136 research outputs found
Organisation and Communication Problems in Automotive Requirements Engineering
Project success in the automotive industry is highly influenced by Requirements Engineering (RE), for which communication and organisation structure play a major role, much due to the scale and distribution of these projects. However, empirical research is scarce on these aspects of automotive RE and warrants closer examination. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify problems or challenges in automotive RE with respect to communication and organisation structure. Using a multiple-case study approach, we collected data via 14 semi-structured interviews at one car manufacturer and one supplier. We tested our findings from the case study with a questionnaire distributed to practitioners in the automotive industry. Our results indicate that it is difficult but increasingly important to establish communication channels outside the fixed organisation structure and that responsibilities are often unclear. Product knowledge during early requirements elicitation and context knowledge later on is lacking. Furthermore, abstraction gaps between requirements on different abstraction levels leads to inconsistencies. For academia, we formulate a concrete agenda for future research. Practitioners can use the findings to broaden their understanding of how the problems manifest and to improve their organisations
A Review on Provisioning Quality of Service of Wireless Telemedicine for E-Health Services
In general, on-line medical consultation reduces time required for medical consultation induces
improvement in the quality and efficiency of healthcare services. All major types of current e-health applications such as ECG, X-ray, video, diagnosis images and other common applications have been included in the scope of the study. In addition, the provision of Quality of Service (QoS) for the application of specific healthcare services in e-health, the scheme of priority for e-health services and the support of QoS in wireless networks and techniques or methods for IEEE 802.11 to guarantee the provision of QoS has also been assessed.
In e-health, medical services in remote locations such as rural healthcare centers, ambulances, ships as well as
home healthcare services can be supported through the applications of e-health services such as medical
databases, electronic health records and the routing of text, audio, video and images. Given this, an adaptive
resource allocation for a wireless network with multiple service types and multiple priorities have been
proposed. For the provision of an acceptable QoS level to users of e-health services, prioritization is an
important criterion in a multi-traffic network. The requirement for QoS provisioning in wireless broadband
medical networks have paved the pathway for bandwidth requirements and the real-time or live transmission
of medical applications. From the study, good performance of the proposed scheme has been validated by the
results obtained. The proposed wireless network is capable of handling medical applications for both normal
and life-threatening conditions as characterized by the level of emergencies. In addition, the bandwidth
allocation and admission control algorithm for IEEE 802.16- based design specifically for wireless
telemedicine/e-health services have also been presented in the study. It has been concluded that under busy
traffic conditions, the proposed architecture can used as a feasible and reliable infrastructure network for
telemedicine
Barriers to implementation of the (SA) National Cybersecurity Policy Framework
Thesis (M.M. (Security))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2016Technological advancement have seen South African government departments, state owned entities and private companies using cyberspace as a platform of interaction and the storage of information. Technological advancements have a positive impact due to the compression of space, time and thereby ensuring fastpaced interaction across borders. These technological advancements have, however resulted in most organisations, both private and public, becoming prone to cybercrimes and related incidents. In an initiative aimed at countering these threats, the South African government has passed various laws. The National Cybersecurity Policy Framework (NCPF) is a South African Policy framework aimed at countering an increase in the occurrence of cybercrimes and related incidents.
This research analyses the status in the implementation of the NCPF objectives allocated to the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS). Then the barriers in the Implementation are unpacked guided by the literature reviewed and finally recommendations on how to counter the identified barriers are provided post the data collection. The report firstly provides an outline of the global perspectives on cybersecurity which is followed by the regional cybersecurity measures, and then the national cybersecurity measures proposed by the South African Government department are outlined. The latter parts of the report focuses on the NCPF in terms of its scope, goals, objectives and stakeholders. Finally, focus is shifted to the DTPS as a chosen area of research wherein data was collected in a form of one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with relevant parties.
