Two Sides of the Coin
Mobile communications systems have to integrate simplicity and complexity
The performance of modern telecommunications systems is improving at tremendous speed and resulting in ever-increasing complexity. As far as infrastructure is con-cerned this concept is well known as one of the traditional problems facing a network operator. Mastering the unavoidable is the name of the game. From the customers’ point of view the opposite is required: permanent improvements in the performance characteristics should be accompanied by simple end user devices. Here the complexity has to be hidden as far as possible.
Have you ever come across the “Law of Requisite Variety”? Many of us are familiar with similar rules of nature e.g. Moore’s law describing the increase in computational power over time or – definitely – Murphy’ s law, that most of us have probably used to explain disruptions in our daily processes. Fortunately, there is also such a general principle behind the concept of complexity. In cybernetics – the science of system theory – one of the famous researchers, William Ross Ashby, found that ”the variety in the control system must be equal to or larger than the perturbations in order to achieve control”. In simpler terms: a system with a high degree of flexibility and many options is much better suited to handling changes in comparison to a solution that has been optimized for an initial set of boundary conditions and which will fail miserably if these conditions no longer prevail. This important rule is also commonly referred to as “Ashby’s Law”.
For the highly dynamic and competitive world of telecommunications it becomes quite obvious that such principles will apply very well because the speed of technical innovation is accelerating and associated business processes are becoming increasingly difficult to control and stabilize. On the technical side we see multi-service capability, mobile ubiquitous broadband, global roaming, and network convergence with increasing levels of complexity in technical, organizational and business terms. So, if we want the associated system solutions to get more and more powerful, we have to accept that they will get more complex and that we need to find ways to manage this.
Users need highly complex technologies which are easy to use
But is this picture complete? Isn’t it better to look for more simple solutions too, particularly if we slip into the role of the user? It is clear that combining an increasing set of features and higher performance with a higher level of complexity in the operation of the relevant end user equipment has never worked in telecommunications. On the contrary, simplicity of operation, handling (although sometimes neglected), and compatibility with typical user behavior are key to success and can still be used as a major aspect of differentiation.
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