Performance Studies of Multimedia Traffic in CDMA Cellular Network

The current generation of wireless cellular network is mostly used for voice communication. Although data services such as short message services (SMS) are available, voice communication still takes precedence. However, in the near future, it is anticipated that wireless communication is expected to handle multimedia traffic that is currently available on land networks. Multimedia traffic includes video services such as real time video and audio, voice services and data services similar to the ones available in the Internet. The cellular network carrying multimedia traffic is analysed in a single cell where Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) protocol is used for users to access the network simultaneously. The study is analysed for the reverse link communication, i. e., communication between the user and the base station. CDMA is used because of its merits in minimising the effect of interference, increasing cell capacity and high security features compared to other access technologies. The model inputs include co- channel interference, signal to noise ratio, bit error rate requirements, number of users, the channel access priority and threshold. Suitable assumptions to enable simulation are made. The model is simulated to see the impact of complementing data traffic along with voice and video traffic. The model is also simulated for synchronous transmission and asynchronous transmission of packets. The results shows that data traffic can be successfully complemented along with voice and video traffic without significantly degrading voice and video delay. Data traffic can tolerate delay but is loss sensitive. Data traffic delay can be used without suffering any loss, even by reducing the data access priority. The model also compared the effects of synchronous and asynchronous transmission. Synchronous transmission indicated an overhead in packet delay compared to asynchronous transmission. It is concluded from the work that voice, video and data traffic can be served in a cell simultaneously with asynchronous transmission. A higher bandwidth can assure a higher number of multimedia users in a asynchronous CDMA cellular network. The model will serve as a useful design tool

A multi-criteria decision making approach for responsible rural tourism

Involvement of multiple stakeholders in the decision making process for sustainable tourism cannot be denied. The tourism sector increasingly being pressured by policy makers and tourist demand to be more responsible in carrying out their activities. This is evident in rural tourism setting where tourist expectation demands experience of tourism activities in their natural setting. Rural tourism has been there for sometime but responsible rural tourism (RRT) practice are still at its infancy in Malaysia. Local communities have begun to demand for increased income and preservation of local values. These increased awareness and pressure requires a clear framework for stakeholders who operate in this rural setting to be more responsible in carrying out their activities. At present, in Malaysia RRT guidelines for authorities and business operators remain ambivalent. RRT indicators from stakeholders perspective need to be identified to assist in the decision making process. Indicators such as water quality, economic impact, social impact to local community, environmental degradation will be examined. Stakeholders are faced with a multi-criteria decision making process that will be explored in this research paper. This research aim is to explore the suitability of a multi-criteria decision making model for stakeholders to make decision with inclusion of all necessary indicators/criteria. The model is expected to assist decision makers in making calculated decision towards being responsible in rural tourism practices. RRT implementation is a complex problem and therefore requires a holistic means in approaching it. A multi-criteria approach is therefore significant to address the problem using critical realism as a theoretical lens that supports the use of mixed method design. A mixed method approach enables the blend of qualitative and quantitative approach enables the blend of qualitative and quantitative approach. The qualitative data is important to explore the current decision making practice of business operators, especially their perception towards stakeholder participation. The quantitative approach is required to extract the indicator values for the decision making tool

Multi-criteria decision making approach for responsible tourism management

National Parks and Marine protected areas in Malaysia have become increasingly exposed to ecotourism development activities. Greater accessibility and increase in leisure have contributed to an increase in ecotourism destinations visit. Exploitation by ecotourism and development activities has caused negative impacts to the natural resource of these destinations. Management of the protected areas becomes essential to the continuum of the biodiversity of that area which makes it attractive for tourists to visit. Management of the protected area is complex as the involvement of multiple stakeholders needs to be considered such as government agencies, non-government organisations, tourist operators, local community and interested parties. Hence, a review of the suitability of multi-criteria decision-making addressing the opinions of multiple stakeholders is investigated for the management of Tun Sakaran Marine Park (TSMP) in this paper. The first section introduces the current development of marine protected areas in Malaysia. The second section explores the use of multi-criteria decision-making approach in the management of marine protected areas. The use of this approach is significant as there is a growing number of literature that justifies the inclusion of multiple stakeholders' opinion in the decision making process. In the third section, Tun Sakaran Marine Park management policies are explored and the suitability of using a multi-criteria approach in its management is explored. It is proposed, that the multi-criteria approach using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) appears to be the right approach as it uses a hierarchical structure to breakdown the problems into smaller manageable units

Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) in marine protected area resource management: a review of methods

Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) is a general approach that has been applied to a wide range of natural resource management situations. Firstly, this paper aims to provide a critical review of MCDM methods applied to Marine Protected Area (MPA) and other natural resource management. The review seeks to layout the nature of the models, their inherent strengths and limitations. The second purpose is to describe new MCDM paradigms aimed at addressing the inherent complexity of managing coastal ecosystems, particularly with respect to multiple criteria, multi-stakeholders, and lack of information. Comments about, and critical analysis of, the limitations of traditional models are made to point out the need for, and propose a call to, a new way of thinking about MCDM as they are applied to MPA and natural resource management planning

Rural resources as tourism capital: the case of Setiu Wetlands

Rural resources are becoming increasingly subjected to pressure from impacts of economic, social, politics and environment. This paper examines the relationship of rural tourism resources and the advantages of adopting sustainable developments policies and strategies based on a case study in Setiu, Terengganu. Few significant steps are taken in deriving these strategies. The first step is identifying the rural capital available in Setiu. The second step is to establish a framework which interact links between rural resources and tourism capital. The third step is to look at the possible investors in rural capital and the final step is to look at the contribution of rural resources towards scaling-up rural tourism. This paper also highlights the profile of rural tourism by re-looking at the rural resource as an ‘asset’ of the rural tourism industry. This case study discusses some of the advantages of re-moulding the rural resource as ‘tourism capital’. An assumption which can be derived is that the rural resource as tourism capital offers a comprehensive and integrated understanding of the rural tourism production system. This will be beneficial if rural communities utilise the potential benefits and effectively handle rural resources. This framework will lead to higher growth utilising tourism capital and thus increasing the standard of living of rural community in Setiu

