Transcript Ebay v. Bidder’s Edge

Open Spectrum
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Building the Commons in
Physical Infrastructure
Content Layer
Logical Layer
Physical Layer
Content Layer
Logical Layer
Physical Layer
Logical Layer
Operating System
Free
Middleware
Apps
Logical Layer
Free and
open
Proprietary software
and standards
Content Layer
Television, cable, news & commentary
art, escapist entertainment
Free:
Friends, family, co-workers
Content Layer
Free
Peer-production
Physical Layer
Licensed Bdcst. Sat.
Free
Owned
Wireless
DSL
Cable
Fiber
Physical Layer
Free
Owned
Wireless
Fiber
Content Layer
Logical Layer
Physical Layer
Content Layer
Logical Layer
Physical Layer
Open Spectrum
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• Technically possible
• Economically superior
• Better for democracy and autonomy
Ideal picture
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• Network built entirely of end-user devices
• Ad hoc architecture, no necessity for fixed
infrastructure (but can be used with fixed)
• Cheap end-user equipment
• Scalable
• Mobile or fixed
• Power conserving, not bandwidth
conserving
Decentralized network
over
open
spectrum
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Internet
Bob
John
School
Jane
Bank;
ATM
Library
Video
store
Internet
Ann
Technically Possible
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• Working models
• 802.11 networks
• Point-to-multipoint
• Nokia rooftops
• Multipoint to multipoint
Technically Possible
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• Working models
• Two theoretical shifts and one
practical revolution
• Shannon’s capacity theorem (late 40s)
• Network architecture developments
based on the Internet
• Moore’s Law and the dramatic decline in
the cost of powerful computation
Technically Possible
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• Working models
• Theoretical and practical shifts
• Wide band communications &
processing gain
• Declining price of computation
allows improved spreading
• Power, computation, and bandwidth
interlocked parameters
• “Power efficiency” replaces
“bandwidth efficiency”
Traditional Approach to Wireless Communications
S>N
Traditional Approach to Wireless Communications
Interference
Licensing for:
Distance/power
Frequency
Time
Spread Spectrum Approaches
Mary had a little lamb
Spread Spectrum Approaches
Mary had a little lamb xyz12378965401
20948345987weoirh0120398
Receiver separates S from N by code
The broader the bandwidth the greater the
processing gain
Technically Possible
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Working models
Theoretical and practical shifts
Processing Gain
Cooperation Gain
• Ad hoc, mesh architecture
• Intelligent nodes route each other’s
messages minimize power used
• Emitters self-identify to increase
information in the system
• Each new user adds network capacity as
well as demand
Decentralized network
over open spectrum
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Internet
Bob
John
School
Jane
Bank;
ATM
Library
Video
store
Internet
Ann
Decentralized network
over open spectrum
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Internet
Bob
John
School
Jane
Bank;
ATM
Library
Video
store
Internet
Ann
Technically Possible
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•
•
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•
Working models
Theoretical and practical shifts
Processing Gain
Cooperation Gain
The problem is transformed from
“spectrum management” into
“wireless systems design”
• Combining processing and cooperation
gains enables the capacity of a system to
scale to meet demand
Economics
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• Intellectual framing
• Licensing vs. auctioning no longer the
right question to ask
• Coase was right for his own technological
moment, but is made obsolete by Moore’
• Real choices
• controlled channels vs. decentralized
sharing through equipment-embedded
protocols
• Market in “infrastructure” vs. markets
in equipment & services without
allocated spectrum
Economics
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• Intellectual framing
• Property or monopoly?
• Why is the East India Company replaced
by free trade, not by “trade-width
managers” in secondary markets in
licenses to trade?
• Property must follow a naturally-bounded
resource in order to be potentially efficient
Economics
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• Intellectual framing
• Property or monopoly?
• East India Company to free trade
• “Bandwidth” one parameter out of
three/four, not a natural boundary
• High cost of computation fixed the bandwidth
usable by affordable end-user equipment,
creating “natural” boundary
• Moore’s law obsoletes this “natural” boundary
Economics
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• Intellectual framing
• Property or monopoly?
• East India Company to free trade
• “Bandwidth” one parameter of three
• Dynamic utilization of computation,
power, bandwidth, and network
architecture, adjusted every few
nanoseconds more efficient
• Highly variable demand
• Fixing chunks of one factor, subjecting them
to transaction costs and strategic behavior,
will lead to artificial limitation of the set of
usable combinations
Economics
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• Intellectual framing
• Property or monopoly?
• East India Company to free trade
• “Bandwidth” one dimension in a threeelements equation
• Dynamic utilization of computation,
power, bandwidth, and network
architecture more efficient
• Property rights in bandwidth inefficiently
make sticky, or fence-in, a sub-optimal
resource boundary
Economics
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• Intellectual framing
• Property or monopoly?
• Innovation
• Flexible ad hoc network of nodes defined
by its edges, not its core (like end-to-end)
• Internet-like model of innovation, no one
gets to approve a new functionality
• In the equipment market, not the largescale infrastructure market
Economics
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Intellectual framing
Property or monopoly?
Innovation
End-users value
• End-users define highest value use of
spectrum use-by-use, instead of
spectrum owner guessing demand in
advance of providing service
• Equipment providers increase present
value of equipment by building into it
flexibility for capturing future value
Economics
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Intellectual framing
Property or monopoly?
Innovation
End-users value
Security
• Did the military assume that the Taliban
will comply with FCC rules?
• September 11th: phones down, Internet
up, Metricom nodes revived, WiFi nodes
deployed
• Internet rationale applies to wireless too
Regulatory implications
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• Stop auctions
• European 3G auctions largely failure
• Saddled providers with huge
expenditures inhibiting rollout
• NTT DoCoMo--successful deployment,
but tightly controlled infrastructure
• Owners become political barriers to
reform
Regulatory implications
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• Stop auctions
• Permit operation of wide band devices
throughout wider bands
• UWB and software defined radios
• Revising existing bands—like U-NII—to
regulate for the benefit of intelligent
radios, not outmoded incumbents
• Permit commercial operation in amateur
bands above 50GHz
• Declare 700 MHz band part of the
commons
Regulatory implications
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• Stop auctions
• Permit operation of wide band devices
throughout wider bands
• Equipment certification
• Transitional policy, possibly unnecessary
(like Internet)
• Crucial to avoid reintroduction of FCC
close regulation by back door
• E.g.: recognize open standards set by
menu of IEEE/IETF/W3C-like processes
Democracy & Autonomy
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• Broadcast model v. Internet model
• Concentrated media & democracy
• Owners control information flow in
democracy; disproportionate power
• Owners respond to norm, producing
bland, inoffensive fare
Democracy
&
Autonomy
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• Broadcast model v. Internet model
• Concentrated media & democracy
• Parallel in autonomy
• opportunities to shape information
available to users
• if severely limits range & availability
of critical options
• consumers to users
Democracy & Autonomy
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• Broadcast model v. Internet model
• Open Spectrum v. Access Rules
• Imperfect requirements
• Imperfect enforcement
• Regulatory defection
Democracy
&
Autonomy
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• Broadcast model v. Internet model
• Open Spectrum vs. Access Rules
• Only medium available for a
commons in the physical layer
• Even if no efficiency gains, democratic
theory is reason to prefer open
spectrum except if unsustainable
• Does a constitutional commitment to
freedom of expression demand it?
Hard Politics
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• Incumbents paid huge sums to gain
access to protected market
• “Property” rhetoric aligns pro-market
forces with pro-regulation forces
against license-free based equipment
market developing
• 40 year intellectual tradition hard to
abandon