Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Time	Brownsdale Room	Salon B	Salon C	Salon D	Salon E	Salon F	Salon G
07:30-14:00	Conference Registration (Registration Desk)
08:30-09:30	Tuesday plenary (Marconi Hall)
09:40-10:20	T1A: Computer Vision I	T1B: Image and Video Processing I	T1C: Biomedical Signal Processing I	T1D: Power Systems II	T1E: Ultra-wideband	T1F: Communication Networks	T1G: Microwave Devices II
10:40-11:40	T2A: Computer Vision II	T2B: Multimedia and Signal Processing Algorithms I	T2C: Biomedical Signal Processing II	T2D: Power Systems III	T2E: Cooperative Diversity III	T2F: Ad Hoc Networks	T2G: Physical Layer Issues
11:45-13:30	McNaughton Lecture (Marconi Hall)
13:40-15:20	T3A: Mobile Robots	T3B: Image and Video Processing II	T3C: General Interest	T3D: Renewable Energy III	T3E: Coding for Wireless Communications	T3F: MIMO and Physical Layer	T3G: Access Technology
15:30-15:45		SP: Sponsor Presentation
15:45-17:30	Tour 1: Computing, Simulation and Landmark Visualization Facility, Tour 2: Centre for Marine Simulation, Tour 3: NRC Institute for Ocean Technology, Tour 4: Virtual Marine Technology

08:30 - 09:30

Tuesday plenary

John C. Cartledge -- Optical Signal Processing for Fiber-Optic Communications

Currently, there is a substantial research effort directed toward optical signal processing for high bit rate fiber-optic communications. Much of the work is aimed at mitigating the effects of transmission impairments that arise on the link between a transmitter and receiver. It is being pursued in the presence of a need to increase the per-channel bit rate and spectral efficiency of practical systems in order to meet the growing demand for telecommunication services. This talk presents a brief overview of optical signal processing technology and considers all-optical 3R regeneration (re-amplification, re-shaping, and re-timing) as a specific example to illustrate what can be achieved by processing optical signals in the optical domain.

Room: Marconi Hall

09:40 - 10:20

T1A: Computer Vision I

Room: Brownsdale Room

9:40 Vision-Based Obstacle Detection Using a Support Vector Machine: Timothy Ubbens (Redeemer University College, Canada); Derek Schuurman (Redeemer University College, Canada)
This paper describes a monocular vision-based obstacle detection method for a mobile robot using a support vector machine (SVM). A single camera is mounted on the front of a mobile robot and an SVM is trained to classify obstacles as they are encountered by the robot. Since it is not possible to train on all obstacle types a-priori, a one-class SVM is used to learn the appearance of the floor in the absence of obstacles. Anything that is not recognized as a floor is classified as an obstacle. To improve robustness in recognizing floor features, images are preprocessed using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to provide translation invariance. Experimental results indicate high accuracy and specificity for four different floor surfaces that were tested.
10:00 A Compact Modular Active Vision System for Multi-Target Surveillance: Christopher Ward (University of Western Ontario, Canada); Michael Naish (University of Western Ontario, Canada)
This paper presents an omnidirectional active vision system that has been developed for the autonomous acquisition of detailed images of multiple targets. Omnidirectional and perspective camera technologies are integrated to create a robust vision system that combines the strengths of both camera types. A compact, inexpensive and highly modular design is presented in which system modules are stacked vertically. The vertical structure provides each module with an unobstructed 360 degree horizontal view of the surroundings and allows the omnidirectional cameras to directly guide an active camera to view a target point. The physical system design is detailed, along with a description of the system's hardware and software architectures. The hardware architecture is scalable and fully self contained, while the software architecture is built around a user datagram protocol (UDP) network, allowing the computational load to be distributed over multiple computers.

T1B: Image and Video Processing I

Room: Salon B

9:40 Region Based Searching for Early Terminated Motion Estimation Algorithm of H.264/AVC Video Coding Standard: Mohammed Golam Sarwer (University of Windsor, Canada); Jonathan Wu (University of Windsor, Canada)
H.264/AVC is the newest international video coding standard which shows extremely higher coding efficiency compared to any other previous standards, but it brings high computational complexity. The variable block size motion estimation process is the most time consuming part of the H.264/AVC encoder. In order to reduce the computation of the full search motion estimation method, this paper presents a region based search algorithm. The entire search window is divided into several search regions based on the orientation of the previously calculated motion vector. The experimental results show that the proposed method reduced about 77% of motion estimation time with ignorable degradation of rate-distortion performance.
10:00 Error Concealment for JPEG-Coded Image Transmission over Wireless Links: Alireza Kenarsari Anhari (University of British Columbia, Canada); Lutz Lampe (University of British Columbia, Canada)
A robust error concealment (EC) scheme for transmission of JPEG-coded images over error-prone wireless networks is proposed. It incorporates data-hiding as a correction element along with spatial redundancy of natural images to reconstruct lost portions of a received image signal. To handle burst packet-loss conditions experienced in wireless transmission links, the use of interleaving and interleaved forward error correction is studied. In this context, the trade-off between complexity and quality of error concealment is investigated. We provide simulative evidence that the proposed EC scheme improves over state-of-the-art algorithms known from the literature.

T1C: Biomedical Signal Processing I

Room: Salon C

9:40 Clinical Analysis for Cardiovascular Disease by Calculating Stiffness Index, Cardiac Output from Pulse Wave: Zhaopeng Fan (University of Winnipeg, Canada); Simon Liao (University of Winnipeg, Canada); Gong Zhang (University of Winnipeg, Canada)
We inspected the relationship between cardiovascular disease and clinical pulse wave data. The pulse wave data were collected from the Department of Cardiology at Shandong Provincial Hospital by infrared light pulse wave sensor. Based on the risk factors, Stiffness Index (SI) and Cardiac Output (CO) are utilized as the characteristics to detect cardiovascular disease. The results show a close relationship between cardiovascular disease and the derived pulse wave characteristics.
10:00 Principal Component Analysis Based Backpropagation Algorithm For Diagnosis of Peripheral Arterial Occlusive Diseases: Sunil Karamchandani (Indian Institute of Technology, India)
Abstract-- Impedance cardio-vasography (ICVG) serves as a non-invasive screening procedure prior to invasive and expensive angiographic studies. Parameters like Blood Flow Index (BFI) and Differential Pulse Arrival Time (DPAT) at different locations in both lower limbs are computed from impedance measurements on the Impedance Cardiograph. A Backpropagation neural network is developed which uses these parameters for the diagnosis of peripheral vascular diseases such as Leriche’s syndrome. The target outputs at the various locations are provided to the network with the help of a medical expert. The paper proposes the use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) based Backpropagation network where the variance in the data is captured in the first two principal components. Such a Backpropagation algorithm with three hidden layers provides the least mean squared error for the network parameters. The results demonstrated that the elimination of correlated information in the training data by way of the PCA method improved the networks estimation performance. The cases of arterial Narrowing were predicted accurately with PCA based technique than with the traditional Backpropagation Technique. The diagnostic performance of the neural network to discriminate the diseased cases from normal cases, evaluated using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis show a of sensitivity (95.5%) and specificity (97.36%). The proposed approach is a potential tool for diagnosis and prediction for non-experts and clinicians.

