Disertační práce je zaměřena na měření a modelování kanálu uvnitř a vně vozidla pro komunikaci a lokalizaci. Pro účely vytvoření integrovaného inteligentního dopravního systému ITS (Intelligent transportation system) je důležitý odhad vlastnosti kanálů pro vnitřní a venkovní scénáře. Za tímto účelem je vhodné provést řadu činností, které jsou obsahem disertační práce: Simulace fyzické vrstvy 802.11p, její srovnávání s 802.11a, měření kanálu pro různé scénáře pro 802.11p a pro širokopásmový systém (UWB), vytvoření modelů kanálů pro 802.11p a UWB a výzkum vlastností lokalizace založené na měření v pásmu UWB. Výzkum komunikace vozidla s okolím založená na IEEE 802.11p standardu. Jedním z cílů disertační práce je ukázat rozdíly mezi standardy fyzické vrstvy IEEE 802.11a a IEEE 802.11p prostřednictvím simulace s použitím modelu kanálu HIPERPLAN/2. V práci je uvedena simulace přenosu signálu 802.11p kanálem ITU-R M.1225 s odlišným zpožděním a středním výkonem (pro chodce a vozidla). Vliv kanálu na signál je analyzován za použití simulace v prostředí MATLABu pomocí vyhodnocení chybovosti. Určení vlastností kanálů v kmitočtovém pásmu 5,8 GHz pro standard IEEE 802.11p a UWB. Experimenty byly prováděny pro vnitřní a vnější prostředí vozidla. Bylo zjištěno, že pro protokol 802.11p může být trend (dlouhodobý vývoj) profilu PDP (power delay profile) nejlépe aproximován pomocí modelu obsahujícího dvě klesající exponenciální funkce, na rozdíl od Saleh-Valenzuelova (S-V) modelu, který je více vhodný pro UWB systémy pracující v pásmu 3 až 11 GHz. Vytvoření odpovídající impulzní odezvy (CIR) s využitím trendu PDP. Informace o CIR byla použita pro simulaci 802.11p za účelem vyhodnocení chybovosti při použití Ricianova modelu. Výsledky odhadu BER ukazují vhodnost protokolu pro vnitřní a vnější prostředí bezdrátových aplikací. Výsledky simulací dále ukazují, že se chybovost zásadně nemění a proto je možné určit střední křivku BER pro celou sadu změřených dat. Určení vlivu malé změny polohy antény na vlastnosti kanálu. Práce ukazuje náhodnost parametrů UWB kanálu pro malé změny polohy antény okolo vozidla, zaparkovaného v podzemní garáži. Ztráty šířením jsou monotónně rostoucí se vzdáleností, avšak náhodně se mění v závislosti na úhlu a výšce antén, a proto je vyhodnocení vzdálenosti pomocí síly signálu pro tyto scénáře nevhodné. Na druhé straně může být pro spolehlivé určení vzdálenosti bez ohledu na úhel nebo výšku antény použita doba příchodu prvního svazku. Ověření vlivu změn konfigurace kanálu na parametry S-V modelu. Práce demonstruje závislost parametrů Saleh-Valenzuela modelu v na vzdálenosti a výšce antén, avšak ukazuje, že jejich průměrné hodnoty jsou blízké IEEE 802.15.3 standardu. Ověření možnosti lokalizace pomocí metody TOA (time of arrival). Vzdálenost mezi anténami byla určena z profilu PDP s využitím lineární závislosti vzdálenosti na zpoždění. Souřadnice vysílací antény byly nalezeny pomocí dvou přijímacích antén pomocí 2-D lokalizační techniky TOA. Porovnání vypočtených souřadnic s původními vykazuje chybu menší než 6%, což ukazuje vhodnost navrženého přístupu pro lokalizaci vozidel.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has become a very popular method for high-data-rate communication. However, it is well known that OFDM is plagued by a large peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) problem. This high PAPR results in overdesigned power amplifiers, which amongst other things leads to inefficient amplifier usage, which is undesirable. Various methods have been recommended to reduce the PAPR of an OFDM transmission; however, all these methods result in a number of drawbacks. In this thesis, a novel method called offset modulation (OM-OFDM) is proposed to control the PAPR of an OFDM signal. The proposed OM-OFDM method does not result in a number of the drawbacks being experienced by current methods in the field. The theoretical bandwidth occupancy and theoretical bit error rate (BER) expression for an OM-OFDM transmission is derived. A newly applied power performance decision metric is also introduced, which can be utilised throughout the PAPR field, in order to compare various methods. The proposed OM-OFDM method appears to be similar to a well-known constant envelope OFDM (CE-OFDM) transmission. The modulation, structural and performance differences between an OM-OFDM and a CE-OFDM method are discussed. By applying the power performance decision metric, the OM-OFDM method is shown to offer significant performance gains when compared to