Debenhams Strategy Analysis

A recent improvement in the wider market has boosted the retailer by almost 30% since the start of 2012, taking the shares towards the upper band of the downward channel. On 8. Xx earnings the valuation remains undemanding, but the relative valuation in comparison to the sector has narrowed recently. Furthermore, it doesn't have the tangible asset backing relating to property that many of the other major retailers have. Recent restructuring has reduced their net debt to IEEE. Million, but this still represents almost half the market capitalization.Many analysts are forecasting little pre-tax profit growth over the next few years and given the vulnerable technical outlook combined with possible downside macro-economic shocks, which is believed to be a stock to avoid in the short-term. Despite this environment, Deadbeats has taken market share in all of the major clothing categories as customers have responded favorably to the changes made to the design, quality and value of their prod ucts and the improved in- store environment. Overall, share of Deadbeats of the total clothing market increased by 0. %.Yips Triangle Internationalization – might be defined as a geographical dispersion activities across national borders or world widely connection. For instance, products that have been made or purchased abroad and been sold at home country. Industry Globalization Drivers * Cotton price rises * Growth potential in a market * Consumer uncertainty over Job cuts and income prospects share from Arcadia, Deadbeats and Next * M;S took * Multi-channel retailing Increase in market share * Declining conversion rates the new store acquisitions successfully Departure of key personnel and failure * to attract or retain talentFailure to develop and implement roll out or Industry Globalization Drivers – According to Yip (1992) there are four sets of factors such as cost, market, government and competitive drivers which affect company and drive the business towards th e internationalization. Deadbeats' Industry Globalization Drivers: * Cost Driver – Increased cost of product development relative to market life. For example, in 2010 Deadbeats has played down fears that its clothing will cost more because of cotton price rises.Floods in China and Pakistan have severely hit crops, pushing up wholesale prices to a 1 5-year high. According to chief executive of Deadbeats Pl. Rob Templeton cotton prices are only part of the equation. Prices are up 4% and volume is down 2%. What is driving inflation is Force (currency markets). Although high street retailer Deadbeats tried to calm fears, saying the harvest in India – the world's second biggest cotton producer – was expected to be very good, the company started looking for alternatives. * Market Driver – Growth potential in a market.Recently company has been very focused on looking at Deadbeats' price points. So what they have been doing over the last few months is consolidati ng some of Deadbeats' supply chain, reviewing where they are buying room and how they buy and, in some cases, lowering cost prices. In addition, high street retailer has revealed half-year pre-tax profits of El 20. Mm, a rise of 17. 9%. The boost to figures has helped by the opening of four new stores and the acquisition of Denmark leading department store chain Managing du Nor. Government Driver – Consumer uncertainty over Job cuts and income prospects. In 2010 September, Deadbeats were cutting prices by up to 25% rather than waiting for the traditional end of season sale. The main reason for those reductions was that Government spending cuts were still shaking consumer confidence. The BRB (British Retail Consortium) warned the growth figures were flattered by a dismal performance in August 2009 – the worst in the second half of that year. Even though, company was pushed to look for a place in other markets. Competitive Driver – Rise of ‘lead' companies. In 2002, Deadbeats shares fell 10 to IPPP as the market was slightly disappointed with the company's current trading figures where like-for-like sales grew by PC for the first six weeks of the second half. According to Luck Evenhanded, M&S chairman and chief executive during February and March M&S outperformed everyone else on the high street. The company took share from Arcadia, Deadbeats and Next. This situation pushed Deadbeats, which has 97 stores, to open another four in the next financial year.Global strategic levers look at strategic decision making process via which company participates in the global market. This model includes the latter market participation, variety of products and services, location of value added activities and competitive moves. Multi-channel retailing Deadbeats makes use of multiple retail channels to reach the end market. Besides the brick-and-mortar stores, Deadbeats offers its merchandise through an online store, www. Beams. Com. In the first half o f 2011, the company introduced a Euro- denominated website for the Republic of Ireland.Management and Organizational Factors Departure of key personnel and failure to attract or retain talent Recently Deadbeats faces significant delays and prevent achievement of business plans. In order to attract and retain talent, both succession and personal development plans are in place throughout the organization. In addition, target-led, performance-related incentive schemes exist. Even though, skilled and well-educated labor is not that easy to get, so Deadbeats are forced to develop and look for it in different sectors. Annoys MatrixMathematician and business manager Igor Annoys looks at alternative corporate growth strategies, which examines a company's growth opportunity from both market perspective and product or service perspective. Market penetration * Despite the current economic climate and competition, Deadbeats maintains and is expanding clothing space and productivity ( own, desig ners label and concession) between 2009/10 and 2011/12 through refurbishments and acquisitions both in the I-J and abroad (franchise and delivery services), competitive pricing (drastic sale promotions), advertising (Multiplicand – websites, APS and TV

Old Building as Monuments Essay

Should we preserve old building as historical monuments? I believe that different people will hold different perspective to this question. In my point of view, a city should preserve the old historic buildings. Being a container of human activity, Building, obviously, is also a reservoir of human history and culture. To some extent, preserving old historic building means respecting the previous generations. An old building can insinuate historical events happened in the city. Old buildings, as a symbol of architectural heritage, memorize the significant episodes. Looking at the shabby Rome city, almost devastated temples, demolished palace, it is not hard to imagine the prosperous kingdom of the ancient Rome. We can also acknowledge that these buildings are ruined after the kingdom was vanquished by the enemy. Thus, historic buildings are one fundamental method to learn about significant events in the history. Read more:Â  Essay About Importance of Historical Places The old historic buildings of a city would accentuate a city’s culture and characteristic. The Kashgar city is the best example; Chinese government has approved a bill of rebuilding the Kashgar old city, which is 1500years old and main heritage of Uyghur culture, a significant culture of Central Asia. Although a new modern city have been built near to the old one, the most attractive place of Kashgar is still the old city, which has many old historic buildings. The people who want to know about Uyghur culture, one of main culture of Central Asia, always go to visit the old Kashgar city. Preserving old historic building means respecting the previous generations. Maybe some old buildings have negative effect on the cityscape or its function, however, with the consideration of respect previous people, we have no right to destroy or substitute them for modern buildings. On the other hand, we have the responsibility of preserving them to our next generations so that they could have the opportunity to know about their predecessors tangibly. Nevertheless maintaining historic buildings needs tremendous amount of money and old buildings are easily destroyed by earthquake, the cultural value of a historical building is worth preserving on economical expense. To learn more about the history, to more distinguish from other culture, for next generations` sake, stop destroying the historic buildings.

Information system in business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Information system in business - Essay Example The company prides in large number of shareholders. Argo Investment Limited has more than 68, 000 shareholders. The company attaches the huge number of shareholders to its reputation, high capital, regular income, and great regard of their clients’ savings (Forde & Beelaerts, 2011:123). Australian Foundation Investment Company aspires to continue providing attractive investment returns to their clients. The objectives of this company are to pay dividends that have a steady growth and enhance capital, which its shareholders have invested. On top of this, Australian Foundation Investment Company aims to provide good total returns of shares not only in medium terms, but also in long terms (Australian Foundation Investment Company, 2012:1). Argo Investments allows individual investors, trusts, and companies to invest in their company, which has a professional management and diversified portfolio of Australian shares. Argo has been paying dividends to its shareholders annually since it started over 60 years ago. Argo has invested in 120 companies and trusts aiming to grow in capital as it continues to create value in Australian Securities Exchange. The company capitalizes on globalization of economy. In the light of benefits from interconnectedness of the world in terms of economy, Argo has invested in the businesses that have expanded their activities in different regions of the globe (Argo Investment, 2012:2). Argo’s assets attract a huge market. Its shares have been selling highly in the Australian Securities Exchange. The company does not have plans to dispose its long-term investment portfolio. In 30 April 2012, the cost per share in this company stood at $5.80. After deduction of tax, the price of a single share reduces to $5.32. Australian Foundation Investment Company gives a dividend reinvestment plan. Share acquisition plan issues capital and other raisings of the company (Argo Investment, 2012:1). I recommend that an investor should invest in

Denver Art Museum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Denver Art Museum - Essay Example Within the scenario of Asian art, the Falconer on Horseback, displayed at the Denver Art Museum, reveals the growth and development of art in China. This artwork is completed by an unknown artist. Besides, this artwork represents the development of art during the reign of Tang dynasty in 700 A.D. Thesis statement: The visual analysis of the work of art named as Falconer on Horseback proves that the same is symbolic of the rich artistic tradition of China, especially during the Tang dynasty. Visual Analysis In the art work, the Falconer on Horseback (See appendix-1), the artist provides ample importance to the visual elements. For instance, the artist does not make use of primary colors. Instead, mixture of primary colors is used by the artist to inculcate visual beauty to the art work. One can see that orange, green, black, and mixture of ivory white and light brown are the dominant colors in the art work. For instance, green provides elegance to the falcon in the art work. On the ot her side, mixture of ivory white and light brown is used by the artist to project the body of the horse and the falconer’s head. Besides, the falconer is dressed in orange and green robe. So the combination of primary colors provides visual beauty to the art work.

