Applying Zipf’s Power Law Over Population Density and Growth as Network Deployment Indicator英文文献资料.docVIP

Journal of Service Science and Management, 2011, 4, 132-140 doi:10.4236/jssm.2011.42017 Published Online June 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jssm) Applying Zipf’s Power Law over Population Density and Growth as Network Deployment Indicator Vagia Kyriakidou , Christos Michalakelis, Dimitris Varoutas * Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Athens, Athens, Greece. Email: bkiriak@di.uoa.gr, michala@di.uoa.gr, arkas@di.uoa.gr Received February 25 , 2011; revised May 13 , 2011; accepted May 17 , 2011. th th th ABSTRACT Population distribution analysis contains useful information regarding decision making of networks’ deployment. However, both the public and the private sector should decide the development of networks based on qualitative and quantitative criteria, such as the application of power laws. In this work, one of the most widely used power laws ap- plied in demographics, the Zipf’s law, is tested over urban cities in Greece. Apart from the examination of Zipf’s law validation over population, this study provides further results according the distribution of population density as far as an analysis based on population differentiations in the last decades. According to the results, it is proved that the con- sidered sample plays a crucial role to the final conclusions, since the acceptance or the rejection of the law depends on it. Moreover, important information regarding the deployment of networks are revealed and discussed. Keywords: Population Distribution, Zipf’s Law, Population Density, Network Deployment, Population Growth 1. Introduction successor of this action plan is the “Digital Agenda” ini- tiative which will be completed in 2020 and aims to ex- pand ICT benefits [3]. The US government has also con- fronted the same problem and as Pigg and Clark pre- sented i