Benefits For Service Providers Research Articles

Secure communication in IPTV broadcasting

In internet protocol television (IPTV) broadcasting, service providers charge subscribing fee by scrambling the program with conditional access system (CAS) using control words (CWs). A smart card is used to decrypt the CWs and transfer them back to set-top box (STB) to descramble the scrambled program. Secure communication between STB and the smart card is closely related with the benefit of service providers and the legal rights of users. In addition, secure key exchange with mutual authentication in the communication between STB and the smart card is an essential part of secure communication that will significantly improve the security of the system. To provide secure communication with mutual authentication in IPTV broadcasting, there are several schemes. The schemes proposed a secure and efficient method for the communication between STB and the smart card. Unfortunately, the schemes still have some security flaws. In this paper, we review that the previous schemes are vulnerable to several attacks. Further, we recommend some modifications to the schemes to correct these security flaws and present a formal analysis about our improved protocol using a logic based formal method.

Paying for a Higher Workload? An Experimental Investigation of the Relationship between Customer’s Co-Production and Willingness-to-Pay

Today, customers increasingly engage in optional co-production by taking over additional tasks in the service process that traditionally have been performed by service employees. Thereby, customers become “partial employees” of the service provider. Service providers benefit from this co-production as they can substitute employees’ for customers’ labor to achieve productivity gains. Indeed, productivity gains by means of co-production are a double-edged sword. Customers as “partial employees” might expect compensation for the time and effort they invest in the service process. Thus, co-production may reduce their willingness-to-pay (WTP). However, the necessary reduction in price may outweigh the company’s productivity gains obtained from co-production. Surprisingly, empirical studies neither examine the relationship between co-production and WTP nor provide evidence that WTP declines because of a higher degree of co-production. This paper addresses this gap by investigating the relationship between co-production and WTP. Referring to social exchange theory, the authors deduce and test competing hypotheses and find that customers expect a material compensation for their efforts resulting in a negative relationship between co-production and WTP. This result is replicated using distinct methodological approaches (i.e., economic and scenario-based experiments) as well as different service contexts (i.e., car wash and restaurant). Moreover, moderators are examined. Counterintuitively, the results show that customers with high ability have a lower WTP in case of optional co-production than low ability customers. Furthermore, enjoyment reveals to be a means to immaterially compensate customers for optional co-production while perceived control has no impact. Another possibility to increase customers’ WTP in case of optional co-production is to provide them with a choice between different co-production processes. For service providers, these results emphasize the meaning of taking into account the decline in WTP due to optional co-production when setting prices and restructuring service processes. Moreover, service providers should offer customers a choice between different service processes and try to increase the joy that customers derive from co-production.

For services rendered? Modeling hydrology and livelihoods in Andean payments for environmental services schemes

In the Andes, demand for water is growing and upland land-use changes are increasing. Water quality, quantity and seasonal flow have thus also become environmental services with potential monetary value. Yet, currently the region's pioneer PES schemes are not paying for measured environmental services, but for proxy land uses thought to provide the(se) service(s). Hydrological modeling makes explicit the tacit causal relationships and tests underlying assumptions. Ideally, when combined with an economic analysis of land-use alternatives, this could inform decision makers on how much to pay for different interventions in different spatial locations. This paper focuses on two Andean watersheds: Moyobamba (Peru) and Pimampiro (Ecuador). In the first case, a municipal water company is preparing a payment for environmental services (PES) scheme to reduce upstream sediment loads. In the second, a similar conservation-oriented municipal PES scheme has operated since 2000, but the hydrological linkages have never been tested. Applying the Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), we identify in both watersheds biophysically critical areas for service delivery, and compare services for current land uses with change scenarios: deforestation, reforestation, live barriers, and agroforestry. We then use the ECOSAUT optimization model to predict net economic benefits for service providers. In Moyobamba, switching to shade-grown coffee would halve sediment yields, and increase significantly farmers’ economic benefits. This requires high up-front investment, but the willingness to pay of water users in Moyobamba town may suffice to cover the upfront costs. In Pimampiro, resumed deforestation would increase sediments by >50% and reduce dry-season flow by 0.5%, thus reinforcing the rationale of the existing PES scheme, focused on conserving native forests and grasslands.

