There are two ways to buy and sell 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. in a Merkato system:
The first method is called 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. and uses a reservation 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.. The second method is called the Spot market The Merkato mechanism by which bandwidth is traded, in a progressive second price auction. An optimal fair market price The price for something that buyers and sellers agree on. Merkato establishes a market price for bandwidth during each spot market auction round. There is a fixed amount for sale, so as demand increases, prices rise. The market price is reached when the cumulative demand of all the buyers is exactly equal to the amount of bandwidth being offered by the seller. is established and bandwidth is allocated to buyers, based on their bids relative to other buyers. and uses a spot agent.
There is no Reservation agent for sellers (although you may wish to have your Merkato administrator create a buy-back reservation agent for you, as a convenient way of adding bandwidth to the marketplace). All reservation settings are pre-configured in the Merkato server.