Pricing, Charging, & Billing Experiments Using the H.323 Gateway Jimmy Shih, Anthony Joseph, Randy Katz

The ICEBERG Testbed Indoor Coverage Indoor/Outdoor Coverage Local Area Network Proxy H.323 Gateway Public Switched Telephone Network 1900 MHz GSM Cellular Base Station Outdoor Coverage 1800 MHz GSM Cellular Base Station Data Converter Controller Paging Base Station

The H.323 Testbed Provide a web interface. Integrate with the IMAP service. Web server (H.323 proxy using the upgraded Lucent Elemedia H.323 protocol stack). Relational database. Upgraded Motorola Vanguard H.323 gateway. Primary Rate ISDN line (24 simultaneous voice calls), 100 Mbits Ethernet. Motorola Vanguard H.323 Gateway Web Server (H.323 Proxy) Public Switched Telephone Network Local Area Network Primary Rate ISDN Line 100 Mbits Ethernet Relational Database

Experiment 1: Congestion Pricing Design Features: Provide real-time pricing & billing information. Allow callers and callees to split the call costs. Provide all the control functions through both the phones and the computers.

Experiment 1: Congestion Pricing 500 users using the gateway to make and receive telephone calls. Capacity limited to 24 simultaneous voice connections. First come first service with fat rate per minute leads to high utilization, but poor availability. Congestion pricing with price per minute depending on the network load can lead to high utilization and good availability. Price per minute can depend on the call duration. Price per minute can depend on the amount of usage in a time period.

Experiment 2: Multiple Service Providers Logically: one service provider responsible for calls in each area code. Physically: emulate multiple service providers in our H.323 gateway. 415 Area Code Service Provider H.323 Gateway 415 ACSP 650 ACSP 510 ACSP Internet 650 Area Code Service Provider 510 Area Code Service Provider 415 Area Code 650 Area Code 510 Area Code PSTN Logical PicturePhysical Picture

Experiment 2: Multiple Service Providers Provide one integrated bill across multiple service providers. Perform settlements between service providers. Using a Clearing House to find the best path across multiple service providers. Allow the best path to change depending on the network conditions. See if prices can solve congestion across multiple service providers. See if prices can perform load balancing across the network. Provide mechanisms to deal with network stability issues.

Experiment 3: Multicast Services Provide multiple party calls. Handles membership changes. Handles different link prices in the multicast tree. Allow members to negotiate how to split the cost.

Experiment 4: Reliable Datagram Services Provide voice message delivery service. Sending reliable datagram across multiple service providers. Allow senders & receivers to negotiate on who should pay.