BPP: a protocol for exchanging pricing information between autonomous systems

We focus on the distribution of pricing information between autonomous systems in the Internet. Therefore we propose the border pricing protocol (BPP) as a protocol for exchanging pricing information in analogy to the border gateway protocol, the current Internet standard for inter-autonomous system routing protocols. The open pricing framework is sketched as well as its relation to the differentiated services architecture. The mechanisms of the BPP are presented and the content of the pricing and charging information base is discussed.