Optimal ISP subscription for Internet multihoming: algorithm design and implication analysis

— Multihoming is a popular method used by large enterprises and stub ISPs to connect to the Internet to reduce cost and improve performance. Recently researchers have studied the potential benefits of multihoming and proposed protocols and algorithms to realize these benefits. They focus on how to dynamically select which ISPs to use for forwarding and receiving packets, and assume that the set of subscribed ISPs is given a priori. In practice, a user often has the freedom to choose which subset of ISPs among all available ISPs to subscribe to. We call the problem of how to choose the optimal set of ISPs the ISP subscription problem. In this paper, We design a dynamic programming algorithm to solve the ISP subscription problem optimally. We also design a more efficient algorithm for a large class of common pricing functions. Using real traffic traces and realistic pricing data, we show that our algorithm reduces users’ cost. Next we study how ISPs respond to users’ optimal IS...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Hao Wang, Haiyong Xie 0002, Lili Qiu, Abraham Silberschatz, Yang Richard Yang
• Keywords: Communications, INFOCOM 2005, ISP Subscription Problem, ISPs, Stub Isps