A Study on the Problems Faced by Teachers in a Mixed Essay

A Study on the Problems faced by Teachers in a Mixed-ability Class. P. Karthi, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Gobi Arts & Science College, Gobichettipalayam. Mixed ability as used in ELT usually refers to the differences that exist in a group in terms of different levels of language proficiency. This might be a result of simply the amount of time they have spent for learning, their different language learning abilities or learning style preferences. Almost all groups are mixed-ability. The world of English language teaching (ELT) presents a great number of ideas and concepts, expounding a vast assortment of styles, models and techniques, but often makes a general assumption on the make-up of actual classes in which such teaching methods are to be employed. In an ideal teaching environment, we might all wish for energetic, highly-motivated and able students coupled with a limitless supply of time and resources, but the reality that many of us have to face is far from the ideal situation. For a variety of restrictive reasons there is a need for teachers to make the best use of what is available and to do so in the most productive way that one’s personal teaching methodology might allow. Teaching students with mixed ability can pose a unique set of challenges. Diversity in language, culture, confidence and ability can all come into play for teachers in the classroomWorking with students, sending them down different paths in order to arrive at a similar goal can be one of the most challenging things for teachers of all backgrounds. However with patience, respect and hard work all the seemingly grand problems can be overcome to the benefit of all. As such, it is our intention to present a brief, basic summary of what we believe to be a sound starting methodology for approaching classes with students of mixed abilities. As a first step in managing the diversity of student ability in the classroom, there needs to be an analysis of the needs of the students. With this analysis the teacher will gain much ground in the effort to determine and support the needs of every student. This analysis will provide an opportunity for the students to reflect on their ability and style and prepare them for the fact that the class will not be managed in the traditional manner. While this action seems to add work for the instructor on the front end of things we think we can easily liken it to the old adage ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’. Upon determination of the individual student needs the teacher can strive to coordinate the students into functional learning groups based on their skills and learning pace. The construction of focus groups allows the instructor to proactively increase the effectiveness of the lesson plan and provide realistic and achievable assignments to the students. The groups can work together based on their skill level or at that time the instructor can intermingle the weaker with the advanced, which will also contribute to creating variety in the class. This method allows for all students to advance toward a mutual goal at an appropriate pace for their capacity and avoids putting them off with material that is outside of their aptitude. Provided the instructor has established focus groups based on ability or learning pace the next step is to consider the curriculum to be utilized. The instructor should prepare a collection of authentic information and materials that can be used with varying requirements for the class. These materials can be utilized in the classroom to provide different tasks for the unique skill levels so as to achieve conformity in the exercise, while utilizing realistic expectations of what can be accomplished based on individual groups. To this end the instructor can include several different versions of the same homework task in order to align with achievement levels and maximize the benefit to all the students. Ultimately in this very limited summary we feel that we need to consider the psychology of the students, the effects of this methodology on them and how to work to benefit each and every student. If caution is not taken to include all students fully the weaker students will potentially not achieve and consequently experience the natural reaction of avoiding the activities they are not successful in. Because of this reaction the achievement gap will only be widened rather than narrowed. To this end, instructors must make an effort to make the classes inclusive while differentiating in order to ensure student achievement across the board and not just with the better performing students. While there are so many different facets in managing a class of students with mixed abilities, by taking some basic measures teachers can manage the challenge effectively for the benefit of all. We can be certain hat we have only begun to scratch the surface of the issues faced by teachers of classes with mixed ability students, but we hope we have provided some basic building blocks for individual instructors to start with. As instructors we have the responsibility to show respect and provide reasonable attention to all students and we feel strongly that utilizing the previously stated methodology is a start down a path to achieve such ends. Differentiating Instruction for Advanced Learners in the Mixed-Ability Classroom.

Was the Great Depression the main reason why the Nazi Party grew between 1929 and 1932?

In my opinion, I believe that the Great Depression was the most significant factor towards the growth of the Nazi Party as this was the time when the Nazi Party grew rapidly from only 12 seats in May 1928 to 107 in September 1930 and became the second largest party in Germany, following after the KPD. This was down to the economic crisis in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash, which weakened the Weimar Republic by discrediting its policies, consequently making the democratic politics less popular.The government seemed powerless to stop the depression, especially because Stresemann, an influential democratic politician, had died in October 1929. The government knew that they couldn’t print any more money due to the hyperinflation back in 1923 so Chancellors, Muller and Bruning, raised taxes, cut wages and reduced unemployment benefit. However this resulted in the unemployment rate continuing to rise to 6 million by early 1933.The German economy was extremely vulnerable at th is point, as they had lost their short-term foreign loans so beggars, bootlace sellers and match sellers preoccupied the streets of Berlin and the government became the ‘scapegoat’ for these economic disasters. There was now less support for the Weimar Republic than ever before and middle class democratic parties associated with the Republic declined and people turned to extremist alternatives such as the Nazis, which led to a rapid increase in votes. Therefore, it is clear to see that the Great Depression was the main reason why the Nazi Party grew between 1929 and 1932.Furthermore, Nazi Propaganda is less important than the Great Depression towards the growth of the Party but also had a large part to play as Goebbels’s propaganda techniques marked a new approach in electioneering. The Nazis used ‘up to date’ technology such as loudspeakers, which were placed in every workplace and public area to ensure that everyone heard the Nazi’s views an d cheap radios made sure the Nazis could gain votes from distant areas such as East Prussia without even having to travel there.They also began to use modern vehicles like cars and aeroplanes, not only for the practical purpose of transporting Hitler quickly between places, but also to project a contemporary statesman-like image. This form of propaganda was particularly used in the Presidential campaign of 1932 where Hitler came second after the re-elected Hindenburg. The Nazis also showed their mastery of propaganda by using mass rallies to create an atmosphere so emotional that all members of the audience would have to give in to them.These concert-like events included uniforms, torches, music and flags to intensify the effect. One of the Nazis most well known methods of propaganda was their slogans, both vague and direct, for example, â€Å"to make Germany great again† which appealed to everyone and anyone or â€Å"blood and soil† which was directed purposely at far mers, persuading them that the Nazis really cared for them and would try their hardest to improve their facilities.Ultimately, Nazi Propaganda was necessary for the acquisition of power by Hitler and the growth of the Party, however by itself it was not enough in view of the Nazi Party’s failure to achieve and absolute majority. In addition, the Sturmabteilung, otherwise known as the SA, storm troopers of brown shirts, were also of crucial importance to the increase in Nazi votes as they were used at mass rallies to provide an image of strength to attract anti-communists voters and at the same time, intimidated political opposition and even the government as they held a well deserved reputation for thuggery.By 1932 the SA had become a large force of 300,000 and by early 1933 the only alternative to Nazi-inspired civil war appeared to be Hitler becoming Chancellor. Therefore, the SA was one of the main reasons for the growth of the Nazi Party, although it was not the most impo rtant. Finally, the growth of the Nazi party would have never happened without the vital role played by the fear of Communism.Ordinary Germans, particularly businessmen and farmers, were frightened of the Communists taking over in their own country. Communists didn't believe in religion, so this worried churchgoers too. From the start, Hitler said he would fight Communism and he sent his own private army, the SA, to fight with Communists hence by 1932, persistent street violence between the extremists of left and right was taking hold in cities and in the month of July 1932 alone, 86 people were killed as a result of these political fights.Hitler gained much support from the middle and upper classes, which included businessmen, landowners, and factory owners and so on because he promised to deal with the Communist threat. Therefore, it is clear to see that this factor played a major role in the Nazi Party’s growth however, in my opinion, it is the least important out of the f our factors that I have stated. In conclusion, none of these factors can be viewed in isolation and the Nazi Party wouldn’t have grown as much as it did without the combination of all of these factors as they link together.In many ways, although the Great Depression is the most important factor, the growth of the Nazis would never have happened without the other three factors, especially the use of Goebbels’s propaganda techniques, as these aided the Nazis into becoming better known so people could turn to them as extremist alternatives to the middle class democratic parties associated with the Weimar Republic after the Depression.Also, without the help of the SA and the fear of communism, the German population may have turned to other parties instead of the Nazis. Another link is that the fear of communism helped set up the importance of the SA as their violent actions towards the communists showed their strength to appeal to anti-communist voters and began to intimid ate the Nazi’s challengers. Therefore, ultimately all the reasons are closely connected and without each other, thing may have turned out very differently for Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Research in Rizals Life

An event occurs in the 19th century in Europe where it had a tremendous contribution in molding the Philippines catalyst of nationalism no less than Dry. Jose Racial. The period of 19th century, was really a well-designed era of the term nationalism. This is the time where drastic change took place placing the endeavor to equalize all men and free them from the tyranny and slavery. We see how during that time sprang from the midst of all consciousness the need liberate themselves and take a rehab from the old and messy mentality of the past that bound them.Many had taken their role in drama of transitioning the world. These thus influences to a lot of similarly idealist throughout the world. And Dry. Jose Racial is been excuse to these cause. With all the circumstances and the things He had learned and valued from Europe, had been able to formulate the formula of a lethal weapon that would conceived in the hearts and minds of his countrymen and would give birth to Nationalism thus co nsequently the doom and destruction of Spain's colonialism.Racial did make a great change in molding the nationalism of the country, not only that Racial made all the changes but also with the help of all the Filipino who take part in the revolution make changes in making this country a whole new era. Racial leaves Inspiration to many peoples, men, women and children realizes that education can also be as deadly as a bolo, Racial has become the constant model that inspires man and woman across the land to dream and work for its realization no matter the cost is brings for the sake of nationhood ND promoting the liberty for the people.He also proven education is the answer to our struggle nation. Not only Racial inspires many people but a lot of the Filipino heroes like Andrea Boniface and many others. Racal's ideas and achievement was known by all of the people in the Philippines with his great ideas and being a nationalist. Racial inspired Filipinos and shaped the importance of our national identity to nation-building. Racial, anywhere in the world, represents an intellectual and proud Filipino.Racial as Philippines' foremost national hero and the most documented Filipino hero who dedicated his life to the ideas and ideals of freedom and nationalism. Racial is worthy of emulation for his education to ideals and studies, standards of morality, actions, behavior, thinking, aims, ethics, respect for law, parent's, other people, country, and to use lives more productively. Racial had shown greatness, his greatness was manifested in many ways not only in his own country but in many foreign countries as well. Racial taught the Filipino the value of hardwood.

