Nortel Networks Research Articles

Global Financial Crisis and State’s Social-Economic Differences – a Deterrent to Corporate Governance Convergence?

Various socio-economic incidences have placed a strain on the abilities of global organization to effectively implement a corporate convergence, the challenge that continues to have impact on the cross-border business transactions. Couple with the Enron, World-Com, Pamlat, Nortel Networks and many other financial scandals that plagued multinationals, each nation has kept mum on the convergence of corporate governance systems rather, they have implemented a divergent approach that encourages individualism over collectivism. The actions of the European Union through the International Financial Corporation has focused on establishing directives to enhance transparency, for greater shareholder engagement and to support company growth and competitiveness. Other programs and institutions were launched to further support effective corporate governance across European union countries. Organization of Economic and Community Development (OECD), Basel Committee for Banking (BCBS), EU developments, Investor developments, Accounting, Audit, and Ethics Standards developments are some of the recent developments across Europe. In America, programs like Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), Dodd Franklin were important legislation aimed at curbing financial misappropriation and lack of transparency in publicly traded companies. In Ontario Canada, Bill 198 was implemented to protect investors against fraud. For the purpose of this project, emphasis will be laid on the convergence of the corporate governance. Can it be achieved, and under what circumstances can there be a global convergence of corporate governance. What are the constraints, and the possible solutions? The pace at which the globalization is connecting the world together on a common market place called cyberspace, the need to have a convergent corporate governance that will outlaw divergent, and or, the peculiarities of divergence over convergence. Can the two work together, yet able to address the concerns of differences in legal, cultural, ownership, actors and other structural differences. In the end, recommendations will be proposed on the best strategy to unite the global organizations around common corporate governance systems.

‘We Lost the Plot’: Failed Organizational Change at Nortel Networks

We conducted a case study of a prominent corporate failure, Nortel Networks. We sought to determine whether and when employees were cognizant of organizational decline in advance of external warnin...

Design Nationalism, Technological Pragmatism and the Performance of Canadian-ness: The Case of the Contempra Telephone

Abstract The Contempra is widely considered to be the first telephone designed and manufactured in Canada. Designed in 1967, Canada’s centennial year, it was a conspicuous departure from prevailing conventions of North American telephone styling in both its conception and design. It was designated as an icon of Canadian modern design and became a symbol of Canada’s identity as a modern nation at home and abroad. Its popularity in domestic and international markets set the stage for the transformation of its developer, Northern Electric, into a global telecommunication leader and Canada’s most valuable corporation, eventually renamed Nortel Networks. The history of the Contempra’s design and development offers an opportunity to consider how designed technological artefacts take on cultural and ideological meaning. Most accounts celebrate the Contempra as a distinctly Canadian design story, but do not elaborate on or question its ‘Canadian-ness’, and they are silent on the circumstances and events that culminated in the telephone’s development. This article examines the historical events, ideological discourses, human relationships, design values and material constraints that set the stage for what can be best described as the Contempra telephone’s performance of modern Canadian nationalism.

Can Governance Be the Solution to the Reactive Nature of Laws?

The financial scandals of the last decades have largely been attributed to the recklessness of corporate managers in the diffused (dispersed) ownership system, and excesses of controlling shareholders in the concentrated ownership structure. Coffee described the dispersed ownership system as market-driven with each stockholder owning a piece of the corporation whereas, concentrated ownership system relies on the controlling majority (Coffee, 2005), and mostly owned by family. The fall of companies like Enron, Parmalat, WorldCom, Nortel Networks and others have largely been the focus of financial economists in the recent history. Financial statement restatement, high market expectation for future growth, and lack of auditors’ independence have been linked to the downfall of these companies. In consequence, government introduced the long-awaited legislation in Sarbanes and Oxley Act (2002) with the aim of forcing companies into good corporate governance.

On the Road to Disaster: Strategic Misalignments and Corporate Failure

Prior research has identified the link between strategic misalignment and corporate failure, but little empirical research to date has examined the process leading to misalignment and eventual corporate failure over time. To explore this crucial link, we conducted in-depth case studies of two American conglomerates: WorldCom and Nortel Networks. We find patterns in terms of factors through which misalignments develop, ultimately leading to bankruptcy. The process begins with dysfunctional leadership and ineffective corporate governance, moving to unduly risky strategic actions, which are then followed by lax execution. Gradually spreading organizational misalignments develop, which ultimately foster a large gap between the demands of the competitive environment and the organization's strategy and competencies, leading to failure. An unforgiving external environment exacerbates the effects of misalignments. With this study, we also expand the ESCO strategic alignment model (Environment, Strategy, Core Competencies, and Organization), by adding leadership as the actor guiding alignment, and sustainable advantage as an outcome.