T1D: Power Systems II

Room: Salon D

9:40 Selective Iinitial State Criteria To Enhance Convergence Rate Of Q-Learning Algorithm In Power System Stability Application: Ramtin Hadidi (Memorial University, Canada); Benjamin Jeyasurya (Memorial University, Canada)
In this paper, a modified Q-Learning algorithm is proposed to enhance the convergence speed of the conventional algorithm to reach a near optimal policy. This is achieved by using selective initial state criteria (SISC) instead of choosing initial state randomly in each episode. The proposed method is implemented to control power system stabilizers to enhance power system stability. The validity of modified Q-Learning has been tested on a 2 area, 4 machines power system.
10:00 Load and Locational Marginal Pricing Prediction in Competitive Electrical Power Environment Using Computational Intelligence: Zidan Bashir (Dalhousie University, Canada); Mohamed El-Hawary (Dalhousie University, Canada)
This paper presents a comprehensive study of forecasting load demand and locational marginal price using artificial intelligent systems. An artificial neural network is trained with a stochastic optimization technique called particle swarm optimization. This training algorithm works to adjust the network weights and biases so as to minimize the error function. Wavelet transformed data is fed into the neural network in a pre-processing stage in order to get a better price pattern that will be reliable for forecasting. The networks were trained and tested using historical load and locational marginal price and the corresponding influence variables such as weather information and marginal losses cost respectively. The data used is from New York Independent System Operator and Weather Source Stations, in Buffalo, New York over a period of three years (2001-2003). Simulation results are compared with that of conventional back-propagation neural network and radial basis function network and provided highly accurate generalization capability.

T1E: Ultra-wideband

Room: Salon E

9:40 Orthogonal Hermite Functions Based Orthogonal Pulse Shaping Method: Xuanli Wu (Communication Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China); Xin Qiu (Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China); Xiaoyan Ning (Harbin Intstitute of Technology, P.R. China); Di Lin (Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China)
Ultra-Wideband (UWB) communication has attracted more attentions due to its advantages in short range applications. As one of the key techniques in UWB systems, many pulse shaping methods have been proposed. The semi-definite programming (SDP) based pulse shaping method can obtain the pulse with highest power efficiency by far. However, an accurate timing of 40ps is required, and such requirement cannot be implemented precisely using modern hardware. Furthermore, the power efficiency of the second orthogonal pulse will be lower than the first pulse. To solve such problems, the linear combination of orthogonal Hermite functions is used in the SDP method and a modification method is then proposed to eliminate the direct current (DC) component. Simulation results show that orthogonal pulses without DC component can be obtained and the power efficiency of the obtained pulses are more than 80%. Moreover, the obtained orthogonal pulses will have shorter pulse duration due to the energy concentration property of orthogonal spaces.
10:00 Harnessing Simultaneously the Benefits of UWB and MBWA: A Practical Scenario: Mouhamed Abdulla (Concordia University, Canada); Yousef Shayan (Concordia University, Canada)
UWB has a very large bandwidth in a WPAN network, which is best used for HD-video applications. Meanwhile, MBWA is a WMAN option optimized for wireless-IP in a fast moving vehicle. In this paper, we propose a practical engineering scenario that harnesses simultaneously the distinctive feature of both UWB and MBWA. However, this in-proximity operation of the technologies will inevitably cause mutual interference to both systems. In light of this, as a preliminary phase to coexistence, we have derived, under various circumstances, the maximum interference power limit that needs to be respected in order to ensure an acceptable system performance as requested by the new IEEE 802.20 standard.

T1F: Communication Networks

Room: Salon F

9:40 Architecture itérative de faible complexité d'égalisation, d'estimation, et de décodage pour les canaux multi trajets à évanouissements rapides: Berdai Abdellah (Université Laval - Québec-Canada, Canada); Jean-Yves Chouinard (Laval University, Canada)
Une procédure d'initialisation avec une nouvelle séquence d'apprentissages périodiques pour la turbo égalisation incluant l'estimation et le décodage de canal ont été proposées pour les canaux multi trajets à évanouissements rapides. Dans cet article, l'égalisation est assurée à l'aide d'un annuleur d'interférence et l'estimation de canal est réalisée en utilisant la méthode de Valenti et Woerner. Quant au codeur, ce dernier est de type LDPC dont la matrice de parité est générée à partir des permutations circulaires d'une matrice d'identité prédéfinie. Afin d'assurer l'adaptation entre l'égaliseur et le décodeur, nous avons déterminé analytiquement l'expression de l'information extrinsèque a l'entrée du décodeur. Un égaliseur adaptatif utilisant une fonction de coût non linéaire a été proposé afin d'offrir un taux d'erreur suffisamment faible pour l'initialisation. L'architecture proposée est de faible complexité et permet de réduire considérablement les effets de sélectivité tant fréquentielle et que temporelle pour des canaux de Rayleigh multi trajets pour les fréquences Doppler normalisées f_m=f_D T_s=0.02 et 0.04.

T1G: Microwave Devices II

Room: Salon G

9:40 Etude des lignes coplanaires asymétriques en mode dispersif: cas particulier des lignes quasi-symétriques: Abdelhamid Khodja (U.S.T.H.B university, Algeria); Henry Baudrand (ENSEEIHT, 2 rue Charles Camichel 31071, Toulouse, France); Mustapha Yagoub (University of Ottawa, Canada); Rachida Touhami (Université des Sciences et de La Technologie HOUARI BOUMEDIENE, Algeria)
L'objectif de cette communication est d'examiner dans quels cas les lignes asymétriques peuvent être considérées comme suffisamment proches des lignes symétriques pour être étudiées comme ces dernières. Afin d’analyser convenablement ces lignes quasi-symétriques, une formulation rigoureuse est utilisée, les fonctions d’essai étant déterminées soit à partir du cas symétrique en s’inspirant des modes pair et impair, soit écrites de façon générale appliquées pour le cas des lignes asymétriques. Une étude comparative des résultats des paramètres de dispersion montre les limites de validité de l'hypothèse, en particulier pour le mode fondamental de la structure coplanaire qui se révèle particulièrement stable vis-à-vis des asymétries dues au boîtier comme aux différences de largeurs des fentes.
10:00 A Wideband 360° Analog Phase Shifter Design: Xiao MingXiang (The univerisy of Hong Kong, Hong Kong); William S. W. Cheung (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong); Ti Yuk (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
This paper proposes a reflection type wideband 360° analogue phase shifter. The phase shifter employs a branch line coupler circuit to achieve wideband operation and a varactor diode circuit to achieve a wide phase shift range. Analytical formulas are derived to optimize the parameters in the coupler circuit for wideband operation and reduced attenuation ripple, and in the varactor circuit to minimize the frequency dependency of the phase shift. Simulation results using the Advanced Design Systems (ADS 2005A) show that the design has wide bandwidth, wide phase shift range, and low attenuation ripple, and　is highly linear across the operation bandwidth

