The diploma thesis describes the elaboration of a program for the simulation of an optical transmission path. The work introduces the basic parameters of optical transmission, such as attenuation, dispersion and bandwidth. Furthermore, the techniques of line code and error detection are described in the work, especially a cyclic redundancy sum. The key parameter of this thesis is dispersion of the optical signal. The work includes the characteristics of the eye diagram and its analysis. The resulting program can also be used to measure the real transmission route and its parameters.

Les formats de modulation avancés, codant l’information sur la phase, la polarisation ou plusieurs niveaux d’amplitude de la lumière reçoivent aujourd’hui un intérêt croissant. En effet, ceux-ci permettent d’atteindre une meilleure efficacité spectrale et par conséquent des débits plus élevés. Ces caractéristiques sont actuellement très recherchées dans les télécommunications pour répondre à la demande constante d’augmentation de capacité des transmissions optiques fibrées. L’essentiel du travail effectué porte sur la génération de tels signaux dans des sources photoniques monolithiques sur InP faisant appel à un concept nouveau de commutation de phases optiques préfixées avec des modulateurs électro-absorbants. Une comparaison de notre technologie intégrée avec la technologie actuelle de génération de formats de modulation avancés démontre des possibilités nouvelles de réduction de taille, de diminution de consommation énergétique et d’évolution en vitesse de modulation jusqu’à 56 GBauds. Suite à la validation, par simulations, d’architectures de transmetteurs spécifiques pour la génération de formats de modulation avancés, nous réalisons en salle blanche les circuits photoniques intégrés d’étude. Les caractérisations statiques confirment le fonctionnement de toutes les fonctions intégrées des circuits et soulignent l’efficacité de la filière technologique. Pour une première démonstration de fonctionnalité nous choisissons un transmetteur BPSK capable de générer une modulation de phase à 12,4 GB. Ce résultat démontre la plus petite source intégrée BPSK à l’heure actuelle. Un autre circuit capable de générer des formats de modulation plus complexes est aussi caractérisé / Advanced modulation formats, encoding data on the phase, polarization or multi-level intensity of the light are currently a hot topic in the telecommunication domain. By using them, high spectral efficiency and therefore higher bit rate signals could be generated. Those characteristics are really attractive for the telecommunication systems manufacturers in order to answer to the constant need of increased bandwidth in fiber optic communications. The study of advanced modulation formats generation in Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) based on a new concept of preset phases switching by Electro-Absorption Modulators is the main task of the current work. Compared to the actual technology used for generate advanced modulations, our choice could allow a strong reduction of the dimensions and of the energy consumption of the transmitter as well as bit rate up to 56 GB. After validating specific transmitters’ architectures by simulations, we fabricated the studied photonic integrated circuits in clean room. Through static characterizations, we verify that all integrated functions of the transmitters are working and we show the efficiency of our technological choices. Using the available equipments at the lab, we prove the validity of our concept of EAM based phase switching by using a BPSK transmitter. A 12.4 GB BPSK modulation is obtained as well as a wide open eye diagram. This result demonstrates the smallest BPSK integrated photonic source at this time. Another photonic circuit able to generate more complex modulation formats is also measured

<p>This dissertation considers packet-switched wireless networks for transmission of variable-rate layered hybrid video streams. Target applications are video streaming and broadcasting services. The work can be divided into two main parts.</p><p>In the first part, a novel quality-scalable scheme based on coefficient refinement and encoder quality constraints is developed as a possible extension to the video coding standard H.264. After a technical introduction to the coding tools of H.264 with the main focus on error resilience features, various quality scalability schemes in previous research are reviewed. Based on this discussion, an encoder decoder framework is designed for an arbitrary number of quality layers, hereby also enabling region-of-interest coding. After that, the performance of the new system is exhaustively tested, showing that the bit rate increase typically encountered with scalable hybrid coding schemes is, for certain coding parameters, only small to moderate. The double- and triple-layer constellations of the framework are shown to perform superior to other systems.