Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 20:12:51 -0700 From: Vadim Antonov <avg@quake.net> To: ed@texas.net, jerry@fc.net Subject: Re: MFS WorldCom/WilTel/LDDS Cc: nanog@merit.edu [...] To be more precise it would have had merit if Internet metering was at least remotely technically feasible. [...]
The easiest point to measure traffic is undoubtedly on the link between the customer and its ISP. I believe that many ISPs are already measuring the total amount of traffic into and out of each customer. I even saw a complicated pricing formula from one ISP which added a surcharge cor customers which passed a lot of traffic over the last time period (some number of months, I seem to recall). So, at least at one point, we already have at least one example of an ISP which had a component of its pricing based on the amount of traffic transferred over a dedicated connection. A number of other usage-based charging schemes have been proposed which were based on tractable measurements, (e.g., settlements of all sorts of flavors, combits, ...). Measuring traffic accurately enough to use the results in charging is not hard. On the other hand, it is possible to invent measuring schemes which are impossible to implement, (e.g., a host-to-host traffic matrix gathered somewhere nearer the "core" [whatever that is] of the Net. On the other hand, I probably missed your point... -tjs