Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!CCV.BBN.COM!haverty
From: haverty@CCV.BBN.COM
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Whither chargeback policies?
Message-ID: <8804251446.AA06237@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 25 Apr 88 13:45:26 GMT
References: <8804251015.AA04421@LANAI.MCL.UNISYS.COM>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 32

It's encouraging to see a discussion like this happening.  I think
it may be useful and/or important to note the distinction between
cost-recovery and "cost"-feedback.  All of a network's costs must be
recovered somehow, and mechanisms must be in place to collect the
data about costs to support collecting the needed funds.  Basing
that scheme on end-user usage is only one scheme, which is in favor
right now - the analogy on the interstates might be if every vehicle's
odometer reading was reported to some accounting system that produced
bills.  Cost feedback is a separable question, though closely related.
The goal is to encourage efficiency and reduce waste usually, but also
may be to encourage certain kinds of use that the benevolent network
owner wants to promote.  Feedback may be in the form of inconvenience
(slow network performance, long gas lines at the pumps), or money, or
availability (a T1 circuit to your campus, an interstate interchange
at your town).

My suspicion is that a mix of such techniques is needed.  As people
have noted, a blanket usage-based scheme might tend to stifle new
ideas or uses; a free-networking approach drives costs out of sight
for the benefactor.  Maybe we need a scheme which promotes new ideas,
but assures that efficiency gets introduced along the way to large
scale usage of any particular idea?

This sounds like a topic which needs wide input and thinking.  Does
it make sense to hold a session of some kind at the upcoming TCP/IP
conference in Santa Clara this summer?   Dan Lynch's shows seem
to be drawing a good mix of academic, industry, government, and
user representation.  Dennis Perry - maybe in addition to pulling
together that paper you mentioned, you could pull together a session
to present results and a large dose of open discussion?

Jack