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Learn how Merkato's auction mechanism allocates bandwidth to users based on their bids. Manage your budget, optimize bidding strategy, and track bandwidth usage efficiently.
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What does Merkato do? • Merkato allocates bandwidth among users based on a second price auction mechanism, run continuously. • Users receive bandwidth based on the price they are willing to pay, but actually pay a unit price based on that offered by unsuccessful bidders (“market price”).
How does Merkato work? Bidder’s PC Buyer Accounting Database Merkato “Garage” Merkato Server Seller Resource Agent Buyer Network Interface Buyer Buyer
Many Bidders, Many Resources Resource Agent Bidder’s PC Accounting Database Bidder’s PC Resource Agent Resource Agent
Merkato Login Screen Enter Username Enter Password Select Desired User Interface Log in and bring up specified interface choice Bring up account window
HTML Interface Sends configuration commands to bidding agent which is “parked” in the “garage” on a Merkato server
“Account” Accrued charges for this account
HTML – Not Bidding Select “active” to begin bidding Note: All changes require that “Submit” be pressed to send change to agent in “garage” “Budget” is used to calculate price per unit bandwidth bid during auction. (Must enable “active” first). User is encouraged to bid high during periods of heavy use and bid low, or not at all during periods of light use. Select the units for the display. Previously entered values will scale to the new units “Refresh” updates screen display “Submit” sends new values to agent in “garage” and exits
HTML - Bidding Note: All changes require that “Submit” be pressed to send change to agent in “garage” Select “Inactive” to stop bidding Budget (same as in “inactive” screen) This is the last price offered with quantity desired bid (changes often so need to “Refresh”). Amount of bandwidth and extended price allocated to this agent during the last auction round Duration of last bid round. This time varies based on how active the bidding is during a round. Units (same in in “inactive” screen) Refresh (same in in “inactive” screen) Submit (same in in “inactive” screen)
Bidding Strategy – Constant Budget Cost of Bandwidth Budget Setting Total Paid $/Mbps Time Bandwidth Used Bandwidth Received Mbps Time
Bidding Strategy – Periodic Bidding Cost of Bandwidth Budget Setting Total Paid $/Mbps Time Bandwidth Received Bandwidth Used Mbps Time
Merkato “Wizard” Interface Moves Agent to your desktop and provides active window for viewing bid process.
Wizard – Bid Window “Budget” is used to calculate price per unit bandwidth bid during auction. This is the last price offered with quantity desired bid (changes often so need to “Refresh”). Amount of bandwidth and extended price allocated to this agent during the last auction round Select the units for the display. Previously entered values will scale to the new units Show auction graph Stop bidding Countdown timer for current auction. Reset whenever a new bid is received. Uploads agent to garage where it can continue bidding and exits Display account summary screen Display help. When checked, mouse-button presses bring up help rather than performing function
Wizard – Auction Graph A dynamic display of the second price auction in progress Blue dots are other bidders. Their position represents the quantity of bandwidth and the price per unit bandwidth they offered Red circle is the bid you intend to submit. Solid Magenta dot is the allocation you received last round Magenta line represents your budget. Agent, if automated, will never bid above this line, regardless of bid (valuation) strategy line Solid red dot is your last bid. Red number next to dot is your bidder ID number Magenta circle is the allocation you would get based on your last bid. Red line represents bidding (valuation) strategy. Your bids, if automated, will follow this line. Blue shaded area represents bandwidth allocated, from right to left. If different bidders pay different unit prices, it will look like steps. Price directly below the red dot is the current market price. Far right dot is seller. Shows price floor and bandwidth being sold
“Bid Canvas” Screen A dynamic display of the second price auction in progress Blue dots are other bidders. Their position represents the quantity of bandwidth and the price per unit bandwidth they offered Red circle is the bid you intend to submit. Solid Magenta dot is the allocation you received last round Magenta line represents your budget. Agent, if automated, will never bid above this line, regardless of bid (valuation) strategy line Solid red dot is your last bid. Red number next to dot is your bidder ID number Magenta circle is the allocation you would get based on your last bid. Red line represents bidding (valuation) strategy. Your bids, if automated, will follow this line. Blue shaded area represents bandwidth allocated, from right to left. If different bidders pay different unit prices, it will look like steps. Price directly below the red dot is the current market price. Far right dot is seller. Shows price floor and bandwidth being sold Note: Manual bids may be placed by placing your cursor at the position which represents your bid and clicking your mouse.
Merkato “Advanced” Interface Moves Agent to your desktop and provides active window for viewing bid process. Allows the user to specify very detailed valuation and budget models to establish the bidding strategy. Also gives them a very detailed view of the second price auction process.
