Quality of Service in Optical Burst Switched Networks (Optical Networks)

Book Description

Optical Burst Switching (OBS) is a very promising switching technique to support huge bandwidth requirements in optical backbone networks that use Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM). This book will be devoted to a comprehensive discussion on the quality of service (QoS) issues and mechanisms to provide QoS in OBS networks. This book is intended for researchers, senior undergraduate and graduate students in the field of optical networking in particular, and networking in general.

The Living Dead: Switched Off, Zoned Out - The Shocking Truth About Office Life

Average customer rating:

How to survive a deadly office

The Living Dead: Switched Off, Zoned Out - The Shocking Truth About Office Life
David Bolchover
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Human Resources & Personnel Management | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Decision-Making & Problem Solving | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 184112656X

Book Description

Switch on the business news and you will probably be bombarded with yet more workplace experts telling you that everyone nowadays is grossly overworked, madly juggling their work-life balance until they finally keel over and die from the sheer stress of it all. We all know that's right, don't we?

The real truth is that there are millions upon millions of people who are actively disengaged from their jobs, who spend months and years sitting in offices doing next to nothing, lost in the cracks of laughably inefficient and abysmally managed large organisations, their talents wasted and long forgotten. The Living Dead unmasks the myth of the workplace for the first time. It tells the truth. Not cloaked in humour, as in Dilbert and The Office, but in plain black and white.

The Living Dead will captivate anyone anywhere in the world who has ever worked in a large office environment, or those who have a genuine desire to make people's working lives more productive and enjoyable.

Here are some astonishing statistics about office life you probably never knew:

40 per cent of all casual drugs users in the US (people who use drugs just once a month) still choose to do it at work. 19.6 per cent of people who take drugs at work do so at their workstation.
One in three mid-week visitors to the theme park Alton Towers has taken the day off work on a dishonest pretext.
One in five US workers has had sex with a co-worker during work hours. Full sex, that is. 44 per cent of men and 35 per cent of women have had at least some sexual contact at work.
One third of UK young professionals are hungover at least twice a week on working days. Two thirds admitted to having called in sick due to alcohol at least once in the previous month.
70 per cent of Internet porn sites are accessed during the 9 to 5 working day.
More than half of the UK's 14.5 million pet owners say they would need between two and five days off work to grieve for a dead pet, while 10 per cent said they would need as much as two weeks.
Monday (23 per cent) and Friday (25 per cent) are the days most commonly taken off sick by UK employees. Wednesday is the most rarely taken (8 per cent).
UK doctors receive 9 million 'suspicious' or 'questionable' requests each year for sick notes.

David Bolchover writes frequently on business and management issues for The Times and The Sunday Times as well as a number of other national newspapers and specialist publications. His first book, The 90-Minute Manager, outlines the lessons which business managers can learn from football managers. Previously, he was employed for several years in a large office. But now he wants to do something with his life.

Customer Reviews:

How to survive a deadly office.......2006-09-01

With wry British wit, David Bolchover skewers life in large corporations and exposes the extent of a phenomenon he calls "the living dead:" the masses of employees who are disengaged from their work, unproductive and unmotivated. Bolchover's account of his own experience of falling through the cracks of a corporate behemoth is hilarious. But far from being just an amusing caricature of life in big companies, his book is a thoughtful consideration of the economic costs of boredom and inefficiency. He suggests ways that companies - and national economies - need to evolve to address these problems. Corporate leaders interested in fully utilizing their human capital will find this book insightful. And, if you feel yourself slowly turning into a zombie in a business suit, Bolchover offers insight into how to breathe life into your career. We highly recommend this book to students of organizational behavior and anyone who has ever played computer solitaire at the office.

VoIP Service Quality : Measuring and Evaluating Packet-Switched Voice

Average customer rating:

More touchy-feely than a bowl of peeled grapes
Understand what really matters for VoIP quality

VoIP Service Quality : Measuring and Evaluating Packet-Switched Voice
William C. Hardy
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Voice Recognition | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Telephony | Networking | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Acoustics & Sound | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0071410767

Customer Reviews:

More touchy-feely than a bowl of peeled grapes.......2003-07-09

I bought this book because I was looking for an objective means to evaluate the quality of voice, and moreover, i was thinking that the topics in this book could be transplanted to a new application, e.g. how to evaluate the TCP transport quality in an underlying network, which is the subject of my new job.

As a reference, this book stinks. The author will not define the "voice envelope" where if you stay within the envelope users will have a hard time perceiving a loss in quality. For example, this book is touted as useful to VoIP Network Architects, but the book gives absolutely no guidance as to what is an acceptable (or unacceptable) level of delay in a VoIP phone system.

