Providing differentiated QoS with dynamic pricing policies for wireless access networks

Mobile operators might need to reconsider their current policies, including the ones used for pricing. Although flat rate is at the time of writing the most prominent pricing method, it is believed to be inappropriate for forthcoming wireless communication scenarios. In this paper we propose the use of a dynamic scheme, in which base stations (BSs) modify their price according to the current carried load. By using different types of users, we assess the suitability of this scheme to provide tailored service levels. We use two complementary approaches: a distributed scheme, based on information available to a single user, is analyzed by means of an event-driven simulator that is flexible enough to settle the required level of heterogeneity and complexity on the network deployments. Besides, to assess the goodness of the obtained performance, we pose a binary linear programming problem, so as to acquire the best possible performance. In this latter case, we will also discuss the relevance of the corresponding objective function, since it might lead to quite different results.