Shaping the American Dream, defining success from the first World war Essay

Shaping the American Dream, defining success from the first World war to present - Essay Example American culture after World War II equated good citizenship with good consumerism. People have been encouraged to consume more and better. Leisure activities are an example of this; before the 20th century, most of the leisure time of an average American was spent in the family, church, and activities related to community. In the early half of the 20th century, leisure activities such as playing with recreational products or watching movies mostly replaced the social activities on the basis of consumption (Spring 96). Cold War played an important role in tying American Dream to consumerism. Although the democracy in America had a strong contrast with the Soviet totalitarianism, yet the politicians in America promoted mass consumption as a way of differentiating between Americans and the Soviets. William H. Whyte, Fortune editor stated in 1957, â€Å"Thrift is now un-American† (Cohen 121). In 1959, American Exhibition was organization in Moscow whose economic highlight was demonstration of America’s consumer goods to the Soviet leaders. President Richard Nixon said at the exhibition, â€Å"To us, diversity, the right to choose†¦is the most important thing. †¦We have many †¦ many different kinds of washing machines so that the housewives have a choice† (Nixon cited in Spring 137). Here, Nixon drew audiences’ attention toward the variety of ways of consumption for the Americans to explain diversity rather than giving examples of political or social signific ance. The relationship between good consumerism, good citizenship, and the American Dream has lived up to date. Americans united under the leadership of President Bush after the 9/11 attacks, and a brief charitable outpouring followed. Despite having a great opportunity to foster non-consumerist behavior in the Americans, Bush simply reminded Americans of the importance of consumerism in the development of a strong economy in the post-9/11 attacks speeches. Bush said that the best action

Consumer behavior Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Consumer behavior - Research Proposal Example life easier and improve the accessibility of communication and social interaction, while ensuring that our lives are enjoyable and full of fun (IGI Global, 2015:121). In this respect, the state-of-the-art mobile phones to enable people keep in touch with friends and loved ones, portable game consoles to enable people have fun playing games whenever they want to, as well as portable internet access gadgets that ensure people are connected to the internet all the time, represent the 21st century technological inventions (Khosrow-Pour, 2014:77). Nevertheless, while this technological advancement seeks to make our lives easier and full of fun, our lives have inevitably become more complicated than ever (Arena & Quà ©rà ©, 2003:36). This is because, while it would have taken an individual just a few minutes to walk in an electronic shop and purchase a phone, a game console or any other technological device in the 1900s, it is increasingly difficult for consumers to make purchase decisions in the 21st century. Every new technological device that comes into the market promises the buyer increased and improved features, ease of use, enhanced internet accessibility and wider GPRS navigation reach (Khosrow-Pour, 2014:72). In the process, the basic cellular phone features such as the battery life and call-reception features have suffered, and thus the promises of efficiency, simplified and ease of use of technological products still remains elusive. The decision to purchase a product by any consumer is influenced by various factors. Therefore, the consumer purchase behavior comprises of a process of decision-making, which allows the consumer to reach the final decision in choice and selection of the product to purchase (Nielsen, 1993:102). The purpose of this research is to establish what informs the consumer choice of technological devices, in a world where there are numerous, duplicated and feature-enhancing technological devises and gadgets. What exactly do consumers look

Classify three types of addiction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Classify three types of addiction - Essay Example It encompasses the development of dependence on any substance that chemically alters the body’s normal functioning. Drugs and substances addicts live for the next â€Å"high†; as such, they channel all their finances towards purchasing drugs neglecting their financial obligations. In addition, their social relationships suffer, as they rely on manipulation tactics to get money for their next hit. Sex addiction encompasses an individual’s dysfunctional preoccupation with sex, which in turn hinders them from fulfilling other obligations or executing their social roles. Sex addiction is also a common form of addiction; however, because of the culturally imposed stigma, many people suffering from sex addiction shy away from seeking help. Gambling addiction, although not as prevalent as the other two, affects a vast number of people. It encompasses an individual’s dependence on taking unnecessary risks financially with the hope of gaining extra financial incentives. Success in gambling depends entirely on luck, as there is no certain criterion for predicting the outcome. Gambling addicts are perpetually in

Marketing strategy and marketing schedule for festival MOVES Assignment

Marketing strategy and marketing schedule for festival MOVES - Assignment Example Also, presence of aerospace, IT, media, financial services and tourism industry provides employment to local community. Arts, sports and architecture are some of other major characteristics of this city. This analysis of city and its characteristics illustrates how local residents pay greater attention to aesthetic attributes of their lifestyle. Current population is about 432, 500 with Bristol being the largest city in the South West (Bristol City Council, 2014). Most of the non-white population comprises of Black, Asian and other ethnic groups along with other recent incumbents from Slovakia, Czech, Poland and Hungary. There are many local celebrations along with Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, Festival of Kites and Air Creations, Bristol Harbour Festival, St. Pauls Carnival and Bristol Festival of Ideas. Music, theatre, museums, art galleries and local graffiti also illustrates local population’s interest in arts and leisure. Due to presence of multiple cultures in this region, diversity and richness is visible in every aspect of life. According to overview provided by Bristol Local Authority, there is a considerable increase in population of children and young peopl e since 2002. The total population also includes about 35, 000 full time students living in Bristol during term time. Also, the individuals under the age of 16 to 64 years have increased by 36, 000 (Bristol City Council, 2014). There is also a considerable change in population due to immigration. Another major part of targeted audience is those living in countries in central Europe and also nearby areas of Bristol. Specific marketing strategies will be devised by analysing demographic characteristics of this segment of targeted audience. Some of the common competitors include government and private event organisers that have been conducting major city events like Balloon Fiesta and Harbour Festival. Since the MOVES

Risk Impact of Global Communications in Business Research Paper

Risk Impact of Global Communications in Business - Research Paper Example The dynamic force regulating and accelerating globalization is undoubtedly a revolutionary development being made in the fields of information technology, navigation and communications. Hence, it is the marvellous technological advancement and innovative tools, techniques and equipment that have paved the way towards fastest possible progress and growth in political, social, cultural, economic and commercial areas of the contemporary world. The zone which has witnessed the fastest changes in the wake of the IT revolution is undoubtedly a corporate sector that includes trade, commerce and business-related activities, which has observed glorious expansion worldwide. â€Å"Advances in information and communication technologies (ICT)† Brynjolfsson and Kahin observe, â€Å"are affecting many aspects of business activity. Notable among these is the obscuring of the material aspects of the behaviour of firms and the subsequent changes in the meaning of distance and geography.† (2000: 111) The fields including marketing, travelling, e-commerce, communications, health and medicines, home appliances and domestic necessities, education and trade have experienced outstanding flourishing in the wake of technological advancements. â€Å"Trade liberalization and information technology† UNESCAP reports, â€Å"continually advancing, national borders are increasingly disappearing and barriers to global trade are falling. As a result, global manufacturing and marketing are becoming increasingly organized. To cope with this operational environment, global firms have been searching for new production and logistics architectures as a way of gaining the advantages that come with standardized global production.† (Quoted in unescap.org).

Economic Trend in Countries Like Ireland, Malaysia, Essay

Economic Trend in Countries Like Ireland, Malaysia, - Essay Example an Institute of Economic Research, such corrective measures have led to an increase in most of the consumer product prices, thus raising the cost of living. Such a situation is giving inflation an upper hand, especially with issues revolving around the cost-push and demand-pull factors being on the rise. In a report made by the Department of Statistics of Malaysia, there was a noticed expansion in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the 2013 fourth quarter. There is a sense of growth in Malaysia because it is demonstrating to be an economic pace-setter in the Asian region. The table below shows the GDP growth rate of Malaysia since 2010, expressed as a percentage. From the table, it is very clear that the last quarter in the year 2013 recorded an improvement of 2.4% from the previous quarter that was at 1.9%. However, TradingEconomics.com records that the total growth rate in 2013 fell to 5.6 from 6.4 in 2012. There is a clear indicator that Ireland’s GDP recorded a 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, which is due to the massive imports and a reduction in the general consumer expenditure. This is in relation to IAB Treasury Economic Research as shown in the chart below. The Economic and Social Research Institute confirms that there are many investment opportunities in Ireland. This is because there are positive trend in the machinery and equipment purchases. The statistical calculations indicate that the trend has grown by a margin of 11 percent. In addition, there is a huge growth base in the construction industry, which indicates good improvement. Regarding Ireland’s expenditure, there is a massive growth in imports (stlouisfed.org). Statistically, there is a 1.0% improvement in government spending as compared to the 2013 third quarter, which was at 4.9%. The imports show a slight improvement that is 0.8% as compared to the previous quarter, which was at 0.5%. Ireland’s expenditure had 9.8 percent in the total exports because of a

Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 9

Literature - Essay Example She has been judged to be good at her art despite being a woman, because she fosters patriotism, however the poet questions the patriarchal roots of society that mandate the raising of boys as little soldiers and demanding the ultimate sacrifice from women rather than from men. According to Cooper (1988:147) the poem â€Å"Mother and Poet† appears to be an indictment of patriarchy. This work of the poet must be examined within the context of her earlier work in Aurora Leigh, where she described the poet’s act of creation as one that is invariably attributed to be male, since poets are those who produce poems which â€Å"are men, if true poems.† (Barrett-Browning, AL:5,1181, 3:90-91). However, in the poem â€Å"Mother and Poet†, the male figure of the boys’ father is dispensed with altogether and the mother appears to be the all encompassing figure in the poem, subtly alluding to the need for a resurgence of the importance of females. The entire poem is centered upon the female figure of the mother and the deliberate exclusion of the father figure appears to reinforce an underlying indictment of patriarchy which decries the ability of women to produce poetry, as illustrated in Browning’s earlier Aurora poem. The growing awareness of the poet about the tragedy of war is reflected in the poem â€Å"Mother and Poet†. The poet upholds the ideals behind the war, especially in the context of the Italian struggle for independence, and believes that the war is succeeding. But her focus in the poem is on the experiences of Italian women and she has highlighted how women actually give up more than the men, during a war, because â€Å"the birth pangs of nations will wring us [women] at length into wail such as this – and we sit on forlorn† (Barrett-Browning:93-94). Even the woman who is able to bear the pains of child birth

Complacency case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Complacency case - Essay Example Her immense reputation on handling any infant in the NICU should enable her to handle even the critically ill infants (Hamlin, 2011). Her failure to read professional journals and her argument and ignorance may make her responsible for any infant death associated with her career (Hamlin, 2011). By believing that her hand are more profession on experience than what a researchers article could ever be. She has no incentives to read articles and practice what she reads. Lack of this and her ignorance leads to a rapid infant mortality (Hamlin, 2011). Deborah’s suction and the employment of another nurse will lead to less infant death rates (Hamlin, 2011). This will be applicable because this new nurse will be handling all the cases unlike Deborah who handles only what she can hold on to she never makes the effort to try a read the ways of handling critically sick infants (Hamlin, 2011). The infants that are critically ill will benefit together with their families. Low mortality rates means that most of the critically ill infants will be facing intensive care from a widely learned nurse (Hamlin, 2011). Goals will only be achieved by the reduction of infant’s death rates (Hamlin, 2011). The employment of the new nurse will ensure that the critically ill infants are taken care of according to the clinical books journals and basic knowledge (Hamlin, 2011). Deborah applied only the knowledge she knew, and she had a false believe (Hamlin, 2011). By believing that her experience was enough for her job, yet she did not care for the critically ill infant was wrong. Every intellect in certain courses needs more additional knowledge in his or her area of specialization no matter how experienced a profession is with that certain case (Hamlin, 2011). The effectiveness of changing a nurse as soon as possible will lead to good health monitoring (Hamlin, 2011). The problem that Debora made was that she misused her handling for the rate

Organisation and ICT Essay Example for Free

Organisation and ICT Essay Hardware In ASDAs finance department, as I wrote about in unit 2A, a total of 30 computers are used to deal with business on a daily basis. The specifications of these computers are as follows: * 30 colour, high resolution and flat screen monitors. Used to display the information produced by the computer. patriotic * 30 ergonomic keyboards. To type in the information to the computer. * 30 IBM computer mice which all have infra red enabled wheels. Used to click and go where you want on the computer. * All computers in ASDAs finance department have a 1GB RAM and an 80GB hard drive to allow fast running of the computer and a lot of storage. * All the computers contain sound, graphics and network cards. This allows the computer to use the monitor to display virtually anything. * The computers have USB ports and CD ROM/DVD drives and CD RW drives. This allows transferring information form work to home in the form of a USB key. There is also a main file server which all the computers within the finance department have access to and can get some files from. This computers description is different to all the others and has a 5GB RAM and 200GB Hard drive. This is to allow easy and quick access for files and to fit an enormous amount of files. Other hardware peripherals used in the finance department are printers. There are 16 laser printers in the department meaning 1 printer for every 2 computers. These printers are evenly distributed between each computer and the extra printer is located in the manager of the finance departments office. Also the printer in the managers office also serves a photocopier and a fax machine to utilize work time. In the finance department there are also 5 scanners, 1 scanner serving 6 computers. The main reason scanners are used in the finance department is to scan important documents such as receipts or pictures into documents. These files which are scanned can also be stored as JPEG files on the main server of all the computers. There is also a digital camera which is always kept in the managers office. The main file server has an excellent broadband internet connection that serves all of the computers in the finance department. This internet is supplied by BT as internet service provider (ISP). Computer Hardware Used in ASDAs Finance Department Input Devices How many and location Keyboards ergonomic 30 One on every computer Computer mouse Infra red wheels 30 One on every computer Scanner 5 Six for every computer Microphones 10 Used when needed Debit and Credit Card Machine (ATM) 5 One between every 6 computer Output Devices How many and location Flat Screen high resolution monitors 30 One on every computer Speakers 30 One on every computer Printers 16 2 between 1 computer, 1 in managers office Processors How many and location Central Processing Unit 30 1 in each computer File server. Data Storage: How many and location USB Ports 30 One in every computer Hard disks 30 One in every computer Ports and Cables How many and location USB Ports 30 One in every computer CD Port 30 One in every computer Headphones Port 30 One in every computer Microphone Port 30 One in every computer Software How many and location Microsoft Word 30 One in every computer Microsoft Excel 30 One in every computer Microsoft Access 30 One in every computer Microsoft Outlook 30 One in every computer Microsoft Outlook Express 30 One in every computer Norton Anti Virus 30 One in every computer Dreamweaver 30 One in every computer Sage Accounting Package 30 One in every computer Connections How many and location Intranet connections 30 On all computers Internet link with ISP On main server, but allows all computers to access internet and use e-mail The list above sums up the hardware used by ASDAs finance department. Hardware Applications used by ASDAs Finance Department Input Devices Keyboards: This device is essential to the use of computers as it allows you to type in the information that you want to. Without keyboards, computers would obviously be useless. The arrangement of keys on the core part of the keyboard is identical as any other typewriter. The computer keyboard does have keys which are specifically designed for the computer. Function keys, for example, are programmable and are used by software packages to access particular options, such as Help menus. A number of general uses of keyboards are entering text and numbers into the computer, perhaps using a word processor. Entering keywords into a search engine, a type of program used to find information on the World Wide Web. Controlling animated graphics characters in computer games and entering commands when using a command line interface, such as that for MS-DOS. Keyboards are probably the most commonly used input devices in the finance department along with computer mice and monitors. Computer Mouse: This device is used to navigate through the computer and click on the application that you which to use. This is essential to the efficient running of the computer. There are many types of mice and they have developed over the years. The mouse which the ASDA finance department used is fitted with optical lights which makes it much more quick and efficient and is much more productive than regular mouses. ASDAs finance department want to provide their customers with the best equipment to help them work to the best of their ability. Scanner: The finance department uses scanners to insert photographs or other types of images such as graphs and tables into a document. An example of a sort of document which scanners will be used for is a forecast. The finance department will scan graphs of predicted sales into the forecast to show what will have to be done to achieve the aim of the project. Also previous sale trends will be inserted into the document. Now the forecast is done the finance department will produce a budget where yet again, a scanner will be used to insert some images into the document. An example of this could be a table where the company