A survey of pricing for integrated service networks

Advances in technology have greatly increased the demand for a single integrated service network that can provide multiple service classes for different user requirements. For such a multiple-service network, congestion control is one of the key issues to be addressed. However, without an appropriate mechanism to encourage end users to use the network properly, over-utilization and congestion are unavoidable. For this problem, it is widely accepted that pricing is a proper tool to manage congestion, encourage network growth, and allocate resource to users in a fair manner. However, how to charge for the traffic and at what price is still under study. In this paper, we first briefly review the state of the art and technological growth of congestion control for integrated service networks (ISN). Subsequently, we present a summary of the recent developments on various pricing policies and different charging and billing schemes that have been proposed for ATM and Internet Differentiated Services. Some architecture and implementation issues are also discussed. Finally, some future trends are identified.