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We design a protocol for dynamic prioritization of data on shared routers such as untethered 3G/4G devices. The mechanism prioritizes bandwidth in favor of users with the highest value, and is incentive compatible, so that users can simply report their true values for network access. A revenue pooling mechanism also aligns incentives for sellers, so that they will choose to use prioritization methods that retain the incentive properties on the buy-side. In this way, the design allows for an open architecture. In addition to revenue pooling, the technical contribution is to identify a class of stochastic demand models and a prioritization scheme that provides allocation monotonicity. Simulation results confirm efficiency gains from dynamic prioritization relative to prior methods, as well as the effectiveness of revenue pooling., Engineering and Applied Sciences

As the rapid expansion of smart phones and associated data-intensive applications continues, we expect to see renewed interest in dynamic prioritization schemes as a way to increase the total utility of a heterogeneous user base, with each user experiencing variable demand and value for access. We adapt a recent sampled-based mechanism for resource allocation to this setting, which is more effective in aligning incentives in a setting with variable demand than an earlier method for pricing network resources due to Varian and Mackie-Mason (1994). Complementing our theoretical analysis, which also considers incentives on the sell-side of the market, we present the results of a simulation study, confirming the effectiveness of our protocol in aligning incentives and boosting welfare., Engineering and Applied Sciences