can expect to make a certain amount of money if they charge a particular price for an item. Microphone: This is an input design which is not used all the time in ASDAs finance department. This is because it is only used to telecommunicate over a distance where the person who needs to communicate to is not in the same place as you. This allows the finance department to be able to hold meetings despite the whereabouts of the staff and times allows the department to make the most of the time that they have. Debit and Credit Card Machine (ATM): This ICT peripheral is an input device when the information needed is inserted into the machine. These pieces of ICT are used in the finance department so that ASDA can pay suppliers and also pay their creditors (who they owe money to) and basically clear their debts. ASDA also use these machines to pay people, including their employees and suppliers. So these machines are very useful to the finance department because it allows them to go about their business quickly and very efficiently. Output Devices Monitors: The monitors which are used in ASDAs finance department are flat screen high resolution monitors. This makes the viewing of the screen very easy and you can see the screen without getting sore eyes. This is an output device because it shows the result of your typing and all the work that you have done. The quality of the monitors at ASDAs finance department is very high and they are 17 in size. The reason why they are used is obvious they display all the work that you have done and is essential to the efficient running of the computer. Speakers: This is an output device because it releases the sounds that the computers are making. The ASDA finance department uses speakers whilst involved in videoconferencing. This allows the department to hold meetings with their staff despite the fact that they might not be at the office at the actual time of the meeting. The speakers are connected to the big screen in the meeting room so it is as is they are in an ordinary meeting. Printers: This is an output device as it gives you the work that you have done when you want to print it. There is a printer for every two computers in the finance department making a total of sixteen computers in ASDAs finance department. The printers in the finance department are fitted with both color ink and black and white ink. This is essential to the finance department as it allows the department to print of vital data from e-mails and documents. Processors This is a component in a computer which is capable of executing a program and it interprets computer program instructions and processes data. This is the core component of a computer. The processor which is in the computers which ASDAs finance department has is Pentium XEON Processor which is a very good processor. Data Storage USB Ports: The definition of a USB port is a Universal Serial Bus standard to interface devices. In ASDAs finance department so the employees are able to complete some work at home and then bring it to work and transfer it to their computer at work. However USB connects far more than some people think, they connect: mouse devices, keyboards, scanners, digital cameras and printers. ASDAs finance department uses this data storage device for all of these reasons. Hard Disk: This storage device is a non volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. The hard disk in ASDAs finance department contains a memory of 80 GB. This huge hard disk is used to save numerous files such as forecasts, stock control and budgets. Without a big memory ASDAs finance department wouldnt be able to operate properly as they wouldnt be able to store all the files they needed to. Connection Intranet: The intranet is an internet service based just within the ASDA company. Briefly, an intranet can be understood as a private version of the Internet, or as a version of the Internet confined to a company. So ASDA has an internet service based on ASDA so information on the employees, employee of the moth and just general information on the website is displayed on ASDAs intranet. Internet: The internet is used in ASDAs finance department to use e-mail, gain information to help the department create a forecast and check the news as breaking news in the stock market can affect every single business in the UK including ASDA. So ASDA have to be in the best position possible to predict trends and forecast future sales. The finance department uses the internet to send e-mails to Software Applications used by ASDAs Finance Department Microsoft Word: All the computers in the finance department have Microsoft Word as standard. All the computers are updated as soon as the new Microsoft Word comes out so the finance department has Microsoft Word 2007. This has many features which benefits the department and is used for mail merging, memo and also to just write letters to other departments. The finance department of ASDA uses this software to produce the yearly financial report which takes away the profit the company has made from the expenditure to create the net profit of the year. ASDA uses Microsoft Word for this task as it makes the document look more professional ad the spell check tool allows ASDAs finance department to save a lot of time. Also, the finance department uses Microsoft Word to compile pay slips for their employees. Pay slips are essential as they show how much the worker ahs made and how much tax has been taken away from the worker. Once again the reason why Microsoft Word is used for this task is to make it look more professional and also save time because the finance department probably has a template of a pay slip and just have to alter it to match the correct information for each worker. Microsoft Excel: ASDAs finance department uses Excel to produce graphs and tables for several purposes. One of these purposes is to use graphs to accompany forecasts and budgets. They are used in budgets to show how much money is to be spent on each project. More importantly it is in forecasts to validate their prediction by producing graphs of previous trends to show why they think the company will go in the direction they think. Microsoft Access: The finance department uses this software to create databases for many reasons. One is to keep track of their creditors and keep records of whether they have paid them back or how much they still have to pay back. Also, databases are used by the finance department to keep records of each financial report of the year and see if the net profit of the company is increasing or getting worse. Moreover, Access is mainly used because of the advantages it possesses. These are being able to filter, sort and make queries which saves time. The database includes fields with information of ASDAs employees such as surname, first and second name, address lines, town, date of birth, date of employment, current position and salary, National Insurance number and notes where ASDA can comment on any employee. Microsoft Outlook: This software is used to keep the main diary of the office and all the events are noted to the Outlook calendar, using color codes for particular kinds of events. Any member of staff is enabled to access the diary on the main server. Also, Microsoft Outlook is used for workers to notify fellow staff when they are going to take their holidays on the calendar. Microsoft Outlook Express: This is used for sending e-mails to fellow employees and other departments in ASDA. The finance department needs to use e-mail to communicate to stock holders and stock suppliers and manufactures. Also the finance department needs to stay in contact with stock control to be notified if they need to make orders for the purchasing department Norton Anti Virus: This software is used to protect and defend the finances department computers against viruses. Viruses need defending against because they can cause damage to computers and destroy vital files. Viruses are so dangerous because they can cause the finance department to lose files that can stop them from operating efficiently. However, Norton Anti Virus prevents this and protects the computer. Sage Accounting Package: This is professional software for accountants and bookkeepers to help them do the job they need to. It is specially made to help the finance business do what they do. Dreamweaver: The ASDA finance department uses this piece of software to design a good website to advertise the finance department or just ASDA in general. The site includes opening times, news, online shopping, and history of the company and the mission statement of ASDA. The ASDA Finance Department Intranet: All the computers in the department have network cards and network software to allow them to access the sever and printers. Every worker in the finance department has their own passwords and this allows them to use all the software available from the main server and access all of their files from the finance department database. There are some common files on the server and others which are password protected so that only the person with the password can access them. This also prevents staff members accidentally amending or deleting another persons work. Evaluation The objective of ASDA is to comprehensively be recognised as the best supermarket in the UK. ICT as a whole enables ASDAs finance department to achieve its objectives in the following way: 1. Computers allow the finance department to create forecasts which indicate how products are going to sell and how many. 2. The database system which the department uses is much more efficient and quicker than other databases which the finance department was using. 3. ASDA have much software including Sage Accounting Package which is specifically designed for the efficient running of the finance department. 4. The ASDA finance department has the finest ICT equipment for their employees which ensure the employees can do their job with all the help needed from the very best equipment.

