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AJ Wilkinson
CIS-3370 (e-commerce)
12-18-2003
I have struggled with the subject of this paper the entire semester, trying to get a
handle on it. Mostly without success. So I have decided to dispense with the
traditional methods of organizing a paper for this subject (Comparing the classic,
broadcasting, definition of bandwidth to the web definition, then discussing the web
definition, yada, yada). For purposes here, the web definiton of bandwidth is the
only one that counts, anyway, e.g. the speed of the internet connection, or more
technically, the amount of data that can be transmitted in a given amount of time
over a given connection medium. For more information, see my glossary of terms.
It is meaningful to discuss the implications this definition has respecting the design
of commercial web sites, depending on who/what your target audience is. From an
e-commerce perspective, it forces you to actually determine what the receiving-end
bandwidth is for the majority of your intended customers, before you can design a
website accordingly. It would be a mistake to design a website that takes only a few
seconds to download on a 384Kb connection, but takes a minute or more per page
over a phone line when 80-90% of your customers connect through a 56Kb (or slower)
modem.
With that in mind, I want to focus on a subject that would not normally be thought of
as being related to bandwidth, or obliquely at best: The “Digital Divide”
(particularly in certain predominantly low bandwidth areas of the country, and the
world).
What is the digital divide? It is purported to be a virtual dividing line between the
digital “haves” and “have-nots” of the world–-those with computer or internet
access, or training, vs those without. Until recently (since ~1995 when the term was
first coined) it was thought of as existing between the white majority and various
ethnic minorities, or to a lesser extent between males and females. Recent studies
have shown that ethnography, for the most part (see below), can no longer account
for the digital divide that still exists, but that other factors do enter in:
Despite increases in connectivity, a "digital divide" in access to and use of the Internet and
other information technology (IT) persists, particularly among individuals at different income
and education levels, and in remote geographic areas. A recent study by the Federal
Communications Commission corroborates this disparity. While rural citizens may have achieved
near parity with their urban counterparts in conventional dial-up Internet connectivity, rural
areas tend to lag behind urban areas in broadband penetration. [A]lthough some studies have
shown that many rural residents have Internet access at work or via public libraries or
community centers, home access is still somewhat limited. The general isolation of rural
communities also raises issues related to Internet content and the relevance of information
available via the net that addresses specific local needs. [And] Native Americans’ lack of
access to the nation’s information infrastructure is particularly worrisome...1
...a "digital divide" in access to and use of the Internet and other information technology (IT)
persists...Individuals who have lower skill levels, less income, limited English proficiency, and
disabilities often confront more barriers to using the Internet [including] affording home access,
finding content that is relevant, or acquiring IT skills and training. The digital divide also exists
among different geographic locations and organization types. Rural areas tend to lag behind
urban areas in broadband penetration. 2
Lynette M. Kvasny, an assistant professor of information sciences and technology at
Pennsylvania State University at University Park, still sees a stark difference in skills between
students who come from rural areas and those who come from metropolitan areas, where they
are much likelier to have access to computers and broadband Internet connections. 3
In light of citation number 3, the following is also relevant:
Internet use has no negative effect on users' social involvement or psychological well-being, and
it increases children's grade point averages and standardized test scores, according to a
Michigan State University research project (titled HomeNetToo) designed to study how
low-income families use the Internet at home. 4
In Reconceptualizing the Digital Divide 5, Mark Warschauer notes that it is an
oversimplification to say that the digital divide results from merely a lack of
technology, however, or access to it:
[T]he actual purchase price of a computer is only the small part of what can be considered the
total cost of ownership [e.g.] the cost of a regular monthly fee is a disincentive to
access....More importantly, other barriers beyond affordability...will continue to play a major
role in fostering digital inequality. These barriers include differential access to broadband
telecommunications; differences in knowledge and skills in using computers, or in attitudes
toward using them; inadequate online content available for the needs of low-income citizens,
especially in diverse languages; and governmental controls or limitations on unrestricted use of
the Internet in many parts of the world [or lack of an established infrastructure]...
And one more quote:
African nations face a dual digital divide: First, the majority of the population lacks basic
infrastructure for Internet access. Second, low Internet subscription rates characterize those
who have the potential for access. Factors hypothesized to influence Internet subscription
among those with the potential for access include: Economic development, international
Internet bandwidth, domestic Internet hosts, ISP market structure, the cost of a local
telephone call, and whether English is an official language. 6
The tendency in software development, be it web programming, C/C++/C#, or
anything else, has been, and probably will continue to be, to take advantage of
Moore’s Law, leading to the writing of ever more massive code (because the up and
coming technology can handle it, and it’s easier to write “bloatware”). This is
obviously true with programs originally based on C/C++ (Windows comes to mind...),
but is also true with respect to web pages. The increased use of Flash, Shockwave,
streaming video, non-optimized graphics, musical web pages without user “opt-out”
capability, bloated html using wave upon wave of nested tables instead of CSS 7, etc,
takes advantage of the assumption that “everybody” will soon have hi-speed internet
connection capability. Unfortunately this is contributing to the real digital divide
alluded to above among the digitally less-advantaged, either because of geography,
or low income, or both.
