This thesis investigates fraud and the situation on Internet with e-commerce today, to point on some potential threats and needed countermeasures. The work reviews several state of the art e-fraud schemes, techniques used in the schemes and statistics on the extent of e-fraud. This part shows that e-frauds are today both sophisticated and widespread. Since real world frauds are deemed impossible to fully cover in order to predict potential new e-frauds, the thesis adopts a different approach. It suggests two abstraction models for fraud cases, a protocol model and a functional model. These are used to perform analysis on case studies on both telecom frauds and e-frauds. The analysis presents characteristics for both types of frauds. Using one of the abstraction models, the functional model, conceptually similar cases among telecom frauds as well as e-fraud cases are identified. The similar cases in each category are then compared, using the other abstraction model, the protocol model. The study shows that concepts from telecom frauds already exist in e-frauds. Several challenges and some possibilities in e-fraud prevention and detection are also extracted in the comparative study of the different categories. The major consequence of the challenges is e-frauds’ higher scalability compared to telecom frauds. Finally, this thesis covers several existing countermeasures in e-commerce along with specific countermeasures against auction fraud, phishing and spam. However, it is shown that these countermeasures do not address the challenges in e-fraud prevention and detection to a satisfactory extent. Therefore, this thesis proposes several high-level countermeasures in order to address the challenges.

The research aim is to understand how the competitive intelligence (CI) process in large-scale Swiss telecom companies contributes to management decision-making. Studying CI activities of the Swiss large-scale telecom firms (Swisscom, Sunrise, Orange/Salt, Cablecom) in a dynamic European context offers useful insight into the critical challenges that service firms now face when developing intelligence in disruptive market contexts where aggressive competitive behaviour is evident. In considering CI theory, this study has reviewed perspectives drawn from research on the CI process, studies on knowledge management and work on systems thinking. In extending the predominant modular view of CI to include elements of systems thinking, this study has added to our academic understanding of CI at firm level. An Integrative CI Activities framework was developed that enables a more holistic perspective of CI to be adopted, taking account of operational, organisational and strategic perspectives. A diagram representing the range of CI analysis methodologies has also been generated, that differentiates between internal/external orientation and static/dynamic forms of CI analysis. Such frameworks can be used by CI researchers in other market contexts. The methodology for this study drew on a pragmatist philosophy, using a case study strategy that adopted mixed methods in data collection, including semi-structured depth interviews with top CI Analysts in each firm. Findings have shown differences in the scope of CI Activities that link to stages of CI development (developing, developed) and variation between headquarters-centred and firm-centred approaches to CI planning and implementation. The adoption of query based, flexible analysis approaches in firm-centred settings differ from more structured CI analysis techniques in headquarters-based firms. Evidence from this study suggests that networked communication, strong feedback mechanisms and the adoption of more flexible CI analyst roles link to more effective CI processes and to greater potential for direct CI contribution to decision-making. Key contributions emerge through the three lenses of analysis adopted (operational, organisational and strategic); in terms of operational CI processes, the study identifies a complex integrated system at work in firms that implement CI effectively. In studying the link between organisational structure and CI analysis, the study has mapped organisational support patterns and how they shape the CI process at firm level. With respect to the strategic lens, following a detailed worked study of predictive analysis in one case firm, findings have identified adaptiveness in CI design as essential to address disruptive market change. Managerial consideration include a need for a) greater flexibility in CI implementation at firm level to adapt to turbulent markets, b) acknowledgement of the importance of the CI analyst role further and c) more dynamic CI content to be generated by CI analysts.

