Bidding for telecommunications traffic

Abstract

Telecommunication switches (e.g., PBX's or local exchange carrier's switches) route calls in accordance with economic incentives (e.g., least cost routing) resulting from a bidding process between participating interexchange telecommunication carriers (Carriers) by operation of a central processor, a computer referred to as a bidding moderator (Moderator). Each of the Carriers informs the Moderator of the rate it is willing to charge (or other economic incentive it is willing to offer) for service between two specific points in the telecommunication network at some particular time. The Moderator collects this bid information from all the Carriers, sorts it among originating points and transmits it to an adjunct processor at each subscribing switch location and to all participating Carriers' network management centers. From the list of all Carriers providing bid information to the Moderator, each Subscriber can select those Carriers to which it wants traffic routed and can change that selection at any time. After each new bid is submitted by a Carrier and is processed by the Moderator, it is distributed to both the relevant Subscribers and all other Carriers. All Carriers have the opportunity to submit at any time a lower or higher bid for any point-to-point routes on which they wish, respectively, to stimulate or discourage additional traffic. The Moderator could offer a different class of service to end users who are calling parties by broadcasting each carrier's bid to an interface unit at each user location.