The purpose of this project was to develop and document curricular content for Computer Numerical Control education program for Mt. San Jacinto Community College. The design of the curriculum focuses on showing students how skills learned in academic classes can be applied to the workplace.

Mechanomyography (MMG) has been proposed as a control modality for alternative access technologies for individuals with disabilities. However, MMG recordings are highly susceptible to contamination from limb movements. Pressure-based transducers are touted to be the most robust to external movement although there is some debate about their optimal chamber geometry, in terms of low frequency gain and spectral flatness. To investigate the question of preferred geometry, transducers with varying chamber shapes were designed, manufactured and tested. The best performance was achieved with a transducer consisting of a low-frequency MEMS microphone, a 4 micron thick aluminized mylar membrane and a rigid conical chamber 7 mm in diameter and 5 mm in height. Furthermore, microphone-derived MMG spectra were found to be less influenced by motion artifact than corresponding accelerometer-derived spectra. However, artifact harmonics were present in both spectra, suggesting that bandpass filtering may not remove artifact influences permeating into MMG frequency bands.

Mechanomyography (MMG) has been proposed as a control modality for alternative access technologies for individuals with disabilities. However, MMG recordings are highly susceptible to contamination from limb movements. Pressure-based transducers are touted to be the most robust to external movement although there is some debate about their optimal chamber geometry, in terms of low frequency gain and spectral flatness. To investigate the question of preferred geometry, transducers with varying chamber shapes were designed, manufactured and tested. The best performance was achieved with a transducer consisting of a low-frequency MEMS microphone, a 4 micron thick aluminized mylar membrane and a rigid conical chamber 7 mm in diameter and 5 mm in height. Furthermore, microphone-derived MMG spectra were found to be less influenced by motion artifact than corresponding accelerometer-derived spectra. However, artifact harmonics were present in both spectra, suggesting that bandpass filtering may not remove artifact influences permeating into MMG frequency bands.

Επιδίωξη της εργασίας είναι να ανακαλύψουμε κατά πόσο τα αναδυόμενα δίκτυα FWA τεχνολογίας που βασίζονται σε πρότυπα (standards-based) αυξάνουν τις ευκαιρίες ή αντίθετα τις απειλές στην ευρυζωνική επιχειρηματικότητα των παρόχων. Στην εργασία, τίθενται υπό σύγκριση οι δομές κόστους (cost structures) των δικτύων τεχνολογίας FWA και των δικτύων DSL τεχνολογίας. Επίσης, αναγνωρίζονται οι συνθήκες της αγοράς (market conditions) υπό τις οποίες η τεχνολογία FWA θα μπορούσε να γίνει μια πιο οικονομική και οικονομικά αποδοτική (cost-effective) επιλογή. Στο Κεφάλαιο 2 γίνεται μία γενική επισκόπηση των ευρυζωνικών δικτύων και υπηρεσιών, τίθενται υπό συζήτηση τα δίκτυα πρόσβασης και τονίζεται ο ρόλος του ρυθμιστή (regulator) και ο διαχωρισμός ανάμεσα στις επιχειρήσεις εκμετάλλευσης δικτύου και σε αυτές της εκμετάλλευσης της υπηρεσίας. Στο Κεφάλαιο 3, διατυπώνονται οι αρχιτεκτονικές των δικτύων της FWA τεχνολογίας, καθώς επίσης θέματα σχετικά με την τεχνολογία ραδιοεπικοινωνιών. Στο Κεφάλαιο 4, γίνεται εισαγωγή στις γενικές αρχές και μεθόδους για τη διαστασιοποίηση και το σχεδιασμό του δικτύου τεχνολογίας FWA. Επιπλέον, γίνεται εισαγωγή σε κατάλληλα μοντέλα που είναι απαραίττητα προκειμένου να προβλέψουμε με αξιοπιστία τον απαιτούμενο αριθμό των μερών εξοπλισμού δικτύωσης της FWA τεχνολογίας για συγκεκριμένες περιοχές εξυπηρέτησης. Στο Κεφάλαιο 5, γίνεται εισαγωγή σε μεθόδους και μοντέλα για οικονομικές αναλύσεις των ευρυζωνικών δικτύων πρόσβασης. Τελικά, στο Κεφάλαιο 6, γίνεται εφαρμογή των πληροφοριών και των μεθόδων των προηγούμενων κεφαλαίων για να ανακαλύψουμε την οικονομική δυνατότητα επίτευξης (economic feasibility) της ανάπτυξης του δικτύου FWA τεχνολογίας σε διαφορετικά είδη περιβαλλόντων. Οι αναλύσεις εκτελούνται για τρία διαφορετικά περιβαλλοντικά σενάρια, τόσο για την FWA τεχνολογία όσο και για τα ADSL δίκτυα. Στο Κεφάλαιο 7, δίνονται τα συμπεράσματα, οι συστάσεις, και οι εισηγήσεις για περαιτέρω μελέτη. / -

