You can use a Desktop 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. to bid from your PC. You can also use the desktop to conveniently make setting changes, and then upload your configured Desktop agent and bid from a garage A server from which buyer and seller agents can bid when they are not actively bidding on a user's PC desktop. The garage is generally installed on the Merkato server, providing maximum performance and reliability. . (See Note: Bidding From the Garage or From the Desktop.)
For a complete description of fields in the Desktop agent, see Desktop Agent Features.
To bid using the Desktop agent, do the following:
If Java A programming language, useful for internet and networking applications. The environment used for the Merkato Desktop Interface. 1.3.1 is not installed on your PC, Merkato will prompt you to download it.
The Desktop window appears, as shown below.
3. In the Agent Download window, enter the username and password.
By default, this is the same as the username and password you used to access the Desktop interface from the initial login; the fields are populated with this information. You may specify another valid username and password to download another agent.
Click Download. When the agent finishes downloading it appears on the Merkato desktop The Merkato desktop is the first window that appears when the user begins to bring the Merkato buyer or seller agent to their desktop. It lets users specify which Merkato agent or agents they want to download to the desktop., as shown below:
The three icons at the upper left of the icon bar are, (from left to right) “Connect,” “Start,” and “Stop.”
When you first download an agent it may not be connected to the auction. Your agent cannot bid when it is disconnected, although you can set its configuration. When the connect symbol on the icon bar (on the far left) is un-depressed and un-colored the agent is disconnected.
When you connect to the auction, until you click the Start icon, you may observe the auction but you are not participating in it.
When you want to start bidding click the Start icon (
second from left on the icon bar). Bidding starts immediately
with the current settings.
To stop bidding, click the Stop icon (
third
from left on icon bar). Your agent stops bidding and is disconnected.
To begin viewing the auction again you must connect again.
The agent window consists of smaller sub-windows, each of which can be displayed or closed as you wish. By default, windows are stacked vertically in the agent window, as shown below.
Each time a window is selected for viewing it appears beneath
the previously activated window. To close a window click the close-box
tab at the upper right hand corner of the window (
). The window closes
and the other windows move up to fill in the spot it occupied.
To freely drag boxes within the agent window, de-select
the Stack (
) icon or go to the View pull-down menu and de-select
Stack.
To resize the agent window to exactly match the windows
displayed, click the Pack icon (
second from right) or
select Pack from the View pull-down menu.
Note: To arrange Agent windows on the Merkato desktop, see Arranging Agent Windows.
In the Units fields, you can make changes to money, time, or bandwidth units. Changing units doesn’t change your bid—it converts the displayed values to the ones you choose.
For details, see the Units Conversion Chart.
Your valuation The value a buyer or seller places on bandwidth. Setting a valuation is part of setting a purchasing strategy. Valuation settings within a buyer agent let buyers specify the amount they are willing to pay for varying amounts of bandwidth. This information is used by the agent to respond to changing market conditions during a Merkato progressive second price auction. settings indicate the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a range of desired bandwidth. In the course of an auction, your agent uses this valuation information, together with the 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., to determine how much to bid and how much bandwidth to ask for, in response to changing market conditions.
For a description of the methods of valuation, see Valuation Overview.
2. Create your valuation by filling in the fields. The fields are different depending on which valuation method you select. For an automated approach to setting quantities see Traffic-Based Bidding and Quick Response Bidding.
3. Select Current Valuation to activate the valuation.
Changes to valuations only affect bidding if that particular valuation is active¾indicated by the Current Valuation radio button at the top of the window and the green arrow in the pull-down menu list. If a valuation is not active, the changes are stored until you activate that valuation.
If you enable the Traffic-based tab in the valuation window, your agent changes its maximum quantity by checking the usage at intervals. The agent measures the amount of traffic at intervals you set (in the Time Window field). The agent bids for that amount of bandwidth, plus a quantity margin you set (in the Qty Margin field). The quantity margin can prevent your agent’s maximum bid quantity from reaching zero at times of no traffic.
The following diagram illustrates the relationship between the settings:
Each valuation window has a Traffic-based tab, and each one serves the same function.
To use Traffic-Based valuation, do the following.
Traffic-Based valuation makes the Merkato Buyer agent respond to changes in network traffic. As traffic fluctuates, the Buyer agent reacts by changing the quantity of bandwidth it bids for. This change is incremental; the agent bids for the measured traffic (plus the quantity margin) for the duration of the Time Window.
However, traffic may increase dramatically during that time.
The Quick Response feature is useful for buyers who know, when traffic reaches a certain threshold, that the agent should increase its bidding quantity to a specific peak. This is the peak traffic the buyer expects.
The Quick Response feature works with Traffic-based bidding to make Merkato bidding jump to a certain quantity.
Traffic-based bidding tracks usage and causes the agent to bid at this rate (plus the quantity margin). Then traffic exceeds the traffic threshold. Immediately, the agent begins bidding for the estimated peak amount (plus the quantity margin). The agent continues bidding at this rate. Every five minutes Merkato examines the usage rate for the duration of the traffic window. When all traffic in the traffic window falls below the treshold, the agent resumes Traffic-based bidding.
When Quick Response is enabled (as well as Traffic-based valuation), your agent reacts to bursts of traffic by starting immediately to bid at the Est. Peak Traffic level (plus the Qty. Margin).
An agent with Quick Response enabled uses the values you place in two fields:
Traffic Threshold—The quantity of traffic that triggers the Quick Response. When Merkato detects this level of traffic it changes the amount of bandwidth that the agent bids for.
Estimated Peak Traffic —When Quick Response is triggered, the amount the agent bids for is the amount you enter in the Est. Peak Traffic field, plus the Quantity Margin.
