Charging and rate control for elastic tra c

This paper addresses the issues of charging, rate control and routing for a communication network carrying elastic tra c, such as an ATM network o ering an available bit rate service. A model is described from which max{min fairness of rates emerges as a limiting special case; more generally, the charges users are prepared to pay inuence their allocated rates. In the preferred version of the model, a user chooses the charge per unit time that the user will pay; thereafter the user's rate is determined by the network according to a proportional fairness criterion applied to the rate per unit charge. A system optimum is achieved when users' choices of charges and the network's choice of allocated rates are in equilibrium.