Working Capital Affect on Performance of Retail Industry

Working Capital Affect on Performance of Retail Industry 1.1 Introduction: The main aim of this dissertation is to study how working capital management affects the performance of retail industry. This dissertation concentrates on one of the important areas of finance the working capital management. Working capital management is the management of both the current assets and current liabilities. Management of working capital is considered as an important function for any kind of organization. Without proper management of working capital the company cant perform their day to day operations smoothly. So each organization in the industry performs several activities to manage their working capital as efficiently as possible in order to compete from each other. Companies in retail industry depends heavily on working capital for their daily operating activities and therefore it is essential for managing their working capital in order to gain profitability and also to avoid solvency. Improper management of working capital can also lead to bankrupt and there are also some retail companies in the past to explain this fact is true. The main problem and issue in working capital management it is to determine the optimum level to be maintained in the current assets and current liabilities and also to determine whether the firm should invest heavily in current assets or in fixed assets. These issues can seriously affect the profitability and liquidity of the organization and it should be carefully considered in order to compete in the industry. It is very necessary for the organization to know the level of funds to be invested in each component of the current assets such as cash, inventory, accounts receivable and marketable securities. Funds invested in current assets are generally turned back into cash in the end of the working capital cycle which is normally within one year. Therefore investing high or low in current assets affects the profitability and liquidity of the firm and it should be maintained in such a way which satisfies the exact needs of the business. It is also necessary to know how to investment these currents assets which are either by short term financing or by long term financing. For these decisions to be made efficient working capital management is essential. It has been discussed in many journals that working capital management has a direct relationship with the profitability and liquidity of the organization. Therefore managing the working capital components is very critical to maintain the firm profitability and liquidity. For example in the case of cash which the company holds if it holds more it is going to lose the profit which can be earned by investing the excess cash in current assets and if the company has low level of cash it is going to miss the business opportunities when they arrive. In the case of inventory investing more in inventory can reduce the profit if the company cant able to sell the goods quickly and also investing less in inventory can lead to loss of sales. Accounts receivable and account payable also has a huge impact on the profitability of the firm. The company credit policies have a great impact on the volume of good sold. If the firm grants a longer credit period for the customers it is going to encourage the sales which thereby increase the profit. On the other hand companys which delays the payments to their suppliers can use that cash for in some other asset and could earn from that investment. But delaying the payment should not exceed the granted period given by the suppliers otherwise the firm may lose the discounts provided by the supplier for early payments. The main objectives of this study is to, To measure the working capital management performed in retail companies and then analysing the performance of retail companies. To determine the working capital cycle for the retail company. To determine what kind of working capital policy is practiced in retail industry. To determine whether the working capital management practices really affects the profitability of the firm. The first chapter of this dissertation is the introduction which is a short description explaining the basic idea behind this research. It will give the problems and issues associated with the research topic and it also explains the aims and objectives accomplished by this research. The second chapter is the literature review which discussed the theoretical concepts in working capital management. This chapter explains the importance of working capital management, the working capital cycle and the different working capital approaches followed in different industries. It also explains the management of each of the working capital components such as cash, inventories, accounts receivable and marketable securities in detail and the objectives satisfied by managing these working capital components. In the end of this chapter the various sources which finance the working capital are discussed. The third chapter is the research methodology which explains the research methodology adopted for this dissertation. It explains what kind of research method followed in this dissertation and also shows the different data collection methods and tools used to complete the dissertation. The fourth chapter is the findings and analysis. In this chapter the performance of the retail industries is analysed and then the findings are discussed. The different analyses performed in this chapter are ratio analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. By ratio analysis the performance of the retail companies are analysed and then by correlation and regression analysis it is analysed to see whether the inventory holding days, accounts receivable days, accounts payable days and cash conversion cycle affects the return on capital employed. Finally the last chapter concludes and gives recommendation based on the results analysed. 1.0 Working Capital: Working capital is the capital which satisfies the short term financial requirements of any business enterprise. It is capital which is engaged in the operations of the business for not more than one year. Every organization whether it is profit oriented or not needs working capital for the day to day operations of the business. Managers when making investment decisions not only plans for the long term such as buying new building or machine but also considers the need to have additional current assets in the short term for any expansion of activity that the organization is planning to do. For example if the organization is planning to increase the level of production the organization needs to hold a greater level of raw materials similarly if the organization increases the sales there will be an increase in level of debtors. All these investment decisions can bring the organization to level of risk. So it is very necessary for an organization to manage this working capital effectivel y to avoid the company fall into risk (Mclaney 2006). 1.1 Importance of Working Capital Management: The management of working capital is very important for several reasons. According to Padachi (2006), working capital management is very important for the financial health of the business of any size. He also suggested that the funds invested in the working capital are high in proportion to the total assets employed. Therefore it should be managed in effective and efficient way. Also working capital management directly affects the liquidity and profitability of the firm. Therefore managing the working capital should be done in such a way that it should create a balance between the liquidity and profitability (Falope, I and Ajilote, T 2009). The main advantage of working capital management is the flexibility of it. That is it has the ability to change with the rise and fall in seasonal demands of the product or service, and with the rise and fall in economic and market conditions (Mathur, B 2003). Largay, A and Stickney, P (1980) studied the bankruptcy case of a large retail store in the year 1980. From their study they found that the bankruptcy should have occurred because of the poor cash flow from their operation during the last few years of their bankruptcy. So managing the working capital is very necessary for the survival of the business 1.2 Components of Working Capital: Working capital which is also called as current capital or circulating capital is the capital that the managers put it to work for the day to day operations of the organization. There are two important concepts in the working capital management that is the gross working capital and the net working capital. Gross working capital is the capital that includes only the current assets used in the day to day operations of the organization and net working capital is the capital which includes the current assets less the current liabilities. The components which comprise the current assets are the following, (Brigham, F and Houston. F 2007). Cash Marketable Securities Inventories Accounts Receivables These currents assets are financed using the following sources such as, Accruals Accounts Payable Short term bank loans Commercial paper etc. The degree to which an organization invests in current assets depends on several factors such as the type of business and products the organization do. For example retail companies mostly invest a lot of funds in their current assets such as inventory and they invest less in long term assets such as buying plant and equipment. But in the case of some manufacturing companies more is invested in long term assets such as machines and equipment as they are very necessary for the organization. The length of operating cycle also is an important factor. The longer the operating cycle the more is invested in the current assets. The level of uncertainty in the business also is one of the important factors. So depending upon the industry practices the organization invests more in current assets or in long term assets (Fabozzi, J 2003). . 2.0 Working capital cycle: Working capital cycle is the time taken for the capital invested by the organization turning back into cash. Generally the working capital cycle for a manufacturing business starts when the organization buys the raw materials on credit followed by working on these raw materials to produce the final goods, and selling of the finished goods. During this cycle the organization also needs to pay the creditors. As the organization sells the final product on credit, the debtors are increased and when the customers started to pay it will increase the amount of cash in the business (Myddelton, D 2000). Retailers Supplier Inventory Supplier Merchandise Supplier Merchandise Supplier Merchandise Supplier Merchandise Customers Payment Payment Payment Payment Figure1: Working capital cycle of a Retail Business (Reynolds, Cuthbertson and Bell 2004) The above figure shows the general working capital cycle of a retail business and it explains how the operating process is performed in a retail business. The first stage in the operating process is where the suppliers provide the merchandise to the retailers. Large retail companies manufacture their own products under their brand name. After all the merchandise is received from the suppliers the retailers makes the store ready, and other arrangements for the received products to be sold. The products which are available to be sold become the inventory. In the next stage the customers buys the products which generates cash into the company (Reynolds, Cuthbertson and Bell 2004). 2.1 Cash Conversion Cycle: An important cycle which is embedded in the working capital cycle is the cash conversion cycle. When the organization buys raw materials from their suppliers they dont pay them immediately. They usually have a credit period contracted by the supplier and before that they need to pay. This is known as the creditors payment period. Also not all customers pay the cash immediately when they buy a product. Some buy them on credit and they should pay the certain amount within a particular period. This period which is granted by the business to the customer is known as the debtors payment period. The gap between these two periods is known as the cash conversion cycle. It is the cycle where the invested cash that is the cash invested in the suppliers turns back into cash when the customers pay the money during the debtors collection period (Arnold 2005). Raw Material Stock Period Work-in Progress Period Finished goods inventory period Debtor Collection Period Creditor Payment Period Stock Conversion Period Cash Conversion Cycle Figure2: Cash Conversion Cycle (Arnold 2005) The above figure shows the cash conversion cycle. The length of the cash conversion cycle depends on three factors, Stock conversion period Debtor collection period Creditor payment period Stock conversion period is the period where the raw material bought from the supplier are processed and converted into finished goods. Therefore the duration of a cash conversion cycle is found by, Cash conversion cycle = Stock Conversion period + Debtors collection period – Creditors payment period In an article Jose, Lancaster and Stevens (1996) suggest the importance of cash conversion cycle in the profitability and liquidity of the organization. They explained that for an aggressive approach to liquidity management the organization should reduce the cash conversion cycle by reducing their inventories and debtor collection period while increasing their creditors payment period. Managing the cash conversion cycle this way may involve tradeoffs between liquidity and profitability. If the business reduces the inventory and the debtors collection period they will lose the sales because of stock running out so early and also losing customers who usually buys in credit. Also if the firm increases the creditor collection period they will lose the discounts available for early payments and also the flexibility of pay debts in the future. So cash conversion holds an important role in maintaining the liquidity and profitability of the organization. 3.0 Working capital policy: Working capital policy is the policy made by the organization for making decisions on two important things, which are how much should the firm invest in each component of current assets and how these investments should be financed. Any business for managing their working capital efficiently should make decisions on what level of cash they should hold, what level of inventory they should maintain, what level of accounts receivable can be allowed and they should also decide whether to finance these current assets either with short term funds or with long term funds. These decisions made by the organization together make up the working capital policy (Correia et al. 2007). According to Vishnani and Shah (2007) working capital policies had a great impact on the firms performance. They suggest the importance of working capital policies for maintaining the firms liquidity and profitability. An unnecessary investment in current assets can reduce the rate of return thereby affecting the prof itability. Also it is very necessary for maintaining the liquidity for a normal running of the business. If the firm holds too much liquidity it explains that the firm is not using its funds efficiently and on the other hand if they have inadequate liquidity it will affect their credit worthiness. So it is very essential to determine the optimal level of working capital. 