Showing papers by "Alcatel-Lucent published in 2019"

SMART Cables for Observing the Global Ocean: Science and Implementation

Abstract: The ocean is key to understanding societal threats including climate change, sea level rise, ocean warming, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Because the ocean is difficult and costly to monitor, we lack fundamental data needed to adequately model, understand, and address these threats. One solution is to integrate sensors into future undersea telecommunications cables. This is the mission of the SMART subsea cables initiative (Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications). SMART sensors would “piggyback” on the power and communications infrastructure of a million kilometers of undersea fiber optic cable and thousands of repeaters, creating the potential for seafloor-based global ocean observing at a modest incremental cost. Initial sensors would measure temperature, pressure, and seismic acceleration. The resulting data would address two critical scientific and societal issues: the long-term need for sustained climate-quality data from the under-sampled ocean (e.g., deep ocean temperature, sea level, and circulation), and the near-term need for improvements to global tsunami warning networks. A Joint Task Force (JTF) led by three U.N. agencies (ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC) is working to bring this initiative to fruition. This paper explores the ocean science and early warning improvements available from SMART cable data, and the societal, technological, and financial elements of realizing such a global network. Simulations show that deep ocean temperature and pressure measurements can improve estimates of ocean circulation and heat content, and cable-based pressure and seismic-acceleration sensors can improve tsunami warning times and earthquake parameters. The technology of integrating these sensors into fiber optic cables is discussed, addressing sea and land-based elements plus delivery of real-time open data products to end users. The science and business case for SMART cables is evaluated. SMART cables have been endorsed by major ocean science organizations, and JTF is working with cable suppliers and sponsors, multilateral development banks and end-users to incorporate SMART capabilities into future cable projects. By investing now, we can build up a global ocean network of long-lived SMART cable sensors, creating a transformative addition to the global ocean observing system.

Marginalized Average Attentional Network for Weakly-Supervised Learning

Abstract: In weakly-supervised temporal action localization, previous works have failed to locate dense and integral regions for each entire action due to the overestimation of the most salient regions. To alleviate this issue, we propose a marginalized average attentional network (MAAN) to suppress the dominant response of the most salient regions in a principled manner. The MAAN employs a novel marginalized average aggregation (MAA) module and learns a set of latent discriminative probabilities in an end-to-end fashion. MAA samples multiple subsets from the video snippet features according to a set of latent discriminative probabilities and takes the expectation over all the averaged subset features. Theoretically, we prove that the MAA module with learned latent discriminative probabilities successfully reduces the difference in responses between the most salient regions and the others. Therefore, MAAN is able to generate better class activation sequences and identify dense and integral action regions in the videos. Moreover, we propose a fast algorithm to reduce the complexity of constructing MAA from O($2^T$) to O($T^2$). Extensive experiments on two large-scale video datasets show that our MAAN achieves superior performance on weakly-supervised temporal action localization

Transmission Systems with Constant Output Power Amplifiers at Low SNR Values: A Generalized Droop Model

Abstract: We propose a unified model of signal impairment aggregation with fixed-power amplifiers which captures ASE noise accumulation and its combination with nonlinearities. We numerically show discrepancies with AWGN-like models adapted to fixed-gain amplifiers at low SNR values.

Marginalized average attentional network for weakly-supervised learning

Abstract: In weakly-supervised temporal action localization, previous works have failed to locate dense and integral regions for each entire action due to the overestimation of the most salient regions. To alleviate this issue, we propose a marginalized average attentional network (MAAN) to suppress the dominant response of the most salient regions in a principled manner. The MAAN employs a novel marginalized average aggregation (MAA) module and learns a set of latent discriminative probabilities in an end-to-end fashion. MAA samples multiple subsets from the video snippet features according to a set of latent discriminative probabilities and takes the expectation over all the averaged subset features. Theoretically, we prove that the MAA module with learned latent discriminative probabilities successfully reduces the difference in responses between the most salient regions and the others. Therefore, MAAN is able to generate better class activation sequences and identify dense and integral action regions in the videos. Moreover, we propose a fast algorithm to reduce the complexity of constructing MAA from O(2 T) to O(T 2). Extensive experiments on two large-scale video datasets show that our MAAN achieves a superior performance on weakly-supervised temporal action localization.

