With a novel, less classical approach to the subject, the authors have written a book with the conviction that signal processing should be taught to be fun. The treatment is therefore less focused on the mathematics and more on the conceptual aspects, the idea being to allow the readers to think about the subject at a higher conceptual level, thus building the foundations for more advanced topics. The book remains an engineering text, with the goal of helping students solve real-world problems. In this vein, the last chapter pulls together the individual topics as discussed throughout the book into an in-depth look at the development of an end-to-end communication system, namely, a modem for communicating digital information over an analog channel.

The book has focussed on the different aspects of sensing technology, i.e. high reliability, adaptability, recalibration, information processing, data fusion, validation and integration of novel and high performance sensors specifically aims to use to inspect mechanical health of structure and similar applications. This book is dedicated to Sensing systems for Structural Health Monitoring offers to variety of users, namely, Master and PhD degree students, researchers, practitioners, especially Civil and Construction engineers. The book will provide an opportunity of a dedicated and a deep approach in order to improve their knowledge in this specific field.

The communication systems in aircrafts involve complicated wiring and increase the weight of aircrafts. Such wiring systems require more time for construction and lead to considerable time delay in fault location. When wiring problem occur, it is difficult to manage wired data transmission. In addition to the complexity of wires, many accidents have been reported due to faulty wiring in aircraft. To overcome these difficulties, researches are being carried out all over the world to develop an efficient wireless communication system. In this investigation, it is proposed to develop a design procedure for wireless communication system for aircrafts using space division multiple access technique. Noises from external sources interfere with the signals transmitted and the quality of the communication gets degraded. One of the aims of this research is to identify and eliminate the additive white Gaussian noise in the communication channel. Second aim is to establish interference free simultaneous transmission of multiple signals from different sources to the corresponding destinations. Third aim is to ensure that the signals do not get jammed and do not interfere with other onboard wireless systems. Thereby enhance the quality of wireless communication in the aircrafts. Aircraft wireless system design and indoor wireless network replace the existing indoor wired sensor network and reduce electrical wiring issues.In the proposed wireless system, radio signals from multiple wireless sensors using the space division multiple access technique increases the strength of transmission power and reduces electromagnetic signal interference. A new technique for identification and efficient transmission of signals from source to destination has been developed. The performance of proposed aircraft wireless communication model is investigated and validated for safe indoor propagation. This model enhances the overall capacity of the wireless communication system in the aircrafts.To improve the performance of the wireless communication the author has developed a new technology called avionics local area network protocol. This protocol increases strength of the signals before transmission to the receivers. Avionics local area network protocol offers solutions to interference between multiple wireless sensor signals, jamming of signals and interference with unintended signals. It also reduces wireless system issues and helps to manage the system efficiently. Simulation results of the aviolan protocol system confirm that the spectral efficiency of aircraft system is increased by improving the gain of the system. Secured wireless transmission techniques are needed to reduce indoor wiring failures in aircrafts. Efficient indoor propagation channel and high spectral efficiency are achieved for indoor wireless communication in the aircrafts by using avionics local area network protocol.

The unrelenting growth of wireless communications continues to raise new research and development problems that require unprecedented interactions among communication engineers. In particular, specialists in transmission and specialists in networks must often cross each other's boundaries. This is especially true for CDMA, an access technique that is being widely accepted as a system solution for next-generation mobile cellular systems, but it extends to other system aspects as well. Major challenges lie ahead, from the design of physical and radio access to network architecture, resource management, mobility management, and capacity and performance aspects. Several of these aspects are addressed in this volume, the fourth in the edited series on Multiaccess, Mobility and Teletraffic for Wireless Communications. It contains papers selected from MMT'99, the fifth Workshop held on these topics in October 1999 in Venezia, Italy. The focus of this workshop series is on identifying, presenting, and discussing the theoretical and implementation issues critical to the design of wireless communication networks. More specifically, these issues are examined from the viewpoint of the impact each one of them can have on the others. Specific emphasis is given to the evolutionary trends of universal wireless access and software radio. Performance improvements achieved by spectrally efficient codes and smart antennas in experimental GSM testbeds are presented. Several contributions address critical issues regarding multimedia services for Third-Generation Mobile Radio Networks ranging from high rate data transmission with CDMA technology to resource allocation for integrated Voice/WWW traffic.

This textbook takes a unified view of the fundamentals of wireless communication and explains cutting-edge concepts in a simple and intuitive way. An abundant supply of exercises make it ideal for graduate courses in electrical and computer engineering and it will also be of great interest to practising engineers.

Lamb waves are guided waves that propagate in thin plate or shell structures. There has been a clear increase of interest in using Lamb waves for identifying structural damage, entailing intensive research and development in this field over the past two decades. Now on the verge of maturity for diverse engineering applications, this emerging technique serves as an encouraging candidate for facilitating continuous and automated surveillance of the integrity of engineering structures in a cost-effective manner. In comparison with conventional nondestructive evaluation techniques such as ultrasonic scanning and radiography which have been well developed over half a century, damage identification using Lamb waves is in a stage of burgeoning development, presenting a number of technical challenges in application that need to be addressed and circumvented. It is these two aspects that have encouraged us to write this book, with the intention of consolidating the knowledge and know-how in the field of Lamb-wave-based damage identification, and of promoting widespread attention to mature application of this technique in the practical engineering sphere. This book provides a comprehensive description of key facets of damage identification technique using Lamb waves, based on the authors’ knowledge, comprehension and experience, ranging from fundamental theory through case studies to engineering applications.

With the increasing interest in entrepreneurship, a wealth of new ideas and technologies, and a need for new sources of revenue, the focus of this book is to provide insights on the process, elements, and activities needed for a university to successfully create new entrepreneurial ventures. The topics covered include: establishing the process itself, patents and copyrights, the role of incubators and accelerators, and funding sources for starting and growing the new ventures. This book provides the basics for a university to fulfill its third mission — to positively impact the well being of the surrounding area and the local, national, and world economies.

Significant changes have occurred in materials science, including increasing demands on life extensions, and the reliability and exploitability of components, materials, and structures. These changes provide smart technologies with excellent application opportunities in aerospace, civil and electrical engineering, transportation, manufacturing, com