3.1 Permanent and Temporary Working Capital: A working capital policy is affected because of the firms varying requirements of current assets. The working capital requirements of a firm do not always remain stable through out the year and it varies from time to time. Because of the seasonal demands of some product the firm changes their level of production and holdings of inventories. Due to these conditions the currents assets in the firm also varies. But a certain amount of current assets is always maintained regularly in the business to meet the minimum day to day operations of the business to continue without any difficulties. This minimum requirement of current assets is known as the permanent working capital. On the other hand the amount which is invested in current assets due to the varying seasonal requirements is known as the temporary working capital (Van Horne, C and Wachowicz, M 2008). Amount of working capital Permanent working capital Temporary working capital Time Figure 3: Permanent and Temporary working capital (Source: Van Horne, C and Wachowicz, M 2008) Generally permanent working capital remains the same for whole year and the temporary working capital is the one which varies over time. But for some growing business the permanent working capital also rises steadily over time to meet the expansion activities of the business which is described by the figure above. 3.2 Approaches in Working Capital Policies: There are three different approaches in working capital policies and they are moderate, aggressive and conservative approaches. A firm which follows a moderate approach uses both long term and short term financing to finance their assets. The main aim of this moderate approach is to create a balance between the risk and the return. The firm which follows an aggressive approach tends to use a more of short term funds and less of long term funds to finance its current assets. Even though short term interest rates are lower than long term interest rates short term financing is more risky than long term financing because they should be paid off in a short time period. Therefore following an aggressive approach increases the risk of liquidity and it also increases the possibility of higher profits. The firm which follows a conservative approach uses a less of short term funds and more of long term funds. Therefore it reduces the liquidity risk and also the possibility to achieve higher pr ofits (Gallagher, J and Andrew, D 2007). Weinraub, J and Visscher (1998) examined the relative relationship between the aggressive and conservative approach by studying on ten different industry groups and found that each of these industries were following a unique and different working capital management polices. From their research they also found that the relatively aggressive working capital management appear to be balanced by the relatively conservative working capital management. 3.3 Factors Determining the Working Capital Requirements: Financial managers should manage their working capital in such a way that it should not be surplus or excessive. For this the managers the managers need to know the working capital requirements of the organization to make sure to provide the perfect financing. The working capital requirements of any business depends among several factors and generally some of the factors which should be considered while determining the working capital requirements are the following (Banerjee 2005), Nature of the business: The general nature of the business itself affects the working capital requirements of the business. In the case of manufacturing industry they will invest significantly in both fixed and working capital. But in other industries such as trading and financing firms invest a small amount fixed assets and a large in working capital. Some firms needs to have a large amount of inventory and debtor balances because of their nature of business. Growth and Expansion of Business: The level of investments in working capital depends upon the size of the business. The more the business expands its activity the more working capital requirement is needed. Production Cycle: Production cycle is the period where the raw materials are converted into their finished product. The longer the period to convert these raw materials into finished product the larger is the working capital. Business Cycle: The business cycle is an important factor in considering the working capital requirement. The business has to pass through a period of good times and bad times such as recession. During the good times where the business is growing the business needs to increase their working capital requirements because of the increased sales and during the bad times the business needs to reduce their working capital because of reduced sales. Production Policy: The demands of certain products are seasonal in nature. So during the peak season the working capital requirements are higher while during the off-season the working capital is kept lower. Therefore depending upon the seasonal demands of the product or service the working capital requirements varies. Credit Policy: Credit policy has a direct impact on the working capital requirements. When the business reduces the credit period it will reduces the volume of sales which leads to the reduction of working capital requirements. But when the business grants a longer credit period it encourages the sales and there by needing to increase the working capital requirements. Price Level Changes: The varying price level also affects the working capital requirements. When the price level increases the business also needs to increase their working capital to maintain their same volume of activity. Operating Efficiency: Operating efficiency is an important factor to be considered by the business. The business can maintain their working capital to a minimum level only when they are able to manage or control their operating costs and utilise their working capital efficiently. 4.0 MANAGEMENT OF CURRENT ASSETS: As discussed before working capital management is the management of both current assets and the current liabilities. The main objective of working capital management it is to maintain an optimum balance of each of the working capital components and to develop the optimum level between the current assets and the current liabilities. The optimum level is the level where a balance is created between risk and efficiency (Filbeck and Krueger, M 2005). In the following paragraphs the management of currents assets such as cash, marketable securities, inventories and accounts receivables are discussed. 4.1 Cash Management: Cash management is defined as the management of cash inflows and cash outflows. The cash flows out of the firm when the business buys goods and services from its suppliers and cash flows into the firm when the customer pays for the product they purchased. The term cash refers the cash like assets like currency, bank balances etc. The cash is often considered as non earning assets because they do not provide earnings but the cash provides safety from insolvency. Cash is very important for the day to day operations of the business and to meet the liabilities when they are due (Besley and Brigham 2005). There are several reasons for a business to hold cash (Besley and Brigham 2005), Transaction balance: Cash balance is very essential for the operations of the business. Cash is used for paying their employees wages, buying raw materials, fixed assets, and also to pay their taxes. Compensating balance: It is the minimum bank balance that the firm should maintain for the services provided by the bank such as check clearing and cash management advice. Precautionary balance: It is the cash kept as reserve by the firm because the company cannot predict the future cash flow. The amount which is kept as reserve depends upon the predictability of the cash flow. The less cash predicted the more cash balance is maintained. Speculative balance: These are cash maintained by the firm to take advantage of any profit opportunity when arises in the business. Ferreira, A and Vilela, S (2004) suggest that the level of cash holdings is positively affected by the investment opportunity and cash flows of the firm and it is negatively affected by the liquid assets, leverage and size of the firm. Firms with high investment opportunity needs to hold a high level a cash to take the benefits of the immediate opportunities available to them and also if the firm has a unpredictable cash flow the firm holds a high levels of cash. On the other hand firms which has high level of liquid assets holds low level of cash because the firm convert the liquid assets into cash when they are needed. Also firms with higher leverage that is the ability of the firm to raise debts will hold less level of cash. And at last the size of the firm affects the level of cash holdings. Large firms hold less level of cash than smaller firms because borrowing funds by smaller funds is expensive when compared to larger firms. So smaller tend to hold more cash to avoid borrowin g funds. The two main goals of cash management practices is (Fabozzi, J 2003) To have adequate cash in hand to meet the immediate needs of the firms and To receive the cash from those to owe it as early as possible and to pay the cash which the business owes as late as possible. To determine the level of investment in cash is a very important function. The firm cannot hold too much cash because of the holding cost associated with it. Holding cost is the cost that the business would have earned if the cash is invested in some form of asset. The level of investment in the cash depends upon the firms liquid assets, debt levels, and rate of return and economic conditions. There are two models used by the firms to determine the adequate level of cash needed to be maintained. One is the Baumol model which assumes that the cash is used uniformly through the period and based on this assumption the amount of cash to be maintained is measured. But by the second model which is called as Miller model assumes that the cash flow varies in an unpredictable manner and based on this assumption the amount of cash to be invested is measured. These two models help in satisfying the first goal of cash management (Fabozzi, J 2003). To achieve the second goal of cash management which is to reduce the period cash inflow and to increase the period of cash outflow, several ways are being followed. The following techniques help reduce the period of cash inflow (Shim, K and Siegel, G 2000). Lockbox System- In this system the customer instead of mailing the check to the firm send their checks to a nearby post office box which is controlled by the firms bank. The firms bank then collects the check from the post office and deposits the check. Due to this process the time the check spends in the mail and also since the bank itself receives the check it avoids the time the check spends when received by the firm and thus saves the processing time of the checks in the firm. Pre-Authorised Debits- In this system the cash is collected from customers by obtaining permission from customers to have pre authorised debits automatically charged to their bank accounts. Thereby it eliminates the time the check spends in the mail and the processing time of the check. Wire Transfer- In this system the cash is transferred quickly between banks and thus eliminates the transferring time of the cash. Wire transfers are done though computer terminal and telephone. So far we have discussed the ways to reduce the period of cash inflow. Now lets discuss the ways to increase the period of cash outflow. Zero-balance account- Zero balance account as the name suggest it requires no balance. It is an arrangement between the bank and the firm to achieve controlled disbursement which is to pay exactly what the company owes. When the check is offered to the bank the bank just transfers the money from the firms account. By this system the firm can pay the exact amount which covers the check. This system also increases the period of cash flowing out (Bragg, M 2007). Payable through drafts- Payables through drafts is similar to the checks. But a draft works in a different way. When a draft is offered to the bank the bank sends to the firms which issued the draft and waits for its approval. Only after receiving the approval from the firm the bank deposits funds into the receivers account. Due to complex procedure when using drafts it takes a long time for the amount to be transferred in to the receiver account (Shim, K and Siegel, G 2000). 4.2 Management of Marketable Securities: Management of marketable securities is just a continuation of cash management. We know that cash does not earn any return so instead of holding these cash firms just invest these cash in marketable securities for a short period of time. When the firms feel that they need some they just convert these marketable securities back into cash. Depending upon the yield curve the security earns the return. When the yield curve rises the firm gains a higher return. For example if the firm invest in a security for one year period of time then the return it would be getting is measured by (Puxty, G and Dodds 1988) R = P2 P1 + I P1 Where R is the return, P2 is the maturity value of the security, P1 is the purchase price and I is the interest paid. There are several factors which the firms consider when investing on securities and they are as follows (Chandra 2005), Safety – The most important factor which the firm consider when investing in any kind of security is safety. The firm before investing in any security first checks whether they will get back the amount invested. T-bills or the treasury bills are considered as the safest investment because the obligation are promised by the government. But investing in other securities depends upon the type of security and the issuer. Liquidity- The liquidity refers to the ability of the investor to convert the security back into cash without acquiring any loss. For a traded security a large and active secondary market ensures liquidity while a non traded security liquidity risk is high. Yield- The yield represents the return which the security is going to gain by way of interest, dividend and capital gain. Maturity- Maturity represents the expiry time of the security. The longer the maturity period the higher will be the yield. But securities like t-bills provide a fixed return when they are matured. Some of the marketable securities where the firms generally invest are the following, (Fabozzi, J 2003) Treasury Bills- These are securities issued by the US government and as a maturity period of one, three and six months. Investing in this type of security is risk free but it provides a lower rate of return. Certificates of deposits- These are debts issued by the bank in large amounts and have a maturity period up to one year. Investing in this type of security is highly risky because some times the issuer will not pay the interest and principal as promised. Commercial paper- These are debts issued by firms in large amounts and have a maturity period generally up to thirty days. Investing in this security is also risky but this risk is minimized by the back up lines of credit offered by commercial banks. Commercial paper is very attractive because of the higher returns it provides than when compared to the return provided by t-bills. Holding cash and marketable securities offers both advantage and disadvantage for a firm. The advantage is, it reduces the transaction cost because there is no need to issue security or borrow cash and holding cash or marketable securities provides opportunities to take advantage of immediate growth opportunities. The disadvantage of holding cash and marketable security is the after tax return of both cash and marketable security is considerably very l

