On the Interaction and Competition among Internet Service Providers

Abstract

The current Internet architecture comprises of different privately owned Internet service providers (ISPs) where higher tier ISPs supply connectivity service to lower tier ISPs and charge these ISPs for the transit service. For the higher tier ISPs, the main concern is how to increase the profit by attracting more lower tier ISPs (or traffic), while the lower tier ISPs concern about the connectivity, quality of service as well as the cost of the transit service. In this work, we seek to understand the interaction between different tiers of ISPs. Note that the lower tier ISPs can transmit traffic to each other, either by purchasing the service from higher tier ISPs, or by setting "private peering links" between themselves. Higher tier ISPs, on the other hand, cannot charge the transit service at will since there is competition among higher tier ISPs. We model the interaction of these ISPs via a game theoretic approach. We study the issues of (a) impact of private peering relationship among the lower tier ISPs, (b) under a competitive market, how can the higher tier ISPs perform resource allocation and revenue maximization so that resource monopoly can be avoided, and (c) conditions wherein higher tier ISPs are willing to perform network upgrade, in particular, when we scale up the network. Our mathematical framework provides insights on the interaction among ISPs and shows these ISPs can still gain profits as they upgrade the network infrastructures. Extensive simulations are carried out to quantify and support our theoretical claims.

On Market Model and Mechanism for Cloud Service

“…When cloud service hold the properties of commodities, supply, demand, market, exchanging, circulation and trading all should be considered because of it exclusive characters. For example, in order to gain the largest income by sale the authorization of service for provider, they should have to maximize the capacities without loss guarantee of QoS [5]. Income is related to price and and allocation, and pricing report should be context-awarded so as to adjust the price according to the changing of market situation [6].…”

Dynamic Pricing in Cloud Manufacturing Systems under Combined Effects of Consumer Structure, Negotiation, and Demand

“…Game-theoretic models focus on price competition among vendors. Researchers have studied this problem from several perspectives, including horizontal competition (e.g., [9,12]), vertical competition (e.g., [19]), and hybrid competition (e.g., [20]) in cloud environment. Our study also concentrates on vertical competition.…”

“…If conditions (A. 19) and (A.21) are satisfied, then ( + ) ≤ 0 and (ℎ) ≥ 0, which implies that there exists at least one zero solution in the predefined interval. The following analysis is conducted under the assumption that the two conditions are all satisfied.…”

Cooperative Inter-ISP Traffic Control Scheme Based on Bargaining Game Approach

“…Servicedependent pricing has been proposed as a method of traffic management that can efficiently allocate bandwidth among ISPs, which place different values on their requests. This mechanism ensures that ISPs have an incentive to control traffic congestion to best satisfy their requirements at the given price [3], [4].…”