Note: Est. Peak Traffic cannot exceed the amount in the valuation window’s Quantity field. The agent will not bid for an amount larger than is entered in the Quantity field
Active check box¾Checking this box enables Quick Response bidding on your agent.
Apply¾Clicking Apply makes the numbers entered in the fields of the Quick Response tab active.
The signals mean the following:
Not Ready: Quick Valuation has been engaged, but there has not yet been a Time Window during which all traffic is below the Traffic Threshold. If a Traffic Window ends with no traffic above the threshold, the signal returns to Ready.
Ready: Quick Response is active, but no traffic above the Traffic Threshold been detected.
Engaged: Merkato has detected traffic above the Traffic Threshold and Quick Response is active. This state remains for at least the duration of the Traffic Window.
There is no guarantee of getting an amount of bandwidth equal to your estimated peak traffic. There are two reasons for this:
· The Estimate Peak Traffic may exceed the amount the Seller is offering.
· The Estimate Peak Traffic may exceed your budget (for instance, if demand is higher than you anticipated and your budget does not cover the cost). Your Agent will still try to acquire as much bandwidth as it can.
You can bid using an automatic strategy or a manual strategy.
(For a complete description of Merkato strategies, see Merkato Buyers’ Reference Manual, “Strategy Overview.”)
Note: If the quantity (Mbps One of the ways of expressing units of bandwidth-Megabits-per-second (1,000,000 bits-per-second)., for example) or time units (month, for example) displayed do not suit your needs, you can change the units. Select Units from the Selection pull-down menu. The Units box lets you use Kbps One of the ways of expressing units of bandwidth-kilobits-per-second (1,000 bits-per-second)., Mbps One of the ways of expressing units of bandwidth-Megabits-per-second (1,000,000 bits-per-second)., or Gbps One of the ways of expressing units of bandwidth; Gigabits-per-second (1,000,000,000 bits-per-second)., as well as minutes, hours, days, and months. (See Select Bidding Units.)
With Automatic strategy selected your agent starts bidding for you immediately and does not stop until you disable it.
The Auto Strategy window lets you see your bids as they are submitted. With Auto Strategy active, your agent bids, if it has a sufficient budget, every time the market price exceeds its last submitted bid. (Since the market price is determined by the price offered by the lowest successful bidder, a bid under this price does not receive an allocation An amount of bandwidth available for your use. Depending on the type of service being offered through Merkato, this can represent the maximum bandwidth available to you or a minimum guarantee of bandwidth available to you. .)
The field on the left shows the quantity requested in your agent’s last bid. The field on the right shows the unit price your agent offered in its last bid.
3. Enter the amount of bandwidth you want to bid for in the left field.
4. Enter the maximum you are willing to spend in the right field.
When you are connected to the garage and ready to bid, click Bid. This sends your bid to the auction. Note that this is a one-time event. The submitted bid is not carried over to the next auction round. If you wish to place a single take-it-or-leave-it bid each auction round, use the Linear valuation with the Automatic strategy.
The Allocation window provides information about the quantity of bandwidth bought and the price paid for that bandwidth at the close of each successive auction. It also monitors the time left in the current auction.
To view the Allocation window, select Allocation from the Status pull-down menu.
During an auction, the Time Left field counts down the seconds left in the auction. The auction does not close until all agents have stopped bidding.
When the auction ends and an allocation is made to your agent, its quantity and cost appear in the left-hand side of the Allocation window. It remains displayed until you get another allocation.
If market conditions are such that you get no allocation (or choose not to bid), your traffic still has bandwidth available to it. The data streams of agents that do not bid (or do not win any allocation) are generally funneled through a single, shared amount of permanently allocated bandwidth. This bandwidth is shared by all buyers who fail to get allocations. Ask your Merkato administrator how much bandwidth is allocated to this “best effort queue” so that you can make the best decision of when to stop bidding on the low end (see Budget Valuation with Limits).
In addition to the Allocation window, Merkato provides a variety of other tools to let you view past and current auction data. These include the following:
Auction Graph—Indicates the state of the Merkato auction in progress, for all agents actively bidding. Colors and shapes on the graph indicate each bidder’s last bid, your previous allocation, your proposed allocation, a graph of you valuation, and the activity of other bidders.
Auction Table—Shows a quantitative, real-time view of the auction in progress.
News Window—Shows the real-time status of your agent and the capacity In the Merkato interface, the term capacity refers to the total amount of bandwidth available from the Seller. and price currently offered in the market (if the agent is connected).
You can use this information to optimize your bidding strategy in relation to other bidders in the auction.
You can set your agent to bid continually for you. You don’t need to monitor it and you don’t need to run it on your PC. You can upload it to the garage, where it remains active and continues to bid on your behalf. This ensures that you continually get the bandwidth you need at the best price, based on the valuation you set when you configure the agent. Simply upload your agent to the garage. You can continue to monitor it via the Express interface on the Portal, but if you close the desktop or shut off your PC, the agent continues to function as you have set it.
To upload and exit, do the following:
).
The confirmation message indicates the garage where your agent will be
placed:
The agent window closes but the Merkato desktop window remains.
You may want to save the settings you made on the desktop agent, to your garage agent profile, without exiting from the desktop agent. We recommend this to ensure that if your PC freezes or reboots, your configuration changes are not lost.
If you want to save the way your agent is configured, but not transfer your agent to the garage, do the following:
1. From the File menu, select Save Configuration:
A confirmation box appears, showing which garage your configuration will be saved to. (If multiple garages are available, they will appear in a pull-down list.)
To exit Merkato, click the close-box tab at the upper right
hand corner of the window (), or select “Exit
Merkato” from the File pull-down menu.
You can leave the portal page in the browser open to monitor your agent status (via the Express agent), or click Logout in the list on the left side of the window.