Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Abstract
Many observers attribute the Internet’s success to two principles: Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law. These precepts are often cited to support claims that larger networks are inevitably more valuable and that costs in a digital environment always decrease. This Article offers both a systematic description of both laws and then challenges the conventional wisdom by exploring their conceptual limitations. It also explores how alternative mechanisms, such as gateways and competition, can permit the realization benefits typically attributed to Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law without requiring increases in network size.
Keywords
Telecommunications law and policy, digital technologies, network economic effects, efficiencies, Moore’s Law, Metcalfe’s Law, economies of scale, diminishing returns, Zipf’s Law, standards, protocols, heterogeneity of consumer preference
Publication Title
Colorado Technology Law Journal
Repository Citation
Yoo, Christopher S., "Moore’s Law, Metcalfe’s Law, and the Theory of Optimal Interoperability" (2015). All Faculty Scholarship. 1651.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/1651
Included in
Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons, Communications Law Commons, Computer Law Commons, Digital Communications and Networking Commons, Internet Law Commons, Law and Economics Commons, OS and Networks Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Political Economy Commons, Science and Technology Law Commons
Publication Citation
14 Colo. Tech. L.J. 87 (2015).