Three takes on telecom's troubles

Spectrum asked three IEEE members from the telecommunications sector to comment on the industry's current woes and prospects. Roch Guerin discusses bandwidth as a commodity and how to deal with it. The impact of technological change on telecommunications is enormous and calls for a shift in business models. Technology is making bandwidth a commodity and it should not matter who supplies it. Competition is vital and commodity providers must be decoupled from value providers. Frank Ferrante points out that the Year 2000 crisis resulted in manufacturers being deluged with orders for new upgraded systems. Vast sums were spent to meet the demand in time. However, when Y2K was over, production stayed high and inventories continued to build, while demand effectively stopped overnight. Dazzling new innovations are needed to compel the masses to spend and manufacturers must apply their resources to deliver quickly and efficiently. Jules A. Bellisio discusses the role of engineers in bringing new ideas to the market place. Many engineers have put together ventures for the sole purpose of attracting capital. The underlying technology and business propositions were there solely to lure the unsuspecting. By allowing engineers to use technology simply to cover for a scam, then the profession is also to blame for the current problems.     

The rank and kernel of extended 1-perfect /spl Zopf//sub 4/-linear and additive non-/spl Zopf//sub 4/-linear codes

A binary extended 1-perfect code of length n + 1 = 2/sup t/ is additive if it is a subgroup of /spl Zopf//sub 2//sup /spl alpha// /spl times/ /spl Zopf//sub 4//sup /spl beta//. The punctured code by deleting a /spl Zopf//sub 2/ coordinate (if there is one) gives a perfect additive code. 1-perfect additive codes were completely characterized and by using that characterization we compute the possible parameters /spl alpha/, /spl beta/, rank, and dimension of the kernel for extended 1-perfect additive codes. A very special case is that of extended 1-perfect /spl Zopf//sub 4/-linear codes.     

Parameterisation of slant-Haar transforms

A parameterisation of the slant-Haar transform is presented, which includes an existing version of the slant-Haar transform. An efficient algorithm for the slant-Haar transform is developed and its computational complexity is estimated. The parametric slant-Haar transforms are compared to the Karhunen-Loeve transform. The parametric slant-Haar is shown to perform better than the commonly used slant-Haar and slant-Hadamard transforms for the first-order Markov model and also performs better than the discrete cosine transform for images approximated by the generalised image correlation model     

Evaluation of performance enhancing proxies in internet over satellite

Performance enhancing proxies (PEPs) are widely used to improve the performance of TCP over high delay‐bandwidth product links and links with high error probability. In this paper we analyse the performance of using TCP connection splitting in combination with web caching via traces obtained from a commercial satellite system. We examine the resulting performance gain under different scenarios, including the effect of caching, congestion, random loss and file sizes. We show, via analysing our measurements, that the performance gain from using splitting is highly sensitive to random losses and the number of simultaneous connections, and that such sensitivity is alleviated by caching. On the other hand, the use of a splitting proxy enhances the value of web caching in that cache hits result in much more significant performance improvement over cache misses when TCP splitting is used. We also compare the performance of using different versions of HTTP in such a system. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A 0.18-/spl mu/m SiGe BiCMOS receiver and transmitter chipset for SONET OC-768 transmission systems

A 43-Gb/s receiver (Rx) and transmitter (Tx) chip set for SONET OC-768 transmission systems is reported. Both ICs are implemented in a 0.18-/spl mu/m SiGe BiCMOS technology featuring 120-GHz f/sub T/ and 100 GHz f/sub max/. The Rx includes a limiting amplifier, a half-rate clock and data recovery unit, a 1:4 demultiplexer, a frequency acquisition aid, and a frequency lock detector. Input sensitivity for a bit-error rate less than 10/sup -9/ is 40 mV and jitter generation better than 230 fs rms. The IC dissipates 2.4 W from a -3.6-V supply voltage. The Tx integrates a half-rate clock multiplier unit with a 4:1 multiplexer. Measured clock jitter generation is better than 170 fs rms. The IC consumes 2.3 W from a -3.6-V supply voltage.     

