In this thesis, a number of novel techniques for error resilient coding and streaming for multiview video are presented. First of all, a novel coding technique for stereoscopic video is proposed where additional coding gain is achieved by downsampling one of the views spatially or temporally based on the well-known theory that the human visual system can perceive high frequencies in 3D from the higher quality view. Stereoscopic videos can be coded at a rate upto 1.2 times that of monoscopic videos with little visual quality degradation with the proposed coding technique. Next, a systematic method for design and optimization of multi-threaded multi-view video encoding/decoding algorithms using multi-core processors is proposed. The proposed multi-core decoding architectures are compliant with the current international standards, and enable multi-threaded processing with negligible loss of encoding efficiency and minimum processing overhead. End-to-end 3D Streaming system over Internet using current standards is implemented. A heuristic methodology for modeling the end-toend rate-distortion characteristic of this system is suggested and the parameters of the system is optimally selected using this model. End-to-end 3D Broadcasting system over DVB-H using current standards is also implemented. Extensive testing is employed to show the importance and characteristics of several error resilient tools. Finally we modeled end-to-end RD characteristics to optimize the encoding and protection parameters.

Ferrite phase shifters are key components of passive phased array antenna systems. In a modern radar system, microwave components in the transmit path should handle high microwave power levels. Also low loss operation in phase shifters is critical, since radar range depends on the microwave power transmitted from the antennas. In this respect, ferrite phase shifters provide required performance characteristics for phased array radar systems. In this thesis, Reggia-Spencer type and twin-toroid type ferrite phase shifters operating at X-Band are designed, simulated, fabricated and measured. Measurements of the fabricated ferrite phase shifters are compared with simulation results. Electromagnetic simulations are performed using CST.

In the scope of this thesis, simulation-based analyses and comparative evaluation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image formation techniques, namely Time Domain Correlation, Range Stacking, Range Doppler and Chirp Scaling algorithms, are presented. For this purpose, first, the fundamental concepts of SAR such as SAR geometry, resolution and signal properties are explained. A broadside SAR simulator that provides artificial raw data as an input to the algorithms is designed and implemented. Then, the mathematical background of the imaging algorithms discussed in the thesis is provided. Implementations of these algorithms and simulations are carried out using MATLAB&reg / . Finally, simulation results are presented and discussed to show the advantages and disadvantages of the algorithms.

The aim of the thesis is to investigate the design of efficient wireless networks through practical as well as theoretical considerations. We constructed a wireless sensor network (WSN) testbed with battery operated nodes capable of RF communication. The system is a centralized tree-based WSN to study challenges of target modeling, detection, and localization. The testbed employed magnetic sensors, on which relatively few results have been reported in the literature. A ferrous test target is modeled as magnetic dipole by validating experimentally. The problem of sensor sensitivity variation is addressed by including sensitivity estimates in model validation. After reliably detecting the target, maximum-likelihood and least-squares techniques are applied for localization. Practical considerations of constructing a WSN utilizing magnetic sensors addressed. Maximum-lifetime operation of these networks requires joint consideration of sensing and communication. Energy harvesting is promising to overcome this major challenge for energy-constrained systems. In the second part of the thesis, we considered the minimization of transmission completion time for a given number of bits per user in an energy harvesting multiuser communication system, where the energy harvesting instants are known beforehand. The two-user case with achievable rate region having structural properties satisfied by the AWGN Broadcast Channel is studied. It is shown that the optimal scheduler ends transmission to both users at the same time while deferring a nonnegative amount of energy from each energy harvest for later use. The problem is formulated as an optimization problem and solved by exploiting its special structure.

Cognitive Radio (CR) has emerged as the key technology to enable dynamic spectrum access. Capabilities of CR can meet the unique requirements of many wireless networks. Hence, Cognitive Radio Sensor Networks (CRSN) is introduced as a promising solution to address the unique challenges of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which have been widely used for reliable event detection for many applications. However, there exist many open research issues for the realization of CRSN. Among others, determination of optimal packet size for CRSN is one of the most fundamental problems to be addressed. The existing optimal packet size solutions devised for CR networks as well as WSN are not applicable in CRSN regime and would cause a waste of energy resources. Hence, the objective of this thesis is to determine the optimal packet size for CRSN that maximizes energy-efficiency while maintaining acceptable interference level for licensed primary users (PU) and remaining under the maximum allowed distortion level between tracked event signal and its estimation at sink. Energy-efficient packet size reduces energy consumption and increases the transmission efficiency for CRSN. In this thesis, the energy-efficient packet size optimization problem is analytically formulated. Then, sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method is used for solving the optimization problem. The variation of optimal packet size with respect to different parameters of CRSN network is observed through numerical analysis. Results reveal that PU behavior and channel bit error rate (BER) are the most critical parameters in determining energy-efficient optimal packet size for CRSN.

