Abstract
Operators of multi‐service networks require simple charging schemes with which they can fairly recover costs from their users and effectively allocate network resources. This paper studies an approach for computing such charges from simple measurements (time and volume), and relating these to bounds of the effective bandwidth. To achieve economic efficiency, it is necessary that usage‐based charging schemes capture the relative amount of resources used by connections. Based on this criteria, we evaluate our approach for real traffic consisting of Internet Wide Area Network traces and MPEG‐1 compressed video. Its incentive compatibility is shown with an example involving deterministic multiplexing, and the effect of pricing on a network's equilibrium is investigated for deterministic and statistical multiplexing. Finally, we investigate the incentives for traffic shaping provided by the approach.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
D. Clark, Internet cost allocation and pricing, in: Internet Economics, eds. L.W. McKnight and J.P. Bailey (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1997).
R. Cocchi, S. Shenker, D. Estrin and L. Zhang, Pricing in computer networks: Motivation, formulation and examples, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking 1(6) (November 1993) 614–627.
C. Courcoubetis, F.P. Kelly and R. Weber, Measurement-based usage charges in communications networks, Technical report 1997-19, Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 1997, to appear in Operations Research.
C. Courcoubetis and V.A. Siris, Managing and pricing service level agreements for differentiated services, in: Proc. of 6th IEEE/IFIP Internat. Conf. of Quality of Service (IWQoS'99), London, UK, May–June 1999.
C. Courcoubetis, V.A. Siris and G.D. Stamoulis, Application of the many sources asymptotic and effective bandwidths to traffic engineering, Telecommunication Systems 12 (December 1999) 167–191; a shorter version appeared in: Proc. of ACM SIGMETRICS'98/PERFORMANCE'98.
C. Courcoubetis and R. Weber, Buffer overflow asymptotics for a switch handling many traffic sources, Journal of Applied Probability 33 (1996) 886–903.
A. Gupta, D.O. Stahl and A.B. Whinston, Managing the Internet as an economical system, Technical report, University of Texas, Austin, July 1994.
F.P. Kelly, On tariffs, policing and admission control for multiservice networks, Operations Research Letters 15 (1994) 1–9.
F.P. Kelly, Notes on effective bandwidths, in: Stochastic Networks: Theory and Applications, eds. F.P. Kelly, S. Zachary and I. Zeidins (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1996) pp. 141–168.
W.E. Leland and D.V. Wilson, High time-resolution measurement and analysis of LAN traffic: Implications for LAN interconnection, in: Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM'91, Bal Harbour, FL, USA, April 1991, pp. 1360–1366.
S.H. Low and P.P. Varaiya, A new approach to service provisioning in ATM networks, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking 1(3) (October 1993) 547–553.
J.K. Mackie-Mason and H.R. Varian, Pricing congestible network resources, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications 13(7) (September 1995) 1141–1149.
J.K. Mackie-Mason and H.R. Varian, Pricing the Internet, in: Public Access to the Internet, eds. B. Kahin and J. Keller (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1995).
C. Parris, S. Keshav and D. Ferrari, A framework for the study of pricing in integrated networks, Technical report TR-92-016, International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, CA, March 1992.
O. Rose, Statistical properties of MPEG video traffic and their impact on traffic modeling in ATM systems, Technical report 101, University of Wuerzburg, February 1995.
B.K. Ryu and A. Elwalid, The importance of the long-range dependence of VBR video traffic in ATM traffic engineering: Myths and realities, in: Proc. of ACM SIGCOMM'96, Stanford, CA, USA, August 1996, pp. 3–14.
J. Sairamesh, D.F. Ferguson and Y. Yemini, An approach to pricing, optimal allocation and quality of service provisioning in high-speed packet networks, in: Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM'95, Boston, MA, USA, April 1995.
S. Shenker, D. Clark, D. Estrin and S. Herzog, Pricing in computer networks: Reshaping the research agenda, ACM Computer Communication Review (1996) 19–43.
V.A. Siris, D.J. Songhurst, G.D. Stamoulis and M. Stoer, Usage-based charging using effective bandwidths: studies and reality, in: Proc. of the 16th Internat. Teletraffic Congress (ITC-16) (North-Holland/Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, 1999).
Q. Wang, J.M. Peha and M.A. Sirbu, The design of an optimal pricing scheme for ATM integratedservices networks, in: Internet Economics, eds. J.P. Bailey and L. Mcknight (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996).
D. Wischik, The output of a switch, or, effective bandwidths for networks, to appear in Queueing Systems (1999).
D. Wischik, Sample path large deviations for queues with many inputs, to appear in Annals of Applied Probability (1999).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Courcoubetis, C., Kelly, F.P., Siris, V.A. et al. A study of simple usage‐based charging schemes for broadband networks. Telecommunication Systems 15, 323–343 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019103214455
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019103214455