On Applications and Profiles for Policy-based Pricing of Ubiquitous Services in Next-Generation Networks

Next-Generation Networks are increasingly ubiquitous and one of the challenges users face is the lack of a convenient mechanism and standards to access every day services. Dynamic pricing, which changes according to context and demand, and ad-hoc engagement with network services providers, are solutions in the right direction. This paper continues the exploration of a user-oriented pricing approach for next-generation networks where pricing for services will not be governed by long-term agreements but will be based on ad-hoc usage (policy-dependent), short-term agreements and spot-pricing (and payment). Based on the usage, the users will make decisions on what to pay and who to pay for the best service they require. These new approaches allows multiple competing access providers to dynamically determine prices for services, broadcasts those tariffs and automatically negotiate a spot contract with a software agent running on the user´s device. The paper also discusses our thoughts on the range of services and users´ profiles required to deploy a working prototype