In modern wireless communication systems, advanced modulation techniques are used to support more users by handling high data rates and to increase the utilization efficiency of the limited RF spectrum. These techniques are sensitive to the nonlinear distortions due to their high peak to average power ratios. Main source of nonlinear distortion in transmitter topologies are power amplifiers that determine the overall efficiency and linearity of the transmitter. To increase linearity without sacrificing efficiency, power amplifier linearization techniques may be a choice. Baseband predistortion technique is known to be one of the optimum methods due to its relatively low complexity and its convenience for adaptation. In this thesis, different memoryless baseband signal predistortion methods are investigated and analyzed by simulations. Look-Up Table(LUT) and Polynomial approaches are compared and LUT approach is found to be better in performance. Parameters, like indexing, training sequences and training duration are evaluated. An open loop testbench is built with a real amplifier and a different LUT predistortion method that is based on amplifier modeling is offered. It is evaluated by using two tone test and adjacent channel power suppression with 8PSK data. Also, some Look-Up Table parameters are re-investigated with the proposed method. The performances of the proposed method in dierent amplifier classes are observed. Along with these studies, a list of prerequisites for design of a predistortion system is determined.

This thesis presents a comparison between two transmit diversity schemes, namely space-time coding and time-switched transmit diversity (TSTD) over block-fading and time-varying multi-input single-output (MISO) channels with different channel parameters. The schemes are concatenated with outer channel codes in order to achieve spatio-temporal diversity. The analytical results are derived for the error performances of the systems and the simulation results as well as outage probabilities are provided. Besides, the details of the pilot-symbol-aided modulation (PSAM) technique are investigated and the error performances of the systems are analyzed when the channel state information is estimated with PSAM. It is demonstrated using the analytical and simulation results that TSTD have a comparable error performance with the space-time coding techniques and it even outperforms the space-time codes for some channel parameters. Our results indicate that TSTD can be suggested as an alternative to space-time codes in some time-varying channels especially due to the implementation simplicity.

It is commonly accepted that the induced noise on DFT phase spectrum has a negligible effect on speech intelligibility for short durations of analysis windows, as the early intelligibility studies pointed out. This fact is confirmed by recent intelligibility studies as well. Based on this phenomenon, classical speech enhancement algorithms do not modify DFT phase spectrum and only make changes in the DFT magnitude spectrum. However, in recent studies it is also indicated that these classical speech enhancement algorithms are not capable of improving the intelligibility scores of noise degraded speech signals. In other words, the contained information in a noise degraded signal cannot be increased by classical enhancement methods. Instead the ease of listening, i.e. quality, can be improved. Hence additional effort can be made to increase the amount of quality improvement using both DFT magnitude and DFT phase. Therefore if the performances of the classical methods are to be improved in terms of speech quality, the effect of DFT phase on speech quality needs to be studied. In this work, the contribution of DFT phase on speech quality is investigated through some simulations using an objective quality assessment criterion. It is concluded from these simulations that, the phase spectrum has a significant effect on speech quality for short durations of analysis windows. Furthermore, phase values of low frequency components are found to have the largest contribution to this quality improvement. Under the motivation of these results, a new enhancement method is proposed which modifies the phase of certain low frequency components as well as the magnitude spectrum. The proposed algorithm is implemented in MATLAB environment. The results indicate that the proposed system improves the performance of the classical methods in terms of speech quality.

This study aims to present a sequential method for the classification of the autoregressive processes. Different from the conventional detectors having fixed sample size, the method uses Wald&rsquo / s sequential probability ratio test and has a variable sample size. It is shown that the suggested method produces the classification decisions much earlier than fixed sample size alternative on the average. The proposed method is extended to the case when processes have unknown variance. The effects of the unknown process variance on the algorithmperformance are examined. Finally, the suggested algorithm is applied to the classification of fixed and rotary wing targets. The average detection time and its relation with signal to noise ratio are examined.

An important step for the design of direction finding systems is the performance evaluation using numeric electromagnetic simulation tools. In this thesis, a method is presented for both modeling and simulation in a numeric electromagnetic simulation tool FEKO. The method relies on the data generated by FEKO. The data is then processed by correlative interferometer algorithm. This process is implemented in a MATLAB environment. Different types of antenna arrays including dipole, monopole and discone antennas are used. The antenna arrays are mounted on a UAV and SUV in order to see the platform effects. The direction finding performance is evaluated for different scenarios. It is shown that the presented approach is an effective tool for understanding the direction finding characteristic of antenna arrays.