Priority telephony system with pricing alternatives

Abstract

Dynamic pricing schemes in telecommunication networks were traditionally employed to create users' incentives in such a way that the overall utilization is improved and profits are maximized. However, such schemes create frustration to users, since there is no guarantee that they would get services at the anticipated prices. In this paper, we propose a pricing scheme for priority telephony systems that provides alternatives to users. Users can choose between a) a dynamic price scheme that provides a superior quality of service or b) a fixed low price with acceptable performance degradation. Our results verify that the proposed pricing scheme improves the overall system utilization and yet guarantees users' satisfaction. © Springer-Verlag 2004.