Social media is a rapidly rising phenomenon, providing new opportunities for consumers and businesses to communicate and share information. The development of social media has allowed for customer relationship management (CRM) to extend its area of use, coining the now common concept social CRM. Social CRM allows for new levels of interactivity between companies and consumers, however the effectiveness of social CRM is uncertain in many areas, mainly due to it being hard to tie customer interaction in social CRM to tangibles for the company. One of these areas is customer acquisition, where there are difficulties for companies to see how actions in their social CRM efforts affect customer acquisition. Being able to reach out to customers in an effective way is not enough for companies to acquire a customer. The value the company is proposing also has to be attractive for the customer, to be considered. There are several attributes that a company has to consider for its value proposition, in order for it to be successful. Depending on the industry the attributes can have different weight, emphasizing that companies should know what customers in their industry value. For this reason, having better knowledge of what customers value than the competition, thus having a stronger value proposition, grants a competitive edge. The purpose of this research project is to provide better understanding of how to conduct social CRM, while at the same time investigating how value propositions of telecom companies can be improved, to eventually increase customer acquisition. In order to fulfill the purpose, extensive literature has been evaluated, in addition to data gathered in focus groups. Three focus groups were conducted in Luleå, Sweden, with a total of 18 participants of ages 20-30. The results of the research project point towards the customer being in charge of social CRM interaction with companies, meaning companies have to adapt their social CRM strategies to fit the customers’ desires. The social customer have high demands of privacy in social media, which implies a thin line companies have to walk to convey their message, while at the same time not intruding on the customer’s privacy. The findings also indicate that customers want high flexibility, simplicity, and trustworthiness from telecom companies’ value propositions, emphasizing companies to adapt their value propositions to meet these demands.

Les centres de données subissent une augmentation exponentielle du trafic de données, à laquelle la photonique sur silicium apporte une solution grâce à de forts volumes de production, à faibles coûts et à haut rendements. Aujourd'hui la consommation énergétique est un défi supplémentaire à relever face à la densification du réseau. Le modulateur capacitif permet en particulier de réduire la part d'énergie consommée par l'émetteur du circuit photonique qui réalise la modulation d'intensité optique. Les travaux d'intégration et de conception réalisés au cours de cette thèse consistent à introduire un isolant diélectrique au centre du guide d'onde, pour former une capacité silicium/ oxyde/ poly-silicium en régime d'accumulation. Une première version consiste à empiler l'isolant horizontal entre les deux semiconducteurs. Une seconde version complémentaire emploie un isolant vertical au centre du guide d'onde ruban à fente. La première génération de ces composants permet de démontrer leur faisabilité dans la plateforme industrielle de STMicroelectronics. Les mesures conduites au C2N, au CEA-LETI et à STMicroelectronics évaluent les compromis entre l'efficacité, atout du modulateur capacitif, les pertes d'insertion et la bande passante du composant à isolant horizontal. Des pertes de 3 dB/mm sont extraites, dont seulement 0.5 dB/mm dues au poly-silicium. Un taux d'extinction de 2 dB est mesuré à travers 700 µm sur un diagramme de l'œil à 10 Gb/s, grâce à un produit VpLp=5.5 V.mm à 15 nm d'épaisseur d'oxyde (1.2 pF/mm). La consommation électrique du modulateur capacitif est finalement optimisée pour atteindre 1 pJ/bit à 0.9 Vpp. / Global datacenter data exchange is exponentially growing and silicon photonics is the key answer, thanks to high production volume, at low cost and high yield. Today, energy consumption is a new challenge highlighted by network densification. Capacitive modulators address a specific reduction of the power dedicated to the photonic circuit emitter for light intensity modulation. Design and integration of capacitive modulators are carried out during this thesis. It consists of inserting a dielectric insulator within the optical waveguide center, in order to shape a capacitance with a silicon/ oxide/poly-silicon stack in accumulation regime. A first device is made up of an horizontal insulator stacked between the semiconductors. A second device type comprises a vertical insulator in the center of a slot rib waveguide. The first fabrication release demonstrates device feasibility within STMicroelectronics industrial platform. Characterization results of the first device type from C2N, CEA-LETI and STMicroelectronics evaluate the trade-offs between efficiency - featured by capacitive modulators - insertion losses and bandwidth. 3 dB/mm insertion losses are measured, including 0.5 dB/mm poly-silicon absorption only. 2 dB extinction ratio through 700 µm is evaluated on a 10 Gb/s eye diagram, thanks to a VpLp =5.5 V.mm at 15 nm oxide thickness (1.2 pF/mm). Capacitive modulator power consumption is eventually optimized for 1 pJ/bit at 0.9 Vpp.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore how AI providers ensure value creation and value capture dimensions when developing AI offerings. This by illustrating activities that builds the dimensions and to increase the understanding on how value creation and value capture interplay. Method – To fulfill its purpose, this study adopted an inductive exploratory single case-study approach, conducted at a market leading telecom provider of AI related services. In total, 23 interviews were held with the case company, and the results were generated by applying a three step process of thematic analysis, where the framework’s phases and its underlying activities were identified. Findings – This study’s findings are presented in a process framework, explicitly illustrating key activities for the value creation and value capture dimensions. The framework further suggests AI providers to design AI offerings by going through three phases, i.e. identifying prerequisites for value creation, connecting value creation with value capture opportunities and designing the value offering. It is also found that AI providers must develop multiple business models, and operate them simultaneously, to operationalize AI successfully. Theoretical and practical implications – This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of AI by identifying activities building the value creation and value capture dimensions. In addition, the process framework can be used by practitioners when developing or refining business model architectures for AI offerings. Limitations and future research – This study is limited by its scope, and future research is recommended to perform extended studies where both providers and its customers are included. In addition, this study’s findings highlights the importance of developing and operating multiple business model to operationalize AI successfully. However, this also induces risks of business model cannibalization, which calls for more research.

