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Telecommunications Industry (telecommunication + industry)
Selected AbstractsOrganizational evolution of digital signal processing software developmentJOURNAL OF SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE AND EVOLUTION: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE, Issue 4 2006Susanna Pantsar-Syväniemi Abstract A base station, as a network element, has become an increasingly software-intensive system. Digital signal processing (DSP) software is hard real-time software that is a part of the software system needed in a base station. This article reports practical experiences related to organizing the development of embedded software in the telecommunication industry, at Nokia Networks. The article introduces the main factors influencing the development of DSP software and also compares the evolutionary process under study with both selected organizational models for a software product line and a multistage model for the software life cycle. We believe it is vitally important to formulate the organization according to the software architecture, and it is essential to have a dedicated development organization with long-term responsibility for the software. History shows that without long-term responsibility, there is no software reuse. In this paper we introduce a new organizational model for product line development. This new hybrid model clarifies long-term responsibilities in large software organizations with hundreds of staff members and formulates the organization according to the software architecture. Our case needs a couple more constraints to keep it in the evolution stage of the software life cycle. Thus, we extend the evolution phase in the multistage model to make it relevant for embedded, hard real-time software. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Middleboxes: Controllable media firewallsBELL LABS TECHNICAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2002Paul Sijben Internet technology is promised for the broadband multi-service future. However, it is unclear how this technology can bring service providers the needed revenue, since today this technology cannot provide basic quality guarantees for the services rendered. Generally, over-provisioning of the bandwidth is used to get the services to an acceptable level, but this is costly and cannot work in areas where high aggregation rates are necessary (such as the local loop). Today IP (router) technology lacks mechanisms for high-granularity access control, per-user accounting, and quality of service (QoS) policing. We believe that, for a service provider to deploy billable services, these issues need to be resolved. Only if access to the service is controlled and only when the network provides information about the usage of the network elements can next-generation services in the telecommunication industry, like voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia conferencing, be rolled out profitably. In this paper, we present a technology that can address these needs. We employ controllable firewalls that have the ability to prevent unwanted IP traffic from entering a network. Creating pinholes that allow individual calls (voice or real-time multimedia streams) in controllable firewalls can be done very fast and efficiently. Traditional firewalls have no such provisioning. Multiple application servers should be able to request pinholes to one or more controllable firewalls. This approach, while familiar from the public switched telephone network (PSTN), is a new paradigm for IP networks. © 2002 Lucent Technologies Inc. [source] Multi-Period Planning of Survivable WDM NetworksEUROPEAN TRANSACTIONS ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS, Issue 1 2000Mario Pickavet This paper presents a new heuristic algorithm useful for long-term planning of survivable WDM networks. A multi-period model is formulated that combines network topology design and capacity expansion. The ability to determine network expansion schedules of this type becomes increasingly important to the telecommunications industry and to its customers. The solution technique consists of a Genetic Algorithm that allows to generate several network alternatives for each time period simultaneously and shortest-path techniques to deduce from these alternatives a least-cost network expansion plan over all time periods. The multi-period planning approach is illustrated on a realistic network example. Extensive simulations on a wide range of problem instances are carried out to assess the cost savings that can be expected by choosing a multi-period planning approach instead of an iterative network expansion design method. [source] Characterization of the fire environments in central offices of the telecommunications industryFIRE AND MATERIALS, Issue 3 2003Archibald Tewarson Abstract Eight free burning and two sprinklered fire tests were performed with electrical cable trays and live digital switch racks in a large enclosure to simulate telecommunications central office (TCO) fires started by electrical overheating. Very-slow-growing (non-flaming), slower-growing (partially flaming) and low-intensity-faster-growing (flaming) fires releasing gray-white, gray, and black smoke, respectively, were observed in the tests. Under quiescent conditions present in the unvented enclosure fire tests for cables, very-slow-growing fires were detected in about 1452 s, whereas the slower-growing fires were detected in about 222 s by commercial fire detectors. Under ventilation conditions typical of TCOs, detection times were very similar for the five types of commercial TCOs fire detectors used in the tests. The average detection times for slower-growing fires (cable fires) and low-intensity-faster-growing fires (digital switch rack fires) were 242±17% and 249±11%s respectively. The TCO procedures to reduce smoke damage from fires (on fire detection, inlet ventilation flow is turned off and exhaust flow is turned on) were found to be beneficial. The extent of smoke damage decreased significantly with an increase in the exhaust flow rate. The chloride ion mass deposition suggested that equipment recovery would be possible in the smoke environment if the cable vapor concentration could be reduced below about 3 g/m3. The metal corrosion rate was found proportional to the 0.6th power of the smoke concentration, similar to that found for the corrosion of metal surfaces exposed to aqueous solutions of HCl and HNO3 and for acid rain with no protective layer at the surface. Sprinkler water was found to wash down the smoke deposits on the surfaces with little indication of corrosion enhancement. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Does Private Money Buy Public Policy?JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, Issue 3 2007Campaign Contributions, Regulatory Outcomes in Telecommunications To what extent can market participants affect the outcomes of regulatory policy? In this paper, we study the effects of one potential source of influence,campaign contributions,from competing interests in the local telecommunications industry, on regulatory policy decisions of state public utility commissions. Our work is unique in that we test the effects of campaign contributions on measurable policy outcomes. This stands in stark relief against most of the existing literature, which examines potentially noisier measures of policy outcomes,such as the roll-call votes of legislators, to examine how private money may influence public policy. By moving to more direct measures of policy effects, and using a unique new dataset, we find, in contrast to much of the literature on campaign contributions, that there is a significant effect of private money on regulatory outcomes. This result is robust to numerous alternative model specifications. We also assess the extent of omitted variable bias that would have to exist to obviate the estimated result. We find that for our result to be spurious, omitted variables would have to explain more than five times the variation in the mix of private money as is explained by the variables included in our analysis. We consider this to be very unlikely. [source] Work Relationships in Telephone Call Centres: Understanding Emotional Exhaustion and Employee WithdrawalJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 4 2002Stephen Deery This paper examines the nature of employment and the conditions of work in five telephone call centres in the telecommunications industry in Australia. Call centre work typically requires high levels of sustained interpersonal interaction with customers which can lead to burnout and employee withdrawal. Customer service staff can also become targets of customer hostility and abuse. In addition, this form of work tends to involve extensive employee monitoring and surveillance with little job discretion or variety of tasks. The paper draws upon survey data from 480 telephone service operators to identify the factors that are associated with emotional exhaustion and the frequency of absence amongst the employees. A modelling of the data using LISREL VIII revealed that a number of job and work-setting variables affected the level of emotional exhaustion of employees. These included interactions with the customer, a high workload and a lack of variety of work tasks. Moreover, higher rates of absence were associated with emotional exhaustion. [source] Below the tip of the iceberg: the co-evolution of formal and informal interorganizational relations in the wireless telecommunications industryMANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 5 2008Lori Rosenkopf We examine how alliances,formal, contractual interorganizational relations,co-evolve with emergent, informal interorganizational relations. To form alliances, firms must acquire information on potential partners, and the acquisition of this intelligence occurs through both formal and informal channels. Here we evaluate the effects of two of these informal channels: joint participation in cooperative technical organizations (CTOs) and director interlocks. Since director interlocks connect firms through the highest managerial levels while joint CTO participation connects firms through mid-level technical personnel, we examine whether each type of informal tie contributes to alliance formation as well as whether ties at multiple levels serve as complements or substitutes for this purpose. We also examine whether all types of ties,alliances, interlocks and CTO participation,co-evolve endogenously or whether there are more direct causal relationships between and among these various types of networks. We find that both interlocks and CTO participation facilitate alliance formation, yet interlocks only facilitate alliance formation when the common director serves as an officer in one of the firms. An additional distinction between the role of interlocks and CTO participation is that the relationship between interlocks and alliance formation appears endogenous, in contrast to CTO participation, which causally precedes alliance formation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The effectiveness of the telecommunications regulatory regime: the case of Sri Lanka telecomPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2006Asoka Balasooriya Abstract This article examines the telecommunications industry in Sri Lanka and assesses the effectiveness of regulatory arrangements associated with the liberalisation of the telecommunications industry, from a management point of view. The review focuses on the scope of services, price and the quality of services available to customers after the liberalisation. This study finds that, despite the early establishment of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) to monitor the telecommunications industry, its interventions have been only partially successful in making it conducive to service providers and customers. While liberalisation of the telecommunications industry has been favoured, the role of the regulator has been controversial with regard to its independence, impartiality, capability, transparency and accountability. We argue that the current model has failed to create favourable market conditions under the circumstances prevailing in the country, and hence a more appropriate model is yet to be developed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A Computer Implementation of the Separate Maintenance Model for Complex-system ReliabilityQUALITY AND RELIABILITY ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL, Issue 7 2006M. Tortorella Abstract Reliability modeling and quantitative reliability prediction for all but the simplest system architectures demands intensive computer support for the numerical computations required. Many commercial and academic reliability modeling software packages provide support for the Markov-chain state diagram system reliability model. Other system reliability models, such as those offering non-exponential life and/or repair time distributions, transient analysis, or other special handling, may sometimes be desirable. Users have fewer choices for software supporting these options. This paper describes SUPER, a software package developed at Bell Laboratories, which provides computational support for the separate maintenance model as well as for some other useful system reliability descriptions. SUPER is an acronym for System Used for Prediction and Evaluation of Reliability. The paper also includes a brief tutorial to assist practitioners with system reliability model selection, a review of the models contained in SUPER and their theoretical bases, and implementation issues. SUPER has been used in the telecommunications industry for over 15 years. The paper includes an example from this experience. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] INCENTIVE COMPATIBLE MECHANISM DESIGN AND FIRM GROWTH: EXPERIENCES FROM TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR REGULATIONANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2010Sumit K. Majumdar ABSTRACT**:,This article evaluates the impact of the introduction of incentive regulation on firm growth among the population of local exchange carriers in the US telecommunications industry between 1988 and 2001. The results show that the rate of return method and other intermediate incentive schemes have had a negative impact on firm growth. Conversely, the introduction of pure price caps schemes had a positive and significant impact on firms' growth. These results highlight the importance of proper and appropriate incentive compatible mechanism design in motivating firms to strive for superior performance. [source] | ||||||||||||||||