Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 99-102).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. [189]-198). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The flourishing development of the Internet and network applications in communications, business, and entertainment, has resulted in resource allocation difficulties among a seemingly unlimited number of users and more complex charging rate determinations. As an important part of the global economy, some of the currently used Internet pricing schemes, such as flat rate charging, lack economic and network efficiency. Furthermore, many cross-disciplinary issues have yet to be resolved in the Internet Pricing research area. After an overview of the representative charging schemes, this work introduces a well defined structure for a complete and comprehensive understanding of Internet pricing schemes. Moreover, an evaluation cube representing eight different perspectives is proposed to examine charging schemes. Based on the evaluation results, classifications of the surveyed charging schemes from the economics and technology perspectives are presented. A new charging scheme is proposed that integrates the advantages of existing schemes. Distance, application type, and congestion are considered in the charging rate determination. The scheme is very flexible as an Internet Service Provider can adjust the priorities of the charging factors to satisfy its own objectives. The new scheme is analyzed and evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. The results show the design objectives are met, and the scheme could be readily adopted by the Internet Service Providers.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri, Columbia, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aberdeen University, 2009. / Title from web page (viewed on Dec. 1, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

This thesis addresses the phenomena of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO): often MVNO do not come from the telecom sector but they rent the network to mobile operators to become fully mobile operators on their own. So they compete directly not only with the other mobile operators but also with their hosting mobile operator. Hosting MVNOs, supporting them from both operational and commercial perspectives are new challenges for the mobile operators: they have to set up a specific internal organization because they used to be a vertically integrated industrial structure. All of this represents tremendous changes for them. This thesis describes first the strategic models for hosting MVNOs. The regulatory aspects, that are an essential driver for the liberalization of network economies, are then analyzed. The key point is: are the MVNO able to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of mobile markets. Another important aspect is the modelling of a mobile network: the MVNOs will use some components while other components are unuseful for them. Without such model, it is impossible to derive the right costs and price to be charged to the MVNO in order to have a win win industrial model for both the MVNO and its hosting operator. A case study of a corporate MVNO focusing on needs of multinationals is analyzed. Such case study describes all the steps for an economic actor to become MVNO from scratch. Such MVNO are not yet present although there is a market demand. The last chapter makes a comparative study of the MVNO markets in the European Union. Cette étude aborde le phénomène des opérateurs de réseaux mobiles virtuels ; il s’agit d’acteurs économiques - parfois sans lien aucun avec les télécommunications - qui louent le réseau d’opérateurs mobiles ; ils deviennent à leur tour opérateurs à part entière au point de devenir concurrent non seulement des autres opérateurs mobiles mais aussi de l’opérateur mobile qui leur a loué une partie de son réseau. L’hébergement technique de l’opérateur virtuel, son support opérationnel et commercial, l’organisation que doit mettre en place l’opérateur mobile pour héberger son opérateur virtuel afin de partager avec lui son réseau sont des nouveaux défis auxquels les opérateurs mobiles, habitués à être des structures industrielles totalement intégrées verticalement, font face pour la première fois. Cette étude traite des modèles d’implémentation des opérateurs de réseaux mobiles virtuels : elle aborde d’abord les aspects stratégiques qui fixent le cadre pour les opérateurs mobiles qui veulent ou sont forcés à héberger des opérateurs virtuels. Les aspects réglementaires, une composante essentielle des économies de réseaux en voie de libéralisation, sont ensuite étudiés, en particulier, comment les opérateurs virtuels peuvent contribuer à améliorer la compétitivité et la libéralisation de ces marchés. L’étude modélise ensuite le réseau d’un opérateur mobile de façon à mettre en évidence les éléments à partager qui seront utilisés par l’opérateur virtuel. Cette modélisation est essentielle pour déterminer le coût de l’hébergement et du partage du réseau de façon à créer les conditions de rentabilité de ce modèle d’opérateur virtuel. On aborde enfin un cas d’étude d’un candidat à devenir opérateur de réseau mobile virtuel qui souhaite répondre à la demande transnationale des grandes entreprises. Ce type d’opérateur virtuel est encore inexistant de nos jours. Enfin, nous terminons par une étude comparée de la situation des opérateurs mobiles virtuels à travers l’Union Européenne.