This thesis aims to provide a greater understanding of what entry mode Swedish companies choose when entering the African telecom sector. Furthermore, the report will also study the benefits and difficulties with the African telecom sector and include the Swedish company's market selection. The rapidly growing continent of Africa has recently gained interest, and the fast-growing telecommunication sector plays a significant role in further development in the region. Africa, in general, has been understudied, and our thesis aims to clarify uncertainties regarding how companies, both smaller and larger, have entered the market.  The report will have a literature review where traditional entry modes and market selection theories are brought up and current challenges and opportunities in the African telecom sector. These theories have also been showcased in a conceptual framework to view how they interact with each other. Moreover, the methodology chapter will introduce each strategy and then argue why the chosen method is used. This report will conduct an abductive approach with a qualitative research method. The methodology will also introduce the thesis respondents and how the interviews were conducted. Moreover, the empirical data will be divided into three sections; opportunities and difficulties, market selection, and market entry mode, where each respondent tells their experiences within the subjects. Furthermore, the empirical data also includes an interview with a scholar who has previously written about the African telecom market. The analysis is divided into the same sections as in the empirical findings and discussed from the literature review and the professional's point of view. The conclusion reveals that the main opportunities are primarily the underdeveloped market and a large number of people, while the most significant difficulties are corruption and, in many cases, inadequate infrastructure. The findings further include that smaller Swedish companies tend to enter one or few countries within the African telecom sector while larger companies enter more countries simultaneously. Moreover, it also mentions how important the network is and that the entry mode will differ depending on the company's size. Larger companies tend to seek acquisition, while smaller companies are more dependent on exporting and joint ventures.

As 5G becomes more established and faces widespread roll-out, energy consumption of radio access networks around the globe will increase. Since the high-frequency radio waves used in 5G communication has a shorter effective range compared to the waves used in previous generations, 5G networks will require a higher number of radio units to compensate for their reduced range. Since the transmission of radio waves is a costly procedure in terms of energy consumption, this further increases the relevancy of radio equipment when considering solutions for increasing radio access networks' energy efficiency. This thesis has therefore provided a possible solution for increasing the energy efficiency of an O-RAN compliant radio access network by decreasing the energy consumption of its radio units. If a network's radio units are capable of entering a low-power sleep mode whenever they are left idle, i.e. not handling any traffic, the energy efficiency of a network can thus be increased by forcing its radio units to enter sleep mode as often as possible. This can be done by offloading traffic from radio units with little traffic onto other nearby radio units. The handovers required to perform such offloading, however, need to be predicted on the fly somewhere within the network. The solution proposed within this thesis therefore utilizes a component indigenous to the O-RAN architecture called RIC and its functionality-defining xApps which are capable of automatically detecting situations where radio units can be put to sleep as well as handling the offloading procedures. Through testing inside a simulated network, the set of xApps designed as a solution resulted in a potential 20-35% decrease in energy consumption among a radio access network's radio units.

