Professor,
Engineering
and Public Policy, Industrial
Administration, and Electrical
and Computer Engineering;
Chairman, Executive Committee, Information
Networking Institute
Telecommunications
technology, policy, and management; regulation and
industrial structure of computer and communications
technologies; communications networks and standards;
economics of information and networks; electronic
commerce.
B.S. (Electrical
Engineering and Mathematics) 1966 and 1967, M.S. (Electrical
Engineering) 1968, and
Sc.D. (Electrical Engineering with a minor in Economics)
1973, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Carnegie
Mellon, 1985 -.
Professor
Sirbu coordinates a research program in telecommunications
information technology, policy and management. The
research is concerned with how public policies influence
the deployment of new information technologies, and
conversely, what public policies are required to accommodate
new technological developments. For example, local
exchange competition is being facilitated by new technologies
for delivering integrated voice, data and video over
fiber optic, coaxial cable, twisted pair, or wireless
networks. Engineering economic models of alternative
local telecommunication network architectures are
used to examine issues of comparative economics, economies
of scale and scope, and impact of regulatory policies
governing competitive entry, unbundling, and interconnection.
Historically,
circuit-switched telephony has dominated the design
and regulation of telecommunications networks. Over
the next decade, voice will become a minor factor
as data traffic comes to dominate networking requirements.
The rise of integrated gigabit networks requires new
approaches to the regulation and pricing of telecommunications
services. Old regulatory models which treat telephony,
packet switching and cable services differently for
regulatory purposes must be revised when all information
types are reduced to data bits. We are exploring the
regulatory implications of Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) technologies and the implications of integrated
networks for regulatory policy. Pricing of integrated
networks is explored through formal and empirical
models of network supply and demand that can lead
to efficient and practical pricing structures for
both unicast and multicast traffic.
Markets
for information goods are being transformed by electronic
copying and dissemination. We are exploring the structure
of these markets through economic analyses of the
economies of scale and scope in information delivery
over networks, and of payment mechanisms for electronic
transactions. The NetBill system (www.netbill.com)
provides an example of a microcommerce system that
provides assured delivery of information goods in
return for payment. Related to this activity is the
study of distributed trust infrastructures based on
digital cryptography.
Representative
Publications
K. Wanichkorn,
D. Fryxell and M. Sirbu, "An IP-Based Local Access
Network: Economic and Public Policy Analysis, pp.
255-282 in Gillette and Vogelsang (ed.), Competition,
Regulation and Convergence, Lawrence Erlbaum,
Mahwah, NJ 1999.
Q. Wang,
J. Peha and M. Sirbu, "Optimal Pricing for Integrated
Services Networks," in L. McKnight and J. Bailey (eds.),
Internet Economics, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
1997.
M. Sirbu,
"Credits and Debits on the Internet," IEEE Spectrum,
vol. 34, no. 2, February 1997, pp. 23-39. |
