Service Productivity in IT: A Network Efficiency Measure with Application to Communication Systems

Abstract

This chapter introduces a network efficiency measure, which is a new kind of thinking for many evaluators in information technology and engineering. Efficiency measure involves going beyond knowledge (true efficiency or estimated efficiency) of program (nodes, algorithms, networks etc.) impact and attempting to compare with other programs. In most cases, this knowledge leads to a decision as whether to replace the program with another more effective program. Efficiency analysis is the approach to program evaluation that looks beyond program effectiveness. The key assumption in efficiency measure is that we live in a world of limited resources and we must make decisions about how to use and allocate the limited resources. In this chapter, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which are appropriate and adequate for the relative efficiency measure and resource control utilization is considered. The technique is applied to extend the existing engineering method in computer networks and to evaluate the efficiency of communication networks. Further, the input-oriented and slacks models are implemented to show how routing loads with overheads are reduced in order to put the IEEE802.11 and packet level network coding based (COPE) protocols in their efficiency frontier.