The current issue of the IETE Journal of Research (Vol.65, No.5, September–October 2019) contains 16 articles. These articles present ongoing research and developments taking place in the broad areas of Electromagnetics, Signal Processing, Biomedical Engineering, Power systems, VLSI and Control Engineering.
The paper on “A Half-Mode SIW Cavity-Backed Semi-Hexagonal Slot Antenna for WBAN Application,” presents the design of a half-mode substrate integrated waveguide (HMSIW) antenna for the 5.8 GHz medical radio band. Such a design achieves the requirement of miniaturization and efficiency of on-body performance with HMSIW. The fabrication and performance analyses of the antenna on animal tissues in terms of radiation efficiency and absorption rate are presented. Based on the results, a case is made for its use in wireless body area network applications.
In “A Method for the Computational Frequency Sweep Analysis of Nonlinear ODEs using GPU Acceleration,” parallel algorithms are presented for performing sweep analysis of nonlinear ordinary differential equations in one or two dimensions using graphical processing unit. The computational power requirement in sweep analysis is thus addressed in this paper. Simulation studies on ODEs are performed by sweeping the variables of frequency, amplitude and equation coefficients. Performance comparisons are made between direct sequential computation, data parallel implementation and the given method and inferences are drawn about the computation time.
The next paper on “A Robust Syllable Centric Pronunciation Model for Tamil Text to Speech Synthesizer,” presents letter-to-sound mapping for Tamil language speech synthesizer. The intricacies of mapping are handled using a syllabic centric rule-based pronunciation model. The given rule-based method is compared with other methods in terms of character error rate, mean Levenshtein distance and mean similarity score.
In “Accelerating Dense Matrix Computations with Effective Workload Partitioning on Heterogeneous Architectures,” a dynamic method for workload partitioning is given for harnessing the computational resources of high performance computing (HPC) platforms more efficiently. The task of matrix multiplication by partitioning in CPU and GPU hybrid environment is discussed. The resource allocation strategy considers the heterogeneity of processing units in HPC systems. The method is compared with other static and linear methods for workload partitioning.
The paper titled “Design and Development of Cavity-Backed Reconfigurable Square Spiral Antenna,” presents the design of a reconfigurable square spiral antenna for two bands of 0.4 to 3 GHz and 4.4 to 5.9 GHz. The design uses a cavity-backed single arm square spiral microstrip antenna with frequency reconfiguration capability with PIN diodes. While the first band is relevant for mobile communications and Wi-Fi, the latter is relevant for Wi-Max and 802.11Y, WLAN and 802.11a/h/j/n/ac standards. The radiation efficiency, gain and directivity pattern measured from the fabricated antenna are presented.
The following paper titled “Gain Enhanced Miniaturized Microstrip Patch Antenna Using Metamaterial Superstrates,” presents the design of a high gain miniaturized microstrip antenna using metamaterial. A 2nd kind Hilbert fractal class of metamaterials are used for the superstrate design of a miniaturized antenna at 534 MHz operating frequency. The design details including that for gain enhancement for miniaturized antenna are presented. The antenna analysis and measured parameters from fabricated antenna are presented and discussed.
The paper on “Gene Expression Data Clustering Using Variance-based Harmony Search Algorithm,” presents a metaheuristic clustering method for the analysis of gene expression. Microarray field data is used to analyze the expression level of genes in biological processes. The performance is tested on real-life data sets and with prior clustering algorithms and inferences are drawn from the comparison study.
In “Healthcare Monitoring System and Analytics Based on Internet of Things Framework,” a healthcare monitoring system prototype based on IOT is presented. The temperature, pressure and pulse sensor data monitoring the physical body condition is used to classify healthy persons and persons with specific diseases. Results are presented for classifying such persons and comparison with conventional medical equipment based analyses are also discussed.
The following paper on “High-Q and Wide-Bandwidth Capacitor Multiplier Optimized by NSGA-II,” presents a multiplier topology using capacitor (C-multiplier) for 180 nm CMOS IC technology. A requirement for the on-chip capacitors implemented using active circuits for this purpose is that it should provide good frequency response and high-quality factor, consume low power and require less silicon area. The multi-objective design optimization is done using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II). The results of optimization are presented and analyzed. The designed C-multiplier is shown to achieve class AB performance and its comparison with a passive model of a real capacitor is presented.
