How do computers contribute to business performance and economic growth? Even today, most people who are asked to identify the strengths of computers tend to think of computational tasks like rapidly multiplying large numbers. Computers have excelled at computation since the Mark I (1939), the first modern computer, and the ENIAC (1943), the first electronic computer without moving parts. During World War II, the U.S. government generously funded research into tools for calculating the trajectories of artillery shells. The result was the development of some of the first digital computers with remarkable capabilities for calculation—the dawn of the computer age. However, computers are not fundamentally number crunchers. They are symbol processors. The same basic technologies can be used to store, retrieve, organize, transmit, and algorithmically transform any type of information that can be digitized—numbers, text, video, music, speech, programs, and engineering drawings, to name a few. This is fortunate because most problems are not numerical problems. Ballistics, code breaking, parts of accounting, and bits and pieces of other tasks involve lots of calculation. But the everyday activities of most managers, professionals, and information workers involve other types of

/pdf/beyond-computation-information-technology-organizational-3qblot8ccg.pdf

Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance

Compounding the confusion is the use of the broad term cognitive radio as a synonym for dynamic spectrum access. As an initial attempt at unifying the terminology, the taxonomy of dynamic spectrum access is provided. In this article, an overview of challenges and recent developments in both technological and regulatory aspects of opportunistic spectrum access (OSA). The three basic components of OSA are discussed. Spectrum opportunity identification is crucial to OSA in order to achieve nonintrusive communication. The basic functions of the opportunity identification module are identified

A Survey of Dynamic Spectrum Access

Praise for the Third Edition: "This is one of the best books available. Its excellent organizational structure allows quick reference to specific models and its clear presentation . . . solidifies the understanding of the concepts being presented."IIE Transactions on Operations EngineeringThoroughly revised and expanded to reflect the latest developments in the field, Fundamentals of Queueing Theory, Fourth Edition continues to present the basic statistical principles that are necessary to analyze the probabilistic nature of queues. Rather than presenting a narrow focus on the subject, this update illustrates the wide-reaching, fundamental concepts in queueing theory and its applications to diverse areas such as computer science, engineering, business, and operations research.This update takes a numerical approach to understanding and making probable estimations relating to queues, with a comprehensive outline of simple and more advanced queueing models. Newly featured topics of the Fourth Edition include:Retrial queuesApproximations for queueing networksNumerical inversion of transformsDetermining the appropriate number of servers to balance quality and cost of serviceEach chapter provides a self-contained presentation of key concepts and formulae, allowing readers to work with each section independently, while a summary table at the end of the book outlines the types of queues that have been discussed and their results. In addition, two new appendices have been added, discussing transforms and generating functions as well as the fundamentals of differential and difference equations. New examples are now included along with problems that incorporate QtsPlus software, which is freely available via the book's related Web site.With its accessible style and wealth of real-world examples, Fundamentals of Queueing Theory, Fourth Edition is an ideal book for courses on queueing theory at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners who analyze congestion in the fields of telecommunications, transportation, aviation, and management science.

Fundamentals of Queueing Theory

http://homepage.cs.latrobe.edu.au/sloke/papers/1-s2.0-S0167739X12001318-main.pdf

Mobile cloud computing

We estimated the world’s technological capacity to store, communicate, and compute information, tracking 60 analog and digital technologies during the period from 1986 to 2007. In 2007, humankind was able to store 2.9 × 10 20 optimally compressed bytes, communicate almost 2 × 10 21 bytes, and carry out 6.4 × 10 18 instructions per second on general-purpose computers. General-purpose computing capacity grew at an annual rate of 58%. The world’s capacity for bidirectional telecommunication grew at 28% per year, closely followed by the increase in globally stored information (23%). Humankind’s capacity for unidirectional information diffusion through broadcasting channels has experienced comparatively modest annual growth (6%). Telecommunication has been dominated by digital technologies since 1990 (99.9% in digital format in 2007), and the majority of our technological memory has been in digital format since the early 2000s (94% digital in 2007).