Lawyering for a social change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lawyering for a social change - Essay Example ome aspects of economic, social or/and political status quo believing that the societal conditions hinder the participation and adequate benefits for the subordinate people. According to Professor Martha Minow, defines political lawyering as an art that involves exacting efforts by using the law to alter the allocation of power or change the society. She connotes law to encompass both the customs of opposition and authority arising from the public institution and the formal rules promulgated by the different branches of government (Loewy, 2009). Social connotes the important links between culture and politics where people shape their ambitions and awareness for the society. The change includes both the discrete alterations and the processes of continuing and refurbishing constant challenge. The first contention is the impact of political lawyering on the relationship between a lawyer and the client. The contention focuses on how the political lawyers can influence their clients and how they may elevate the advantages of the cause of the individual client. The institutional role of a lawyer is to immerse himself in the position of his client and forcefully represent that interest in a legal way as soon as possible. The state of being a legal advocate in the legal system where the causes are not chosen encourages a non-evaluative, non-critical and uncommitted condition of mind. Client-centered lawyering is a traditional model of the relationship between a lawyer and the client where the clients have to bear all the consequences of their decisions suggesting the best position in understanding both non-legal and legal importance of their choices. The lawyer always has a duty of counseling his or her clients in an efficient manner by assisting them to explore the results of their actions where they can be able to make best decisions, which will serve their needs. The second contention is the anti-majoritarian use of the courts. The contention is based with an idea

MHE510, Occupational Health and Safety, Mod 5 SLP Essay

MHE510, Occupational Health and Safety, Mod 5 SLP - Essay Example In addition, nonsmokers that are exposed to second hand smoke increase their risk of heart disease by 25% and their risk of lung cancer by 20% (Zellers, et. a. , 2007). There have been studies indicating the difference in air quality and the side effects of second hand smoke. Air filtering does not work so to have them smoke in a separate room is not helpful as smoking in a part of the restaurant with smokers on the other side of a wall does not work. All of these claims are serious and can lead to long term workmans compensation damages. Allowing smoking and protecting non-smokers is a very expensive policy. The CDC tell us that secondhand smoke has 250 toxic chemicals including 50 that cause cancer. Conventional air cleaning systems do not filter the gases in second hand smoke and current heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems do not stop the exposure and negative pressure smoking rooms do not work either (cdc.gov) The only policy that will work for a work situation is to establish a smoke free workplace. This disallows any smoking on campus. Some states have begun to require that all public places be smoke free. This is a difficult and often unpopular policy and there may be some costs attached but the cost of a suit from a very ill employee because of lung cancer from secondhand smoke could be devastating financially. For those reasons the recommendation must be a smoke free policy. CDC provides full kits to allow companies to become smoke free. They are available at no charge and would help to set this new policy up in such a way as to be successful. There will also need to be a steering committee to put the process together and provide everything needed. A kick-off date will need to be chosen and advertising will need to be done ahead of time so that visitor are aware before they arrive on the doorstep. Then administration must support it. In conclusion, second hand smoke is a killer. It is often more detrimental to the non-smoker

Postmodernism in Preciousness, Endgame, and The Simpsons Essay

Postmodernism in Preciousness, Endgame, and The Simpsons - Essay Example Lispector allowed the reader to be a part of the text in stating in the beginning of the chapter that: â€Å"And within the mist there was something precious. Which do not extend itself, did not compromise itself nor contaminate itself. Which was intense like a jewel. Herself† (102). Another textual example in the chapter is when Lispector described the reality after the character passed through her imaginative scenes. She described it as: â€Å"When suddenly everything became unimportant and more rapid and light, where her face revealed freckles, her hair fell over her eyes, and where she was treated like a boy† (105). The character disappeared, and the reader became a part of the text as the character’s environment became real again. Lastly, the presence of the reader appeared as she â€Å"dressed hastily and downed her coffee in one gulp. She opened the front door. And then she no longer hurried† (107). This is a manifestation of the duality of silence in Lispector’s work, which is a character of a postmodernist literary artist. This dual structure is a character of her fiction that adds tension to the texts while creating the contextual silence on her works (Fitz 421). In relation to playwrights, postmodernism can be defined as the manner of standing out from the current rules. In this manner, the playwright, along with the artist, works without following the rules because they create the rules while creating the piece per se (Counsell and Wolf 55). It deviates from the usual realism and is considered as an important part of the pre-World War II plays that manifest metaplays. With this on hand, one of the best examples of postmodernist play is the Endgame written by Samuel Beckett. According to Keshavarz, as a postmodernist play, the characters in the Endgame represent a natural form of sadness (140). He presents a modern status of a person who fears and leans on a goddess with bitterness, doubt and indifference. On the ot her hand, it represents the modernity of a selfless person who lacks the stability of his identity but still manifests social awareness. On the part of the audience, Beckett deviates the ideas and views of the audience from the formal work of dram and injecting postmodernism by bringing the audience in the middle of reality and real-play. He believes in the notion of metatheater that the world is a stage. In this manner, the audiences become characters of the play while experiencing the experience of the characters that they have chosen to be. It can be inferred that postmodernism, in the light of the Endgame, tries to eliminate the potential characters of modernism that alienates reality from theater, or vice versa. Therefore, the Endgame eliminates the rules of basic drama and theater and allows rebuilds it in a manner that the play can be grasp juxtaposition with life itself. The postmodernism manner in the Endgame can also be considered as a literary strategy by Beckett by destr oying the irony of a parody (Keshavaraz 140-142; Rahimipoor and Edoyan 102). In the light of television shows, one of the most popular and long-running postmodern shows is The Simpsons. One of the most explicit characteristics of

Harlem Renaissance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Harlem Renaissance - Essay Example Supported by the African American Church and even more so by the African American writers, playwrights, artists, and musicians; the expression of African American resentment and the new grown self- confidence was demonstrated in their protests of American entry into the First World War in 1917. The Harlem Renaissance was very vocal against what they believed was a capitalist war that was not in their interests, and so exhorted the African American brought into New York from the South to support the war effort, to join the trade unions instead of being involved in the actual fighting in the war. Yet, many of the African Americans did go to war, expecting to get full citizenship. The denial of citizenship along with the segregation faced by them in the army, caused the returning soldiers to be involved in the expression demanding more rights for the African Americans (Williams, p.1-20). The newly found prosperity of the African Americans disappeared with the Great Depression in 1929. This was to have a profound impact on the survival of the Harlem Renaissance. In the beginning, the Great Depression had little impact on the fortunes of Harlem. Life went on as usual and the great writers continued to churn out inspirational works that expressed the African American desire of greater freedom and social expression. Yet, the era of the great days of Harlem were over. Erosion of the new found prosperity gradually reduced the importance of Harlem, as people strived to face the challenges of the Great Depression. The final nail in the coffin was the repeal of Prohibition by the government in 1933. The nightlife of Harlem disappeared, with the population of Manhattan preferring to remain in Manhattan, as they could drink legally in Manhattan. Many of the Harlem residents lost their jobs and were forced to eke out a living in penury, leading to racial riots (Worth, p. 92-98) . Yet, to view the impact of the Harlem Renaissance as limited to

Financial Management Master Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Financial Management Master - Research Paper Example It also has a secondary listing on the Irish Stock Exchange with the name TESCO PLC. Its market capitalization (as on 11/5/2008) is 33.09 billion pound, revenue is 47.3 billion pound (2008), operating income is 2.97 billion pound(2008) and net income 2.13 billion pound (2008). All figures below are for the Tesco's financial years, which run for 52 or 53 week periods to late February. The figures in the table below include 52 weeks/12 months of turnover for both sides of the business as this provides the best comparative. Total Shareholder Return (TSR) shows the return on investment a shareholder receives over a specified time frame and takes into consideration the share price appreciation/depreciation and dividends received. The TSR is calculated by adding the dividend per share to the capital gain/loss and dividing this by the share price and is expressed as a percentage change over time. I have extracted the data for 4 years for Tesco and Sainsbury and have taken the dividend comprising of the interim and final dividend paid by Tesco along with the stock prices appearing as on the close of every financial year as well as in the beginning of the year for the financial years from 2004-05 till 2007-08. TSR ANALYSIS FOR TESCO : As it is quite clear from the calculat... racted the data for 4 years for Tesco and Sainsbury and have taken the dividend comprising of the interim and final dividend paid by Tesco along with the stock prices appearing as on the close of every financial year as well as in the beginning of the year for the financial years from 2004-05 till 2007-08. PARTCULARS OF DIVIDEND PAID BY TESCO DIVIDEND IN PENCE/SHARE PARTCULARS OF SHARE PRICES AS ON PARTICULAR DATE - TESCO SHARE PRICE TSR FOR TESCO Interim - 10/10/07 3.20 As on 23/02/2008 - End 400 Final - 23/04/08 7.70 As on 24/02/2007 - Beginning 446 Total 10.90 Difference in prices - 46 [(-46+10.9)/ 446]*100 = 7.87% Interim - 11/10/06 2.81 As on 24/02/2007 - End 446 Final - 25/04/07 6.83 As on 25/02/2006 - Beginning 335 Total 9.64 Difference in prices 111 [(111+9.64)/ 335]*100 = 36.01% Interim - 28/09/05 2.53 As on 25/02/2006 - End 335 Final - 03/05/06 6.10 As on 26/02/2005 - Beginning 308 Total 8.63 Difference in prices 27 [(27+8.63)/ 308]*100 = 11.57% Interim - 29/09/04 2.29 As on 26/02/2005 - End 308 Final - 20/04/05 5.27 As on 27/02/2004 - Beginning 258 Total 7.56 Difference in prices 50 [(50+7.56)/ 258]*100 = 22.31% TSR ANALYSIS FOR TESCO : As it is quite clear from the calculations that the Total Shareholder Return for the Company has been quite volatile in nature and has been variable for the four years period and the same was negative for the current financial year 2007-08. This is on account of the fluctuating share price although the dividend per share has been on a constant rising scale. Moreover the performance of the stock has been quite volatile for TESCO and for the current financial year 07-08, it showed a downward trend. (ii) Market Value Added(MVA) A calculation that shows the difference between the

