How can routers help Internet economics?

Abstract

1. ABSTRACT Statistical sharing enables remarkable network efficiency in internets, compared to circuit-switched networks, but complicates economic efficiency associating traffic priority with users’ valuations. How can the network (routers) differentiate service so that it justifies differential pricing? One approach is integrating internets with reservations which can be billed, like calls, based on duration and capacity. A more recent approach is differential treatment of packets marked for different types of service. Peak traffic rates over a negotiated time period can be either measured or controlled. These peak rates aggregate, with some degree of asynchrony, to the capacity limit of the network. At this limit, routers protect the network from congestive collapse by dropping additional traffic based on the type of service marks. Although modern TCP end stations respond by reducing their network loads to a fair share, nonresponsive applications threaten the integrity of the Internet. Can billing for congestion effectively control this threat? 1.1