The role of regulation in preventing Wi-Fi over-congestion in densely populated areas
Main Article Content
Keywords
Wi-Fi, commons, congestion, regulation, urbanisation
Abstract
Given the ever increasing number of Wi-Fi devices in use by the public, the progressing urbanisation, and the current attempts by the industry to improve Wi-Fi system performance, we here analyse the case of apartment blocks with residents increasingly suffering from Wi-Fi over-congestion. Here, individuals use private Wi-Fi networks in an ''in house'' environment to achieve cordless connectivity to the Internet. We show that Wi-Fi in apartment blocks is a true commons and, therefore, over-congestion can only be avoided by having the individual access point (AP) operators collaborating with each other. We found that such collaboration is not inhibited by current regulation, but neither can it be enforced. However, as AP operators will most likely enter collaboration voluntarily, further regulation is not deemed necessary.
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Weiser, Philip J; Hatfield, Dale N. 2005. ‘Policing the spectrum commons’. Fordham Law Review 74, (2005): pp 663-694.
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Wi-Fi Alliance. 2017. ‘Wi-Fi Alliance® publishes 7 for ’17 Wi-Fi® predictions’. [Internet]. Wi-Fi Alliance Accessed 28 February 2017. Available from: http://www.wi-fi.org/news-events/newsroom/wi-fi-alliance-publishes-7-for-17-wi-fi-predictions .
Zhang, X; Shin, K G. 2011. ‘Enabling coexistence of heterogeneous wireless systems: Case for ZigBee and WiFi’. In Proceedings of the Twelfth ACM International Symposium on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing, ACM.
ACMA. 2016. ‘Radiocommunications (Low Interference Potential Devices) Class Licence 2015, Compilation No. 1’. Available from: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2016C00432 .
Anker, Peter. 2017. ‘From spectrum management to spectrum governance’. Telecommunications Policy, (2017). DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2017.01.010 .
Bouhafs, Fayçal. 2015. ‘Wi-5 interim architecture’. Deliverable 2.4 of the Horizon 2020 Wi-5 project. Available from http://www.wi5.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/D2_4-Wi-5-Initial-Architecture-final-1.pdf .
Buchanan, James. 1965. ‘An economic theory of clubs’. Economica, 32: pp. 1-14.
CCA. 2010. ‘Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)’. Available from http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/download.cgi/au/legis/cth/consol_act/caca2010265 .
Den Hartog, Frank; Kempker, Pia; Raschella, Alessandro; Seyedebrahimi, Mirghiasaldin. 2016. ‘Network Uberization’.. Available from https://www.slideshare.net/secret/JzIFRIPkLXS5Zz .
Den Hartog, Frank; Popescu, Alex; Djurica, Miodrag; Kempker, Pia; Raschella, Alessandro; Seyedebrahini, Mirghiasaldin; Arsal, Ali. 2016. ‘Wi-Fi Optimisation Solutions Roadmap’. Deliverable 2.2 of the Horizon 2020 Wi-5 project. Available from http://www.wi5.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/D2_2-Wi-Fi-Optimisation-Solutions-Roadmap.pdf .
De Vries, Jean Pierre; Simic, Ljiljana; Achtzehn, Andreas; Petrova, Marina; Mähönen, Petri. 2013. ‘The emperor has no problem: Is wi-fi spectrum really congested?’ In Proceedings of the 41st Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC 41). 27-29 September 2013; Arlington, Virginia.
EC. 2003. ‘Commission Recommendation of 20 March 2003 on the harmonisation of the provision of public R-LAN access to public electronic communications networks and services in the Community (Text with EEA relevance)’ (2003/203/EC). Official Journal of the European Union, L 078: pp. 12 – 13. Available from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32003H0203:EN:HTML .
EC. 2006. ‘Commission Decision of 9 November 2006 on harmonisation of the radio spectrum for use by short-range devices’ (2006/771/EC). Official Journal of the European Union, L 312: pp. 66-70. Available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:312:0066:0070:EN:PDF .
EC. 2008. ‘Consolidated Versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union’. (2008/C 115/01). Official Journal of the European Union, C115/1. Available from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.C_.2008.115.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ:C:2008:115:TOC#C_2008115EN.01004701 .
FCC. 2014. Order File No.: EB-IHD-13-00011303, Acct. No.: 201532080001, FRN: 0022507859, FRN: 0006183511, 3 October 2014. Available from https://www.fcc.gov/document/marriott-pay-600k-resolve-wifi-blocking-investigation .
Goggin, Gerard. 2014. ‘New ideas for digital affordability. Is a paradigm shift possible?’. Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, Volume 2, Number 3, Article 42.
GPO. 2016. ‘Title 47—Telecommunication’, Code of Federal Regulations, pp. 845-964, US Government Publishing Office. Available from https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2016-title47-vol1/pdf/CFR-2016-title47-vol1-chapI.pdf .
Hardin, G. 1968. ‘The tragedy of the commons’. Science, 162(3859): pp. 1243-1248.