From an e-commerce perspective, a very real niche is being carved out, and mostly
being ignored by the web community, to tailor web pages/sites specifically for these
groups. Granted, the potential profit wouldn’t be as great as in other areas, other
than altruistically. Until such time as these areas/groups can be brought into the
broadband camp, web designers with the talent for creating graphically pleasing, yet
fast-loading web pages, and relating to the specific needs (quick web-tutors, web
content of interest to rural or Native American residents, pages written in uncommon
languages, etc.) should be able to creatively market their skills to interested
organizations. And even for the broadband segment of the internet, the faster a
page loads, the more enjoyable the internet experience is. With one minor
exception, the teaching emphasis here at DSC has focused on web creation skills that
emphasize fast page loading, such as optimizing graphics for the web. The minor
exception is the teaching of tables as THE tool for positioning text and graphics on
the page, virtually ignoring Cascading Style Sheet capability to accomplish the same
thing, with up to 35% savings in code that must be downloaded, and the obvious
savings in net loading time, economic advantages to the web site owner, code
portability, etc. See citation 7, chapters 1,3-5 being freely downloadable.
There is one other topic, Peak Performance Pricing for consumer internet access,
that I ran across during the research for this paper, on a peripherally related subject,
that I would like to touch on, which was not brought up in class.
The average PC user...pays for peak performance [of internet] resources, [as opposed to] a
pay-as-you-go basis. [The] side effect...is that resources that don't get used have nevertheless
been paid for. The genius of Napster was...cleverly using those resources in a way that allowed
it to sidestep per-unit pricing...
As more users connect to the Internet every day and as both their personal computers and their
bandwidth gets faster, the amount of pre-paid but unused resources at the edges of the
network [will grow] to staggering proportions. 8
There ought to be some ways to harness some of this unused bandwidth to the
common good of the digitally disadvantaged, at least in non-rural areas, where
transmission line installation doesn’t figure into the bandwidth equation.
Glossary of Terms
Bit rate is a measure of the number of data bits (that's 0's and 1's) transmitted in one
second. A figure of 2400 bits per second means 2400 zeros or ones can be transmitted
in one second, hence the abbreviation 'bps'. One baud is one electronic state change
per second. Since a single state change can involve more than a single bit of data, the
bps unit of measurement has replaced it as a better expression of data transmission
speed. Kbps, Mbps, and Gbps refer to Kilo-(1000), Mega-(1 million), and Giga (1
billion), bits per second, respectively. This data transmission rate can also be
defined as the Internet Bandwidth, the subject of this paper.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
ISDN utilizes ordinary telephone copper wire (normally) to deliver Web pages up to
128 Kbps. ISDN requires adapters at both ends of the transmission; it is generally
available in most urban areas in the United States and Europe. There are two levels
of service: the Basic Rate Interface (BRI) consisting of two 64 Kbps B-channels and
one 16 Kbps D- channel; and the Primary Rate Interface (PRI) consists of 23 B-channels and one 64 Kpbs D-channel in the United States or 30 B-channels and 1 D-channel in Europe. B-channels carry data, voice, and other services. D-channels carry
control and signaling information. A Basic Rate user can thus have up to 128 Kbps
service.
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
DSL utilizes existing copper telephone lines to deliver very high speed internet
connections by multiplexing your telephone line into 3 separate bandwidths or
frequencies by the xDSL modem. Currently your voice is carried over the lower
frequencies (30hz to 4khz) leaving the higher frequencies unused. DSL technology
utilizes the 300khz to 700khz frequency band (hence the traditional radio frequency
wave definition of bandwidth) for upstream transmission and all the frequencies
above 1000khz for very high speed downstream service. Since DSL uses a frequency
bandwidth that telephones don’t use, voice communication and web-surfing is
possible at the same time, over the same copper wire.
HDSL (High bit rate Digital Subscriber Line)
HDSL was developed as a faster cousin to ISDN (64-128kbps) technology. This enabled
telephone companies to offer T1 speeds (1.544Mps) over regular copper phone wire
without the use of repeaters. HDSL is the oldest and most heavily deployed version
of DSL. (If you currently have a “T1" circuit on two pairs of copper wires, you are
probably actually using DSL) HDSL2 is a new standard and doubles the rate in both
directions.
ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line)
ADSL was originally designed by telephone companies to provide video-on-demand to
compete with the cable industry. The asymetry results from faster returns (or
downloads) than sends (or uploads). Typical net use is to send a small request and
then receive a large download. Upstream speeds are usually 128kbps to 1.088Mbps
while downstream speeds race up to T1 speed
Glossary of Terms (continued)
RADSL (Rate Adaptive Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line)
Rate adaptive technology allows a service provider to adjust the bandwidth for a
particular application or compensate for line length or quality. This adjustment can
be pre-configured, or self-adjusting. A larger percentage of users near a Central
Office can be served by RADSL's ability to lower data rates to extend the reach of the
service. Like ADSL, it also operates on standard phone lines. ISPs can change the level
of service from a remote terminal.
SDSL (Symmetrical Digital Subscriber Line)
As the name implies, SDSL allows high bandwidth in both directions. Typical current
speeds are 144kbps to 1.2Mbps in both directions. This is well suited toward large file
transfers toward and away from users or for Web Site Hosting services. VPNs are well
suited for this type of DSL.
VDSL (Very high bit Digital Subscriber Line)
VDSL is a shorter distance, higher speed derivative of the DSL family. It was intended
for "the last mile", the costliest link from any service to any final destination. As this
last segment is usually dedicated to a single customer, VDSL can be combined with
fiber to offer cost effective, short distance runs at speeds of up to 52Mbps.
BROADBAND
In general, broadband refers to telecommunication in which a wide band of
frequencies is available to transmit information. Because a wide band of frequencies
is available, information can be multiplexed and sent on many different frequencies
or channels within the band concurrently, allowing more information to be
transmitted in a given amount of time (much as more lanes on a highway allow more
cars to travel on it at the same time). Related terms are wideband (a synonym),
baseband (a one-channel band), and narrowband (meaning just wide enough to carry
voice, or simply "not broadband," and sometimes meaning specifically below 64 Kb).
Various definers of broadband have assigned a minimum data rate to the term. Here
are a few:
Jupiter Communications: at least 256 Kb.
IBM Dictionary of Computing: A broadband channel is "6 MHz wide."
It is generally agreed that Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and cable TV are broadband
services in the downstream direction.
CABLE internet access
Cable modems are the cable TV companies' answer to high speed data access. Some
problems exist:
1. A local loop of hybrid (e.g.bidirectional) fiber cable must exist near all residences
or businesses to use this service. Unfortunately, many areas receive CATV through
older, non-bidirectional cabling, and thus need upgrading. Installation of noise
suppression filters and bi-directional cable couplings are also necessary, in addition to
the mandatory cable modem.
2. Speed is variable, depending on the number of users currently accessing the
internet: Users share a single fiber connection, essentially connected together on one
potentially very large Local Area Network (or LAN) to access the web, as well as
watch TV. Bandwidth diminishes proportionately. Maximum download transmission
rate is 1.2Mbps. Upload speed is generally limited by the cable company to 128Kbps.
3. Being on a Local Area Network does not provide for a secure connection for
e-commerce without additional firewall software, especially with older cable
modems. Other users can potentially "snif" credit card numbers, or other sensitive
data sent over the cable, or even residing on local machines.
BIBLEOGRAPHY
1 “Bridging the Rural Digital Divide”, Welfare Information Network, Resources for
Welfare Decisions, Vol. 6, No. 15, October 2002
2 http://www.financeprojectinfo.org/DigitalDivide/overview.asp
3 ONLINE , Chronicle of Higher Education, 00095982, 5/2/2003, Vol. 49, Issue 34
4 Michigan State University, http://newsroom.msu.edu, 7/28/03
5 “Reconceptualizing the Digital Divide”, Mark Warschauer in First Monday, Vol. 7, No.
7; 2002. Available at http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue7%5f7/warschauer/
6 “Internet subscription in Africa: policy for a dual digital divide”, Roycroft, Trevor R.1
roycroft@ohio.edu, Anantho, Siriwan2, Telecommunications Policy; Feb/Mar2003,
Vol. 27 Issue 1/2, p61, 14p
7 HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS, Dan Shafer, May 2003, Sitepoint
Books (http://www.sitepoint.com/books/css1/), ISBN: 0-9579218-2-9
8 “PEAK PERFORMANCE PRICING” , Shirky, Clay, Business 2.0, 15289265, 02/20/2001,
Vol. 6, Issue 4
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