Abstract: The invention is addressing the problem of efficient formation and maintenance of piconets with assistance from the master of an already existing piconet. The master of an existing piconet initiates the formation of a new helper piconet by at least two of its slaves. One of the slaves of the existing piconet becomes the master of the newly formed helper piconet and the other slave becomes a slave of the helper piconet. This process can be used to expand the number of Bluetooth devices that can use an Internet access point. It can also be used to permit two slave devices to communicate directly with one another so as not to unnecessarily use bandwidth available through the master. Finally, the method and system could be used to provide a method of efficient hand-off from one piconet to another.

Abstract: Methods for allocating blocks of addresses to nodes in an IP communications network determine an optimal set of serving subnets, referred to as resources, for a single node in an IP communications network with given input demands for blocks of addresses. An optimal set of resources is determined at the node to a relaxed problem that aggregates all the demands to a single large demand and deletes the constraints that each demand must be assigned to a single resource. Each of the original demands is then assigned to a single resource from among those determined by the solution to the relaxed problem. The methods can also be used to allocate new resources to nodes that already have existing resources, and to allocate subnets at all nodes in a tree network by solving repeatedly single-node problems.

Abstract: The present invention presents an architecture to dynamically measure and estimate the throughput perceived by a user during a connection in real-time in a wireless network system. The architecture system design of the present invention allows for information gathering independent of the mathematical models used and takes into account security settings in the network hosts. The present invention also sets forth a number of throughput estimators (TEs) that can be used within the architecture to gather the information needed to carry out the throughput estimation calculations. The throughput estimations can then be used for download rate control, QoS, load balancing, etc. The present invention also provides algorithms to calculate the real-time throughput experienced by a user flow.

Abstract: A system and method for the implementation of fine-grained quality of service in a mobile telecommunications environment uses an Auto-IP Policy Decision Point (PDP) to determine what traffic optimizations actions should be taken in reaction to various network conditions. The Auto-IP PDP uses as inputs information from a Gb interface probe to determine the user identification of an IP data flow, information from the radio access network (RAN) network management system (NMS) regarding network congestion. The cell traffic information is passed onto a traffic analysis and processing engine, the Auto-IP PDP which maps the real-time traffic information into an n-dimensional traffic model. An automated policy decision guiding algorithm is executed on the n-dimensional traffic model and selects policy based on the traffic and cell congestion conditions, without human intervention. Additionally, a consistency check is performed to ensure that new policies are consistent with existing policies.

Abstract: Disclosed is a technique for data network congestion diagnosis using remote estimation of round-trip delays. A monitoring node transmits test messages between network nodes and measures the transit times between when the test messages are transmitted from, and when they return to, the monitoring node. A path delay between network nodes is determined based on the measured time delays. The techniques for determining network path delay are also utilized in conjunction with a three phase test procedure for diagnosing network congestion problems. Due to various network topologies and routing tables, certain confirmatory checks may be required to determine whether the procedures of the first or second phase test procedures are appropriate for particular path segments. Further, queuing delays may be determined by subtracting traffic independent delays from the measured transit times of the test messages, and such queuing delays may be used to determine the path delays.

Abstract: A wireless Internet access system and method supports the transmission and reception of multiple types of traffic between mobile subscriber units and existing networks. A frame structure is used that can support the transmission of multiple types of traffic and adapt to changes in the traffic types needed and the amount of data for a particular traffic type. In addition, data transmission is performed using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing and differential phase shift keying to avoid intersymbol interference. Receiving units in the mobile subscriber units and existing networks include antenna arrays to provide a multipath transmission.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided to determine performance of a network. A first measurement relating to a first layer of communications in the network and a second measurement relating to a second layer of communications in the network are provided. Based on the first and second measurements, a set of parameters is generated. The performance of the network is then determined based on the generated set of parameters.

Abstract: A surface-plasmon enhanced photovoltaic device including: a first metallic electrode having an array of apertures, an illuminated surface and an unilluminated surface, at least one of the surfaces having an enhancement characteristic resulting in a resonant interaction of incident light with surface plasmons; a second electrode spaced from the first metallic electrode; and a plurality of spheres corresponding to the array of apertures and disposed between the first metallic and second electrodes, each sphere having a first portion of either p or n-doped material and a second portion having the other of the p or n-doped material such that a p-n junction is formed at a junction between the first and second portions.

Abstract: A message in the form of a sequence of bits is encoded into relatively short, non-binary signals. The message (or vector) is divided into two halves. The encoder first determines an encoding of the message into a vector half the length of the eventual encoded vector. The half-length vector forms the first half of the encoded, and is negated to form the second half of the encoded vector. An identical synchronization signal is added to both halves of the encoded vector. The synchronization signal is used to compensate for the possibility that the received vector (or message) is cyclically rotated from the original vector. During decoding, the decoder first obtains the synchronization signal by adding the two halves of the vector together, canceling the encoded message. The synchronization signal is used to find the original cyclical shift of the vector. The decoder obtains the half-length encoded message vector by taking the difference between the two halves of the aligned full-length encoded vector.

Abstract: Edit distance costs or similarity of two data strings is optimized, or the costs are minimized, based upon a learning algorithm using examples of similar strings, i.e. learning data. In this manner, the costs are learned rather than being a predetermined fixed or engineered table of entries.