Instead, the author wastes 309 pages and about .01% of a perfectly good tree, to say, basically, "nobody can evaluate voice quality without running a side-by-side experiment between two systems." Its a wonder that someone can publish 309 pages of this drivil with one conclusion for his entire work. Oh, I forgot, the author fills up the book with 67 pages that are wasted in his bragging about all his patents, when he filed them, and what each and every last patent was about. If that isn't vanity publishing, I don't know what is.

Understand what really matters for VoIP quality.......2003-03-16

I found this book to be enormously useful in understanding the determinants of voice quality in live, packet-based networks - not just what matters in engineering laboratories. Its value goes beyond, that, though, because it helped me understand what the people who run telecom companies and their customers should be looking for in the transition from today's voice networks to those carrying voice over IP. Anyone who is interested in these topics should read this book.

As more and more voice traffic is transmitted over packet-switched networks, the challenges to producing high-quality voice services at a low cost are increasing, thanks to the increasing complexity of the networks involved. There are corresponding pay-offs, however, for the equipment vendors and service providers that do learn how to meet these challenges. Not only should they be able to provide the equivalent of voice network's service for lower costs, they should also be able to offer new services that combine voice and data in ways that attract new customers -- and boost revenues. Conversely, as long as these challenges go unmet, or in many cases, unrecognized, they will slow the rate at which the promises of the new technology can be realized. Working as I do in a company striving to break through these barriers to success, it is heartening to find a book like this one that helps show the way.

VoIP Service Quality comprises three principal sections. The first lays out foundations for what follows. It starts by discussing the principal determinants of connection quality, especially in voice packet-switched networks. It next lays out how customer expectations for voice quality differ among the different services that can be offered with such networks, and closes with a description of the quality impairments that can be created or exacerbated by packet switching. The second section concerns the measurement and evaluation of voice quality. It offers value not only to those who are interested in the quality of packet-switched voice, but also those who are concerned with it in today's public switched telephone network. It shows how statistically rigorous, operationally useful quality testing can be set up in a network with minimal investment. It goes on to discuss a variety of automated test approaches, and lays out the benefits and defects of each. The third section outlines other quality concerns and points the way for measurement of voice quality in future, yet-to-be-defined services that combine voice and data. Those who are interested by this section would do well to read the author's previous book, the somewhat misleadingly entitled *QoS Measurement and Evaluation of Telecommunications Quality of Service*.

At the end of this voyage, the reader will have the complete conceptual structure needed to set up a voice service quality organization. Books like this one that lay out an arcane field in clear English are rare, especially since a good measure of humor is thrown in to ease the way. I recommend VoIP Service Quality highly.

Average customer rating:

Twist on an old idea

An energetic and insightful self-improvement guide

A Great Read with Great Advice!

Switched-On Quality
John Guaspari
Manufacturer: Paton Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Economic Conditions | International | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0971323127

Book Description

Switched-On Quality breaks new ground in providing practical, hands-on assistance in dealing with one of the biggest challenges (and opportunities) of all: How to get more people to bring more of their discretionary effort to the task at hand—ensuring that customers will decide to choose your products and services rather than the other guys'.

The book's premise is simple and straightforward: If what you're after is employee buy-in, then you've got some intra-organizational selling and marketing to do. The book offers practical, proven, and readily applicable guidance on how to position quality (or TQM or Six Sigma) so that people will not only be well informed about the discipline, but also aligned and energized by the prospect of its application.

Customer Reviews:

Twist on an old idea.......2003-06-04

I liked the author's premise. The focus is on how to sell Quality/Process Improvement to business leaders and peers without drowning them in the technical minutia that may turn them off, thus losing the energy of a good implementation. The author then takes the approach of how to market Quality/Process Improvement from the perspective of a marketing professional.

The author then moves on to the difference between quality and value. This is a very good discussion on quality from a customer's perspective and what they perceive as quality and as value.

The discussion then moves into the area of internal customers, and why the concept's time has passed. What you should focus on, per the author, is getting everyone to focus on the customer, moving the organizational focus external of the company from an generally internal one.

The book was not what I expected, but I enjoyed it. I liked it, but my opinion is that it is for the quality profession who is interested in reading something well written that will challenge some base assumptions and makes you think about some foundational concepts. There are good nuggets here with a lot of narrative.

An energetic and insightful self-improvement guide.......2002-12-06

Switched-On Quality: How To Tap Into The Energy Needed For Fuller And Deeper Buy-In by John Guaspari is a straightforward guide to getting workers to put more effort into the task at hand, for a higher quality product, more satisfied customers, and greater bottom-line profitability. Individual chapters address in the importance of creating true value in a product, how to avoid "next big thing-ism", the difference between quality and value, and a great deal more. Switched-On Quality is confidently recommended as an energetic and insightful self-improvement guide for all business managers whether they are running small family companies or overseeing international corporate conglomerates.