The paper titled “Incipient Fault Diagnosis in Stator Winding of Synchronous Generator: A CMFFLC Technique,” gives an incipient fault diagnosis method for synchronous generators. The waveform signatures for healthy and unhealthy conditions are analyzed. A moth-flame optimization technique is used to extract signal structures for the different conditions. The performance of the diagnosis method is presented and compared with other methods from the literature.
The next paper on “Influence of Time Delay on Pull-in Behaviour of Dither Optical Phase-Lock Loop,” presents the analytical study of loop propagation delay on the pull-in behavior of dither optical phase-lock loop (OPLL). Inferences are drawn from this study such as the dependence of acquisition capability on the time delay associated with the loop filter. The paper also reports the tracking performance of dither OPLL in presence of various noise and other parameter variations using simulation studies that supplement the analytical studies.
In the paper “Multi-Functional Six Ports SIW Microwave Component for X-band Applications,” the authors present the design of a symmetric two-layer six-port multi-functional microwave component. By using different ports as the exciting port the function of the component is changed. The functions reported include equal power divider, unequal 90 degrees coupler, and equal coupler. The measured performance of the component is presented in the paper.
The next paper on “Optimal Design of Linear Antenna Arrays of Dipole Elements Using Flower Pollination Algorithm,” presents a synthesis method for the radiation characteristics of linear antenna arrays of dipole elements. The radiation patterns are optimized using the flower pollination algorithm. The paper presents simulation studies for different linear array configurations on the maximum side lobe level and main lobe beam width.
The following paper titled “Order Reduction of Linear Dynamic Systems by Improved Routh Approximation Method,” presents a Routh approximation method for model order reduction of linear time invariant systems. The approximation ensures stable reduced model if the original higher-order system is stable. Such a reduction is practically required to reduce the complexity of implementation without losing the control properties. Examples to illustrate the method are given and discussed. Performance comparison is also presented with various other model order reduction methods from the literature.
The paper on “Power System Advanced Scheduling Based on Advanced Thermal Rating,” studies the integration of dynamic thermal rating in power system scheduling to improve line load capacity utilization. The conductor temperature, safe running time and system power flow measures are used for advanced scheduling and predictive use of line thermal load capacity. The paper also reports the study of wind power forecast for wind turbine system scheduling. The performance improvements resulting from these scheduling methods are presented.
The paper titled “Smartphone-Based Telemedicine Supported by Pico-Satellite Constellation,” presents an architecture for telemedicine using small satellite constellations and software defined radio. The architecture is specifically suitable for environments where network coverage issues are predominant that would impede their use for telemedicine purposes. The specifications of such an architecture is presented.
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Shiban K Koul
Shiban Kishen Koul is Dr R P Shenoy Astra Microwave Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He served as Deputy Director (Strategy and Planning) at IIT Delhi from 2012–2016. Currently, he is the Mentor Deputy Director (Strategy&Planning and International affairs) at IIT Jammu. He is also the Chairman of Astra Microwave Products Limited, Hyderabad. His research interests include: RF MEMS, High Frequency Wireless Communication, Microwave Engineering, Microwave Passive and Active Circuits, Device modeling, Millimeter wave IC design and Reconfigurable microwave circuits including antennas. Completed 38 major sponsored projects, 52 consultancy projects and 60 Technology Development Projects. Authored 432 Papers, 9 state-of-the art books and 3 book Chapters. He holds 10 patents and 6 copyrights. He is a Fellow of IEEE, INAE and IETE. He is the Chief Editor of IETE Journal of Research, Associate Editor of the International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies, Cambridge University Press. He served as a Distinguished Microwave Lecturer of IEEE MTT-S for the period 2012–2014.
Recipient of numerous awards including IEEE MTT Society Distinguished Educator Award (2014); Teaching Excellence Award (2012) from IIT Delhi; Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Young Scientist Award (1986); Top Invention Award (1991) of the National Research Development Council for his contributions to the indigenous development of ferrite phase shifter technology; VASVIK Award (1994) for the development of Ka- band components and phase shifters; Ram Lal Wadhwa Gold Medal (1995) fromthe Institution of Electronics and Communication Engineers (IETE); Academic Excellence Award (1998) from Indian Government for his pioneering contributions to phase control modules for Rajendra Radar, Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Award (2009) in the field of Electronics and Information Technology, Teaching Excellence Award (2012) from IIT Delhi, Vasvik Award (2012) for the contributions made to the area of Information, Communication Technology (ICT) and M N Saha Memorial Award (2013) from IETE.