Management system requirements for wireless systems beyond 3G

This paper presents a comprehensive description of various management system requirements for systems beyond 3G, which have been identified as a result of the Software Based Systems activities within the Mobile VCE Core 2 program. Specific requirements for systems beyond 3G are discussed and potential technologies to address them proposed. The analysis has been carried out from network, service and security viewpoints

Customer-engineer relationship management for converged ICT service companies

Thanks to the advent of converged communications services (often referred to as ‘triple play’), the next generation Service Engineer will need radically different skills, processes and tools from today’s counterpart. Why? in order to meet the challenges of installing and maintaining services based on multi-vendor software and hardware components in an IP-based network environment. The converged services environment is likely to be ‘smart’ and support flexible and dynamic interoperability between appliances and computing devices. These radical changes in the working environment will inevitably force managers to rethink the role of Service Engineers in relation to customer relationship management. This paper aims to identify requirements for an information system to support converged communications service engineers with regard to customer-engineer relationship management. Furthermore, an architecture for such a system is proposed and how it meets these requirements is discussed

Active networks: an evolution of the internet

Active Networks can be seen as an evolution of the classical model of packet-switched networks. The traditional and ”passive” network model is based on a static definition of the network node behaviour. Active Networks propose an “active” model where the intermediate nodes (switches and routers) can load and execute user code contained in the data units (packets). Active Networks are a programmable network model, where bandwidth and computation are both considered shared network resources. This approach opens up new interesting research fields. This paper gives a short introduction of Active Networks, discusses the advantages they introduce and presents the research advances in this field

Managing ubiquitous eco cities: the role of urban telecommunication infrastructure networks and convergence technologies

A successful urban management system for a Ubiquitous Eco City requires an integrated approach. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated, transparent and open decision making mechanism and necessary infrastructure and technologies. Rapidly developing information and telecommunication technologies and their platforms in the late 20th Century improves urban management and enhances the quality of life and place. Telecommunication technologies provide an important base for monitoring and managing activities over wired, wireless or fibre-optic networks. Particularly technology convergence creates new ways in which the information and telecommunication technologies are used. The 21st Century is an era where information has converged, in which people are able to access a variety of services, including internet and location based services, through multi-functional devices such as mobile phones and provides opportunities in the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities. This paper discusses the recent developments in telecommunication networks and trends in convergence technologies and their implications on the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities and how this technological shift is likely to be beneficial in improving the quality of life and place. The paper also introduces recent approaches on urban management systems, such as intelligent urban management systems, that are suitable for Ubiquitous Eco Cities

A sustainable village phone model to serve the rural developing world

Wireless technologies have created an unprecedented opportunity for rural customers in the developing world to solve their communication and information problems in an instantaneous, interactive and customized way. The framework of the study focuses on existing mobile village phone model in Bangladesh and suggests ways to make it sustainable through mobile information services marketing. The study has treated ‘village phone’ as a cost effective and interactive channel through which various time befitting information can be marketed to serve customers in the rural settings

Network Externalities and Critical Mass in the Mobile Telephone Network: a Panel Data Estimation

This paper develops a simple demand model with network externalities which allow us to identify the shape of the network externalities function in the mobile telephone market and to estimate the critical mass. If the mobile telephone network exhibits positive network externalities, we expect that the demand curve is not downward sloping everywhere but it has an increasing part, the critical mass of the installed base of subscribers. Once the critical mass is reached, the growth of the network is self-sustaining. We use a panel data of the 30 OEDC Countries from 1989 to 2006 for estimating the relationship between price of 3-minute cellular call and the installed base of subscribers; we find strong network externalities effects in mobile telephone market which drive the demand curve for this network good to be an inverted U function. Moreover, given that the concavity of the demand curve depends on the extent of network externalities, the idea is to identify some variables which could affect the intensity of network effects in the mobile telephone market, because the more concave the demand curve is, sooner the critical mass is reached for any price. This may have important implications for producers in terms of initial investment and marketing strategies which they have to do to attain the critical mass.Network Externalities, Mobile Telecommunication, Critical Mass

Delivering knowledge in the field: A telecommunications service provision and maintenance case

This paper proposes a novel approach to providing knowledge management services in a business process wherein field engineers are the main process actors, providing and maintaining telecommunications services. Cooperating multi-agents play a central role for the provision of knowledge management services by integrating heterogeneous systems to collect related knowledge for the execution of mobile tasks. The proposed system is expected to increase both the performance of the mobile workforce and customer satisfaction by supporting and encouraging knowledge sharing

Predicting Fraud in Mobile Phone Usage Using Artificial Neural Networks

Mobile phone usage involves the use of wireless communication devices that can be carried anywhere, as they require no physical connection to any external wires to work. However, mobile technology is not without its own problems. Fraud is prevalent in both fixed and mobile networks of all technologies. Frauds have plagued the telecommunication industries, financial institutions and other organizations for a long time. The aim of this research work and research publication is to apply 3 different neural network models (Fuzzy, Radial Basis and the Feedforward) to the prediction of fraud in real-life data of phone usage and also analyze and evaluate their performances with respect to their predicting capability. From the analysis and model predictability experiment carried out in this scientific research work, it was discovered that the fuzzy network model had the minimum error generated in its fraud predicting capability. Thus, its performance in terms of the error generated in this fraud prediction experiment showed that its NMSE (Normalized mean squared error) for the fraud predicted was 1.98264609. The mean absolute error (M AE = 15.00987244) for its fraud prediction was also the least; this showed that the fuzzy model fraud predictability was much better than the other two models

Estimation of network externalities and critical mass in the mobile telephone market: a panel data analysis of the OECD countries

Network Externalities, Mobile Telecommunication, Critical Mass