Paying for high speed networking services

Abstract

The idea of a free network is a myth of the past. Networking costs are expected to remain a burden to future IT budgets, no doubt raising questions regarding the payment of such services. Users do not normally pay to use local area networks, as companies tend to own their LANs. However, when wide area or international networks are considered, the situation is different. It is argued that in these cases the invoicing and payment system should be integral to the network's communication protocol. This implies changes to the networking protocol (to handle invoicing) as well as a new look at customary ideas of representing currency (to handle payment). In this dissertation, an invoicing and payment scheme that uses electronic cash and is implemented as part of the basic ATM protocols is discussed. The main advantages of this scheme can be summarized as a low administrative overhead and user privacy.