以流量為基礎之網路服務計價探討與實作

Abstract

網際網路蓬勃發展，各式的網路應用服務推陳出新，上網人數年年攀升；在這繁榮景象之下，透過調查可以發現上網用戶對於應用網路服務所需付出價格和業者收取的價格上，有段不小的落差，是哪些因素造成的差距，以及業者在決定網路服務計價政策（Billing Policy）上的考量因素，是本文探討的原因。 一般而言，網路服務計價政策分為以時間為基礎，以及以流量為基礎。以時間為基礎是指在固定時間內收取一定的費用，即「單一費率（Flat Rate）」；而所謂以流量為基礎是指依網路服務的使用量收取費用（Usage-Based Rate）。業者在因應不同的網路服務而有不同的計價政策，本文以經濟學觀點就業者的行為提出解釋。 此外，基於目前環境的限制，以及未來多媒體大量應用的環境需求，本文就以流量為基礎之網路服務計價進行進一步探討，並提出一套計價系統。此系統完整包括流量統計環境的建置、流量統計的方式以及計價政策的制定；依此實作系統，並應用於組織內部，達到網路流量統計的精確性及用戶付費的公平性。在系統建置的過程中，本文也提出兩種對於用戶身份進行對映的方式，對於使用動態IP位址的流量統計環境可供為參考。 整體而言，本文先就網路服務價格上的落差以及業者計價政策進行探討，並就以流量為基礎之網路服務計價進一步分析其系統架構，且實際發展系統為組織內部計價使用；文末並提出本系統未來可進一步改善的建議。

The network applications and network users are rising and flourishing, and connecting to the internet is a part of our life today. According to the investigation, there is a gap between network service providers and the network users for the fee of network service. The paper wants to find the causes of the gap and the factors of network service providers’ pricing model considered. There are two models about network service pricing. The one model is pricing based on time, and the other is pricing based on usage. The network service usage is the network traffic. The paper will view pricing models decided from a economic perspective. The paper interests in pricing based on usage of network service to accommodate the trend of multicast in the future and restricted by the present network environment. It takes a full function of pricing model consists of the process of the pricing framework, the billing method, and billing policy. According the pricing model to develop and implement a system in an organization, and this system overcomes the unexacting network traffic statistics, and rises the fair about the fee. It also takes methods to solve the statistics of network traffic of dynamic IP address, and map the IP address to the real users. Overall, the paper researches in finding the causes of the gap between network service provides and the network users for the fee of network service, and networks service providers’ pricing model considered. Then according to the pricing model, develop and implement a system in an organization to solve some pricing problems. In the end of the paper, some suggestions is addressed to improve the pricing system.