Show Me the Money: Contracts and Agents in the Service Level Agreement Markets

Delivering real-time services (Internet telephony, video conferencing, andstreaming media as well as business-critical data applications) across the Internet requiresend-to-end quality of service (QoS) guarantees, which requires a hierarchy of contracts.These standardized contracts may be referred to as Service Level Agreements (SLAs).SLAs provide a mechanism for service providers and customers to flexibly specify theservice to be delivered. The emergence of bandwidth and service agents, traders, brokers,exchanges and contracts can provide an institutional and business framework to supporteffective competition.This article identifies issues that must be addressed by SLAs for consumerapplications. We introduce a simple taxonomy for classifying SLAs based on the identityof the contracting parties. We conclude by discussing implications for public policy,Internet architecture, and competition.