/pdf/the-world-s-technological-capacity-to-store-communicate-and-39dybc0mey.pdf

The World’s Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information

http://kambing.ui.ac.id/onnopurbo/library/library-ref-eng/ref-eng-3/physical/wireless/3g/3G%20vs%20WiFi.pdf

Wireless Internet access: 3G vs. WiFi?

Does broadband matter to the economy? Numerous studies have focused on whether there is a digital divide, on regulatory impacts and investment incentives, and on the factors influencing where broadband is available. However, given how recently broadband has been adopted, little empirical research has investigated its economic impact. This paper presents estimates of the effect of broadband on a number of indicators of economic activity, including employment, wages, and industry mix, using a cross-sectional panel data set of communities (by zip code) across the United States. We match data from the FCC (Form 477) on broadband availability with demographic and other economic data from the US Population Censuses and Establishment Surveys. We find support for the conclusion that broadband positively affects economic activity in ways that are consistent with the qualitative stories told by broadband advocates. Even after controlling for community-level factors known to influence broadband availability and economic activity, we find that between 1998 and 2002, communities in which mass-market broadband was available by December 1999 experienced more rapid growth in (1) employment, (2) the number of businesses overall, and (3) businesses in IT-intensive sectors. In addition, the effect of broadband availability by 1999 can be observed in higher market rates for rental housing in 2000. We compare state-level with zip-code level analyses to highlight data aggregation problems, and discuss a number of analytic and data issues that bear on further measurements of broadband’s economic impact. This analysis is perforce preliminary because additional data and experience are needed to more accurately address this important question; however, the early results presented here suggest that the assumed (and oft-touted) economic impacts of broadband are both real and measurable.

/pdf/measuring-broadband-s-economic-impact-21n44mqq27.pdf

Measuring Broadband’s Economic Impact

While most communications sector analysts concur that the ability to deliver broadband communications is a critical feature of the modern global communications infrastructure, there is limited recent empirical research on the economic effects of broadband. In particular, much of the available research is now several years old or refers to the benefits of the Internet generally or more broadly of the "digital economy" rather than to the broadband telecommunications infrastructure per se.

https://www.itif.org/files/Brookings-BroadbandDeployment.pdf

The effects of broadband deployment on output and employment: a cross-sectional analysis of U.S. data

We are in the midst of a major paradigm shift in how we manage radio spectrum. This paradigm shift is necessitated by the growth of wireless services of all types and the demand pressure imposed on limited spectrum resources under legacy management regimes. The shift is feasible because of advances in radio and networking technologies that make it possible to share spectrum dynamically in all possible dimensions—i.e., across frequencies, time, location, users, uses, and networks. Realizing the full potential of this shift to Dynamic Spectrum Sharing will require the co-evolution of wireless technologies, markets, and regulatory policies; a process which is occurring on a global scale. This paper provides a current overview of major technological and regulatory reforms that are leading the way toward a global paradigm shift to more flexible, dynamic, market-based ways to manage and share radio spectrum resources. We focus on current efforts to implement database-driven approaches for managing the shared co-existence of users with heterogeneous access and interference protection rights, and discuss open research challenges.

An Overview of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing: Ongoing Initiatives, Challenges, and a Roadmap for Future Research

Rapid progress is being made in the technology for dynamic spectrum access (DSA) radio systems. However, the structure and dynamics of the wireless services market must also evolve for DSA to succeed. This article examines the interlinked technical and economic issues associated with markets for DSA-based wireless services. We use this analysis to make technical and policy recommendations supporting the commercial success of DSA technology

William Lehr

Papers

Wireless Internet access: 3G vs. WiFi?

Measuring Broadband’s Economic Impact

The effects of broadband deployment on output and employment: a cross-sectional analysis of U.S. data

An Overview of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing: Ongoing Initiatives, Challenges, and a Roadmap for Future Research

COGNITIVE RADIOS FOR DYNAMIC SPECTRUM ACCESS - The Path to Market Success for Dynamic Spectrum Access Technology