Resource Allocation Frameworks for Network-coded Layered Multimedia Multicast Services

The explosive growth of content-on-the-move, such as video streaming to mobile devices, has propelled research on multimedia broadcast and multicast schemes. Multi-rate transmission strategies have been proposed as a means of delivering layered services to users experiencing different downlink channel conditions. In this paper, we consider Point-to-Multipoint layered service delivery across a generic cellular system and improve it by applying different random linear network coding approaches. We derive packet error probability expressions and use them as performance metrics in the formulation of resource allocation frameworks. The aim of these frameworks is both the optimization of the transmission scheme and the minimization of the number of broadcast packets on each downlink channel, while offering service guarantees to a predetermined fraction of users. As a case of study, our proposed frameworks are then adapted to the LTE-A standard and the eMBMS technology. We focus on the delivery of a video service based on the H.264/SVC standard and demonstrate the advantages of layered network coding over multi-rate transmission. Furthermore, we establish that the choice of both the network coding technique and resource allocation method play a critical role on the network footprint, and the quality of each received video layer.Comment: IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications - Special Issue on Fundamental Approaches to Network Coding in Wireless Communication Systems. To appea

Gaćice, srca i fokstroti: prijevodi popularnih pjesama u hrvatskoj diskografskoj industriji u međuratnom razdoblju

This article brings insight into the production of popular music in the early domestic record industry in Croatia, focusing on the period between the two world wars and on the treatment of foreign songs in local musicians’ translation and adaptation. The translators of foreign songs which were produced by the Edison Bell Penkala record company belonged to the Zagreb cabaret scene and their performances of the songs reflected both the western trends as well as their professional image and cultural background. The occurrence of »panties«, »hearts« and »foxtrots« on early Croatian records point to types of treatment of popular music templates offering different levels of domestication and foreignization within the local popular music production.Članak donosi uvid u popularnoglazbenu produkciju u ranoj hrvatskoj diskografskoj industriji, fokusirajući se na prijevode stranih popularnih pjesama unutar te produkcije u međuratnom razdoblju. Unutar izdanja zagrebačke diskografske tvrtke Edison Bell Penkala, kao interpreti stranih popularnih pjesama dominiraju kabaretski izvođači, koji se pojavljuju kao daroviti bricoleuri prijevoda popularnih pjesama, kombinirajući različite elemente stranih pjesama i plesova, dijelom ih udomaćujući, a dijelom koristeći za kozmopolizaciju domaće glazbene produkcije. Tri različite teme unutar prijevoda popularnih pjesama ilustriraju tri različite vrste tretmana stranih predložaka. Tema »gaćica« ili duhovitih i lascivnih kabaretskih pjesama obično je obrađena vjerno, zadržavajući izvorno značenje pjesme. Tema »srca« ili romantičnog sadržaja mogla je biti obrađena ili vjerno ili parodiranjem. Osim prijevodnih promjena teksta, promjene u glazbenim parametrima prevedene pjesme otkrivaju lokalno dominantne tipove instrumentalnih sastava, kao i karakteristične izvedbene kontekste popularnoglazbenog repertoara. Konačno, pojava naziva foxtrot na naljepnicama ploča ukazuje na prijenos popularnih zapadnih društvenih plesova u lokalni kontekst, koji je, koristeći se suptilnim varijantama unutar plesnog repertoara, pokazivao načine pregovaranja tog prijenosa

Optimized Network-coded Scalable Video Multicasting over eMBMS Networks

Delivery of multicast video services over fourth generation (4G) networks such as 3GPP Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) is gaining momentum. In this paper, we address the issue of efficiently multicasting layered video services by defining a novel resource allocation framework that aims to maximize the service coverage whilst keeping the radio resource footprint low. A key point in the proposed system mode is that the reliability of multicast video services is ensured by means of an Unequal Error Protection implementation of the Network Coding (UEP-NC) scheme. In addition, both the communication parameters and the UEP-NC scheme are jointly optimized by the proposed resource allocation framework. Numerical results show that the proposed allocation framework can significantly increase the service coverage when compared to a conventional Multi-rate Transmission (MrT) strategy.Comment: Proc. of IEEE ICC 2015 - Mobile and Wireless Networking Symposium, to appea

Nikola Tesla and robotics

The paper analyzes some of Tesla's works and his most remarkable views concerning the problem of formulating theoretical bases of automatic control. As a tribute to Tesla's work on remote control of automated systems, as well to his (at the time) far-seeing visions, special attention is paid to solving complex problem of control and feedback application. A more detailed discussion of the way and origin of formulating theoretical bases of automatic control are given. Besides, in more detail are presented the related pioneering works of Professor Nicholas Bernstein, great Russian physiologist who formulated the basic rules of the self-regulating movements of the man. Bernstein has achievements of highest scientific significance that has been in a direct function of identifying and proving the priority of his pioneering contributions in the domain of feedback, i.e. control and principles of cybernetics

Optimal Error-Detecting Codes for General Asymmetric Channels via Sperner Theory

Several communication models that are of relevance in practice are asymmetric in the way they act on the transmitted "objects". Examples include channels in which the amplitudes of the transmitted pulses can only be decreased, channels in which the symbols can only be deleted, channels in which non-zero symbols can only be shifted to the right (e.g., timing channels), subspace channels in which the dimension of the transmitted vector space can only be reduced, unordered storage channels in which the cardinality of the stored (multi)set can only be reduced, etc. We introduce a formal definition of an asymmetric channel as a channel whose action induces a partial order on the set of all possible inputs, and show that this definition captures all the above examples. Such a general approach allows one to treat all these different models in a unified way, and to obtain a characterization of optimal error-detecting codes for many interesting asymmetric channels by using Sperner theory.Comment: To be presented at the IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW), Mumbai, India, Nov. 202