Digital Service Delivery Research Articles

Business Processes Verification for e-Government Service Delivery

Domain experts knowledge represents a major source of information in the design and the development of user-centric and distributed service-based applications, such as those of e-government. Issues related both to the communication among domain and IT experts, and to the implementation of domain dependent requirements in service-based applications, have to be carefully considered to support both Public Administrations efficiency and citizen satisfaction. In this article, we provide as user-friendly approach toward business process assessment via formal verification. Starting from a semi-formal notation, well understood and largely used by domain experts, we provide a mapping to a formal specification in the form of a process algebra. This transformation makes possible formal and automatic verification of desired quality requirements. The approach has been already applied, with encouraging results, in the e-government domain to verify the quality of business processes related to the delivery of e-government digital services to citizens. Moreover, the approach is supported by a plug-in for the Eclipse platform permitting to have an integrated environment in which to design the process model and to assess its quality.

Supporting SME Collecting Organisations: A Business Model Framework for Digital Heritage Collections

Increasing numbers of heritage collecting organisations such as archives, galleries, libraries and museums are moving towards the provision of digital content and services based on the collections they hold. The collections sector in Australia is characterised by a diverse range of often very small organisations, many of which are struggling with the transition to digital service delivery. One major reason for this struggle is the lack of suitable underlying business models for these organisations as they attempt to achieve a sustainable digital presence. The diverse characteristics of organisations within the collections sector make it difficult, if not impossible, to identify a single business model suitable for all organisations. We argue in this paper that the development of a flexible e-business model framework is a more useful strategy for achieving this goal. This paper presents a preliminary framework based on the literature, utilising the Core + Complement (C+) Business Model Framework for Content Providers initially developed by Krueger et al. (2003) and outlines how the framework will be refined and investigated empirically in future research within the Australian collections sector.

Development of 10 Gb/s EPON in IEEE 802.3av

The interest in the evolution of current PON systems toward high-data-rate systems capable of providing a future-proof platform for delivery of truly subscriber-oriented and personalized triple-play services resulted in the recent kickoff of the 10 Gb/s Ethernet PON system standardization effort in the IEEE . Ethernet PON has become a network of choice for low-cost subscriber-oriented digital service delivery, taking over the market previously dominated by DSL and cable modems. In this article we examine the current development process of 10 Gb/s EPON systems in more detail, standardized in the framework of the IEEE 802.3av task force, looking at the technical challenges, drivers, and possible evolution scenarios of the emerging high-data-rate access systems..

Comparative Studies of Data Broadcasting

Data broadcasting promises to be a very significant component in the delivery of digital television services. Both DVB and ATSC have proposed standards for data broadcasting that have commonalities and differences, as well as advantages and disadvantages. The third standard player is the internet community. Although it has contributed to some degree to the development of DVB and ATSC standards, it has a different view and approach to data broadcasting. This paper gives an overview of some emerging standards for DVB, ATSC, and the internet by examining differences between them, as well as discussing the issues related to format conversion and simultaneous broadcasting.

A Phased Approach to Implementing DTV

There are many paths that can be taken during the transition from analog to digital television. Broadcasters must weigh the delivery of new services, such as high definition, multiplexed standard definition, pay television, and data broadcasting, versus budgetary and logistics constraints. Rather than jumping into a full-featured digital television (DTV) broadcast system, broadcasters may wish to consider the upgrade in phases. This paper discusses an upgrade path to delivery of new digital services that can be taken over four phases. At each phase, the broadcaster must build and install only a portion of the full DTV broadcast system; yet each phase also represents a milestone at which the broadcaster can deliver meaningful services.

Delivery of digital video and other multimedia services (<1 Gb/s bandwidth) in passband above the 155 Mb/s baseband services on a FTTx full service access network

