Inclusion of Socio-economic Indicators in the Cost Modeling of a WAN Network

The most important stages in designing a computer network in a wider geographical area include: definition of requirements, topological description, identification and calculation of relevant parameters (i.e. traffic matrix), determining the shortest paths between nodes, quantification of the effect of various levels of technical and technological development of urban areas involved, the cost of technology, and the cost of services. These parameters differ for WAN networks in different regions -- their calculation depends directly on the data "on the ground": number of inhabitants, distance between populated areas, density of network traffic, as well as available bandwidth. However, behavioral interactions of individuals and groups play a significant role and have to be taken into consideration by employing either simple or composite indicators of socioeconomic status. In this paper, we propose the inclusion of a composite socioeconomic indicator in the cost-modeling of a WAN network, as a linear sum of products of weights and several measures of labor status and/or education.