System and method for on-demand pricing for differentiated services computer networks

摘要

A system and method providing prioritized service on a computer network such as the Internet is disclosed. A user requests a service upgrade from their Internet Service Provider (ISP). In response to the service upgrade request, the ISP marks request packets sent by the user as priority packets and also records the upgraded service in a billing database. When the user no longer needs upgraded service, he requests that normal service resume. During normal service, packets are marked as normal priority packets and the customer is billed at a normal, or flat, rate. Routers and other packet handling devices provide preferential handling of the packets marked as priority packets. When a router's queue is full, the router drops normal priority packets before dropping any higher priority packets. In addition, a queue manager can organize the router's queue so that high priority packets are processed before their normal priority counterparts.