Pour faire face à la croissance rapide du trafic mobile, différentes technologies d'accès radio (par exemple, HSPA, LTE, WiFi, et WiMAX) sont intégrées et gérées conjointement. Dans ce contexte, la sélection de TAR est une fonction clé pour améliorer les performances du réseau et l'expérience de l'utilisateur. Elle consiste à décider quelle TAR est la plus appropriée aux mobiles. Quand l'intelligence est poussée à la périphérie du réseau, les mobiles décident de manière autonome de leur meilleur TAR. Ils cherchent à maximiser égoïstement leur utilité. Toutefois, puisque les mobiles ne disposent d'aucune information sur les conditions de charge du réseau, leurs décisions peuvent conduire à une inefficacité de la performance. En outre, déléguer les décisions au réseau optimise la performance globale, mais au prix d'une augmentation de la complexité du réseau, des charges de signalisation et de traitement. Dans cette thèse, au lieu de favoriser une de ces deux approches décisionnelles, nous proposons un cadre de décision hybride: le réseau fournit des informations pour les mobiles pour mieux décider de leur TAR. Plus précisément, les utilisateurs mobiles choisissent leur TAR en fonction de leurs besoins et préférences individuelles, ainsi que des paramètres de coût monétaire et de QoS signalés par le réseau. En ajustant convenablement les informations du réseau, les décisions des utilisateurs répondent globalement aux objectifs de l'opérateur. Nous introduisons d'abord notre cadre de décision hybride. Afin de maximiser l'expérience de l'utilisateur, nous présentons une méthode de décision multicritère (MDMC) basée sur la satisfaction. Outre leurs conditions radio, les utilisateurs mobiles tiennent compte des paramètres de coût et de QoS, signalées par le réseau, pour évaluer les TAR disponibles. En comparaison avec les solutions existantes, notre algorithme répond aux besoins de l'utilisateur (par exemple, les demandes en débit, la tolérance de coût, la classe de trafic), et évite les décisions inadéquates. Une attention particulière est ensuite portée au réseau pour s'assurer qu'il diffuse des informations décisionnelles appropriées, afin de mieux exploiter ses ressources radio alors que les mobiles maximisent leur propre utilité. Nous présentons deux méthodes heuristiques pour dériver dynamiquement quoi signaler aux mobiles. Puisque les paramètres de QoS sont modulées en fonction des conditions de charge, l'exploitation des ressources radio s'est avérée efficace. Aussi, nous nous concentrons sur l'optimisation de l'information du réseau. La dérivation des paramètres de QoS est formulée comme un processus de décision semi-markovien, et les stratégies optimales sont calculées en utilisant l'algorithme de Policy Iteration. En outre, et puisque les paramètres du réseau ne peuvent pas être facilement obtenues, une approche par apprentissage par renforcement est introduite pour dériver quoi signaler aux mobiles. / To cope with the rapid growth of mobile broadband traffic, various radio access technologies (e.g., HSPA, LTE, WiFi, and WiMAX) are being integrated and jointly managed. Radio Access Technology (RAT) selection, devoted to decide to what RAT mobiles should connect, is a key functionality to improve network performance and user experience. When intelligence is pushed to the network edge, mobiles make autonomous decisions regarding selection of their most appropriate RAT. They aim to selfishly maximize their utility. However, because mobiles have no information on network load conditions, their decisions may lead to performance inefficiency. Moreover, delegating decisions to the network optimizes overall performance, but at the cost of increased network complexity, signaling, and processing load. In this thesis, instead of favoring either of these decision-making approaches, we propose a hybrid decision framework: the network provides information for the mobiles to make robust RAT selections. More precisely, mobile users select their RAT depending on their individual needs and preferences, as well as on the monetary cost and QoS parameters signaled by the network. By appropriately tuning network information, user decisions are globally expected to meet operator objectives, avoiding undesirable network states. We first introduce our hybrid decision framework. Decision makings, on the network and user sides, are investigated. To maximize user experience, we present a satisfaction-based Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method. In addition to their radio conditions, mobile users consider the cost and QoS parameters, signaled by the network, to evaluate serving RATs. In comparison with existing MCDM solutions, our algorithm meets user needs (e.g., traffic class, throughput demand, cost tolerance), avoiding inadequate decisions. A particular attention is then addressed to the network to make sure it broadcasts suitable decisional information, so as to better exploit its radio resources while mobiles maximize their own utility. We present two heuristic methods to dynamically derive what to signal to mobiles. While QoS parameters are modulated as a function of the load conditions, radio resources are shown to be efficiently exploited. Moreover, we focus on optimizing network information. Deriving QoS parameters is formulated as a semi-Markov decision process, and optimal policies are computed using the Policy Iteration algorithm. Also, and since network parameters may not be easily obtained, a reinforcement learning approach is introduced to derive what to signal to mobiles. The performances of optimal, learning-based, and heuristic policies are analyzed. When thresholds are pertinently set, our heuristic method provides performance very close to the optimal solution. Moreover, although lower performances are observed, our learning-based algorithm has the crucial advantage of requiring no prior parameterization.

