Congestion-Sensitive Pricing for the Internet

本项目将研究互联网的拥挤敏感定价方案的设计和实施。定价被视为实现经济目标的工具，也是现有交通管理技术的补充工具，以实现供应和拥堵控制目标。这项工作以预期容量和智能市场等互联网定价概念为基础，并将重点放在实施差异化服务框架（一种新的互联网标准）上。所设计的方案将广泛地以承包的经济概念为基础。我们框架中的核心假设是，网络可以基于拥塞监测机制，动态提高价格并改变合同条款。该项目将调查一系列机制，包括软（短期）合同、接收方发起的服务的竞标模式、基于使用情况的超额流量或固定价格，以及对拥堵情况敏感的价格更新。该项目的一个重要目标是开发可以在差异化服务体系结构中轻松实现的方案，而不需要额外的标准化。双方将合作调查各自专业领域中出现的具体问题：a)互联网流量管理机制；b)信息系统（IS）和定价机制的经济基础。在这个框架中得出的定价方案和需求模型将被整合到详细的包级网络模拟中，以研究这些技术和经济控制技术的综合影响。

This project will study the design and implementation of congestion-sensitive pricing schemes for the Internet. Pricing is viewed as a tool to achieve economic objectives as well as a complementary instrument to existing traffic management techniques to achieve provisioning and congestion control objectives. The work is based upon Internet pricing concepts such as expected capacity and smart markets, and will focus on the differentiated-services framework (a new Internet standard) for its implementation.The schemes designed will be broadly based upon the economic concept of contracting. The central hypothesis in our framework is that a network could, based upon congestion monitoring mechanisms, raise prices and vary contract terms dynamically. The project will investigate a range of mechanisms including soft (short-term) contracts, bidding models for receiver-initiated services, usage-based or flat prices for excess traffic, and congestion-sensitive update of prices. An important objective of the project is to develop schemes that can be readily implemented in the differentiated services architecture, without need for additional standardization.The PIs will collaborate to investigate specific issues arising in their areas of expertise: a) traffic management mechanisms in the Internet, and b) information systems (IS) and economic underpinningsof pricing mechanisms. The pricing schemes and demand models derived in this framework will be integrated into detailed packet-level network simulations to study the combined impact of these technical and economic control techniques.