</p><p>The second part considers layered code streams as generated by the scheme of the first part. Various error propagation issues in hybrid streams are discussed, which leads to the definition of a decoder quality constraint and a segmentation of the code stream to transmit. A packetization scheme based on successive source rate consumption is drafted, followed by the formulation of the channel code rate optimization problem for an optimum assignment of available codes to the channel packets. Proper MSE-based error metrics are derived, incorporating the properties of the source signal, a terminate-on-error decoding strategy, error concealment, inter-packet dependencies, and the channel conditions. The Viterbi algorithm is presented as a low-complexity solution to the optimization problem, showing a great adaptivity of the joint source channel coding scheme to the channel conditions. An almost constant image qualiity is achieved, also in mismatch situations, while the overall channel code rate decreases only as little as necessary as the channel quality deteriorates. It is further shown that the variance of code distributions is only small, and that the codes are assigned irregularly to all channel packets.</p><p>A double-layer constellation of the framework clearly outperforms other schemes with a substantial margin. </p><p>Keywords — Digital lossy video compression, visual communication, variable bit rate (VBR), SNR scalability, layered image processing, quality layer, hybrid code stream, predictive coding, progressive bit stream, joint source channel coding, fidelity constraint, channel error robustness, resilience, concealment, packet-switched, mobile and wireless ATM, noisy transmission, packet loss, binary symmetric channel, streaming, broadcasting, satellite and radio links, H.264, MPEG-4 AVC, Viterbi, trellis, unequal error protection</p>

This dissertation considers packet-switched wireless networks for transmission of variable-rate layered hybrid video streams. Target applications are video streaming and broadcasting services. The work can be divided into two main parts. In the first part, a novel quality-scalable scheme based on coefficient refinement and encoder quality constraints is developed as a possible extension to the video coding standard H.264. After a technical introduction to the coding tools of H.264 with the main focus on error resilience features, various quality scalability schemes in previous research are reviewed. Based on this discussion, an encoder decoder framework is designed for an arbitrary number of quality layers, hereby also enabling region-of-interest coding. After that, the performance of the new system is exhaustively tested, showing that the bit rate increase typically encountered with scalable hybrid coding schemes is, for certain coding parameters, only small to moderate. The double- and triple-layer constellations of the framework are shown to perform superior to other systems. The second part considers layered code streams as generated by the scheme of the first part. Various error propagation issues in hybrid streams are discussed, which leads to the definition of a decoder quality constraint and a segmentation of the code stream to transmit. A packetization scheme based on successive source rate consumption is drafted, followed by the formulation of the channel code rate optimization problem for an optimum assignment of available codes to the channel packets. Proper MSE-based error metrics are derived, incorporating the properties of the source signal, a terminate-on-error decoding strategy, error concealment, inter-packet dependencies, and the channel conditions. The Viterbi algorithm is presented as a low-complexity solution to the optimization problem, showing a great adaptivity of the joint source channel coding scheme to the channel conditions. An almost constant image qualiity is achieved, also in mismatch situations, while the overall channel code rate decreases only as little as necessary as the channel quality deteriorates. It is further shown that the variance of code distributions is only small, and that the codes are assigned irregularly to all channel packets. A double-layer constellation of the framework clearly outperforms other schemes with a substantial margin. Keywords — Digital lossy video compression, visual communication, variable bit rate (VBR), SNR scalability, layered image processing, quality layer, hybrid code stream, predictive coding, progressive bit stream, joint source channel coding, fidelity constraint, channel error robustness, resilience, concealment, packet-switched, mobile and wireless ATM, noisy transmission, packet loss, binary symmetric channel, streaming, broadcasting, satellite and radio links, H.264, MPEG-4 AVC, Viterbi, trellis, unequal error protection

