IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v48y2000i2p205-215.html

Operations Research at Bell Laboratories Through the 1970s: Part I

Author

Listed:
  • Cree S. Dawson

    (100 Bent Tree Drive, Lauren Park, North Carolina 28739)

  • Charles J. McCallum

    (First USA Bank, N.A., 201 North Walnut Street, Wilmington, Delaware 19317)

  • R. Bradford Murphy

    (Basking Ridge, New Jersey)

  • Eric Wolman

    (George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia)

Abstract

This historical account of operations research at Bell Laboratories was drafted in the late 1970s when the authors were part of the Operations Research Center within Bell Laboratories at AT&T; it has not previously appeared in the open literature. We have added a few references to later publications that describe particular aspects of the period covered. Discussions of technological practices and organizational arrangements expressed in the present tense represent a viewpoint of about 1980, before “divestiture” split up the Bell System. The principal topics in this issue of Operations Research are the organizational history, and teletraffic theory and engineering. Upcoming issues of Operations Research will include parts II and III of this account, comprising capacity expansion in telephone networks, operations analysis, applied statistics, and related OR activities. A comprehensive table of contents for parts I, II, and III can be found in the Online Collection of the Operations Research Home Page, at www.informs.org/pubs .

Suggested Citation

  • Cree S. Dawson & Charles J. McCallum & R. Bradford Murphy & Eric Wolman, 2000. "Operations Research at Bell Laboratories Through the 1970s: Part I," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 48(2), pages 205-215, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:48:y:2000:i:2:p:205-215
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.48.2.205.12383
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.48.2.205.12383
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.48.2.205.12383?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul J. Burke, 1956. "The Output of a Queuing System," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 4(6), pages 699-704, December.
    2. P. J. Burke, 1969. "Letter to the Editor—The Dependence of Sojourn Times in Tandem M/M/S Queues," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 754-755, August.
    3. W. W. Hardgrave & W. H. Mac Williams, 1969. "Management Science Applications in the Bell System," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(8), pages 387-396, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cree S. Dawson & Charles J. McCallum & R. Bradford Murphy & Eric Wolman, 2000. "Operations Research at Bell Laboratories through the 1970s: Part II," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 48(3), pages 351-361, June.
    2. ManMohan S. Sodhi & Christopher S. Tang, 2008. "The OR/MS Ecosystem: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(2), pages 267-277, April.
    3. Valentiny, Pál, 2024. "Mennyire innovatívak a Big Tech vállalatok? [How innovative are Big Tech companies?]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 22-56.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hum, Sin-Hoon & Parlar, Mahmut & Zhou, Yun, 2018. "Measurement and optimization of responsiveness in supply chain networks with queueing structures," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(1), pages 106-118.
    2. Glynn, Peter W. & Wang, Rob J., 2023. "A heavy-traffic perspective on departure process variability," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    3. B. Krishna Kumar & S. Pavai Madheswari & S. Anantha Lakshmi, 2011. "Queuing system with state-dependent controlled batch arrivals and server under maintenance," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 19(2), pages 351-379, December.
    4. Perez Becker, Nicole & Arts, Joachim & Reichardt, Sven & Lange, Anne, 2024. "Managing inventories of reusable containers for food take-away at a restaurant," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    5. repec:fgv:epgrbe:v:68:n:1:a:6 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Opher Baron & Oded Berman & Dmitry Krass & Jianfu Wang, 2014. "Using Strategic Idleness to Improve Customer Service Experience in Service Networks," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(1), pages 123-140, February.
    7. Chaithanya Bandi & Dimitris Bertsimas & Nataly Youssef, 2015. "Robust Queueing Theory," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(3), pages 676-700, June.
    8. Hideaki Takagi & Yuta Kanai & Kazuo Misue, 2017. "Queueing network model for obstetric patient flow in a hospital," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 433-451, September.
    9. Betea, D. & Ferrari, P.L. & Occelli, A., 2022. "The half-space Airy stat process," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 207-263.
    10. Refael Hassin & Ricky Roet-Green, 2021. "On Queue-Length Information when Customers Travel to a Queue," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 989-1004, July.
    11. Takis Konstantopoulos, 2016. "A review of Burke’s theorem for Brownian motion," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 83(1), pages 1-12, June.
    12. Maury Bramson & Bernardo D’Auria & Neil Walton, 2017. "Proportional Switching in First-in, First-out Networks," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 65(2), pages 496-513, April.
    13. Abouelrous, Abdo & Dekker, Rommert & Bliek, Laurens & Zhang, Yingqian, 2025. "Real-time policy for yard allocation of transshipment containers in a terminal," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    14. Wu, Kan & Zhao, Ning, 2015. "Dependence among single stations in series and its applications in productivity improvement," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 247(1), pages 245-258.
    15. Sarat Babu Moka & Yoni Nazarathy & Werner Scheinhardt, 2023. "Diffusion parameters of flows in stable multi-class queueing networks," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 313-346, April.
    16. Gautier, Pieter A., 2002. "Non-sequential search, screening externalities and the public good role of recruitment offices," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 179-196, March.
    17. Moura, Fabio Rodrigues de & Paes, Nelson Leitão & Farias, Tácito Augusto, 2014. "O Impacto do Tempo de Pendência das Patentes na Trajetória de Crescimento: Uma Análise com Base no Modelo Schumpeteriano de Crescimento Endógeno com Avanço de Qualidade," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 68(1), April.
    18. Kevin D. Glazebrook & José Niño-Mora, 2001. "Parallel Scheduling of Multiclass M/M/m Queues: Approximate and Heavy-Traffic Optimization of Achievable Performance," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 49(4), pages 609-623, August.
    19. Xenophon Papaconstantinou & Dimitris Bertsimas, 1990. "Relations between the prearrival and postdeparture state probabilities and the fcfs waiting time distribution in the Ek/G/s queue," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 135-149, February.
    20. Simonetta Balsamo & Gian-Luca Dei Rossi & Andrea Marin, 2016. "Lumping and reversed processes in cooperating automata," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 239(2), pages 695-722, April.
    21. Zhang, Changzhen & Yang, Jun & Wang, Ning, 2023. "Timely reliability modeling and evaluation of wireless sensor networks with adaptive N-policy sleep scheduling," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:48:y:2000:i:2:p:205-215. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.