33 research outputs found

    Early 21st Century Russian Naval Strategy at Europe‘s Southern Maritime Flank:Continental Power, Fleet Design and Naval Operations

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    This thesis “Early 21st Century Russian Naval Strategy at Europe‘s Southern Maritime Flank: Continental Power, Fleet Design and Naval Operations” examines Russian naval strategy at Europe's southern tier in the period 2000-2019, focusing on the Black Sea, Sea of Azov and Mediterranean Sea regions, and secondarily on the Caspian Sea and the Horn of Africa. Drawing on theories of seapower and geopolitics, it argues that the continental nature of the Russian state and its navy served as the driving force behind Russian naval strategy during the first two decades of the 21st century. Using, among others, archive research, data gathered through Lloyd's Intelligence and interviews, the thesis examines the nature of the early 21st century Russian state; the Russian Federation's policies related to the maritime domain; Russian naval arms procurement; and naval operations from 2000 to 2015.<br/

    Marketing in the Digital Environment

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    The textbook contains provisions that reveal the main points of marketing in the digital environment and the basic tools necessary for a marketer to successfully implement a variety of projects on the Internet. In particular, the types of Internet business, business models and characteristics of creating a business in the Internet environment, Internet marketing, development and promotion of web resources. It provides analysis of the practical aspects that illustrate the theoretical positions of marketing in the digital environment. The publication contains a series of practical exercises, cases and tests to assess the level of knowledge. It is recommended for students of economics and specialities in the field of Internet business, marketers, teachers, graduate students, as well as a wide range of readers interested in marketing in the digital environment

    Youth and Memory in Europe

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    What kind of historical narratives are young people exposed to and what do they make of them? This volume brings together humanities and social sciences scholars in a study of youth and memory in different European regions. It explores the connections between the historical narratives expressed by young people and the broader, multifaceted historical narratives mediated by their cultures

    Edge/Fog Computing Technologies for IoT Infrastructure

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    The prevalence of smart devices and cloud computing has led to an explosion in the amount of data generated by IoT devices. Moreover, emerging IoT applications, such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), intelligent transportation systems, and smart factories require ultra-low latency for data communication and processing. Fog/edge computing is a new computing paradigm where fully distributed fog/edge nodes located nearby end devices provide computing resources. By analyzing, filtering, and processing at local fog/edge resources instead of transferring tremendous data to the centralized cloud servers, fog/edge computing can reduce the processing delay and network traffic significantly. With these advantages, fog/edge computing is expected to be one of the key enabling technologies for building the IoT infrastructure. Aiming to explore the recent research and development on fog/edge computing technologies for building an IoT infrastructure, this book collected 10 articles. The selected articles cover diverse topics such as resource management, service provisioning, task offloading and scheduling, container orchestration, and security on edge/fog computing infrastructure, which can help to grasp recent trends, as well as state-of-the-art algorithms of fog/edge computing technologies

    Telecommunications Networks

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    This book guides readers through the basics of rapidly emerging networks to more advanced concepts and future expectations of Telecommunications Networks. It identifies and examines the most pressing research issues in Telecommunications and it contains chapters written by leading researchers, academics and industry professionals. Telecommunications Networks - Current Status and Future Trends covers surveys of recent publications that investigate key areas of interest such as: IMS, eTOM, 3G/4G, optimization problems, modeling, simulation, quality of service, etc. This book, that is suitable for both PhD and master students, is organized into six sections: New Generation Networks, Quality of Services, Sensor Networks, Telecommunications, Traffic Engineering and Routing

    IV Міжнародний науковий конгрес "Society of Ambient Intelligence - 2021" (ISCSAI 2021). Кривий Ріг, Україна, 12-16 квітня 2021 року

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    IV Міжнародний науковий конгрес "Society of Ambient Intelligence - 2021" (ISCSAI 2021). Кривий Ріг, Україна, 12-16 квітня 2021 року - матеріали.IV International Scientific Congress “Society of Ambient Intelligence – 2021” (ISCSAI 2021). Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, April 12-16, 2021 - proceedings

    Factors impeding the usage of elearning at a telecommunication organization in South Africa: bridging the gap with cloud services