A Great Read with Great Advice!.......2002-07-20

People don't easily part with copious amounts of their discretionary energy to do great work that customers will gladly pay for. But under the right circumstances, they can, and will. The only question is, are those people working for you, or a competitor?

Guaspari is a genius at getting the point across, and leaves you with practical advice that works!

Book Description

In this volume the important concept of switched and impulsive control is discussed, with a wide field of applications in the analysis and control of complex systems. This monograph provides the reader with a comprehensive coverage of switched and impulsive systems, including new original work with various applications such as switched server systems, scalable video coding systems, chaotic based secure communication, or quality of service on the internet. Switched and Impulsive Systems can be used as a reference or a text for a course at graduate level.

Integrating reliability and quality of service in networks with switched virtual circuits [An article from: Computers and Operations Research]

Average customer rating:

Integrating reliability and quality of service in networks with switched virtual circuits [An article from: Computers and Operations Research]
B. Sanso , A. Girard , and F. Mobiot
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RR4868

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Computers and Operations Research, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
In this paper, we present an optimization model based on cost minimization for traffic engineering of multirate and ATM networks with switched virtual circuits (SVCs). There is an increasing interest for efficient traffic engineering methods for routing and dimensioning of large and robust multiservice networks. In the case of ATM and other types of packet multiservice networks, traffic engineering requires resource allocation and performance optimization at the cell or packet level in order to assure a satisfactory grade of service (GoS) at the call level to the users. Therefore, we are interested in networks with switched connections that are flexible enough so that planners may offer cost-effective networks with guaranteed GoS even in the event of important failures. The model integrates the notions of QoS, GoS, failures and failure propagation between the physical and the logical level as well as circuit routing.

Throughput maximization under quality of service constraints: Determination of optimal offered load in circuit-switched (wireless or nonwireless) communication networks

Average customer rating:

Throughput maximization under quality of service constraints: Determination of optimal offered load in circuit-switched (wireless or nonwireless) communication networks
Jeffrey E Wieselthier
Manufacturer: Naval Research Laboratory
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Wireless Networks | Networking | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Certification Central | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006RLSIA

Book Description

Taming the Electoral College explores poorly understood aspects of the electoral college, including two possibilities in particular that could pose the most serious danger for American democracy. These are, first, determination of the president by “faithless electors” who ignore the popular vote in their states, and, second, choice of the president in the House of Representatives, which is required if no electoral college majority votes in favor of a single candidate. In any given election, neither of these outcomes is likely, but the 2000 election showed that we would do well to take both of them seriously and take action now to prevent them from occurring. Both possibilities could be dealt with by constitutional amendment, but amendment is difficult to achieve, particularly as it bears on the electoral college process. This engaging book instead offers nonconstitutional solutions to the two possibilities, as well as to a variety of other problems that lurk in the shadows of the electoral college process. It also offers a way to work toward popular election of the president without a constitutional amendment.

Customer Reviews:

Electing Taming the Electoral College.......2006-08-14

Book Review

Taming the Electoral College by Robert Bennett

Reviewed by John Poster

Professor Robert Bennett of the Northwestern University Law School is already thinking about the presidential election of 2008. Unlike the rest of us, Bennett tries to anticipate problems and solve them before they become severe. Reacting to the presidential election of 2000, Bennett believes that the Electoral College as presently defined represents a largely hidden danger in the election of 2008 and beyond. For those of us who have forgotten our high school civics lessons, the Constitution of the United States refers to the manner of choosing the president in Article II and Amendment 12.

Article II
Each state shall appoint...a number of electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled...The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not lie an inhabitant of the same state with themselves...The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them to be president; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the president. But in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken by states, the representatives from each state having one vote...

Bennett reminds us that in the election of 1800 in which John Adams and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney ran for president and vice president respectively against Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, the electors gave Jefferson, the assumed presidential candidate, and Burr, the assumed vice presidential candidate, a majority of the electoral votes, but an equal number of votes. The election was thrown into the House of Representatives with each state having one vote, Jefferson was chosen president and Burr selected as vice president. The nation realized that a further refinement of the electoral system (the word college is not mentioned in the Constitution) was in order.

Amendment 12
The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for president and vice president...they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as vice president...

