Pricing for heterogeneous services in OFDMA 802.16 systems

Abstract

The IEEE 802.16 standard is expected to become a successful broadband wireless access solution, especially thanks to its ablility to provide high data rates, to differentiate services, and thanks to its interoperability, as promoted by the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) organization. We consider in this paper an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)-based 802.16 operator, and investigate how to charge in order to control demand and maximize the revenue. Pricing has indeed been seen as a way to provide return on investment for providers, as well as to control demand and differentiate services for delivering a satisfactory quality of service (QoS) to heterogeneous applications. Our model specifically assumes two classes of applications with an infinite population of potential customers. The average number of customers per class is naturally regulated by prices but also the resulting QoS, this QoS depending itself on the customers in each class. We analyze the equilibrium situation of this game for fixed prices, and then numerically determine prices maximizing the operator's revenue.