Abstract: A distributed spectrum analyzer and a method of spectrum analysis applying same. The spectrum analyzer adopts a separate design. A radio frequency receiver receives a signal, performs frequency conversion processing and AD conversion on the received signal, and sends the converted digital signal to a host. In such a structure, by a digital optical module, the radio frequency receiver is connected to a corresponding digital optical module on the host through an optical fiber, so as to implement a bidirectional data transmission. The host performs general control of the system as well as signal processing and spectrum analysis. Therefore, a multi-interface design is applied to the host of the spectrum analyzer, so as to support simultaneous access and control for a plurality of radio frequency receivers, thereby conveniently implementing multi-port measurement extension.

Abstract: Systems, methods and apparatuses for supporting broadcast traffic through a wireless mesh network are disclosed. One method includes obtaining broadcast listening information of a broadcast listening access node, wherein the broadcast listening information includes an identifier of the broadcast listening access node, and a broadcast identifier of the broadcast listening device. The method further includes obtaining broadcast sourcing information of a broadcast sourcing access node, wherein the broadcast sourcing information includes an identifier of the broadcast sourcing access node, and a broadcast identifier of the broadcast sourcing device. The method further includes providing broadcast listening information of the broadcast listening access node to the broadcast sourcing access node upon determining the broadcast identifier of the broadcast sourcing device matches the broadcast identifier of the broadcast listening device.

Abstract: A method of processing a signal including the steps of: (a) modulating the signal using a modulator corresponding to a modulation, (b) sending the modulated signal over multiple frequencies where the signal is offset in time in each frequency, (c) receiving the signal over the multiple frequencies, (d) reconstructing the sent signal by reversing the time delay and combining the received signal from each frequency, and (e) demodulating the received combined signal using a demodulator corresponding to the modulation used in (a).

Abstract: A method of interference cancellation is proposed. A UE obtains configuration information of a data transmission from a neighboring cell via an interference channel in a mobile communication network. The UE receives radio signals on a set of data resource elements as determined based on the obtained configuration information. The UE then estimates the interference channel corresponding to the data transmission from the neighboring cell based on the received radio signals on the set of data resource elements. Finally, the UE cancels the data transmission from the neighboring cell based on the estimated interference channel.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method of providing channel state information for a desired downlink channel of a wireless communication system. In a configuration phase, the method comprises receiving on a signaling channel configuration information comprising an identifier of an interference source and an association which associates the identifier with at least one resource element not used for transmission on the desired downlink channel. In an estimation phase, the method comprises estimating channel state information for an expected transmission on the desired downlink channel accounting for an incoming interference transmission from the identified interference source as observed from the at least one resource element. In a reporting phase, the method comprises reporting the channel state information.

Abstract: The invention provides a reception method and apparatus which provides a series of frequency shifts and filtering operations to sideband signals (lower, upper, and middle), to enable detection if the central part of a signal is analog or digital, and to enable effective co-channel interference compensation. The invention enables (H)IBOC signals for example to be processed with a narrower bandwidth and therefore a lower processing clock speed and complexity is made possible compared to the conventional (H)IBOC-signal processing approach.

Abstract: A transmitting apparatus is disclosed. The transmitting apparatus includes an encoder to perform channel encoding with respect to bits and generate a codeword, an interleaver to interleave the codeword, and a modulator to map the interleaved codeword onto a non-uniform constellation according to a modulation scheme, and the constellation may include constellation points defined based on various tables according to the modulation scheme.

Abstract: When a plurality of terminals share the same resources in a wireless communication system, and when control information such as acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NAK) information or scheduling information is transmitted, a method of efficiently performing code division multiplexing (CDM) is required to distinguish the plurality of terminals. In particular, it is necessary to develop a method by which a code sequence of CDM can be selected and used according to each cell condition. Provided is a method of forming a signal in a wireless communication system in which a plurality of terminals commonly share frequency and time resources. The method includes the operations of receiving condition information in a cell; selecting one of a plurality of time domain orthogonal sequences having different lengths, according to the condition information; and allocating the selected time domain orthogonal sequence to a control signal symbol block.