Paper does not have a topic you have to pick it yourself Essay

Paper does not have a topic you have to pick it yourself - Essay Example t is similar because both the poem and the Memoir present aspects of life which have not been discovered by many, this paper will shed more light upon the similarities between the two. The poem has hidden meaning in it; the literal meaning of the poem is very easy to understand. A traveler reaches a fork in the road and is discombobulated because the road shows the traveler two choices, the traveler after much thinking, chooses the road less travelled by people. The figurative meaning of the poem reflects upon the choices that we make in our lives. We can either choose a road which is very frequently chosen by other people or we can choose to walk on a road which is hardly chosen by other people. After making our choice, we would always have regrets because the road not taken would always force us to think about the endless possibilities. This is what the poem is all about and this poem is really popular, Robert Frost became a household name because of this poem. Aria is also very similar because it presents aspects that only very few have experienced in their lives; this is exactly how they are similar. The Road not Taken suggests that the poet took the less trav elled road and in Aria also the readers get to see something very similar. Rodriguez who is the main character in Aria feels very comfortable and safe growing up in his neighborhood, the Spanish neighborhood of his is really noisy and disturbing but he finds solace, similarly in Road not Taken the poet suggests that not many take the road not taken because they are comfortable doing what others do, this is again a very big similarity between the two. â€Å"When I went up to look at my grandmother, I saw her through the haze of a veil draped over the open lid of the casket. Her face looked calm-but distant and unyielding to love. It was not the face I remembered seeing most often. It was the face she made in public when the clerk at Safeway asked her some question and I would need to respond. It was her

