Price dynamics in competitive agile spectrum access markets

We explore the price dynamics in a competitive market consisting of spectrum agile network service providers and users. Here, multiple self interested spectrum providers operating with different technologies and costs compete for potential customers. Different buyers or consumers may evaluate the same seller differently depending on their applications, operating technologies and locations. Two different buyer populations, the quality-sensitive and the price-sensitive are investigated, and the resulting collective price dynamics are studied using a combination of analysis and simulations. Various scenarios are considered regarding the nature and accuracy of information available to the sellers. A myopically optimal strategy is studied when full information is available, while a stochastic learning based strategy is considered when the information is limited. Cooperating groups may be formed among the sellers which will in-turn influence the group profit for those participants. Free riding phenomenon is observed under certain circumstances     

一种基于定价与信任的网格资源分配算法

该文首先对基于组合双向拍卖的网格资源分配与定价模型进行改进,提出以各类资源的单价定价的算法。然后提出一种等效价格算法,设计基于信任度的价格调整函数,将不同信任度的各节点的报价,都映射为基准信任度下的等效价格。最后基于该等效报价,以组合双向拍卖模型进行网格资源分配。仿真表明所提算法的交易率较高,能防止恶意节点参与交易,所得交易效用可激励买家提高和卖家降低其等效报价。     

宽带产品定价模型

宽带上网普遍采用的分档计时包月虽然能满足用户对不同使用时长的需求,但在费用收取上无法动态地根据用户的实际使用时长进行价格档次的调整,收取最小的使用费,因此会出现用户的频繁改档,自动靠档算法可以在一定程度上弥补这个不足。在宽带产品发展的不同阶段,有不同的产品定价方法。今后,随着宽带产品的更新,用户市场的扩大和竞争的加剧,需要综合考虑成本、需求、竞争等多方面的因素,未来的宽带定价模式必定会由单一的包月制逐步转变为多纬度的分层定价。     

Selecting a Customization Strategy Under Competition: Mass Customization, Targeted Mass Customization, and Product Proliferation

Customization requires not only an implementation of proper manufacturing systems but also a proper strategy regarding when firms should offer customized products and what the nature of customization should be. This paper questions 1)whether customization is better than no customization, and, if so, 2) what kind of customization strategy firms should adopt under competition. We find that customization is not optimal when the cost of soliciting customer preference information is sufficiently high. When competing firms choose to customize, we show that firms target only certain customer segments with customized products. We also find that the optimal customization strategy may require firms to offer only a few discrete product varieties. Despite the concern that customization may initiate price wars because customization reduces product differentiation, we find that customization does not escalate the price competition, because aggressive price competition exacerbates cannibalization. Although customers within the product line of a firm are charged higher prices, we show that on average customers are better off when firms adopt customization. However, unless the customization is quite cheap, when firms choose to customize, we find that firms cannot generate more profits than when firms offer only a single product     

Pricing model for internet-based multi-class Video-On-Demand(VOD) services

This paper presents an optimal Pay-Per-View (PPV) price decision model for maximizing an Internet based Video-On-Demand (VOD) service provider’s revenues, taking into account the service provider’s service quality and consumers’ willingness to pay. The model considers multi-class VOD services with differentiated qualities and determines the optimal price for each class through simulations. The simulation results show that as long as all the multi-class services have non-zero demands, the differential pricing system provides more revenues than the uniform pricing system that prevails in the current VOD market. To test the robustness of the model, simulations were performed with gradually increasing customer demands or system workloads. The simulation results show that even with substantial customer demands or system workloads, self-adjustment mechanism of the model works and the system reaches a stable status in equilibrium. This paper also presents a numerical example of guaranteeing Quality-of-Service (QoS) through pricing strategies as a short-term measure.     

How to price Internet access for disloyal users under uncertainty

It has recently (Trinh 2008; Biczók et al. 2008) been demonstrated that customer loyalty can have a significant impact on Internet service provider (ISP) pricing. However, the results in those works are valid only under the assumption of complete information, i.e., both the ISPs and the customers fully know about each others’ decisions; the question of how Internet access prices are set by the ISP for disloyal users in uncertain circumstances is still largely unsolved. In this paper, we provide a game-theoretic framework to understand the impacts of customer loyalty on ISP price setting under uncertainty. The contribution of the paper is threefold. Firstly, we provide an empirical analysis of the customer loyalty issue by carrying out a survey for the Hungarian ISP market and combine the results with other European ISP markets. Secondly, we model ISPs’ uncertain decisions by using Bayesian games. Based on our game theoretic model, we quantify the effects of uncertainty on ISPs’ price setting and derive strategies to optimize ISPs’ profits under these uncertain conditions. After that, we generalize the results to mixed strategy scenarios. Finally, we develop a simulation tool to validate the theoretical results and to demonstrate our novel loyalty models. We argue that our findings can motivate researchers to incorporate a finer-grained user behavior model involving customer loyalty in their investigations of such interactions.     