Abstract: A method of controlling a receiver of a data unit communication from a data source is described, said receiver being associated with a first terminal of a data unit communication network providing said first terminal with a transport service characterized by a set of values associated with respective service quality parameters, said service quality parameters comprising a Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR), said data source being associated with a second terminal. The method comprises determining, by the receiver, whether a received data unit contains an Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN). If said ECN is detected, the method further comprises sending, from the receiver, to said data source a message for adjusting a data transmission rate of said data source, said message indicating as an upper bound for said data transmission rate a value corresponding to a value associated with the GBR for said first transport service.

Abstract: A method for performing code block segmentation for wireless transmission using concatenated forward error correction encoding includes receiving a transport block of data for transmission having a transport block size, along with one or more parameters that define a target code rate. A number N of inner code blocks needed to transmit the transport block is determined. A number M—outer code blocks may be calculated based on the number of inner code blocks and on encoding parameters for the outer code blocks. The transport block may then be segmented and encoded according to the calculated encoding parameters.

Abstract: A computing system includes: an inter-device interface configured to receive a receiver signal for representing a serving signal; a communication unit, coupled to the inter-device interface, configured to: calculate a decoding result based on decoding the receiver signal, generate a parity portion adjustment for adjusting the decoding result, generate a systematic portion adjustment for adjusting the decoding result, and apply the parity portion adjustment and the systematic portion adjustment to the decoding result for determining the serving signal from the receiver signal.

Abstract: An inbound sideband interface is provided to receive a message over a first sideband link, and parity logic is provided to calculate a parity bit for the message. Further, an outbound sideband interface is provided to forward the message to another device over a second sideband link. The second sideband link includes a plurality of data wires and a parity bit wire. The message is forwarded over at least some of the data wires and the parity bit is sent to the other device over the parity bit wire to correspond with the message.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a decoding method and apparatus. The method includes: acquiring a demodulation signal; acquiring a first decoding signal, where the first decoding signal is a signal fed back after the ith M-ary differential decoding processing is performed on the demodulation signal, and i is an integer greater than or equal to 0; and performing M-ary differential decoding processing on the demodulation signal according to the first decoding signal, to obtain a second decoding signal. The first decoding signal that is fed back is added and input to a decoder.

Abstract: A receiver receiving in a cell at least first and second data streams included in at least first and second signals. The receiver includes: a first estimating unit configured to receive the first and second signals and provide an estimate of first data on the first data stream; a regenerating unit configured to provide a regenerated first data stream based on the first data estimate and attenuation of first radio channels transmitting the first data stream; a second estimating unit configured to provide an estimate of second data on the second data stream based on the regenerated first data stream, on the first and second signals, on attenuation of second radio channels transmitting the second data stream, and on inter/intra-cell interference; and first and second extractions units configured to extract first and second information within the first and second data based on the estimates of the first and second data.

Abstract: Methods and systems of symbol level interference cancellation at a receiver for multiuser detection is provided. In an embodiment, the method includes performing an interference cancellation based decoding for a plurality of users through a plurality of iterations for generating a plurality of soft bit estimates for each of the users during each of the iterations. Each of the iterations involves sequential cancellation of each of the user signals for performing interference cancellation based decoding for each subsequent user other than a first user. The method also includes re-using the generated plurality of soft bit estimates for performing each subsequent iteration of the interference cancellation based decoding of the plurality of users. A plurality of soft bit estimates associated with each user generated during an (N?1)th iteration is re-used during an Nth iteration for the user, N being a whole number with a minimum value of 2.

Abstract: A computing system includes: an inter-device interface configured to communicate content; and a communication unit, coupled to the inter-device interface, configured to process the content based on a polar communication mechanism utilizing multiple processing dimensions for communicating the content, including: generating a node result with a first orthogonal mechanism, and processing the node result from the first orthogonal mechanism with a second orthogonal mechanism.

