Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: Streaming MPEG, User Study, Video Quality, Forward Error Correction, Temporal Scaling, Quality Scaling. Includes bibliographical references (p.186-198).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-91). Also available in electronic version.

- / -

- / -

Orientador: Jete Jane Fiorati / Resumo: As telecomunicações representam o setor de serviços que mais cresce atualmente, apresentando grande importância para o desenvolvimento dos países. Desta forma, a partir dos anos 80, vislumbramos movimentos de reestruturação dos sistemas nacionais e internacionais das telecomunicações, motivados pela necessidade de atração de investimentos capazes de conduzir à modernização, diversificação e melhoria na qualidade dos serviços. À partir desta perspectiva global e da evolução histórica da reestruturação das telecomunicações no Brasil, o presente estudo objetivou, através da análise dos contratos de concessão celebrados pelo Estado Brasileiro e as empresas MCI Worldcom e Telefônica Internacional, compreender o modelo de privatização adotado pelo Brasil e os desafios que se apresentam para os atores envolvidos: Estado, empresas e usuários. Neste sentido, o processo de reestruturação do modelo das telecomunicações no Brasil iniciou-se em 1995, acompanhando o movimento irreversível de reformas realizadas em vários outros países, inclusive em países latino-americanos como o Mëxico, Chile, Argentina e Venezuela. Estas reformas tiveram como grande agente impulsionador, o Anexo sobre Telecomunicações do Acordo Geral de Serviços (GATS), celebrado pelos países membros da Organização Mundial do Comércio, estabelecendo a eliminação dos monopólios no setor. Em consonância com as regras adotadas pela OMC, foi promulgada, em 1997, a Lei Geral de Telecomunicações que criou a Anatel e revogou o Código Brasileiro de Telecomunicações. Em 1998, as empresas do sistema Telebrás foram privatizadas e emergiram como importantes vencedoras deste leilão, as empresas MCIWorldcom e a Telefônica Internacional. O modelo adotado caracteriza-se por um período de transição, ou melhor, de competição regulada até 2002, ...(Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Telecommunications is a growing sector and central to countries' development. Thus, since the 1980s, we observe reform movements in national and international telecommunications systems, aiming at increasing the investments and improving the quality of the services. Based on this global perspective and also on the historical evolution of the Brazilian telecommunications reform program, this study aimed at analyzing the concession contracts established by Brazil and MCIWorldcom and Telefonica International in order to understand the privatization model adopted by Brazil as well as the challenges involving the State, companies and users. Brazil embarked on the telecommunications reform program in 1995, following several countries and some Latin American ones such as Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Venezuela. The Brazilian reform was a result of the negotiations that led to the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services and the Telecommunications Annex, establishing the elimination of the monopolies. According to WTO's guidelines, Brazil proclaimed the Telecommunications General Law in 1997, creating Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) and repealing the Brazilian Telecommunications Code. Hence, in 1998, the state companies of the Telebrás System were privatized and two transnational companies were considered winners in this process: MCIWorldcom and Telefonica International. The model adopted is actually in the transition period, characterized by a regulated competition until 2002, when the geographic constraints established by the General Law will be eliminated. The analysis of the contracts established by Brazil and the two above mentioned companies showed that the reform program aims at assuring competition, maintaining the...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below) / Mestre

Fan vibration has become a significant issue in telecommunications environments due to increased performance and heat of internal components requiring greater airflow and higher speed fans. This thesis investigates fan vibration problems in telecommunications equipment and develops solutions to the problem in a retrofit scenario. A target value for vibration levels was determined by measuring vibration levels in an alternate existing product that exhibited no wear issues over a span of several years. Two successful vibration isolator designs were developed and implemented. The retrofit solution required minimal changes to the legacy design and achieved a large vibration reduction. The ultimate solution required extensive changes to the legacy design and achieved significant vibration reductions, with vibration levels below the target value in most scenarios. Both designs are Patent Pending.

No description available.