CE-OFDM and traditional OFDM transmissions. In addition, the OM-OFDM method is able to accurately control the PAPR of a transmission for a targeted BER. By applying the power performance decision metric and complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF), the proposed OM-OFDM method is shown to offer further performance gains when compared to existing PAPR methods, under frequency selective fading conditions. In this thesis, the OM-OFDM method has been combined with an existing active constellation extended (ACE) PAPR reduction method. To introduce a novel method called offset modulation with active constellation extension (OM-ACE), to control the PAPR of an OFDM signal. The theoretical BER expression for an OM-ACE transmission is presented and validated. Thereafter, by applying the decision metric and CCDF, the OM-ACE method is shown to offer performance improvements when compared to various PAPR methods. The use of OM-OFDM for cognitive radio applications is also investigated. Cognitive radio applications require transmissions that are easily detectable. The detection characteristics of an OM-OFDM and OFDM transmission are studied by using receiver operating characteristic curves. A derivation of a simplified theoretical closed-form expression, which relates the probability of a missed detection to the probability of a false alarm, for an unknown deterministic signal, at various signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values is derived and validated. Previous expressions have been derived, which relate the probability of a missed detection to the probability of a false alarm. However, they have not been presented in such a generic closed-form expression that can be used for any unknown deterministic signal (for instance OFDM and OM-OFDM). Thereafter, an examination of the spectrum characteristics of an OM-OFDM transmission indicates its attractive detection characteristics. The proposed OM-OFDM method is further shown to operate at a significantly lower SNR value than an OFDM transmission, while still offering better detection characteristics than that of an OFDM transmission under Rician, Rayleigh and frequency selective fading channel conditions. In addition to its attractive PAPR properties, OM-OFDM also offers good detection characteristics for cognitive radio applications. These aspects make OM-OFDM a promising candidate for future deployment. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

Voice recognition has become a more focused and researched field in the last century,and new techniques to identify speech has been introduced. A part of voice recognition isspeaker verification which is divided into Front-end and Back-end. The first componentis the front-end or feature extraction where techniques such as Mel-Frequency CepstrumCoefficients (MFCC) is used to extract the speaker specific features of a speech signal,MFCC is mostly used because it is based on the known variations of the humans ear’scritical frequency bandwidth. The second component is the back-end and handles thespeaker modeling. The back-end is based on the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) andGaussian Mixture Model-Universal Background Model (GMM-UBM) methods forenrollment and verification of the specific speaker. In addition, normalization techniquessuch as Cepstral Means Subtraction (CMS) and feature warping is also used forrobustness against noise and distortion. In this paper, we are going to build a speakerverification system and experiment with a variance in the amount of training data for thetrue speaker model, and to evaluate the system performance. And further investigate thearea of security in a speaker verification system then two methods are compared (GMMand GMM-UBM) to experiment on which is more secure depending on the amount oftraining data available.This research will therefore give a contribution to how much data is really necessary fora secure system where the False Positive is as close to zero as possible, how will theamount of training data affect the False Negative (FN), and how does this differ betweenGMM and GMM-UBM.The result shows that an increase in speaker specific training data will increase theperformance of the system. However, too much training data has been proven to beunnecessary because the performance of the system will eventually reach its highest point and in this case it was around 48 min of data, and the results also show that the GMMUBM model containing 48- to 60 minutes outperformed the GMM models.

