Pricing for the multi-service networks

Congestion control is one of the key issues to be addressed for the emerging multi-service networks. However, without an appropriate mechanism to encourage end users to use the network properly, over-utilization and congestion are unavoidable. It has been widely accepted that pricing is a proper tool to manage congestion. However, how to charge for the traffic and at what price is still under study. This paper gives a review of the state of the art of the developments on various pricing policies and different charging and billing schemes that have been proposed for ATM and Internet differentiated services. Architecture and implementation issues are also discussed. Finally, some future trends are identified.