Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]

skip to main content
article

Internet pricing with a game theoretical approach: concepts and examples

Published: 01 April 2002 Publication History

Abstract

The basic concepts of three branches of game theory, leader-follower, cooperative, and two-person nonzero sum games, are reviewed and applied to the study of the Internet pricing issue. In particular, we emphasize that the cooperative game (also called the bargaining problem) provides an overall picture for the issue. With a simple model for Internet quality of service (QoS), we demonstrate that the leader-follower game may lead to a solution that is not Pareto optimal and in some cases may be "unfair," and that the cooperative game may provide a better solution for both the Internet service provider (ISP) and the user. The practical implication of the results is that government regulation or arbitration may be helpful. The QoS model is also applied to study the competition between two ISPs, and we find a Nash equilibrium point from which the two ISPs would not move out without cooperation. The proposed approaches can be applied to other Internet pricing problems such as the Paris Metro pricing scheme.

References

[1]
N. Anerousis and A. Lazar, "A framework for pricing virtual circuit and virtual path services in ATM networks," in Proc. ITC 15, V. Ramaswami and P. E. Wirth, Eds., 1997, pp. 791-802.
[2]
X. R. Cao, "Preference functions and bargaining solutions," in Proc. IEEE Conf. Decision and Control, 1982, pp. 164-171.
[3]
X. R. Cao and H. X. Shen, "Internet pricing: Comparison and examples," in Proc. 39th IEEE Conf. Decision and Control, 2000, pp. 2284-2289.
[4]
R. Cocchi, S. Shenker, D. Estrin, and L. Zhang, "Pricing in computer networks: Motivation, formulation, and example," IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking, vol. 1, pp. 614-627, Dec. 1993.
[5]
Z. Dziong and L. Mason, "Fair-efficient call admission control policies for broadband networks---A game theoretic framework," IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking, vol. 4, pp. 123-136, Feb. 1996.
[6]
A. Economides and J. Silvester, "Multiobjective routing in integrated services networks: A game theory approach," in Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, 1991, pp. 1220-1227.
[7]
L. Kleinrock, Queueing Systems, Volume 1: Theory. New York: Wiley, 1975.
[8]
Y. A. Korilis, A. A. Lazar, and A. Orda, "Achieving network optima using Stackelberg routing strategies," IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking, vol. 5, pp. 161-173, Feb. 1997.
[9]
D. Luce and H. Raiffa, Games and Decisions. New York: Wiley, 1957.
[10]
L. W. McKnight and J. P. Bailey, Eds., Internet Economics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.
[11]
____, "Internet economics: When constituencies collide in cyberspace," IEEE Internet Comput., vol. 1, pp. 30-37, Nov.-Dec. 1997.
[12]
G. Mulgan, "Cost and pricing: Whatever you can get away with…," presented at the Int. Telecommunications Soc. Meeting, Cambridge, MA, 1988.
[13]
A. Odlyzko, A Modest Proposal for Preventing Internet Congestion. Holmdel, NJ: AT&T Labs, 1997.
[14]
G. Owen, Game Theory, 3rd ed. San Diego, CA: Academic, 1995.
[15]
A. E. Roth, Axiomatic Models of Bargaining. New York: Wiley, 1979.
[16]
S. Shenker, D. Clark, D. Estrin, and S. Herzog, "Pricing in computer networks: Reshaping the research agenda," Telecommun. Policy, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 183-201, 1996.
[17]
W. Thomson, "Nash's bargaining solution and utilitarian choice rules," Econometrica, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 535-538, 1981.
[18]
K. Yamaoka and Y. Sakai, "A packet routing method basaed on game theory," Trans. Inst. Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, B-I, vol. J79B-I, pp. 73-79, 1996.
[19]
G. Gallego and G. V. Ryzin, "A multiproduct dynamic pricing problem and its applications to network yield management," Oper. Res., vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 24-41, Jan.-Feb. 1997.
[20]
L. W. McKnight and B. Leida, "Internet telephony: Costs, pricing, and policy," Telecommun. Policy, vol. 22, no. 7, pp. 555-569, 1998.
[21]
E. Altman and T. Basar, "Multiuser rate-based flow control," IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 46, pp. 940-949, July 1998.
[22]
E. Altman, T. Basar, and R. Srikant, "Nash equilibria for combined flow control and routing in networks: Asymptotic behavior for a large number of users," in Proc. 38th IEEE Conf. Decision and Control, vol. 4, Dec. 1999, pp. 4002-4007.
[23]
R. T. Maheswaran and T. Basar, "Multiuser flow control as a nash game: Performance of various algorithms," in Proc. 37th IEEE Conf. Decision and Control, vol. 1, Dec. 1998, pp. 1090-1095.
[24]
R. J. La and V. Anantharam, "Network pricing using game theoretic approach," in Proc. 38th IEEE Conf. Decision and Control, vol. 4, Dec. 1999, pp. 4008-4013.
[25]
____, "Optimal routing control: Game theoretic approach," in Proc. 36th Conf. Decision and Control, vol. 3, Dec. 1997, pp. 2910-2915.
[26]
A. Orda, R. Rom, and N. Shimkin, "Competitive routing in multiuser communication networks," IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking, vol. 1, pp. 510-512, Oct. 1993.
[27]
R. J. Gibbens and F. P. Kelly, "Resource pricing and the evolution of congestion control," Automatica, vol. 35, no. 12, pp. 1969-1985, Dec. 1999.
[28]
S. H. Low and P. P. Varaiya, "A new approach to service provisioning in ATM networks," IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking, vol. 1, pp. 547-553, Oct. 1993.
[29]
D. Songhurst and F. P. Kelly, "Charging schemes for multiservice networks," in Proc. Teletraffic Contributions for the Information Age (ITC 15), V. Ramaswami and P. E. Wirth, Eds., 1997, pp. 879-888.
[30]
F. P. Kelly, "Charging and rate control for elastic traffic," Eur. Trans. Telecommun., vol. 8, pp. 33-37, 1997.
[31]
J. K. MacKie-Mason and H. R. Varian, "Pricing the internet," in Public Access to the Internet, B. Kahin and J. Keller, Eds., 1995, pp. 269-314.

