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Del curso dictado por Princeton University

Networks Illustrated: Principles without Calculus

39 calificaciones

Princeton University

Networks Illustrated: Principles without Calculus

39 calificaciones

What makes WiFi faster at home than at a coffee shop? How does Google order its search results from the trillions of webpages on the Internet? Why does Verizon charge $15 for every GB of data we use? Is it really true that we are connected in six social steps or less? These are just a few of the many intriguing questions we can ask about the social and technical networks that form integral parts of our daily lives. This course is about exploring the answers, using a language that anyone can understand. We will focus on fundamental principles like “sharing is hard”, “crowds are wise”, and “network of networks” that have guided the design and sustainability of today’s networks, and summarize the theories behind everything from the social connections we make on platforms like Facebook to the technology upon which these websites run. Unlike other networking courses, the mathematics included here are no more complicated than adding and multiplying numbers. While mathematical details are necessary to fully specify the algorithms and systems we investigate, they are not required to understand the main ideas. We use illustrations, analogies, and anecdotes about networks as pedagogical tools in lieu of detailed equations. Please note that per Princeton University policy, no certificates, credentials or reports are awarded in connection with this course.

De la lección

Pricing Data

Data makes up a significant part of our cell phone bills. How do cellular providers set these price points? In this lesson, we will see how so-called usage-based pricing schemes can send better signals than flat- rate, “buffet” schemes, leading to better sharing of the network.

Our mobile data plans4:13

Demand for data8:04

Jobs' Inequality of Capacity6:27

Usage-based plans6:31

Comparing pricing schemes6:35

Demand curve & net utility5:25

The Tragedy of the Commons9:24

Flat rate creates waste & favors heavy users10:11

Conoce a los instructores

Christopher Brinton
Visiting Researcher and Lecturer
Department of Electrical Engineering
Mung Chiang
Professor
Electrical Engineering

All right, hello and welcome back. Today we're going to move on to a

different principle. It's called Network Is Expensive.

And so the main theme here is going to be that your cellular data providers like

AT&t and Verizon charge you a lot for the data that you use.

Or you may think that they charge you a lot.

Really it makes quite a bit of sense, the reasons why they do charge you as much as

they do. And so the, the question we're going to

try to answer here is. Why do Verizon and AT&T charge you

something like $10, first of all and second of all, for every gigabyte.

So why is it per gigabyte? Why does it keep going up?

The cost keep going up as you consume more gigabytes.

And so that probably makes intuitive sense to you that it should go up every

time you consume because if you're consuming more, you should have to pay

more. But that wasn't the way it was a few

years back and so we'll look at what prompted the change to payments like

this. And we'll look at those things throughout

this lecture. So before we look at our mobile data plan

specifically. Let's take a look at our utility bills

like our electric bill, water bill, or gas bill that you may have paid at one

time or another. And we know that those are all based on

the quantity that we consume, right. So if it's electricity, if you've every

looked at your bill you pay certain amount dollars per kilowatt hour.

And that's the unit for energy, we won't go into that specifically.

But for every unit of energy you're consuming, or every unit of electrical

energy here, you're going to pay a certain amount.

And same thing for the water company, you're going to pay a certain amount, a

certain number of dollars for every amount of water that you're using.

And so, these are all based on quantity, so you, you always try to consume as

little as you can, if, if you know, unless you need more then you can consume

more. But you only use what you need is the

bottom line. Because you don't want to have to pay

more for something that you don't really need to use.

And that's helps you save money and be able to do this efficiently, and so on.

And so, basing it on quantity makes sense in that regard because you, if you are

good and you don't want to. And you're not using as much electricity

and you know how to conserve it. Or you're not using as much water and you

know how to conserve it, then you're not going to have to pay as much.

So, and that's good for not only you, but also for the network because it's not

adding as much congestion. Or making the network have to transport

too much energy to your home. And recently data plans have also been

based on quantity. So, not only utility bills but now also

our data plans are based on the quantity, specifically in dollars per gigabyte or

something along those lines. And we'll look at again what a gigabyte

means here as well. And so here on your iPhone, for instance.

there are some apps that are available. Some free apps even.

This one specifically is called Data Wiz. And that's something that was developed

in our lab over the past few years, our lab at Princeton.

And this will give you a maximum recommendation for how much you could,

should consume each day. Based upon what your total allowance is

in a given month from your data provider. And so the, here you can see that you've

gone 6.1% of your 14.4 megabytes that they're offering you for the day.

Or that they recommend that you consume for the day and you can check your

consumption here as well. And people start to use a lot more as

data plans have become based on quantity. Because they used to be you would just

pay some certain amount at the beginning of the month and get your allocation and

then you just. So, it used to be that you would just pay

a certain amount each month and you could get your allocation.

And then, or it could be, even be unlimited.

Then you could just go and consume however much you want.

And you would basically be free after that.

And so. The question we're really going to be

answering here, and it goes hand in hand with the first question we looked at is.

Why are there no more unlimited data plans?

So some of you may still have unlimited data plans so you can pay something like

$40 a month and use as much data as you want.

And never be charged another dime. And, the question is why aren't providers

offering that anymore? AT&T and Verizon recently have decided

not to do that, as well as providers in other countries as well.

But they've decided not to offer any more unlimited data plans.

And so the question we're going to ask is why did they switch?

Why did they switch now and not offer unlimited any more?

And it actually has a very good and logical answer as to why that they're not

doing that. And we'll see that throughout this

lecture.

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