QoS support of collaborative virtual environments applications in multiservice wireless networks through pricing

In this paper we discuss the deployment of distributed interactive virtual environment (DIVE) applications over the wireless Internet. Our goal is to understand the behavior of a DIVE application, its interaction with competing traffic streams (video, data, voice, etc.), as well as its network resource requirements for a satisfactory performance in terms of quality of service (QoS). We manage QoS performance by introducing pricing principles for wireless channel resource allocation based on price "auctioning" or "bidding". The network controller advertises the available QoS levels and the mobile users are competing for them by placing bid requests. Based on variability of the wireless channel, the amount of available bandwidth shared between mobile users and the bid requests, the network controller exercises QoS management. The QoS levels assigned to every customer are dynamically changed depending on the network controller optimization criterion (in this paper the network controller revenue). A queuing theory model for QoS level determination based on bidding is presented, showing the ability of the pricing policy to provide the desired QoS for sensitive applications such as DIVE in a competitive environment.