Congestion-only charging: a novel pricing mechanism for use in differentiated services networks

  • Authors:

  • Brian Carrig;David Denieffe;John Murphy

  • Affiliations:

  • Institute of Technology, Carlow, Ireland;Institute of Technology, Carlow, Ireland;University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

  • Venue:
  • The Fourth International Conference on Heterogeneous Networking for Quality, Reliability, Security and Robustness & Workshops
  • Year:
  • 2007

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

In networks based on the Differentiated Services (DiffServ) architecture, users may be presented the opportunity to choose their Assured Forwarding (AF) class. Users will attempt to maximize their Consumer Surplus (CS) in such an environment. They can increase their CS by choosing the lowest cost AF class that satisfies their Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. Previously the authors have proposed an algorithm known as Consumer Surplus Maximization (CSM) [2]. Although this algorithm improves CS for users, widespread adoption of the algorithm can provoke network instability. If many users switch classes at once, degradation on one AF class can easily propagate. The likelihood of such an occurrence can be reduced by replacing fixed per-byte or per-packet charges associated with individual AF classes with a lightweight Congestion-only Charging (CoC) pricing mechanism. An additional charge is only applied to packets that receive discernible benefit from belonging to a particular class. We present simulation results from a networking scenario where users connect across a single DiffServ domain to engage in a multiplayer First Person Shooter (FPS) game.