A harmonic balance approach for the qualitative analysis of limit cycles occurring in CNNs

The characteristics of limit cycles in CNNs composed by a finite number of cells are investigated through a suitable harmonic balance technique. It is proved that for a CNN described by the template [/spl alpha//sub -1/, /spl alpha//sub 0/, /spl alpha//sub 1/] such a technique leads to a set of no more than 6 nonlinear equations, regardless of the number of cells. The method allows us to predict all the main features of spatio-temporal periodic oscillations and yields results that are in good agreement with those observed by the time-simulation of the network.