Amiri, Ali

Weiser, Mark

English

AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

Association for Information SystemsAIS Electronic Library (AISeL)AMCIS 2000 Proceedings Americas Conference on Information Systems(AMCIS)2000Telecommunication Networks: Challenges andChangesAli AmiriOklahoma State University, amiri@okstate.eduMark WeiserOklahoma State University, weiser@okstate.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2000This material is brought to you by the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been acceptedfor inclusion in AMCIS 2000 Proceedings by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contactelibrary@aisnet.org.Recommended CitationAmiri, Ali and Weiser, Mark, "Telecommunication Networks: Challenges and Changes" (2000). AMCIS 2000 Proceedings. 334.http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2000/334Telecommunication Networks: Challenges and ChangesAli Amiri, Department of Management, Oklahoma State University, amiri@okstate.eduMark Weiser, Department of Management, Oklahoma State University, weiser@okstate.eduPerhaps the most profound impact on business andpersonal productivity, since the introduction of thepersonal computer, has been the increasing voice, video,and data connectivity. This interaction may bring about afundamental change in the way we live in the 21stcentury. In addition to technological improvements thatsupport communication of a variety of media, a greatconvergence of technologies like televisions, telephones,computers, and networks continues. Although the growthof telecommunications over the past decade has beenphenomenal, we expect that the explosion oftelecommunications applications is still to come.Although there are continuous advancements intelecommunications the target infrastructure for many ofthese advanced applications is the Internet -- a systembased on a 1981 IETF specification -- very much ananomaly in the rapidly changing technology world (Amiriand Pirkul, 1996).Telecommunication networks play a crucial rolein modern societies.  An ever-increasing number of usersare completely relying on them in their activities today.Technological advances have led to the introduction ofnew services based on telecommunication networks suchas teleconferencing, electronic commerce, video ondemand, etc.  Telecommunication systems involve multi-billion dollar investments and yearly expenses of billionsof dollars.  It is easy to see that telecommunications haschanged and will continue to change almost every aspectof our personal and professional lives.Telecommunications plays and will continue to playmajor roles in the success of regions and entire nationswith respect to most sectors of the economy.The area of telecommunication networks hasreceived a lot of attention from practitioners andresearchers alike.  Many companies have establishedinternal research centers to help plan and manage theirnetworks.  The number of publications that concentrateexclusively or partially on the area of telecommunicationshas increased dramatically in the past few years.  Thisarea gets the attention of researchers and investigatorsassociated with several fields such as electricalengineering, computer science, operations research,organization behavior and marketing.  In fact, new degreeprograms devoted solely to telecommunications havebeen created in several universities to deal with theextreme shortages of telecommunication professionalswithin the telecommunication industries (Sharda, 1998).Gavish (1995) has identified several major issuesfacing telecommunications industries and their customersthat represent both challenges and research opportunitiesfor both practitioners and researchers.  The first set ofissues is related to changes in the wire-basedtelecommunication systems.  The wire-based systemshave started to rely more heavily on fiber cables that aremore reliable and offer higher bandwidth than coppercables.  Coaxial cables that were mainly used fortelevision reception are now being used to provideadditional services such as telephone and internet access.Some of the transition and expansion issues related to thisare studied to some extent in (Balakrishnan 1991 & 1995;Chang, 1993 & 1995 Dutta 1992 & 1996), but a lot morehas to be done to address the integration and expansionproblems of existing and future networks.The success of a telecommunication network dependsheavily on the assignment of capacities to the links andswitches and on the strategy of routing traffic fromsources to destinations.   Indeed, the response time tousers of a telecommunication network is considerablyaffected by the capacities available on the links over timeand by the way the increasing user traffic requirementsare routed on these links.  In addition, the cost of the linkinstallation and maintenance constitutes an importantportion of the total investment of the design of atelecommunication network.  As such, the planning ofnetwork design and capacity allocation and routing is ofvital importance in many organizations within the privateand public sectors.  A lot of research has been done in thisarea (Amiri, 1997; Amiri, 1999; Gavish, 1990; LeBlanc,1989; Ng, 1987).The use of high bandwidth transmission media suchas fiber optics makes millions of users vulnerable in caseof link/node failure.  