This thesis project was carried out at the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) department at Ericsson AB. One of the department’s goals is to seek a possible replacement to the box test instruments by utilizing PCI extension for instrumentation (PXI) modules. The main objective of this project is to evaluate how different PXI modules work during testing of a radio base station (RBS), in terms of performance, test time, and cost. A downlink decoder was implemented in LabVIEW with an extension called MathScript and several software test solutions were examined to measure error vector magnitude (EVM), frequency error, and power, and to perform parallel measurements in a multiple radio access technology (multi-RAT) test configuration. Moreover, several uplink tests were performed to decide if PXI modules are a suitable substitute for the previous box based test instruments. The findings from this study show that PXI modules can replace the previous box based test instruments. However it was concluded that not all areas can be covered and not all discrete test instrument can (yet) be replaced. Future work should complete the downlink decoder implementation in the field programmable gate array (FPGA) level in order to further improve the performance further. Future work should also examine if it is possible to replace all of the discrete test instruments with PXI modules. / Detta examensarbete utfördes på elektromagnetisk kompatibilitet (EMC) avdelningen på Ericsson AB. Ett utav avdelningens mål är att hitta en möjlig ersättare till de tidigare boxbaserade testinstrumenten genom PCI extension for instrumentation (PXI) moduler. Huvudmålet i detta projekt är att utvärdera hur olika PXI-moduler fungerar i basstationstester med hänsyn till prestanda, testtid och kostnad. En avkodare i nerlänk har implementerats i LabVIEW med hjälp av MathScript och flera mjukvarutestlösningar har undersökts för att mäta error vector magnitude (EVM), frekvensfel och effekt, samt att utföra parallella mätningar i en multipel radioteknik (multi-RAT) testkonfiguration. Dessutom har flera upplänkstester utförts för att avgöra om PXI-moduler är en lämplig ersättare till de tidigare boxbaserade testinstrumenten. Resultaten från denna studie visar att PXI-moduler kan ersätta tidigare boxbaserade testinstrumenten, men dessa resultat visar även att inte alla områden kan täckas och inte alla diskreta testinstrument kan ersättas (ännu). Framtida arbete ska slutföra implementationen av avkodare i nerlänk i fältprogrammerbar grindmatris (FPGA)-nivå för att förbättra prestandan ytterligare. Framtida arbete bör även undersöka om det är möjligt att ersätta alla diskreta testinstrument med PXI-moduler.

