Why data broadcast may take over the world

The remote sensing applications are growing very rapidly with the availability of high-resolution data from the state of the art satellites like IRS-1C/1D/P4. The advancement in computer hardware and software in the area of remote sensing also enhance the growth of remote sensing applications. IRS-1C/1D/P4 provides data with the resolution of 5.6m in panchromatic mode giving more information of the ground area covered. The remote sensing satellites with high-resolution sensors and wide coverage capabilities will provide the data with better resolution, coverage and revisit to meet the growing application needs. Many applications like crop acreage and yield estimation, draught monitoring and assessment, flood mapping, waste land mapping, mineral prospectus, forest resource survey etc., have become an integral part of the resources management system in the developing countries. These resource management systems need the data to be transferred in real time or near real time for processing. The transfer of data in real time or near real time calls for advanced data delivery techniques to deliver the data as quickly as possible. Processing of remote sensing data can be performed even on low cost personal computers, which in turn further increases the remote sensing applications enabling by setting up the processing centers even at grass root level i.e., at district, taluk or village level. Setting up of processing centers at grass root level demands for quick, cost effective and efficient data delivery mechanism to transfer remote sensing data with or without value added services. The digital revolution has reached broadcasting with the introduction of direct broadcasting of digital data. These modify the traditional data transfer techniques by separating the actual service from the transmission system, thus enabling the distribution of any kind of digital data to stationary, portable or mobile terminals. This allows remote sensing data to reach a large number of users simultaneously and independent of their location. This article highlights the concepts, possibilities, and implementation mechanisms to realize the remote sensing data transfer through direct broadcasting technique and enhance remote sensing applications.

In this brief, a hybrid-grained reconfigurable architecture (HReA) is introduced to process 13-Dwarfs. The proposed dynamically reconfigurable fabric consists of four 4 × 4 multi-functional processing elements array, where a hybrid-grained structure is proposed to combine a 32-bit data path with a 1-bit data path to accommodate multiple computing granularities in 13-Dwarfs. Aiming at the flexibility of the 13-Dwarfs calculation, a directional broadcasting scheme for multi-bank memory, a cache partitioning mechanism, and cache prefetching methods are proposed to further improve HReA performance via alleviating data and configuration bandwidth bottlenecks. The HReA is implemented on a 4.83 × 4.93 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> silicon with TSMC 65-nm LP1P8M CMOS technology and can efficiently perform 27 representative kernels from the 13-Dwarfs with 297 mW under 280-MHz working frequency.

The International MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) Processing Package (IMAPP) is supported by NASA with the goals of developing a software package which is freely available for processing MODIS and AIRS/AMSU/HSB Data and promoting and supporting the worldwide use of EOS data, and involving the international community in EOS validation efforts. Both NASA's TERRA and AQUA spacecrafts have direct broadcast (DB) X-band downlinks that allow MODIS (on board both TERRA and AQUA) and AIRS/AMSU/HSB and AMSR-E (on board AQUA only) data to be received in real time by sites having the proper reception hardware. In addition to the current released IMAPP, which allows ground stations capable of receiving EOS direct broadcast data to generate products derived from MODIS and AIRS/AMSU/HSB, products from AMSR-E are under developed. Comparison of one month direct broadcast AMSR-E level 1 data with standard AMSR-E level 2A (level 1 data embedded) data archived by MSFC, NASA, have been carried out and the results have shown that the DB level 1 implementation successfully matches the standard products of brightness temperatures in terms of bias, RMS errors and correlation coefficients, i.e., the DB level 1 data are well calibrated and geo-located and are ready for retrieval for geophysical products. The AMSR-E level 2 products for precipitation and soil moisture are currently under evaluation. Those products will be compared with and validated against the official products.

Purpose Increasing demand on rail transport speeds up the introduction of new technical systems to optimize the rail traffic and increase competitiveness. Remote control of trains is seen as a potential layer of resilience in railway operations. It allows for operating and controlling automated trains and communicating and coordinating with other stakeholders of the railway system. This paper aims to present the first results of a multi-phased simulator study on the development and optimization of remote train driving concepts from the operators’ point of view. Design/methodology/approach The presented concept was developed by benchmarking good practices. Two phases of iterative user tests were conducted to evaluate the user experience and preferences of the developed human-machine-interface concept. Basic training requirements were identified and evaluated. Findings Results indicate positive feedback on the overall system as a fallback solution. HMI elicited positive emotions regarding pleasure and dominance, but low arousal levels. Train drivers had more conservative views on the system compared to signalers and students. The training activities achieved increased awareness and understanding of the system for future operators. Inclusion of potential users in the development of future systems has the potential to improve user acceptance. The iterative user experiments were useful in obtaining some of the needs and preferences of different user groups. Originality/value Multi-phase user tests were conducted to identify and to evaluate the requirements and preferences of remote operators using a simplified HMI. Training analysis provides important aspects to consider for the training of future users.