For low cost passive optical access networks (PON), we have studied the downstream delivery of an additional >1 Gb/s in the passband above the 155 Mb/s baseband services. Both signals are transmitted on the same fiber using a single transmitter and a single receiver within the power budgets of ITU-T G983. Although our study has used broadcast DSS digital video services for the passband that delivers about 1.2 Gb/s, the passband bandwidth can be used for any broadcast or switched multimedia services, i.e., digital video, data, and audio. For switched services, the baseband upstream will be the return path. Furthermore, the passband can be used to provide a dedicated bandwidth to any subscriber. The passband approach offers a graceful upgrade of a 155 Mb/s baseband system, and is compatible with baseband only optical network unit (ONU). We multiplexed a 155.52 Mb/s baseband signal with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulated passband digital video channels in the 270-1450 MHz range with minimal degradation. We used an additional 860 MHz carrier modulated with 8 Mb/s using QPSK as a passband test-signal. An optical-to-electrical (O/E) receiver using a PIN diode satisfies the need for class B operation as defined in ITU-T G983 (-28 dBm receiver sensitivity for a 10/sup -10/ bit error rate) with /spl sim/1.5 dBo/sup 1/ margin if we consider the proposed technique as an upgrade of the baseband 155 Mb/s to 622 Mb/s. Otherwise it only meets the specifications of class B (-30 dBm receiver sensitivity). However, an APD based receiver satisfies the power budget needs of ITU-T G983 class C operation (-33 dBm receiver sensitivity) with /spl sim/5.5 dBo margin for both baseband and passband with forward error correction (7/8 convolution and (96,110) Reed-Solomon coding). The available optical power margin with an APD receiver may be large enough that it can also allow use of 16-QAM in place of QPSK in class C mode or 64 QAM in class B mode.

System Architecture for On-line Broadcast Archives

Consumer friendly delivery of multimedia digital services is drawing world attention. Broadcast archives are valuable multimedia resource centres, stocking audio and video materials of interest to a vast population across the globe. There is great potential of using these archival material for on-line access of information in respect of the material and also to some extent direct delivery of the material itself. The present paper describes the system architecture and implementation issues of an On-Line Broadcast Archives Management system (OL-BAMS) which entails all the functions of storage and dissemination taking advantage of emerging technology.

Digital transmission over in-home coaxial wiring

The wiring of a customer's premises network (CPN) may be the weakest link in the end-to-end transport of residential broadband digital services such as digital video. Detailed knowledge of how such premises wiring will affect digital service delivery is critical to the cost-effective deployment and robust operation of digital technologies. This paper reports selected results from a series of experimental and analytical studies of coaxial-cable premises-wiring impairments for digital broadband signals. The investigations included return loss, isolation and attenuation measurements of a wide variety of components, as well as measurements and simulations of bit-error-rate performance for several inside-wiring test-bed configurations. The components showed a broader range of performance, and in some cases considerably worse performance, than indicated in previous studies. The premises wiring generated signal reflections which can severely degrade digital transmission. Some reflections can cause destructive interference that effectively decreases the received signal power by 10 dB more than the nominal attenuation, and this decrease is not mitigated by set-top or cable-modem adaptive equalization.

Digital video and the national information infrastructure

This paper gives an overview of the efforts in the United States to build high-speed networks for the delivery of digital video services to the homes of consumers. It details the obstacles that need to be overcome for digital video service to commence and the various network architectures and technologies that have been, and presently are being considered. The applications are described that will be enabled by such an infrastructure, termed the NII, as are two digital video services oriented market trials — one being conducted by a cable operator and the second by a telephone company.

Una visión general del estándar de transmisión de televisión digital terrestre

Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) es un consorcio formado por industriales de los medios de comunicación,que está integrado por radiodifusores, fabricantes, operadores de redes, desarrolladores de software y organismosreguladores. El consorcio fue creado con el fin de definir las normas técnicas para estandarizar todos los aspectosrelacionados con la prestación de servicios de televisión digital. El estándar DVB ha sido adoptado en Europa,Oriente Medio, Suráfrica y Australasia. Adicionalmente, el estándar DVB fue seleccionado en Colombia y Panamácomo el sistema de transmisión de televisión digital terrestre (DVB-T/T2). El estándar DVB es un conjunto deespecificaciones que permiten la integración de información multimedia para proveer servicios de información,educación, negocios y entretenimiento. La implementación de DVB requiere de acuerdos entre los radiodifusores,operadores de redes y fabricantes en la definición de los parámetros de operación, además de tener en cuentalas normativas gubernamentales. Este artículo presenta un resumen de los principales elementos definidos en elestándar DVB-T/T2, basado en los documentos guía elaborados por el consorcio DVB, e incluye algunas de lasacciones tomadas durante el proceso de implementación de DVB-T/T2 en Colombia.