A contract and balancing mechanism for sharing capacity in a communication network

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Anderson, E; Kelly, F; Steinberg, R
• 署名单位: University of New South Wales Sydney; University of Cambridge; University of Cambridge
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1050.0455
• 发表日期: 2006
• 页码: 39-53
• 关键词: capacity contracts; congestion pricing; Nash equilibrium

摘要

We propose a method for determining how much to charge users of a communication network when they share bandwidth. Our approach can be employed either when a network owner wishes to sell bandwidth for a specified period of time to a number of different users, or when users cooperate to build a network to be shared among themselves. Our proposed contract and balancing mechanism can mediate between rapidly fluctuating prices and the longer time scales over which bandwidth contracts may be traded. An advantage of the process is that it avoids perverse incentives for a capacity provider to increase congestion.