Internet Resource Management and Pricing

Originally conceived and funded as a research project, the Internet has grown into a commercial, global and integrated service network. This has changed the nature of traffic on the Internet with the increasing use of things like video conferencing and time critical transactions. These forms of Internet usage place high demands on bandwidth. Added to this is the fact that the number of users is increasing at a dramatic rate and shows no signs of slowing. This is leading to a \u27tragedy of the commons\u27 where endemic congestion will reduce the value of the Internet to everyone. It also implies the introduction of some form of quality of service (QoS) to differentiate time critical traffic from less time critical traffic. Pricing usage has been shown to be effective in controlling congestion by promoting more effective resource allocation. To provide the necessary QoS, there is an argument that simply increasing the available bandwidth will achieve this, while at the same time maintaining the simple model of the current Internet. However, there is also an argument that a more complex model may be needed that provides various levels of QoS with an associated pricing scheme to manage usage of these levels of QoS. A major part of the debate on this subject surrounds the trade-off between efficiency, economics and complexity that exists in introducing QoS and pricing to the Internet. This document discusses some of these issues, presents some of the current proposals for pricing Internet usage and finally compares the presented pricing proposals

Trade & Cap: A Customer-Managed, Market-Based System for Trading Bandwidth Allowances at a Shared Link

We propose Trade & Cap (T&C), an economics-inspired mechanism that incentivizes users to voluntarily coordinate their consumption of the bandwidth of a shared resource (e.g., a DSLAM link) so as to converge on what they perceive to be an equitable allocation, while ensuring efficient resource utilization. Under T&C, rather than acting as an arbiter, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) acts as an enforcer of what the community of rational users sharing the resource decides is a fair allocation of that resource. Our T&C mechanism proceeds in two phases. In the first, software agents acting on behalf of users engage in a strategic trading game in which each user agent selfishly chooses bandwidth slots to reserve in support of primary, interactive network usage activities. In the second phase, each user is allowed to acquire additional bandwidth slots in support of presumed open-ended need for fluid bandwidth, catering to secondary applications. The acquisition of this fluid bandwidth is subject to the remaining "buying power" of each user and by prevalent "market prices" – both of which are determined by the results of the trading phase and a desirable aggregate cap on link utilization. We present analytical results that establish the underpinnings of our T&C mechanism, including game-theoretic results pertaining to the trading phase, and pricing of fluid bandwidth allocation pertaining to the capping phase. Using real network traces, we present extensive experimental results that demonstrate the benefits of our scheme, which we also show to be practical by highlighting the salient features of an efficient implementation architecture.National Science Foundation (CCF-0820138, CSR-0720604, EFRI-0735974, CNS-0524477, and CNS-0520166); Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and COLCIENCIAS–Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología “Francisco Jose ́ de Caldas”

Development of a building information modelling (BIM) migration path model for construction professionals

The construction professionals have the notion that by implementing Building Information Modelling (BIM) in construction could overcome problems such as delay, cost overrun, clashes in project design and undesirable quality in construction. However, they failed to take the advantages of the BIM benefit as they are still trying to find the best way to take on board the BIM into current practices. Most of the professionals do not know ‘when’ and ‘how’ to apply BIM throughout the construction lifecycle. Several research models related to BIM has been developed to improve and encourage BIM implementation. Nevertheless, the developed models have limitations in highlighting the steps involved that could assist the construction professionals in implementing BIM effectively in Malaysia. Therefore, this research is aimed to develop a model that would be able to assist Malaysian construction professionals in implementing BIM in a structured way. A semi-structured interview was carried out with respondents that have various experienced and currently involved in BIM projects in the Malaysian construction industry. Findings show that the construction professionals are lacking in knowledge and experience in using BIM in various stages of construction. Thus, they were unable to fully capitalise the benefit of 3D models. Migration path model was proposed and evaluated as a strategic approach for BIM implementation in the Malaysian construction industry. The identification of five (5) activities (BIM Awareness, Develop BIM Strategy, Implement BIM, Monitor BIM and Expand BIM Implementation) with the three (3) enablers (BIM work contract, BIM work process and BIM technology) in the model is expected to be able to assist construction professionals to implement BIM with the right BIM concept and later, the benefit could be obtained for improving construction project. The proposed model could be as a guideline for construction professionals in implementing BIM, specifically in countries that new in BIM. The model is also expected to be able to fill the gap in BIM implementation by supporting the initiatives by the Malaysian government for increasing productivity in construction projects by using new technology like BIM

A Decision-Theoretic Approach to Resource Allocation in Wireless Multimedia Networks

The allocation of scarce spectral resources to support as many user applications as possible while maintaining reasonable quality of service is a fundamental problem in wireless communication. We argue that the problem is best formulated in terms of decision theory. We propose a scheme that takes decision-theoretic concerns (like preferences) into account and discuss the difficulties and subtleties involved in applying standard techniques from the theory of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) in constructing an algorithm that is decision-theoretically optimal. As an example of the proposed framework, we construct such an algorithm under some simplifying assumptions. Additionally, we present analysis and simulation results that show that our algorithm meets its design goals. Finally, we investigate how far from optimal one well-known heuristic is. The main contribution of our results is in providing insight and guidance for the design of near-optimal admission-control policies.Comment: To appear, Dial M for Mobility, 200

The Role of Responsive Pricing in the Internet

The Internet continues to evolve as it reaches out to a wider user population. The recent introduction of user-friendly navigation and retrieval tools for the World Wide Web has triggered an unprecedented level of interest in the Internet among the media and the general public, as well as in the technical community. It seems inevitable that some changes or additions are needed in the control mechanisms used to allocate usage of Internet resources. In this paper, we argue that a feedback signal in the form of a variable price for network service is a workable tool to aid network operators in controlling Internet traffic. We suggest that these prices should vary dynamically based on the current utilization of network resources. We show how this responsive pricing puts control of network service back where it belongs: with the users.Internet, pricing, feedback, networks