Tritium retention in W plasma-facing materials : Impact of the material structure and helium irradiation

Abstract: Plasma-facing materials for next generation fusion devices, like ITER and DEMO, will be submitted to intense fluxes of light elements, notably He and H isotopes (HI). Our study focuses on tritium (T) retention on a wide range of W samples: first, different types of W materials were investigated to distinguish the impact of the pristine original structure on the retention, from W-coated samples to ITER-grade pure W samples submitted to various annealing and manufacturing procedures, along with monocrystalline W for reference. Then, He and He-D irradiated W samples were studied to investigate the impact on He-damages such as nano-bubbles (exposures in LHD or PSI-2) on T retention. We exposed all the samples to tritium gas-loading using a gentle technique preventing any introduction of new damage in the material. Tritium desorption is measured by Liquid Scintillation counting (LSC) at ambient and high temperatures (800 °C). The remaining T inventory is then measured by sample full dissolution and LSC. Results on T inventory on He exposed samples highlighted that in all cases, tritium desorption as a gas (HT) increases significantly due to the formation of He damages. Up to 1.8 times more T can be trapped in the material through a competition of various mechanisms, but the major part of the inventory desorbs at room temperature, and so will most likely not take part to the long-term trapped inventory for safety and operational perspectives. Unfortunately, investigation of "as received" industrial W (used for the making of plasma-facing materials) highlighted a strong impact of the pre existing defects on T retention: up to 2.5 times more T is trapped in "as received W" compared to annealed and polish W, and desorbs only at 800 °C, meaning ideal W material studies may underestimate T inventory for tokamak relevant conditions.

Accuracy of different modalities of reaction time testing: Implications for online cognitive assessment tools

Abstract: Reaction time testing is widely used in computerized cognitive assessments, and clinical studies have repeatedly shown it to be a sensitive indicator of cognitive function. Typically, the reaction time test is administered by presenting a subject with a visual stimulus on a computer monitor and prompting the individual to respond (via keypad or computer mouse) as quickly as possible. The individual’s reaction time is calculated as the interval between presentation of the stimulus and the time recorded from the mechanical response. However, there are many inherent latencies and variabilities that may be introduced to the measure by both hardware (computer monitor and mouse) and software (operating system). Because of these delays, we hypothesized that a comparison of hardware protocols (excluding human response) would demonstrate significant differences in the resulting reaction time measures. To simulate the delays of various components of the common systems used to obtain reaction time, we conducted a simple experiment in which either a visual or tactile stimulus evoked a movement from a mechanical transducer to respond to a computer peripheral or a dedicated response device. In the first condition, a simulated visual reaction time test was conducted by flashing a visual stimulus on a computer monitor. The stimulus was detected by a dedicated light sensor, and a linear actuator delivered the mechanical response via computer mouse. The second test condition employed a mobile device as the medium for the visual stimulus, and the mechanical response was delivered to the mobile device’s touchscreen. The third and fourth test conditions simulated tactile reaction time tests in which the stimulus was generated by a dedicated hardware device. The third condition simulated a tactile stimulus, which was detected by a mechanical switch, and again a hardware device delivered the response via computer mouse. The fourth condition also simulated a tactile stimulus, but the response was delivered by a dedicated hardware device designed to store the interval between stimulus delivery and stimulus response. There were significant differences in the range of responses recorded from the four different conditions with the reaction time collected from a visual stimulus on a mobile device being the worst and the device with dedicated hardware designed for the task being the best. The results suggest that some of the commonly used visual tasks on consumer grade computers could be introducing significant errors for reaction time testing and that dedicated hardware designed for the reaction time task is needed to minimize testing errors.

Anatomical Correlates and Surgical Considerations for Localized Therapeutic Hypothermia Application in Cochlear Implantation Surgery.

