Magíster en Gestión y Dirección de Empresas / El trabajo de tesis que tiene en este momento en sus manos, consiste en el diseño de un plan de negocios, que define el modelo adecuado en el desarrollo de un emprendimiento en el área de la salud, que se encuentre apalancado en el uso intensivo de tecnología existente, siendo esta, parte esencial del desarrollo de actividades y de la propuesta a los clientes. Esto se define bajo el fuerte impulso que han tomado los avances tecnológicos en imágenes y modelamiento dentro del área de la salud. La cadena de centro de imágenes dentales, I-EXMED desarrollará sus actividades basadas en cualquier elemento o herramienta que se pueda ejecutar desde la obtención de imágenes digitalizadas desde equipos radiológicos y scanners, dando así el origen a sus tres unidades de negocio: Imágenes, Modelamiento 3D y Formación. La primera de ellas se explica por sí sola, resumiéndose en obtención de imágenes, siendo la segunda la unidad con la cual se quiere marcar diferencia en el mercado actual, al estar insertando la tecnología de impresión 3D a la industria, no tan solo para desarrollar modelos que apoyen la planificación y toma de decisiones frente a intervenciones, sino también el desarrollo de prótesis, que puedan ser accesibles a una mayor cantidad de personas y con procesos más simples. En el campo de Formación, se pretende que I-EXMED sea un centro de desarrollo, discusión y difusión de conocimiento. Los elementos diferenciadores, dentro de la propuesta de modelo de negocio, están en los medios tecnológicos tanto para desarrollar productos y servicios, y a su vez como punto de generación de contacto con los diversos tipos de clientes y así conformar el vínculo que toda organización debiese tener con ese eslabón tan importante dentro de cualquier cadena, esto gracias al desarrollo actual de IoT (Internet of Things). Es así, como este elemento diferenciador, es transversal a los diversos puntos tocados durante el diseño del modelo de negocio, como lo son el levantamiento de estrategias, la identificación y caracterización de clientes, la estrategia de marketing y la estrategia de operaciones. Finalmente, una vez desarrollados todos los levantamientos de carácter de diseño y estratégicos, se evaluó financieramente la iniciativa mediante los indicadores tradicionales. En vista de los resultados frente a un horizonte de evaluación de 10 años, VAN negativo levemente sobre los mil millones de pesos en un escenario sin expansión, y en el caso de escenario con expansión un VAN negativo cercano a los dos mil millones de pesos, se decretó la inviabilidad económica del emprendimiento, lo cual es atribuido principalmente a los altos niveles de inversión e inconvenientes en la determinación de la demanda, que hagan sustentable en el análisis la propuesta de negocio.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyse the positive impact of digitization on the production environment and challenges that may come along with digitalization. This study goes further on to looking into how to increase the use of digital tools. Method: The method used in this study is mainly based on an interview study, where interviews are carried out with expertise of the field of digitization. Literature study was used to compliment the interview study with previous scientific studies on the field. The literature used is based on scientific articles, reports, government reports and relevant previous studies related to the subject. Results: The results from the interview study showed that the use of digital tools had positive impact on the construction stage. The most important benefit of digitization is the information management. There are also economical and work environmental benefits as well as higher work productivity. However, there are no exact figures showing these profits. The result also shows what challenges can be encountered and how these challenges can be best avoided. In addition, this study highlights how the industry should go about increasing the use of digital tools. Conclusion: The conclusions that can be drawn are that digitization has positive impact in construction, but challenges can arise. These challenges can be avoided through cooperation between companies and participantes to achieve a more digitized construction stage.

Digitalisering och dess möjligheter blir en viktigare del inom fastighetsbranschen. Antalet uppkopplade enheter skapar nya affärsmodeller och analyser för resurseffektivitet och hållbar utveckling men står inför stora utmaningar som säkerhet och interoperabilitet. Fastighetsägare kan nyttja sensorer, automatisering och taggar för att skapa ett bättre inomhusklimat och lägre kostnader. Studien undersöker möjligheter och utmaningar med IoT och IT-plattformar som kan bidra till ett mer hållbart samhälle. Genom att studera branschorganisationen Sveriges Allmännytta och hur de kan nå ut till ett stort antal medlemsföretag kan vi framhäva hur fastigheter kan utvecklas med hjälp av Internet of Things. Resultatet visar att teknologin har en positiv påverkan vid bra implementering gällande energianvändning och hållbarhet men även på människan som bor eller vistas i byggnaden. Arbete för gemensamma standard och interoperabilitet av system ökar innovationskraft och möjlighet för fler företag att ta sig in på marknaden. / The digitalization and its potential is taking a more important role within real estate. The amount of connected devices create new business models and analyzes for better resource efficiency and sustainability but face big challenges such as security and interoperability. Real estate owners can utilize sensors, automation and tags to create a better bioclimate och lower costs. The study researches the opportunities and challenges regarding IoT and IT-platforms that can contribute to a sustainable society. By studying the bransch organisation Sveriges Allmännytta och how they can reach a great amount of affiliated companies, we can emphasize buildings can be improved through Internet of Things. The result shows a positive impact when it’s implemented correctly regarding the energy use and sustainability but also on the residents in the building. The work for standards and interoperability of system increases innovation and the possibility for more companies to enter the market.

