[2670] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Settlements
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (drw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU)
Mon Apr 6 11:24:57 1992
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 11:23:32 EDT
From: drw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU
To: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9204061351.AA21567@mitchell.cit.cornell.edu> "swb@nr-tech.cit.cornell.edu"
From: Scott Brim <swb@nr-tech.cit.cornell.edu>
Dale, if you allow for "pre-bidding" (No haggling, no fuss; the price on
the sticker is the best we offer!) this is basically what IDPR and
Source-Demand Routing are all about.
OK, what's IDPR?
From: Stephen Wolff <steve@cise.cise.nsf.gov>
Back in '86-'87 when we first started thinking seriously about charging, I
used to talk publicly about just the kind of routing you proposed, and
pointed out (half in fun and all in earnest) the very real possiblities for
and dangers of millisecond-time-scale bait and switch... Cheers, -s
Well, that's why I said that they were *bids*, that is, legally
binding offers to deliver the given packet for the stated price.
Similarly, in any system where networks posted prices, each price
would have to have a good-until time, and be binding until that time.
Although, as others have pointed out, since network operations have
high fixed costs and very low marginal costs, pricing each packet as
an independent transaction doesn't work very well. Oh, well.
Dale Worley Dept. of Math., MIT drw@math.mit.edu
--
God is a comic playing to an audience that's afraid to laugh.