Abstract: Systems and methods for improved coherent demodulation that account for variation of an effective channel estimation error with transmitted symbols are provided. In one embodiment, a wireless node includes a receiver front-end, a channel estimator, and a soft-value processor. The receiver front-end is adapted to output samples of a received signal. The channel estimator is adapted to estimate a channel between a transmitter of the received signal and the wireless node based on the samples of the received signal. The soft-value processor is adapted to process the samples of the received signal according to a soft-value generation scheme that accounts for variation of an effective channel estimation error with transmitted symbols to thereby provide corresponding soft values. By accounting for the variation of the effective channel estimation error with transmitted symbols, the soft-value processor provides improved performance, particularly in a low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) scenario.

Abstract: A low density parity check (LDPC) encoder, an LDPC decoder, and an LDPC encoding method are disclosed. The LDPC encoder includes first memory, second memory, and a processor. The first memory stores an LDPC codeword. The second memory is initialized to 0. The processor generates the LDPC codeword by performing accumulation with respect to the second memory using information bits. The accumulation is performed at parity bit addresses that are updated using a sequence corresponding to a parity check matrix (PCM).

Abstract: A low density parity check (LDPC) encoder, an LDPC decoder, and an LDPC encoding method are disclosed. The LDPC encoder includes first memory, second memory, and a processor. The first memory stores an LDPC codeword having a length of 16200 and a code rate of 4/15. The second memory is initialized to 0. The processor generates the LDPC codeword corresponding to information bits by performing accumulation with respect to the second memory using a sequence corresponding to a parity check matrix (PCM).

Abstract: A transmitting apparatus is provided. The transmitting apparatus includes: an encoder configured to perform a low-density parity check (LDPC) encoding on input bits using a parity check matrix to generate an LDPC codeword comprising information word bits and parity bits; an interleaver configured to interleave the LDPC codeword; and a modulator configured to map the interleaved LDPC codeword onto a modulation symbol, wherein the modulator is further configured to map a bit included in a predetermined bit group from among a plurality of bit groups constituting the LDPC codeword onto a predetermined bit of the modulation symbol.

Abstract: The present subject-matter relates to transmitting a real-time data stream, namely simultaneously to multiple receivers over unreliable networks (e.g. wireless multicast), in a timely and reliable manner, in particular to a method, apparatus and computer program product for feedback-based real-time network coding. It is disclosed a computer-implemented method for a transmitting node, a receiving node, and an intermediate node of feedback-based real-time network coding from a transmitter and to one or more receivers, in particular comprising a linear combination of packets from the transmitter; determining whether the received linear combination of packets is linearly independent of previous linear combinations of packets; determining the validity of a priority level of the packets; determining validity of the deadline of the packets; determining whether a packet is to be removed from a transmit queue, and if determined removing it. There are also disclosed said transmitting, receiving, and intermediate nodes.

Abstract: Embodiments related to retransmission in a communication system are described and depicted. In one embodiment, a retransmission entity repeats a transmission of a data transfer unit by the device after a predetermined number of other transmitted data transfer units has been transmitted. The retransmission entity may also determine whether a measure for a time period since the first transmission of the data transfer unit by the device has exceeded a predetermined threshold and to provide a final transmission of the data transfer unit based on the determining that the measure for the time period has exceeded the predetermined threshold.

Abstract: A method for transmitting and receiving ARQ feedback information in a wireless communication system is disclosed. A method for allowing a mobile station to transmit an ARQ feedback in a broadband wireless access system includes receiving an ARQ block and an ARQ feedback polling from the base station, wherein the ARQ feedback polling requests the mobile station to transmit ARQ feedback information indicating whether the ARQ block is successfully received, receiving a first uplink resource for transmitting the ARQ feedback from the base station, and determining whether the received ARQ block is successfully received. The first uplink resource has a minimum size capable of being allocated to the ARQ feedback information.

Abstract: Disclosed in the present invention is a method for a base station to set a backhaul link subframe for a relay node in a wireless communication system, to which a carrier aggregation technique is applied.

Abstract: A method for retransmitting data in wireless communication system is disclosed. MS can receive a NACK (Not-Acknowledge) signal from a base station (BS) through a specific downlink subframe of a specific frame in a first superframe, and the MS can retransmits the data using a second uplink subframe in a first frame in a second superframe subsequent to a first superframe. In this case, a index of the second uplink subframe may be 1. The wireless communication system can support the Half-Frequency Division Duplex (H-FDD) scheme. A first uplink subframe in the first frame of the second superframe can be punctured.