Nous naviguons présentement sur la vague de la deuxième révolution quantique qui nous dirige vers un océan de possibilités. L’approche tant attendue de l’ordinateur quantique affecte notre société, notamment la sécurité mondiale actuelle. C’est la course pour mettre à jour nos réseaux de communication pour maintenir le droit à la vie privée. En cryptographie, bien que le chiffrement de message soit crucial pour des échanges privés, la sécurité générale de toute communication repose majoritairement sur la sécurité d’une clé. C’est pourquoi l’établissement quantique de clé ou QKD (de quantum key distribution en anglais) est une importante tâche cryptographique qui se doit d’être résistante aux adversaires quantiques. Beaucoup d’avancées ont déjà été faites dans le domaine, en l’occurrence l’usage de la fibre optique qui a mené à l’implémentation réelle de protocoles QKD. Par contre, l’obstacle qui continue de limiter tout progrès est la distance. Celle-ci hausse exponentiellement les erreurs introduites dans l’échange dépassant facilement les taux maximum tolérés actuels après quelques centaines de kilomètres seulement. De ce fait, bien que la théorie semble prometteuse, la mise en pratique de protocoles quantiques demeure un défi. Pour viser l’application mondiale, nous nous devons de prioriser l’efficacité. Ce mémoire présente une variation du fameux protocole BB84 pour maximiser la perfor- mance des applications de QKD en augmentant le taux d’erreurs toléré et, en l’occurrence, la distance entre les partis. Un satellite sera introduit comme troisième parti. Il aidera Alice et Bob à partager une chaine secrète. Celle-ci leur permettra de rouler le protocole BB84 sans dévoiler les bases. De plus, deux techniques seront définies, soient le filtrage et la concentration. Ces dernières serviront lors de la communication classique interactive pour diminuer l’erreur entre nos deux individus tout en limitant le gain d’information de leur ad- versaire. Les bénéfices de cette modification sont la possibilité de recycler les bases secrètes du protocole ainsi que la possibilité d’étendre d’avantage la longueur du canal atteignant ainsi l’objectif de pousser les limites pratiques de QKD. / We are currently sailing on the second quantum revolution wave towards an ocean of pos- sibilities. The long awaited quantum computer is near and it will affect global security as we know it. It is a race against the clock to update our entire communication network to maintain the right to personal privacy. An important cryptographic task is key establish- ment. While communicating privately, the entire security lies mainly in the security of the key used. Therefore, it is crucial that future protocols for key establishment be resistant against quantum adversaries. Over the years, there has been great progress in the field like the practical use of optical fibre leading to quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols implemented in real life. Despite this, a specific obstacle still remains. Distance poses a serious problem as it increases ex- ponentially the amount of errors introduced in the protocol, meaning we easily exceed the maximum rate that we can currently tolerate after only a few hundred kilometers. Hence, what we do in theory may sound promising, but the actual application in reality remains a challenge. To aim for global use, we need to prioritize efficiency. This thesis suggests an alternative to the renowned BB84 protocol to help maximize applications of quantum key distribution by increasing the tolerated error rate and thus, the distance between two parties. A satellite will be introduced as a third party to help Alice and Bob share a secret bit sequence. This bit string will allow them to run a BB84 protocol without revealing the bases. Then, two techniques will be defined: filtering and concentration. They will serve in the classical communication phase to help lower the error rate between our two parties while also limiting the amount of information gained by the adversary. Benefits from this approach are the recycling of the secret bases of the protocol as well as the possible extension of the length of the channel, thus achieving the end goal of pushing the limits of practical implementation of QKD.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication technology offers inherent advantages such as the ability to coexist with previously allocated Federal Communications Commission (FCC) frequencies, simple transceiver architecture, and high performance in noisy environments. Spread spectrum techniques offer additional improvements beyond the conventional pulse-based UWB communications. This dissertation implements a multiple-access UWB communication system using a surface acoustic wave (SAW) correlator receiver with orthogonal frequency coding and software defined radio (SDR) base station transmitter. Orthogonal frequency coding (OFC) and pseudorandom noise (PN) coding provide a means for spreading of the UWB data. The use of orthogonal frequency coding (OFC) increases the correlator processing gain (PG) beyond that of code division multiple access (CDMA); providing added code diversity, improved pulse ambiguity, and superior performance in noisy environments. Use of SAW correlators reduces the complexity and power requirements of the receiver architecture by eliminating many of the components needed and reducing the signal processing and timing requirements necessary for digital matched filtering of the complex spreading signal. The OFC receiver correlator code sequence is hard-coded in the device due to the physical SAW implementation. The use of modern SDR forms a dynamic base station architecture which is able to programmatically generate a digitally modulated transmit signal. An embedded Xilinx Zynq ™ system on chip (SoC) technology was used to implement the SDR system; taking advantage of recent advances in digital-to-analog converter (DAC) sampling rates. SDR waveform samples are generated in baseband in-phase and quadrature (I & Q) pairs and upconverted to a 491.52 MHz operational frequency. The development of the OFC SAW correlator ultimately used in the receiver is presented along with a variety of advanced SAW correlator device embodiments. Each SAW correlator device was fabricated on lithium niobate (LiNbO3) with fractional bandwidths in excess of 20%. The SAW correlator device presented for use in system was implemented with a center frequency of 491.52 MHz; matching SDR transmit frequency. Parasitic electromagnetic feedthrough becomes problematic in the packaged SAW correlator after packaging and fixturing due to the wide bandwidths and high operational frequency. The techniques for reduction of parasitic feedthrough are discussed with before and after results showing approximately 10:1 improvement. Correlation and demodulation results are presented using the SAW correlator receiver under operation in an UWB communication system. Bipolar phase shift keying (BPSK) techniques demonstrate OFC modulation and demodulation for a test binary bit sequence. Matched OFC code reception is compared to a mismatched, or cross-correlated, sequence after correlation and demodulation. Finally, the signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR) performance results for the SAW correlator under corruption of a wideband noise source are presented.