Telecoms industry is a highly specialised industry and there is a general consensus that it requires a specially designed regulatory system. Besides the many technology-oriented regulations, this regulatory system not only integrates many economic theories and concepts taken from competition law, but also features several measures designed ad hoc to deal with the character of the industry, such as a natural monopoly, bottlenecks and a public service. A major category of these regulatory measures is forced access mechanisms. "Forced access" in this thesis refers to the forcing open of certain property – mostly telecoms networks and relevant facilities – to be accessed by others, especially other competitors in the market. While these mechanisms do indeed promote competition in the telecoms market and benefit the public, they also limit the fundamental rights of telecoms companies – mostly incumbents – as legal persons, especially concerning their property rights and freedom to conduct a business, and it does not need emphasising further that the protection of fundamental rights is a general principle in the European Union and a constitutional value in modern democratic states. This thesis aims to take three distinct telecoms forced access mechanisms (interconnection, local loop unbundling and separation), with different regulatory intensities, as examples to discuss the possible fundamental rights derogation issues of two targeted jurisdictions – the European Union and Taiwan. There are some substantial reasons for this comparative study. On the one hand, many of the regulatory concepts of the telecoms regulatory framework in the European Union, together with those in the United States, have been adopted by Taiwan; on the other hand, the protection of fundamental rights in the European Union is inspired by the constitutional traditions common to Member States, and the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz) plays an important role, while the Taiwanese Constitution and the constitutionality reviews system derive from Germany (continental law) and the United States (common law). The reasoning of Taiwanese constitutional review does not therefore just reflect the fundamental rights protection system but also introduces the constitutionality review system of the United States as a reference. This thesis starts with an introduction to telecoms forced access mechanisms in the European Union and Taiwan, with a special focus on three selected forced access mechanisms. Then, fundamental rights protection system under the two jurisdictions will be discussed, followed by an in-depth discussion of the concepts of property rights and freedom to conduct a business. This thesis goes on to analyse how to appraise the three telecoms forced access mechanisms in relation to the fundamental rights protection system and to discuss the reasonableness of such an analysis. The final part of the thesis will, by reviewing the legal frameworks of the two jurisdictions, offer answers to the questions raised in the analysis.

This thesis recognizes that organizational culture is a primary determinant of innovation capability and argues the need to better understand this relationship or process as a necessary prerequisite to nurturing it in a more structured and systematic manner. The study explores this relationship within an R&D environment in telecommunications. It draws upon the knowledge management, organisational behaviour and organisational theory literatures to conceptualise organisational culture as a repository of knowledge. Using a soft systems bottom up approach four cultural archetypes with specific knowledge dynamics are identified and developed through a three-phase multi-method research strategy. These provide a clearer understanding of the relationship between organisational culture and innovation capability. The thesis concludes by considering strategies for improving innovation capability through the effective and appropriate movement between these archetypes.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2001Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:12:15Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ventura_caa_me_fran.pdf: 1029205 bytes, checksum: 187cd46651e9f5286bf0a88d79a20757 (MD5) / As telecomunicações representam o setor de serviços que mais cresce atualmente, apresentando grande importância para o desenvolvimento dos países. Desta forma, a partir dos anos 80, vislumbramos movimentos de reestruturação dos sistemas nacionais e internacionais das telecomunicações, motivados pela necessidade de atração de investimentos capazes de conduzir à modernização, diversificação e melhoria na qualidade dos serviços. À partir desta perspectiva global e da evolução histórica da reestruturação das telecomunicações no Brasil, o presente estudo objetivou, através da análise dos contratos de concessão celebrados pelo Estado Brasileiro e as empresas MCI Worldcom e Telefônica Internacional, compreender o modelo de privatização adotado pelo Brasil e os desafios que se apresentam para os atores envolvidos: Estado, empresas e usuários. Neste sentido, o processo de reestruturação do modelo das telecomunicações no Brasil iniciou-se em 1995, acompanhando o movimento irreversível de reformas realizadas em vários outros países, inclusive em países latino-americanos como o Mëxico, Chile, Argentina e Venezuela. Estas reformas tiveram como grande agente impulsionador, o Anexo sobre Telecomunicações do Acordo Geral de Serviços (GATS), celebrado pelos países membros da Organização Mundial do Comércio, estabelecendo a eliminação dos monopólios no setor. Em consonância com as regras adotadas pela OMC, foi promulgada, em 1997, a Lei Geral de Telecomunicações que criou a Anatel e revogou o Código Brasileiro de Telecomunicações. Em 1998, as empresas do sistema Telebrás foram privatizadas e emergiram como importantes vencedoras deste leilão, as empresas MCIWorldcom e a Telefônica Internacional. O modelo adotado caracteriza-se por um período de transição, ou melhor, de competição regulada até 2002,... / Telecommunications is a growing sector and central to countries' development. Thus, since the 1980s, we observe reform movements in national and international telecommunications systems, aiming at increasing the investments and improving the quality of the services. Based on this global perspective and also on the historical evolution of the Brazilian telecommunications reform program, this study aimed at analyzing the concession contracts established by Brazil and MCIWorldcom and Telefonica International in order to understand the privatization model adopted by Brazil as well as the challenges involving the State, companies and users. Brazil embarked on the telecommunications reform program in 1995, following several countries and some Latin American ones such as Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Venezuela. The Brazilian reform was a result of the negotiations that led to the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services and the Telecommunications Annex, establishing the elimination of the monopolies. According to WTO's guidelines, Brazil proclaimed the Telecommunications General Law in 1997, creating Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) and repealing the Brazilian Telecommunications Code. Hence, in 1998, the state companies of the Telebrás System were privatized and two transnational companies were considered winners in this process: MCIWorldcom and Telefonica International. The model adopted is actually in the transition period, characterized by a regulated competition until 2002, when the geographic constraints established by the General Law will be eliminated. The analysis of the contracts established by Brazil and the two above mentioned companies showed that the reform program aims at assuring competition, maintaining the...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below)