Dynamic Bandwidth Pricing for Network Resource Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Communications networks face economic challenges due to high costs from constructing infrastructure to meet peak bandwidth demands, which are only required for a few hours a day, while the rest of the time bandwidth usage is significantly lower, leading to inefficient resource allocation.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that uses capital market supply and demand principles to adjust bandwidth prices based on occupancy levels, where higher occupancy leads to higher costs and lower occupancy results in lower costs, by determining the highest bandwidth occupancy along a traffic path and periodically updating usage prices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If communications networks are constructed to meet peak bandwidth demands, then sufficient bandwidth is provided during peak hours, but the cost of construction becomes difficult to justify due to underutilization during non-peak hours
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic bandwidth pricing that adjusts in real-time based on network occupancy levels. During peak hours, higher prices discourage non-essential traffic, while during off-peak hours, lower prices encourage traffic migration. This dynamic pricing mechanism allows the network to maintain sufficient capacity for peak demands while improving overall resource utilization by shifting flexible traffic to off-peak periods, thereby resolving the contradiction between ensuring peak bandwidth sufficiency and avoiding resource underutilization.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the pricing parameter dynamically based on network occupancy conditions. By monitoring bandwidth usage and adjusting prices accordingly, the system creates economic incentives for users to shift traffic patterns. This parameter change approach enables the network to maintain infrastructure sized for peak demands while achieving better utilization through price-driven traffic redistribution, addressing both the reliability requirement and the resource efficiency concern.
2Productivity
If bandwidth occupancy is increased to maximize network utilization, then more traffic can be handled, but the cost for users increases and may frustrate customers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic pricing adjustments that cycle between high and low price periods based on network occupancy patterns. During high-occupancy periods, prices increase to manage demand, while during low-occupancy periods, prices decrease to encourage traffic. This periodic action allows the network to handle maximum traffic capacity when necessary while providing cost relief to users during off-peak periods, thus balancing productivity maximization with user cost burden reduction.
3Measurement precision
If real-time bandwidth occupancy monitoring is implemented across all network nodes, then accurate pricing can be determined, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary pricing management system that collects bandwidth occupancy data from network nodes and computes prices centrally or semi-centrally. This intermediary layer simplifies the overall system architecture by separating the measurement function (performed by existing network nodes) from the pricing computation function. The intermediary aggregates data, determines pricing based on predefined policies, and communicates prices to users, thereby achieving accurate occupancy-based pricing without requiring each node to implement complex pricing logic, thus managing system complexity effectively.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed embodiments include a system and method for establishing a price for communicating over a communications network. In one embodiment, the system includes a plurality of network nodes configured to communicate over the communications network and a primary network edge node configured to provide network access to a plurality of end user devices. The primary network edge node is configured to initiate a bandwidth occupancy query message to at least one of said network nodes along a traffic path to which an end user device is communicating, determine a highest bandwidth occupancy of said network nodes along the traffic path, and compute a current price for the end user device communicating over the traffic path based on the highest bandwidth occupancy.