On the interaction between ISP revenue sharing and network neutrality

Abstract

Flows typically pass through multiple networks owned and managed by different ISPs (Internet Service Providers). Users pay usage fee to the traversed networks, and each ISP typically applies different charging rules, depending on their own economic interests and business policies. The revenue sharing rule among ISPs, i.e., how users' fee is shared among them has been known to have large impacts on evolution of the networks, e.g., incentives to upgrade the networks. Related to revenue sharing is network neutrality, where we are particularly interested in the way of sharing the network operation cost between EUs (End-User) and CPs (Content-Providers). This paper studies the interaction between ISP revenue sharing and neutrality-compatible pricing between EU and CP. We study the cases (i) when ISPs charge users/CPs selfishly and (ii) when they coordinate towards fairness of ROI (Return-On Investment). We discuss different engineering and economic implications using the analytical results for two revenue sharing policies coupled with neutrality in the network.