme is the grid synchronization method, which is responsible for tracking the phase angle of the grid voltage vector. The state-of-the-art grid synchronization methods being used today are phase-locked loops. This thesis presents a modified phase-locked loop which is more robust towards grid disturbances. It consists of a multi-block adaptive notch filter (ANF) integrated into a conventional three-phase synchronous reference frame phase-locked loop (SRF-PLL). The addition of the multi-block ANF to the system allows it to become frequency adaptive. Also, since the multi-block ANF consists of multiple ANF blocks in parallel with one another, the system is able to remove multiple input signal distortions. Thus, the proposed system is able to eliminate the double frequency ripple that is caused in the conventional three-phase SRF-PLL by input unbalance, as well as harmonic errors, despite the presence of frequency variations in the input signal. Simulation results found using Matlab/Simulink, and experimental results found using the dSPACE DS1103 DSP board, demonstrate the feasibility of the modified SRF-PLL. Also, the modified SRF-PLL is compared to a conventional three-phase SRF-PLL, as well as to a conventional three-phase SRF-PLL with a simple notch filter, and the advantages of the modified SRF-PLL are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-17 12:38:02.589