Communication right is a form of copyright to regulate the communication of works, performances, and phonograms on an interactive on-demand basis by wire or wireless means. China has introduced its 2006 Network Regulations to protect communication right from the Internet Service Provider (ISP)’s infringement, with regard to ISP’s each functional role as content provider and non-content provider of access provider, host provider, and information location tool provider. This thesis will examine whether the Chinese protection of the communication right concerning ISP’s infringement is adequate to permit effective action against any infringement of the right, according to the WIPO Internet Treaties-standard. The method employed in this dissertation is to analyse the protection of the communication right with respect to five closely interrelated key issues that require elucidation in sequence, which are the framework of the right, the reproduction during the communication, the technical protection, the rules of limitations and exceptions, and the enforcement of the right. During each analysis, the relevant provisions of both the WIPO Internet Treaties and Chinese Copyright Law will be analysed. Afterwards, a comparison between the relevant provisions will be made to examine whether the Chinese protection satisfies the minimum standard of the WIPO Internet Treaties. As the WIPO Internet Treaties do not define the extent of the concrete protection at a national level, a further analysis, which is based upon the study of the Chinese legal practice, will be made to examine whether the Chinese protection is adequate to permit effective action against ISP’s act of infringement of the right. After the analysis and comparison, this thesis will assert that the protection of the communication right concerning ISP’s infringement under Chinese Copyright Law still remains inadequate, due to the legislative disadvantages within the three-level copyright system. This thesis will identify those disadvantages, with respect to ISP’s different functional roles, and make a concrete proposal for legislative reform.

The current Internet is a hierarchical architecture comprising heterogeneous entities of privately owned infrastructures, where higher tier Internet service providers (ISPs) supply connectivity to the lower tier ISPs and charge them for the transit service. One of the most challenging problems service providers facing today is how to increase the profitability while maintaining good service qualities as the network scales up. For the higher tier ISPs, the main concern is how to increase the profit by attracting more lower tier ISPs (or traffic), while the lower tier ISPs concern about the connectivity, quality of service as well as the cost of the transit service. In this thesis, we seek to understand the interaction between different hierarchies of ISPs. Note that the lower tier ISPs can transmit traffic to each other, either by purchasing the service from higher tier ISPs, or by setting "private peering links" between themselves. Higher tier ISPs, on the other hand, cannot charge the transit service at will since there is competition among higher tier ISPs. We model the interaction of these ISPs via a game theoretic approach. Under this competitive framework, we study the issues of (a) impact of private peering relationship among the lower tier ISPs, (b) resource allocation of the higher tier ISPs so that resource monopoly can be avoided, (c) under a competitive market, how can the higher tier ISPs perform revenue maximization, and (d) conditions wherein higher tier ISPs are willing to perform network upgrade when we scale up the network size. We divide the above investigation into single higher tier ISP and multiple higher tier ISPs scenarios. In each scenario, firstly, a generalized model is presented to characterize the behaviors of the lower tier and higher tier ISPs, in which their economic interests are reflected. We study how a lower tier ISP can distributively determine its optimal routing strategy. Furthermore, we show how a higher tier ISP is able to utilize the available information to infer its optimal pricing strategy, under which a revenue maximization is achieved. Two distributed algorithms are proposed to help them to provide a fair and efficient bandwidth allocation to lower tier ISPs. Last but not least, we investigate the above issues in a many-ISPs-regime, i.e. we scale up the network size. Our mathematical framework provides insights on the interaction among ISPs and show these ISPs can still gain profits as they upgrade the network infrastructures. Extensive simulations are carried out to quantify and support our theoretical claims. / Lee Cheuk Man. / "February 2008." / Adviser: John C. S. Lui. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: B, page: 4849. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-109). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.