[1897] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Understanding Combits
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gary Wright)
Mon Jan 6 18:55:52 1992
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 23:54:04 GMT
From: wright@saturn.hsi.com (Gary Wright)
In-Reply-To: Jordan Becker <becker@ans.net>
To: Jordan Becker <becker@ans.net>, cook@tmn.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In the message "Understanding Combits", on Jan 6 Jordan Becker writes:
> A COMBIT is a directionless unit of measure that quantifies the flow of
> traffic between two unique network numbers. COMBITs are collected at a
> gateway between two service providers and may be defined as:
>
> COMBITs = [packets_in + packets_out]*300 + [bytes_in + bytes_out]
Correct me if I am wrong (I'm sure someone will) but this measurement
implies that unsolicited traffic sent to a "commercial" network will generate
a charge from ANS to the intermediate network.
I am assuming that such a intermediate network (a mid-level) will charge
back their commercial customers an amount at least equivalent to the
amount that ANS charges to the intermediate network.
So if I declare my network as commercial, then I have to pay for people
to send me email, forward news to me, anonymous ftp, finger, etc.
whether I have asked for their traffic or not. I don't suppose I'll get a "net
bill" as detailed as the somewhat analogous phone bill in order to
verify I'm getting charged appropriately. I wouldn't want to
audit such a document.
Also, assuming that I declare my network "commercial", doesn't that imply
that all my traffic is commercial? i.e It is all nothing as as far
as COMBITS go? Would I have to create a second network on which my users could
generate and consume AUBITS (Acceptable Use bits)?
And finally, why would I prefer this measured service over a fixed rate service?
----
Gary Wright ...!uunet!hsi!wright
3M Health Information Systems wright@hsi.com