Robust dual-quantisation multibit sigma-delta modulator

A new dual-quantisation sigma-delta modulator is proposed, which introduces an additional feedback path in the input of the second integrator. In this way, unlike other dual-quantisation architectures, larger signal-to-noise ratios can be obtained by means of aggressive noise-shaping, like in a conventional multibit modulator. The proposed modulator is also shown to be more robust against non-idealities than other dual-quantisation architectures.     

Low supply voltage high-performance CMOS current mirror with low input and output voltage requirements

This paper presents a scheme for the efficient implementation of a low supply voltage continuous-time high-performance CMOS current mirror with low input and output voltage requirements. This circuit combines a shunt input feedback and a regulated cascode output stage to achieve low input resistance and very high output resistance. It can be used as a high-precision current mirror in analog and mixed signal circuits with a power supply close to a transistor's threshold voltage. The proposed current mirror has been simulated and a bandwidth of 40 MHz has been obtained. An experimental chip prototype has been sent for fabrication and has been experimentally verified, obtaining 0.15-V input-output voltage requirements, 100-/spl Omega/ input resistance, and more than 200-M/spl Omega/ (G/spl Omega/ ideally) output resistance with a 1.2-V supply in a standard CMOS technology.     

Evanescently coupled photodiodes integrating a double-stage taper for 40-Gb/s applications-compared performance with side-illuminated photodiodes

The design, fabrication, and performance of double-stage taper photodiodes (DSTPs) are reported. The objective of this work is to develop devices compatible with 40-Gb/s applications. Such devices require high efficiency, ultrawide band, high optical power handling capability, and compatibility with low-cost module fabrication. The integration of mode size converters improves both the coupling efficiency and the responsivity with a large fiber mode diameter. Responsivity of 0.6 A/W and 0.45 A/W are achieved with a 6-/spl mu/m fiber mode diameter and cleaved fiber, respectively, providing relaxed alignment tolerances (/spl plusmn/1.6 /spl mu/m and /spl plusmn/2 /spl mu/m, respectively), compatible with cost-effective packaging techniques. DSTPs also offer a wide bandwidth greater than 40 GHz and transverse-electric/transverse-magnetic polarization dependence lower than 0.2 dB. Furthermore, a DSTP saturation current as high as 11 mA results in optical power handling greater than +10 dBm and a high output voltage of 0.8 V. These capabilities allow the photodiode to drive the decision circuit without the need of a broad-band electrical amplifier. The DSTP devices presented here demonstrate higher responsivities with large fiber mode diameter and better optical power handling capabilities and are compared with classical side-illuminated photodiodes.     

The measurement of solar array discharges in a simulated spaceenvironment

A spacecraft in a plasma builds up charge on all the dielectric surfaces and interfaces. Once the net charge exceeds the dielectric breakdown of the material, a discharge occurs. One of the more susceptible pieces of equipment is the antenna/receiver system. The radiated E-field may be strong enough to create an ambiguous signal which may be misinterpreted by the system electronics and cause a system malfunction. A technique is developed to monitor the radiated E-field of materials discharging in an electron environment, using vacuum chambers for measuring the material discharges which are made of highly reflective materials. These chambers affect the radiated E-field due to multiple reflections from the walls. The technique developed defines a method for correcting the effects caused by the measurement facilities. The methodology is: monitor the radiated E-field with a broadband dipole antenna, and digitize the radiated signal as a function of time. Determine the frequency response of the radiated E-field using an FFT algorithm. Measure the transmission and reflection characteristics of the two-port network inside the measurement chamber, and determine the impedance network from the measured E-parameters across the frequency band of interest. Transform the measured E-field frequency response through the impedance network to obtain the frequency response of the actual radiated discharge current. Find the inverse FFT of this response to obtain the actual radiated discharge current response. This technique aids in the prediction of the E-field coupling into receive antennas on-board actual satellites