[1187] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Wanted: a Primer on Settlements!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stephen Wolff)
Wed Aug 14 11:56:53 1991
To: tmn!cook@uunet.uu.net
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 91 11:17:32 EDT
From: Stephen Wolff <steve@ncri.cise.nsf.gov>
No primer here; just a matter of definition:
A and B are carriers. B charges A to carry A's traffic, and vice versa;
settlements are payments (A->B or B->A) to take care of any imbalance over a
specified billing period.
They need NOT be usage-based - although in the POTS (Primitive Old Telephone
System) world I believe they are.
ANS' settlement scheme is I believe descended from one I proposed a good
many years ago under which, if there are different (non-usage-based) fees
for different classes of service, then the proportion of each fee paid
depends on the proportion of use in each class. This is usage-sensitive,
but not unbounded, and hence attractive to budgeters since the maximum
exposure is limited to the largest of the several (non-usage-based) fees
(and is incurred only when 100% of the usage is in the most expensive class).
-s
