Pricing Framework for a Differential Services Internet

Abstract

Abstract A number of recent proposals and proposed standards have addressed adding differential services to the Internet. Although their details and tentative implementations differ, most are recommending what essentially amounts to multiple levels of best‐effort service. In this paper, we survey recent differential services and pricing proposals and introduce a pricing framework for a differentiated‐services network that focuses on simplicity, flexibility, and ease of implementation. In particular, our model can be used in the current heterogeneous Internet without major restructuring. We focus on flat‐rate, per‐time and usage‐based pricing, where users can change their service level on an ad‐hoc basis. We also show that a sender‐pays model with back‐charging is simple to implement and can be effective even in complicated transactions, such as multicasting. Our approach is different from many previous proposals and consciously integrates differential services and pricing with implementation as the immediate goal. Finally, we outline future areas of research including ISP support for pricing, the dynamics of service quality and pricing in a differentiated Internet, and the latest trends and directions of QoS deployment and standardization.