Abstract: A User Equipment (UE) for reconfiguring uplink and downlink (UL-DL) allocations is described. The UE includes a processor and instructions stored in memory that is in electronic communication with the processor. The UE determines whether at least one subframe is convertible over a default Time Domain Duplexing (TDD) UL-DL configuration. If at least one subframe is convertible, then the UE determines a first reference UL-DL configuration and a second reference UL-DL configuration. The UE also sends any hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information corresponding to a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) based on the first reference configuration. The UE further determines a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) schedule based on the second reference UL-DL configuration. The UE additionally receives any hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information corresponding to a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) based on the second reference UL-DL configuration.

Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to avoid ACK/NACK collision in a system in which E-PDCCH control information is transmitted, increase the utilization efficiency of ACK/NACK resources, and suppress unnecessary PUSCH band reduction. A wireless communications terminal having a configuration comprising: a reception unit that receives control signals including ACK/NACK indexes, via an expanded physical downlink control channel; a control unit that determines, on the basis of the ACK/NACK indexes, whether to use a dynamically allocated dynamic ACK/NACK resource or a specified resource specified beforehand, to send downlink data ACK/NACK signals; and a transmission unit that sends the ACK/NACK signals using the dynamic ACK/NACK resource or the specified resource, as determined.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and system for making a hybrid automatic repeat requests (HARQ) in a carrier aggregation system. The method receives downlink data through a first subframe of a first carrier, transmits acknowledgement/negative-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) for the downlink data through a second subframe of a second carrier, and re-receives the downlink data through a third subframe of the first carrier, wherein the first carrier only includes the downlink subframes, and the second carrier includes the uplink subframes and the downlink subframes.

Abstract: Disclosed are a method, device, and a computer storage medium for component carrier allocation. The method includes that when it is determined that a component carrier which has a frequency exceeding a preset threshold exists in component carriers which are available to be allocated currently in a cell, a FDM of UE in the cell is updated according to the coverage of the component carrier which has a frequency exceeding the preset threshold; and frequency domain priority is determined according to the updated FDM, and the component carrier which has a frequency exceeding the preset threshold is allocated for the UE in the cell according to the frequency domain priority.

Abstract: A method for operating a communications controller includes allocating a number of resource blocks to an enhanced physical downlink shared channel (ePDSCH), and identifying a starting point for the resource blocks of the ePDSCH, the starting point located within a control region of a subframe. The method also includes signaling to a user equipment (UE) the starting point of the resource blocks and the number of resource blocks allocated to the ePDSCH.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method including receiving, by a terminal, a switching command is large. The method includes: acquiring designated channel resource information from channel resources used by a source base station; acquiring information of a relevant base station using a designated channel resource except the source base station; sending indication signaling to the relevant base station according to the information of the relevant base station, where the indication signaling carries the designated channel resource information, the indication signaling is used to instruct the relevant base station to stop using the designated channel resource when the mobile terminal switches to a target base station; sending a switching request message to the target base station; and sending the switching command to the mobile terminal through the designated channel resource.

Abstract: A master application device comprises a plurality of distributed transceivers, a central baseband processor, and a network management engine that manages operation of the master application device and end-user application devices. The master application device communicates data streams to the end-user devices utilizing one or more distributed transceivers selected from the plurality of distributed transceivers. The selected distributed transceivers are dynamically configured to switch between spatial diversity mode, frequency diversity mode, multiplexing mode and MIMO mode based on corresponding link quality and propagation environment. Digital signal processing needed for the selected distributed transceivers is performed by the central baseband processor. The network management engine continuously monitors communication environment information to configure beamforming settings and/or antenna arrangement for the selected distributed transceivers.

