Initial Stab at Attribute Definition for CDN-Peering

[don@entera.com (Don Gilletti)]

The following text was provided by Jay Guha (jayg@apogeenet.com) as a
proposed starting point for defining accounting attributes for CDN
peering. I'm forwarding it to this list in the hopes that additional
conversation can begin.

Regards,

don_g

--- Jay Guha's text starts here ---

CDN Peering / InterConnect

(Billing Component)


1) Intro

   (a) 	Audience
	This document is for the consideration of the participants
	in the ContentAlliance working group. This document and
	associated works will be folded back into the Accounting
	Document which is a deliverable of the ContentAlliance

   (b)	Objective

	This document main focus is to communicate and achieve the
	expressions of work that CDNs perform, expressions of
	consumption of works performed, handshake / exchange of work
	expression between the participating elements
	(network/services). These expressions are then typically
	forwarded to downstream component where settlement, rating
	(the act of assigning a dollar value to a piece of work),
	and billing occurs.

   (c)	Assumptions / References :

	

http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-gilletti-cdnp-accounting-models-

01.txt


   (d)	Preamble :

	An expression of consumption consists of a collection /
	sequence of attributes which consist of identifiers, measures,
	and counters. The attributes serve to answer the who, what,
	when, where and perhaps why of these elements of usage or acts
	of consumption.

	For the CDN Peering/Interconnect scenario, it is important to
	construct the expressions / acts of consumption such that
	there is no dispute and ambiguity in meaning between parties
	producing and receiving these expressions of usage /
	consumption etc. In each act of consumption, there is a
	minimum set of attributes in which an act / expression of
	consumtion / usage is considered 'complete and undisputable'
	and therefore ratable / billable.

	In addition, there are various 'modalities of usage' - session,
	resource-consumption, transaction / event, and/or a combination
	of the above. This is not to be confused by the 'modalities of
	billing' such as pre-paid, post-paid, flat-rate, time-of-day,
	tiered, etc

	On a further note, it is also important to keep in the
	background, that the cost of metering / billing an act of
	consumption should not 'cost' more than the value of the
	consumption. This will help to keep perspective on the
	granularity of details / attributes required to meter the
	usage and the associated costs / benefit ratios



2) Terminology & Glossary

	ATTR	- Attribute (could be an identifier, measure, counter)

	COUNTER	- Name/Value pair which is numeric (must have min, max,
		  increment etc)

	MEASURE	- Name/value pair which could be used to measure the
		  performance / delivery of a service / product.

	UNITS	- units of measurement (ex inches, ft, cm etc)

	IDENTIFIER - Name/Value pair which identifies an entity
		  (E.164 addr )

3) Use Case

    (a)	Service Definition1

	The Content Peering service is the serving  of content (url)
	requested by either another peered-CDN or the forwarding of a
	request to serve content to another CDN, or the actual serving
	of a content (url)

	Service Requirements
	Scenario / Flow
	Usage Attributes List


4) Table1 - Expression of Work

==========================================================================
 Category |      Usage      | Data | (Req/  | Possible | Remarks
          |    Attribute    | Type |  Opt/  | Values   |
	  |      Name       |      |  Cond) |          |
==========================================================================
What	  |   WorkID/       |      | Req.   |          | Unique Identifier 
	  | SessionID       |      |        |          | within an
	  |                 |      |        |          | applicable domain
----------+-----------------+------+--------+----------+------------------
What	  | WorkTypeID      | Int  | Req.   |CacheWork | CacheWork as
	  |	            |      |	    |          | opposed to
	  |	            |      |        |          | Streaming Work
          |                 |      |        |          | etc
----------+-----------------+------+--------+----------+------------------
When	  | StartTime       | Int  | Cond.  |          | Time of initial
	  |	            |      |	    |          | request requested
	  |	            |      |	    |          | by the service -
	  |	            |      |	    |          | requested during
	  |	            |      |	    |          | the session.
----------+-----------------+------+--------+----------+------------------
When	  | EndTime         | Int  | Cond.  |	       |
----------+-----------------+------+--------+----------+------------------
Measure   | RequestDuration | Int  | Cond.  | Seconds  | Time between
two
          |                 |      |        |          | consecutive
          |                 |      |        |          | requests
----------+-----------------+------+--------+----------+------------------
What      | VisitTime       | Int  | Opt.   | Seconds  | The duration
that
          |                 |      |        |          | covers a series
          |                 |      |        |          | of consecutive
          |                 |      |        |          | requests to the
          |                 |      |        |          | URL site.
Bounded
          |                 |      |        |          | by the first
and
          |                 |      |        |          | last requests
          |                 |      |        |          | made user
----------+-----------------+------+--------+----------+------------------
What      | CacheHitMiss    |      |        |          |
----------+-----------------+------+--------+----------+------------------
What      | ContentID       |String| Req.   | URI      | Actual URL
server
----------+-----------------+------+--------+----------+------------------          
What      | ContentType     |String| Req.   | URI      | Video, audio,
          |                 |      |        |          | WebPage
----------+-----------------+------+--------+----------+------------------          
          | Misc. Content   |      |        |          | Etc.
          | Attributes      |      |        |          |
==========================================================================



5) Table2 - Expression of Consumption

==========================================================================
Category |    Usage    | Data  | (Req/  | Possible | Remarks
         |  Attribute  | Type  |  Opt/  | Values   |
         |     Name    |       |  Cond) |          |
==========================================================================
Who      | RequestorID |       | Req.   |          | Unique identifier
         |             |       |        |          | indicating who
         |             |       |        |          | requested the work
---------+-------------+-------+--------+----------+----------------------
Who      | ProviderID  | Int.  | Req.   |          | Who did the work
---------+-------------+-------+--------+----------+----------------------
What     | WorkID      | Int.  | Req.   |          | What work was done
==========================================================================