This thesis presents a comprehensive investigation into improving wireless transmission rates and reliability through the implementation of Space Time Trellis Codes(STTC). The study focuses on enhancing the coding gain, diversity gain, and flexible transmission capabilities, which are crucial for Error-Correcting Codes (ECC)in wireless communications. Spectral efficiency, a primary concern, is achieved byincorporating Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) techniques. This thesis discusses the encoding method and decoding algorithm for STTC systems. Then, the performance of MIMO using the Alamouti scheme is determined.Further, the benefits of Cognitive Radio (CR), an intelligent radio technology capable of automatically detecting the best available wireless channel in the spectrumat any given time, are utilized. Energy Detection (ED) is employed for SpectrumSensing (SS) to detect the presence of Primary Users (PUs). The thesis analyzes theperformance of Probability of Detection (PD) and Probability of False Alarm (PFA). Furthermore, the thesis evaluates the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of STTCover an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, considering different modulation schemes generated in MATLAB. Specifically, it investigates the performance ofSTTC-MIMO in terms of BER over Rayleigh channels with Quadrature AmplitudeModulation (QAM) for different combinations of transmitting and receiving antennas. The findings from this research contribute to advancing wireless communicationsystems by addressing the challenges of error correction, spectral efficiency, and reliable data transmission. The integration of STTC with MIMO and CR presents aprogressive approach towards maximizing the potential of wireless communicationtechnologies to cater to the increasing demands for seamless connectivity and superior performance. This research adds to the ongoing efforts of enhancing wirelesscommunication systems’ performance and efficiency, fostering advancements in wireless technology.

With the constant development of more advanced speech recognition models, the need to determine which models are better in specific areas and for specific purposes becomes increasingly crucial. Even more so for low-resource languages such as Swedish, dependent on the progress of models for the large international languages. Lagerlöf (2022) conducted a comparative analysis between Google’s speech-to-text model and NLoS’s VoxRex B, concluding that VoxRex was the best for Swedish audio. Since then, OpenAI released their Automatic Speech Recognition model Whisper, prompting a reassessment of the preferred choice for transcribing Swedish. In this comparative analysis using data from Swedish radio news segments, Whisper performs better than VoxRex in tests on the raw output, highly affected by more proficient sentence constructions. It is not possible to conclude which model is better regarding pure word prediction. However, the results favor VoxRex, displaying a lower variability, meaning that even though Whisper can predict full text better, the decision of what model to use should be determined by the user’s needs.

