Abstract: According to one embodiment, an optical receiver adapted to recover OOK or PAM data carried by a modulated optical carrier has an optical detector adapted to produce a sequence of vector pairs having first and second digital vectors indicative of complex values of first and second polarization components, respectively, of the modulated optical carrier at a corresponding sampling time. The optical receiver also has a digital processor that is connected to receive the sequence and is adapted to perform a rotation on each pair in a manner that tends to compensate for polarization rotation produced by transmitting the modulated optical carrier from an optical transmitter thereof to the optical receiver. The digital processor is further adapted to estimate values of the OOK or PAM data encoded onto each of the first and second polarization components based on the vectors produced by the rotation in a manner responsive to values of energy errors in the estimated values.

Abstract: An optical processor adapted to emulate an artificial neural network (ANN) having a plurality of interconnected layers, each layer having one or more artificial neurons, the processor having a spatial light modulator (SLM) optically coupled, via an optical mask, to a photodetector array. In one embodiment, the SLM has a plurality of pixels, each pixel being configurable to emulate an output portion of a corresponding artificial neuron in a signal-sending ANN layer. The optical mask has a hologram that encodes the weights corresponding to interlayer connections in the ANN and spatially modulates the light transmitted by the SLM. The photodetectors of the array spatially resolve the interference pattern produced by the spatially modulated light, with each photodetector being configurable to emulate an input portion of a corresponding artificial neuron in a signal-receiving ANN layer.

Abstract: An optical transmitter that uses half-rate electrical signals, without multiplexing them to the full rate, to generate a full-rate optical duobinary signal. In one embodiment, an optical transmitter of the invention has a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) driven by two half-rate electrical data streams. A first half-rate data stream is applied to drive a first arm of the MZM. A delay element misaligns a second half-rate data stream that is synchronized with the first data stream by one half of a bit period, and the resulting misaligned data stream is applied to drive a second arm of the MZM. The MZM is configured to (i) transmit substantially no light from the feeding laser when the applied data streams have the same binary value and (ii) have a maximum transmission when the applied data streams have different binary values, thereby generating a full-rate optical duobinary signal at its output.

Abstract: A method of decoding is provided comprising processing iterations. In each processing iteration, there is a first Max-Log-MAP decoding operation giving rise to a systematic error due to the Max-Log approximation, and a first weighting operation to weight extrinsic information from the first decoding operation to be applied as a priori information to the second Max-Log-MAP decoding operation. This is followed by a second Max-Log-MAP decoding operation, also giving rise to a systematic error due to the Max-Log approximation, and a second weighting operation to weight extrinsic information from the second decoding to be applied as a priori information to the first Max-Log-MAP decoding of the next iteration. The weights are applied to compensate for the systematic error due to the Max-Log approximation made in the last Max-Log-MAP decoding operation.

Abstract: A method and equipment is used to transmit and/or receive time delay-intolerant information over a communication system. The information is transmitted in aggregated form. A plurality of packets representing time delay-intolerant information is combined to form an aggregate packet. The aggregate packet is formed based on user service requirements while maintaining time delay requirements of the information. The size of the aggregated is formed from a negotiation between the transmitting equipment and receiving equipment. Because of the use of an aggregated packet less scheduling of packets is done and the aggregated packet can be transmitted at a rate different than the fixed rate of the time delay-intolerant information. The equipment comprises transmit equipment and receive equipment. The transmit equipment contains an aggregator that combines a plurality of packets based on user service requirements. The packets to be transmitted are retrieved at the fixed rate of the time delay-intolerant information.

Abstract: At the receiver in a wireless communications system, the likelihood of a false CRC pass that can occur when a weak received signal produces an all ZERO output from a convolutional or a turbo decoder is minimized. To prevent an all ZERO output, a convolutional decoder selects from among those determined equally most likely transmitted sequences of bits in a data block one that has a weight greater than the one having the minimum weight. A turbo decoder selects a ONE rather than a ZERO as the value of a transmitted bit in a data block when for that bit a bit value of a ZERO and a ONE are determined to be equally likely.

Abstract: Method for upgrading software in a network bridge that is part of a VLAN includes sending notification to other bridges of the VLAN that the bridge is scheduled for upgrading; suspending VLAN registration and membership information in the other bridges while upgrading the bridge; restoring a state of the updated bridge and sending notification to the other bridges that the upgrading has been completed. As a result of the notification, the other bridges do not expect additional messages from the upgrading bridge. The step of restoring a state of the bridge includes synchronizing a GVRP protocol running within the network to a current VLAN membership table. Apparatus includes a forwarding plane adapted to store VLAN membership information and a control plane adapted for issuing and executing instructions that control registration and de-registration of one or more ports of the bridge according to the VLAN membership information and the presented method.

Abstract: Microfluidic optical sensor comprising: an optical waveguide capable of propagating light from an optical input port to an optical output port, the optical waveguide comprising an optical waveguide interaction region; a fluidic channel capable of conducting a fluid from a fluid input port to a fluid output port, the fluidic channel comprising a fluidic channel region; the fluidic channel region being separated from the optical waveguide interaction region by an interposed spacing material configured to transmit an evanescent field of the light through the spacing material between the optical waveguide interaction region and the fluidic channel region. Microfluidic optical sensor comprising an optical resonator. Methods for making microfluidic optical sensors.

Abstract: A method for conveying signaling information of a communication system that uses MIMO antenna systems. To enable a relatively larger amount of information to be conveyed over the communication system and thus exploit the use of the MIMO antenna system, forward link signaling channels are provided where such channels contain swapping information that allow the communication system to retransmit traffic information using any one of the antenna elements of a MIMO system. The forward link signaling channels also contain channel assignment information that indicate which particular groups of channels are available for use by particular users of the communication system.

