Abstract: An IP-based video-on-demand (VOD) system with anti-piracy capabilities. The invented system comprises at least one monitoring server and at least one billing server. The monitoring server comprises a data source monitor, a bandwidth monitor and a threshold comparator. The billing server comprises a normal pricing function and an alternative pricing function. The source of the data packets received by a client is monitored by the monitoring server. If the data packets come an unauthorized file source and the bandwidth between the client and the unauthorized file source is large, the software programs in the monitoring server and the billing generate a higher price for the client to discourage the client from downloading movie files from the authorized file source which is possibly a movie piracy website.

Abstract: An advertisement system and methods for video-on-demand (VOD) services. The invented system comprises means and steps of synchronizing and coordinating between advertisement play and VOD play so that the advertisement play will not be skipped by fast-forwarding of the VOD play to assure the viewing of advertisements by viewers.

Abstract: Frequency offset of a receiver employing frequency or phase shift keying is estimated by performing a pair-wise weighted summation of consecutive received training symbols, where each weighting factor is related to the ratio of the corresponding training symbols that were originally transmitted (known a priori). Specifically, the following sum is evaluated for the n symbol training sequence (y1, y2, . . . , yn) which is received when the training sequence (x1, x2, . . .

Abstract: A wireless communications system and method controls network load by selectively scaling aggregate base station transmit signals. In one implementation, aggregate in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) channel transmit signals are multiplied by a scaling coefficient output by an aggregate overload controller based on load levels relative to a threshold. By scaling aggregate I- and Q-channel transmit signals when load level measurements indicate a high load situation, handoff control measurements made at mobile subscriber terminals, such as received signal strength from the base station, bit/frame error rates, and signal-to-noise ratio, will be affected, thereby prompting mobile subscriber terminals at the cell/sector boundaries to request handoff to an adjacent cell/sector. Thus, load is balanced between a number of cells/sector to increase network capacity and prevent overload without relying on a call admission/blocking scheme.

Abstract: A wireless digital communication system, such as a cellular mobile communication system, overcomes channel dispersion and multipath fade with an equalizer using matrix division channel estimation followed by maximum likelihood sequence estimation for each time slot. The matrix division channel estimation involves storing transforms of the training symbols and producing a linear combination of received training symbols and the stored transforms.