In den letzten Jahrzehnten ist das globale Kommunikationssystem in einem immer größerem Maße ein integraler Bestandteil des täglichen Lebens geworden. Optische Kommunikationssysteme sind die technologische Basis für diese Entwicklung. Nur Fasern können die riesige benötigte Bandbreite bereitstellen. Während für die ersten optischen Übertragungssysteme die Faser als "flacher" Kanal betrachtet werden konnte, machen Wellenlängenmultiplex und steigende Übertragungsraten die Einbeziehung von immer mehr physikalischen Effekten notwendig. Bei einer Erhöhung der Kanaldatenrate auf 40 Gbit/s und mehr ist die statische Kompensation von chromatischer Dispersion nicht mehr ausreichend. Die intrinsische Toleranz der Modulationsformate gegenüber Dispersion nimmt quadratisch mit der Symbolrate ab. Daher können beispielsweise durch Umwelteinflüsse hervorgerufene Dispersionsschwankungen die Dispersionstoleranz der Modulationsformate überschreiten. Dies macht eine adaptive Dispersionskompensation notwendig, was gleichzeitig auch Dispersionsmonitoring erfordert, um den adaptiven Kompensator steuern zu können. Vorhandene Links können mit Restdispersionskompensatoren ausgestattet werden, um sie für Hochgeschwindigkeitsübertragungen zu ertüchtigen. Optische Kompensationstechniken sind unabhängig von der Kanaldatenrate. Daher wird eine Erhöhung der Datenrate problemlos unterstützt. Optische Kompensatoren können WDM-fähig gebaut werden, um mehrere Kanäle auf einmal zu entzerren. Das Buch beschäftigt sich mit optischen Delay-Line-Filtern als eine Klasse von optischen Kompensatoren. Die Filtersynthese von solchen Delay-Line-Filtern wird behandelt. Der Zusammenhang zwischen optischen Filtern und digitalen FIR-Filtern mit komplexen Koeffizienten im Zusammenhang mit kohärenter Detektion wird aufgezeigt. Iterative und analytische Methoden, die die Koeffizienten für dispersions- und dispersions-slope-kompensierende Filter produzieren, werden untersucht. Genauso wichtig wie die Kompensation von Dispersion ist die Schätzung der Dispersion eines Signals. Mit Delay-Line-Filtern können die Restseitenbänder eines Signals genutzt werden, um die Dispersion zu messen. Alternativ kann nichtlineare Detektion angewandt werden, um die Pulsverbreiterung, die hauptsächlich von der Dispersion herrührt, zu schätzen. Mit gemeinsamer Dispersionskompensation und Dispersionsmonitoring können Dispersionskompensatoren auf die Signalverzerrungen eingestellt werden. Spezielle Eigenschaften der Filter zusammen mit der analytischen Beschreibung können genutzt werden, um schnelle und zuverlässige Steueralgorithmen zur Filtereinstellung bereitzustellen. Schließlich wurden Prototypen derartiger faseroptischen Kompensatoren von chromatischer Dispersion und Dispersions-Slope hergestellt und charakterisiert. Die Einheiten und ihr Systemverhalten wird gezeigt und diskutiert. / Over the course of the past decades, the global communication system has become a central part of people's everyday lives. Optical communication systems are the technological basis for this development. Only fibers can provide the huge bandwidth that is required. Where the fiber could be regarded as a flat channel for the first optical transmission systems wavelength multiplexing and increasing line rates made it necessary to take more and more physical effects into account. When the line rates are increased to 40 Gbit/s and higher static chromatic dispersion compensation is not enough. The modulation format's intrinsic tolerance for dispersion decreases quadratically with the symbol rate. Thus, environmentally induced chromatic dispersion fluctuations may exceed the dispersion tolerance of the modulation formats. This makes an adaptive dispersion compensation necessary implying also the need for a monitoring scheme to steer the adaptive compensator. Legacy links that are CD-compensated by DCFs can be upgraded with residual dispersion compensators to make them ready for high speed transmission. Optical compensation is independent from the line rate. Hence, increasing the data rates is inherently supported. Optical compensators can be built WDM ready compensating multiple channels at once. The book deals with optical delay line filters as one class of optical compensators. The filter synthesis of such delay line filters is addressed. The connection between optical filters and digital FIR filters with complex coefficients that are used in conjunction with coherent detection could be shown. Iterative and analytical methods that produce the coefficients for dispersion (and also dispersion slope) compensating filters are researched. As important as the compensation of dispersion is the estimation of the dispersion of a signal. Using delay line filters, the vestigial sidebands of a signal can be used to measure the dispersion. Alternatively, nonlinear detection can be used to estimate the pulse broadening which is caused mainly by dispersion. With dispersion compensation and dispersion monitoring, dispersion compensators can be adapted to the signal's impairment. Special properties of the filter in conjunction with an analytical description can be used to provide a fast and reliable control algorithm for setting the filter to a given dispersion and centering it on a signal. Finally, prototypes of such fiber optic chromatic dispersion and dispersion slope compensation filters were manufactured and characterized. The device and system characterization of the prototypes is presented and discussed.