The current trend in mobile telecommunications is towards accommodating an increased data traffic throughput for a large number of subscribers. For this, the mobile operators are deploying more efficient access and core network technologies resulting in higher data rates at specific geographic locations responding to the future internet communication requirements. However, the new technologies come to extend the current deployments resulting in a complex system with high heterogeneous connectivity support functionality. This paper describes a set of functional extensions for the harmonization between legacy and future networks for access network selection and convergent authentication and authorization and data path establishment, exemplified as additions to the 3GPP Evolved Packet Core. These extensions enable a converged and efficient handling of the subscribers' requirements and data traffic in the future mobile operator networks. Furthermore, the functionality is detailed as implemented in the Future Internet Testbed of (Deutsche) Telekom Innovation Laboratories based on the Fraunhofer OpenEPC software implementation of the 3GPP architecture.

With rapidly growing demands of debugging in embedded systems, the architecture of debug subsystem is becoming a challenging task to system designers. A typical multi-processor system-on-chip (MP-SoC) has several heterogeneous cores, and few other critical IPs whose tracing is important from debugging point of view. Typically, in on-the-fly host debugging mode, the minimum expectation is that the debug data path is able to provide sufficiently large instruction traces of all heterogeneous cores without any loss in non-invasive debug mode. For debug and diagnosis, a comprehensive run-time observation into the MPSoC shows how the software (e.g real-time) is executed. It becomes a challenging task in the pre-silicon stage to evaluate this performance requirement of debugging datapath in absence of an appropriate benchmark suite or appropriate bus functional model. Even, it is equally problematic to convince the customers after the post-silicon stage, about the competitive advantage of the device in terms of debugging. In this paper, we are proposing a performance evaluation framework for debug infrastructure of embedded devices (e.g ARM CoreSight) using few standard benchmarks and also, proposing a few performance metrics. It reduces the performance evaluation time and improved design quality significantly.

Recently the border between DSP processors and general-purpose processors has been diminishing as general-purpose processors have obtained DSP features to support various multimedia applications. This chapter provides a view to general-purpose DSP processors by considering the characteristics of DSP algorithms and identifying important features in a processor architecture for efficient DSP algorithm implementations. Fixed-point and floating-point data paths are discussed. Memory architectures are considered from parallel access point of view and address computations are shortly discussed.

Rotational Motion Control by Feedback with Minimum L1-Norm

An experimental campaign was conducted in Equinor's high pressure flow loop in Porsgrunn with the objective of establishing a high-quality real gas condensate data set for use in modeling steady state flow as well as the specific surge wave phenomena in the Mikkel and Midgard (part of Åsgard) fields on the Norwegian continental shelf. The Mikkel and Midgard fields have been naturally flowing to Åsgard B since 2003 with introduction of the Åsgard Subsea Compression station in 2015 as a major upgrade. The surge wave phenomenon is per today observed in flowlines both upstream and downstream the compressor station, representing challenges with respect to liquid level control both in the scrubber upstream the compressor station as well as topside Åsgard B. Several flowlines are operated with so called ‘’minimum flow limitations’’ representing the minimum production rates at which the flowlines can be operated with acceptable liquid content and flow fluctuations due to surge waves. In order to plan future operations and restructuring initiatives, predictive tools able to capture these phenomena from a quantitative point of view are required. Data based on realistic fluid properties and conditions, have been vital for achieving the required flow simulator improvements in close collaboration with the software vendor modeling team. The first part of the paper gives a detailed description of the experimental matrix, the experimental execution, and the data analysis. Emphasis is also given to describe the state-of-the-art instrumentation used to achieve a unique set of high quality three-phase pipe flow data. The second part of the paper describes a modelling effort utilizing User Defined Functions in the multiphase flow simulator to tune/modify the closure laws to better match the experimental data. The improved model is compared with the Åsgard field data. The model will be used to aid future operations of the field. In an accompanying paper the software vendor has used the new data to improve the general multiphase flow simulator model.

Publish and Flourish, or Perish: RAE, ERA, RQF, and Other Acronyms for Infinite Human Resourcefulness

The influence of gas turbine degradation on operating costs is high. Gas turbine cleaning is one of many actions taken for power recovery and is considered preventive maintenance. It is generally performed within the industrial and occasionally within the aero sector. Following a survey about potential for cost reduction in gas turbine operation the cleaning issue appears to be overlooked from an engineering point of view and there is a large potential for efficiency improvements. Engine development with corresponding high blade loads and ever-increasing temperatures require more efficient and careful cleaning methods. Together with emission taxes and environmental regulations, optimized cleaning methods will play an ever-growing role in future gas turbine operation. In order to achieve cost effectiveness regarding hardware, man-hour and consumables a new cleaning method has been evaluated for a standard process. The economic evaluations show that a standardisation of cleaning with the new method would enable the aviation sector to perform engine cleaning on a routine basis as well as the stationary sector to make significant cost savings in equipment purchase and operation.