About cookies on this site Our websites require some cookies to function properly (required). In addition, other cookies may be used with your consent to analyze site usage, improve the user experience and for advertising. For more information, please review your options. By visiting our website, you agree to our processing of information as described in IBM’sprivacy statement. To provide a smooth navigation, your cookie preferences will be shared across the IBM web domains listed here.
Publication
ITC 2010
Conference paper
DiffServ pricing games in multi-class queueing network models
Abstract
Introduction of differentiated services on the Internet has failed primarily due to many economic impediments. We focus on the provider competition aspect, and develop a multi-class queueing network game framework to study it. Each network service provider is modeled as a single-server multi-class queue. Providers post prices for various service classes. Traffic is elastic and there are multiple types of it, each traffic-type is sensitive to a different degree to Quality of Service (QoS). Arriving users choose a provider and a class for service. We study the pricing and service competition between the providers in a game-theoretic setting. We provide sufficient conditions for the existence of Nash equilibrium in the Bertrand (pricing) game between the multi-class queueing service providers. We also characterize the inefficiency (price of anarchy) due to strategic DiffServ pricing.