Abstract: An autonomous citation indexing system which can be used as an assistant agent automates and enhances the task of finding publications in electronic form, including publications located on the world wide web. The system parses citations from papers and identifies citations to the same paper that may differ in syntax. The system also extracts and provides the context of citations to a given paper, allowing a researcher to determine what is published in other papers about a given paper. Common citations and word or string vector distance similarity are used to find related articles in a search.

Abstract: A watermarking procedure that is applicable to images, audio, video and multimedia data to be watermarked divides the data to be watermarked into a set of n×n blocks, such as the 8×8 blocks of MPEG. The same watermark signal can be distributed throughout the set of blocks in a large variety of ways. This allows the insertion algorithm to be changed without affecting the decoders. The decoding procedure first sums together the DCT coefficients of N sets of 8×8 blocks to form a set of N summed 8×8 blocks and then extracts the watermark from the summed block. Since the sum of the DCT blocks is equal to the DCT of the sum of the intensity blocks, efficient decoding can occur in both the spatial and frequency domains. The symmetric nature of the decoding process allows geometric distortions to be handled in the spatial domain and other signal distortions to be handled in the frequency domain.

Abstract: A message in the form of a sequence of bits is encoded into relatively short, non-binary signals. The message (or vector) is divided into two halves. The encoder first determines an encoding of the message into a vector half the length of the eventual encoded vector. The half-length vector forms the first half of the encoded, and is negated to form the second half of the encoded vector. An identical synchronization signal is added to both halves of the encoded vector. The synchronization signal is used to compensate for the possibility that the received vector (or message) is cyclically rotated from the original vector. During decoding, the decoder first obtains the synchronization signal by adding the two halves of the vector together, canceling the encoded message. The synchronization signal is used to find the original cyclical shift of the vector. The decoder obtains the half-length encoded message vector by taking the difference between the two halves of the aligned full-length encoded vector.

Abstract: Digital watermarking of audio, image, video or multimedia data is achieved by inserting the watermark into the perceptually significant components of a decomposition of the data in a manner so as to be visually imperceptible. In a preferred method, a frequency spectral image of the data, preferably a Fourier transform of the data, is obtained. A watermark is inserted into perceptually significant components of the frequency spectral image. The resultant watermarked spectral image is subjected to an inverse transform to produce watermarked data. The watermark is extracted from watermarked data by first comparing the watermarked data with the original data to obtain an extracted watermark. Then, the original watermark, original data and the extracted watermark are compared to generate a watermark which is analyzed for authenticity of the watermark.

Abstract: Thin, horizontal-plane Hall sensors for read-head in magnetic recordings and methods for fabricating the sensor provide a novel sensor exhibiting high sensitivity and high spatial resolution.

Abstract: A watermarking procedure that is applicable to images, audio, video and multimedia data to be watermarked divides the data to be watermarked into a set of n.times.n blocks, such as the 8.times.8 blocks of MPEG. The same watermark signal can be distributed throughout the set of blocks in a large variety of ways. This allows the insertion algorithm to be changed without affecting the decoders. The decoding procedure first sums together the DCT coefficients of N sets of 8.times.8 blocks to form a set of N summed 8.times.8 blocks and then extracts the watermark from the summed block. Since the sum of the DCT blocks is equal to the DCT of the sum of the intensity blocks, efficient decoding can occur in both the spatial and frequency domains. The symmetric nature of the decoding process allows geometric distortions to be handled in the spatial domain and other signal distortions to be handled in the frequency domain.

Abstract: In DNA computing there are DNA sequences which will substantially eliminate binding errors for molecules used in the computing processing. The elimination of binding errors will prevent extraction errors and binding during computations. A set of DNA sequences {Z.sub.j } and spacer sequence S.sub.0 must meet the criteria that there is no subsequence .chi. of length k, which occurs in any two sequences {Z.sub.j } or subsequence .chi. occurs in a sequence S.sub.0 Z.sub.j S.sub.0 and the complement .chi. occurs in a sequence S.sub.0 Z.sub.j S.sub.0, where Z.sub.j is at least of length k, so that it may be extracted.

Abstract: Thin, horizontal-plane Hall sensors for read-head in magnetic recordings and methods for fabricating the sensor provide a novel sensor exhibiting high sensitivity and high spatial resolution.

Abstract: Detection of a watermark in blocks of video or image data which has been subjected to affine geometric distortion is accomplished by approximating the distortion by a spatially varying translation of the blocks. The watermark is extracted by spatial translations of the blocks based on an assumed affine geometric distortion. The extracted watermarks are correlated with possible watermarks and the maximum correlator output is tested for statistical significance in order to determine whether a watermark is present in the image or video frame. The data may be compressed or uncompressed data. If the affine geometric distortion is known, a search for the maximum correlator output over a space of possible distortions can be performed.

Abstract: A number-theoretic based algorithm provides for secure receipt-free voting. A vote generating center generates a choice of votes for each voter or vote chooser. The votes are encrypted, shuffled, and conveyed to a vote chooser along with information regarding how the votes were shuffled without being intercepted en route. The information is preferably sent along untappable secure channels. The method can incorporate validation of generation and shuffling of the votes using chameleon commitment and interactive proofs. The invention can be realized by current-generation personal computers with untappable channels and access to an electronic bulletin board.