This book provides an introduction to telecommunications network engineering, including voice, data, and mobile cellular systems. It takes a non-technical approach to explain the variety of technologies and services available to users as a result of rapid growth and deregulation of the telecommunications business. Readers learn how the different technologies work, how telecommunication networks operate, and what options can best be utilized.

This book analyses the role of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Business Intelligence (BI) systems in improving information quality through an empirical analysis carried out in Italy. The study begins with a detailed examination of ERP features that highlights the advantages and disadvantages of ERP adoption. Critical success factors for ERP implementation and post-implementation are then discussed, along with the capabilities of ERP in driving the alignment between management accounting and financial accounting information.The study goes on to illustrate the features of BI systems and to summarize companies' needs for BI. Critical success factors for BI implementation are then presented, along with the BI maturity model and lifecycle. The focus of the research entails a detailed empirical analysis in the Italian setting designed to investigate the role played by ERP and BI systems in reducing information overload/underload and improving information quality by influencing the features of information flow. The practical and theoretical implications of the study are discussed and future avenues of research are suggested. This book will be of value for all those who have an interest in the capacities of ERP and BI systems to enhance business information quality.

Continuous improvements in technological applications have allowed more opportunities to develop systems with user-focused designs. This not only leads to higher success in day-to-day usage, but it increases the overall probability of technology adoption. Design Solutions for User-Centric Information Systems provides a comprehensive examination of the latest strategies and methods for creating technological systems with end users as the focal point of the design process. Highlighting innovative practices and applications across a variety of areas, such as cloud-based computing services, e-government adoption, and logistics evaluation, this book is an ideal reference source for computer engineers, practitioners, project managers, graduate students, and researchers interested in the enhancement of user-centric information system development.

The advancement of technology is a standard of modern daily life, whether it be the release of a new cellphone, computer, or a self-driving car. Due to this constant advancement, the networks on which these technologies operate must advance as well. Innovations in Software-Defined Networking and Network Functions Virtualization is a critical scholarly publication that observes the advances made in network infrastructure through achieving cost efficacy while maintaining maximum flexibility for the formation and operation of these networks. Featuring coverage on a broad selection of topics, such as software-defined storage, openflow controller, and storage virtualization, this publication is geared toward professionals, computer engineers, academicians, students, and researchers seeking current and relevant research on the advancements made to network infrastructures.

This guide helps you protect networks from unauthorized access. It discusses counter security threats, optimum use of encryption, integrity checks, and uniqueness mechanisms.

Microelectromechanical sytems (MEMS) applications in RF and microwave electronics are revolutionizing wireless communications. This text provides a comprehensive explanation of the fabrication and fundamental physics of MEMS and their applications in electronic communication systems. The book integrates circuit fabrication technology, device design-oriented materials, mechanical and microwave considerations, and RF/microwave electronics to give engineers and managers a clear understanding of the potential and limitations of MEMS in electronic communications.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and the Internet of Things are facing tremendous advances both in terms of energy-efficiency as well as in the number of available applications. Consequently, there are challenges that need to be tackled for the future generation of WSNs. After giving an overview of the WSN protocols and IEEE 802.15.4 standard, this book proposes IEEE 802.15.4 Medium Access Control (MAC) sub-layer performance enhancements by employing not only RTS/CTS combined with packet concatenation but also scheduled channel poling (MC-SCP). Results have shown that the use of the RTS/CTS mechanism improves channel efficiency by decreasing the deferral time before transmitting a data packet. Furthermore, the Sensor Block Acknowledgment MAC (SBACK-MAC) protocol enables more efficiency as it allows the aggregation of several acknowledgement responses in one special Block Acknowledgment (BACK) Response packet. The throughput and delay performance have been mathematically derived under both ideal conditions (a channel environment with no transmission errors) and non-ideal conditions (with transmission errors). Simulation results successfully validate the proposed analytical models. This research reveals the importance of an appropriate design for the MAC sub-layer protocol for the desired WSN application. Depending on the mission of the WSN application, different protocols are required. Therefore, the overall performance of a WSN application certainly depends on the development and application of suitable e.g., MAC, network layer protocols.

