Debasis Mitra of Columbia University

Abstract - What are the Internet’s essential characteristics, what are the responsible mechanisms and how may these be preserved? To answer some of these questions, we formulate and explore mathematical models, and attempt to draw insights.

We begin with the point of view that Best Effort Service has been an essential contributing factor in the Internet’s explosive growth, and in the spawning of innovations and applications. While there are no QoS guarantees, BE Service has enjoyed reasonable QoS, a low flat subscription fee for broadband connection, and free usage. In the current discussion on Net Neutrality, a central question is whether the ISPs on being allowed to offer Managed Service, will withhold bandwidth for the BE Service with the goal of inducing subscribers to pay a premium price for Managed Service. This would undermine the Internet.

In our models we assume a monopoly ISP which offers both BE Service for free use and MS with guaranteed QoS for a fee per use, and a common portfolio of applications available to customers of both services. Consumers optimize their utility in deciding whether to subscribe to the broadband network, which service (BE or MS) to use, and the usage of the chosen service. The consumers’ decisions depend on the average delay in Best Effort service, which in turn depends on the ISP’s bandwidth allocation to the service. We also assume that BE usage is responsible for the birth of new applications, a point of view commonly asserted in the Net Neutrality debate. We have developed a set of models, which depend on whether the total bandwidth is fixed or extendable through ISP investments, and whether the profit-maximizing ISP is myopic or strategic in its decision-making.

Biography:

Debasis Mitra joined Columbia University as Professor of Electrical Engineering in 2013. Prior to joining Columbia he worked at Bell Labs for 44 years. His current research interests are in the scientific foundations of policies that impact engineers. Instances are network neutrality, network economics, and the future of industrial laboratories.

Debasis Mitra served as Vice President, Mathematical and Algorithmic Sciences Research Center, in Bell Labs during 1999-2007. He directed work in fundamental mathematics, algorithms, complex systems analysis and optimization, statistics, information & communication sciences and operations research. During 2008-2013 he served as Vice President, Chief Scientist’s Office, Bell Labs.

Debasis Mitra is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Bell Labs Fellow and a Life Fellow of the IEEE. He is a recipient of the 2012 ACM SIGMETRICS Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2012 Arne Jensen Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Teletraffic Congress, 1998 IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award, the 1993 Steven O. Rice Prize Paper Award and the 1982 Guillemin-Cauer Prize Paper Award of the IEEE, among other awards.

Debasis Mitra has been on the editorial boards of the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, the IEEE Transactions of Communications, the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Queueing Systems (QUESTA) and Operations Research. He is the author of over 100 journal publications and holds over 20 patents. He has served as member, National Academies Panel on Information Sciences (and its predecessors) at the Army Research Laboratory during 2009-2015. In 2011-2012 he chaired the panel and served on the Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board.

Address:Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, United States

Debasis Mitra of Columbia University

Biography:

Address:New York, United States