Enron And The Decision Making Factor Essay Example for Free

Enron And The Decision Making Factor Essay Introduction – Students, analysts and critics of modern business practice will always consider the colossal Enron collapse as an important text book case about how a lot of different things inside the company can trigger a nearly overnight downfall of a once prestigious company. If there was any Cinderella story in the world of blue chip trading and high portfolio business, Enron was the ultimate opposite, if not the witch herself who was killed by her own lethal potion. The Enron collapse resulted in the formulating of many different opinions pointing to the many different possible reasons why Enron – with all the promise and potential that it has a few years before it went south – made the nosedive that made it one of the worst disasters in the history of trade, commerce and business. There is no doubt that most of the opinions that surfaced explaining the reason why such an eventuality befell Enron placed the blame on the wrong things that the top management echelon did for the company; they are after all the one which is responsible for the present and the future of Enron. Critics looking at the Enron debacle scrutinized what happened leading to the collapse using many different perspectives and considering many different factors, both in the professional capability of the company’s leaders as well as the impact of the surrounding factors beyond Enron’s control. One of the most important facets in the debate regarding the fall of Enron is decision making. Evidently, a lot of wrong decisions were made, with one every wrong decision acting as a building block that eventually became an insurmountable wall of consequences all borne out of wrong or faulty decision making processes that yielded results that did the company more harm than good. Indeed, the decision making linchpins significant to the establishment of the case that the Enron collapse was due in some extent to the decision making aspect of the leadership strata of the company can be identified easily as it is scattered throughout the timeline of Enron’s very near and not so distant past leading to the eventual fall of the company that hid behind the facade of the building the ugliness created by the qualities of its leaders that caused the chaos that burned down Enron down to meager, worthless ashes. This paper will pick the significant moments wherein the decision making capabilities and abilities of its top management leaders were at play and use these moments to establish the ethical and other considerations coming to play during the analysis of the decision making efforts of the leaders and why the outcome of such exercises led to the fall of Enron and not towards the company’s betterment, which is the main task of the company’s top executives. The paper will utilize these occasions to stress its argument regarding the role of effective, ethical and sound decision making of top executives leading to either the success or bankruptcy of companies, in this case that of Enron, and discuss key aspects of this line of thought. The paper will not criminalize the actions of the executives of Enron; rather, it will infuse inputs from other professionals regarding important aspects in the discussion of corporate decision making (ethics, result-orientation, etc). Background – Various angles have already been explored by many different individuals every time the topic of analysis is Enron and its collapse. Because of this, the paper is moving to focus on an aspect that is focused more on Kenneth Lay and the rest of his top executive clique’s personal characteristic that could have played an important role in the outcome of Enron’s operation. Decision making is both a personal characteristic as it is a professional credential, even an asset. Some people are being paid handsome amounts of money for their ability to transform decision making moments into an opportunity that provides a positive result and expected outcome for the company. Ehringer (1995) puts it simply: The ability to make good decisions is the defining quality of our lives (Ehringer, 1995, p. 1). When Lay, Skilling, Fastow and other Enron bosses were placed in their respective positions, they were expected to exercise a high level of intuitiveness, business acumen and professional foresight so that every decision making opportunity is met with the company’s best interest long term and short term in mind. They were where they were because those who placed them there believed that they can make decisions to which the company can benefit from. When Enron collapse, many people and organizations criticized the questioned the decision making capabilities of the top executives – was the collapse an effect of the result of the decision that they made? Was the decision made putting the benefit of the company and the employees first, or are the decisions shaped so that it benefited them first? How bad was the breach in the ethical considerations that a professional should take every time he or she makes a decision that puts the future of the company on the line? These are just some of the questions that may also be present in the minds of those who followed the Enron case. Sure there were varying degrees of deception and fraudulent acts from the part of many select individuals who sinned against Enron and its employees, but these cases would have been minimized or even averted altogether if the important decision making privileges was limited to a select few, or if the future-altering decision making capability is disseminated largely among a huge group of people that can provide a check and balance system for Enron. Roberts (2004) explained that if it is possible for others to make the decisions for a unit, then new options arise to design the decision-making process as well as the incentive schemes to get better performance on both dimensions. For example, the design might specify that a decision about a project arising in one unit that affects another would be implemented if and only if both units agree to it, (Roberts, 2004, p. 51). Enron is an energy trading firm which was performing well in the early part of its existence. By the start of the 21st century, the problems that the bosses were trying to hide from the public and from the employees started to stank. Soon, events unfolded like dominoes falling one after the other as a consequence of information spilling out into the public’s attention. Before 2004, the public already had a clear idea about how Enron bosses were supposedly the one responsible for the defrauding of the employees and their company shares and other benefits, as well as the one responsible for the bankruptcy of Enron. One by one, key company officials stepped out of the light and implicated a new name, which will in turn implicate a much bigger name, until the dragnet sent out to see who was accountable for the fraudulent acts in Enron caught its top bosses, including Lay, Skilling and Fastow. Many individuals faced criminal charges, and many more simply went home not just jobless but are robbed of lifetime investments which Enron bosses manipulated and soon lost because of the wrong decisions they made on how to run the company and make it prosper and grow. Examples of how Enron management made wrong decisions during decision making moments abound in the history of the company. Take for example what happened in 1987 instead of declaring the $190 million loss the company experienced, they concealed it instead, leading to criminal charges. This habit of Enron for opting to conceal losses instead of declaring it became a dangerous vice; when Fastow was aboard Enron, the same outlook affected the decision making of Enron, leading to increase in pile of cases wherein Enron through its top management consciously made actions that defraud the employees and the public. There was also the case of poor public relations by Enron which fanned the flames of panic that removed any possible opportunity for Enron to remedy the financial situation without creating hysteria that saw many stockholders selling their stocks due to the continued falling of the stock value of Enron. Statement of Problem – The most important decision that Enron’s executives faced was not the decision on whether or not to publicly announce about the bankruptcy; in fact, there was no decision making factor during that instance since the predicament of the company has already been decided regardless of what the top executives might have opted for: they were flat out broke and the public needs to know about this, that was the situation. The true decision making moment for Enron’s bosses was the time when they were deciding what the best option to take is with regards to the financial aspect of the company, including taxes, earnings and financial loses. It was a matter of facing a decision making task that provided the Enron bosses with two options – to do the right thing, or to opt for something that is morally and ethically inappropriate. The decision reached in this particular decision making instance was laced with the hope that the option they took would be free from serious repercussions and give them enough time to fix it all up again. Unfortunately for Enron, things did not work out as planned, and the criminal liability of the Enron bosses stemmed from the fact that they decided to do something which they consciously knew was detrimental to the welfare of the Enron company and its employees. During that particular instance, Lay could have opted to do the right thing and faced the consequences by coming clean, he may have a more sympathetic public to support him in whatever efforts he may wish to undertake to revive Enron, and not be faced with the collapsing stock value since those who can sell theirs sell it in a frantic phase to rid themselves of the stock of the company which is nearing imminent bankruptcy. This showed how the people do not give second chances to those who squander their decision making privileges by making decisions bereft of the consideration of the good of the greater many. Decision making John Hintze (2006), in his discussion about making smart decisions during decision making, used the case of the Enron collapse to open his discussion and establish the fact that problems are something that is foreseen, something that happened nonetheless owing to bad decision making. Hintze wrote, should we have seen 9/11 coming? What about the Enron collapse? The Signs were there; people pointed them out, but the appropriate steps were not taken by those in a position to do something. Why is this? Politics? Greed? Those certainly contributed, but there was something else at work here, too: A failure of common sense in decision making (Hintze, 2006, p. 123). Enron: Bad decision making Nothing can prove more about how bad the decision making went inside Enron camp more convincingly than the fact the company transformed from prosperous to poor overnight. This was the general characteristic of Enron through the traits shown by its leaders that reflect the Enron personality. There were earlier discussions in the paper about snippets on instances pointing to Enrons penchant for making bad decision or for going to the resolving of a problem utilizing an option that is more questionable. Fox (2004) explained that Enron believed that its expansion into international projects were positive initiatives simply because they put the company in more potential markets. In truth, Enron made bad business decisions that werent supported by the deals economics. The bad business decisions piled up, stretching from India to Brazil, pressuring the company to do something about its finances’ (Fox, 2004,p. 307). At least at this point, Fox is not pointing at the unethical aspect of the Enron decision making machinery, just the fact that they made decisions that were bad for the future of the company, but not to the extent of deliberately sabotaging the company or putting the company in danger with all known risk for personal gain. For Fox, it was a bad call plain and simple. But the matter of the fact is that not everyone sees it the way Fox does, and there are those who believe that there were ethical breaches in the decision making in Enron among its top bosses. The (absence of) Leaders in decision-making – Decision making in retrospective is one of the common line of thinking used when investigating events that led to growth or debacle. It is because decision making played an important part in shaping the future of the company; it is here where the foundation, or lack of it, was created via the decisions the bosses made or failed to make. To trace the problems or mark significant actions resulting from decision making which eventually resulted to either the success or failure of the company, it is not only the decision making events that are looked back to; the persons that made them were also put under the microscope, and among the qualities scrutinized is their decision making ability and their other characteristics that affect their decision making attitude and behavior. Professionals debate about the idea of a good decision, a bad decision, good intentions and bad intentions and how the good and bad effect that comes into play afterwards account for the overall accountability of a person wielding the power to