Essay on ATM Networks

Different communication networks have been developed to meet the specific needs of different services, including telephone networks for voice, cable-TV networks for video, and the Internet for computer communications. With the emergence of technology to support cell switching based on asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), it is clear that ATM integrated-services networks are going to replace today's single-service networks, and become the networking standard for the telecommunications industry in the near future. In ATM networks, all types of information, such as video, voice, image, and data, are organized as streams of fixed-length packets (cells). By controlling the average and variance of transmission speed of each cell stream, different services can be provided to satisfy consumers different needs. www.cse.ohio-state.edu
Before ATM network services can be efficiently provided, the pricing issue should be carefully addressed. Developing a general optimal pricing mechanism for any given ATM network is a broad and interesting problem. The result not only depends on economic parameters, such as consumer demand, but also is affected by technical specifics, such as network topology and routing algorithms. There are reasons to believe that the development of ATM networks will start with single links, so it is appropriate to solve the link-pricing problem first. The solution sheds some light on the more general networking-pricing problem.

The goal of the pricing decision is to maximize social welfare if the network is controlled by a regulator, or to maximize profit if the network is operated by an unregulated natural monopoly. In either case, one should decide the price of a service based on the cost of providing it. However, unlike that of providing a tangible product, the physical cost of providing a network service is usually negligible once the infrastructure is in place. The major cost that needs to be considered in the pricing decision is the opportunity cost (i.e., the cost of denying services to some customers to serve others)......................

ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY