MARKET-DRIVEN VARIABLE PRICE OFFERINGS FOR BANDWIDTH-SHARING AD HOC NETWORKS

• US 20080298284A1
• Filed: 05/31/2007
• Published: 12/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Finn, Peter G., Dawson, Christopher J., Hamilton, Rick A. II, Li, Jenny S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,419,360 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/787 Bandwidth trade among domains
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Systems and methods to establish and execute market-driven variable price offerings among the lenders and borrowers in a bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network for shared bandwidth usage. The method comprises establishing and executing market-driven variable price offerings among lenders and borrowers. A bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network for shared bandwidth usage is formed based on the established and executed market-driven variable price offering.

Claims

1. A method comprising establishing and executing market-driven variable price offerings among lenders and borrowers to form a bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network for shared bandwidth usage.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing and executing the market-driven variable price offerings in one of a peer-to-peer environment and a multiplexed environment.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, in the multiplexed environment, a multiplexer is one of within and outside of the bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are provided by a service provider.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a service provider at least one of creates, maintains, deploys and supports a computer infrastructure that performs the steps of claim 1.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are provided on at least one of a subscription, an advertising, and a fee basis.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing comprises offering a price to be a lender and waiting to receive an acceptance of the price from a borrower.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the offering is either a unilateral or multilateral offer.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein, in the unilateral offer, a lender node offers bandwidth and awaits responses regardless of quantitative offers being put forth by other lenders in the bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network for shared bandwidth usage.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein, in the multilateral offer, a lender node takes into account quantitative pricing for shared bandwidth offers put forth by other lenders in the bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network for shared bandwidth usage.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing comprises conducting an auction to determine a market-driven price to share bandwidth.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein a lender waits a period of time so that bidding nodes can raise the price for bandwidth.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a bidding node may withdraw their offer with no penalty.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the auction is a reverse auction.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the auction is a sealed action.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing market-driven variable price offerings to form the bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network for shared bandwidth usage is one of an “

offer and wait” and

an auction offering executed for a variety of specified metrics, including at least one of;

bandwidth (data volume/time) as an absolute measure for as long as a lender is in a network;

bandwidth (data volume/time) as an absolute measure for a fixed length of time;

data volume provided a lender stays in the network; and

data volume for a fixed unit of time.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing guarantees or stipulations involving sharing of the bandwidth with borrowers.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing compensation if a service level falls short of a negotiated guarantee or stipulation.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising resolving conflict scenarios when establishing the bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network for shared bandwidth usage.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the conflict scenarios comprise at least one of:

a potential borrower requests to borrow bandwidth from a lender already engaged with a current borrower;

multiple potential borrowers simultaneously request to borrow bandwidth from an available lender; and

multiple potential borrowers simultaneously request to borrow bandwidth from the lender already engaged with the current borrower.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein when one of the potential borrower and multiple potential borrowers request to borrow bandwidth from the lender already engaged with the current borrower,

in a multiplexed environment, a multiplexer acts on behalf of the lender to ask if the potential borrower or potential borrowers can wait until the current borrower is finished with sharing bandwidth;

and

in a peer-to-peer environment, the lender asks if the potential borrower or potential borrowers can wait until the current borrower is finished with the sharing of bandwidth.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein in a multiplexed environment, the multiplexer notifies the borrower when the lender'"'"'s bandwidth is available, and in a peer-to-peer environment, the lender notifies the borrower when the lender'"'"'s bandwidth is available.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein when the multiple potential borrowers simultaneously request to borrow bandwidth from one of the available lender and the lender already engaged, (i) each potential borrower submits a request to the multiplexer or lender to borrow bandwidth or (ii) each lender or the multiplexer receives a request from the potential borrower, and (iii) the multiplexer or the lender acknowledges each borrower and determines a percentage of bandwidth that the lender is willing to lend and an amount of the bandwidth.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising determining a time of bandwidth sharing each potential borrower needs.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the establishing comprises a multiplexer to arrange a bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network between a lender and a potential borrower having criteria that will command a highest price.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein when the criteria is unknown to any of the potential borrowers, the multiplexer gives each potential borrower predetermined options.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the predetermined options include:

withdrawing a request to borrow bandwidth;

participating in an auction; and

splitting available bandwidth of the lender.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing includes selecting and adjusting at least one of cost-sensitivity, bandwidth and functionality.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing includes offering multi-tiered, affinity-sensitive service classes.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the multi-tiered, affinity-sensitive service classes includes a lender node at least one of:

charging a lower price for lending bandwidth to borrowers of a same service provider;

only sharing bandwidth with other nodes of a same service provider if a conflict arises;

charging a same price to all borrowers, regardless of service provider affiliations; and

charging a lower price, or nothing to borrower nodes based on at least one of;

self-defined affinities;

corporate or organizational underwriting; and

affinities of access points.

31. A method of establishing an ad hoc network comprising:

requesting to borrow bandwidth from a lender;

receiving acknowledgment as to whether there is a conflict between at least one potential borrower and the lender;

resolving the conflict; and

establishing the ad hoc network when the conflict is resolved.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein resolving the conflict comprises at least one of:

if the at least one potential borrower is not willing to wait due to the conflict, the potential borrower trying another lender; and

if the at least one potential borrower is willing to wait, waiting a predetermined period of time and, if the lender is not engaged, receiving notification that bandwidth from the lender is available to share.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein resolving the conflict comprises at least one of:

potential borrowers trying another lender;

the potential borrowers determining bandwidth criteria;

the potential borrowers requesting an auction; and

the potential borrowers splitting available bandwidth of the lender.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising transmitting determined bandwidth criteria to a multiplexer or the lender.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the multiplexer or the lender selects a borrower based on determined bandwidth criteria.

36. The method of claim 33, further comprising any of remaining potential borrowers requesting the auction to establish the ad hoc network.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising a multiplexer or the lender conducting the auction.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the conducting the auction comprises at least one of the multiplexer or lender:

setting a beginning bid;

setting at least one of an auction duration and a cap on a number of wait periods;

setting a bid increment; and

showing a highest bid to at least one of all bidding nodes, a highest bidding node, and none of the bidding nodes.

39. A method for deploying a bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network, comprising providing a computer infrastructure being operable to establish and execute market-driven variable price offerings among lenders and borrowers to form a bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network for shared bandwidth usage.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the computer infrastructure is at least one of created, maintained and supported by a service provider on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis.

41. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer program product includes at least one component to establish and execute market-driven variable price offerings among lenders and borrowers to form a bandwidth-sharing ad hoc network for shared bandwidth usage.