基于DiffServ的定价方法研究

本文针对IETF提出的DiffServ机制,提出了一个融合接入价格、使用价格、拥塞价格的多价格体系和基于用户效用的一个有效、实时的定价方法.该方法能对不同服务等级进行差异定价,对同一等级内的用户流量采用流量整形中的令牌桶方法进行拥塞计费,从而促使用户根据其实际应用需求合理选择服务等级;同时该方法能保证在突发流量时,用户可以根据价格调整发送速率或服务等级从而最大化其效用;另外,ISP可以根据当前资源分配情况,通过适当价格干预,引导各等级用户有序分布,形成一个以供需关系为主、兼具宏观调控的价格体系,使网络被高效利用.最后,模拟实验验证了该方法的公平性、有效性和灵活性.     

Is the Price Right?

We conclude that contribution analysis is adaptable and useful for pricing new products. Pricing strategy should be devised during the product development stage, and both price and cost forecasting are important for this purpose. Further, to avoid the often repeated mistake of basing a new product's price on unrealistic introductory production and marketing costs, the experience curve should be used for realistic cost estimates. It is important to know: ? competitive prices (actual and expected), cost structures, and capacity utilization ? buyers' reactions to price ? the firm's cost structure and corporate objectives. Unless the pricing process is firmly imbedded within a dynamic, long-run marketing strategy, it is likely that a pricing policy unrelated to the marketing strategy will evolve. Correct pricing decisions are vital as today's pricing environment increases pressure for better, faster, and more frequent pricing decisions. Better research concerning the competitive market and customer responses to prices and price changes is urgently needed. Within the industrial firm, a price-research budget is needed. We must avoid a common occurrence, i.e., worrying about the market response to a price decision after the decision has been made.     

智能电网中基于增强学习的动态价格优化算法

动态的电费价格是驱使消费者改变用电消费模式的有效手段,为此,提出基于增强学习的动态价格优化(RLODP)算法。RLODP算法结合电力服务商的利润和消费者的用电成本,对电网负载进行管理;利用增强学习算法,电力服务商自适应地决策零售价格,将动态价格问题转化为离散有限马尔可夫决策过程(MDP),再利用Q-学习算法解决该决策过程。实验结果表明,提出的RLODP算法减少了消费者的用电成本,实现了电网市场中电力供应与需求之间的平衡。     

构建市场经营分析活动中的信息不对称利器

本文首先指出了电信经营分析系统是实现电信竞争中信息不对称的关键工具,分析了如何实现市场经营活动中的信息不对称,举例说明了如何有效使用经营分析系统,了解各类客户的流失倾向及消费偏好,开展客户的关怀挽留工作,对竞争对手的高价值客户进行抢挖,最终达到降低客户流失率,提高市场占有率的目标.     

Stationary characteristics of MX/M/1 systems with two-speed service

An M^X/M/1 queueing system with threshold switching of service regimes at the instant of a change in the number of customers and the same system with threshold blocking of the flow of customers are considered. For these systems, an algorithm is proposed for determination of the stationary distribution of the number of customers and stationary characteristics (the mean queue length, the mean time of waiting in a queue, the variance of the queue length, the probability of the customer service for a system with blocking). For the case when the minimal number of incoming customers in a group is comparable with threshold value h, the stationary characteristics are found in an explicit form. For the system with threshold switching of service regimes (without blocking), two problems of optimal synthesis are solved. In these problems, the optimal values of threshold h and of the service intensity in the post-threshold regime are determined. The obtained results are verified with the help of simulation models developed with the help of the GPSS World software.     

Stationary characteristics of MX/M/1 systems with hysteretic switching of the service intensity

An M^X/M/1 queueing system with two-threshold hysteretic switching of the service intensity at the instants when the number of customers exceeds h ₂ and, then, decreases to the value h ₁ < h ₂ and the same system with the threshold locking of a flow of customers are considered. An algorithm is proposed for determination of the stationary distribution of the number of customers and stationary characteristics (the mean queue length, the mean time of waiting in a queue, the variance of the queue length, and the probability of the service of a customer for the system with blocking). Restrictions are imposed on the distribution of the number of incoming customers in a group to facilitate the determination of the stationary characteristics in an explicit form. The results are verified with the help of simulation models developed with the use of the GPSS World tools.     

全业务环境下移动运营商的竞争策略

面对全业务竞争,移动运营商必须把握市场发展的趋势,针对不同的客户群采用不同的竞争策略。对传统的个人移动市场,在客户发展几近饱和的情况下,可以考虑提高网络与服务质量,采用优惠价格政策稳定客户群;对家庭和政企客户,在发展客户的同时,应以开发具备吸引力的业务为主,同时改变营销模式,通过积极的行商方式推动两大客户群的发展。此外,移动运营商可以充分借助自身在移动通信技术上的优势,大力推广移动互联网业务的发展。     

Stationary characteristics of an M 2 X /M/n queue with hysteretic control of the input flow intensity

A multichannel queueing system with an unlimited queue length is considered. In the system, the service time and time intervals between arrivals of customer batches are characterized by exponential distributions and a hysteretic mechanism is applied to control the input flow intensity. The system receives two independent types of flows of customers one of which is blocked in the overload mode. An algorithm for determination of the stationary distribution of the number of customers and the stationary characteristics (the mean queue length, the mean time of waiting in the queue, the probability of a loss of customers) is proposed. The obtained results are verified with the help of a simulation model developed with the help of the GPSS World tools.     