Routing Protocol Simulation With NS2

Routing Protocol Simulation With NS2 Network simulation is a method of investigation in network technology. In the process of investigating a new technology, due to various reasons, it is costly and unrealistic to physically test a network system. In such situation, simulation becomes one of the best available solutions in testing, evaluation and validation. Network simulation has the features of small cycle and low cost, and it is easier for researchers to use others research, in order to concentrate on the particular part and no need to waste too much time on other part of the system. NS2 is a simulation platform that is developed in free open source for network technologies. Researchers can easily use it for the development of network technology. Until today, NS2 contains rich modules that are almost related to all aspects of network technology. Wireless network communications obtained a rapid development in recent years. Ad hoc networks do not need the support of cable infrastructure; the communication is achieved by free mobile network hosts. The emergence of ad hoc network has promoted the achievement of the process of free communication at any environment, at the same time it has also provided an effective communication solution of military, disaster relief and temporary communications. Considering the ad hoc network is constantly moving, and the network topology is changing, therefore the traditional internet routing protocols (e.g. RIP, OSPF) are not be able to adapt into the actual need of ad hot networks. Therefore there are many specialised routing protocols are designed for the ad hoc network, the aim of this paper is to compare, analyse and evaluate the most popular routing protocols for ad hoc networks by running the simulation test with NS2. Introduction A mobile ad hoc network (MANET), sometimes called a mobile mesh network, is a self-configuring network of mobile devices connected by wireless links. Along with the desire of get rid of the wired network constraints and be able to communicate at any time and any place, wireless network communications obtained a rapid development in recent years. Mobile communications can be achieved by portable computers with wireless interface equipped and PDAs. Most current mobile communications require a wired infrastructure, e.g. base station. To be able to communicate without fix infrastructure, a new network technology Ad Hoc network technology arises at the historic moment. Ad hoc networks do not need the support of cable infrastructure; the communication is achieved by free mobile network hosts. The emergence of ad hoc network has promoted the achievement of the process of free communication at any environment, at the same time it has also provided an effective communication solution of military, disaster relief and temporary communications. Each device in a MANET is free to move independently in any direction, and will therefore change its links to other devices frequently. Each must forward traffic unrelated to its own use, and therefore be a router. The primary challenge in building a MANET is equipping each device to continuously maintain the information required to properly route traffic. Such networks may operate by themselves or may be connected to the larger Internet. Ad-hoc network was originally used in the military field. With the developments of wireless networks, it has begun the development in the civilian fields. A mobile ad-hoc network does not need any infrastructures, any node can quickly and automatically form the network, and each node can move freely and is able to join or leave the network at any time. The characteristics and advantages of fast deployment, invulnerability makes mobile ad-hoc becoming more and more widely used in either military or civilian fields. In recent years, as the emerging wireless communication network, Ad-hoc is gradually attracting more attention of the industry and become a research hotspot. Ad-hoc networking supports flexible and convenient communication without the support of infrastructure, this technique broadens the fields of mobile communications and has a bright future. Ad hoc network can be regarded as the cross of mobile communication and computer network. In ad hoc networks, computer network packet exchange mechanism is used rather than circuit switching mechanism. Communication hosts are usually portable computer, personal digital assistants (PDA) and other mobile devices. Ad Hoc network is different from mobile IP network in the current Internet environment. In mobile IP networks, mobile hosts can link and access the network through fixed wired network, wireless link and dial up link, and in ad hoc network, these is only a wireless link connection. In mobile IP networks, the communication need to be supported by adjacent base stations and still using the traditional internet routing protocol, however, ad hoc networks do not have the support of these facilities. In addition, a mobile host in the mobile IP network is only an ordinary end device which does not have routing function. When the mobile host moves from one zone to another does not chan ge the network topology, and in Ad Hoc networks the movement of mobile hosts would lead to topology change. The thesis is to research on the Ad-hoc networking mode and its network layer through simulation with NS2, mainly focused on the comparison and analysis of the popular ad-hoc routing protocols. The aim of this article is to research and develop on the key technology of self-configuring network routing protocols, based on ad-hoc network structure. Wireless Ad-Hoc network Structure and Characteristics Ad Hoc wireless network has its own particularity, in the formation of actual use of the working network, the application size, scalability and the reliability and real-time requirements must be taken full account. In addition, due to the unique structure of the ad hoc network, the characteristics of ad hoc network should be fully considered when design and build the network, which will help us to design a routing protocol that is suitable for particular network structure in order to maximise the performance across the network. Ad-hoc network Structure Ad Hoc wireless network topology can be divided into two kinds: Flat structure and hierarchical structure, in flat network structure, all network nodes have equal status. However, in the hierarchical structure of the Ad Hoc wireless network topology, the whole network is composed of clusters for the subnet, each cluster consists of a cluster head and multiple cluster members, the cluster heads forms a higher level network. Each cluster head and cluster members are dynamic and automatic networking. The hierarchy is based on different hardware configurations, and hierarchical structure can be divided into single-band and multi-band classification structure. Single band hierarchy use single frequency in communication, all nodes use the same frequency. But in multi-band hierarchy, if there are two networks in different levels exist, the lower level network has a smaller communication range and higher level network has a larger communication range, cluster members use the same frequency to communicate, cluster head nodes uses one frequency to communicate with cluster members and another frequency to maintain the communication with cluster heads. There are advantages and disadvantages exist in either flat or hierarchical network structures: the structure of flat structure network is simple, each node has an equal status, there are multiple paths exist in communication of the source node and destination node, therefore no network bottlenecks, and the network is relatively safe. However, the biggest drawback is the limited network size, when the network scale expanding, routing maintenance overhead exponential growth and consume the limited bandwidth; Hierarchical network structure is not limited by the scale of network, the scalability is good, and because of clustering, routing overhead is relatively smaller, although there is the need of complex cluster head selection algorithm in hierarchical structure, but because of hierarchical network structure with high system throughput, node localisation is simple, therefore ad hoc network is now increasingly showing grading trend, many network routing algorithms proposed are based o n the hierarchical network structure model. Ad-Hoc network Characteristics Wireless ad hoc network is a combination of mobile communications and computer networks, each node in the network have both router and host functions. The characteristics of ad hoc networks in mainly in the following areas: Dynamically changing network topologies: Ad Hoc networks have no fixed infrastructure and central management communications equipment, network nodes can randomly move to any direction in any speed rate, coupled with the power change of wireless transmitter device, the environment impact and the signal mutual interference between each other, which all will result in dynamic changes of the network topology. Limited resources: the working energy provided to the mobile hosts in Ad Hoc networks are limited, and the mobile host with more energy loss, will reduce the Ad Hoc network functions; on the other hand, the network itself provides limited bandwidth and signal conflicts and Interference, which results the mobile host with limited available bandwidth which is normally far less than the theoretical maximum bandwidth. Multi-hop communication: if two network nodes are not in the same network coverage due to the limited resources available, multi-hop may be used in Ad Hoc network communication, in order to achieve the communication between the source host and destination host which are not in the same network coverage. Limited physical security: the communication of Ad Hoc network nodes are through the wireless channel, the information transmitted is very vulnerable, and eavesdropping, retransmission, falsify or forgery attack can be achieved easily, If routing protocol once suffered the malicious attacks, the whole self-organizing networks will not work properly. These features of the Ad Hoc network have made a special request in the routing algorithm design. A reasonable routing algorithm must take the factors of limited network resources, dynamic network topology changes and improve the network throughput into account. Ad-Hoc Wireless network routing protocols The key issue in ad hoc network design is to develop a routing protocol that is able to provide high quality and high efficient communication between two nodes. The mobility characteristic in the network makes the network topology constantly changing, the traditional internet based routing protocol is unable to adapt to these characteristics therefore the routing protocol that is specialised for ad hoc networks is needed, According to earlier on the Ad Hoc network architecture and features described, the design of the routing protocol must meet the following conditions: The need of rapid response capability for dynamic network topology, and try to avoid routing loops from occurring, and provide simple and convenient network node localise method. Must be efficiently use of the limited bandwidth resources, and try to compress unnecessary overhead. Limit the number of intermediate transfer during the implementation of multi-hop, generally not more than 3 times. Must minimise the launch time and amount of launch data, in order to save limited working energy. In possible conditions, make the design of routing protocol with securities to reduce the possibility of being attacked. Routing Protocols According to the specific characteristics of ad hoc wireless network routing protocols, in recent years, there are a variety of ad hoc network routing protocols have been proposed. IETFs MANET working group is currently focused on research Ad Hoc network routing protocols, and protocols many protocol drafts, such as DSR, AODV, ZRP etc. in addition, the professional researchers also published a extensively amount of articles related to Ad hoc network routing protocols and proposed many network routing protocols for the ad hoc networks, such as DSDV, WRP etc. According to the routing trigger principle, the current routing protocols can be divided into three types: Proactive Routing protocol, Reactive routing protocol and Hybrid routing protocols. Proactive Routing protocol Proactive routing protocol is also known as Table-driven routing protocol, each node maintains a routing table that contains the routing information to reach the other node, and updates the routing table constantly according the network topology changes, and therefore the routing table can accurately reflect the topology structure of the network. Once the source code needs to send messages, the route to the destination node can be immediately obtained. This type of routing protocol is usually modified from the existing wired network routing protocol to adapt to the wireless ad hoc network requirements, such as the Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector protocol, which is modified from the Routing Information Protocol (RIP). Therefore, this type of routing protocol has a small delay, but requires a lot of control message, the overhead is large. Commonly used proactive routing protocols include DSDV, HSR, GSR, WRP etc. Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV) DSDV avoids the generation of routing loops by set serial number for each route, using time-driven and event-driven technology to control the transfer of routing table, i.e. a routing table is kept in each moving node locally, it contains valid points, routing hops and destination routing serial number etc. destination routing serial number is used to distinguish old and new route to avoid routing loops. Each node periodically sends the local routing table to the neighbour nodes, or when the routing table changes, the information will also be passed to neighbouring nodes, when there is no moving nodes, use a larger packet with longer interval to update the route. When the neighbouring node receives the information contains modified routing table, it will first compare the serial number of destination node, the routing with larger serial number will be used and the one with smaller serial number will be eliminated, and if the serial number are the same, the best optimised route (e.g. shortest path) will be used. Each node must periodically exchange the routing information with adjacent nodes, the routing information update is also can be triggered by the changes in routing table. There are two ways to update the routing table, Full dump, i.e. the topology update message will include the entire routing table, which is mainly applied to the case of fast changing network. Another way is Incremental update, in which update message contains only the changed part in routing, such way is usually used in a network with slower changes. Hierarchical State Routing (HSR) HSR is a routing protocol that is used in hierarchical network, nodes at a higher level saves all the location information of its peers, logical sequence address is assigned along from the root node at the highest level to the leaf node at the lowest level, node address can be used by sequence address. Global State Routing (GSR) GSR protocol works similar with the DSDV mechanism, it uses link-state routing algorithm, but avoids the flooding of routing packets, which includes an adjacent node table, network topology table, next hop routing table and the distance table. Wireless Routing Protocol (WRP) WRP is a distance-vector routing protocol, each node maintains a distance table, routing table, link overhead table and packet retransmission table, through the Short Path Spanning Tree (SST) of the neighbouring node to generate its own SST, and then transmit updates. When there is no any change in the network routing, the receiver node must return an idle message to show the connection, otherwise modify the distance table to look for better route. The feature of this algorithm is that when any changes of the neighbouring node is detected, and then checks the sturdiness of all adjacent nodes in order to eliminate the loop, has a faster convergence. Reactive Routing Protocol Reactive Routing protocol is also known as on-demand routing protocol, it finds the route only when needed. Nodes do not need to maintain routing information constantly, it will initiate route look up only when the packet is need to be sent. Compare with proactive routing protocols, the overhead of reactive routing protocol is smaller, but the packet transmission delay is larger, which means it is not suitable for real time applications. Commonly used reactive routing protocols include AODV, DSR, TORA and so on. 2.2.2 Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) DSR is designed to restrict the bandwidth consumed by control packets in ad hoc wireless networks by eliminating the periodic table-update messages required in table-driven approach. DSR is composed of two main mechanisms Route Discovery and Route Maintenance. The Route Discovery mechanism is used when the source node needs to send a packet to the destination node but does not know the route. When the source node is using a source route to reach the destination node, source node uses the route maintenance mechanism to identify the route that cannot be used due to the topology changes. In DSR, route discovery and route maintenance mechanisms are fully on-demand operation, DSR does not require any periodic routing broadcast packets and link state detection packets. 2.2.3 Temporally Ordered Routing Algorithm (TORA) TORA is an adaptive distributed routing algorithm based on link reversal method, which is mainly used for high-speed dynamic multi-hop wireless network. As a source initiated on-demand routing protocol, it is able to find multi-paths from the source to the destination node. The main characteristics of TORA are, when topology changes, the control message transmission in local area of topology changes only. Therefore, the node only needs to maintain the information of adjacent nodes. The protocol consists of three parts: route generation, route maintenance and route deletion. In the initialisation stage, the transmission sequence number of the destination node is set to 0. The QRY packet which contains the destination node ID broadcast by the source end and a node with a transmission sequence number that is not 0 responses to the UDP packet. The node that receives UDP packet has the sequence number higher than the source node by 1, and the node with higher sequence number is set as the upstream node. Through this method, a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) from the source to the destination node can be created. When nodes move, routes need to be rebuilt. In the route deletion phase, TORA removes the invalid route by broadcasting a CLR. There is one problem that exists with TORA, which is when multiple nodes proceeds to route selection and deletion, routing oscillation will be produced. 2.2.4 Ad-hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) AODV is an improvement to the DSDV algorithm, but the difference with DSDV is that it is a Reactive routing protocol. In order to find the route leading to the destination node, the source end will broadcast a routing request packet, and adjacent in turn broadcast the packet to the surrounding nodes until the packet was sent to the destination node, or, to the intermediate node which has the routing information to the destination node. A node will discard duplicated request packet received, the serial number of routing request packet is to prevent routing loops, and is able to determine whether the intermediate node has responses to the corresponding routing requests. When a node forwards a route request packet, it will mark the ID of its upstream node into the routing table, in order to build a reverse route from the destination node to the source node. When the source end moves, it will re-initiate route discovery algorithm; if the intermediate nodes move, then the adjacent node wi ll find the link failure and send the link failure message to its upstream node and spread the message all the way to the source node, afterwards the source node re-launches the route discovery process according to the circumstances. The achievement of AODV is a combination of DSR and DSDV protocols. It has the features of route discovery and route maintenance in DSR, and at the same time use by-hop routing, sequence number and Beacon messages that adopted in DSDV. Hybrid Routing Protocol In wireless ad hoc networks, neither proactive nor reactive routing protocols alone can solve the routing problem completely, therefore hybrid routing protocols which combines the advantage of both proactive and reactive protocols have been proposed by the researchers, such as the Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP). ZRP is a combination of proactive and reactive routing protocols, all nodes within the network to themselves as the centre of a virtual zone, the number of nodes in the area is related to the radius set of the zone, and the areas overlap, this is the difference with clustering routing. It uses proactive routing algorithm within the zone, the centre node uses Intrazone Routing protocol to maintain in the zone. Literature Review Network Simulation Tool The platform that will be used in simulation is Windows XP Professional + Cygwin + NS2. NS2 is a simulation platform that is developed in free open source for network technologies. Researchers can easily use it for the development of network technology. Until today, NS2 contains rich modules that are almost related to all aspects of network technology. Since the release 2.26, NS2 has stopped support with Windows platforms, therefore to get the latest NS2 running on the Windows XP, Cygwin is needed. Cygwin is an UNIX emulator on Windows platform. Implementation Configure simulation platform Normally, NS2 simulation can be divided into the following steps: 1. Compose necessary components: i.e. add or remove new components 2. Testing: test whether the component composed is validated. When the component in the library satisfies the simulation needs (e.g. simulation process based on existing protocols in the library),then the simulation starts from the third step. 3. Compose Otcl script file: configure the topology structure of the simulating network, and identify the basic link features, protocols that have been used by moving nodes, and number of nodes etc, and binding the terminal device protocol, setting the scene and traffic load of simulation (TCP stream or CBR stream), setting simulation start and end time etc, and set trace objects of the script file, trace file is the file that records all of the events of simulation process, and also can set the nam object at the same time, nam is the tool to demonstrate the network running animation. 4. Use NS command to execute script file: once executed, *.tr file will be generated in the same directory of the script file, to record the simulation results. if nam object is set in the script file, *.nam file will be generated in the same directory. 5. Analyse trace file: due to the large size of trace file, we will need to compose gawk program to process the data after simulation (calculate packet delivery date, routing overload, and throughput etc), then use the drawing tools to produce the graph for direct analysis. In NS2 the classic routing protocols such as DSDV, DSR, TAORA and AODV are already integrated; the source code of routing protocols is located in C:cygwinhomeAdministratorns-allinone-2.34ns-2.34, show in figure 1.1 Take AODV as an example (fig. 1.2), within the ADOV folder, aodv.cc and aodv.h are the most important files, they defines the main functional features. Under general circumstances, we do not need to modify the source code of the protocols. Fig.1.2 AODV Routing Protocol Simulation scripting According to the simulation model designed, each routing protocol (DSDV, DSR, AODV, and TORA) will be compared in small (20 nodes) and medium (50 nodes) ad hoc wireless network. The corresponding scripts composed are: dsdv.tcl, dsr.tcl, aodv.tcl and tora.tcl (see appendix). Taking aodv.tcl as an example, the coding is show in fig.3.2.1 Partial scripts in aodv.tcl Some script explanation of most important codes in aodv.tcl set val(ifq)Queue/DropTail/PriQueue; #Interface queue set val(nn)50; #Number of nodes in simulation scenario set val(rp)AODV; #Routing protocol to be simulated set val(stop)300 #Simulation time length set val(x)500; #Length of scene set val(y)500; #Width of scene set val(tr) out50.tr #Output trace file set val(nam) out50.nam #Output nam file set opt(cp) cbr50 #Stream file set opt(sc) scen50 #Scene file In addition, write the following statement in script head to generate a simulation ns_ object: set ns_[new Simulator] Tracking the file object is used to specify the Trace file (with .tr extension) in recording of the simulation data. NS2 supports record application layer, routing layer, MAC layer and node movement those four types of data in difference layers. The data that needs to be recorded can be specified in settings in the simulation process. The data in of each layer that trace object specified are all recorded in the trace file, labels are added to distinguish them. In addition, NS2 also supports NAM tool simulation process visualisation, such function needs to generate the NAM trace file object to specify the trace file of records of simulation data. The following statements are used to generate those two trace file object described. #Generate trace file: $ns_use-newtrace set tracefd[open out50.tr w]; $ns_trace-all$tracefd #Generate NAM trace file object: set namtracefd[open out50.nam w] $ns_namtrace-all-wireless$namtracefd$val(x)$val(y) Data Stream Generation Tool Data stream generation tool cbrgen is used to generate traffic loads, which can generate the TCP steam and CBR steam. Cbrgen.tcl file (see appendix) can be used as following: Codes are defined as following: -type #TCP stream or CBR stream -nn #Number of nodes -seed #Specify number of random seeds -mc #Maximum connection of each node -rate #Overload of each stream connection The format is used as following: ns cbrgen.tcl [-type cbr|tcp] [-nn nodes] [-seed seed] [-mc connections] [-rate rate] Movement Scene ./setdest is used to randomly generate the nodes movement scene needed form wireless network, used as following (2 versions): ./setdest -v -n -p -M -t time> -x -y or ./setdest -v -n -s -m -M -t -P -p -x -y Which speed type set to uniform/normal ¼Ã…’pause type set to constant/uniform. NAM animation The NAM function is used to run the animation of specific trace output format, the output file can be based on real or simulated environment. For example, the trace file that is from the output of NS simulator. The commands to control to control NAM animation in NS2 as following: nam out.nam 1. Node $node color [color] Setting the colour of node $node shape [shape] Setting shape of node $node label [label] Setting name of node $node label-color [lcolor] Setting display colour of node name $node label-at [ldirection] Setting display location of node name $node add-mark [name] [color] [shape] Add annotation $node delete-mark [name] Delete annotation 2. Link and Queue $ns duplex-link attribute: orientà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ colorà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ queuePosà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ label 3.Agent Use the following commands to make the agent you wish to display appears as AgentName in the box. $ns add-agent-trace $Agent AgentName The parameters of movement scene and node flow are in the tables shown below: Parameter of node movement scene: Parameter Number of nodes Moving range Resting time Simulation time Values set 20, 50 500 x 500 m 1 s 300 s Parameter of node movement scene: Parameter Maximum moving speed Packet size Node communication distance Type of service Values set 5, 10, 15, 10, 25, 30-50 512 byte 250 m CBR Trace file analysis Performance parameter analysis model The indicator to measure the performance of ad hoc network routing protocol is commonly including qualitative indicator and quantitative indicator. Qualitative indicator describes the overall performance of a particular aspect of the network, such as the security, distribution operation, provide loop free route and whether to support single channel etc. and quantitative indicators can describe the performance of a certain aspect of the network in more details. The quantitative indicator of packet delivery ratio, average end to end delay and throughput etc are often used to measure the performance of network routing protocols. a. Packet delivery ratio: is a ratio of the number of packet sent from the source node and the number of packet that have been received by destination node in the application layer, which not only describes the loss rate observed in the application layer, but also reflect the maximum throughput supported by the network. It is the indicator of routing protocol completeness and correctness. End to end average delay: it can be calculated with the following equation, which N represent the packets successfully delivered, rt represents the time that packet reached the destination node, and st represent packet sending time. Routing overhead: Routing overhead is the total number of control packets of all routes, in a multi-hop routing each hop transmission is equivalent to one packet transmission. Routing overhead can be used to compare the scalability, the ability to adapt to network congestion and the efficiency of different routing protocols. It can be calculated with the following formula: Routing overhead = The Total number of routing control packets Gawk code The output file out.tr generated in simulation analysis will be filtered by selecting all of the packets in Agent layer, calculate all the number of data packets sent by this layer and the number of data packets that has been successfully received, and then divide the number