Corporate Governance at Nortel Revisiting Board Functions

The current model in corporate governance theory is predicated on management by CEO and a team of executives, with directors in charge of oversight and monitoring. Corporate law endorses this model by authorizing directors to supervise management, rather than manage corporations by themselves. This article surveys board oversight at Nortel Networks, the failed Canadian technology giant, to assess the adequacy of the prescription about monitoring in governance theory. The hypothesis about boards and their functions are evaluated with reference to the following events at Nortel: Churn in CEOs and succession planning; Business acquisitions strategy; Accounting restatements and investigation; Business oversight and bankruptcy filing.Insufficient attention to board engagement with business and strategy is identified as a shortcoming in current theory. Boards would be the last line of defence in troubled companies. The Nortel experience suggests that boards that are mostly independent and the bare monitoring function might not be adequate as universal principles, particularly in troubled, under-performing companies. The issue with independent directors and their function as monitors would be especially acute in a corporation facing leadership instability and business challenges, and is in need of re-strategizing for the medium and long term. Situations of this nature illustrate how boards can better serve corporations and their stakeholders through greater engagement with business strategy and being more proactive as necessary.The article proposes the creation of a new board committee to deal with business and strategy. This committee will constantly monitor the business of the corporate enterprise and participate in strategy development. By doing so, boards can contribute to assuring a profitable enterprise that is commercially sound and sustainable. The proposal is based on the current system of board committees and it addresses board responsibility for business and strategy – an issue that receives limited attention in the prevailing framework.

Where did it all go wrong?: Predicting the decline of Nortel Networks

Organizational failure is often attributed to poor management, questionable decisions, product technological obsolescence, and unfavourable environmental conditions (industry or economy). However, the existence of negative factors is often identified after the fact, once the firm already exhibits signs of decline (loss of market share, declining financials, major cost cutting). Weitzel and Jonsson (1989) and Collins (2009) have defined stage models of decline, which include signs of pending organizational decline. Based upon these models, and Cameron, Kim and WhettenÕs (1987) indicators of decline, we have examined a prominent Canadian example of organizational decline, Nortel Networks. Using online surveys and interviews with former Nortel employees, we sought to determine the extent to which members were cognizant of organizational difficulties, prior to formal indicators of crisis (drop in stock price, negative financial results). Consistent with the stage models, we found evidence that many employees noticed early warning signs of impending trouble, though these were not all consistent with model predictions.

On automated test system for asymmetric digital subscriber line equipment

The requirement for an automated test system has immensely increased due to the realization that manual testing is associated with additional resources and staffing constraints. In order to achieve a competitive edge, reduced development cost, timely product delivery, and product quality are mandatory in today's organization. Manual testing requires skilled operators that increase cost, time, and product delivery. The low cost computer-based automated system helps to get an edge by fulfilling these organizational demands. In this paper, an automated testing system has been developed to support functional testing of all phases of Nortel Networks 1-Meg modem system as its system under test (SUT). The modem is an inherently complex asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) product and its testing is far more complex than just verification of process faults. The complexity of ADSL system renders automated test system an important and imperative part of ADSL testing. The subject paper demonstrates the indispensable need of automated test system for ADSL testing and its relative advantages in providing some benefit for the organization.

Metaphor in Nortel's letters to shareholders 1997‐2006

PurposeThis paper seeks to analyze the use of metaphor in the 1997‐2006 letters to shareholders (LTS) of Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel). It aims to assess the prevalence of metaphor and changes in the use of metaphor as turnover in corporate leadership took place and as Nortel's financial fortunes changed.Design/methodology/approachMetaphors in the LTS are part of a corporation's voluntary disclosures, which in turn may be used for impression management purposes. The paper uses discourse analysis, in particular quantitative and qualitative content analysis, of the LTS to identify key metaphors and to evaluate changes in the prevalence of these metaphors across corporate leaders and during phases of growth and decline.FindingsSeveral key metaphors are identified in Nortel's letters to shareholders, including science, journey, vision, construction and theatre. Evidence is also found that demonstrates changes in the prevalence of metaphors across various chief executive officers, and changes in the meaning of metaphors in periods of growth and decline.Originality/valueThe contribution of the paper is to highlight the use of metaphor in the voluntary disclosures (i.e. letters to shareholders) of a major North American corporation during a turbulent decade. The preferences of four very different CEOs are reflected in their choice of metaphor, supporting arguments that metaphor is used in voluntary disclosures as a means of impression management, particularly in relation to trends in corporate financial performance.