10:40 - 11:40

T2A: Computer Vision II

Room: Brownsdale Room

10:40 Scheduling Active Camera Resources for Multiple Moving Targets: Christopher Ward (University of Western Ontario, Canada); Michael Naish (University of Western Ontario, Canada)
Five scheduling policies that have been developed and implemented to manage the active resources of a centralized active vision system are presented in this paper. These scheduling policies are tasked with making target-to-camera assignments in an attempt to maximize the number of targets that can be imaged with the system's active cameras. A comparative simulation-based evaluation has been performed to investigate the performance of the system under different target and system operating parameters for all five scheduling policies. Parameters considered include: target entry conditions, congestion levels, target-to-camera speeds, target trajectories, and number of active cameras. An overall trend in the relative performance of the scheduling algorithms was observed. The Least System Reconfiguration and Future Least System Reconfiguration scheduling policies performed the best for the majority of conditions investigated, while the Load Sharing and First Come First Serve policies performed the poorest. The performance of the Earliest Deadline First policy was highly dependent on target predictability.
11:00 Modeling of Top-down Object-based Attention Using Probabilistic Neural Network: Yuanlong Yu (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada); George Mann (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada); Ray Gosine (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
Object-based attention theory posits that attention is directed towards one object at a time. This paper attempts to simulate top-down influences. Five components of top-down influences are modeled: structure of object representation for long-term memory (LTM), learning of object representations, deduction of task-relevant features, estimation of top-down biases, mediation between bottom-up and top-down fashions, and perceptual completion. In accord with neural nature, this model builds a dual-coding object representation for LTM. It consists of local and global codings, characterizing internal properties and global attributes of an object. Probabilistic neural networks (PNNs) are used for object representation in that they can model probabilistic distribution of an object through combination of confident instances. A dynamically constructive learning algorithm is developed to train PNNs when an object is attended. Given a task-specific object, this proposed model recalls the corresponding object representation from PNNs, deduces the task-relevant feature dimensions and evaluates top-down biases. Bottom-up and top-down biases are mediated to yield a pre-attentive grouping based saliency map. The most salient primitive grouping is finally put into the perceptual completion processing module to yield an accurate and complete object representation for attention. This model has been applied into the robotic task: detection of task-specific multi-part objects. Experimental results in natural and cluttered scenes are shown to validate this model.
11:20 The Question of Accuracy with Geometric Camera Calibration: Swapna Puthukkudichalil (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada); Nicholas Krouglicof (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada); Ray Gosine (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
In the field of machine vision, camera calibration refers to the experimental determination of a set of parameters which describe the image formation process for a given analytical model of the machine vision system. An accurate, reliable calibration procedure is essential for most industrial machine vision applications including mechanical metrology, robot assembly, reverse engineering, stereo vision etc. One of the most systematic calibration procedures for 3D machine vision applications was proposed by Heikkilä in which a comprehensive set of camera parameters is automatically evaluated by observing a calibration target consisting of two perpendicular planes, each with 256 circular control points. Other similar techniques employ a checkerboard pattern as a target and use the vertices of the squares as control points. While these techniques are sound from a theoretical point of view, they do not adequately speak to the question of measurement accuracy. The objective of this work is to gain and understanding of the problems associated with Geometric Camera Calibration through the application of Design of Experiments. A response surface methodology, namely a CCD Design, is carried to analyze the effects. This paper also highlights the issue of calibration accuracy by addressing the following fundamental question: Assuming a certain tolerance or uncertainty in the calibration target, what is the expected error with respect to the measured camera parameters and what is the impact on the final 3D machine vision application?

T2B: Multimedia and Signal Processing Algorithms I

Room: Salon B

10:40 Estimation of Symbol Rate from the Autocorrelation Function: Y. t. Chan (Royal Military College of Canada, Canada); Bernard Lee (Royal Military College of Canada, Canada); Robert Inkol (DRDC-Ottawa, Canada); Francois Chan (Royal Military College, Canada)
The estimation of the symbol rate (or symbol duration Ts) of a noisy sequence has important applications for symbol timing recovery in digital communications systems, and signal classification. Since a symbol sequence has spectral peaks at 1/Ts apart, Ts estimation centers mostly on the establishment of spectral rate lines from the sequence. Examples are the delay and multiply circuit, and the cyclostationarity based estimators. This paper presents an alternative. It first computes the autocorrelation function of a sequence, which has a first discontinuity at lag Ts. Locating this discontinuity then gives an estimate of Ts. Simulation results show that, for the range of signal-to-noise-ratios under consideration, errors of less than 3% of Ts are achievable.
11:00 Scale-Space Random Walks: Richard Rzeszutek (Ryerson University, Canada); Thomas El-Maraghi (Ryerson University, Canada); Dimitri Androutsos (Ryerson University, Canada)
The Random Walks image segmentation algorithm provides a fast and effective method for supervised image segmentation. However, Random Walks does not work very well in the presence of noise or texture. Therefore, we propose an augmented version of Random Walks known as “Scale-Space Random Walks” (SSRW) that addresses these problems. Through a minor, though non-trivial, modification to the Random Walks algorithm, we show that the SSRW can produce more accurate segmentations in the presence of noise and texture then the original Random Walks can.
11:20 Novel Nearly Tridiagonal Commuting Matrix and Fractionalizations of Generalized DFT Matrix: Qi-Wen Ran (Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China); Zhongzhao Zhang (Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China); DeYun Wei (Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China); Xuejun Sha (Communication Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China)
Based on discrete Hermite–Gaussian-like functions, a discrete fractional Fourier transform (DFRFT), which provides sample approximations of the continuous fractional Fourier transform, was defined and investigated recently. In this paper, we propose a novel nearly tridiagonal matrix, which commutes with the generalized discrete Fourier transform (GDFT) matrix. It doesn’t has repeated eigenvalue. We can determine a unique orthonormal eigenvector set based on block diagonalization of new commuting matrix. The eigenvectors of the new nearly tridiagonal matrix are shown to be GDFT eigenvectors, which are more similar to the continuous Hermite–Gaussian functions than those developed before. The fractional transform of GDFT (GDFRFT) is defined through eigendecomposition. The new version of GDFRFT produce their transform outputs closer to the samples of the continuous fractional Fourier transform through numerical comparison.

T2C: Biomedical Signal Processing II

Room: Salon C

10:40 Estimating Respiratory Parameters Using Intra-Arterial Partial Pressure Measurements and Stochastic Differential Equations: Aleksandar Jeremic (McMaster University, Canada); Kenneth Tan (McMaster University, Canada)
Stochastic differential equations are assuming an important role in the definition of dynamical models allowing for explanation of internal variability. Here we propose a new model for the dynamics of respiratory circulation in ventilated neonates.Such model is potentially important for maintaining the oxygen and carbondioxide blood levels of preterm infants. We present mathematical and statistical models of partial pressure in the arterial blood. Our mathematical model includes physiological compartments, diffusion exchange and mass transfer. We introduce system noise as a part of tissue oxygen uptake dictated by metabolism. We evaluate the applicability of our techniques using a real data set of intra-arterial pressure measurements.
11:00 Signal Denoising Using Neighbouring Dual-tree Complex Wavelet Coefficients: Guangyi Chen (Concordia University, Canada); Wei-Ping Zhu (Concordia University, Canada)
In this paper, a new signal denoising algorithm is proposed by using the neighbouring wavelet coefficients. The dual-tree complex wavelet transform is employed due to its property of approximate shift invariance that is very important in signal denoising. Both translation-invariant (TI) and non-TI versions of the denoising algorithm are considered. Computer simulations show that the proposed method outperforms other existing methods in the literature for denoising artificial and real-life noisy signals.
11:20 Compound dynamic and static effects from wind turbines on the reception of television signals: Mohamed Haj Taieb (Laval University, Canada); Jean-Yves Chouinard (Laval University, Canada); Assia Semmar (Laval University, Canada)
To meet the clean energy challenges, the wind farms creation is one of the most promising alternatives. The wind project developer must verify whether there would be a risk on the existing broadcast links in the area before moving towards the construction phase. Geometrical wind turbine modeling can help in determining the scattering of the signal around and assess whether the signal reception in the vicinity will be affected. From ITU Recommendation 69-1/6, we establish a clear propagation methodology to determine the dynamic scattering from the rotor blades and the static scattering from the large pylon.

T2D: Power Systems III

Room: Salon D

10:40 Damping inter-area oscillations using a static phase shifter: Nehad El-Kharbawe (University of Saskatchewan, Canada); Sherif Faried (University of Saskatchewan, Canada)
This paper presents a case study for demonstrating the capability of static phase shifter (SPS) in enhancing the damping of the inter-area oscillations in a multi-machine power system. In this context, investigations are conducted on a three-area test system. The local and inter-area modes of such a system are identified using eigenvalue analysis and a supplementary control for the SPS is proposed. Time domain simulations are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed controller. The results obtained validate the effectiveness of the SPS in damping the inter-area oscillations.
11:00 Power System Stability Enhancement By Designing PSS and SVC Parameters Using RCGA: Amin Khodabakhshian (University of Isfahan, Iran); Rahmatollah Hooshmand (University of Isfahan, Iran)
Power System Stabilizers are used to generate supplementary control signals for the excitation system in order to damp the low-frequency power system oscillations. Although Static VAR Compensators (SVC) are basically used for voltage control of long distance bulk power transmission lines, they can be also utilized to improve the dynamic stability of the power system by using a supplementary control loop. However, uncoordinated design of SVC and PSS may cause destabilizing interaction. In order to enhance power system dynamic stability this paper presents a new method to design both PSS and SVC parameters coordinately using real code genetic algorithm. Simulation results of multi-machine system confirm the advantage of using this method.