Röststyrning som användargränssnitt kan erbjuda flera fördelar jämfört med mer traditionella styrmetoder. Det saknas dock färdiga lösningar för specifika industriella miljöer, vilka ställer särskilda krav på att korta kommandon tolkas korrekt i olika grad av buller och med begränsad eller ingen internetuppkoppling. Detta arbete ämnade undersöka potentialen för röststyrning i industriella miljöer. Ett koncepttest genomfördes där ordfelsfrekvens (på engelska Word Error Rate eller kortare WER) användes för att utvärdera träffsäkerheten för olika kombinationer av taligenkänningsarkitekturer, brusreduceringstekniker samt kommandolängder i verkliga bullriga miljöer. Undersökningen tog dessutom hänsyn till Lombard-effekten.  Resultaten visar att det för samtliga testade miljöer finns god potential för röststyrning med avseende på träffsäkerheten. Framför allt visade DeepSpeech, en djupinlärd taligenkänningsmodell med rekurrent lagerstruktur, kompletterad med domänspecifika språkmodeller och en riktad kardioid-mikrofon en ordfelsfrekvens på noll procent i vissa scenarier och sällan över fem procent. Resultaten visar även att utformningen av kommandon påverkar ordfelsfrekvensen.  För en verklig implementation i industriell miljö behövs ytterligare studier om säkerhetslösningar, inkluderande autentisering och hantering av risker med falskt positivt tolkade kommandon. / Voice command as a user interface can offer several advantages over more traditional control methods. However, there is a lack of ready-made solutions for specific industrial environments, which place particular demands on short commands being interpreted correctly in varying degrees of noise and with limited or no internet connection. This work aimed to investigate the potential for voice command in industrial environments. A proof of concept was conducted where Word Error Rate (WER) was used to evaluate the accuracy of various combinations of speech recognition architectures, noise reduction techniques, and command lengths in authentic noisy environments. The investigation also took into account the Lombard effect.  The results indicate that for all tested environments there is good potential for voice command with regard to accuracy. In particular, DeepSpeech, a deep-learned speech recognition model with recurrent layer structure, complemented with domain-specific language models and a directional cardioid microphone, showed WER values of zero percent in certain scenarios and rarely above five percent. The results also demonstrate that the design of commands influences WER. For a real implementation in an industrial environment, further studies are needed on security solutions, including authentication and management of risks with false positive interpreted commands.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Bit errors often occur in a wireless communications link when impairments alter the transmitted signal. It is advantageous to be able to predict how well a system will tolerate transmission problems. This paper details laboratory performance measurements and comparisons in terms of evaluating configurations of a digital receiver for Feher patented Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (FQPSK-B) demodulation. The transmitted signal is subjected to calibrated levels of impairments while the receiver performance is monitored in real-time.

De nombreuses applications industrielles spécifiques dans les secteurs tels que l'automobile, le médical et le spatial, requièrent un très haut niveau de fiabilité. Ce type d'applications fonctionnant sous des contraintes sévères (haute température, corrosion, vibration, radiations,…) impose aux industriels des spécifications particulières en termes de fiabilité et de consommation d'énergie. Dans ce contexte, les travaux menés ont pour objectif d'étudier la fiabilité des mémoires Flash embarquées pour des applications faible consommation et à forte contrainte de fiabilité. Après une introduction orientée sur les deux volets d'étude que sont la caractérisation électrique et le test de mémoires non volatiles, un modèle physique capable de modéliser le courant de SILC a été développé. Cet outil permet de répondre à la problématique de perturbations en lecture (read disturb) et donne aux designers et technologues un moyen d'estimer le taux de défaillance de cellules mémoires en fonction de paramètres physiques, géométriques et électriques ainsi que des moyens d'action afin de minimiser ce phénomène indésirable. La fiabilité (oxyde tunnel, endurance) et les performances (consommation énergétique) de la cellule Flash sont ensuite étudiées en explorant les variations de paramètres du procédé de fabrication et des conditions électriques de fonctionnement. Enfin, une étude originale menée en temps réel sur plus de 15 mois est consacrée à la fiabilité en rétention des mémoires Flash soumises aux effets des particules radiatives présentes dans l'environnement naturel terrestre. / Many specific applications used in automotive, medical and spatial activity domains, require a very high level of reliability. These kinds of applications, working under severe constraints (high temperature, corrosion, vibration, radiations…) challenge memory manufacturers and impose them particular specifications in terms of reliability and energy consumption. In this context, work presented in this thesis aim at studying embedded Flash memories reliability for low power and high reliability applications. After an introduction oriented on areas of electrical characterizations and Test of non-volatile memories, a physical model of SILC leakage current is developed. This tool is used to answer to disturbs problematic and gives to designers and technologists a way to estimate the failure rate of memory cells according to physical, geometrical and electrical parameters, giving leads to minimize this unwanted phenomenon. Reliability (tunnel oxide, cell endurance) and performances (energy consumption) of Flash memory cell are then studied exploring process parameters variations and electrical conditions optimizations. Finally, an original real-time experiment over more than 15 months is focused on Flash memories retention reliability due to irradiative particles effects of natural terrestrial environment.