行動寬頻資費及用量管制對使用者效益之影響

智慧手機的普及以及網路社群的發展，使人們對網路使用需求持續增加。然而，無線網路資源有限，因此會發生網路壅塞及資源分配問題。無論是網路壅塞造成連網失敗或是網速過慢，都會造成使用者的滿意度下降。隨著LTE 網路的上市，各種不同的方案政策已相繼被提出。其中，公平使用原則即為一個重要的議題，多家電信商提出了以量計價方案，並且提出了使用量的上限，當累積使用量達到上限時，會對使用者額外收費或是予以限速。　　　本研究包含了使用者連網行為模型、下載流量模型、使用者滿意度模型，及資費方案模型。在3G和LTE兩種不同服務品質網路並存的基礎上，探討在中高負載流量的情況以下數種情境對於使用者的資費選擇行為與滿意度的影響。第一種情境是比較在無流量限制、7GB及4GB的流量限制下的影響。我們以此為基礎，設計不同情境用以檢驗電信商的政策對使用者滿意度的影響。第二種情境是流量限制在第五年年初增加。第三種情境是LTE容量在第五年年初增加及增加不同比例情況下的影響。第四種情境是在第一年即提供不同頻寬大小的LTE容量的比較。第五種情境是在增加LTE容量後對於使用的使用量增長加以控制。第六種情境是重量級使用者在第四年之後即停止增加。　　　研究結果顯示，為了保持LTE和HSPA+的負載平衡，宜有一定比例的使用者選擇3G資費方案。而在合理的流量上限情況下，重量級使用者會有較高比例選擇LTE方案。但若是使用流量上限過低，LTE通道的使用率會過低。隨著使用者使用量的逐年增加，流量上限的限制或許需要考慮提高。情境二的結果顯示提高流量之後，重量級使用者會有較高的比率選擇LTE方案，但相對的輕量級使用者會因滿意度下降而返回使用3G方案。由情境三的結果可以看出，雖然增加容量使用者的頻寬和使用量會因而提高，但相對的流量限制也會變的過低，因此重量級使用者會移回3G方案。由情境四可以看出當LTE的容量是150Mbps時，由於每個人所分得的頻寬也因而增加，重量級使用者會很容易被降速而退回3G方案。情境五顯示在網路擴建之後，在使用者的用量增加速度有所減緩的情況下，使用者滿意度才會有效提升。而情境六顯示在重量級使用者的比例停止增加的情況下，兩方案的使用者比例將會逐漸穩定，且使用者慢意度和網路附載些能有效控制和提升。　　　本研究結果有效預測了電信商的政策對於使用者的資費選擇行為和滿意度之長期影響。除此之外，本研究的模型可以經由部分模型模組之替換以符合不同的環境需求。因此，將有廣大的適用空間。

關鍵字

行動寬頻；資費；用量管制；使用者效益；使用者遷徙

並列摘要

With the popularity of smart devices and Internet society, Internet, especially wireless Internet becomes more and more in need. However, radio resources are limited. Therefore, problems such as wireless Internet congestion and wireless Internet resource allocation appear. Users may be unable to access the wireless Internet or face the wireless Internet with slow speed due to the congestion, and small amount of heavy users occupy the wireless Internet resource more than other users. Both situations can lower the users’ utility and may lead to the loss of mobile broadband providers. With the introduction of LTE, different tariff policies are implemented in expect of solving the problems mentioned above. Meanwhile, fair usage policy is an important issue. Mobile broadband providers often propose tariff plan with quota limit. When the monthly usage of a user reaches his/her limitation, this user has to pay for the excess bandwidth or the mobile broadband provider would degrade the maximum speed of the user. 　　　In this thesis, we include models such as users’ access behavior model, data consumption model, utility function model, and tariff plan model. While 3G and LTE network coexist, how mobile broadband providers’ policies influence the migration behavior of users and their utility with a medium-high loading are studied. In the first scenario, we compare cases with no quota limit, 4GB quota limit and 7GB quota limit as a basis. The other scenarios are then designed to examine how different operation strategies influence users’ utility. In the second scenario, the quota limit is increased at the beginning of year 5; in scenario three, the capacity of LTE is also increased at the beginning of year 5; in scenario four, different LTE capacity are provided from the beginning of year 1; in scenario five, we control the data usage of heavy users; and in scenario six, the ratio of heavy user stops increasing after year four. 　　　The results of scenario one show that when 3G and LTE networks coexist in the environment, it is necessary for a certain ratio of users to stay in the 3G tariff plan, so that the utilization of both of the 3G and LTE channel would be balanced. With a reasonable quota limit of LTE plan, a higher ratio of heavy user would stay in the LTE tariff plan. However, if the quota limit is unreasonably low, for example, if the quota limit is set to be too small, the utilization of LTE network would be low and the whole 3G-LTE dual network operation would be inefficient. Scenario two show that with quota limit expansion, the utilization of LTE network would be effectively increased. However, since the ratio of heavy user staying in LTE plan increases, the utility of light user decreases, and the light users would tend to move back to the 3G tariff plan. And the results of scenario three show that with the expansion of LTE capacity, the data usage consumption of heavy users increases as well, which causes the increase of quota limit to become ineffective, and the heavy users would tend to move back to 3G tariff plan again. In scenario four we learn that when the capacity of LTE is set to be 150Mbps from year 1, since the allocated bandwidth for each user accessing LTE channel increased significantly, heavy users are more likely to be downgraded, and they would return to 3G plan. And in scenario five we could see that if we can control the increase of IPTV usage effectively, one can expect that the investment of mobile broadband providers’ on the expansion of LTE network capacity may bring better returns. In scenario six, the ratio of both heavy users and light users choosing LTE plan and 3G plan would become stable, since both the utility of heavy users and network utilization are improved and controlled. 　　　Our study has successfully predict how mobile broadband providers’ policy influence users’ utility and their migration behavior in the long run. What’s more, in the model we adopted, its component model could be replaced by another component model to adapt to other kinds of market environment, including other kinds of tariff plans, or different types of users’ behavior.

並列關鍵字

Mobile broadband ； Tariff ； Usage control

參考文獻

K.B. Letaief, Y.J.Zhang, “Dynamic multiuser resource allocation and adaptation for wireless systems,” IEEE Wireless Communications, vol. 13, issue 4,August. 2006.

Ofcom, ”Traffic management and net neutrality,”

M.Lesk, ”Son of Carterfone:Network Neutrality of Regulation,” Security & Privacy, vol.8,issue 3, p. 77, May. 2010.

T.C. Lin, Y.L. Sun, S.C. Chang, S.I. Chu, Y.T. Chou, M.W.Li,” Management of abusive and unfair Internet access by quota-based priority control,” Computer Networks, vol.44, no.4, pp.441-462, Mar. 2004.

S.I. Chu, S.C.Chang, ”Time-of-Day Internet Access Management:Virtual pricing vs.Quota Scheduling,” IEEE Transactions Parallel and Distributed Systems, vol.16, no. 7, pp.624-636,July. 2005.

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行動寬頻資費及用量管制對使用者效益之影響

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