A Bandwidth Market in an IP Network

[摘要] Consider a path-oriented telecommunications network where calls arrive to each route in aPoisson process. Each call brings on average a fixed number of packets that are offered toroute. The packet inter-arrival times and the packet lengths are exponentially distributed.Each route can queue a finite number of packets while one packet is being transmitted. Eachaccepted packet/call generates an amount of revenue for the route manager. At specifiedtime instants a route manager can acquire additional capacity ('interface capacity) inorder to carry more calls and/or the manager can acquire additional buffer space in orderto carry more packets, in which cases the manager earns more revenue; alternatively aroute manager can earn additional revenue by selling surplus interface capacity and/or byselling surplus buffer space to other route managers that (possibly temporarily) value itmore highly. We present a method for efficiently computing the buying and the sellingprices of buffer space.Moreover, we propose a bandwidth reallocation scheme capable of improving the networkoverall rate of earning revenue at both the call level and the packet level. Ourreallocation scheme combines the Erlang price [4] and our proposed buffer space price(M/M/1/K prices) to reallocate interface capacity and buffer space among routes. Theproposed scheme uses local rules and decides whether or not to adjust the interface capacityand/or the buffer space. Simulation results show that the reallocation scheme achievesgood performance when applied to a fictitious network of 30-nodes and 46-links based onthe geography of Europe.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University