Abstract: Consolidated billing in a wireless network is achieved by employing a processing node having storage capabilities for facilitating service creation and/or negotiation, and billing for those services in a wireless network, by associating user information and/or service information with network information. User information, service information, and network information, and their associated billing information, are provided periodically and dynamically into the storage. Using the processing node, user information and/or service information are associated with network information without having to access various network elements located throughout the network, to facilitate service creation and/or negotiation, and billing of services, to thus minimize network processing and network resources.

Abstract: A receiver of digital data bursts is provided comprising an antenna array, a first space time filter having filter coefficients initialized by estimation over just training data in a received burst and providing symbol estimates and a second space time filter having filter coefficients initialized by estimation over the received burst and providing symbol estimates. In use at least one pass to determine a symbol estimate in the received burst is undertaken by each space time filter and a selector operates to determine which of the first and second filters provides the symbol estimate closer to an expected value.

Abstract: Resource allocation in a wireless data system determines a load condition of the system and adapts a target quality of service (QoS) characteristic, accordingly. Data transmission parameters may be assigned, or adapted, for the wireless units based on the adapted target QoS characteristics. Resources are allocated to data transmissions between wireless units based on these parameters. As the system load decreases, the target QoS characteristic is adapted so that more resources will be allocated to the wireless unit, and the QoS will improve. The adapted QoS threshold may be a data error rate or target fill efficiency for each wireless unit.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for measuring Quality-of-Service (QoS) in packet-based communications networks for Voice-over-IP applications is advantageously based not only on packet loss information but also on particular characteristics of the speech data itself. Measurement of failures of the “quasi-stationary” (QS) property of speech—that is, the assumption that both the pitch and spectral envelop usually vary slowly relative to the packet size—are advantageously used in conjunction with measures of packet loss characteristics (e.g., packet loss rates or burst ratios) to calculate a QoS measure. One specific QS failure measure—referred to herein as QSFE (quasi-stationary failure estimate)—advantageously estimates the phoneme rate and is used in one illustrative method for calculating a QoS measure for Voice-over-IP applications in the presence of packet loss.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for resolving URIs to IP addresses and port numbers in an intranet, in which the host processors of the intranet individually maintain a data store with entries indicating the status of service application ports provided by the other hosts of the intranet, and URIs within the intranet are resolved at the host processing nodes without DNS server consultation by local address resolution components that provide load shedding and load balancing according to the data store entries.

Abstract: A method for dynamically reconfiguring wireless network capacity purchased by a service provider from a network equipment/software provider. The method includes: a) determining if a current demand for network capacity exceeds a first value, b) if the current demand exceeds the first value, reconfiguring network capacity for the wireless network to a higher purchased network capacity, c) determining if the current demand is less than a second value, and d) if the current demand is less than the second value, reconfiguring network capacity for the wireless network to a lower purchased network capacity. In another embodiment, usage data associated with a selected network capacity is accumulated and provided to the network equipment/software provider's billing system.

Abstract: Data generated at a telecommunications network switching node is selectively delivered to one or more data receiving device (e.g., data “collection box”) connected to the network, and command and control signaling is transmitted from the data receiving device to the switching node. This bi-directional communication is carried out in a manner compatible with voice grade lines. In an exemplary application, call identifying information, referred to in the TIA/EIA Standard as CDC (Call Data Channel) Messages, is delivered from an Intercept Access Point (IAP) switch that provides telephone service to a subject of an authorized surveillance order, to a law enforcement data collection box, utilizing Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) signals. Control signals are sent from the data collection box to the IAP switch utilizing Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signaling.

Abstract: In one embodiment of the present invention, a weight vector is generated based on a pre-distorted input signal and an output signal of an amplifier using a computation reduction technique. The computation reduction technique decomposes a number of multiplication operations between complex numbers such that a number of multiplications and a number of additions to generate the weight vector is reduced as compared to if the number of multiplication operations between complex numbers was not decomposed. An input signal for input to an amplifier is pre-distorted based on the generated weight vector.

Abstract: An advance over the prior art is achieved through an efficient method for an admission control algorithm and a scheduling mechanism that complement each other in providing the following three classes of service. A first class of service is termed Class 1 where users specify a nominal amount of bandwidth desired. A second, lower tier service class is termed Class 2, wherein users specify a nominal and minimum amount of bandwidth desired when entering into a network connection. A third server class is Class 3, where Class 3 users are treated as best effort users. For Class 1 users the methodology of the present invention provides a guaranteed nominal amount of bandwidth. The admission control procedure ensures that Class 1 users are admitted only if resources exist to satisfy the nominal bandwidth requirements of the Class 1 users. Class 2 users are admitted if resources exist to satisfy the minimum bandwidth requirements of the user.

Abstract: Systems and methods are presented for providing updated VOIP terminal location information to emergency call service providers, in which RFID tags are positioned at various locations within an enterprise and coded with unique tag data. A database is provided with a mapping of RFID tag data and tag locations in the enterprise, and the VOIP phone terminals are equipped or otherwise connected with RFID tag readers. The VOIP phones read the tag data upon initiation of a 911 or other an emergency call and report the tag data to a network server that determines the VOIP phone location according to the tag data and provides the phone location to the emergency call service provider.

Abstract: In a method of canceling interference, a base station selects a known highest data rate user transmission from a received first signal containing a group of user transmissions. The known highest rate user transmission may be configured as one or more frames, each frame including a control preamble and a plurality of encoded sub-frames. The control preamble and encoded sub-frames may be decoded, and the decoded sub-frames may be used for removing interference caused by the known highest rate user transmission to all remaining transmissions of the group.