T2E: Cooperative Diversity III

Room: Salon E

10:40 Analysis of Relay Handoff Algorithms in Cooperative Diversity Systems Using Absolute and Relative Measurements of Energy Gain: Weidang Lu (Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China); Xuejun Sha (Communication Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China); Jingning Wang (Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China); Naitong Zhang (Communication Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China)
Multi-user cooperative diversity is a recently proposed technique, which can improve the performance of wireless communication systems operating in fading environments. Choosing a good partner is important in cooperation and some partner selection methods have been proposed. However, there is no research has mentioned how often partners should be reassigned. In this paper, we propose a handoff scheme between relays. In the proposed scheme, handoff is performed when the energy gain of the working relay drops below a threshold and the energy gain of the best relay exceed the energy gain of the working relay by a certain hysteresis level.
11:00 A Computational Method for Outage Probability Exploiting Spatial Diversity without Channel State Information at Transmitter: Ning Hu (Tsinghua University, P.R. China)
We consider a source-destination pair assisted by multiple decode-and-forward relays without channel state information at transmitter (CSIT). We investigate three schemes exploiting spatial diversity including multiple-relay cooperation (MR-Coop), conventional multiple-relay relaying (MR-Relay), and multiple-input-single-output (MISO). The total power is equally allocated to transmission partners without the knowledge of CSIT. Moreover it is practical for relays to decide whether or not to assist transmission with the knowledge of channel state information at receiver (CSIR). We then deal with a typical path loss exponent of 3, present the corresponding computational methods for outage probability. This method is based on characteristic coefficient, which is simpler than the existing methods which are based on calculating probability density function. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the validity of our analysis, and also show the cooperative scheme can effectively exploit multiple-channel diversity and path loss saving to combat the fading.
11:20 On the Achievable Outage Probability of Opportunistic Relaying with Decode-and-Forward: Ning Hu (Tsinghua University, P.R. China)
Abstract—Based on decode-and-forward strategy, we investigate the achievable outage probability of opportunistic relaying, in which there is a single source-destination transmission pair with the help of one of multiple relays. In two-hop scenario, based on adaptive decode-and forward strategy, the achievable diversity-multiplexing tradeoff with the knowledge of channel state amplitudes is analyzed. We show that opportunistic relaying has the same diversity-multiplexing tradeoff as the relaying with distributed space-time coding. We then present the expression in a closed form and find a suboptimal power allocation for the achievable outage probability of opportunistic relaying with decode-and-forward. Though it is suboptimal solution, simulation results are provided to demonstrate the validity of our analysis and the applicability of the optimum results to select a single 'good’ relay.

T2F: Ad Hoc Networks

Room: Salon F

10:40 Video Multicast Based Multiple Description Coding and Multi-paths in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks: Osamah Badarneh (Ecole de Technologie Superieur, Canada); Kadoch Michel (Ecole de technologie superieure, Canada); Ahmed Elhakeem (Concordia University, Canada)
Multiple description coding (MDC) has been proposed as a source coding technique that is robust to channel errors for video transmission. MDC generates multiple independent bitstreams, where the multiple bit-streams are referred to as multiple descriptions (MD). Furthermore, it enables a useful reproduction of the signal when any description is received correctly. This paper proposes a new multicast heuristic algorithm, that attempts to take the benefit of MDC properties and multiple paths, to improve the user’s satisfaction for a group of heterogeneous destinations in wireless ad hoc network. Extensive simulations clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in improving the user’s satisfaction irrespective of the number of destinations in the multicast group.
11:00 Reducing TE_LSP Setup Time by Minimizing Blockage with the use of Pre-Reservations during the Path Computation Process: Meral Shirazipour (Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada); Samuel Pierre (Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada)
A Traffic Engineered Label Switched Path (TE-LSP) is usually deployed on an optimally computed path. In complex network scenarios, or when external nodes like Path Computation Elements (PCEs) are solicited in a distributed manner, the already resource hungry task of optimal path computation could take a considerable amount of time during which network resources may fluctuate. This could result in blockage during the signaling of TE-LSPs. Given that a low setup time is often a requirement for TE-LSPs, the risk of blockage needs to be minimized. We propose a pre-reservation based solution applied to the case of inter-domain path computation. Simulation results on a real world network topology show that our method allows for better TE-LSP setup times. The results also show that our method does not deteriorate the overall network utilization.
11:20 Fonction de Wigner des états de fock à plusieurs photons:Choix des contours dans l'espace des phases: Chiheb Karaborni (PhD. Student, Tunisia)
La cryptographie quantique étudie la confidentialité de l’information moyennant la mécanique quantique en codant l’information sur des photons. Elle offre une solution au problème de distribution des clés pour les crypto systèmes symétriques. Seulement, la plupart des études jusqu’à présent ne font intervenir que deux participants. Dans ce papier, tout en visant des applications réseau, nous ciblons la cryptographie quantique à variables continues moyennant des états de Fock à plusieurs photons (deux ou quatre) provenant de plusieurs utilisateurs. L’aspect probabiliste du monde du quanta nous incite à choisir une loi de probabilité et un univers des valeurs possibles afin de présenter ces états. En effet, la représentation mathématique des variables continues quantiques est faite initialement par des fonctions d’onde [1]. Le passage à l’espace de phases a permis l’introduction des quasi-probabilités de Wigner qui peuvent prendre des valeurs négatives pour les états de Fock. Un travail présenté lors de cet article est de choisir un contour de valeurs positives pour cette distribution afin qu’elle soit une probabilité ce qui permet une étude plus précise d’une chaîne de communication quantique.
11:40 A Comprehensive Simulation Study of SWAN QoS Model in MANETs with Proactive and Reactive Routing: Ning Zhang (Ryerson University, Canada); Alagan Anpalagan (Ryerson University, Canada)
In this paper, one of the QoS models for MANETs - SWAN is studied under varying conditions to provide both quantitative and qualitative assessments of the applicability of the model in different scenarios. Results and analysis from NS-2 based simulation indicate that (i) real-time (RT) applications in SWAN-enabled mobile ad hoc networks experience low and stable delays under various traffic and mobility environment at the expense of best-effort (BE) traffic, (ii) SWAN model works compatibly with proactive as well as reactive routing protocols, and (iii) a careful choice of SWAN AIMD parameters is important to balance the throughput of the BE traffic and RT traffic and QoS provisions in MANETs

