Departmental Papers (ESE)
Document Type
Conference Paper
Date of this Version
8-14-2011
Abstract
The advent of cheap and ubiquitous wireless access has intro- duced a number of new connectivity paradigms. This paper investigates one of them, user-provided connectivity or UPC. In contrast to tradi- tional infrastructure-based connectivity, e.g., connectivity through the up-front build-out of expensive base-stations, UPC realizes connectivity organically as users join and expand its coverage. The low(er) deployment cost this a ords is one of its main attractions. Conversely, the disadvan- tages of connectivity sharing and a high barrier-to-entry from low initial penetration create strong disincentives to its adoption. The paper's con- tributions are in formulating and solving a simple model that captures key aspects of UPC adoption, and in articulating guidelines to make it successful. For analytical tractability, the model is arguably simplistic, but the robustness of its ndings is demonstrated numerically across a wide range of more general (and more realistic) con gurations.
Keywords
connectivity, externalities, sharing
Included in
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons, OS and Networks Commons, Systems and Communications Commons
Date Posted: 17 August 2011
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
Suggested Citation:
Afrasiabi, M.H. and Guérin, R. "Exploring User-Provided Connectivity - A Simple Model." Proc. ICQT'11 - 7th International Workshop on Advanced Internet Charging and QoS Technology. Paris, France.