Au cours de la décennie 1990, l'introduction puis l’expansion accélérée du numérique par les industries techniques ont favorisé le développement dans les arts filmiques d’un courant critique spontané et collectif portant sur le signal. Nous élaborons une histoire des techniques et des formes esthétiques critiques du signal, en faisceaux de segments, selon une taxinomie qui prolonge le structuralisme matériologique des années 70 (Malcolm Le Grice, Peter Gidal, Paul Sharits, Anthony McCall). Cette histoire embrasse et met en perspective cinéma, vidéo et numérique, de manière à réorganiser nos conceptions distinctes de ces champs selon le domaine des sciences (duquel dépendent détection, codification et visualisation du signal). Nous proposons une histoire des techniques à rebours sous l’angle particulier de la computation du signal, processus systématique commun à l’ensemble des technologies filmiques et entendu comme un ensemble de règles opératoires propres à un traitement calculatoire de données. Dans la double tradition d’une part de Jean Epstein, Marcel L’Herbier ou Jean Renoir, et de l’autre du structuralisme expérimental (Paul Sharits, Malcolm Le Grice…), de nombreux artistes contemporains, tels Paolo Gioli, Philippe Grandrieux, Peter Tscherkassky, Marylène Negro, Leighton Pierce, Augustin Gimel, Jacques Perconte ou HC Gilje (pour n’en mentionner que quelques uns), ont élaboré une intelligence du signal grâce à deux entreprises critiques simultanées. La première, au registre du dispositif, conteste la technologie programmante et vise les libérations du code ; la seconde, au registre de l’image, conteste les normes de visualité et enrichit les palettes visuelles et sonores du flou. Nous tentons d’établir, formuler et organiser les logiques qui, traversant et déterminant la diversité des initiatives artistiques dont nous observons les spécificités et singularités, relèvent d’un même combat artistique contre la standardisation. / During the 90s, with the introduction, then accelerated expansion of digital by the technical industries, has promoted the development of a spontaneous and collective critical current on the signal in the filmic arts. We develop a history of technics and critical aesthetic forms of signal, in beam segments, according to a taxinomy that extends the 70s’ materiologic structuralism (Malcolm le Grice, Peter Gidal, Paul Sharits, Anthony McCall). This history embrace film, video and digital, to reorganize our different conceptions of these fields according to the scientific viewpoint (which detection, codification and display of the signal depend on). We propose a backward technological history from the viewpoint of the signal computation, a systematic process common to all filmic technologies, and understood as a set of operating rules specific to computational data processing.In the double tradition, first of Jean Epstein, Marcel L'Herbier or Jean Renoir, on the other hand experimental structuralism (Paul Sharits, Malcolm Le Grice...), many contemporary artists such as Paolo Gioli, Philippe Grandrieux Peter Tscherkassky, Marylène Negro, Leighton Pierce, Augustin Gimel, Jacques Perconte or HC Gilje (just to mention a few) has developed a signal intelligence thanks to two simultaneous critical enterprises. The first, on the register of the apparatus, challenges the programming technology and aims the liberation of the code ; the second, on the register of the image, challenges the norms of the visuality and expand the visual and sound palettes of blur. We try to formulate and organize the logics which, crossing and determining the diversity of artistic initiatives whom we observe specificities and singularities, belong to the same artistic battle against standardization.