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    With the enormous competition in the industry, organizations must frequently find better ways to embrace organizational learning. This research study advocates eLearning to be one of the best methods for organizational learning, and this is the study’s main area of interest. This research explored a case at a telecommunication organization named ComTek (pseudonym). The research study addressed a problem of eLearning low usage rate, which resulted in ComTek not meeting their set learning targets during the time of the study. The usage rate was measured using the number of enrolled assessments. The study uses qualitative methods to propose a conceptual framework to understand the causes of low eLearning usage. This conceptual framework illustrated the use of the activity theory elements to understand the problem of eLearning low usage, paired with the use of cloud computing services to access eLearning, and the use of content delivery techniques to help understand eLearning low usage. This conceptual framework took advantage of cloud services like Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This research study focused on the periods from 2016 to 2017 for collecting data and creating an understanding of the research setting, while other data was derived from historical documents about the phenomenon studied. During this period, there was inadequate literature about cloud computing and other aspects to consider within the domain of telecommunication organizations. The literature study, therefore, comprised of literature from different domains. During the study, ComTek used eLearning with the aid of learning management systems (LMS) to manage learning and leverage employee skills. During the period of the study compared to other years, about 50% of assessments had a usage rate of below 80%, a standard target established by ComTek as a benchmark, placing compliance and training at a low rate. Of the 50% of assessments, some were just above 40% in usage rate, were of a high stake, and were in the categories of compliance and training iv assessments. While this was the case, this study did not consider the technical implementation of the application systems involved, and did not create any form of intervention, but focused on understanding the activities that were involved in the learning environment. This research study used a paradigm that was constructive and interpretive in nature, using qualitative methods with the belief that there were multiple realities in understanding the situation at ComTek and possible solutions to it. To unpack the multiple realities, an exploratory case study was conducted as a research approach. In this study, the researcher used multiple data collection methods, including open-ended questionnaires and unstructured interviews.School of Computin

    Mecanismos para controlo e gestão de redes 5G: redes de operador

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    In 5G networks, time-series data will be omnipresent for the monitoring of network metrics. With the increase in the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the next years, it is expected that the number of real-time time-series data streams increases at a fast pace. To be able to monitor those streams, test and correlate different algorithms and metrics simultaneously and in a seamless way, time-series forecasting is becoming essential for the pro-active successful management of the network. The objective of this dissertation is to design, implement and test a prediction system in a communication network, that allows integrating various networks, such as a vehicular network and a 4G operator network, to improve the network reliability and Quality-of-Service (QoS). To do that, the dissertation has three main goals: (1) the analysis of different network datasets and implementation of different approaches to forecast network metrics, to test different techniques; (2) the design and implementation of a real-time distributed time-series forecasting architecture, to enable the network operator to make predictions about the network metrics; and lastly, (3) to use the forecasting models made previously and apply them to improve the network performance using resource management policies. The tests done with two different datasets, addressing the use cases of congestion management and resource splitting in a network with a limited number of resources, show that the network performance can be improved with proactive management made by a real-time system able to predict the network metrics and act on the network accordingly. It is also done a study about what network metrics can cause reduced accessibility in 4G networks, for the network operator to act more efficiently and pro-actively to avoid such eventsEm redes 5G, séries temporais serão omnipresentes para a monitorização de métricas de rede. Com o aumento do número de dispositivos da Internet das Coisas (IoT) nos próximos anos, é esperado que o número de fluxos de séries temporais em tempo real cresça a um ritmo elevado. Para monitorizar esses fluxos, testar e correlacionar diferentes algoritmos e métricas simultaneamente e de maneira integrada, a previsão de séries temporais está a tornar-se essencial para a gestão preventiva bem sucedida da rede. O objetivo desta dissertação é desenhar, implementar e testar um sistema de previsão numa rede de comunicações, que permite integrar várias redes diferentes, como por exemplo uma rede veicular e uma rede 4G de operador, para melhorar a fiabilidade e a qualidade de serviço (QoS). Para isso, a dissertação tem três objetivos principais: (1) a análise de diferentes datasets de rede e subsequente implementação de diferentes abordagens para previsão de métricas de rede, para testar diferentes técnicas; (2) o desenho e implementação de uma arquitetura distribuída de previsão de séries temporais em tempo real, para permitir ao operador de rede efetuar previsões sobre as métricas de rede; e finalmente, (3) o uso de modelos de previsão criados anteriormente e sua aplicação para melhorar o desempenho da rede utilizando políticas de gestão de recursos. Os testes efetuados com dois datasets diferentes, endereçando os casos de uso de gestão de congestionamento e divisão de recursos numa rede com recursos limitados, mostram que o desempenho da rede pode ser melhorado com gestão preventiva da rede efetuada por um sistema em tempo real capaz de prever métricas de rede e atuar em conformidade na rede. Também é efetuado um estudo sobre que métricas de rede podem causar reduzida acessibilidade em redes 4G, para o operador de rede atuar mais eficazmente e proativamente para evitar tais acontecimentos.Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e Telemátic

