The Merkato InvisibleHand's software platform, which dynamically prices, sells, and allocates IP bandwidth in real time. Merkato means "market" in Esperanto. administrator configures your reservation parameters. This section describes the reservation Buyer agent The program that interacts with the rest of Merkato on behalf of buyers and sellers. Buyers can acquire bandwidth by configuring their agents to offer the price they are willing to pay for a range of available quantity, or use their agent to request a quote for a fixed-price bandwidth reservation. Sellers configure their agents with a quantity of bandwidth for sale and a minimum price they are willing to accept for that quantity. . As a seller, if you buy reservations from your own resources, you are removing bandwidth The amount of data transmitted or received per unit of time. When we refer to acquiring or selling bandwidth, we mean the amount of information that can be sent over a connection at one time, at the allowed speed, without packet loss or excessive delay. Bandwidth is measured in bits-per-second. from the reservation market The Merkato market mechanism by which a specified quantity of bandwidth, for a specific duration, is sold for a firm price specified by the seller and agreed to by the buyer. This is an automated process based on a rate sheet that the seller establishes in advance. . (Ask your Merkato Administrator to set up a Reservation Buyer agent for you.)
Buying a reservation gives you guaranteed bandwidth for a set period of time at a fixed price. The pricing is set by the seller and depends on both the quantity of bandwidth desired and the duration of the reservation. There is no additional fee.
Reservations can start and end at any time in the future, as long as you (the seller) provide capacity In the Merkato interface, the term capacity refers to the total amount of bandwidth available from the Seller. to the reservation market.
Buyers can cancel reservations any time prior to expiration, but there may be a cancellation fee based on a percentage of the remaining value of the reservation. The fee may be anywhere between 0% (no penalty for cancellation) to 100% (no refund on cancellation). Merkato quotes the cancellation percentage to you when you make the reservation and again when the cancellation is confirmed.
For complete details about reserving bandwidth, see User Reference for Buyers, “Reservation Agent.”