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Time dependent pricing in wireless data networks: Flat-rate vs. usage-based schemes | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

Time dependent pricing in wireless data networks: Flat-rate vs. usage-based schemes


Abstract:

With the advances of bandwidth-intensive mobile devices, we see severe congestion problems in wireless data networks. Recently, research emerges to solve this problem fro...Show More

Abstract:

With the advances of bandwidth-intensive mobile devices, we see severe congestion problems in wireless data networks. Recently, research emerges to solve this problem from a pricing point of view. Time dependent pricing has been introduced, and initial investigations have shown its advantages over the conventional time independent pricing. Nevertheless, much is unknown in how a practical and effective time dependent pricing scheme can be designed. In this paper, we explore the design space of time dependent pricing. In particular, we focus on a number of schemes, e.g., the usage-based scheme, the flat-rate scheme, and a mixture of them which we called a cap scheme. Our findings include: 1) the ISP obtains a higher profit with usage-based (or flat-rate) scheme if the capacity is insufficient (or sufficient); 2) the usage-based scheme usually achieves a higher consumer surplus and more efficient traffic utilization than the flat-rate scheme; and 3) the cap scheme is strongly preferred by the ISP to further increase its revenue. We believe our findings provide important insights for ISPs to design effective pricing schemes.
Date of Conference: 27 April 2014 - 02 May 2014
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 08 July 2014
Electronic ISBN:978-1-4799-3360-0
Print ISSN: 0743-166X
Conference Location: Toronto, ON, Canada

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