make decisions that will have a tremendous impact on the future of the company, something which happened in Enron via Lay, Skilling, Fastow and the rest of the top figures of the company. Acuff (2004) explains that ‘if they make a decision that might not have been the decision I would have made, and they come and talk to me about it, we look at it and discuss it. There are a lot of different ways to skin the horse. I don’t go saying my idea is the only one that will get you where you want to go. I hold people accountable for good decision-making. If a bad outcome results from a bad decision thats a problem. But if a bad outcome results from a reasonable decision, then thats business, and it could happen to anyone (Acuff, 2004, p. 87). This was the predicament of those who are trying to evaluate the decision making actions of Enron top executives did they make decisions, even bad decisions with the sake of the company in mind, and gambled with their careers because they know that if their plans and actions go well, it is extremely beneficial for the company, in a very Machiavellian approach towards getting things done regardless of the means by which th ey did it, or were they just plain guilty of fraudulent actions? People who are burdened by the decision that impacts a lot of people is not always amenable to taking the high and moral grounds, that is why the adage about the end justifying the means, about getting things done at what ever cost, about delivering against the odds became popular because of people like the Enron bosses who (probably) acted upon their decision making duties by risking what can be a popularly bad decision. Indeed, it may be easy or even convenient for most people adversely affected by the Enron collapse to attribute the colossal corporate debacle to the top management figures of the company by criticizing their decisions as well as their faculty for sound decision making. While it is true that Enron’s top executives are responsible for the collapse of the company, it is not that easy to measure the level of ethical decision making attributes of Enron’s top brass. Goethals et al (2004) pointed out that â€Å"the complexity associated with ethical decision making and behavior, especially as it applies to leadership and the workplace, makes the construct extremely difficult to research†, adding that â€Å"Measuring an individual’s level of ethical decision making is challenging, particularly because the measurement instruments that are available have problems with priming and social-desirability effects; that is, questionnaires or other similar modes of data collection cue respondents to give answers that they believe are socially acceptable rather than answers that truly reflect their own actions or opinions (Goethals et. al. , 2004, p. 461). † Proof of which is the fact that all of these executives in question are career corporate leaders even before they joined Enron; their credentials played an important role regarding their selection for a corporate position as high as theirs. Because of this, as well as the factors that affect the credibility of the ability for identification of the real public pulse regarding the persons involved in the issue, ethical decision making levels of the persons involved is hard to ascertain, making claims for questionable ethical decision making consideration of the people lose important ground and stand on insufficient set of stable legs for proof and justification. Still, there are those who believe that the level of ethics that influences the decision making capabilities of the Enron bosses are without a doubt questionable, and this includes Mimi Swartz and Sherron Watkins who was quoted in the book edited by Kathy Fitzpatrick and Carolyn B. Bronstein. In the article, it mentions about how Swartz and Watkins â€Å"blame Ken Lay, former CEO of Enron, and other company executives for privileging greed and arrogance over ethical business decisions† (Fitzpatrick and Bronstein, 2006, p. 79), the gist of the published work co-authored by the two individuals. Nalebuff and Ayres (2006) wrote that the problem often arises because people ignore the costs and benefits that their decisions have on other people. We call this approach Why dont you feel my pain? The more technical term for these effects is externalities. Decision makers who ignore externalities are bound to make bad decisions (Nalebuff and Ayres, 2006, p. 67). This explanation greatly tarnishes the ethical value of the decision making ethics of Enron bosses because it shows that they are prone or inclined to make decisions even if the result of such decisions lead to negative effects that other people will experience. Niskanen (2005) believes that Lay, one of the top bosses of Enron, â€Å"should be judged on the basis of his personal actions, directions to subordinates, or the actions of subordinates that he implicitly condoned by knowing about it without attempting to correct not on the basis of what he should have known† (Niskanen, 2005, p. 6). Lays condoning of actions is a result of a personal and professional decision that he made or failed to make and because of that, Niskanen believes that Lay is answerable for any criminal charges that would result from that particular action (or inaction). Watkins was thinking of the company and its employees and their future and hers as well, when she made the decision to let her superiors, particularly Lay, know about the possible accounting problems and the making public of the current and real financial and trade status of the company. This clearly illustrates the difference in ethics when it comes to decision making. Decision making, ethics and public perception Decision making in business is not merely a power or a privilege that one can use at will without thinking of the consequences that might happen should the decision resulted into something that is considered as adversely negative and detrimental to the welfare of the employees, their jobs and the company they work for. Those who are provided with such amenity to go along with their job description should consider that it is also their responsibility to make sure that their employees and subordinates do not think that they are squandering away their decision making privilege and everything that goes along with it. This was the prevailing attitude or outlook of the Enron employees especially nearing the imminent collapse of the company. The absence of ethical consideration resulted to the losing of the credibility of the bosses of Enron because they were not careful with how they undertake their decision making tasks. While bankruptcy is something that is very difficult to accept and impacts greatly in the lives of the employees especially the rank and file blue collar workers, there is a sense of adding insult to injury during occasions wherein the employees are starting to realize that all of the unfortunate things that happen in the company and in their careers are all a result of the faulty, incompetent and unethical decision making of the top management echelon and not because the company was helpless in the onslaught of a devastating economic problem, like how companies closed down during the Great Depression despite the efforts of American businessmen to keep the different industries alive and breathing. During the collapse of Enron, the US is experiencing a very stable economy far from that which characterized US economy during the Great Depression, and is shielded securely from the impact of whatever it was that was happening in the global economic and business landscape, and so during the Enron collapse, the collective finger was pointing an accusing index digit to Enron bosses and majority of the cause of their indignation originates from the sloppy decision making capabilities of Enron bosses who lost their credibility the moment they lost Enron. Brazelton and Ammons (2002) wrote in the book they co-wrote: â€Å"The Ethics Resource Center conducted a survey in 2000 in which it learned that 43 percent of respondents believed that their supervisors are generally poor examples of honest managers, and the same number were pressured to compromise their own integrity or that of their organization during decision making. The survey also identified a strong connection between employees perceptions of their supervisors and their own ethical behavior (Brazelton and Ammons, 2002, p. 388). † Enron decision making: the two-pronged factors It can be pointed out that one of the problems that happened to Enron is the ineffective of decision making among top executives first, their top executives failed to make correct decisions when they are required to do so, and second, Enron was not fully complimented with a set of professionals which could have contributed to the decision making process, and in the process provided the possibility of infusing new or different ideas that could have altered the outcome of the decision making process. Fitzpatrick and Bronstein (2006) did not look exclusively on Enrons bosses and the decisions they made in the management of Enron and the companys money and asset, rather, the two editors focused on the absence of a key top management personnel and took the presence of such a void as a sign that Enron is not even prioritizing the welfare of the company and its employees. The book Ethics in Public Relations: Responsible Advocacy, which includes the Enron case as one of the important case studies to point out the importance of the role of public relations, explains that perhaps the governance of these companies was such that they did not care about their publics, and did not want the advice of senior-level public relations officer playing an active or dominant role in organizational decision making (Fitzpatrick and Bronstein, 2006, pg 179). Conclusion – Niskanen (2005) summed up the Enron case on its characteristic of thriving in bad decisions made by its corporate leaders by saying in the book that the most important lesson from the Enron collapse, however, is that Enron failed because of a combination of bad business decisions, not because its accounts were misleading adding that the major business decisions that most contributed to its collapse were a series of bad investments, most of which were in the traditional asset-rich industries; the failure to reconcile two quite different business models; and the decision to focus management objectives on reported revenues and earning rather than on the present value of future cash flows (Niskanen, 2005, p. 6). Are they poor in decision making, or was the decision making adversely affected by other concerns and priorities outside of Enron that the results of the decision made for Enron looks like those who made the call did not even think about how this course of action will affect Enron? There are no sufficient proofs to point that the case was the latter; for a company that became seventh all in all in the Fortune 500 at least once, it is unthinkable how there will be conscious efforts to sink the company by making wrong decisions, deliberately or not. The point of the paper is not the assertion of the guild of Skilling, Lay or even Fastow, it’s the establishing of the point that decision making, when not handled properly, can turn even the most profitable company into a nose-diving wreck in a short period of time, that decision making plays an important role in how a person defines his or her life and how he or she leads a company and that because of these factors, no one should have an excuse why decision making was taken lightly and without much thought or care. All the people can see is a group of people who made wrong decisions several times, the resulting web and how they got trapped in that web, that is assuming that there was no malice or hidden agenda that the bosses perpetrated in lieu of Enron’s collapse. In the end, only Lay (now deceased) and the elite circle of the Enron executive clique will be the ones who would really know about the truth regarding ethics and the decision making in Enron leading to the collapse of the company. Many would ask, and some would presume, the reasons as well as the level of guilt of these leaders when it comes to breaching the ethical requirements needed when undertaking decision making for a company. Regardless, the decisions they made created far reaching ripples and altered the lives of many individuals who invested not just their time, strength and lifes savings into the company but as well as their but as well as their faith and trust, which are not in shattered pieces because of the bad decisions that Enron executives made. Crawford (2006) further elaborated on the pointed by explaining that bad decisions by a major company, however, cause major disruptions for all of the companys stakeholders’. He pointed at the case of Enron as one of his examples, saying that ‘the Enron disaster, as one example, certainly had devastating impacts on the lives of most of Enron employees (including the middle managers and professionals who invested in the company-sponsored Enron 401[K] plans) and also caused suffering for many individual investors who purchased Enron stock on the open market. Thousands of other Enron stakeholders, including Enrons suppliers and customers, also suffered, (Crawford, 2006, p. 26). Indeed, Enron’s decision making had a hand in how the company turned out to be.