This book introduces a number of recent developments on connectivity of communication networks, ranging from connectivity of large static networks and connectivity of highly dynamic networks to connectivity of small to medium sized networks. This book also introduces some applications of connectivity studies in network optimization, in network localization, and in estimating distances between nodes. The book starts with an overview of the fundamental concepts, models, tools, and methodologies used for connectivity studies. The rest of the chapters are divided into four parts: connectivity of large static networks, connectivity of highly dynamic networks, connectivity of small to medium sized networks, and applications of connectivity studies.

This timely text/reference presents a comprehensive review of the workflow scheduling algorithms and approaches that are rapidly becoming essential for a range of software applications, due to their ability to efficiently leverage diverse and distributed cloud resources. Particular emphasis is placed on how workflow-based automation in software-defined cloud centers and hybrid IT systems can significantly enhance resource utilization and optimize energy efficiency. Topics and features: describes dynamic workflow and task scheduling techniques that work across multiple (on-premise and off-premise) clouds; presents simulation-based case studies, and details of real-time test bed-based implementations; offers analyses and comparisons of a broad selection of static and dynamic workflow algorithms; examines the considerations for the main parameters in projects limited by budget and time constraints; covers workflow management systems, workflow modeling and simulation techniques, and machine learning approaches for predictive workflow analytics. This must-read work provides invaluable practical insights from three subject matter experts in the cloud paradigm, which will empower IT practitioners and industry professionals in their daily assignments. Researchers and students interested in next-generation software-defined cloud environments will also greatly benefit from the material in the book.

This is the first book to explore how Semantic Web technologies (SWTs) can be used to create intelligent engineering applications (IEAs). Technology-specific chapters reflect the state of the art in relevant SWTs and offer guidelines on how they can be applied in multi-disciplinary engineering settings characteristic of engineering production systems. In addition, a selection of case studies from various engineering domains demonstrate how SWTs can be used to create IEAs that enable, for example, defect detection or constraint checking. Part I "Background and Requirements of Industrie 4.0 for Semantic Web Solutions" provides the background information needed to understand the book and addresses questions concerning the semantic challenges and requirements of Industrie 4.0, and which key SWT capabilities may be suitable for implementing engineering applications. In turn, Part II "Semantic Web-Enabled Data Integration in Multi-Disciplinary Engineering" focuses on how SWTs can be used for data integration in heterogeneous, multi-disciplinary engineering settings typically encountered in the creation of flexible production systems. Part III "Creating Intelligent Applications for Multi-Disciplinary Engineering" demonstrates how the integrated engineering data can be used to support the creation of IEAs, while Part IV "Related and Emerging Trends in the Use of Semantic Web in Engineering" presents an overview of the broader spectrum of approaches that make use of SWTs to support engineering settings. A final chapter then rounds out the book with an assessment of the strengths, weaknesses and compatibilities of SWTs and an outlook on future opportunities for applying SWTs to create IEAs in flexible industrial production systems. This book seeks to build a bridge between two communities: industrial production on one hand and Semantic Web on the other. Accordingly, stakeholders from both communities should find this book useful in their work. Semantic Web researchers will gain a better understanding of the challenges and requirements of the industrial production domain, offering them guidance in the development of new technologies and solutions for this important application area. In turn, engineers and managers from engineering domains will arrive at a firmer grasp of the benefits and limitations of using SWTs, helping them to select and adopt appropriate SWTs more effectively. In addition, researchers and students interested in industrial production-related issues will gain valuable insights into how and to what extent SWTs can help to address those issues.

This book discusses harnessing the real power of cloud computing in optimization problems, presenting state-of-the-art computing paradigms, advances in applications, and challenges concerning both the theories and applications of cloud computing in optimization with a focus on diverse fields like the Internet of Things, fog-assisted cloud computing, and big data. In real life, many problems - ranging from social science to engineering sciences - can be identified as complex optimization problems. Very often these are intractable, and as a result researchers from industry as well as the academic community are concentrating their efforts on developing methods of addressing them. Further, the cloud computing paradigm plays a vital role in many areas of interest, like resource allocation, scheduling, energy management, virtualization, and security, and these areas are intertwined with many optimization problems. Using illustrations and figures, this book offers students and researchers a clear overview of the concepts and practices of cloud computing and its use in numerous complex optimization problems.

