Structuration bridging diffusion of innovations and gender relations theories: a case of paradigmatic pluralism in IS research

This paper discusses the adoption of a pluralist theoretical framework – one that is also multiparadigmatic – for conducting and publishing information system (IS) research. The discussion is illustrated by a single case study involving the Australian cotton industry. The theoretical framework is informed by three sociological theories, each with its particular paradigmatic assumptions: structuration theory as a meta‐theory, and diffusion of innovations and gender relations as lower‐level theories from notionally opposing paradigms. Theoretical pluralism helped to produce rich findings, illuminating both the social nature of women farmers' roles, the materiality of the cotton farming context, the characteristics of the decision support systems in use and the recursive way in which human agency and institutional pressures shape each other. Because users of so‐called divergent paradigms often face criticism based on the incommensurability issue, one of the main contributions of this paper is to discuss the value of a pluralist and multiparadigmatic theoretical framework in dealing with complex IS social phenomena.     

Multicast support for mobile hosts using Mobile IP: Design issues and proposed architecture

In this paper, we consider the problem of providing multicast to mobile hosts using Mobile IP for network routing support. Providing multicast in an internetwork with mobile hosts is made difficult because many multicast protocols are inefficient when faced with frequent membership or location changes. This basic difficulty can be handled in a number of ways, but three main problems emerge with most solutions. The tunnel convergence problem, the duplication problem, and the scoping problem are identified in this paper and a set of solutions are proposed. The paper describes an architecture to support IP multicast for mobile hosts using Mobile IP. The basic unicast routing capability of Mobile IP is used to serve as the foundation for the design of a multicast service facility for mobile hosts. We believe that our scheme is transparent to higher layers, simple, flexible, robust, scalable, and, to the extent possible, independent of the underlying multicast routing facility. For example, our scheme could interoperate with DVMRP, MOSPF, CBT, or PIM in the current Internet. Where differences exist between the current version of IP (IPv4) and the next generation protocol (IPv6), these differences and any further optimizations are discussed. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Performance evaluation of the MoM mobile multicast protocol

This paper presents a performance study of a mobile multicast protocol called MoM, which is designed to support IP multicast for mobile hosts in an IP internetwork. The protocol uses the basic unicast routing capability of IETF Mobile IP, and leverages existing IP multicast to provide multicast services for mobile hosts as well. A key feature of the MoM protocol is the use of designated multicast service providers (DMSPs) to improve the scalability of mobile multicast. Discrete-event simulation is used in the performance evaluation of the protocol. The performance study focuses on the scalability, routing efficiency, fairness, and overhead of the MoM protocol, as well as on DMSP selection policies and the deliverability of multicast messages. The simulation results suggest distinct performance advantages for the MoM protocol over other approaches for mobile multicast, such as bi-directional tunnelling, particularly as the number of mobile group members increases. Furthermore, even simple policies for choosing a DMSP from possible candidates provide reasonable tradeoffs between handoff rates, routing efficiency, deliverability of messages, and protocol overhead. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.