Charging Communication Networks, 1st Edition

Description

This book proposes that usage-based charging schemes are essential to generate the incentives necessary for efficient operation of multiservice networks. The rapid development of network technology is enabling sophisticated new services and applications which demand new charging models. The same technology provides the means to operate the right charging schemes.Some of the work done in the European collaborative project CA$hMAN (Charging and Accounting Schemes in Multiservice ATM Networks). This project combined performance and economic models of network resource usage and cutomer utility to construct simple but effective charging schemes which were implemented and trialled in an advanced management platform.

Charging Communication Networks, 1st Edition

Introduction.
1. Charging in communication networks.
Multiservice networks.
Internet.
ATM.
Requirements for charging schemes.
The CA$hMAN project.

2. The abc scheme.
Introduction.
Models for charging schemes.
A general mechanism for usage-sensitive charging.
A numerical example.
Charging policies.
Implementation and user issues.

3. Design and implementation concepts.
Overview.
Business model.
Accounting management service.
Service provision and charging - the common framework.
Interfaces and information flow.
User and network intelligent agents.
Performance considerations.

4. The CA$hMAN charging and accounting system.
Overview.
Motivation and objectives of the system.
Service provision and accounting management.
Architectural framework.
The CA$hMAN charging unit.
Integration and deployment of the system.
User interface design.
Operational scenario.
Conclusion.

5. Agents.
A user agent for ABR connections.
Experiments with the ABR agent.
Automated tariff renegotiation.
Automated traffic contract renegotiation.

6. Open issues.
Service-level charging.
Interconnect charging.
Relative prices of services.
Standards activities.
IP charging.

A. Pricing for guaranteed services.
Overview.
Effective bandwidth
A simple charging mechanism
Charges that are linear in general measurements.
Accuracy and fairness.
Charging and acceptance control.

B. Pricing for elastic services.
Overview.
Proportionally fair pricing.
Dynamic pricing for ABR services.
Sharing effective usage.

C. CA$hMAN participants.
Glossary.
Bibliography.
Index.