    IT service management: process capability, process performance, and business performance

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    As technology is at the core of almost every leading industry, organizations are increasingly scrutinizing their Information Technology (IT) group’s performance so that it is more in line with overall business performance and contributes to the business’ bottom line. Many IT departments are not equipped to meet these increasing IT service demands. They continue to operate as passive-reactive service providers, utilizing antiquated methods that do not adequately provide the quality, real-time solutions that organizations need to be competitive. Organizations need efficient Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) processes in order to cut costs, but ironically, in order to implement highly capable processes, there are significant costs involved, both in terms of time and resources. A potential way to achieve better performing and higher capable processes is to employ methods to compare an organization’s processes against best-practice standards to identify gaps and receive guidance to improve the processes. Many of the existing methods require large investments. Holding back progress towards best practice for financial benefit in the IT industry is the reluctance of many IT organizations to embrace the business side (specifically Service Portfolio Management and IT Financial Management) aspects of ITSM. Service Portfolio Management (SPM) is used to manage investments in Service Management across an organization, in terms of financial values. SPM enables managers to assess the quality requirements and associated costs. IT Financial Management aims to provide information on the IT assets and resources used to deliver IT services. Providing a Service Portfolio and practicing IT Financial Management requires a high level of maturity for an organization. It seems reasonable and logical that the organization’s Chief Information Officer should be able to articulate and justify the IT services provided, report the costs (by service) incurred in delivering these services, and can communicate the demand for those services, that is, how they are being consumed and projections on how they will be consumed in the future. However, a major investment in terms of time and resources may be needed to catalogue such information and report on it. The research problem that this paper addresses is the lack of a pragmatic model and method that associates ITSM process maturity (process capability and performance) with financial performance for organizations that lack mature ITSM processes. Previous studies have reported on cost savings, but there is currently no measurement model to associate ITSM maturity with financial profitability; which in turn prompts the research question: How can the association of ITSM process capability and process performance with financial performance of an organization be determined? This research iteratively develops and applies a measurement model that presents a pragmatic and cost-effective method to link ITSM process capability and process performance with business performance by operationalizing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to support Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and associating CSFs with business risks to determine business performance. This study employs a scholar-practitioner approach to changing/improving processes using action research and an adaptation of the Keys to IT Service Management Excellence Technique (KISMET) model to guide the process improvement initiative. This technique leads to the second research question: How can the ITSM measurement framework be demonstrated for CSI? The research was based on a single case study of a global financial services firm Company X that had implemented the ITIL® framework to improve the quality of its IT services. The study found that the measurement framework developed can be used as a starting point for self-improvement for businesses, identifying gaps in processes, benchmarking within an organization as well as guiding an organization’s process improvement efforts. The measurement model can be used to conduct What-If analyses to model the impacts of future business decisions on KPIs and CSFs. The measurement model presented in this study can be quickly implemented, adapted and evolved to meet the organization’s needs. The research offers an example from which other organizations can learn to measure their financial return on investment in ITSM improvement

    Оценка социальной значимости проектов структурных элементов сетей операторов связи

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    Разработка методики определения социальной значимости проектов структурных элементов сетей операторов связи. Во время проведения исследований показано, что для определения комплексной оценки проекта необходимо учитывать экономическую и социальную эффективност
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