Multi-service control framework based on pricing and charging

Providing predictable and stable Quality of Service (QoS) to the network end users is one of the goals of the next generation Internet. To solve different problems related to QoS, the Internet pricing has been researched. This paper proposed a multiservice control framework based on pricing and charging technologies. It consists of three fundamental blocks: intelligent agent (IA), pricing broker (PB) and local pricing agent (LPA). The intelligent agent provides the TCP-like pricing based traffic control at the end users. The local pricing agent is used to implement hybrid-pricing algorithm to make the service price as an indicator of the network status. At the network edge node, it also contains traffic classification mechanisms to provide service differentiation. But the pricing broker controls the policies. It is also responsible to maintain and exchange the price information for the end users and neighbor domains. A simulation has been done in a simple prototype with the hybrid-pricing algorithm and the price based classification. Simulation results show that it can provide service differentiation and maintain the service quality as well. Therefore, the proposed framework provides a simple, flexible way to support multi-service control and improve QoS over the networks via pricing technology.