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.
Shown in the Allocation History graph, on the desktop, for a Buyer agent in the Spot market. The price paid for bandwidth, in, for example, dollars-per-month per Mbps unit (the units are configurable).
Shown in the Allocation History graph, on the desktop, for a Buyer agent in the Spot market. The amount of bandwidth allocated to the Buyer.
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 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.
Bumping occurs when a user logs in using the ID and password of an active agent. The user who is logging-in sees a message that an agent with this login ID is already active. If the new user proceeds, the old user is disconnected. The agent uses the saved configuration of the agent, not necessarily the configuration of the previously active agent.
The program that interacts with the rest of Merkato on behalf of buyers. Buyers can acquire bandwidth by configuring their agents with the price they are willing to pay for a range of bandwidth (on the spot market), or with a time-frame and desired quantity (on the reservation market). In a Merkato auction, Buyer agents signal what they are willing to pay for bandwidth in the form of bids, consisting of a unit price and a quantity.
A screen in the Buyer interface that expresses the desired amount of bandwidth and duration, and then obtains a quote from the Seller.
Determines how the Buyer's agent uses the valuation information in the bidding process. Automatic Buyer strategy attempts to buy bandwidth based on the valuation limits and curve. Manual Buyer strategy ignores the valuation and places single bids as indicated.
In the Merkato interface, the term capacity refers to the total amount of bandwidth available from the Seller.
The speed at which data is transferred from one port to another. See Kbps, Mbps, and Gbps.
The Merkato application for buyers or sellers that runs on a Windows PC. Merkato desktop agents bid for bandwidth from the user's PC using a Java-based application. Alternatively, Merkato agents can run as an application on a server, called the \"Garage.\" Users can interact with these remote agents through an HTML browser interface.
The Merkato HTTP application for buyers or sellers that configures and obtains status from Merkato agents running from a remote location. Accessing the agent in this way is an alternative to bringing the agent to the user's desktop and using the Java-based interface. The Express agent is accessible through the Portal.
The lowest price the seller will accept for bandwidth. The seller can establish the floor price through the Seller agent.
A feature on the Merkato server where player (Buyer and Seller) agent configuration profiles reside. The garage stores agent configurations whether the players are active or not.
One of the ways of expressing units of bandwidth; Gigabits-per-second (1,000,000,000 bits-per-second).
A programming language, useful for internet and networking applications. The environment used for the Merkato Desktop Interface.
One of the ways of expressing units of bandwidth-kilobits-per-second (1,000 bits-per-second).
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. Ordinarily, the market price is reached when the cumulative demand of all the buyers is equal to the amount of bandwidth being offered by the seller.
The maximum quantity requested display, shown in the Traffic-based valuation tab. The Merkato agent adds the measured traffic to the Quantity Margin to create this number. This is the value that is carried forward into the main valuation calculation. It is called the \"Maximum Quantity Requested\" because Merkato compares to the \"Max Qty\" value in the main valuation window. Merkato uses whichever value is smaller as the basis for the maximum quantity requested. (In other words, traffic-based settings can only reduce the amount of bandwidth you ask for relative to the main valuation settings, they never increase it.)
One of the ways of expressing units of bandwidth-Megabits-per-second (1,000,000 bits-per-second).
The measured traffic display, shown in the Traffic-based valuation tab. The peak amount of traffic the agent has measured at the interval set in the Meas. Window field. Merkato uses this peak five-minute interval as the basis for the \"Max Quantity Requested\" calculation.
InvisibleHand's software platform, which dynamically prices, sells, and allocates IP bandwidth in real time. Merkato means \"market\" in Esperanto.
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.
A buyer or seller in the Merkato auction.
The main access point to all Merkato applications. It is an HTML-based interface accessible from a standard web browser.
The unique market mechanism by which Merkato allocates bandwidth to potential buyers at an optimal market price. An auction is established, where each bid consists of a unit price and the quantity desired at that price. Bidders are ranked according to the unit price they offer. Bidders who get an allocation pay the unit price offered by the highest bidder who does not get an allocation. (This is the \"second price\" aspect of the auction.) Bidders who don't get an allocation can re-bid at a higher unit price, in an attempt to improve their ranking in the auction. (This is the \"progressive\" aspect of the auction.) An auction round closes when all bidders are either successful, based on their last bid, or cannot match the price offered by the current lowest successful bidder.
Progressive Second Price auction. The unique market mechanism by which Merkato allocates bandwidth to potential buyers at an optimal market price. An auction is established, where each bid consists of a unit price and the quantity desired at that price. Bidders are ranked according to the unit price they offer. Bidders who get an allocation pay the unit price offered by the highest bidder who does not get an allocation. (This is the \"second price\" aspect of the auction.) Bidders who don't get an allocation can re-bid at a higher unit price, in an attempt to improve their ranking in the auction. (This is the \"progressive\" aspect of the auction.) An auction round closes when all bidders are either successful, based on their last bid, or cannot match the price offered by the current lowest successful bidder.
The Quantity Margin, shown in the Traffic-based valuation tab. This is the amount of bandwidth the Buyer agent attempts to obtain above that of the recent measured peak.
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.
A buyer agent connected to the reservation market.
The program that manages the Merkato marketplaces, where bids are received and allocations issued (the spot market) or where price quotes for reservations are generated and accepted quotes for reservations are processed.
Routing software developed by Invisiblehand Networks, based on Unix open source.
The program that interacts with the rest of Merkato on behalf of sellers. Sellers configure their agents with a quantity of bandwidth capacity for sale and a minimum price for that quantity. Buyer agents then express what they are willing to pay for bandwidth in the form of bids, consisting of a unit price and a quantity. Currently, there is no seller agent for the reservation market, but one will be supported in a future release.
A window in the Seller desktop interface, either static or dynamic. Dynamic Seller strategy sets prices based on the last unit of bandwidth sold. Static Seller strategy sets prices based on the difference between what the Seller would have received without each bid.
The Merkato mechanism by which bandwidth is traded, in a progressive second price auction. An optimal fair market price is established and bandwidth is allocated to buyers, based on their bids relative to other buyers.
A Buyer agent or Seller agent connected to a spot market. There are also reservation agents (for buyers only).
The Measurement window, shown in the Traffic-based valuation tab. The agent continuously measures the amount of traffic you generate in five-minute increments. The Time window setting tells the agent, in minutes, how far back in time to look for the peak.
Shown in the Allocation History graph, on the desktop, for a Buyer agent in the Spot market. The amount of traffic that Merkato has measured for the buyer. This measurement is used in Traffic-based and Quick Response bidding.
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.
In Merkato, an automated series of inquiry screens that walks you through the process of creating and configuring a Spot market Buyer agent.