Many individuals with severe motor impairments are cognitively capable, but because of their physical impairments, unable to express their intention through conventional means of communication. Access technologies are devices that attempt to translate the intention of these individuals into functional activity by harnessing their residual physical or physiological abilities. The primary objective of this thesis was to design and develop a novel non-invasive and non-contact access technology based on infrared thermal imaging. This access technology translates the local temperature change associated with voluntary mouth opening to activation of a binary switch such as a mouse click or key press. To this end, an algorithm based on motion and temperature analyses, and morphological and anthropometric filters was designed to detect mouth opening activity in thermal video in real-time. The secondary objective of this thesis was to introduce a mutual information measure for objective assessment of binary switch users’ performance. A model was suggested, in which combination of cognitive and physical abilities of the human user of a binary access switch constitute a communication channel. The proposed mutual information measure estimates the rate of information transmission in the ‘human communication channel’ during stimulus response tasks. Using this measure, in a study with ten able-bodied participants, the infrared thermal switch was validated against a conventional chin switch. Impairments in body functions and structures that may contraindicate the use of the infrared thermal switch were explored in a study with seven clients, with severe disabilities. Potential hard and soft technological solutions to mitigate the effect of these impairments on infrared thermal switch use were recommended. Finally the infrared thermal switch was tailored to meet the needs of a young man with severe spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, who had no other means of physical access.

Many individuals with severe motor impairments are cognitively capable, but because of their physical impairments, unable to express their intention through conventional means of communication. Access technologies are devices that attempt to translate the intention of these individuals into functional activity by harnessing their residual physical or physiological abilities. The primary objective of this thesis was to design and develop a novel non-invasive and non-contact access technology based on infrared thermal imaging. This access technology translates the local temperature change associated with voluntary mouth opening to activation of a binary switch such as a mouse click or key press. To this end, an algorithm based on motion and temperature analyses, and morphological and anthropometric filters was designed to detect mouth opening activity in thermal video in real-time. The secondary objective of this thesis was to introduce a mutual information measure for objective assessment of binary switch users’ performance. A model was suggested, in which combination of cognitive and physical abilities of the human user of a binary access switch constitute a communication channel. The proposed mutual information measure estimates the rate of information transmission in the ‘human communication channel’ during stimulus response tasks. Using this measure, in a study with ten able-bodied participants, the infrared thermal switch was validated against a conventional chin switch. Impairments in body functions and structures that may contraindicate the use of the infrared thermal switch were explored in a study with seven clients, with severe disabilities. Potential hard and soft technological solutions to mitigate the effect of these impairments on infrared thermal switch use were recommended. Finally the infrared thermal switch was tailored to meet the needs of a young man with severe spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, who had no other means of physical access.

The aim of this work was to peruse and desribe the high-speed data technology communicating over energy network. In this work was investigated broadband system communicating over low power distribution network. The laboratory network was designed for measuring parametres of this communication and performed set of tests. Lended devices were described, properties of technology specification and methods of connection and management were introduced. Management, configuration and measuring over web interface on the NMS device was described and simple dividision into corresponding functional blocks corresponding to structure of web bookmaks was made. Metodology of individual tests, grounded on documentation “recomandation” RFC and on introduced works, was elaboratly described. Used tools, their properties and managements were described. The transmission speed on application and physical layer were followed primarily, frequency dependencies on signal noise ratio and bits per carrier were followed secondary. Measured results from individuals tests were compared among each other and evaulated. This observation leaded into decision on needed criteria for varius application. The suitaibility for integration into communication network for maintaining corresponding QoS was appreised. Testing and chosen types of tests in this project were standardized and integrated into ITU standard. Individual tests are able to compare from the view of their testify charactestic.