Editorial: In Memoriam of Associate Professor Dr Elaine Lawrence

Despite being a graduate of the rigorous Bachelor of Information Technology at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) in 1996, I was unfortunate in that I missed being taught by Associate Professor Elaine Lawrence who began working at UTS in 1990 as a Lecturer in Computing Science. Dr Lawrence became a senior lecturer in 2000, and subsequently an associate professor in 2006. Our paths crossed in 2002 when I was tasked deliver a new course entitled eBusiness Principles in my first year of lecturing at the University of Wollongong, and after an initial scurry find an adequate textbook, I came across Dr Lawrence's groundbreaking text Internet Commerce: Digital Models for Business. Lawrence's book was a best-seller for Wiley, adopted by almost every course coordinator teaching e-business/e-commerce in Australia, at a time when information technology had burgeoning undergraduate numbers. When my PhD supervisors, Professor Joan Cooper and Associate Professor Carole Alcock, suggested me that Dr Lawrence would be a good choice for an examiner in 2003, I must say I was more than a little nervous. After doing some background research on the web see the fit, I was in even greater awe noting the impact Dr Lawrence was having on the teaching of industry certifications, and the creation of new courses. Elaine was the Program Leader of the popular Masters of Internetworking degree at UTS and as a qualified Cisco Certified Academic instructor (CAI) she began the CISCO certification courses delivered at UTS, in addition contributing a plethora of materials the CISCO Academy that were used by an estimated one million persons globally. Lawrence also tested international teaching materials for CISCO in Ireland and the United States and was the NSW representative for the Educational Council for CISCO. I had spent five years at Nortel Networks, a CISCO competitor, and immediately felt an affinity with her background Dr Lawrence was the first student complete the Doctor of Technology at Deakin University in 2001. In addition this, Dr Lawrence had a Masters of Business Information Technology, a Graduate Diploma in Commercial Computing and a Bachelor of Arts (awarded the university prize for Journalism). She was a very active senior member of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) for more than 20 years and also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 1994 she began her own company called CyberConsult who had among its customers, Sydney Water, the Australian Institute of Management, Unilink and the Australian Computer Society. I do remember being taken by the fact that her slogan for her consulting business was The Human Side of Technology. Given my thesis was all about emerging technologies and their implications, I found peace in the fact that Dr Lawrence was a potential marker. After receiving my PhD I corresponded with Dr Lawrence, appreciative of her genuine feedback on my thesis and ways improve it. She was the perfect academic role model for me, and a wonderful mentor from the outset, although our relationship just developed naturally and we enjoyed corresponding with one another without the labels of mentor and mentee. I remember distinctly that Dr Lawrence had a way with words and she was always armoured with a graceful and tactful way of providing advice. She was reassuring at first, then encouraging, and then quite direct using sentences like why don't consider submitting research to or you know this audience would be quite accepting of this perspective. Amazingly Elaine never seemed in a rush, and yet somehow she did so much! She always made feel important in her presence and that she had all the time in the world for you. In 2003, I had the opportunity contribute Dr Lawrence's best seller, and began work on a number of fresh case studies for the latest edition of Internet Commerce which was in fact Elaine's second book. …

Glocal knowledge networks in the development of India's outsourced software sector

Global-local (glocal) knowledge networks were instrumental in the development of India's outsourced software sector beginning with the building of the nation's educational infrastructure of state-funded technical and management institutes and private engineering colleges. These networks expanded as graduates sought higher education and employment opportunities abroad. New software firms also sent project teams to foreign client sites to undertake outsourced work. Technological knowledge clusters formed in cities such as Mumbai and Bangalore and, when cost pressures mounted, these enclaves began to perform the offshore outsourcing work for North American MNCs like TI, Citibank, Nortel Networks, and GE.

A Framework for Automatic Generation of Neural Models of Electron Devices

In this paper a framework for automatic generation of neural network modelsfor the dual-gate MESFET is presented. Values of the large-signal model areextracted from S-parameter measurements at many DC-bias points. The automaticmodel generation is accomplished by integrating multiple software tools, includingone developed by the author, in a “homegrown” integration environment. Thetechnique is used to model a 6-gate 1x100 μm dual-gate MESFET manufacturedby Nortel Networks, Ottawa, Canada. The large-signal model is then verifiedthrough a variable gain large-signal amplifier application based on the dual-gateMESFET. Measurements and harmonic balance simulations of the verificationcircuit showed very good agreement of the first harmonic. For the second and thirdharmonic, some discrepancies between the measurements and the model areobserved. This is mainly due to some model simplifications and second ordereffect.