T2G: Physical Layer Issues

Room: Salon G

10:40 ATSC Multipath Channel Characterization for Fixed and Mobile Reception: Limeng Song (Laval University, Canada); Assia Semmar (Laval University, Canada); Jean-Yves Chouinard (Laval University, Canada); Viet-Ha Pham (Laval University, Canada); Xianbin Wang (University of Western Ontario, Canada)
For the investigation of the wireless channel for the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) Terrestrial Digital Television (DTV) multipath channel transmission system, channel characterization and modeling are very important for the system designer. Based on the channel estimation procedure, we present a data analysis of the distribution of the fixed and mobile DTV multipath channels in different environment. We analyzed the power delay profiles, distributions of the root mean square (RMS) delay spread, multipath number distributions and the arrival time distributions. The modified Poisson model has been applied to compare with the statistical model of the multipath for each channel.
11:00 Improved Layered Space Time Architecture with Unequal Power Allocation and Multistage Decoding over Quasi-Static Fading Channels: Dherar Rezk (Concordia university, Canada); Xiaofeng Wang (Concordia University, Canada)
The Bell labs layered space-time (BLAST) architecture pioneered by Foschini was found to achieve high spectral efficiency with moderate complexity. However, the BLAST receiver is suboptimum as detection and decoding are carried out separately. In this paper, we investigate a new approach for improved performance of BLAST based on multistage decoding (MSD) and unequal transmit power allocation among layers, for transmission over flat quasi-static Rayleigh fading channels. The use of MSD exploits the inherent redundancy in the employed channel codes to improve detection in BLAST without the need for more complex iterative decoding approaches. In addition, we investigate unequal transmit power allocation among layers for transmission over flat quasi-static Rayleigh fading channels. We first derive a theorem for power allocation that maximizes outage capacity. We then find the unequal power allocation required to guarantee equal outage capacities among layers in BLAST combined with MSD detection. The proposed power allocation simplifies implementation and improves error performance. Simulation results show that the proposed architecture significantly outperforms existing BLAST schemes in terms of error performance for transmission over flat quasi-static Rayleigh fading channels.
11:20 Simulation of Rain Fading and Scintillation on Ka-band Earth-LEO Satellite Links: David Michelson (University of British Columbia, Canada); Weiwen Liu (University of British Columbia, Canada)
In the near future, many of the research, communications relay and Earth observation satellites that will be placed into low Earth orbit (LEO) will use high speed Ka-band links to communicate with Earth stations during the short time they pass over a given location. The motion of a LEO satellite across the sky will cause the Earth-space path to pass through any rain cells and turbulence cells in the vicinity very quickly leading to steeper fade slopes and more rapid scintillation than in the well-studied geostationary case. Until extensive measurement programs are undertaken, simulation based upon reasonable models of the atmosphere is the likely best option for assessing the severity of fading on such links. If the spatial statistics and/or distributions of the rain and turbulence cells are known, one can predict the rate at which rain fading and scintillation will occur. We have used this insight to construct a channel simulator that can provide plausible predictions of the instantaneous path loss on Earth-LEO links during a given pass.

11:45 - 13:30

McNaughton Lecture

Wolfgang J. R. Hoefer -- Advanced Multi-Level Electromagnetic Modeling and Design using Time Domain Simulators

Time domain electromagnetic simulators based on the Transmission Line Matrix (TLM) method provide advanced features for multi-level modeling of analog and high-speed circuits. These features include sophisticated boundary models for diakoptics and coupled field/circuit and multi-physics simulations, import/export and external control capabilities enabling Space Mapping and surrogate generation for fast optimization, and inter-cell models of complex materials, such as metamaterials and frequency-dispersive media. The underlying principles of these features will be explained, and typical application scenarios will be demonstrated during the presentation.

Room: Marconi Hall

13:40 - 15:20

T3A: Mobile Robots

Room: Brownsdale Room

13:40 A backstepping approach for the design of a nonlinear controller for a two-wheeled autonomous vehicle: Francis Okou (Royal Military College of Canada, Canada); Donatien Nganga-Kouya (ENSET of Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo); Mohammed Tarbouchi (Royal Military College of canada, Canada)
This paper proposes a nonlinear controller to stabilize an autonomous two-wheeled mobile robot. Controller equations are obtained following a backstepping approach. The robot model is divided into two parts: a state space model with intermediate control inputs and algebraic nonlinear equations relating the true and the intermediate control inputs. First, a suitable change of variable is applied to the traditional robot dynamics to reveal the strict feedback structure of this state space model. Next, a three-step backstepping control design method is applied to obtain the intermediate control input expressions. Finally, the true control inputs are found by solving iteratively the nonlinear equations that relates intermediate and true control inputs. The proposed design strategy is tested in simulation. The results show that good tracking performances are achieved.
14:00 Non-Time Based Motion Control for Multiple Intelligent Vehicles: Howard Li (University of New Brunswick, Canada); Brandon Brown (University of New Brunswick, Canada)
In this paper, a non-time based tracking controller for multiple intelligent vehicles is designed. Non-time based motion controllers have been successfully applied to many areas such as robot motion control, multi-robot coordination, force and impact control, robotic teleoperation and manufacturing automation. In this research, we propose to use non-time based multi-agent control for the control of multiple vehicles. Simulations using two intelligent vehicles are conducted to investigate the performance of the proposed controllers. The proposed multi-agent non-time based tracking controllers can coordinate and control two vehicles to track the road successfully.
14:20 Dynamic Model-Based Augmented Extended Kalman Filter for Real Time Simulation of Mobile Robots: Iraj Hassanzadeh (University of Tabriz, Iran); Mehdi Abedinpour Fallah (University of Tabriz, Iran)
This paper presents a new design of augmented extended Kalman filter (AEKF) based on the dynamic model for real-time simulation of mobile robots. The dynamic model is composed of two consecutive parts; kinematic model and equations of linear and angular torques. A Simulink® model is developed for simultaneous localization and odometry calibration of mobile robots in real time manner. Assuming an absolute measurement available, the AEKF provides the local reconstruction of mobile robots position and orientation with an on-line odometry calibration. Furthermore, it gives estimations for the linear and angular velocities of the robot that can be used for control strategy. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method and suggest it as a promising way for real time control of mobile robots.
14:40 Globally Consistent Mapping Of Large-Scale Passageway Environments: Unal Artan (Carleton University, Canada); N. James Lavigne (Carleton University, Canada); Joshua Marshall (Carleton University, Canada)
Navigation and mapping are important subtasks in mobile robotics, particularly in large-scale passageway environments (e.g., in underground mines) where satellite GPS is not available. What makes robotic mapping in such environments especially challenging is the problem of identifying when the robot has returned to an already traversed area. This paper reports on the concept development and implementation of algorithms intended to achieve global consistency in generated maps, which might subsequently be used for navigation purposes. Presented are preliminary results from trials conducted in the Carleton University underground tunnel network using a SICK laser rangefinder and Pioneer P3-DX robot.
15:00 A Hybrid Control Strategy for Multiple Mobile Robots with Nonholonomic Constraints: Gayan Gamage (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada); George Mann (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada); Ray Gosine (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
In this paper a hybrid control strategy is developed to coordinate multiple autonomous mobile robots with nonholonomic constraints. The robots are required to navigate in an obstacles populated environment with a predetermined geometric formation. The nonlinear robot dynamics are fully state feedback linearized in order to yield linear controllable systems while the dynamics of the environment are handled by an event based hybrid automata. The chattering effect of the switched system is tackled by incorporating sliding dynamics in the automata. The proposed system is implemented through simulation and the results are shown to verify its operation.