Abstract: Hypothesis Application of localized, mild therapeutic hypothermia during cochlear implantation (CI) surgery is feasible for residual hearing preservation. Background CI surgery often results in a loss of residual hearing. In preclinical studies, local application of controlled, mild therapeutic hypothermia has shown promising results as a hearing preservation strategy. This study investigated a suitable surgical approach to deliver local hypothermia in patients utilizing anatomical and radiologic measurements and experimental measurements from cadaveric human temporal bones. Methods Ten human cadaveric temporal bones were scanned with micro-computed tomography and anatomical features and measurements predicting round window (RW) visibility were characterized. For each bone, the standard facial recess and myringotomy approaches for delivery of hypothermia were developed. The St. Thomas Hospital (STH) classification was used to record degree of RW visibility with and without placement of custom hypothermia probe. Therapeutic hypothermia was delivered through both approaches and temperatures recorded at the RW, RW niche, over the lateral semicircular canal and the supero-lateral mastoid edge. Results The average facial recess area was 13.87 ± 5.52 mm. The introduction of the cooling probe through either approach did not impede visualization of the RW or cochleostomy as determined by STH grading. The average temperatures at RW using the FR approach reduced by 4.57 ± 1.68 °C for RW, while using the myringotomy approach reduced by 4.11 ± 0.98 °C for RW. Conclusion Local application of therapeutic hypothermia is clinically feasible both through the facial recess and myringotomy approaches without limiting optimal surgical visualization.

Automated Full C-Band Technique for Fast Characterization of Subsea Open Cable G-SNR

Abstract: We introduce a technique to automatically characterize the OSNR and the G-SNR of a submarine optical cable and then we increase the symbol rate up to 95 GBd to reduce the total measurement time.

Evolution of High Capacity Submarine Open Cables

Abstract: We review the recent and ongoing transformations of submarine optical communication networks into high capacity Open Cables following Shannon principles in terms of spatial diversity.

Automatic Ambiguity Detection

Abstract: Most work on sense disambiguation presumes that one knows beforehand -- e.g. from a thesaurus -- a set of polysemous terms. But published lists invariably give only partial coverage. For example, the English word tan has several obvious senses, but one may overlook the abbreviation for tangent. In this paper, we present an algorithm for identifying interesting polysemous terms and measuring their degree of polysemy, given an unlabeled corpus. The algorithm involves: (i) collecting all terms within a k-term window of the target term; (ii) computing the inter-term distances of the contextual terms, and reducing the multi-dimensional distance space to two dimensions using standard methods; (iii) converting the two-dimensional representation into radial coordinates and using isotonic/antitonic regression to compute the degree to which the distribution deviates from a single-peak model. The amount of deviation is the proposed polysemy index

Method and apparatus for CIoT device data transfer

Abstract: A non-access stratum (NAS) control protocol includes procedures for control plane cellular internet of things (CP-CIoT) service requests and attach request. UE in idle mode may transmit an NAS service request message including user data to a mobility management entity (MME) over the control plane. The MME extracts the user data from the NAS service request message and determines a type of the user data. The MME may forward non-IP data to a Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF) and forward IP data to a packet gateway.

Improved Differentially Private Decentralized Source Separation for fMRI Data

Abstract: Blind source separation algorithms such as independent component analysis (ICA) are widely used in the analysis of neuroimaging data. In order to leverage larger sample sizes, different data holders/sites may wish to collaboratively learn feature representations. However, such datasets are often privacy-sensitive, precluding centralized analyses that pool the data at a single site. In this work, we propose a differentially private algorithm for performing ICA in a decentralized data setting. Conventional approaches to decentralized differentially private algorithms may introduce too much noise due to the typically small sample sizes at each site. We propose a novel protocol that uses correlated noise to remedy this problem. We show that our algorithm outperforms existing approaches on synthetic and real neuroimaging datasets and demonstrate that it can sometimes reach the same level of utility as the corresponding non-private algorithm. This indicates that it is possible to have meaningful utility while preserving privacy.

Methods, apparatuses, and systems for providing transfer block indication in uplink grant-free transmissions

Abstract: A system, apparatus, method, and non-transitory computer readable medium for providing transfer block indications in uplink (UL) grant-free transmissions may include a memory having computer readable instructions stored thereon, and at least one processor configured to execute the computer readable instructions to transmit a first transport block (TB) to a base station (BS) during a first transmission time interval (TTI) using a grant-free UL transmission, receive a UL grant from the BS in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) region during a time window, determine a target of the UL grant, the target including at least one of the first TB, a second TB, or a previously transmitted TB, based on the UL grant, and transmitting the target of the UL grant to the BS.

