* Institute of Computer Science (ICS), FORTH
+ Department of Informatics, Athens University of Economics and Business
Accepted for publication in European Transactions on Telecommunications, March 2001.
Preprint: [pdf, .ps.gz]
Abstract
We present an approach for computing prices for Variable Bit Rate (VBR) connections from Constant Bit Rate (CBR) prices using price multipliers that depend on the traffic contract parameters of the VBR connection. Our approach employs an effective bandwidth bound as a proxy for the maximum amount of traffic that conforms to the connection's traffic contract. We compare the price multipliers computed using our approach with the multipliers published by an actual ATM service provider, and with the multipliers computed using a proxy for resource usage based on ATM Forum's Generic CAC algorithm. Although our approach is presented in the context of ATM VBR services, it can be applied for creating tariffs for Service Level Agreements (SLAs) where the maximum amount of conforming traffic is characterized by leaky (or token) bucket constraints.
Keywords: charging, price multipliers, leaky bucket, effective bandwidth, service level agreement