T3B: Image and Video Processing II

Room: Salon B

13:40 A Study on Bias-Based Speech Signal Conditioning Techniques for Improving The Robustness of Automatic Speech Recognition: Md Foezur Rahman Chowdhury (INRS-EMT, Université du Québec, Canada); Sid-Ahmed Selouani (Université de Moncton, campus of Shippagan, Canada); Douglas O'Shaughnessy (INRS-Énergie-Matériaux-Télécommunications, Canada)
Automatic speech recognition (ASR) performs poorly when the training conditions greatly mismatch the testing conditions. Additive background noises and channel distortion are responsible mostly for these mismatches. These mismatches introduce highly non-linear terms in the acoustic model of speech in both log-spectral and the Cepstral domains. Current ASR is based on simple linear approximation of these non-linear functions in the Cepstral domain in order to avoid model complexities. This linear modeling approach transforms the channel distortion into an additive bias term in the Cepstral domain under the assumption of high SNR, which is barely true in practical situations. Several algorithms have been developed to estimate this bias term and make compensations either in feature space or in the model domain to improve the robustness of ASR. In this paper, we explore these bias estimate techniques for both stationary and non-stationary acoustic environments to find their applicability for self-adaptable ASR.
14:00 Blind Speech Separation using High Order Statistics: Yasmina Benabderrahmane (Université du Québec, Canada); A Bensalem (Université de Moncton, Canada); Sid-Ahmed Selouani (Université de Moncton, campus of Shippagan, Canada); Douglas O'Shaughnessy (INRS-Énergie-Matériaux-Télécommunications, Canada)
This paper deals with blind speech separation of instantaneous and convolutive mixtures of non-linear sources. The separation criterion is based on higher order statistics (HOS) on the assumption that the sources are statistically independent. We propose to simplify and to improve the classical Herault-Jutten algorithm by choosing adequate high order non-linear functions for adaptation. The convolutive case is investigated through a model with impulse responses modeling the Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF). Experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed approach in terms of signal-to-interference ratio, when compared to the widely used Fast-ICA algorithm. In the convolutive case a satisfactory separation of the sources has been achieved. Blind source separation, instantaneous mixture, convolutive mixture, Independent Component Analysis, Higher Order Statistics.
14:20 DC-Guided Compression Scheme for Distributed Video Coding: Grégory Huchet (Laval University, Canada); Jean-Yves Chouinard (Laval University, Canada); Demin Wang (Communications Research Center, Canada); Andre Vincent (Communications Research Centre Canada, Canada)
This paper presents a new distributed video coding (DVC) scheme where the DC and the AC coefﬁcients of DCT transform are separately encoded and transmitted. The DC coefﬁcients are ﬁrst transmitted to the decoder and compared with their corresponding DC coefﬁcients found in the side information derived within the decoder. The result of the comparison is then transmitted back to the encoder and used to decide whether the AC coefﬁcients of a block need to be transmitted. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can signiﬁcantly improve the performance, while maintaining a low computational complexity at the encoder.
14:40 Joint Optimization of Run-Length Coding, Context-Based Arithmetic Coding and Quantization Step Sizes: En-hui Yang (University of Waterloo, Canada); Longji Wang (Research In Motion, Canada)
Given the JPEG syntax, the rate-distortion performance a JPEG optimization method can improve is limited. Part of the limitation comes from the poor context modeling used by a JPEG coder, which fails to take full advantage of the pixel correlation existing in both space and frequency domains. Consequently, context-based arithmetic coding is proposed in the literature to replace the Huffman coding used in JPEG for better rate-distortion performance. In this paper, we extend our previous JPEG compatible joint optimization algorithm to a context-based arithmetic coding scenario. Experimental results show that an extra of 10~15% size reduction or 0.5 dB compression gain can be achieved on top of JPEG compatible joint optimization with the same level of complexity.
15:00 On Line Signature Verification Using Global Features: Muhammad Talal Ibrahim (Ryerson University, Canada); Matthew Kyan (Ryerson University, Canada); Ling Guan (Ryerson University, Canada)
On-line signature verification based on global features in an integration with Fisher Linear Discriminant Analysis (FLD) have been proposed in this paper. In the verification phase, distances of features of test signature are calculated against their corresponding template. Finally, these distances become inputs to Fisher's Linear Discriminant Analysis (FLD). User-dependent threshold has been used to evaluate the performance of our proposed method in comparison to other existing methods. We have used single-session and mix-session protocols for the evaluation of our proposed method using SUSIG database. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our approach in On-line signature verification in comparison with other techniques.

T3C: General Interest

Room: Salon C

13:40 Experimental Validation of Statistical Algorithm for Diagnosis of Damage Fault: Amar Kumar (University of Ottawa, Canada); Amiya Nayak (University of Ottawa, Canada); Alka Srivastava (Tecsis Corporation, Canada); Nita Goel (Cistel technology, Canada)
A statistical algorithm was developed for the damage fault diagnosis and prognosis tool and the present work focus on its experimental validation. The oxide scale growth experiments in laboratory samples under thermal cycling simulates the hot section turbine blade coating failures. The essential experimental steps, oxide thickness data measurement, collection and sampling procedures are discussed. Three data samples each from two groups under different thermal cycling conditions are considered. The data are subjected to randomness check, preprocessing, rank sum test etc. The validation is carried out with 15 possible combinations for analysis. Consistent with the mean thickness distribution for the samples in two groups, the statistical algorithm for damage and anomaly diagnosis yields expected results.
14:00 An Optimal Bivariate Poisson Field Chart for Monitoring Defects: Surath Aebtarm (Concordia University, Canada); Nizar Bouguila (Concordia University, Canada)
In this article, we propose an optimal bivariate Poisson field chart to monitor two correlated characteristics of count data. This chart is based on optimization of bivariate Poisson confidence interval and projection of bivariate Poisson data in Poisson field. Both a real case study and simulations present improved performance of our proposed algorithm. Our experimental results show improved rate of average run length and robust detection of means shifts compared with other charts. The proposed chart is an effectively applicable chart, especially, in high quality processes.
14:20 A Software Simulator for Geomagnetically Induced Currents in Electrical Power Systems: Jon Berge (University of Western Ontario, Canada); Rajiv Varma (University of Western Ontario, Canada)
This paper describes the development and testing of a software simulator to calculate the flow of Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC) in an electrical power transmission grid. In this paper, a new technique for mapping the location of transmission equipment for the purposes of GIC simulation is proposed. The DC modeling of auto transformers for the purpose GIC studies is discussed. The simulator models the electrical power system as an admittance matrix. GIC results for two study systems as obtained from the developed simulator are compared with those obtained from the Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP). Finally, the simulator is applied to the entire Hydro One 500/230 kV transmission system to predict GICs. This simulation will help Hydro One plan its mitigation strategies to protect against geomagnetic storms.
14:40 Modeling Tryptic Digestion On The Cell BE Processor: James Green (Carleton University, Canada); Hanan Mahmoud (Carleton University, Canada); Michel Dumontier (Carleton University, Canada)
The Cell BE is a heterogeneous multi-core processor offering multiple levels of parallelism. When these are properly leveraged, the Cell BE demonstrates impressive performance acceleration for several high performance computing applications, including exact string matching on streaming data. The present study investigates the suitability of the Cell BE for a string matching problem of relevance to proteomics – the identification of tryptic digest points based on the presence of a short sequence motif. Three string matching algorithms are implemented and evaluated over several proteomic datasets. In its first application to bioinformatics, Parabix, a method of high-throughput XML stream processing which relies on bit transposition and the effective use of single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) instructions, is applied here with great success. This method performs very well when the protein database is pre-processed in the form of parallel bit streams. Double buffering is also critical to hide the latency of DMA data transfers. Performance results are computed for both the cycle-accurate Cell BE simulator and also using real hardware. This problem is also placed in the larger context of using the Cell BE to achieve hypothesis-driven protein identification.
15:00 Interoperability across Implementation: the libdrdc Data Standards Library: Dave Erickson (DRDC, Canada)
This paper presents the libdrdc data standards library containing internal nomenclature, definitions, units of measure, coordinate reference frames, and representations for use in autonomous systems research. This library is a configurable, portable C / C++ / Object Oriented C library developed to be independent of software middleware, system architecture, processor, or operating system. It is designed to use the automatically-tuned linear algebra suite (ATLAS) and Basic Linear Algebra Suite (BLAS) and port to firmware and software. The library goal is to unify data collection and representation for various systems and communication protocols and to provide a common Application Binary Interface (ABI) for research projects at all scales. The library supports multi-platform development and currently works on Windows, Unix, GNU/Linux, and Real-Time Executive for Multiprocessor Systems (RTEMS). This library is available online under Lesser Gnu Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 license.