The results of this research are presented as a narrative description that is synthesised to develop the theoretical conjecture and empirical generalisation of the entire research. This research uncovered that there are numerous barriers in the implementation of the NCPF both within the DTPS as well as between the DTPS and various stakeholders entrusted with the implementation responsibility. The last chapter consists of general conclusions made by the researcher based on the research conducted which is then followed by recommended countermeasures which will be communicated to the DTPS as well as all stakeholders who will be affected by the proposed recommendations.GR201
Requirement engineering best practices for Malaysian public sector
Although a variety of ICT standards have been developed as a guide for IT Managers, the Malaysian Public Sector is in tandem by developing new policies for them. The need of Requirement Engineering Best Practices for IT Manager is to produce an appropriate Software Requirement Specification. The proposed Requirement Engineering Best Practices aims to be a standard for the Malaysian Public Sector. The need of the standard is to resolve identified complexity during software project development. The complexity of present Requirement Engineering models and standard is either too specific or too general. These models do not meet the Public Sector’s requirement and the IT Manager depends on other proposed solution or does not use any Requirement Engineering models and standard. The complexity of present software process drives the Malaysian Public Sector to create several committees for monitoring the implementation of software project. It also includes several rules and policy. The rules and policy were prepared by different or multiple agencies and is complex to understand. The proposed software projects have to go through several levels of software project approval. This process is repeated and really took times to be approved. These complexities can be overcome with a proposal of Requirement Engineering Best Practices Guideline. The development of Requirement Engineering Best Practices Guideline is implemented based on the Requirement Engineering Best Practices Guideline Research Framework. This framework used with mixed method. Qualitative techniques were used for interview, refinement and validation. Meanwhile, quantitative techniques were used for the survey. Target respondents for this research are IT Managers in the Malaysian Public Sector. The guideline also consists of identified requirement processes: Software Project Approval Process, Software Requirement Specification Approval Process, Software Requirement Specification Activity Diagram and Software Requirement Specification Development Procedure. The proposed best practices is developed using the mutation and the mapping process between defined Requirement Engineering Process, Software Project Success Factor and Requirement Engineering Critical Issues which were explained in Requirement Engineering Best Practices Framework. This guideline also aligns with the ICT standard. The Requirement Engineering Best Practices had been tested with a pilot test by selected IT Managers and the actual survey had been randomly distributed to IT Manager in Malaysian Public Sector. Furthermore, the guideline had been refined by ICT experts using Delphi techniques. The proposed guideline fulfilled the criteria: completeness, sufficiency, reliability and acceptance. This compliance was validated by selected ICT experts who have different backgrounds and experiences. The proposed guideline will guide IT Managers in implementing the requirement gathering process and will also improve the Software Requirement Specification Process
Facilitating Flexible Link Layer Protocols for Future Wireless Communication Systems
This dissertation addresses the problem of designing link layer protocols
which are flexible enough to accommodate the demands offuture wireless
communication systems (FWCS).We show that entire link layer protocols with
diverse requirements and responsibilities can be composed out of
reconfigurable and reusable components.We demonstrate this by designing and
implementinga novel concept termed Flexible Link Layer (FLL)
architecture.Through extensive simulations and practical experiments, we
evaluate a prototype of the suggested architecture in both
fixed-spectrumand dynamic spectrum access (DSA) networks.
FWCS are expected to overcome diverse challenges including the continual
growthin traffic volume and number of connected devices.Furthermore, they
are envisioned to support a widerange of new application requirements and
operating conditions.Technology trends, including smart homes,
communicating machines, and vehicularnetworks, will not only grow on a
scale that once was unimaginable, they will also become the predominant
communication paradigm, eventually surpassing today's human-produced
network traffic.
In order for this to become reality, today's systems have to evolve in many
ways.They have to exploit allocated resources in a more efficient and
energy-conscious manner.In addition to that, new methods for spectrum
access and resource sharingneed to be deployed.Having the diversification
of applications and network conditions in mind, flexibility at all layers
of a communication system is of paramount importance in order to meet the
desired goals.