Rural resources as tourism capital: the case of Setiu Wetlands, Terengganu, Malaysia

Rural resources are subjected to pressure from impacts of economy, social, politics and environment. This paper examines the relationship of rural tourism resources and the advantages of adopting sustainable developments policies and strategies based on a case study in Setiu, Terengganu. A four-step strategy was employed in achieving the goals of this case study. The first step was identifying the rural capital available in Setiu. The second step was to determine the role of rural tourism capital in Setiu. The third step was to identify the possible investment potentials and challenges in rural capital and the final step was to examine the contribution of rural resources towards scaling-up the tourism industry in Setiu. This paper also highlights the profile of rural tourism by revisiting resources as an 'asset' of the tourism industry. This case study discusses some of the advantages of re-moulding the rural resource as 'tourism capital'. An assumption, which can be derived, is that the rural resource as tourism capital offers a comprehensive and integrated understanding of the rural tourism production system. This will be beneficial if rural communities utilise the potential benefits and effectively handle rural resources. This framework will lead to higher growth utilising tourism capital and thus increasing the standard of living of rural community in Setiu

A multicriteria decision making model for responsible management of marine protected area in Semporna Sabah: identification of decision making criteria

Marine Protected Area (MPA has always been a tool used to protect marine ecosystem that are in danger of being of its resources being over exploited or manage the ecosystem with a structure in place. Semporna has the most valuable Marine Protected Area in the east coast of Sabah. The marine parks in Semporna were gazetted for the very same reason. However, with the existence of community living within the marine park, management of the MPA requires approaches that are not conventional with MPAs without communities in them. The problems faced are multi facet and requires the marine park management to look at multiple criteria in their decision making process. The aim of this study is to identify criterions that are essential in the decision making process to manage the marine park responsibly by considering inputs of the relevant stakeholders. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 15 respondents to gather the management criterions. Seven areas were identified with a total of 94 criterions. The finding from this study will later be used to get consensus from the selected stakeholders on criterions that are relevant for decision-making. This is essential for the decision-making matrix using Analytical Hierarchical Process for a later stage of this study. to Protecting the ecosystem as well as maintaining the livelihood of community living within the park is essential in managing the park responsibly. Responsible Management is term that defines

Multi-criteria decision making analysis for responsible management of marine protected area in Semporna Sabah, Malaysia

This study aims to develop a multi-criteria decision making model to analyse and investigate stakeholders’ preferences in Marine Protected Area Management towards a responsible management approach in Semporna, Sabah. This study was driven by the challenges faced by Sabah Parks in Managing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Sabah Parks have to deal with resource conflicts that include stakeholders’ interests in the decision-making process. The objectives of this study are: (i) to identify the current practices for the responsible management of the MPAs in Semporna; (ii) to identify critical decision making criteria related to the responsible management of these MPAs; (iii) to develop a decision-making model to analyse the decision criteria preference towards responsible management of the MPA in Semporna. This study adopts an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach through the lens of a critical realist employing multi-criteria decision-making as the underpinning theory. Data was collected from two main sources, namely, stakeholders, and documents related to MPA management. This data was used in three stages. In the first two stages, the modified Delphi method was used to gather the background of MPA management and criteria relevant to decision making towards responsible management from a group of selected experts. An in-depth interview was conducted during the first stage, while a structured questionnaire was applied during the second. Thematic analysis was applied on the data during the first stage. Criteria reduction using a geometric mean was performed for the questionnaire in the second stage. In the third stage, the questionnaire using pairwise comparison was fed to the Analytical Hierarchical Model (AHP) to analyse stakeholder decision-making preferences. The key contributions of this study in addressing responsible MPA management in Semporna, Sabah include: (i) a methodological contribution in analysing stakeholder preferences using AHP; (ii) the identification of decision objectives and critical criteria in the decision making process towards responsible MPA management; and (iii) acquiring deeper insights on stakeholders’ perceptions and choice of management alternatives towards responsible MPA management. This study provides valuable insights on the issue related to MPA management, and on the perception of stakeholders on the manner in which MPAs in Semporna should be managed. The findings are of benefit to Sabah Parks in understanding the underlying conflicts that exist in the current management practice, and the expectations of stakeholders, especially the local community. Moreover, the findings provide better insights on core issues of responsible MPA management in a general sense, which focus on the human factor, rather than purely on ecological factors. This would enable policy makers and institutions that manage MPAs to evaluate current practices of MPA management, and consider including social factors in their decision-making processes

Selection of responsible management alternative for marine protected area using multi criteria decision analysis

The aim of this paper is to present the methodological approach in selecting the optimal responsible management approach in managing the Tun Sakaran Marine Park (TSMP), which is located off the east coast of Sabah. The selection of responsible management uses a multi-criteria decision making approach. The initial phase requires the elicitation of decision-making criteria from the relevant stakeholders involved in the decision making process. They include park managers, senior government officials and village heads. The modified Delphi technique will be used to identify the decision-making criteria grouped into three initial themes; the social, economic and environment. In the following phase, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) will be used to arrange the criteria in a hierarchical form. This is to enable the pairwise comparison of the criteria towards choosing an alternative that satisfies the goal of responsible management