T3D: Renewable Energy III

Room: Salon D

13:40 Dynamic Modeling And Simulation of Alkaline Type Electrolyzers: Md. Maruf-ul- Karim (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada); Mohammad Iqbal (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
Electrolyzers are essential part of power systems where the energy storage is in the form of hydrogen. Electrolyzers are used in remote hybrid power systems. In this research a dynamic model of an alkaline type electrolyzer has been developed. The MATLAB/ Simulink software has been used to form the generalized dynamic model, which can be integrated with different kinds of renewable energy systems. This paper describes the operation of electrolyzer cell by the electrochemical and thermal models and presents the simulation results graphically. This model is also suitable for steady state and transient analysis of a remote power system.
14:00 Experimental evaluation of PEM fuel cell systems efficiency: Kokou Mattewu Adegnon (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada); Yves Dubé (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada); Kodjo Agbossou (Universite du Quebec à Trois-Rivieres, Canada)
Nowadays, the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is considered as one of the most promising sources of energy with zero emissions. Therefore, maintaining the PEMFC system in its optimal operating conditions is one of the most important research orientations in the domain. In fact, the system’s efficiency depends highly on the electric power generated, the amount of hydrogen used and the power consumed by the air compressor to operate the fuel cell stack. In this work, the experimental efficiency of the PEMFC system has been evaluated for different values of the PEMFC parameters such as purges frequency, stack temperature, air relative humidity, pressures and mass flow rates of reagents. Then the experimental results show that for a given load current, an optimal efficiency can be obtained by choosing the right values for the parameters.
14:20 An Optimized Sensorless MPPT Method for PV Generation System: Sang-Soo Park (University of Manitoba, Korea); Amit Jindal (Electranix Corporation, Canada); Ani Gole (University of Manitoba, Canada); Minwon Park (9 Sarim-dong Changwon, Gyeongnam, Korea, Korea); In-Keun Yu (9 Sarim-dong Changwon, Gyeongnam, Korea, Korea)
This paper describes the sensorless MPPT technique for PV Generation System. DC-DC converter has been used to step-up or step-down the PV voltage. Optimization tech-nique has been implemented to optimize the current and voltage controller gain parameters. PSCAD/EMTDC simula-tion results revealed that the proposed control has better response.
14:40 A Water Heater Model for Increased Power System Efficiency: Liam Paull (University of New Brunswick, Canada); Derek MacKay (University of New Brunswick, Canada); Howard Li (University of New Brunswick, Canada); Liuchen Chang (University of New Brunswick, Canada)
This paper presents a domestic hot water heater model to be used in a demand side management program. Water heater loads are extracted from household load data, and then used do develop household water usage data. The model incorporates both the thermal losses and the water used to determine the temperature of the water in the tank. The model will be used in the future to develop intelligent control algorithms to increase power system efficiency and reliability.

T3E: Coding for Wireless Communications

Room: Salon E

13:40 Improved V-BLAST Symbol Detection Using Short Block Codes: Michael Higuchi (Royal Military College of Canada, Canada); Francois Chan (Royal Military College, Canada)
We present a new iterative symbol detection and decoding scheme for coded V-BLAST architectures (ISDD-BLAST). In this scheme, V-BLAST blocks are spatially encoded using a short block code. Using a Tanner graph representation of the code’s parity-check matrix, as each symbol is detected, the detector is able to determine when an error has occurred. The detector then uses a modified bit-flipping algorithm to flip the least reliable bit, then greedily returns to the symbol changed, and continue with the detection sequence. When the greedy algorithm is permitted to reach up to a maximum of 300 symbol detections, an 8 x 8, 8-PSK V-BLAST system using the proposed detection scheme shows an Eb/N0 gain of about 11dB over an equivalently uncoded system. As ISDD-BLAST greedily searches for symbols until such time as a codeword is found, its complexity at mid to high SNR values is only slightly greater than the original V-BLAST.
14:00 A Quasi-Orthogonal Space-Frequency Coded OFDM System with Time Spreading and Constellation Rotation: Sivasothy Senthuran (Ryerson University, Canada); Alagan Anpalagan (Ryerson University, Canada); Olivia Das (Ryerson University, Canada)
A constellation rotated quasi-orthogonal OFDM system could offer full rate and full diversity in a frequency selective fading channel. Time spreading can give additional time diversity gain in a fast fading channel. In this paper, we propose and verify a time-spreaded quasi-orthogonal space-frequency coded OFDM (TS-QO-SF-OFDM) system with constellation rotation. Assuming perfect channel state information at the receiver, we develop a coding scheme for 4x1 MISO transceiver and its BER performance is evaluated for different Doppler frequency in an OFDM system. The Monte-Carlo simulation results show that 2 dB gain can be achieved at BER of $10^{-3}$ using the proposed scheme compared to a scheme without time spreading and constellation rotation when 512 subcarriers are used at maximum Doppler frequency of $300$ Hz. The proposed scheme also lends itself to easy implementation making it more attractive for adaptive cognitive radio systems.
14:20 On the Energy Detection of Unknown Deterministic Signal over Nakagami Channels with Selection Combining: Sanjeewa Herath (Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand); Nandana Rajatheva (Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand); Chintha Tellambura (University of Alberta, Canada)
The blind sensing of RF stimuli to detect the utilization of a band of frequencies is of particular interest in cognitive radio and ultra wide-band applications. The energy detection is one of the useful methods proposed to detect the presence of such an unknown band-limited deterministic signal. In this paper, by means of an alternative series representation of Marcum-Q function, the exact average detection probability over Nakagami-m fading channel is derived. Forming the decision variable of a selection diversity combined energy detector, the exact average detection and false alarm probabilities are derived. Finally, numerical and simulation results are provided to support our problem formulation, derivations and to show the detector performance over various fading and diversity parameters.

T3F: MIMO and Physical Layer

Room: Salon F

13:40 Power Allocation Strategy for MIMO System Based on Beam-Nulling: Mabruk Gheryani (Concordia University, Canada); Zhiyuan Wu (Concordia University, Canada); Yousef Shayan (Concordia University, Canada)
In this paper, we propose a scheme called ``beam-nulling" using the same feedback bandwidth as beamforming but with higher capacity. In the beam-nulling scheme, the eigenvector of the weakest subchannel is fed back and then signals are sent over a generated subspace orthogonal to the weakest subchannel. Hence, the scheme can achieve high capacity. The capacities of water-filling, equal power, beamforming and beam-nulling are compared through theoretical analysis and numerical results. It is shown that at medium signal-to-noise ratio, beam-nulling approaches the optimal water-filling scheme. Additionally, the existing beamforming and new proposed beam-nulling can be extended if more than one eigenvector is available at the transmitter. The new extended schemes are called multi-dimensional (MD) beamforming and MD beam-nulling. Theoretical analysis and numerical results in terms of capacity are also provided to evaluate the new extended schemes.
14:00 Doubly-selective mimo-ofdm channel identification using superimposed training: Weixiao Meng (Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China); Junyi Zhao (Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China); Shilou Jia (Harbin Institute of Technology, P.R. China)
In order to estimate doubly-selective MIMO-OFDM channel meanwhile improve bandwidth efficiency, a superimposed training (ST) method is considered. The time-varying channel is assumed to be approximated by a complex exponential basis expansion model (CE-BEM). A periodic (non-random) training sequence is arithmetically superimposed at a low power to the information sequence at the transmitter, channel parameters could be obtained without loss of bandwidth. The unknown information sequence can be interference to the ST channel estimation method, in this paper an iterative ST (IST) channel estimation method is presented to improve channel estimation performance exploiting equalized information symbols. From the result of computer simulations, we show that the proposed method can achieve good MSE and BER performance.
14:20 Frequency-Time Scheduling Algorithm for OFDMA Systems: Rabie Almatarneh (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada); Mohamed Hossam Ahmed (Memorial University, Canada); Octavia Dobre (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
Frequency-time scheduling is an essential radio resource management (RRM) function in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) wireless systems. In the literature, there are several OFDMA scheduling algorithms such as the Hungarian and Max-Max algorithm [2]. However, such algorithms do not consider the multiuser diversity into account. In this paper, we propose a scheduling algorithm that exploits the multiuser diversity in both time and frequency domains. Also, the proposed algorithm utilizes the Proportional Fairness (PF) criterion to achieve fairness among users in the system. In order to support multimedia bursty traffic, our algorithm allows more than one user to share a subband in each time frame. The proposed algorithm iteratively assigns the available subbands to be shared among different users concurrently. We compare the performance of the proposed algorithm with other OFDMA scheduling algorithms in the literature. Results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms other algorithms in terms of the throughput with comparable fairness performance.
14:40 Enhanced ATSC DTV Channel Estimation: Viet-Ha Pham (Laval University, Canada); Jean-Yves Chouinard (Laval University, Canada); Assia Semmar (Laval University, Canada); Xianbin Wang (University of Western Ontario, Canada); Yiyan Wu (Communications Research Centre, Canada)
ATSC standard is the digital television (DTV) standard in the North America and was developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee. ATSC uses the maximal length pseudo-random number (PN) sequences and a correlator in order to estimate the transmission channel between the transmitter and the receiver. Conventionally, the PN511 sequence is used to estimate the channel impulse responses. In this paper, we present the performance of an enhanced channel estimation method by the application of the compound PN sequence, which is the combination of one PN511 and three PN63 sequences. The numerical results of the laboratory measurements show a good improvement in the estimation performance of the compound PN sequence over the conventional PN511 sequence. The new estimated channel impulse responses possess a lower noise floor level than the previously estimated channel impulse responses.

