Dynamic Price-Based Call, Admission Control Algorithm for Multi-Class Communication Networks

In this paper, we propose a new price-based call admission control algorithm for multi-class communication networks. When a call arrives at the network, it informs the network of the number of requested circuits and the minimum amount of time that it will require. The network provides the optimal price for the arrived call with which it tries to maximize its expected revenue. The optimal price is dynamically adjusted based on the information of the arrived call, and the present and the estimated future congestion level of the network during the reservation time of the call. If the call accepts the price, it is admitted. Otherwise, it is rejected. We compare the performance of our dynamic pricing algorithm with that of the static pricing algorithm by Courcoubetis and Reiman [1], and Paschalidis and Tsitsiklis [2]. By the comparison, we show that our dynamic pricing algorithm has better performance aspects such as higher call admission ratio and lower price than the static pricing algorithm, although these two algorithms result in almost the same revenue as shown in [2]. This implies that, in the competitive situation, the dynamic pricing algorithm can attract more users than the static pricing algorithm, generating more revenue. Moreover, we show that if a certain fixed connection fee is introduced to the price for a call, our dynamic pricing algorithm yields more revenue.