The Daffodils by W.Wordsworth and Miracle on St.Davids Day by G.Clarke Essay Example for Free

The Daffodils by W.Wordsworth and Miracle on St.Davids Day by G.Clarke Essay Form and meaning of The Daffodils by W.Wordsworth and Miracle on St.Davids Day by G.Clarke. Pre and Post C20th Poetry Comparison. William Wordsworth wrote the poem The Daffodils in 1804, two years later after his experience with the Daffodils. The poem Miracle on St. Davids Day was written by Gillian Clarke around 1980. Miracle on St. Davids Day was written one hundred and seventy-six years after The Daffodils was. The poems are very similar in the way that they both look like poems, having a regular structure. In Miracle on St. Davids Day each stanza apart from the last one has five lines that are all about the same length. In The Daffodils each stanza has six lines that are all about the same length. The poems are different in the way that Miracle on St. Davids Day was written like a story, sentences starting in one stanza and finishing in another. Also this poem does not rhyme, it looks like a poem but sounds like prose. The Daffodils is written as a poem with a regular rhyming pattern. Line one and line three rhyme, line two and line four, and line five and six are a rhyming couplet. This is regular throughout the poem. Both poems are similar as they are true experiences of the writers, and they are written in Modern English. Also the poems are both narrative poems. William Wordsworth was born in 1770, an eighteenth century romantic poet. He described his poetry as emotion recollected in tranquillity, and that remembering is the key. Gillian Clarke was born in the twentieth century and is still alive today. G. Clarke is modern contemporary poet. Wordsworths inspiration for The Daffodils was spring itself, the sense and feeling of spring around him with so many numerous daffodils. Wordsworth allowed himself to be inspired by the beauty of nature and the magic of every year nature dying and freezing over and then coming to life and being re-born again. Wordsworth became caught up in the moment of his real life experience and wanted to savour and treasure it, so he wrote and feelings down on paper. In Wordsworths time you were either poor and hard working, or wealthy with not much to do. Wordsworth had not much to do, so he opened his imagination to write poetry to fill his spare time. With having spare time and no need to be anywhere at a certain time, he explored nature and learnt more about the happenings of nature, which as a poet he respected, and he recorded his discoveries and emotions on paper. Clarkes inspiration for writing Miracle on St. Davids Day, was her personal experience when visiting a mental institution. She was reading poetry to the insane, which happened to awaken a long, repressed memory in one of the patients, whom recites a poem from the days of his youth, forty years ago in a valley school, the class recited poetry by rote. This experience impressed so strongly on Clarkes mind that she wanted to keep her memory of the experience alive, telling the story for ten years to people before writing it in a poem. Clarkes inspiration was the power of memory and the power of poetry. The sounds of her reading poetry to someone triggered a memory so hidden from long ago that I think she was shocked that it could have happened, and inspired her to write it in a poem. Wordsworths purpose in The Daffodils is to express his emotion to the reader, and make the reader feel the daffodils and become lost in a magical world of the beauty of spring just like he himself did. Wordsworth appreciated nature already but wanted to get it across to the reader the moment of tranquillity and peace of mind he had, surrounded by the beautiful daffodils. Clarkes purpose in writing Miracle on St. Davids Day is to tell people about the incident that she witnessed and to show the power of poetry and memory. Clarke wanted people to see that no matter how old the memory was or whether the person had a mental illness or not, as long as there was no memory loss, a memory hidden deep in the back of the mind can be awoken. Any small insignificant thing such as touch, sight, smell, sound or taste can awake it, and that memory is a very powerful thing. Wordsworths The Daffodils has four stanzas in it. The content of stanza one tells us that Wordsworth is walking alone and how he comes across the daffodils and where. Beside the lake, beneath the trees, they were blowing in the wind. Stanza two is where Wordsworth makes a comparison of the beautiful sparkling daffodils to the stars on the Milky Way, which means that there were too many daffodils to count like the millions of stars in the sky, And twinkle on the Milky Way, they stretched in never-ending line. Stanza three explains how content a poet can be amongst these daffodils appreciating their natural sparkling beauty for a poet clearly respects natural beauty and The Daffodils being a true experience for Wordsworth made it a more significant experience in his life. Also Wordsworth describes how the daffodils stand out from anything around them and that only the daffodils are in focus, stopping any thought of any other matter in his head. A poet could not but be gay, in such jocund company. Wordsworth did not realise what effect the sight of the daffodils had brought on him and I do not think he realised that he would be writing about them two years later. Obviously the daffodils stuck in his mind and frequently reminded him of his experience because he was writing about them two years later, and to write about them obviously satisfied his need to express to others the joy the daffodils brought to him. Stanza four is a memory of Wordsworth. He describes his situation of telling the reader in stanza one, two and three of the moment of the experience and stanza four is thinking about the impact of the experience. For oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or pensive mood G. Clarkes Miracle on St. Davids Day, has nine stanzas in it. The content of stanza one is a quote from the daffodils by W. Wordsworth. At first glance the reader is confused and thinks that it is a misprint on the poem, but then realises that is it connected with the poem in some later stage which makes the reader inquisitive and want to read on. They flash upon that inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude. Stanza two is an introduction to the mental institution but the reader does not know this yet, the reader just absorbs the information described to them in a detailed picture which already mentions daffodils, giving a connection between this poem and The Daffodils. An afternoon yellow and open-mouthed with daffodils. A picture is already in the readers head of a warm, sunny afternoon in spring somewhere in a forest where there is a lot of greenery and a large country house hidden from view, peaceful and graceful. Stanza three is the writer and the narrative voice, Gillian Clarke, describing what she is doing. She tells the reader that she is reading poetry to insane, so we assume that she is in an asylum and not the beautiful, tranquil country house the reader first thought it was. Clarke in stanza three also starts to describe a few of the patients there to the reader. A beautiful chestnut haired boy listens Stanza four is an extension of stanza three. It carries on to describe another patient, a woman at the institution, who is not mad or disturbed as people might think you would be in a mental hospital. She is just mildly mentally absent. She does not dream, or think, or feel, the woman is absent in mind but present physically. In her neat clothes, the woman is absent. Stanza five is also a continuation of stanza four; these three stanzas are all connected. It goes into detail about a certain patient, described as a labouring man. By going into more detail about this patient, the reader thinks that he is a main character or will play quite a large role in the rest of the poem. This poem interests the reader to read further. Stanza six tells us that this patient has never spoken. The huge and mild man stands up to recite The Daffodils. This is where stanza one is linked with the poem. This stanza tells us about the miracle that happens. The miracle is that a man in a mental institution, who has not spoken for a long, long time, is suddenly forced to speak by the power of an awakened memory. To the staff it does not seem such a miracle, as they know that he is an elective mute. Stanza seven is about the nurses and the residents at the institution and the whole of natures reactions. It also describes the man who is reciting The Daffodils and how well he recites it after years of not speaking. The nurses are frozen, alert; the patients seem to listen. Stanza eight is an explanation of how he came to know the poem The Daffodils and why he needed to speak it. It is a trip back in time and a reason for his being in a mental institution. The man came to know the poem, forty years ago, in a Valleys school, the class recited poetry by rote. His reason for being in the asylum is, since the dumbness of misery fell he has remembered there was a music of speech and that once he had something to say. This also explains why he spoke. He had a memory woken inside of him by the narrative voice reading to the insane. Stanza nine finishes off the poem, as so does the man. There is a silent, still moment throughout nature and from the listeners at the mental institution, before the applause, we observe the flowers silence. There is a moment of silent appreciation throughout nature and humanity. The structure of The Daffodils by William Wordsworth is in four equal stanzas. They each have six lines of similar length. The stanzas all look like each other. This is a regular structure. Stanzas one and two have complete sentences but stanza three and four have lines linked with a break in the middle. The rhyming pattern of the Daffodils is that line one and line three rhyme and line two and line four rhyme, and line five and six are a rhyming couplet. This is the regular rhyming pattern that continues throughout the rest of the poem. The poem looks even and neat on the page and has straightforward understanding looking language. The regular rhyming pattern fits in with the simplicity of the event and is a common experience shared by all. Wordsworth has shortened words to make to make them fit in with the flowing of the poem. This brings the structure together and neatens it to make it more readable. For oft, when on my couch I lie oft is the shortened version of often. The structure of The Miracle on St. Davids Day by G. Clarke also has a regular structure but is quite different from the Daffodils. It has eight stanzas all equal in size. They all contain five lines all of similar length, apart from the very last stanza that has only three lines containing the conclusion. When hes done, before the applause, we observe The poem is non-rhyming but flows, by one sentence starting on one line and running onto finish on the next line, such as, A big, mild man is tenderly ledto his chair. This pattern helps to reveal the stages of the miracle because it flows and looks like a poem but sound like prose. This poem is a narrative poem. The narrative voice is Gillian Clarke as it is revealed to the reader that she is there herself telling the readers about her experience. I am reading poetry to the insane. The final stanza leads up to Clarkes final meaning of how a distant memory can be triggered by anything small or large, showing the power of memory. Forty years ago, in a Valleys school, the class recited poetry by rote. William Wordsworth is the narrative voice of The Daffodils as it is revealed to the reader instantly, I wandered lonely as a cloud. This tells the reader that Worsworth is telling the reader about his experience. The style of The Daffodils is peaceful and tranquil. The mood is set dreamily straight away with an image of floating. I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high oer vales and hills. It has a romantic style for Wordsworth was a romantic poet, emotion recollected in tranquillity. Wordsworths words flow and run like a song with many images being displayed in front of the readers eyes all at once. Beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze. This rhyming style sounds like a song and creates a summer picture of sun glittering on a lake with a soft patch of shade over it from the trees that are gently waving about in the soft and warm breeze in the readers mind. The style of The Miracle on St. Davids Day is completely different to the one of The Daffodils. It changes rapidly. At first it is warm and welcoming, the setting of the poem. First the reader is outside the building admiring the scenery, then the quickly moves to the inside of the building to discover the buildings true nature. The mood is then changed, slightly tense. The poem style is confusing, as there is a lot of a contrast used. Clarke contrasts the look of the patients to their mental illnesses. She has already referred to them as the insane. A beautiful chestnut-haired boy listens entirely absorbed. A schizophrenic. This contrast is quite strong and obvious. The reader imagines a beautiful boy in every way, a good child, normal, content and happy. Then it instantly changes, he is a schizophrenic which changes the readers perspective of the child, as on the outside he is a perfect boy, almost angelic, then we see the inside, corrupted and destroyed of any normality. The language of The Daffodils is in Modern English although some words have been shortened to fit in with the rest of the poem. For example; Oer , means over. That floats on high oer vales and hills. Antiquated vocabulary is also used such as glee and jocund. The English is very straightforward, using both modern and antiquated vocabulary. Stanza one begins with a simile. Wordsworth likens himself to a cloud that is driven by the wind over which the cloud has no control. Here he is telling the reader about his mood and feelings and behaviour in that present moment. His mood is aimless as his feet were driving him in a directionless manner. He just felt a force taking him and a need to wander. I wandered lonely as a cloud. The simile creates a drifting mood. There is then a strong sense of immediacy, all at once. Wordsworth draws the reader in with at once and the readers attention is riveted. There is a great deal of imagery in the first stanza. Crowd and host, both convey a very large number or a numerous amount. In the next line the reader discovers what the crowd is. It is described vividly to the reader with a rich, luxurious and vibrant feel, golden. There is also a religious quality in a host of golden daffodils. A picture is created in the readers head of the golden daffodils glowing and highlighted to stand out from the rest of the world, as if from the heavens. It is like a host of angels. There is a strong assonance in stanza one, the repetition of the vowel sounds ee creates a sense of movement; beside, beneath, trees, breeze. The reader hears a beat, a rhythm creating a sense of the flow of movement and swaying of the daffodils. There is also an ing sound in stanza one that creates a more bouncing effect; fluttering and dancing. This gives stanza one a song like quality. Stanza two opens with a simile and a comparison. Wordsworth compares the daffodils to stars, which stretch endlessly to the human eye. Wordsworth compares the numbers of the daffodils to the vast amount of stars. Continuous as the stars that shine, this means that the daffodils continued beyond the reach of his own eyesight so that there must have been thousands of daffodils or more. They stretched in never-ending line. This conveys an infinite number, enthralling the reader. Wordsworth then gives elevated imagery, stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way. This gives the imagery of the daffodils releasing a ray of golden light around them, giving a magical feel. Wordsworth then makes a personification, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. Only something that is alive could dance or toss their heads, so he points out the amount of life in these daffodils. He makes them full of life with vivid movement, sprightly. This is a lovely word to describe the behaviour of the daffodils, and conveys that they are full of movement and spring. The mood is warm, relaxed and light with a romantic atmosphere. In stanza three an image of the whole of Nature alive is presented to the reader, the waves beside them danced. This is the waves of the lake beside the