Abstract: Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for transmitting a reference signal. The method for transmitting the reference signal comprises the step of: transmitting a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) and a primary synchronization signal (PSS) from a subframe including an N (natural number wherein N>1) number of resource blocks (RB) and a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols; and transmitting from the subframe the reference signal which is generated on the basis of a cell identifier, wherein the reference signal can be transmitted from an M (natural number wherein K<=M<N) number of RBs which includes a K number of RBs in the OFDM symbols that remain after excluding the OFDM symbols from which the SSS and the PSS are transmitted. As a result, demodulation capability of a terminal can be increased.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides an orthogonal codes based code division multiplexing method of performing the code division multiplexing of demodulation reference signals in multiple layers of resource blocks by using orthogonal matrices, the method comprising: changing the order of chips in particular rows of a first orthogonal matrix to obtain a second orthogonal matrix with the changed order of chips; and multiplying the chips in respective rows of the second orthogonal matrix by the demodulation reference signals in corresponding layers of resource blocks correspondingly in the time direction to obtain code division multiplexing signals. The technical scheme of the present disclosure can improve the power jitter situation of downlink signals on the time, thereby the usage efficiency of the power amplifier at the base station side can be improved.

Abstract: A technology enabling a base station to transmit acknowledgement (ACK)/negative ACK (NACK) information about data received from a terminal is provided. A cyclic shift value difference of each terminal may be maximized and a radio resource for transmitting the ACK/NACK information may be assigned without collision.

Abstract: A method of indicating a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for a user equipment (UE) of a wireless communication system includes receiving a resource index denoting PUCCH format 2 resources and PUCCH format 3 resources, instead of merely denoting PUCCH format 2 resources, from a network of the wireless communication system; and determining resources for a transmission of control information over PUCCH format 2 or PUCCH format 3 based on an operation of the received resource index.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for transmitting an Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) from a based station to a terminal in a wireless communication system. In particular, the method includes the steps of: setting resource blocks for the EPDCCH; re-indexing by permutation indexes of the resource blocks; defining an Enhanced Control Channel Element (ECCE) for each of the re-indexed resource blocks; selecting the ECCEs in a number corresponding to the aggregation level of the EPDCCH; and transmitting the EPDCCH to the terminal using the selected ECCEs.

Abstract: An ACK/NACK (acknowledgement/negative-ACK) transmission method in a wireless access system that supports device-to-device communication and an apparatus therefor are disclosed. Specifically, a method for transmitting ACK/NACK in a wireless access system that supports the device-to-device communication comprises the steps of: receiving first data in a first sub-frame, receiving second data from a base station in a second subframe, and when data transmission and reception through the device-to-device communication carried out in a third sub-frame for transmitting the ACK/NACK information on the first data, transmitting, to the base station in a fourth sub-frame, a grouped ACK/NACK information including the ACK/NACK information on the first data and the ACK/NACK information on the second data.

Abstract: A method for transmitting an uplink signal by a user equipment in a wireless communication system; the user equipment; a method for receiving an uplink signal by a base station in a wireless communication system; and the base station are discussed. The method for transmitting an uplink signal includes, according to one embodiment, receiving, by the user equipment, an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH); receiving, by the user equipment, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) based on the EPDCCH; and transmitting acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) information corresponding to the PDSCH using a PUCCH resource. The PUCCH resource is determined based on an index of an EPDCCH allocation unit included in the EPDCCH and on an index of an antenna port used for the EPDCCH.

Abstract: A system and method for handling communications requests. Network performance information of a communications network is gathered using PIP data packets to determine a status of a number of nodes of the communications network. Available bandwidth through connections of the communications network are determined based on the PIP data packets. The available bandwidth for a number of customers is allocated for new connections and utilized bandwidth through the connections as the utilized bandwidth changes across the communications network.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes techniques and apparatuses for scheduling use of radio resources in a wireless network. In some aspects a method is described that includes receiving an indication from a mobile device of an in-device coexistence problem, and determining, from the parameters in the received indication, one or more component carriers of the carrier aggregation affected by the in-device coexistence problem. The method also includes applying a time-domain solution and/or a frequency domain solution to at least one of the one or more affected component carriers to solve the in-device coexistence problem.