Bennett observes that the founding fathers did not foresee the advent of political parties. The two party system made a conclave of wise people in each state choosing the best qualified person not only unnecessary, but Constitutionally risky. Why risky? As Bennett remarks, only about half the states bind the electors to the candidate that they represent. When you vote for president you're really voting for the electors pledged to that candidate. But what is that pledge worth if not enforced by law? The so-called "faithless electors" have frequently voted for someone other than the person with whom they were associated. Bennett cites examples including the instances when electors have abstained. What happens if one or more faithless electors determines the outcome of a close presidential race? There appears to be no constitutional remedy. The election of 2004 wasn't close and one Minnesota elector, perhaps in frustration at the fate of Senator Kerry, cast his presidential vote for Senator John Edwards, the Democratic Party vice presidential candidate. Bennett warns that the same thing could happen in a very close election.

Amendment 12 also specifies that if there is a tie in the Electoral College for vice president then the Senate decides the contest. A tie for vice president seems less important than a tie for president, but again, faithless electors could frustrate the popular will. When a candidate who lost in the popular vote receives a majority of electoral votes the situation is called the "wrong winner." Currently, there are 538 members of the Electoral College so a majority is 271 votes. In analyzing the demographics of achieving 271 votes Bennett notes that the 11 most populous states have the necessary majority.

Bennett is not optimistic about the chances of a Constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College system. In the first place an amendment requires a two-thirds vote in Congress and then ratification by three quarters of the states. Would the smaller states, which have a disproportionate influence since every state has electors equal to its Congressional delegation, be willing to lose influence to the 11 largest states? Then there is the problem of third party candidates.

Suppose there are three candidates for president and vice president and none of them achieve a majority of the popular vote? One may still win a majority of the electoral vote. Bennett cites the case of Ross Perot. In 1992 Perot received almost 20 million votes and no electoral votes. As it happens, another candidate did receive a majority of the popular vote, but had Perot siphoned enough votes away from the major party candidates to deprive each of them of a popular majority, the Electoral College system would have avoided throwing the election into the House of Representatives. On the other hand, in the 1948 presidential election Strom Thurmond received less than 2.3% of the popular vote, but won 46 electoral votes because his strength was concentrated in a few states. Bennett repeats suggestions that in the 1968 election Governor George Wallace may have intended to throw the election into the House of Representatives and use his electoral votes as a bargaining chip to win concessions from the major party candidates. In fact, Richard Nixon won a popular and Electoral College majority.

If abolishing the Electoral College is not a possibility, are there other remedies? This is the strength of Taming the Electoral College. Bennett lists several reforms that states could adopt in time for 2008. Binding electors to their respective candidates is a reasonable requirement that half the states have not adopted. Bennett also suggests that a proportional system of allotting electoral votes might also avoid "wrong winners." Now all the states and the District of Columbia except Maine and Nebraska have winner take all systems for allocating electoral votes. In Maine and Nebraska candidates receive electoral votes in proportion to their popular vote. The proportional system makes the electoral vote totals more closely approximate the popular vote totals. Bennett also comments on possibilities for avoiding run off elections where third party (or fourth or fifth party) candidates deprive any candidate of a majority of votes cast. If rival slates of electors seek legal recognition as the winning electors (as in the election of 1876), Bennett speaks of recourse to other state results as the deciding factor. Bennett concludes that all these changes could be enacted at the state level and, indeed, constitutionally it is probable that only the states have the right to constrain the electors.

In spite of the controversy following the disputed Florida vote in 2000 little scholarly attention has been paid to the Electoral College system. Bennett's book is a welcome clear-headed and sensible analysis of the pitfalls of the electoral system with some safe detours around the worst of the dangers. Bennett's book is obviously timely and deserves attention among the public and state legislators. It is the outstanding volume on the Electoral College and is likely to maintain that status for a considerable time. My recommendation is that you "elect" this book as a must read before 2008.

Challenging the Conventional.......2006-07-19

Professor Bennett's new book challenges the conventional wisdom that reform of the electoral college is nearly impossible because it can be accomplished only through constitutional amendment. He takes his reader on a lucid and fascinating intellectual ride through the history and workings of this important provision. A most worthwhile book for anyone interested in the politics or legal standing of the electoral college.

Book Description

Volumes in this new Tankmasters series present aquarium enthusiasts with the facts they need to create beautiful and healthful environments for fish and other aquatic life. Dazzling color photographs with detailed, informative captions and step-by-step instructions will quickly turn beginners into capable aquarium hobbyists, while providing advice and ideas that will inspire experienced fish keepers to add variety and interest to their tanks and ponds. Handsomely laid-out pages present essential information at a glance. This volume shows and describes more than 70 freshwater tropical fish suitable for indoor tanks. Tetras, cichlids, angelfish, and many other varieties are described with advice on care and information on compatibility with other fish. More than 200 stunning color photos

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books