Broadband technology is ushering the telecom industry through a unique period of change with profound business implications for suppliers and users. This single source describes the four major broadband technologies that are shaping telecommunications networks: frame relay; optical fiber (including SONET); distributed queue dual bus (DQDB); and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM).

This book covers various algorithmic developments in the perfect reconstruction cosine/sine-modulated filter banks (TDAC-MDCT/MDST or MLT, MCLT, low delay MDCT, complex exponential/cosine/sine-modulated QMF filter banks), and near-perfect reconstruction QMF banks (pseudo-QMF banks) in detail, including their general mathematical properties, matrix representations, fast algorithms and various methods to integer approximations being recently a new transform technology for lossless audio coding. Each chapter will contain a number of examples and will conclude with problems and exercises. The book reflects the research efforts/activities and achieved results of the authors in the time period over the last 20 years.

Here's the first focused discussion of issues and technology in developing networked multimedia systems. This book includes a unique explanation of color specification and its role in achieving high picture quality, high compression ratio and high information retrieval performance, plus valuable coverage of principles and techniques of multimedia information indexing and retrieval critical for future systems.

Mass customization and personalization are widely appreciated as viable and promising strategies which aim to provide products and services that best serve individuals' personal needs with near mass production efficiency. ""Mass Customization for Personalized Communication Environments: Integrating Human Factors"" focuses on the customization of services and communication environments to advance user satisfaction and provide a total redefinition of the way goods and services are created or sold and customers and vendors interact. This authoritative collection of chapters offers relevant theoretical foundations, principles, methodologies, frameworks, and best practices within the field of research.

This book contains refereed papers from the 13th International Conference on GeoComputation held at the University of Texas, Dallas, May 20-23, 2015. Since 1996, the members of the GeoComputation (the art and science of solving complex spatial problems with computers) community have joined together to develop a series of conferences in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and the United States of America. The conference encourages diverse topics related to novel methodologies and technologies to enrich the future development of GeoComputation research.

This new and expanded monograph improves upon Mohan's earlier book, Residue Number Systems (Springer, 2002) with a state of the art treatment of the subject. Replete with detailed illustrations and helpful examples, this book covers a host of cutting edge topics such as the core function, the quotient function, new Chinese Remainder theorems, and large integer operations. It also features many significant applications to practical communication systems and cryptography such as FIR filters and elliptic curve cryptography. Starting with a comprehensive introduction to the basics and leading up to current research trends that are not yet widely distributed in other publications, this book will be of interest to both researchers and students alike.

Readers seeking to gain a handle on the internet's global expansion will find this book rich in scholarly foundations combined with cutting-edge discussion of emerging ICTs and services and the complex societal contexts in which they are embedded. To explore possibilities to the fullest extent, a sociotechnical systems approach is employed, focusing on the interplay of technical, social, cultural, political, and economic dynamics to explore alternative futures (ones that are not part of the dominant discourse about the internet). These shared perspectives are not well addressed elsewhere in current discussions. Awareness of these dynamics, and the fluidity of the future, is important, as humankind moves forward into the uncertain future. Due to the sociotechnical complexity of the Internet, policymakers, businesspeople, and academics worldwide have struggled to keep abreast of developments. This volume's approach is intended to stimulate dialogue between academics and practitioners on a topic that will affect most aspects of human life in the near-term future.

This thesis focuses on the problem of optimizing the quality of network multimedia services. This problem spans multiple domains, from subjective perception of multimedia quality to computer networks management. The work done in this thesis approaches the problem at different levels, developing methods for modeling the subjective perception of quality based on objectively measurable parameters of the multimedia coding process as well as the transport over computer networks. The modeling of subjective perception is motivated by work done in psychophysics, while using Machine Learning techniques to map network conditions to the human perception of video services. Furthermore, the work develops models for efficient control of multimedia systems operating in dynamic networked environments with the goal of delivering optimized Quality of Experience. Overall this thesis delivers a set of methods for monitoring and optimizing the quality of multimedia services that adapt to the dynamic environment of computer networks in which they operate.

