1,721,025 research outputs found
Mediterranean ports in the global network: how to make the hub&spoke paradigm sustainable?
No full textMarket structures and competitive strategies: the carrier-stevedore arm-wrestling in Northern European ports
No full textOver the last few years, liner and stevedoring markets have been facing new challenges. The progressive concentration on the demand side (carriers) and the emergence of global alliances in the mid-1990s have triggered a similar process of consolidation on the supply side (stevedores). In turn, more recently, the strategic choices of pure terminal operators have led to the progressive involvement of carriers in port operations, both from a financial and a managerial point of view.
This paper aims at analysing the current contest in northern Europe between customers and suppliers of port services. Substantial concentration in the stevedoring market and the emergence of dedicated facilities in that area, make this arm-wrestling stronger and stronger.
At present, the liner market is following a number of strategic directions including the pursuit of economies of scale (larger vessels) and the supply of services using faster vessels (deployment of ‘fewer’ assets) in order to offer either new services or additional loops (scope). By exploring the strategic behaviours of the top carriers (‘bigger’ or ‘more effective’), the paper attempts to outline the future evolution of the two industries in a 2015 vision, highlighting in particular scenarios for north European ports. Global alliances are weakening and a new era of M&As is probably approaching: how will the bargaining power change between port users and port customers? Which competitive paradigm will dominate
Intermodal container flows in a port system network: analysis of possible growths via simulation models
No full textWe present a discrete event simulation modelling approach related to the logistic chain as a whole in the northwestern
Italian port system. We analyse the potentiality of the system by giving particular attention to the land transport and
the modal split re-equilibrium with the aim of evaluating a possible future growth of the container flows.
Some simulation models are analysed for highlighting both features and problems of the logistic activities of the
intermodal network. In particular, the first experiment is performed according to the present configuration for
validating the model itself and setting the parameters; successive models are developed for evaluating possible different
scenarios of the land infrastructures in a 2012 vision
Providing Telco-oriented Network Services with eBPF: The Case for a 5G Mobile Gateway
Full text linkAlthough several technologies exist for high-speed data plane processing, such as DPDK, the above technologies require a rigid partitioning of the resources of the system, such as dedicated CPU cores and network interfaces. Unfortunately, this is not always possible when running at the edge of the network, in which a few servers are available in each cluster and a mixture of data and control plane services must coexist on the same hardware. In this respect, eBPF can become a better alternative thanks to its integration in the vanilla Linux kernel, which enables contemporary support for data and control plane services, hence enabling a more efficient usage of the (scarce) computing resources. This paper proposes the first proof-of-concept open-source implementation of a 5G Mobile Gateway based on eBPF/XDP, highlighting the possible challenges (e.g., to create traffic policers, as buffering is not available in eBPF) and the resulting architecture. The result is characterized in terms of performance and scalability and compared with alternative technologies, showing that it outperforms other in-kernel solutions (e.g., Open vSwitch) and is comparable with DPDK-based platforms
Brand strategies of container shipping lines following mergers and acquisitions: carriers’ visual identity options
No full textBrand strategy is a fundamental part of corporate strategy and constitutes a key condition for companies operating in international B2B contexts, enabling them to manage relations with customers, stakeholders and shareholders effectively. Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are drivers of change in both brand architecture and brand portfolio strategies pursued by B2B companies. This paper aims to investigate brand architecture and brand portfolio management strategies in the B2B domain by focusing on the branding decisions of container shipping lines in the context of M&As. A taxonomy of branding options available to B2B companies is presented and empirically applied to the container shipping industry, which has undergone several waves of M&A activities in recent decades. The brand strategies of some of the most M&A active players in the industry (i.e. Maersk Line, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM) are examined, with a particular focus on corporate visual identity (i.e. the name and visual devices such as logo, typeface and colour) adopted after an M&A transaction. Our empirical dataset on M&As in container shipping includes the names of the acquirer and acquired company or merging entities, the geographical scale of the shipping networks of the acquirer and acquired, the type of transaction, the year of the the M&A's formal completion, the adopted corporate visual identity after the M&A and the financials of the M&A transaction. Moreover, we propose a conceptualisation of the factors, drivers and impediments that shape ocean carriers' attitude towards the different branding options and strategies. The results demonstrate two dominant strategies, for example the new entity adopts the visual identity and name of the acquirer ('backing the stronger horse'), or the lead and target brands continue to exist independently after the M&A activity ('business as usual', often as part of a broader multi-brand strategy). These two strategies and the hybrid option of combining them represent 78% of the M&A cases. The remaining M&A cases strongly relied on hybrid strategies involving a change in the adopted strategy many months, or even years after the M&A. We show that the decisions of shipping lines regarding branding in an M&A context are influenced by a complex set of interacting drivers and factors which can differ from one case to another and can change over time. This paper contributes to extant literature by demonstrating a more comprehensive typology of possible brand strategies by providing an empirical analysis in a B2B environment and by presenting a novel conceptualisation of the factors affecting brand strategy in an M&A context
Measuring the cost of the Linux network stack in real-time
Full text linkAs network interfaces in the data center get faster and faster, and an increasingly big portion of the services is implemented in software, we must wonder just how much time our servers' CPUs are spending handling network traffic.
This paper explores the feasibility of measuring the cost of the entire in-kernel network stack in real-time on production systems by relying on the eBPF tracing capabilities instead of utilizing custom logic or kernel patching. We describe two methods that have been attempted, respectively based on an "exact" instrumentation of the stack and sampling, along with the advantages and defects of each approach
A proof-of-concept 5G mobile gateway with eBPF
Full text linkIn this poster we propose the first proof-of-concept open-source implementation of a 5G Mobile Gateway based on eBPF/XDP and present benchmarks that compare its performance with alternative technologies.
We show how it outperforms other in-kernel solutions (e.g., OvS) and is comparable with DPDK-based platforms
IntermEvaluation of pricing tools in urban multimodal pathsodal connection of a maritime container terminal
No full textMediterranean ports in the global network: how to make the hub & spoke paradigm sustainable?
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