daffodils, leaping about driven by the wind as if dancing to compete with the beauty of the daffodils. This is also a personification of the waves dancing. The mood then changes by the word but, making the reader expect something. After all the describing of the magical and romantic atmosphere, the reader feels pessimistic that something is going to change the whole mood of the poem. The reader then discovers that nothing terrible happens but the but was only to shame the waves, as the daffodils were more effective than the waves out-did the sparkling waves in glee. This means that the daffodils bettered the waves. The atmosphere is now light and fantastic again, glee meaning merriment and cheerfulness. There is a colon in the middle of stanza three indicating a pause, which continues with Wordsworth commenting on his feelings and actions at the present moment. I gazed- and gazed- but little thought. The hyphens slow the line down by breaking it up gradually, this gives the impression of thought to the reader. By doing this Wordsworth indicates the end of the description of the daffodils. There is also a metaphor in this stanza, what wealth to me the show had brought. The wealth in this stanza is a metaphor for the lasting measure of the experience gained by the sight of the daffodils and the emotions that they brought. Stanza four is at a later time, indicating that the poem was a memory flashback. The reader knows this from the first line of the stanza. For oft, when on my couch I lie. It is a reflection of the experience by saying oft which means frequently. The next line creates an empty mood, far away, drifting and dreaming. This tells the reader of Wordsworths longing to be back in that experience. The mood and atmosphere is quite strongly put forward to the reader with vacant or in pensive mood. This means absent and dreaming, inattentive and expressionless but with a thoughtful frame of mind. This shows Wordsworths mood of leaving the world far behind him and trying to enter an ageing memory of an uplifting experience. Stanza four has a special meaning. It is a time in Wordsworths life when he is having a retrospective view of his experience, which is so emotionally overwhelming to him that it has created an extremely long lasting impression in his mind. Wordsworth sums up his feelings from the experience in the last stanza they flash upon that inward eye, here he is saying that the vision of the crowd of daffodils is branded on his imagination for the rest of his life. This brings great happiness to him, which is the bliss of solitude. By using the word bliss, Wordsworth expresses his emotion of complete happiness. It is a religious and holy sounding word making the experience sound even more unreal and magical. solitude, meaning being alone completely with no-one near you at all, tells the reader that this experience was completely personal to him and special, and only he will ever know the true wonder of it even if he describes is as best as he can to others and then my heart with pleasure fills. This is a personification as there is an image of a vase being filled to the brim with pure joy. Also there is another personification in the last stanza, and dances with the daffodils. It is a further personification of a lively person who dances. In this last line Wordsworth is saying that his heart is dancing with the daffodils. Daffodils do not dance, but to Wordsworth they exude life, joy and radiant beauty. Wordsworth is deeply moved by the sight of them and he feels that his heart has gained a new lease of life and that he will look on everything about life and living in a new manner now. The last three lines of stanza four create an angelic and heavenly mood. In The Daffodils Wordsworth is trying to teach the reader to appreciate the beauty of nature and to understand the power of memory. I also think that he is trying to teach the reader about how the effect of just one experience in your life can be so strong and powerful that it can be remembered as vividly as it was the day of the experience many years later. From the title Miracle on St. Davids Day it is revealed to the reader what this poem is about. It is obvious that a miracle is the main point of the poem, meaning something holy yet unexpected. We also find out that it happens on St.Davids Day, which might be of some sort of significance later on in the poem. Underneath the poem is an extract of a well-known poem. To the reader this is some sort of a misprint or mistake, but the author and title of the extract are given also, signifying no mistake. After a read through the reader finds out that it is linked with the fifth stanza, the labourers voice recites The Daffodils. The language of this poem is in Modern English. It is descriptive, non-antiquated, meaning more modernised and less formal, and contemporary. It also has a narrative style. The vocabulary evokes spring, the asylum and re-birth. Examples of vocabulary evoking spring are used in the first stanza to set the scene. An afternoon yellow and open mouthed with daffodils, this gives the reader an impression of freshness, newness and spring, clear and open to the world. Growth and life is suggested in the description of a garden, among cedars and enormous oaks. Nursery shrubs, also suggests this. The vocabulary evoking the asylum is mainly in stanzas two, three, four and six. Immediately it is evoked in stanza two with the words insane and a schizophrenic. In stanza six the impression of the asylum is presented quite clearly with the nurses are frozen, alert; the patients seem to listen. From this the reader learns that the place is some sort of hospital. The vocabulary that evokes rebirth is in stanzas one, five and eight with the reference to the daffodils, which are connected to spring and being reborn. The Miracle on St. Davids Day is in poetic prose to prove that it is a descriptive piece. In stanza one, line one, there is a personification, yellow and open-mouthed. This suggests that the sun creates an image of a bell shaped flower telling the reader of the afternoon speaking of spring. There is another personification in this stanza of sunlight appearing to walk along a path. the path treads the sun among cedars. A country setting where nature dominates is evoked in lines four and five. it might be a country house, guests strolling, the rumps of gardeners between nursery shrubs. The language and arrangement of it gives the reader an image of a place of contentment and relaxation. might be, strongly suggests that they are not guests strolling and it is not a country house setting. This interests the reader to read on further to discover the true nature of the guests. In stanza two images are created of the two characters presented to the reader. The first line of stanza two is a strong contrast to the harmonious setting created in stanza one I am reading poetry to the insane, is an extreme change of tone destroying the peaceful atmosphere. It is a short one line sentence, blunt and sharply in focus. It is what G. Clarke, the narrative voice is doing, proving that what she has written is from personal experience similarly to Wordsworth. G. Clarkes technique is contrast. She contrasts the look of the patients to their mental illnesses. In lines seven and eight an old woman is described as interrupting. Lines nine and ten describe a boy as beautiful and chestnut-haired and then further on as a schizophrenic. Stanza three describes a woman in her neat clothes but mentally absent. The womans description repeats the word not three times to emphasise her mental absence meaning her state of mind is not entirely there, sits not listening, not seeing, not feeling. It is key word emphasising the effect of the illness on the human psyche. There is a total lack of response to the poetry from the woman. The next two lines describe a man as a big, mild man is tenderly led, suggesting he is either dumb or bovine or ox-like, lumbering but good-natured. Line eleven continues from line ten fitting in with G. Clarkes narrative purpose. By mentioning herself, the focus of the reader is brought back to the story telling mode. Line twelve contains a metaphor, in a cage of first March sun a woman. The woman is surrounded by a spotlight of sunlight. She is caught in a cage, which is the asylum and her mental illness. This is three different ways of being trapped emphasising her situation. In the last line of stanza three, the subject of the miracle is introduced although the reader does not know this yet. The sentence is unfinished naturally leading the reader on to stanza four and on with the story. Stanza four continues the sentence begun in stanza three. Imagery is created by the big, dumb labouring man as he rocks. A large imapct is presented to the reader with big and dumb is a large impact conveying contrast of his mental and physical state. In the first line of stanza four the reader discovers that this patient has never spoken, but later we find out that he can and is therefore an elective mute. Line twenty has blunt, shorter words that describe him very well. His psychotic behaviour is presented to the reader with a rocking rhythm created throughout the stanza, repeated. He seems content with the rhythms of the poem, by the image of rocking. His labourers hands on his knees, he rocks. ..to the big, dumb labouring man as he rocks. Rocks is repeated twice in the stanza so that a movement is created in the stanza and to emphasise his mental condition. There is also an oxymoron in this stanza, I read to their presences, absences.It is two opposite things put together. Here t he patients are there in physical state but not in a mental state. Stanza five introduces the beginnings of the miracle with an alliteration. He is suddenly standing, silently. These are quiet but powerful words giving the thought to the readers head that something of extreme importance to the poem is going to happen. The reader has already heard of the man as big and mild but now he is huge and mild, now that he has stood up. He is quite a presence, but from the repeated word mild, we know that he is really a gentle giant. Although he sounds a gentle giant his presence is intimidating. The impact of him standing evokes a sense of fear in the poet, but I feel afraid. Huge and mild are straight forward language but give a large impact. There are two similes in stanza five, Like slow movement of spring water, creating the image of after winter, snow and ice have almost all melted and it is slow and heavy, trickling down a hill side. Images of light and dark are created with the first bird of the year in the breaking darkness. This tells the reader tha t the mans voice is coming out of the darkness. His voice is being reborn or regenerated symbolising the whole newness of spring. Stanza six is the response or reaction to the reaction of the poem, from the staff, the patients and the whole of nature. The nurses are frozen, the nurses are shocked and in amazement to the reaction that this man had to the poem. The nurses are also alert, because this is a very unusual occurrence and they have to be alert and ready to act in any medical capacity needed. The other patients also seem to listen for once, being attentive and showing recognition of the miracle. There are two halves to the poem from different sides of the reaction, the patients reaction and the staff. He is hoarse but word-perfect, this tells the reader that he has obviously not spoken for a very long time although there must be some reason for this. His voice is croaky from the lack of use of it, but his memory is very powerful and he has not yet forgotten any of it from his days of youth. Nature outside also seems to listen to the mans recital, outside the daffodils are as still as wax, they are awake, attentive and listening, but somehow they look like they have been carved, awakening daffodils from long ago. Their syllables unspoken, show that nature waits for the recital of the poem to end. The daffodils symbolise spring and rebirth, in many forms. The rebirth of the mans voice. There is one personification at the end of the stanza, their syllables unspoken, suggesting that the daffodils can speak. There is a reference to The Daffodils in stanza six ten thousand, stating the amount of daffodils outside there are, which are the exact words used in The Daffodils by Wordsworth. Stanza seven is a flashback of the mans youth and how he came to learn the poem that he recites. The flash back offers an insight or explanation of how he is able to stand up and recite the poetry. There is one metaphor in this stanza, a music of speech. A music of speech is a voice inside of him with a very strong force and the power of memory needing to get out and tell others of this force. Music is symbolic for harmony and now once more the man is in harmony with himself, between his vocal chords and his intellect. The inner harmony within him shows the importance of poetry on the soul. This stanza emphasises the effect of nature on us all and the power of nature on the human psyche. Stanza eight is when the silence, stillness and attentiveness throughout stanza six, seven and eight, breaks. The man finishes the recital and the patients and the staff firstly observe natures attentiveness and then the applause comes telling the reader that the change in nature during the recital did not go unnoticed. When hes done, before the applause, we observe the flowers silence. The end of this line is a personification of the flowers being able to listen and change their mood by choice, the flowers silence. A thrush sings, tells the reader of how the atmosphere changes and nature goes back to normal. It also suggests to the reader that this was the expected miracle, permanently changing the mans life for the better. It seems that the mans illness has either been taken away by some angel of nature or has taken a new extremely unexpected turn. The last line contains a metaphor, the daffodils are flame, giving the reader an image of heat, power, intensity and life. The daffodils are alive and have awoken from the dream or other life whilst they were listening, just like the mans mental state. Clarke was trying to teach the reader that the power of voice and poetry can be forever lasting in a strong memory, even if the memory is very distant it can be triggered. Learning a piece by heart, once engraved on the brain may never be lost. Many things can unlock this memory but in particular the power of nature, voice and poetry can recall it most strongly. Even if mentally ill a memory can be recovered and even sometimes a memory lost long ago with the help of nature, can even cure an illness bringing the person back with their mental and physical state. I have learnt a lot from studying these two poems. The poems are completely different and contrast in many ways, but they also link with each other also. I had not heard of either of the two poems before, although The Daffodils by William Wordsworth is quite a well-known poem. Both poems being new to me they were fresh and interesting. Studying these poems has taught me to appreciate the wonder of nature more and recognise the power of memory. I cannot say which poem I prefer as they are entirely different, but I probably enjoyed reading The Daffodils more, because it was light and dreamy with a bouncy rhythm to it. It also seemed more unrealistic which appeals to me more. My profound experience with nature happened last summer. I go out horse riding every weekend with a friend of mine in Brockenhurst. We spend the whole day exercising the horses and exploring the forest. One weekend we were walking along a track in the forest, we turned round to the right at the end of the track, into a clearing and we stopped straight away. In front of us, at the bottom of a wide decreasing slope was a herd of deer. Right at the front of the herd was a white stag. He was proud, wise, noble and valiant looking with the golden sun adoring him, giving him a halo effect. Everything seemed to be silent as if time had been stopped, we were in a moment all of our own. The sun was beating down on us from behind us, as if to illuminate the stag and his herd. We just stared at the stag and he seemed to stare back. The stag held our gazes, which seemed to last forever. He then proudly turned around and walked through the centre of the herd into the dark and shaded forest. He did not turn his head, but the rest of the herd walked behind him as if trying to match noble quality but none succeeded. I will never forget that, as I had never seen a white stag before and probably will never again.