This two-volume set focuses on fundamental concepts and design goals (i.e., a switch/router's key features), architectures, and practical applications of switch/routers in IP networks. The discussion includes practical design examples to illustrate how switch/routers are designed and how the key features are implemented. Designing Switch/Routers: Fundamental Concepts, Design Methods, Architectures, and Applications begins by providing an introductory level discussion that covers the functions and architectures of the switch/router. The first book considers the switch/router as a generic Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding device without placing emphasis on any particular manufacturer's device. The underlining concepts and design methods are not only positioned to be applicable to this generic switch/router, but also to the typical switch/router seen in the industry. The discussion provides a better insight into the protocols, methods, processes, and tools that go into designing switch/routers. The second volume explains the design and architectural considerations, as well as, the typical processes and steps used to build practical switch/routers. It then discusses the advantages of using Ethernet in today's networks and why Ethernet continues to play a bigger role in Local Area Network (LAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), and Wide Area Network (WAN) design. This book set provides a discussion of the design of switch/routers and is written in a style to appeal to undergraduate and graduate-level students, engineers, and researchers in the networking and telecoms industry, as well as academics and other industry professionals. The material and discussion are structured in such a way that they could serve as standalone teaching material for networking and telecom courses and/or supplementary material for such courses.

Wireless Information Highways provides an excellent introduction and balanced coverage of the most important topics related to the methodologies developed to support data management in asymmetric communication environments. This book is based on a number of self-contained chapters and provides an opportunity for practitioners and researchers to explore the connection between various computer science techniques and develop solutions to problems that arise in the rapidly emerging field of wireless networks.

Theory is considered to be the bedrock of academic research, often being viewed as the foundation upon which scientific enquiry is organized and built. Despite its ubiquity throughout information systems research, there is much that remains unknown about theory. The Handbook of Research on Contemporary Theoretical Models in Information Systems provides a comprehensive overview and coverage of various theories, models, and related approaches used within information systems research. A defining collection of field advancements, this Handbook of Research offers examples and descriptions of real-world applications of various theories based on empirical studies.

This book delivers concise coverage of classical methods and new developments related to indoor location-based services. It collects results from isolated domains including geometry, artificial intelligence, statistics, cooperative algorithms, and distributed systems and thus provides an accessible overview of fundamental methods and technologies. This makes it an ideal starting point for researchers, students, and professionals in pervasive computing. Location-based services are services using the location of a mobile computing device as their primary input. While such services are fairly easy to implement outside buildings thanks to accessible global positioning systems and high-quality environmental information, the situation inside buildings is fundamentally different. In general, there is no simple way of determining the position of a moving target inside a building without an additional dedicated infrastructure. The book's structure is learning oriented, starting with a short introduction to wireless communication systems and basic positioning techniques and ending with advanced features like event detection, simultaneous localization and mapping, and privacy aspects. Readers who are not familiar with the individual topics will be able to work through the book from start to finish. At the same time all chapters are self-contained to support readers who are already familiar with some of the content and only want to pick selected topics that are of particular interest.

This book presents different perspectives of online business education - how it is designed, delivered and how it supports advances in management disciplines. The authors describe online platforms in their provision of timely, excellent and relevant business education. The book starts by examining the emergence of online business education. It offers insights for use to business educators in design and implementation of online learning. It presents and discusses technologies for class facilitation and collaboration including tools used to bring content and issues to life. Disruptive approaches and new directions in online business education are examined. The book is ideal for business educators, administrators, as well as business practitioners that have an interest in delivering high quality business education using online platforms and tools. On the Line: Business Education in the Digital Age is divided into three sections. Section 1 presents papers on "why" business education is viable and sustainable in today's context. Treating education as a service, this section describes new techniques for creating a better online business education experience. It also looks at the role advanced data analytics can play in enhancing the quality of online business education. Section 2 delves into "how" online business education works. It presents conceptual models for teaching in specific disciplines, learning design that describes what business educators do and how programs work. This section also addresses performance assessments and quality assurance measures that help to demonstrate the efficacy of online pedagogy. Practical applied papers are used in this section to highlight the use of learning platforms, tools and their application specific to businesses that build knowledge and skills and make students 'work ready'. Finally Section 3 of the book addresses the "so what?" or the outcomes and impacts of online business education. This section targets where business education needs to take learning next, for example to support sustainable business, ethical decision making and inclusive and collaborative leadership. Chapters deal with topics such as how distributed online environments may work better to support knowledge and soft skill building directly relevant for organizations today. Other learning outcomes showing the value of online business education are discussed. Academics, alumni and consultants from over fifteen institutions and organizations around the world contributed to this book.