Cette thèse a été effectuée dans le cadre du projet européen FP7 EMPHATIC (Enhanced Multicarrier Techniques for Professional Ad-Hoc and Cell-Based Communications). Plusieurs universités européennes et deux partenaires industriels: THALES Communications Security et CASSIDIAN ont participé à ce projet. L'objectif de ce projet est de développer, d'évaluer et de démontrer les apports des techniques multi-porteuses avancées, permettant une meilleure utilisation des bandes de fréquences radio existantes en fournissant des services de données à large bande, en coexistence avec les services traditionnels à bande étroite. Le projet porte sur l'application de radiocommunications mobiles professionnelles (Professional Mobile Radio : PMR). L'idée principale de ce projet est d'analyser la viabilité des systèmes à large bande utilisant des bancs de filtres (Filter Bank Multi Carrier : FBMC) conjointement avec une modulation d'amplitude en quadrature avec décalage (Offset Quadrature Amplitude Modulation : OQAM) dans le cadre de la 5ème génération (5G) des systèmes radio-mobiles. La modulation FBMC-OQAM se positionne comme candidate potentielle pour les futurs systèmes de communication. Cette modulation avancée offre de nombreux avantages tels que l’excellente localisation fréquentielle de sa densité spectrale de puissance (DSP), une robustesse au bruit de phase, aux décalages de fréquence ainsi qu’à l’asynchronisme entre les utilisateurs. Ces atouts, la rendent plus attrayant qu’OFDM pour l’application PMR, la radio cognitive (CR) et la 5G. Cependant, comme toute autre technique de modulation muti-porteuses, FBMC-OQAM souffre d’un facteur de crête ou d’un PAPR (pour Peak to Average Power Ratio) élevé. Lorsque l'amplificateur de puissance (AP), utilisé au niveau de l’émetteur, est opéré proche de sa zone non-linéaire (NL), ce qui est le cas dans la pratique, la bonne localisation fréquentielle de la DSP du système FBMC/OQAM est sérieusement compromise, en raison des remontées spectrales. Le premier objectif de cette thèse est de prédire l'étendue des remontées spectrales dans les systèmes FBMC-OQAM, introduites par la non-linéarité AP. Le deuxième objectif de ce travail est de proposer des techniques, pour les systèmes FBMC-OQAM, permettant la réduction du PAPR et la linéarisation de l’AP, afin d'atténuer les effets NL. L’utilisation des cumulants, a permis de prédire les remontées spectrales pour les signaux FBMC-OQAM après amplification NL. En outre, certains algorithmes de réduction du PAPR, basées sur des approches probabilistes et des techniques d'ajout de signaux, ont été proposés. La capacité de coexistence du système à large bande utilisant FBMC-OQAM avec des systèmes PMR à bande étroite en présence de PA a été analysée et il a été démontré que la coexistence est possible, à condition qu'il y est une bonne combinaison entre le recul du signal à l’entrée de l’AP (Input Back-Off : IBO), la réduction du PAPR et la linéarisation de l’AP. Enfin, une nouvelle technique de linéarisation de l’AP a été proposée pour le système FBMC-OQAM. / This thesis is part of the European FP7 EMPHATIC project (Enhanced Multicarrier Techniques for Professional Ad-Hoc and Cell-Based Communications) including various European universities and two main industrial partners: THALES Communications Security and CASSIDIAN. The EMPHATIC objective is to develop, evaluate and demonstrate the capability of enhanced multi-carrier techniques to make better use of the existing radio frequency bands in providing broadband data services in coexistence with narrowband legacy services. The project addresses the Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) application. The main idea is to analyze the viability of broadband systems based on filter-bank multi-carrier (FBMC) clubbed with o ffset quadrature amplitude modulation (OQAM) in the context of the future 5th Generation (5G) radio access technology (RAT). Increasingly, the FBMC-OQAM systems are gaining appeal in the probe for advanced multi-carrier modulation (MCM) waveforms for future communication systems. This advanced modulation scheme o ers numerous advantages such as excellent frequency localization in its power spectral density (PSD), a robustness to phase noise, frequency off sets and also to the multi-user asynchronism; making it more appealing than OFDM for PMR, cognitive radio (CR) and 5G RAT. However, like any other MCM technique, FBMC-OQAM suff ers from high PAPR. When the power amplifi er (PA) non-linearity, which is realistic radio-frequency impairment, is taken into account; the good frequency localization property is severely compromised, due to the spectral regrowth. The first objective of this PhD thesis is, to predict the extent of the spectral regrowth in FBMC-OQAM systems, due to the PA non-linearity. The second objective is to probe techniques for FBMC-OQAM systems, such as PAPR reduction and PA linearization, in order to mitigate the NL eff ects of PA. By cumulant analysis, spectral regrowth prediction has been done for FBMC-OQAM systems. Also, some algorithms for PAPR reduction, which are based on probabilistic approach and adding signal methods, have been proposed. The coexistence capability of the FBMC-OQAM based broadband system with the narrowband PMR systems in the presence of PA has been analyzed and it has been found that coexistence is possible, provided there is a symbiotic combination of PA Input Back-off (IBO), PAPR reduction and PA linearization. Finally, a novel PA linearization technique has been proposed for FBMC-OQAM.