Re: More Sidgemore on per-bit pricing (fwd)

[Pushpendra Mohta <pushp () CERF NET>]

Vadim Antonov writes:
> Pushpendra Mohta wrote:
>  
> > The argument about billing based on destination being very expensive is
> > not entirely true. Whether on not they bill on this data, most any one
> > planning a global IP backbone measures traffic distributions very
> > carefully, not only for network engineering but also to understand the
> > cost of business. The granularity required to bill on this data may
> > have to improve -but it is not a big leap to make.
>  
> Generally speaking, it is impossible, because aggregation removes
> information.  I.e. the better aggregation is, the harder is to pinpoint
> the exact location of the destination.
>
> In other words, even destination-based charging (except very special
> cases like ISP in the middle of nowhere connected by one wire to the
> rest of the world) requires cooperation of many parties, since no
> party has any accurate cost-of-transport information locally.
>
> --vadim


Ah. Granularity is the key.  While there is enough
information lost in routing aggregation that one could not calculate a
price model based on V&H miles like telcos are apt to do, but one
could reasonably attempt to do pricing buckets based on inter and intra
"region" pricing.

More importantly, there is an  distinction between an IP Backbone and
an ISP. The "Internet" may only be a specific case of an virtual
network running on a large IP backbone.  A large portion of the IP
traffic is likely be in the transition of  traditional "connection"
oriented networks on to an IP network.  This includes Virtual Private
Networks of all flavors, and the subsequent transition of the data and
application centers associated with these VPNs on to a carrier IP
backbone. It includes things like Voice over IP, and IP based Call
Centers. The connection oriented nature of these applications could
provide the needed information for any pricing plan that was
destination specific.


--pushpendra

Pushpendra Mohta          pushp () cerf net        +1 619 812 3908