IEEE 802.11. 2016. ‘IEEE 802.11-2016. IEEE Standard for Information technology--Telecommunications and information exchange between systems Local and metropolitan area networks--Specific requirements - Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications’, IEEE. Available from: http://www.techstreet.com/ieee/standards/ieee-802-11-2016?product_id=1867583 .
Lambert, Alex; McQuire, Scott; Papastergiardis, Nikos. 2014. ‘Public Wi-Fi’. Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, Volume 2, Number 3, Article 45.
Lloyd, W F. 1833. Two lectures on the checks to population, Oxford University, England.
Melbourne 2030. 2002. Melbourne 2030; planning for sustainable growth, State of Victoria.
Nguyen, T; Zhou, H; Berry, R A; Honig, M L; Vohra, R. 2016. ‘The Cost of Free Spectrum’, Operations Research, 64(6), 1217-1229.
Ozyagci, A; Sung, K W; Zander, J. 2013. ‘Effect of propagation environment on area throughput of dense WLAN deployments’. In Proceedings of the Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps). 9-13 December 2013; Atlanta, Georgia: 333-338.
Plummer, Daryl C; Reynolds, Martin; Golvin, Charles S; Young, Allie; Sullivan, Patrick J; Velosa, Alfonso; Lheureux, Benoit J; Frank, Andrew; Tay, Gavin; Bhat, Manjunath; Middleton, Peter; Unsworth, Joseph; Valdes, Ray; Furlonger, David; Goertz, Werner; Cribbs, Jeff; Beyer, Mark A; Linden, Alexander; Elkin, Noah; Heudecker, Nick; Austin, Tom; McIntyre, Angela; Chesini, Fabio; LeHong, Hung. 2016. ’Top strategic predictions for 2017 and beyond: Surviving the storm winds of digital disruption’. Gartner report G00315910. Gartner, Inc.
Potts, Jason. 2014. ‘Economics of Public WiFi’. Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, Volume 2, Number 1, March 2014, pp 1-9.
Reed, David P; Lansford, Jim. 2013. ‘Wi-Fi as a Commercial Service: New Technology and Policy Implications’ In Proceedings of the 41st Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC 41). 27-29 September 2013; Arlington, Virginia.
Sarijari, M A; Abdullah, M S; Lo, A; Rashid, R A. 2014. ‘Experimental studies of the ZigBee frequency agility mechanism in home area networks’. In Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE 39th Conference on Local Computer Networks Workshops (LCN Workshops), IEEE: pp. 711-717.
Speta, James B. 2008. ‘Spectrum Policy Experiments: What's Next?’. University of Chicago Legal Forum, (2008) Article 10. Available from: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol2008/iss1/10
Telecommunications Act 1997. 2016. ‘Telecommunications Act 1997 No. 47, 1997, Compilation No. 84’. Available from: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00845 .
United Nations. 2015. ‘World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision’. ST/ESA/SER.A/366. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division.
Van Heesch, M P P. 2016. ‘Combined Cooperation and Non-Cooperation for Channel Allocation and Transmission Power Control’. Available from: http://www.slideshare.net/MaranvanHeesch/thesis-van-heesch
Weiser, Philip J; Hatfield, Dale N. 2005. ‘Policing the spectrum commons’. Fordham Law Review 74, (2005): pp 663-694.
Wi-5. 2015. Web page of the European Horizon 2020 Wi-5 project. At https://www.wi-5.eu .
Wi-Fi Alliance. 2017. ‘Wi-Fi Alliance® publishes 7 for ’17 Wi-Fi® predictions’. [Internet]. Wi-Fi Alliance Accessed 28 February 2017. Available from: http://www.wi-fi.org/news-events/newsroom/wi-fi-alliance-publishes-7-for-17-wi-fi-predictions .
Zhang, X; Shin, K G. 2011. ‘Enabling coexistence of heterogeneous wireless systems: Case for ZigBee and WiFi’. In Proceedings of the Twelfth ACM International Symposium on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing, ACM.
Article Sidebar
Published
Jun 4, 2017
Article Details
How to Cite
den Hartog, F., & de Nijs, J. (2017). The role of regulation in preventing Wi-Fi over-congestion in densely populated areas. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 5(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.18080/jtde.v5n2.93
Issue
Section
Public Policy
Copyright Telecommunications Association Inc.
Author Biography
Frank den Hartog, DoVes Research
Frank den Hartog is a Senior Scientist at DoVes Research in Canberra, specializing in home networking and Internet of Things (IoT). Between 2003 and 2016 he was a Senior Innovator at the Dutch Organization for Applied Research TNO, and studied Future Internet architectures and heterogeneous consumer networking. Before joining TNO he worked for KPN, where he pioneered the home networking and IoT research area. He obtained a PhD in physics from Leiden University, and an MSc from Eindhoven University of Technology. He co-authored 60 peer-reviewed articles and 25 patent applications, and co-edited 7 telecommunications standards. From 2012-2016 he was Chair of the Technical Working Group of the worldwide Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) industry consortium. His innovations in the field of home networking have been recognized with various industry awards.