However, traditional communication systems are often designed with specific
and distinct applications in mind. Therefore, system designers can tailor
communication systems according to fixedrequirements and operating
conditions, often resulting in highly optimized but inflexible
systems.Among the core problems of such design is the mix of data transfer
and management aspects.Such a combination of concerns clearly hinders the
reuse and extension of existing protocols.
To overcome this problem, the key idea explored in this dissertation is a
component-based design to facilitate the development of more flexible and
versatile link layer protocols.Specifically, the FLL architecture,
suggested in this dissertation, employs a generic, reconfigurable data
transfer protocol around which one or more complementary protocols, called
link layer applications, are responsible for management-related aspects of
the layer.
To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, we have designed
andimplemented a prototype of the FLL architecture on the basis ofa
reconfigurable software defined radio (SDR) testbed.Employing the SDR
prototype as well as computer simulations, thisdissertation describes
various experiments used to examine a range of link layerprotocols for both
fixed-spectrum and DSA networks.
This dissertation firstly outlines the challenges faced by FWCSand
describes DSA as a possible technology component for their construction.It
then specifies the requirements for future DSA systemsthat provide the
basis for our further considerations.We then review the background on link
layer protocols, surveyrelated work on the construction of flexible
protocol frameworks,and compare a range of actual link layer protocols and
algorithms.Based on the results of this analysis, we design, implement, and
evaluatethe FLL architecture and a selection of actual link layer
protocols.
We believe the findings of this dissertation add substantively to the
existing literature on link layer protocol design and are valuable for
theoreticians and experimentalists alike
Architectures for the Future Networks and the Next Generation Internet: A Survey
Networking research funding agencies in the USA, Europe, Japan, and other countries are encouraging research on revolutionary networking architectures that may or may not be bound by the restrictions of the current TCP/IP based Internet. We present a comprehensive survey of such research projects and activities. The topics covered include various testbeds for experimentations for new architectures, new security mechanisms, content delivery mechanisms, management and control frameworks, service architectures, and routing mechanisms. Delay/Disruption tolerant networks, which allow communications even when complete end-to-end path is not available, are also discussed
An Empirical Investigation of Using Models During Requirements Engineering in the Automotive Industry
Context:The automotive industry is undergoing a major transformation from a manufacturing industry towards an industry that relies heavily on software. As one of the main factors for project success, requirements engineering (RE) plays a major role in this transition. Similar to other areas of automotive engineering, the use of models during RE has been suggested to increase productivity and tackle increasing complexity by means of abstraction. Existing modelling frameworks often prescribe a variety of different, formal models for RE, trying to maximise the benefit obtained from model-based engineering (MBE). However, these frameworks are typically based on assumptions from anecdotal evidence and experience, without empirical data supporting these assumptions.Objective:The overall aim of our research is to investigate the potential benefits and drawbacks of using model-based RE in an automotive environment based on empirical evidence. To do so, we present an investigation of the current industrial practice of MBE in the automotive industry, existing challenges in automotive RE, and potential use cases for model-based RE. Furthermore, we explore two use cases for model-based RE, namely the creation of behavioural requirements models for validation and verification purposes and the use of existing trace models to support communication.Method:We address the aims of this thesis using three empirical strategies: case study, design science and survey. We collected quantitative and qualitative data using interviews as well as questionnaires.Results:Our results show that using models during automotive RE can be beneficial, if restricted to certain aspects of RE. In particular, models supporting communication and stakeholder interaction are promising. We show that the use of abstract models of behavioural requirements are considered beneficial for system testing purposes, even though they abstract from the detailed functional requirements. Furthermore, we demonstrate that existing data can be understood as a model to uncover dependencies between stakeholders. Conclusions:Our results question the feasibility to construct and maintain large amounts of formal models for RE. Instead, models during RE should be used for a few, important use cases. Additionally, MBE can be used as a means to understand existing problems in software engineering
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