Resource Usage and Charging in a Multi-service Multi-qos Packet Network

We present a general economic equilibrium model of users and service providers in a multi-class multi-QoS network. The model describes utility maximization by users and revenue optimization by service providers. The key parameters in the model are the T spec and Q spec , which characterize traac and Quality of Service (QoS) respectively. The model yields equilibrium prices, which, in the presence of competing providers, reduce to the marginal costs. Costs are shown to be related explicitly to resource allocation. Clearly, this is valid only if the admission control mechanism is consistent with the resource allocation. To obtain resource allocation and subsequently prices for individual streams, online measurements may be used. However, measurements do not uniquely characterize T spec. We demonstrate this additional freedom by examining trade-oos among dual leaky bucket parameters and choice of measurement timescales corresponding to a traac trace. We further provide guidelines to choose these parameters optimally for resource allocation and pricing.