Cited By

View all
  • (2017)Joint Caching and Pricing Strategies for Popular Content in Information Centric NetworksIEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications10.1109/JSAC.2017.267216135:3(654-667)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2017
  • (2017)Radio Access Network Sharing in 5GWireless Personal Communications: An International Journal10.1007/s11277-017-4321-196:2(2715-2740)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2017
  • (2016)On the Viability of a Cloud Virtual Service ProviderACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review10.1145/2964791.290145244:1(235-248)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2016
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking
IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking  Volume 10, Issue 2
April 2002
125 pages

Publisher

IEEE Press

Publication History

Published: 01 April 2002
Published in TON Volume 10, Issue 2

Author Tags

  1. Paris metro pricing
  2. bargaining problems
  3. cooperative games
  4. leader-follower games
  5. quality of services
  6. two-person nonzero sum games

Qualifiers

  • Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)1
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1
Reflects downloads up to 05 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2017)Joint Caching and Pricing Strategies for Popular Content in Information Centric NetworksIEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications10.1109/JSAC.2017.267216135:3(654-667)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2017
  • (2017)Radio Access Network Sharing in 5GWireless Personal Communications: An International Journal10.1007/s11277-017-4321-196:2(2715-2740)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2017
  • (2016)On the Viability of a Cloud Virtual Service ProviderACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review10.1145/2964791.290145244:1(235-248)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2016
  • (2016)On the Viability of a Cloud Virtual Service ProviderProceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGMETRICS International Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Science10.1145/2896377.2901452(235-248)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2016
  • (2016)Cooperative primary---secondary dynamic spectrum leasing game via decentralized bargainingWireless Networks10.1007/s11276-015-0999-822:3(755-764)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2016
  • (2013)Bailout forward contracts for edge-to-edge internet servicesComputer Communications10.5555/2745552.274568236:17(1708-1725)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2013
  • (2013)A new two-party bargaining mechanismJournal of Combinatorial Optimization10.1007/s10878-011-9424-025:1(135-163)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2013
  • (2011)Consumer benefit versus price elasticity of demandNetnomics10.1007/s11066-010-9055-012:1(31-60)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2011
  • (2010)Internet economicsIEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking10.1109/TNET.2010.204920518:3(775-787)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2010
  • (2010)Pricing Internet access in the presence of user loyaltyNetnomics10.1007/s11066-010-9050-511:2(119-147)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2010
  • Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Full Access

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media