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As technology moves forward it has a tendency to consume more and more power that needs to be cooled by bigger and louder fans, this is especially true for the new generation of 5G radio equipment. This Master thesis is a collaboration with Ericsson and attempts to construct a shroud for containing a number of 5G radio units whilst attenuating the fan noise of the units as effectively as possible. In this project are air ducts used and at the ends silencers are created utilizing the Cremer impedance; the optimal wall impedance for damping an acoustic mode of a propagating wave. To predict the result, a simplified model in an acoustic FEM program was also explored and compared to the sound level of the constructed shroud. The finished shroud successfully reduces the noise of the radio units by 13 dB(A) while causing an increase in temperature of between 2.8°C to 5.9°C. This result was deemed to be a success and the Cremer impedance approach of reducing noise is therefore advised for future development. / Allt eftersom tekniken går framåt tenderar den att också förbruka mer och mer energi som i sin tur måste kylas av kraftigare och mer högljudda fläktar, detta fenomen är särskilt påtagligt när det kommer till den senaste generationens radioutrustning för 5G. Detta examensarbete är ett samarbete mellan KTH och Ericsson med avsikt att skapa en kåpa som är designad för att innesluta ett bestämt antal 5G radiomoduler. Denna kåpa ska i så stor utsträckning som möjligt dämpa det fläktinducerade bullret. I det här projektet nyttjas kanaler med ljuddämpare vid ändarna som dämpar ljudet med hjälp av Cremerimpedans, dvs: den väggimpedans som optimalt dämpar en akustisk mod. För att kunna förutspå resultatet skapades en förenklad akustisk modell i ett FEM program. Resultatet från denna modell jämförs sedan med ljudeffektnivån från slutmätningen av den färdiga kåpan. Resultatet från slutmätningen visar att kåpan lyckas sänka radioenheternas totala ljudeffektnivå med 13 dB(A) samtidigt som en temperaturökning på mellan 2.8°C och 5.9°C erhålls. Det här resultatet bedöms vara en framgång, vilket leder till slutsatsen att ljuddämpning med användning av Cremerimpedans rekommenderas för vidare arbete.

In a distributed real-time system there is often a need for time synchronization of the network’s nodes. In the telecommunications industry, this is exemplified by the implementation of 5G New Radio (NR) that uses Time Devision Duplexing (TDD) communication between the user equipment and base station in a Radio Access Network (RAN). To enable communication there exists a strict requirement of no larger error than 3 μs set by the 3rd Generation PartnershipProject (3GPP). Originally made to synchronize lab equipment, the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) has been adapted for the telecom industry’s needs. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the 1588a-2023 amendment demonstrates how PTP will not create the ideal timeTransmitter-timeReceiver hierarchy in two case studies. To address these problems a modification of the Best TimeTransmitter Clock Algorithm (BTCA) is necessary. The amendment introduces the Enhanced Accuracy Metrics TLV as an optional feature. This featureenables each clock to gain knowledge about the inaccuracy of time from its neighboring clocks.The standard BTCA does not utilize the information from this new feature in its decision mechanism. This thesis presents four new alternate BTCA and to evaluate the algorithms a network simulator was built focusing on the timeTransmitter-timeReceiver hierarchy. The simulator is proven to be useful and in a case study, the four new BTCAs are evaluated where two of them solve the issues mentioned in the 1588a-2023 amendment.