[pt] Esta dissertação propõe algoritmos para codificações de voz a taxas médias em torno de 1,2 Kb/s. Um esquema de quantização vetorial preditiva chaveada com desempenho superior aos esquemas previamente descritos na literatura é proposto e avaliado em canal com ou sem ruído. Detectores eficientes de período fundamental e de sons oclusivos e fricativos são examinados e adaptados ao codificador proposto. Técnicas de exitação a baixas taxas de bits são investigadas a fim de reproduzir uma boa qualidade de voz decodificada. O modelo de exitação mista em multi-bandas com três sub-bandas é adotado para codificar os quadros sonoros. Para os quadros surdos são empregadas técnicas de modelagem e síntese de sinais fricativos e oclusivos, capazes de oferecer qualidade de voz satisfatória, reduzindo a taxa de bits destes quadros para apenas 0,4 Kb/s. Técnicas de pós-filtragem para reduzir o ruído de codificação e melhorar a qualidade de voz reconstruída são também examinadas e comparadas em uma mesma plataforma. Para reduzir o nível de ruído ambiente são ainda analisados métodos de supressão de ruído. Finalmente, o codificador proposto é comparado ao padrão norte-americano Mixed Excitation Linear Prediction (MELP), por meios de teste de comparação do tipo A/B. Os testes realizados indicam que o sistema proposto, operando a 1,2 Kb/s, apresenta qualidade de voz ligeiramente superior ao MELP, operando a 2,4 Kb/s. Para situações de transcodificação, o codificador proposto também apresenta desempenho superior ao MELP. / [en] This dissertation presents algorithms to encode at an avarage bit rate of 1.2 Kb/s. A novel switched-predictive vector quantiser technique that outperforms previously reported schemes is proposed and assessed under noise-free and noisy channels. Efficient detectors for the pitch period and fricative and stop sounds are examined and adapted to the proposed coder. Low bit rate excitation methods are investigated in order to reproduce rather high quality speech. A mixed multiband excitation approach with three sub-bands is employed to encode voiced frames. For unvoiced frames, fricatives and stops modelling and synthesis techniques are used. This approach has shown to provide high quality synthesised speech, whilts it reduces the bit rate to only 0.4 Kb/s for unvoiced frames. To reduce coding noise and improve decoded speech, post- filtering techniques are analysed and compared on the same plataform. To reduce background noise, noise suppression methods are also examined. Finally, the propose coder is evaluated against the North American Mixed Prediction (MELP) coder, through A/B comparison tests. Assessment results have shown that the proposed system, operating at 1.2 Kb/s, slightly outperformed the MELP coder, operating at 2.4 Kb/s. For tandem connection situations, the proposed algorithm has presented a superior performance than the MELP coder. / [es] Esta disertación propone algoritmos para codificaciones de voz a tasas medias en torno de 1,2 Kb/s. Se propone un esquema de cuantización vectorial predictiva, con desempeño superior a los esquemas previamente descritos en la literatura. Este esquema se evalúa en canal con o sin ruido. Se examinan detectores eficientes de período fundamental y de sueños oclusivos y fricativos se adaptan al codificador propuesto. Técnicas de exitación a bajas tasas de bits son investigadas a fin de reproducir una boa calidad de voz decodificada. Se adopta el modelo de exitación mixta en multi-bandas con tres sub-bandas para codificar los cuadros sonoros. Para los cuadros surdos se emplean técnicas de modelación y síntesis de señales fricativos y oclusivos, capaces de ofrecer calidad de voz satisfactoria, reduciendo la tasa de bits de estos cuadros para apenas 0,4 Kb/s. También se examinan y se comparan las técnicas de pós-filtragen para reducir el ruido de codificación y mejorar la calidad de voz reconstruída. Para reducir el nível de ruído ambiente se analizan métodos de supresión de ruido. Finalmente, el codificador propuesto se compara al padrón norteamericano Mixed Excitation Lineal Prediction (MELP), por medio de pruebas de comparación del tipo LA/B. Las pruebas realizadas indican que el sistema propuesto, operando a 1,2 Kb/s, presenta calidad de voz ligeramente superior al MELP, operando a 2,4 Kb/s. Para situaciones de transcodificación, el codificador propuesto también presenta desempeño superior al MELP.

