System and method for controlling network demand via congestion pricing

摘要

A method and system for avoiding network congestion by measuring network load to adjust a rate at each source. The load (e.g., as a price value) is provided to network traffic sources, which adjust their flows based on a per-flow weight (willingness to pay). The load may be determined in-band by routers or out-of-band by an observer node. A load value (e.g., as a price) is increased or decreased based on the actual load or an estimate based on the actual load. The sources obtain the load value and control the output rates per flow based on each flow's associated weight (willingness to pay), e.g., as set by an administrator. Further, two classes of applications are enabled by allowing certain applications to ignore price.