Simulation of Current Computer Networks

Simulation of Current Computer Networks The current Internet is based on IP protocol and supports only best effort services. With the exponential growth of Internet during the last years, IP networks are expected to support not only typical services like ftp and email, but also real-time services and video streaming application. The traffic characteristics of these applications require a certain Quality of Service (QoS) from the network in terms of bandwidth and delay requirements. We examine three queuing disciplines which are widely deployed and we compare their performance using simulation carried out in OPNET. The queuing disciplines considered in this paper are: First-In-First-Out (FIFO), Priority Queuing (PQ) and Weighted Fair queuing (WFQ). Background: In general, a queue is a line of people or things waiting to be handled, usually in sequential order starting at the beginning or top of the line or sequence. In network prospective packets are queuing in memory buffer of network devices like router and switch. Generally the packets are managed in first in first out fashion. To improve the quality of services different techniques use with the following properties like packets are handled fairly and prioritized properly. Several queuing techniques are uses to manage internet traffic, FIFO, WFQ, PQ. FIFO is common in all the queuing schemes, as it describes the basic method in which packets flow through queues. First in First out Queue (FIFO): FIFO queuing is the most basic queue scheduling discipline. In FIFO queuing, all packets are treated equally by placing them into a single queue, and then servicing them in the same order that they were placed into the queue. FIFO queuing is also referred to as First come, first served (FCFS) queuing. Figure 1: FIFO Queue. Priority Queue (PQ): Priority queuing (PQ) is the basis for a class of queue scheduling algorithms that are designed to provide a relatively simple method of supporting differentiated service classes. In classic PQ, packets are first classified by the system and then placed into different priority queues. Packets are scheduled from the head of a given queue only if all queues of higher priority are empty. Within each of the priority queues, packets are scheduled in FIFO order. Figure 2: Priority Queue. Weighted Fair Queue (WFQ): This is the combination of PQ and Fair Queue. In fair queue the problem is solved some queues may not get serviced because high-priority queues are being serviced. A round-robin approach is used to service all queues in a fair way. In WFQ All queues are serviced so that none are starved, but some queues are serviced more than others. A weight is applied to queues to give some queues higher priority. For example, one queue may get half the available bandwidth and other queues will get an allocation of the remaining bandwidth. Traffic may be prioritized according to packet markings, source and destination IP address fields, port numbers, and information in the ToS field. WFQ weights traffic so that low-bandwidth traffic gets a fair level of priority. If high-priority queues are not in use, lower-priority traffic uses its queues. This prevents high-bandwidth traffic from grabbing an unfair share of resources. WFQ uses an intelligent congestion management solution that provides à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“fairà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  sharing of the interface bandwidth between multiple traffic flows. A traffic à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“flowà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (or conversation) is a unidirectional sequence of packets, defined based on the protocol type, the source/destination IP addresses, the source/destination ports numbers (when available), and partially on the IPv4 ToS byte value. For example, an HTTP file transfer between two hosts represents one packet flow, while ICMP packets sent from one host to another represents a second. The WFQ shares this buffer space between all flow queues. Figure 3: Weighted Fair Queue. Problem Solutions Q1: Analyze the graphs we obtained and verify the overlap of the Voice Packet End to End Delay and Voice Packet Delay Variation graphs. Compare the three queuing disciplines and explain their effect on the performance of the three applications. Packets Drop: Figure 4: IP Traffic Dropped for FIFO,PQ,WFQ. For all three cases, Transmission starts at 1 min 45 sec because for all three profiles start at time=100sec=1 min 40 sec and offset for each application from start of profile is 5 sec. Voice client/server rate= 500 packets/sec Video client/server: 130 packets/ sec FTP Client/server: 1- 33 packets/ sec For FTP, TOS=0 For Video TOS=4 For Voice TOS=6 In case of FIFO, there is only 1 queue of size 500 packets. In FIFO there is no priority to any type of traffic. When more packets arrive then transmitted, these are stored in a queue. If queue is full then any incoming packet will be dropped until there is some space in queue. As in case of FIFO there is no priority assigned to any type of traffic , queue will become full in less time because voice packets (500 packets/sec) will fill queue more quickly when router is transmitting other packets (packets of video and ftp client). For PQ, these are queue profile settings depending upon TOS of incoming traffic. For FTP, tos = 0, Priority= low, queue size= 80 packets For Video tos = 4, Priority = medium, queue size= 40 packets For Voice tos= 6, Priority = high, queue size= 20 packets Now PQ, Voice packets have highest priority. After voice, Video traffic has high priority and FTP has lowest priority. Affect of this is less dropped packets in queue because in PQ, each different TOS has different queue. Voice packets have highest priority so they are transmitted as soon as received. So now, ftp and video traffic cannot hold the bandwidth when there is voice packet to send. Similarly video traffic has priority over FTP. Important thing to note is that queue size is low for higher priority queues because low priority traffic need to wait more when there are high priority packets coming. Now for WFQ, Parameters are: For FTP, tos=0, weight = 1, queue size= 500 packets For Video tos=4, weight = 40, queue size= 500 packets For Voice tos=6, weight = 60, queue size= 500 packets Buffer capacity: 1000 packets For WFQ, although queue size is 500 for each queue but WFQ uses shared buffer that means it allows queue size to increase even after 500pkts until buffer capacity is filled. When buffer is full this means interface is in the state of congestion, now the interface starts enforcing the individual queue limits as explained in theory. So at 2 min and 40 sec approx, interface reaches at congestion state, now max size of each queue is enforced to 500 packets and new incoming packets are dropped. After congestion state, as now queue size has been enforced to 500 for each flow, now packets drop increase even a little bit more than PQ because in case of WFQ 40/101 ~= 40% BW is also assigned to Video traffic, So here Voice traffic has to wait when its turn for video packets causing packet loss after queue is full as opposed to PQ where voice traffic does not need to wait. Traffic Received for Video Conferencing: Figure 5: Video Conferencing Traffic Received. Traffic received for Video Conferencing is higher in the case of FIFO as compared to PQ and WFQ at steady state. For PQ, whole channel is occupied by voice packets because whenever there is voice traffic other traffic is stopped hence traffic received for Video Conferencing is less in PQ. Now for WFQ, at start traffic received is higher because system is not in congested state and WFQ is using shared buffer of 1000 packets size as compared to 500 packets buffer of FIFO, but as congestion state is achieved at approx 2 min 40 sec as shown in Fig4. Packet drop increases and now queue size of 500 packets is enforced for each queue. Also video packets are given weight of 40, while voice packets are given weight 60 this means video packets are given less priority which results in less traffic for video in WFQ. Traffic Received for VoIP: Figure 6: Voice Traffic Received. Traffic received for voice is less in case of FIFO as compared to the other two scenarios. FIFO is first come first serve based mechanism, in which no special traffic priority is given to any type of traffic. As in Fig5 In case of FIFO traffic received for Video traffic is more this surely leads to less traffic received for Voice traffic. In this case voice, FTP and video packets have equal opportunity. Now in case of PQ and WFQ, received traffic for voice is higher compared to the FIFO system. In PQ, Voice traffic is given highest priority and these packets are transmitted as soon as they are received, similarly voice traffic is also given priority in case of WFQ by assigning weight 60 as compared to 40 assigned for video traffic. Figure 7: Voice Traffic Received. If we further zoom in the Fig6 to analyze the small difference in the curves of PQ and WFQ for voice traffic. At start voice traffic is same for both, but after approx 2 min 30 sec, traffic received in case of WFQ fall a little bit due to congestion phenomenon in WFQ as already explained above in the report. End to End Delay for Voice Packets: Figure 8: Voice Packet End-to-End Delay. In case of PQ and WFQ, the end to end delays are almost negligible. Reason for such a small delay is the priority given to voice packets in case of PQ and WFQ. In PQ voice packets are given priority by stopping all other traffic when voice packets are coming and in WFQ voice packets are given priority by assigning higher weight i.e. approx 60% of bandwidth is assigned to voice traffic communication. In case of FIFO, there is no priority; all the packets are severed on first come and first out basis. So when there is video or FTP traffic, voice traffic has to wait. At start delay increases sharply, because at start buffer is empty and voice packets are served quickly but as buffer continues to fill up, delay increases because now voice packets has to wait more in buffer . When buffer is full, As in Fig8 at 2 min approx, now delay is approx constant with little variations because buffer is full so every packet has to wait at least until 500 packets of buffer are transmitted before its turn. Delay Variation for Voice Packets: Figure 9: Voice Packet Delay Variation and overlap with Voice packet End-to-End Delay. Packet delay variation is Variance among end to end delays for voice packets. From Fig9, Delay variation is less for PQ and WFQ as compared to FIFO. PQ and WFQ have the negligible delay variation. For FIFO, at start delay variation rises quickly to peak point this is because at start end to end delay variation is greater as buffer is empty and start filling as explained in Fig8 and then end to end delay becomes approx constant around a mean value when buffer is full as explained already in description of Fig8 which is reason why Packet delay variation decreases after peak point. Actually Packet Delay Variation does not only depend upon previous delay value. It is the cumulative effect of all the previous packets as we have already researched on it in period 2 Voice over IP delay measurements paper assignment in course Internet Services and Traffic Measurements. So as the end to end delay becomes more constant, packet delay variation value falls. In the case of PQ and WFQ delay variation is very small because end to end delay is very small; also there is no variation in end to end delay because voice packets are given highest priority in Both PQ and WFQ. Q2: In the implemented project, edit the Queues object and check the profiles assigned to the FIFO, PQ, and WFQ discipline. For each profile answer the following questions: How many queues are associated with each discipline? Table 1: Number of queues in each configuration Queue Configuration Number of queues FIFO 1 PQ 4 WFQ 8 In this lab, we used ToS to identify the priority and weight for the PQ and WFQ disciplines. What are the other parameters that can be used to identify the priority and weight? Protocol, Port and DSCP are the other parameters that can be used to identify priority and weight. In PQ, how are queues configured to serve different ToS values? Router identifies priority based on TOS field of the incoming packets and sort incoming packets in appropriate queue based on TOS. Table 2: PQ queue configuration Queue Priority Label ToS Queue Size 0 Low Best Effort(0),Background(1) 80 1 Normal Standard(2),Excellent(3) 40 2 Medium Steaming Multimedia(4),Interactive Multimedia(5) 60 3 High Interactive Voice(6),Reserved(7) 20 In WFQ, how are queues configured to serve different ToS values? In WFQ, weights are assigned to serve different TOS and TOS field of incoming packets is checked to route them in a specific queue and queues are served based on weights. Table 3: WFQ queue configuration Queue Weight ToS 0 1 Best Effort 1 10 Background 2 20 Standard 3 30 Excellent Effort 4 40 Streaming Multimedia 5 50 Interactive Multimedia 6 60 Interactive Voice 7 70 Reserved Q3: Compare queuing delay for all queuing disciplines. Queuing Delay for all scenarios: Figure 10: Queuing Delay for each configuration. From Fig10, FIFO has the worst queuing delay which is higher than the PQ because in case of FIFO there is only one queue and packets are served on first come first served basis. When there is other traffic, packets has to wait in queue. There is not much difference between the PQ and WFQ queuing delay. PQ has slightly higher queuing delay as compared to WFQ because PQ gives highest priority to voice traffic and when voice packets are coming then all other (Video and FTP) packets have to wait in queue while in case of WFQ each queue has a share in BW and packets in one queue does not disturbs the right of other queues to transmit. Specifically, in our example, there are more voice packets in traffic as compared to video packets. So assigning a weight of 60 to voice as compared to 40 for video justifies it. Conclusion In this lab, by using three different types of traffic, we analyzed the effect of different queuing systems on network performance in terms of packet loss, end to end delay and delay variation. In case of FIFO packets drop is greater as compared to PQ and WFQ. FIFO does not utilizes any priority scheme it works on first come first server basis ,when queue is full , incoming packets are dropped unless there is some space in queue. PQ gives priority to specific type of traffic, it is good when one type of traffic is very time sensitive and important and remaining traffic does not demand any special timing limits. PQ fails when there are many different types of traffic which are time sensitive because PQ does not shares Band Width equally with all types of traffics, So highest prioritized traffic can jam the rest of communication. WFQ is the combination of FIFO and PQ where bandwidth is shared between all queues and each queue get its turn in a round robin fashion. We concluded after analyzing graphs of different queues PQ and WFQ queuing system has very small end to end delay and delay variation which is required for real time applications where traffic is time sensitive e.g. VoIP or Video Conferencing.