This paper takes aim at creating a consistent form of study materials, supplemented with illustrative examples, for Signals and systems subject. The thesis starts with basic characteristics of acoustic, image, biological and communication signals. Characteristics of linear signals and AD&DA conversion has been added to the next part and to complete the submission, discrete signals follow. Diploma thesis as a whole contains basic theoretical description of problematics, which it tries to supplement with interesting examples, connections, graphs and matlab scripts for illustrative presentation of mentioned problematics.

Technological advances have had a major impact on traditional retail shopping changing it from a physical undertaking to a completely digitised experience where consumers buy digital media online. VAT systems that do not specifically provide for, or which have not been adapted to cope with, technology-driven advances, generally do not provide for the adequate levying and collection of VAT on cross-border digital trade. The South African VAT system is no different. The taxation of e-commerce should not artificially advantage or disadvantage e-commerce over comparable traditional commerce, or unnecessarily hinder the development of e-commerce. This thesis determines whether the South African VAT Act 89 of 1991 in its current form, can be applied adequately to raise and collect VAT on cross-border digital transactions. Where shortcomings in the VAT Act are identified, the harmonised VAT rules of the European Union (EU), together with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) proposals on consumption taxes, are analysed and discussed to seek possible solutions and make recommendations. / Mercantile Law / LL.D.

Ces dernières années, le développement des réseaux de communication indoor et outdoor et l'augmentation du nombre d'applications conduisent à un besoin toujours croissant de transmission de données à haut débit. Parmi les nombreuses technologies concurrentes, les communications par courant porteur en ligne (CPL) ont leur place en raison des infrastructures déjà disponibles. La motivation principale de cette thèse est d'augmenter le débit et la robustesse des systèmes CPL à porteuses multiples afin qu'ils puissent être utilisés efficacement dans les réseaux domestiques et pour la domotique. Le thème de ce travail de recherche est d'explorer différentes approches de modulation et de codage de canal en liaison avec plusieurs schémas d'allocation et d'optimisation des ressources. L'objectif est ici d'améliorer les capacités des CPL et d'être concurrent face aux autres solutions de communication à haut débit et de faire face efficacement aux inconvénients inhérents au réseau d'alimentation. Un certain nombre de stratégies d'allocation des ressources et d'optimisation sont étudiées pour améliorer les performances globales des systèmes CPL. La performance d'un système de communication est généralement mesurée en termes de débit, de marge de bruit et de taux d'erreur binaire (TEB) de la liaison. La maximisation de débit (RM) est étudiée pour les systèmes OFDM (en anglais orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) et LP-OFDM (en anglais linear precoded OFDM) sous la contrainte de densité spectrale de puissance (DSP). Deux contraintes différentes de taux d'erreur ont été appliquées au problème RM. La première contrainte est la contrainte de TEB crête où toutes les sous-porteuses ou séquences de précodage doivent respecter le TEB cible. Avec la deuxième contrainte, contrainte de TEB moyen, différentes sous-porteuses ou séquences de précodage sont affectées par des valeurs différentes de TEB et une contrainte de TEB moyen est imposée sur le symbole complet OFDM ou LP-OFDM. Les algorithmes d'allocation sont également proposés en prenant en compte les gains de codage de canal dans le processus d'allocation des ressources. En outre, un nouveau schéma de minimisation de TEB moyen est introduit qui minimise le TEB moyen de systèmes pour un débit donné et un masque imposé de DSP. Pour l'allocation des ressources dans un système à porteuses multiples, il est généralement supposé que l'état du canal (CSI) est parfaitement connu par l'émetteur. En réalité, les informations de CSI disponibles au point d'émission sont imparfaites. Aussi, nous avons également étudié des schémas d'allocation des ressources dans le cas de systèmes OFDM et LP-OFDM en prenant compte, et de manière efficace, les impacts des estimations bruitées. Plusieurs chaînes de communication sont aussi développées pour les systèmes OFDM et LP-OFDM.