Abstract: A communication apparatus comprises a generator that generates frequency resource position information corresponding to a first information which is based on the communication quality information received from user equipments, the frequency resource position information indicating validity or invalidity of the first information for each frequency resource, and a transmitter that transmits the first information, the frequency resource position information and a cell ID which the frequency resource position is applied, to another communication apparatus via a backhaul.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention discloses a full-duplex communication apparatus, including at least one transmit antenna and at least one signal synthesizing apparatus, where the signal synthesizing apparatus is connected to at least two receive antennas, the at least one transmit antenna is configured to transmit a first transmit signal, the at least two receive antennas are configured to separately receive the first transmit signal, and the signal synthesizing apparatus is configured to receive the first transmit signal from the at least two receive antennas, where a phase difference exists between the received first transmit signals, and synthesize the received first transmit signals, where strength of the synthesized first transmit signal is lower than strength of at least one of the first transmit signals received by the signal synthesizing apparatus.

Abstract: The present disclosure proposes a dynamic time division duplexing (TDD) method applicable to a user equipment and a control node, and apparatuses using the same method. Accordingly, the present disclosure proposes a base station (BS) which transmits to a least one user equipment (UE) a system information block (SIB) having a first modification period, and the base station may transmit a TDD uplink-downlink subframe configuration during the first modification period. The BS also configures for at least one UE a second modification period which is in an integer divisor of the first modification period and could be within the first modification period so that the BS may transmit a second TDD uplink-downlink subframe configuration in the second modification period. As the second modification period is shorter than the first modification period and is periodically scheduled, the BS may alter the current TDD uplink-downlink subframe configuration dynamically at a faster rate.

Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for compensating for clock drift between nodes in a time synchronous network. A node receives time synchronization information from a parent node in the network. A drift between a clock of the node and a clock of the parent node is determined based upon the time synchronization information. The node identifies a number of time slots of the network since making a last time synchronization based on previous time synchronization information transmitted from the parent node. A compensation interval is calculated that represents a number of the time slots over which the clock of the node deviated, with respect to the parent node, by a predefined compensation value. The node compensates, by the compensation value, one of the time slots according to the compensation interval.

Abstract: A method for determining a slave clock to master clock time difference with an alignment marker. The method selects and transmits a first alignment marker at a first time by a transmitter that has a master clock in a first message to a receiver that has a slave clock. Subsequent to transmitting the first message, the method further transmits a second message that contains the first time and an identity of the first alignment marker. The method further receives the first message and records a second time that the first message is received. The method further receives the second message and the first time and the identity of the first alignment marker. The method further determines a transmission delay and generates a time difference from the slave clock to the master clock.

Abstract: A clock and data recovery circuit may include: a phase detection unit configured to generate an early phase detection signal and a late phase detection signal by comparing a clock signal and data; a filtering unit configured to generate an up signal and a down signal based on a number of generation times of the early phase detection signal and a number of generation times of the late phase detection signal; a phase information summing unit configured to receive an output of the filtering unit at each cycle of the clock signal, and generate first and second phase control signals by summing up numbers of the up signals and the down signals received from the filtering unit during a summing-up time; and a phase interpolator configured to adjust a phase of the clock signal according to the first and second phase control signals.

Abstract: A device and method for performing a keyed cryptographic operation mapping an input message to an output message including a first and a second round, wherein the cryptographic operation includes a key scheduling method that produces round keys based upon the encryption key, including: instructions for receiving a first input by the first round; instructions for receiving a second input by the first round; instructions for outputting the second input as a third input to the second round; instructions for performing a first cryptographic operation on the second input using a first static round key to produce a first cryptographic output; and instructions for combining first input, the first cryptographic output, and a second encoded dynamic round key to produce a fourth input to the second round, wherein the second encoded dynamic round key is produced by inputting an encoded dynamic encryption key into the key scheduling method.

Abstract: A secure password generation method and system is provided. The method includes enabling by a processor of a computing system, password translation software. The computer processor generates and stores the random translation key. A first password is received and a second associated password is generated. The computer processor associates the second password with a secure application. The computer processor stores the random translation key within an external memory device and disables a connection between the computing system and the external memory device.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to the authenticating a client against a pool of servers utilizing a secure authentication protocol, and, more specifically, to the authenticating a client against a pool of servers providing a common service, utilizing the Kerberos secure authentication protocol.