Few research studies have addressedthe reliability issue of designing “traditional” networkswith relatively low bandwidth (Amiri, 1996; Gavish,1992; Monma, 1989; Pirkul, 1994).  However, newmethodologies are needed for the reliable design of highbandwidth, low failure rate systems.The development of new technologies (e.g., ATM)that allow different types of traffic such as data, voice andvideo to be transmitted over the same network has creatednew challenges and research opportunities related toqueueing models of the new switches, dynamicreconfiguration of the networks, the handling of highlybursty traffic sources, etc.The growth of wireless and mobile communicationshas also created research opportunities regarding makingproper decisions related to several issues including thenumber of base stations and their locations, the types andcapacities of transmission equipment placed on the basestations.  More studies are needed to deal with the impactof new technologies such as personal communicationsystems, micro and picocells. From a marketing point ofview, studies are needed to help decision makers selectthe types of services to offer and their prices.514Another area in telecommunications that needs moreattention is research on satellite-based communicationsystems, especially low and medium earth orbit satellite(LEOS/MEOS).  Issues related to this area includeconstellation and satellite configuration, channelallocation, power management, and satellite launchingand replacement (Gavish, 1992).The emphasis on the Internet for commerce andcommunications has directed large amounts of resourcesto research and development in that area. Certain featuresof Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) are inadequate tobest support many current and future applications on thatnetwork, however, there is strong resistance to a transitionto IPv6. These issues are detailed by Weiser (2000).Telecommunications, including the carriage of voice,video, and data is one of the most critical and rapidlychanging areas in Information Technology. Research inthis area must continue to look forward to leverage thepossibilities of today’s networks and shape the future ofcommunication for the next generation of applications.ReferencesAmiri, A. and H. Pirkul. “Primary and Secondary RouteSelection in Backbone Communication Networks,”European Journal of Operational Research 93 (1996) 98-109.Amiri, A. and H. Pirkul. “Routing and CapacityAssignment in Backbone Communication Networks,”Computers & Operations Research 24 (1997) 275-287.Amiri, A. and H. Pirkul. “Routing and CapacityAssignment in Backbone Communication NetworksUnder Time Varying Traffic Conditions,” EuropeanJournal of Operational Research 117 (1999) 15-29.Balakrishnan, A., T. L. Magnanti, A. Shulman and R. T.Wong. “Models for Planning Capacity Expansion inLocal Access Telecommunication Networks,” Annals ofOperations Research 33 (1991) 239-284.Balakrishnan, A., T. Magnanti and R. Wong. “ADecomposition Algorithm for Local AccessTelecommunication Network Expansion Planning,”Operations Research 43(1995) 58-76.Chang, S. and B. Gavish. “Telecommunications NetworkTopological Design and Capacity Expansion:Formulations and Algorithms,” TelecommunicationSystems 1 (1993) 99-131.Chang, S. and B. Gavish. “Lower Bounding Proceduresfor Multiperiod Telecommunications Network ExpansionProblems,” Operations Research 43 (1995) 43-57.Dutta, A. and Y. K. Kim. “A Multiperiod CapacityPlanning Model for Backbone Computer CommunicationNetworks,” Operations Research 40 1(992) 689-705.Dutta, A. and Y. K. Kim. “A heuristic Approach forCapacity Expansion of Packet Networks,” EuropeanJournal of Operational Research 91 (1996) 395-410.Gavish, B. and K. Altinkemer. “Backbone network designtools with economic tradeoffs,” ORSA J.  on Computing2, 226-252 (1990).Gavish, B. and I. Newman. “Routing in a network withunreliable components,” IEEE Transactions onCommunications 40 (1992) 1249-1257.Gavish, B. “Telecommunications: A Revolution inProgress,” Operations Research, 43 (1) (1995) 29-32.Gavish, B. “Low Earth Orbit Satellite BasedCommunication Systems - Research Opportunities,”European Journal of Operational Research, 99 (1997)166-179.LeBlanc, L. and R. V. Simmons. “Continuous models forcapacity design of large packet-switchedtelecommunication networks,” ORSA Journal onComputing 1 (1989) 271-286.Monma, C. and D. Schallcross. “Methods for DesigningCommunication Networks With Certain Two-ConnectedSurvivability Constraints”, Operations Research 37,(1989) 531-541.Ng, T. and D. Hoang. “Joint Optimization of Capacityand Flow Assignment in a Packet- SwitchedCommunications Network,” IEEE Transactions onCommunications 35 (1987) 202-209.Pirkul, H. and S. Narasimhan. “Primary and SecondaryRoute Selection in Backbone Data CommunicationNetworks,” ORSA Journal on Computing 6 (1994) 50-60.Weiser, M.. “What Happened to the Next GenerationInternet,” Communications of the ACM, forthcoming,2000.515

Telecommunication Networks: Challenges and Changes

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Telecommunication Networks: Challenges and Changes

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