Support strategies to foster adoption of interorganizationalinnovations

The authors develop strategies that suppliers can use to foster the adoption of interorganizational information systems innovations, The strategies focus on adoption support to overcome innovation adoption barriers, accounting for the effect of the innovation on ongoing supplier-customer transactions. Modeling a dimension of the customer (organizational innovativeness) and a dimension of the innovation (radicalness) they derive optimal supplier strategies for when the supplier can differentiate individual customer innovativeness and when it cannot. In the former case, knowledge of individual customer innovativeness results in a triage model-some customers adopt without support, some require support to adopt, and some do not adopt and should not be supported. A lack of knowledge of customer innovativeness results in an undifferentiated strategy directed at all customers. Knowledge of customer innovativeness increases overall adoption and supplier profits and lowers adoption support to those customers that receive support in both cases     

排队取号服务系统的VHDL程序实现

排队取号服务系统广泛应用于银行、车站、电信等柜台营业部门,采用后能给顾客和工作人员带来极大便利。介绍一种基于VHDL语言实现自动排队取号的方法,并采用可编程逻辑器件加以实现和验证该排队取号系统不仅能实时动态显示当前取号顾客的编号和此前等待顾客的人数,还能显示当前空闲的柜台号以及准备接受服务的顾客编号。整个设计实用、简便,可靠性高,成本低廉,具有一定的实用推广价值。     

电力潜在敏感客户预测的大数据方法应用

随着 95598 业务的不断发展延伸,人工话务强度增大。为了进一步加深对客户隐性特征以及诉求的认识和理解,提升 95598 人工精细化客户服务水平,对投诉倾向等客户服务中的典型应用场景进行了需求细化。基于电力服务工单数据,选取建模关键指标,通过熵权法、主成分分析和决策树等数据挖掘算法,对潜在投诉倾向客户和计划停电敏感客户进行识别,以便有针对性地进行服务资源调度,充分做好应对措施,有效减少投诉压力,提升服务精度。     

Demand assigned capacity management (DACM) in IP over optical (IPO) networks

The demand assigned capacity management (DACM) problem in IP over optical (IPO) network aims at devising efficient bandwidth replenishment schedules from the optical domain conditioned upon traffic evolution processes in the IP domain. A replenishment schedule specifies the location, sizing, and sequencing of link capacity expansions to support the growth of Internet traffic demand in the IP network subject to economic considerations. A major distinction in the approach presented in this paper is the focus of attention on the economics of "excess bandwidth" in the IP domain, which can be viewed as an inventory system that is endowed with fixed and variable costs and depletes with increase in IP traffic demand requiring replenishment from the optical domain. We develop mathematical models to address the DACM problem in IPO networks based on a class of inventory management replenishment methods. We apply the technique to IPO networks that implement capacity adaptive routing in the IP domain and networks without capacity adaptive routing. We analyze the performance characteristics under both scenarios, in terms of minimizing cumulative replenishment cost over an interval of time. For the non-capacity adaptive routing scenario, we consider a shortest path approach in the IP domain, specifically OSPF. For the capacity adaptive scenario, we use an online constraint-based routing scheme. This study represents an application of integrated traffic engineering which concerns collaborative decision making targeted towards network performance improvement that takes into consideration traffic demands, control capabilities, and network assets at different levels in the network hierarchy.     

The Internet as an enabler for dynamic pricing of goods

The Internet offers the potential for dynamic pricing for a wide range of products across the supply chain. Dynamic pricing can be formally defined as the buying and selling of goods in markets where prices move quickly in response to supply and demand fluctuations. Unlike physical markets where change occurs slowly because of information delays, change occurs very rapidly on the Internet. In the marketplace, the Internet is a powerful tool for almost instantaneous consumer feedback. For example, prices can be changed dynamically to meet demand because the cost of changing a price may be lower on the Internet than in physical markets. The success of dynamic pricing is helping in the growth of new businesses, including broad-based e-commerce portals new interactive networks. This paper has several objectives. The first objective is to look at factors that affected the use of dynamic pricing in the past. The second objective is to summarize the notion of dynamic pricing over the Internet. The third objective is to examine the different methods for collecting dynamic demand data over the Internet. The final objective is to present two models to optimize the revenue obtained for build-to-forecast and build-to-order environments.     

The generalizedD [X] /D/1 queue: A flexible computer communications model

A generalization of theD ^[X] /D/1 queue is investigated, where independent and identically distributed (i.i.d) batches of customers arrive at a single-server queue periodically. The service requirement of a customer is a fixed constant equal for all the customers. In the time between two successive arrivals, the server can accommodate exactlyK1 customers. The queue size and the waiting time distributions for the infinite buffer queue are derived. Important numerical aspects are addressed and simple approximations for light and heavy traffic for various values ofK and Poisson distributed batches are proposed. Finally, the analysis for the finite queue is highlighted and its blocking probability derived.