On the value of static analysis for fault detection in software

No single software fault-detection technique is capable of addressing all fault-detection concerns. Similarly to software reviews and testing, static analysis tools (or automated static analysis) can be used to remove defects prior to release of a software product. To determine to what extent automated static analysis can help in the economic production of a high-quality product, we have analyzed static analysis faults and test and customer-reported failures for three large-scale industrial software systems developed at Nortel Networks. The data indicate that automated static analysis is an affordable means of software fault detection. Using the orthogonal defect classification scheme, we found that automated static analysis is effective at identifying assignment and checking faults, allowing the later software production phases to focus on more complex, functional, and algorithmic faults. A majority of the defects found by automated static analysis appear to be produced by a few key types of programmer errors and some of these types have the potential to cause security vulnerabilities. Statistical analysis results indicate the number of automated static analysis faults can be effective for identifying problem modules. Our results indicate static analysis tools are complementary to other fault-detection techniques for the economic production of a high-quality software product.

So you want to convert to virtual microanatomy slides? Our experience with wireless laboratories

We describe how we successfully converted our first year medical student microscopic anatomy labs from glass slides and microscopes to virtual slides viewed on computers with wireless connection. We started to investigate this emerging technology in 2003, converted completely over to virtual slides for the 2004–05 academic year and then improved the system to handle 130 plus simultaneous users for the 2005–06 academic year. Various medical schools have successfully converted to virtual slides by creating expensive hardwired laboratories. These are typically limited to small numbers of computers due to cost limitations that can result in repetition of lab sessions to cover all the students in a large class. This is the first report of utilizing wireless connections for simultaneous use by a large group of students. More than 130 glass microscope slides were sent to Bacus Laboratories, Inc. to generate a digitized set of teaching virtual slides. The digitized images were loaded onto the hard drives of two in-house servers (HP ProLiant G4 with Nortel Networks load balancer) with software for viewing the composite images. Images can be viewed on pc or mac platforms using the Java, Active-X or Webslide (Bacus proprietary) viewers. The individual virtual slides are accessed through Websites for each session via the MUO intranet. There are three Airspace wireless access points in the large lecture hall (holds 200). In addition, the virtual slides can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Surveys and written comments of students and faculty are enthusiastic and indicate a feeling of increased efficiency in learning. Supported by MUO Educational Resource Fund.

Axcel gets Lasertron pedigree

The new ownership acquisition of Axcel Photonics Inc is well worth watching. It now has a power laser pedigree that combines the redoubtable talents of Axcel's founder, president and CTO Dr Wei Gao, (former Nortel Networks, Multiplex Inc) with its new owner and CEO, Dr Jim Hseih, (the fibre-optic laser pioneer and research scientist of MIT's Lincoln Laboratory) who launched Lasertron Inc back in 1979.

Developments advance Web conferencing

Web conferencing has become an increasingly desirable option for businesses that don't want to spend the time and money it takes to fly employees around the world for meetings that don't require face-to-face contact. Manufacturers such as eDial, Juniper Networks, Nortel Networks, and Polycom have begun selling Web conferencing server-based software systems that companies can run themselves on their internal network, dedicated servers, or network appliances. This approach enhances security, control over collaborative operations, and integration with existing communications infrastructures.

A MIMO-OFDM prototype for next-generation wireless WANs

Coupled with a robust and efficient OFDM air interface, MIMO technologies lead to a very compelling high-speed data downlink solution for future wireless systems. This article presents Nortel Networks' MIMO-OFDM concept prototype and measured performance results. This prototype has been developed in the framework of a Nortel Networks system concept for 3G evolution systems and next-generation wide area wireless networks. The prototype is based on a shared access MIMO-OFDM physical layer in the downlink, supporting adaptive modulation and coding, with peak rates up to 37 Mb/s. The uplink is based on an enhanced UMTS WCDMA physical layer. Performance for the high-speed downlink has been measured under various emulated fading conditions. The measured performance illustrates the robustness of OFDM in frequency-selective channels and high-speed mobility channels, supporting speeds as high as 200 km/h. The prototype can also be used for over-the-air assessment of the technology.

