As a cable modem customer, I know all too well that a "plentiful" reserve of bandwidth quickly gets hogged by jerks who queue up and download several movies, ISOs, and pieces of warez simultaneously. This is a prime example of the tragedy of the commons.
One thing I learned at Worldcom is that the dirty little secret of CDMA, TDMA, and any other spectrum-sharing technology is that a small percentage of "rogue" devices that are designed to hog bandwidth or disrupt service will be able to do so, at the expense of everybody elses service.
Currently, if a terrorist wanted to block a wireless service (say, television or 802.11b), he would use a transmitter that is easy to locate through triangulation, and only focuses on one particular service. If, however, spectrum is shared amongst many services, that terrorist could take out all of those services and it would be almost impossible to tell which transmitter was his, and which belonged to legitimate users.
Although the idea sounds utopian and attractive, one must keep security in mind. And with security in mind, I pronounce the idea DOA.
As a cable modem customer, I know all too well that a "plentiful" reserve of bandwidth quickly gets hogged by jerks who queue up and download several movies, ISOs, and pieces of warez simultaneously. This is a prime example of the tragedy of the commons.
No, this is what happens when a provider sells a level of service they can't sustain on the (unstated) assumption that the user will not take full advantage of it.
As far as I know, the "jerks" that you complain about are not exceeding their bandwidth limitations. That limit is set by the provider. What they are doing is using their alloted bandwidth for a sustained period. Perfectly fair use. Unfortunately, the providers assume that the bandwidth will only be used in short bursts. If they accounted for larger downlaods, they would have to advertise much lower speeds.
My point is that high use customers are using what they paid for. If they are slowing you down, your beef is with the provider.
No, RF bandwidth is not finite. This is what the 'cell' in cellular is all about. Different cell tower re-use the same frequency and bandwidth. You can increase the total bandwidth available by increasing the number of cells and decreasing the power of each cell tower.
Surely there are practical limits (only so many tower you can pack in an area), but we are far from optimal utilization of the resource. That's the point of the article.
"I say we take off; nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
- Corporal Hicks, in "Aliens"
But people don't want to cooperate (Score:1, Troll)
One thing I learned at Worldcom is that the dirty little secret of CDMA, TDMA, and any other spectrum-sharing technology is that a small percentage of "rogue" devices that are designed to hog bandwidth or disrupt service will be able to do so, at the expense of everybody elses service.
Currently, if a terrorist wanted to block a wireless service (say, television or 802.11b), he would use a transmitter that is easy to locate through triangulation, and only focuses on one particular service. If, however, spectrum is shared amongst many services, that terrorist could take out all of those services and it would be almost impossible to tell which transmitter was his, and which belonged to legitimate users.
Although the idea sounds utopian and attractive, one must keep security in mind. And with security in mind, I pronounce the idea DOA.
~wally
Re:But people don't want to cooperate (Score:1)
No, this is what happens when a provider sells a level of service they can't sustain on the (unstated) assumption that the user will not take full advantage of it.
Re:But people don't want to cooperate (Score:2)
My point is that high use customers are using what they paid for. If they are slowing you down, your beef is with the provider.
Re:But people don't want to cooperate (Score:2)
RF bandwidth is finite.
No, RF bandwidth is not finite. This is what the 'cell' in cellular is all about. Different cell tower re-use the same frequency and bandwidth. You can increase the total bandwidth available by increasing the number of cells and decreasing the power of each cell tower.
Surely there are practical limits (only so many tower you can pack in an area), but we are far from optimal utilization of the resource. That's the point of the article.