T3G: Access Technology

Room: Salon G

13:40 Performance Analysis of Best Effort Support in Broadband IEEE 802.16 Networks: Victor Rangel (National University of Mexico, Mexico); Javier Gomez (National University of Mexico, Mexico); Javier Chapa (Universidad Nacional Atónoma de México, Mexico); Miguel Lopez-Guerrero (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico); Raul Santos (University of Colima, Mexico)
This paper presents a performance analysis of best effort support over the MAC protocol proposed in the IEEE 802.16 standard. We focus on the uplink channel since it is the critical element for efficient delivery of services on demand to individual users (i.e., Best Effort service). We describe a modeling approach and derive the resulting analytical model. Such a model allows us to efficiently compute network throughput. We test this model by means of computer simulations which are also reported in this paper. Simulation results and theoretical computations showed a close agreement, thus validating the model.
14:00 Cross-Layer Design Analysis in Wireless Local Area Network for Backoff Strategies Investigation and Error Control Protocol: Abdelsalam Amer (University of Victoria, Canada); Fayez Gebali (The University of Victoria, Canada)
The medium access control frame duration is limited in wireless local area networks. Several models have been applied to get better utilization of this frame. The frame is composed of different phases and adjusting the use of one phase may effect the other phases' durations. WiMAX, Hiperlan\ 2 and IEEE802.11 standards have similar physical layer. Channel error due to noise or fading is another problem encounters the safe data delivery to the receiver. Therefore, several schemes have been implemented to deliver safe data to the receiver. In this paper, we proposed some analytical models to reduce the contention on the random access phase by developing different backoff strategies. We also developed an error control model for safe data delivery. This is a cross-layer model where we applied our backoff strategies and error control model. The performance matrices for these models are measured by the throughput, acceptance probability, access delay, energy, average number of retransmissions and efficiency.
14:20 Application Layer Optimization for Efficient Video Streaming over IEEE 802.11 based Wireless Networks: Azfar Moid (University of Calgary, Canada); Abraham Fapojuwo (University of Calgary, Canada)
Most of the existing video streaming systems employ the worst case analysis in application layer buffer size dimensioning. Although the worst case buffer size dimensioning provides deterministic quality of service (QoS) guarantees that are desirable in multimedia transmission, but this also over-provisions the scarce memory resources. In this paper, we propose a dynamic technique for buffer and rate allocation under two scenarios: 1) when the channel conditions are known a priori, and 2) when the channel conditions are unknown. Simulation results show that while the application layer buffer saving is possible in both the scenarios, a better video quality is also achievable when the channel conditions are known a priori.
14:40 An Optimal Interworking Authentication Scheme based on EAP-AKA for Heterogeneous Access Networks: Mei Song (Professor, P.R. China); Li Wang (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, P.R. China); Jianwen Huang (China Mobile Group Guangdong Co.,Ltd.Guangzhou Branch, P.R. China); Junde Song (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Taiwan)
This paper mainly focus on the optimal authentication scheme based on EAP-AKA for different wireless access networks. Firstly, an optimized interworking authentication architecture is proposed among 3GPP, WLAN and WiMAX. Furthermore, we propose an authentication analytic model for 3GPP-WiMAX, and it is pointed out that the authentication signaling cost can not only be affected by the k value of the array of authentication vectors at a time obtained from 3GPP AAA server (i.e. authentication center), but also be impacted by the number of re-authentication times. Finally, from the numerical simulations, it is desirable to provide the guidelines for the mobile operators to select an appropriate k to achieve the best system performance.
15:00 A New Mutual Authentication Protocol for GSM Networks: Ali Fanian (PhD Student (isfahana university of technlogy), Iran); T. Aaron Gulliver (University of Victoria, Canada); Mehdi Berenjkoub (IUT, Iran)
The widespread use of wireless cellular networks has made security an ever increasing concern. GSM is the most popular wireless cellular standard, but security is an issue. The most critical weakness in the GSM protocol is the use of one-way entity authentication, i.e., only the mobile station is authenticated by the network. This creates many security problems including vulnerability against man-in-the-middle attacks. Several solutions have been proposed to establish mutual entity authentication. In this paper, it is shown that these solutions cannot provide bilateral authentication. Then, we propose a novel mutual entity authentication using the TESLA protocol. The proposed solution not only provides secure bilateral authentication, but also decreases the call setup time and the required connection bandwidth. An important feature of the proposed protocol is that it is compatible with the GSM standard.

15:30 - 15:45

Sponsor Presentation

Room: Salon B

15:45 - 17:30

Tours

Tour 1: Computing, Simulation and Landmark Visualization Facility: This Facility provides researchers with access to a variety of computing engines for imaging, modeling and simulation, together with a 3D immersive large-screen visualization room, and associated large format plotters. The laboratory seats 20 people, and consists of a 7.5 m wide-screen PanoramTech immersive 3D facility, including 3 rear-mounted projectors and associated graphics pipes and controllers. The graphics are driven from 4 nodes of the IBM A Pro cluster. For petroleum-related research, Landmark products such as GeoProbe can be used to display 3D images with active stereo. The Laboratory can be used to display any graphics output based on OpenGL software.
Tour 2: Centre for Marine Simulation: The Centre for Marine Simulation (CMS) possesses the most comprehensive suite of marine simulation capabilities in North America. Its marine simulation facilities cover an entire range of training, educational, and research and development capabilities ranging from computer based part-task simulators to large and complex full mission simulators. Particular areas of expertise include the modeling and simulation of harsh maritime environments; human performance in moving environments, small craft simulation, simulation of offshore oil and gas operations, and waterway risk analysis. CMS is dedicated to solving the toughest simulation problems for its clients.
Tour 3: NRC Institute for Ocean Technology: NRC-IOT is an internationally recognized leader in ocean engineering research and a catalyst for advancing Canadian ocean technology. The Institute's facilities include the world's longest ice tank (90 metres), an offshore engineering basin, and a 200-metre towing tank. NRC-IOT's specialized equipment includes a marine dynamic test facility to evaluate vessel manoeuvring characteristics, a yacht dynamometer and a cavitation tunnel.
Tour 4: Virtual Marine Technology: Virtual Marine Technology Inc. (VMT) specializes in simulation-assisted performance assurance for small boat operators. VMT can reduce the risk to mariners through simulation and computer-based training, on-water expert training, and team performance management. As a member of one of the world's leading ocean technology clusters, in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, VMT combines expertise in marine testing, research, and simulation-based training to provide realistic, effective and safe training tools for small-craft operators. Our simulation products and services allow trainees to gain experience and demonstrate competence, before even setting foot into an actual vessel.