Pricing user-sanctioned dynamic fast-lanes driven by content providers

Abstract

The notion of 'fast-lanes' for prioritising certain Internet content on residential broadband access links is being vigorously debated today. While Internet Service Providers (ISPs) see fast-lane revenue as an imperative for their economic sustainability, end-users and several Content Providers (CPs) feel threatened by the violation of network neutrality. In this paper we argue that fast-lanes can present a win-win-win situation for ISPs, CPs, and end-users alike, if implemented in a way that gives each party appropriate control knobs. To this end, we present an architecture in which fast-lanes are dynamically created and destroyed on-the-fly on a per-session basis using input from all three parties - this departs from current proposals that have largely focused on static fast-lanes. We then present a simplified economic model that demonstrates the benefits for each entity: users can get enhanced Quality of Experience (QoE) at no extra cost, CPs can monetise user-satisfaction using business-models of their discretion, and the ISP can experiment with two-sided pricing models of their choice. We evaluate our proposal using real traffic traces and multiple pricing models, and set the ground for a deeper study into the economics of dynamic fast-lanes.