Pricing Services in a Grid of Computers Using Priority Segmentation

Emmanuel Fragniere, Francesco Moresino

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DOI: 10.4236/jssm.2010.33040                

Abstract

In the past decade many grids of computers have been built among non-profit institutions. These grids are built on a voluntary participation and the resources are not charged to the users. When a resource is given free of charge its allocation is in general not optimal. In this paper, we propose an original mechanism that allows an optimal resource allocation without cash exchanges. We develop a pricing scheme where the service is segmented according to the priority level. The optimal prices of the different services are obtained by solving a Markov Decision Process (MDP). Each participant receives a credit that is proportional to its contribution that enables him to have access to services offered by the grid.

Keywords

Service Pricing, Grid Economy

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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