This thesis contributes to the development of distributed networks proposing: • a technique to enhance the reliability of DV routing protocols; • a critical analysis of the integration of blockchains in distributed networks. First, a novel algorithm for the distributed computation of the Load Centrality (LC), a graph centrality metric, is proposed and then applied for steering the optimization of the route recovery process of Distance-Vector (DV) routing protocols: this way the algorithm contributes to the enhancement of the network reliability. The algorithm convergence is proved also identifying time complexity bounds that are later confirmed by computer simulations. The proposed algorithm is designed as an extension to the Bellman-Ford one and can thus be integrated with any DV routing protocol. An implementation of the algorithm in Babel, a real world DV protocol, is provided in support of this claim. Then an application of the algorithm is presented: the LC is used to find an optimal tuning for the generation frequency of the Babel control messages. This tuning technique effectively reduces the impact of losses consequent to random node failures in the emulations of several real world wireless mesh networks, without increasing the control overhead. A second version of the algorithm is designed to be incrementally deployable. This version can be deployed gradually in production networks also by uncoordinated administrators. When only a fraction of nodes is upgraded so to participate in the protocol, these upgraded nodes estimate their LC indexes approximating the theoretical ones. The approximation error is studied analytically and it is also shown that, even for low penetration ratios of upgraded nodes in the network, the algorithm accurately ranks nodes according to their theoretical centrality. The second contribution of the thesis is the critical discussion of the integration of blockchain technologies in distributed networks. An initial analysis of the literature concerning blockchain based applications reveals an ambiguity around the term "blockchain" itself. The term is used, apparently, to identify a number of similar but different technologies proposed to empower a surprisingly broad range of applications. This thesis prompts therefore the need of formulating a restrictive definition for the term blockchain, necessary for clarifying the role of the same blockchain in distributed networks. The proposed definition is grounded in the critical analysis of the blockchain from a distributed systems perspective: Blockchains are only those platforms that implement an open, verifiable and immutable Shared Ledger, independent of any trusted authority. Observing that the blockchain security grows with the amount of resources consumed to generate blocks, this thesis concludes that a secure blockchain is necessarily resource hungry, therefore, its integration in the constrained domain of distributed networks is not advised. The thesis draws recommendations for a use of the blockchain not in contrast with the definition. For example, it warns about applications that require data to be kept confidential or users to be registered, because the blockchain naturally supports the openness and transparency of data together with the anonymity of users. Finally a feasible role for the blockchain in the Internet of Things (IoT) is outlined: while most of the IoT transactions will be local and Off-Chain, a blockchain can still act as an external and decentralized platform supporting global transactions, offering an alternative to traditional banking services. The enhanced reliability of DV routing protocols encourages a wider adoption of distributed networks, moreover, the distributed algorithm for the computation of centrality enables applications previously restricted to centralized networks also in distributed ones. The discussion about the blockchain increases instead the awareness about the limits and the scope of this technology, inspiring engineers and practitioners in the development of more secure applications for distributed networks. This discussion highlights, for instance, the important role of the networking protocols and communication infrastructure on the blockchain security, pointing out that large delays in the dissemination of blocks of transactions make the blockchain more vulnerable to attacks. Furthermore, it is observed that a high ability to take control over the communications in the network favors eclipse attacks and makes more profitable the so called selfish mining strategy, which is detrimental to the decentralization and the security of blockchains. The two main contributions of this thesis blended together inspire the exploitation of centrality to optimize gossip protocols, minimizing block propagation delays and thus the exposure of the blockchain to attacks. Furthermore, the notion of centrality may be used by the community of miners to measure the nodes influence over the communication of blocks, so it might be used as a security index to warn against selfish mining and eclipse attack.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / Nowadays, due to climate change and many other facts affecting daily life a trend to use eco-friendly transportation ways has arisen, and from them the one mostly used and with the highest acceptance is biking. Therefore, several companies have emerged offering bike-sharing systems, and those systems have been greatly accepted in the different metropolises around the world. The generalization of these systems has created a new need: to manage them efficiently. Consequently, in this work, we propose a software architecture and the implementation of a bike-sharing management system using the Internet of things (IoT). / Revisión por pares