VSF Video over IP (SMPTE 2022) Interoperability Demonstration January 2007

In order to reduce costs and more efficiently utilize their networks, service providers are looking to migrate contribution video/audio/media services onto packet networks. This migration is not without its challenges. Packet network performance can be less than ideal. A robust method of encapsulating media signals in IP packets is absolutely necessary. There is a significant benefit for service providers and end users to utilize standards-based implementations. — The Video Services Forum (VSF) recently worked with SMPTE to standardize IP encapsulation of MPEG video/audio signals with robust error correction, which is well suited for IP networks. The Standard, SMPTE 2022–2007, is now available on the SMPTE website. — At the January 2007 SMPTE/VidTrans Joint Conference, five vendors provided hardware to conduct a live interoperability demonstration utilizing SMPTE 2022 encapsulation techniques. In addition to demonstrating interoperability between vendors, the demonstration also highlighted the robust handling of packet errors.

Co-Production on the Web: Social Software as a Means of Collaborative Value Creation in Web-based Infrastructures

The concept of co-production was originally introduced by political science to explain citizen participation in the provision of public goods. The concept was quickly adopted in business research targeting the question how users could be voluntarily integrated into industrial production settings to improve the development of goods and services on an honorary basis. With the emergence of the Social Software and web-based colla-borative infrastructures the concept of co-production gains importance as a theoretical framework for the collaborative production of web content and services. This article argues that co-production is a powerful concept, which helps to explain the emergence of user generated content and the partial transformation of orthodox business models in the content industries. Applying the concept of co-production to developmental policies could help to theorize and derive new models of including underprivileged user groups and communi-ties in collaborative value creation on the web for the mutual benefit of service providers and users.

Secure communication between set-top box and smart card in DTV broadcasting

In digital television (DTV) broadcasting, service providers charge a subscribing fee by scrambling the program with conditional access system as well as control the illegal receiving of the charged program. A smart card is used to decrypt the control words and transfer them back to set-top box (STB) to descramble the scrambled program. Secure communication between STB and smart card is directly related with the benefit of service providers and the legal rights of users, while key exchange is the essential part of secure communication. In this paper, we propose a key exchange protocol for STB and smart card based on Schnorr's digital signature protocol and one-way hash function. Our proposed protocol is dynamic, secure, mutual authenticated and lower computation. Moreover, the proposed protocol can prevent smart cloning and McCormac Hack problems.

The role of preventative services for older people

With an increasingly ageing population with high levels of dependency and a range of health and social care needs, housing professionals are having to review critically their strategies for housing the elderly in the new millennium. Purpose-built housing for this client group in the UK is going through a period of very low demand and this is set to continue. At the same time, the excessive costs associated with institutional care have led many policy-makers to consider innovative approaches to housing solutions for the elderly. One of the main aims of current UK policy is to consider approaches which delay or reduce the demand from this section of the population for long-term care. One such ‘demonstration’ project in the UK addresses this issue, by considering the impact of the provision of a range of preventative services (including health promotion, community pharmacists, GPs, chiropodists and social workers), delivered in a highly convenient and effective way by using four existing purpose-built sheltered housing schemes for the elderly. This multi-agency project (led by housing, health and social care professionals) highlights the benefits of such a preventative project for the elderly, through, for example, greater personal health awareness, less social isolation, greater confidence and self-help, and ultimately greater independence. The project also identifies important benefits for service providers. This paper outlines the nature of this preventative project in the UK and the potential benefits to the elderly in terms of their housing, health and social care needs.

Forecasting demand for low earth orbit mobile satellite service in Korea

Forecasting a new service diffusion process is critical in designing marketing strategies and analyzing the costs and benefits for service providers. It is very difficult, however, in cases that data are not available. We suggest the combination of analogy and survey to forecast the demand for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) mobile satellite service in Korea. First, we analyze the diffusion of existing mobile phone service, which is similar to LEO service. The diffusion parameters for mobile phone service are then used in a model for LEO service. A survey was made on two hundred fifty?five subscribers of existing mobile phone service in Korea. We estimate the potential market size of LEO service by applying the logit model to the survey data. Then, we forecast the annual demand for LEO service in Korea from 1998 to 2005. We also derive the price elasticity of market potential of LEO service.