Simple tariffs based on price multipliers for ATM VBR services

We present an approach for constructing simple time-based tari s for Variable Bit Rate (VBR) connections from Constant Bit Rate (CBR) prices, using price multipliers that depend on the traÆc parameters of the VBR connection and re ect the resource usage of VBR connections relative to CBR connections. Our approach employs an e ective bandwidth bound as a proxy for the maximum amount of traÆc that conforms to the connection's traÆc contract, and thus for the maximum resource usage. We compare the price multipliers computed using our approach with the multipliers published by an actual ATM service provider, and with those computed using a proxy for resource usage that is based on ATM Forum's Generic CAC algorithm. Although our approach is presented in the context of ATM VBR services, it can be applied for creating tari s for Service Level Agreements (SLAs) where the maximum amount of conforming traÆc is given by leaky (or token) bucket constraints.