The critical role of N-vacancy on chemical composition fluctuations and degradation of InAlN layer

Abstract: Due to its intrinsic properties and the possible lattice match to GaN, InAlN is expected to allow the fabrication of optimal high electron mobility transistors for high power and high frequency applications. However, the crystal quality of InAlN nearly lattice-matched to GaN degrades when the layer thickness is increased, and this is a strong limitation for the fabrication of devices in which thick barriers need to be used. In this work, we have carried out a detailed theoretical investigation of the behavior of indium atoms in the alloy. It is clearly shown that in the presence of nitrogen vacancies, which are common defects in these materials, indium nitride clusters will present excess formation energy up to diameters around 1.4 nm. In parallel, Z-contrast TEM observations close to the InAlN/GaN interface show that 2–5 nm size indium rich areas form and are systematically connected to the vertical degradation channels. This is at variance with published results, which concluded that the observed degradation was exclusively either due to the underlying threading dislocations or due to a characteristic three-dimensional growth mode.

Device and user equipment to process a channel state information reference signal

Abstract: A device to process a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS and further data to be transmitted via a first radio module of a radio communications network, in which data to be transmitted is mapped on subcarriers and in the radio module subsequently up-converted to a radio frequency higher than the subcarrier frequencies is provided. The subcarriers are grouped into frequency subbands, and at least one subband is scalable with at least one subband parameter for a period of time. A subband parameter is in particular a subcarrier spacing, and in at least one subband at least two different parameters, in particular subcarrier spacings, can be used.

Security-on-demand architecture

Abstract: A first security service function chain is generated that identifies at least a first service function path comprising an identified set of security service functions, with at least one of the identified set of security service functions comprising a virtualized network function in a software defined networking (SDN) network architecture. The first security service function chain is utilized to create classification policies associating packets of a given packet type with the first security service function chain, and the first service function path is utilized to create forwarding policies specifying handling of packets of the given packet type by respective ones of the identified set of security service functions. The classification policies are provided to one or more nodes in a communication network comprising the SDN network architecture, and the forwarding policies are provided to one or more of the identified set of security service functions in the communication network.

Optical transport system employing direct-detection self-coherent receivers and compatible transmitters

Abstract: An optical WDM system configured to use direct detection of communication signals that is compatible with electronic CD compensation on a per-channel basis. In an example embodiment, to enable full (e.g., amplitude and phase) electric-field reconstruction at the receiver, the optical WDM system uses a carrier-frequency plan according to which the carrier-frequency comb used at one end of the WDM link and the carrier-frequency comb used at the other end of the WDM link are offset with respect to one another by one half of the bandwidth of an individual WDM component transmitted therethrough. This frequency offset places each local carrier frequency at a roll-off edge of the corresponding incoming data-modulated signal. As a result, the corresponding combined optical signal beneficially lends itself to direct detection that can be followed by full electric-field reconstruction using a known self-coherent Kramers-Kronig method and then by conventional electronic CD compensation.

Autonomous localization in wireless networks

Abstract: The present disclosure generally discloses an autonomous localization capability configured to determine the localization of a mobile device of a wireless communication network based on a sequence of observations reported by the mobile device and a model that represents the motion and observations of mobile devices of the wireless communication network. The model that represents the motion and observations of the mobile devices may be a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) constructed based on use of localization information to define the hidden states of the and use of signal strength measurement reporting information to define possible observations. The localization problem for determining a localization of a given mobile device then becomes a maximum a posterior problem represented by the HMM, which may be solved using a particle filter based localization algorithm using localization probability distribution information which may be determined based on signal strength measurement reporting information.

Unified security architecture

Abstract: A security service function chain is created including a set of security service functions The security service function chain is created in response to instantiation of a given network partition (eg, network slice) in a communication network (5G or similar network) The communication network supports instantiation of a plurality of network partitions for providing a respective plurality of network services The security service function chain is utilized to perform at least one security service (eg, authentication) for an entity (eg, a subscriber or a device) accessing or seeking access to a network service (eg, one of eMBB, massive IoT, and mission-critical IoT) corresponding to the given network partition

Method for hybrid precoding and communication device

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method for hybrid precoding and a communication device. For example, at a communication device in a wireless communication system, a plurality of signals associated with a pilot are received from a plurality of antennas of a further communication device over a wireless channel. Then, angle-domain characteristics of the wireless channel are determined based on the plurality of signals, and spatial correlation characteristics of the wireless channel is determined based on the determined angle-domain characteristics. Moreover, since complete channel state information is no longer needed in determining the spatial correlation characteristics of the wireless channel, the pilot-related signals shorten in the time are sent from the transmitter end to the receiver end. There is further disclosed a communication device capable of implementing the above method.