Impatience in mobile networks and its application to data pricing

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new QoE-based metric for user impatience in overloaded mobile networks, and proposes a pricing scheme that adjusts charges based on the impact of user reneging on network performance.

Contribution

It develops a fluid limit analysis to quantify reneging probability and introduces a novel QoE perturbation metric for improved data pricing strategies.

Findings

Derived a fixed point equation for reneging probability

Proposed a pricing scheme based on QoE perturbation levels

Validated the impact of the pricing model on network performance

Abstract

We consider in this paper an import Quality of Experience (QoE) indicator in mobile networks that is reneging of users due to impatience. We specifically consider a cell under heavy load conditions and compute the reneging probability by using a fluid limit analysis. By solving the fixed point equation, we obtain a new QoE perturbation metric quantifying the impact of reneging on the performance of the system. This metric is then used to devise a new pricing scheme accounting of reneging. We specifically propose several flavors of this pricing around the idea of having a flat rate for accessing the network and an elastic price related to the level of QoE perturbation induced by communications.