Abstract: A multilayer micromirror structure that exhibits substantially no form change as a result of a given change in temperature is disclosed. A reflective layer is disposed on a substrate layer, and a counterbalancing structure is disposed on the structure in a way such that a neutral plane is located at a predetermined position relative to the substrate layer and the reflective layer. When forces are exerted at the neutral plane of such a structure, the structure attains a predetermined geometric form. A method of manufacture is disclosed wherein a substrate is etched to define a desired structure and a conformal layer of a masking material is deposited onto the etched substrate. Further etching exposes portions of the substrate and silicon is deposited to achieve another desired structure. Excess material is etched away to free the finished structure and a reflective layer is deposited onto the surface of the structure.

Abstract: A method for generating channel quality feedback information in terms of quantized eigenvectors calculated from an eigenvalue decomposition that uses a channel matrix and an eigenvalue matrix to generate quantized and bounded eigenvectors. The channel correlation matrix and the eigenvalue matrix are obtained from a channel matrix formed from channel measurements of various signal parameters of signals transmitted over the communication channel. The eigenvalue decomposition uses the elements of the channel correlation matrix, the elements of the eigenvalue matrix and conditional relationships between elements of the channel correlation matrix to calculate the quantized and bounded eigenvectors. Because the elements of the quantized bounded eigenvectors can be expressed in terms of each other, not all elements of the quantized bounded vectors need be transmitted over the communication channel resulting in efficient use of the communication channel.

Abstract: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are used for automatically determining the connectivity or alignment between physical components, including, for example, connectivity of network cables and device ports, as well as alignment of components assembled by automated manufacturing systems. In one embodiment of the invention, accurate determinations of the physical three-dimensional locations of cables and equipment are employed to determine which cables are plugged into which device ports of which pieces of equipment. In another embodiment of the invention, multiple RFID tags are used to determine the appropriate alignment between components being assembled by an automated manufacturing system.

Abstract: A method and system for improving the reliability of a system, such as a software system, is disclosed. “Service measurements” that are routinely measured and monitored in connection with the operation of systems (e.g., QOS (Quality Of Service) measurements) are utilized in the reliability architecture of the system. Service measurements include a number of alternative data types, such as transactions completed, messages received, messages sent, calls completed, bytes transmitted, jobs processed, etc. Any operations of the system that are typically monitored for other purposes can be utilized in the reliability architecture of the present invention. Most systems track these types of statistics as, for example, part of their billing procedures or part of their performance bench-marking or QOS processes.

Abstract: Configurations for optical waveguide crossings are described. In one exemplary implementation, an optical chip includes waveguides integrated on the optical chip. The waveguides have varied widths dependent upon how many waveguides each of the waveguides cross with respect to each other. In another exemplary implementation, voids are inserted between waveguides in the vicinity of waveguide crossings of an optical device. The voids are configured to reduce optical losses in waveguides that have more waveguide crossing while simultaneously increasing optical losses in waveguides that have fewer waveguide crossings. Accordingly, the overall optical losses between the waveguides are generally equalized with respect to each other.

Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus and a method of fabricating the apparatus. The apparatus comprises a substrate having a planar surface and first and second electrodes located on the planar surface. The first electrode has a top surface and a lateral surface, and the lateral surface has an edge near or in contact with the substrate. An electrode insulating layer is located on the top surface and a self-assembled layer located on the lateral surface. The second electrode is in contact with both the self-assembled layer and the electrode insulating layer.

Abstract: Possible overflow of a video buffer verifier (VBV) buffer employed in MPEG-like video encoders is prevented by controlling bits being drained from a video encoder buffer (eBuff). Specifically, a number of bits in the encoder buffer is determined when a last prior picture (pic n?1) ends, or when it should end. This number of bits (maxBits) is the maximum number of bits to be read from the encoder buffer and written to the remote decoder before a prescribed time T(n). When maxBits has been read from the encoder buffer and written to the decoder, the writing of bits to the remote decoder is stopped until the process is reset. If the prior picture ends early, maxBits is defined as being the number of bits in the encoder buffer at an expected time (Texp) that the picture should have ended less the number of bits written into the encoder buffer between the time the prior picture actually ended and the expected time for it to end, i.e., Texp. If the prior picture is late, i.e.

Abstract: An encoding method for reducing motion video data sizes using a multitude of variable-sized data blocks that are derived from spatial translation vectors and the motion field of an image. Using variable-block sizes to characterize the groups of picture elements (pixels) in an image frame allows for the inter-mixing of coarse (for static areas) and fine (for areas of complex motion) resolution data descriptions in the same descriptive data block. A comparison of motion event areas is made between successive video frames, and a motion displacement vector is calculated for each pixel location in the frame. A data tree is constructed from these pixel motion vectors and is pruned to eliminate static areas. The remaining leaves of the pruned tree are encoded differentially and applied to a lossless arithmetic encoder to provide a significantly reduced data block that still retains the highest resolution of the image.

Abstract: A method of wireless communication is disclosed, in which polarization diversity can be utilized to improve fading performance or to increase the capacity of the communication channel in a scattering environment. Complementary signal information is impressed upon, or derived from, corresponding electric and magnetic polarized field components of a transmitted or intercepted electromagnetic wave. Four, five, or even six independent signal channels can thereby be utilized for communication using a localized antenna arrangement.

Abstract: A semiconductor device having a dielectric layer formed between a first and a second conductive layer. The dielectric layer comprising a layer of silicon oxide SiOX?2, having a dielectric constant greater than about 3.9 and less than or equal to about 12.

Abstract: A wireless device, system and method for receiving and playing multimedia files streamed from a multimedia server over a wireless telecommunications network. A desired multimedia file is selected from one or more multimedia files stored in the multimedia server, which server is operatively connected to the wireless telecommunications network. Successive blocks of data from the desired multimedia file are streamed over the wireless telecommunications network in a digitized and compressed format and received by the wireless telecommunications device. The received blocks of data from the streamed multimedia file are temporarily stored in a buffer in the wireless device, decoded and decompressed, and successively played through an audio and/or video output in the wireless device.

Abstract: An implementation framework, including methodologies and the architecture, for a real-time traffic emulation for packet switched networks. The framework uses extended finite state machines to model the traffic flows that are to be emulated. A simple yet flexible FMS-based scripting language is proposed to describe these flows. An event-driven approach to schedule CPU among flows is also adopted.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and a device for processing signals of a digital transmission system in general, and for estimating the frequency offset of the transmission system in particular. In one embodiment, the method according to the invention estimates the pulse response of the transmission system and shortens the pulse response by means of a variable prefilter. The duration of the shortened pulse response is, in particular, shorter than the duration of a known symbol sequence which is transmitted twice identically within one method cycle. By comparing samples of the received signal which correspond to the known identical symbols, the frequency offset is estimated reliably, and suitable measures can be taken to compensate it. Consequently, the efficiency of the receiver is substantially improved with respect to the recovery of the transmitted data.

Abstract: A portable solar apparatus is described. In one exemplary implementation, the apparatus includes a solar energy collector cell, and a portable substrate. The solar energy collector cell converts light energy received from a light source into electrical current for transfer to a device. The portable substrate supports the solar energy collector cell. In one exemplary implementation, the portable substrate is a sun shield for a vehicle.

Abstract: A method for reducing the problem space associated with determining intra-network circuit provisioning paths within a large communications network by selecting only a sub-set of the total network nodes, including the start-node and end-node of a communication path by bounding, using one of a plurality of predefined-shapes having an appropriate size, and calculating the best path using only the network elements included within the sub-set of total nodes.

Abstract: A General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Accessed Extended Mobile Internet Protocol (EMIP) [G-EMIP] network is provided for wireless mobile device access to external packet data networks. Domains are defined to incorporate a subnet of standard GPRS and EMIP network entities accessed through a Domain Router. Packet access at the radio interface is provided using the base station portion of a GPRS network. Wireless link specific processing is relegated to this potion of the G-EMIP network. EMIP is utilized as a backbone network to provide mobility and service management and interconnection to external networks. A GPRS-IP Interworking entity (GII) interworks IP and GPRS protocols between GPRS and IP addressable network entities (i.e., translates messages of each protocol to corresponding messages of the other protocol). Mobility-related functionality is handled at the IP (network) layer.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transmitting a burst of data over a supplemental channel on just one leg of a handoff by changing the maximum allowed burst duration of the data to be transmitted over the supplemental channel as a function of the future and/or current characteristics of the communication link of the leg(s) of the handoff. The data is then transmitted over just one leg of handoff using the maximum allowed burst duration. By changing the parameters of the data, the data may still be acceptably received at the mobile terminal over just one leg of the soft handoff even when the strength of the pilot signal used for the supplemental channel changes significantly. In an illustrative embodiment of the invention the stability of the communication link is used as a way of ascertaining the future conditions of the communications link.

Abstract: Network design techniques are disclosed for optimally placing OXCs and OADMs in an optical mesh network to minimize network cost by using cheaper OADMs wherever possible and only using more expensive OXCs where required. In one aspect, the techniques are provided for determining the optimal configuration of each OXC in terms of each OXC's switch size and port configuration. In another aspect, the present invention provides network analysis transformation techniques which enable Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm to account for the degree of each network node and determine optimal placement of the OXCs and OADMs.

Abstract: Presented is a method for reducing the peak to average ratio where the signal is multiplied prior to digital to analog conversion and subsequently subject to the full scale of a digital to analog converter, disproportionably amplifying the average signal more than peak signals, reducing the ratio of the peak signal to the average signal.

Abstract: A novel antenna diversity technique for OFDM receivers is disclosed. A method and apparatus are disclosed for combining in the frequency domain the various signals received on each of the multiple antennas in an OFDM communication system. At the OFDM transmitter, the transmitted signal is differentially encoded over frequency, as opposed to time, to differentially encode the transmitted signal in the frequency domain with respect to consecutive bins (OFDM sub-carriers). The OFDM receiver processes a signal received on a number of diversity branches and combines the received signals using a post-detection combining technique after differential decoding. Each frame is independently processed by a differential decoder and then delayed to align each symbol in a given frame. The post-detection combining of the frame data inherently scales the received samples and thereby implements an optimal maximum ratio combining mechanism.