Radio Resource Management for Wireless Internet

It is anticipated that there will be a strong market for a rich variety of wireless internet-based multimedia devices in the not-too-distant future. It is quite difficult to predict the nature of these devices as well as the corresponding applications; but it is certain that those devices and applications will have very different QoS, rate, delay and power constraints. Arguably, effective management of radio resources (through techniques such as interference management and cancellation, dynamic resource allocation and control, packet scheduling and call admission control) is not only essential in future networks, but is also the key factor in the efficient and affordable deployment and operation of these networks. Proportional to its importance, radio resource management appears to be an immensely complex task as well in future wireless networks. However, it is not yet clear whether this task is inherently difficult or whether it only appears so due to our lack of sufficient understanding of this multidimensional problem. As deeper insight into this field is developed by researchers, it is foreseeable that very efficient and straightforward (although suboptimal) algorithms can be developed. Research activities towards 4th generation mobile communication networks have already started; in the meanwhile, the standards for the 3rd generation networks are continuously being revised for higher performance. Not surprisingly, one main area of focus in all these activities is the better management of radio resources. This Special Issue is composed of nine papers (the first three of which are invited papers from the industry) discussing various aspects of radio resource management within the framework of wireless internet. The first invited paper, authored by Shalini Periyalwar et al. (Nortel Networks, Canada), is a visionary one in which radio resource management related issues are discussed for the envisioned future mobile broadband wireless networks. In the second invited paper, Werner Mohr (Siemens, Germany) presents an analytical model for estimating the spectrum demand for beyond-3G mobile networks, based on projected data rate requirements. In the third and final invited paper, Ralph Gholmieh (Ericsson, USA) and Farideh Khaleghi discuss one important feature in the recently revised version of the IS-2000 standard, the control-hold mode, which aims to maximize the throughput in the forward link. In the paper entitled ‘Linear successive interference cancellation in DS-CDMA systems’, Fredrik Berggren and S. Ben Slimane analyze the capacity performance of a receiver with interference cancellation capability which is supported by a novel interference cancellation-aware power control algorithm. The following two papers discuss different aspects of scheduling in CDMA networks. The first paper, authored by Sonia Aissa, Amine Maaref and Paul Mermelstein, proposes a novel flow control algorithm for multi-rate networks with interference cancellation, while the second paper authored by Tao Shu and Zhisheng Niu, demonstrates the optimum method of choosing (with respect to throughput maximization) concurrently transmitting data users. The paper authored by Walid Ibrahim, John W. Chinneck and Shalini Periyalwar, proposes a novel QoS-based charging and resource allocation framework which may potentially allow the network operators to pursue a wide variety of policy options. In the paper entitled ‘Radio resource management techniques for UE-MAC in 3GPP W-CDMA systems’, Sheng-Tzong Cheng and Jian-Liang Lin investigate the adverse effects of rapid transmission rate changes on the BER and they

The stock market and innovative capability in the New Economy: the optical networking industry

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the stock market on the innovative capabilities of high‐technology companies that have been central to what in the last half of the 1990s came to be called the ‘New Economy’. The empirical focus is on equipment suppliers in optical networking—an industry that integrates the bandwidth potential of fiber optics with the data communications potential of the internet. The study covers the period from 1996 to 2003, during which the optical networking industry was, first, central to the New Economy boom, and, then from 2001, ensnared by the bursting of the New Economy bubble. This paper shows how, responding to the New Economy business model brought into the industry by Cisco Systems, three Old Economy companies—Nortel Networks, Lucent Technologies, and Alcatel—sought to use their corporate stock as a currency to acquire technology companies and compensate talented people, and thus accumulate innovative capability. To understand the relation between the stock market and innovative capability in the Cisco ‘growth‐through‐acquisition‐and‐integration’ model and in the ‘creative responses’ of the Old Economy companies to the Cisco challenge, we apply an analytical framework that links four functions of the stock market—control, combination, compensation and cash—with three social conditions of innovative enterprise: strategic control—the abilities and incentives of strategic decision makers to allocate resources to uncertain investments in innovative capabilities; organizational integration—the structure of incentives that motivates employees to apply their skills and efforts to collective learning processes; and financial commitment—the availability to the enterprise of resources to sustain cumulative learning processes until, by accessing markets, they can generate financial returns. Using this framework, we show that the ways in which the Old Economy companies used their stock to accumulate innovative capability in the New Economy boom of 1998–2000 made them more vulnerable to the stock market collapse and the slowdown in the optical networking industry in 2001–2003.

An empirical comparison and characterization of high defect and high complexity modules

We analyzed a large set of complexity metrics and defect data collected from six large-scale software products, two from IBM and four from Nortel Networks, to compare and characterize the similarities and differences between the high defect (HD) and high complexity modules. We observed that the most complex modules often have an acceptable quality and HD modules are not typically the most complex ones. This observation was statistically validated through hypothesis testing. Our analyses also indicated that the clusters of modules with the highest defects are usually those whose complexity rankings are slightly below the most complex ones. These results should help us better understand the complexity behavior of HD modules and guide future software development and research efforts.