Reserved or Spot-Market Bandwidth?

There are two ways to purchase bandwidth in a Merkato system.

• You can create a bidding strategy and bid for bandwidth with other buyers, establishing a fair market price based on supply and demand. This is the Spot market.
• You can request and reserve a fixed amount of bandwidth, at a fixed price, for a fixed term. This is the Reservation market

To get bandwidth from the Spot market, you configure your Merkato agent to bid on your behalf in a continuous bandwidth auction. To get bandwidth in the Reservation market you use your Merkato agent to ask for a fixed-price quote, based on the quantity and duration you specify. Bandwidth may be obtained on both markets simultaneously and combined into a single allocation.

(For a complete description of each method, see Merkato Buyer’s User Manual, “Spot Market and Reservation Market Agents.”)