Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!ucbvax!LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU!philipp
From: philipp@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (Philip Prindeville [CC])
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re:  Packet level accounting in IP routers?
Message-ID: <8804151649.AA02663@Larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Date: 15 Apr 88 16:49:42 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 12

I remember being told once by a telco person that 80% of the toll
collected on long lines was just to pay for the accounting process
itself (this was in the days when they sent the armoured truck to
pick up the AMA tapes).  I don't know how much this has changed.

I can easily see a significant amount of gateway resources (bandwidth,
memory, CPU) being eaten up just by accounting, which would mean
getting a more expensive box...  so you would pay more to get what
you get now.  For this reason, I think the flat-rate charge is a good
idea (but then I also favour rate-of-return over price-capping).

-Philip