From The Theme
MOBILE AND ALTERNATIVE FORM FACTOR DEVICES

WHAT IF
What if we could improve wireless network services and revenues by exploring the positive, as well as negative, externalities generated by the presence of additional network users?

WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO
We set out to better understand how networks and consumers benefit from the presence of other consumers on a wireless network. Our goal was to develop integrated statistical models that consider not just the negative externalities (such as congestion effects) but also the positive externalities and benefits of increased usage.

WHAT WE FOUND
Our comprehensive service management research program addressed tradeoffs between positive and negative effects, combining models from economics and operations research as well as engineering performance analysis.

Our findings pointed to a unique optimal scale: a number of users at which the total efficiency of the system is maximized. At this optimal scale, the number of users participating is not so large as to create serious congestion, and not so small as to make the system worthless to the participants.

LEARN MORE
Johari, R., & Kumar, S. (2010). Congestible Services and Network Effects. In ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce (EC).

PEOPLE BEHIND THE PROJECT
Ramesh Johari is Associate Professor of Management Science and Engineering, and, by courtesy, of coumputer science and of electrical engineering at Stanford University. Dr. Johari is interested in the design and management of large-scale complex networks, such as the Internet. Using tools from operations research, engineering, and economics, he has developed models to analyze efficient market mechanisms for resource allocation in networks.

Sunil Kumar is the provost of The Johns Hopkins University. In this role, Dr. Kumar is the chief academic officer and second-ranking member of the senior administration, responsible for promoting and coordinating the university’s teaching and research mission. He oversees the university’s nine schools as well as several interdisciplinary programs and academic centers. At the time of this project he was an associate professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business