Load metric for QoS-enabled cellular networks and its possible use in pricing strategies

Mobile network traffic has grown exponentially in recent years, and it is expected that this trend will continue in the future. Important driving forces include new affordable smartphones, and the many new connected devices on the market. Also, the rollout of faster HSPA+ and LTE networks is expected to improve the customer experience. Therefore, the efficient management of the expected huge data traffic demands is critical if operators are to maintain acceptable service quality, while making a profit. One of the alternatives is to increase the capacity by allocating more spectrum but this is a finite resource. In this paper we address this issue by proposing a dynamic, flexible pricing model that allows an operator to efficiently utilize the available resources, while fairly charging the customers for resources they utilize. To support the proposed model, we first introduce a novel metric for monitoring the load on the network.