“File” menu bar selection TBA - Load config settings from file TBA - Save config settings to file Stop bidding (selection will change to “Start”) Brings up window of account information Uploads agent to “garage” and exits Creates second agent window so that you can monitor multiple auctions at once Exits without upload to “garage”, so bidding would stop (User will be asked to confirm)
“Get Account Data” Last Price Paid for Allocation ($/Time/Mbps) Accrued charges since start of this active session Accrued charges for this account Note: Columns may be resized to display all information, if necessary
Confirmation Screen for “Exit” Upload Agent to “garage” so it can continue bidding, then exit Cancel exit, return to Merkato bidding interface Do not upload agent to “garage” (all bidding will cease) and exit
“View” Menu Bar Selection • Shows list of supported configuration/status sub-screens. • If checked, screen is displayed. • Order of user selection determines order displayed (from top to bottom).
Status Header “Tickertape” list of market price Allocation last round ID of last bidder (active auction) Waiting for bid timer to expire at end of auction Pause at end of auction (for configuration) About to receive allocation update
“Login” Panel Login information (helps when you have multiple agent windows open – within other screens you will be referred to by an ID number, not this name Cease Bidding (you will lose your allocation at the end of the next round). When stopped, this button changes to “Start” Bring up account data window
“Resource Agent” Panel Selection screen for resource for which you are bidding Pull-down menu allows you to determine which resource you would like to bid on.
“IP Address” Panel Indicates the IP address and netmask corresponding to this bidder’s traffic. (Display only – cannot be edited) Bandwidth will be allocated to traffic either to or from this IP address. It is not necessarily the address of the workstation from which bids are received.
“Units” Panel Enter the units for bandwidth which you would like in all displays (options are “Kbps”, “Mbps”, “Gbps”) Enter the units for time which you would like in all displays (options are “min”, “hr” – hours, “day”, “or “month”). Enter the units for currency which you would like in all displays (currently, the only option is “$”) Note: If you change units, any numerical values in other panels will automatically be scaled to reflect the units change, but represent the same quantity as originally specified.
“Budget” Panel Defines maximum for total cost during automated bidding Enter the “maximum total cost” here - this supercedes any higher values that might be derived from valuation curves. In other words, bids - which consist of a price per unit bandwidth and a total bandwidth desired - will not be placed if they would result in a greater total cost than that indicated here. When the valuation type is “Budget”, the “price per unit time” field cannot be altered because it is a duplicate of that entered in the valuation panel.
Valuations – Budget Valuation Defines cost and bandwidth tradeoffs used during automated bidding Maximum quantity of bandwidth desired (default is all the seller is offering) Maximum amount you are willing to pay for any amount of bandwidth This curve represents the value you place on bandwidth based on the amount you receive. The “budget” valuation curve represents a desire to get the maximum amount of bandwidth for a constant total cost. The “Valuation” curve in the bid canvas (red line) is your bid strategy is derived from the change in slope of this curve.
Viewing Bid Curves without actively bidding them • Follow these steps to view a proposed valuation curve in an active Bid Canvas, without actually bidding it: • In the “Strategy” panel, go to manual bidding. • To maintain your last allocation while you are considering other bid curves, enter the last quantity received as the desired quantity in the strategy panel (or “0” if you do not wish to bid at all) • To ensure your price will be enough to obtain that quantity, enter your unit price bid in the strategy panel as your budget divided by the amount of bandwidth you are requesting (or “0” if you do not wish to bid). • Press “bid” in the strategy panel. Do not keep your bid panel like this too long. If other bidder change their valuations, you may not get the same amount of bandwidth for this price. Press “bid” every 5 minutes or so to ensure that you bid this amount at least once each round (unless you are bidding zero, then it does not matter).
Viewing Bid Curves - 2 Valuation (bid) line (red). Agent always bids on this line. Will be hidden by magenta line if “budget” valuation is active) Magenta (budget) line. Agent may only bid above this line if it calculates that, based on the current market price, it will actually receive the allocation at a total cost below the budget.
Bidding Strategy – Budget + Valuation Budget Setting Cost of Bandwidth Total Paid $/Mbps Time Bandwidth Received Bandwidth Used Mbps Time
“Strategy” Panel Display of bids being submitted in real time “Bid” area indicates current bid in automatic mode “Bid” area allows entry of manual bid in manual mode Display of bid fee (Bid fee is an optional feature to prevent frivolous bidding) Settable time between automated bids
“Bid Graph” Panel Bid history over time Bid price (per unit bandwidth) over time. Cycles correspond to bidding rounds. Graph starts when subscreen is activated. Quantity requested per unit time Click on arrows to expand or contract price axis
“Allocation” Panel Results of previous bidding round with timer for this round The bidding round is terminated by the Resource Agent when no bids are received within a configured amount of time (usually 60 seconds). The “Time Left” display shows the current value of this counter. It will normally count down from the configured time, but get reset whenever the resource receives a bid. When this counter reaches zero, an allocation will be made and a new bidding round will begin - after a slight delay to implement the allocation. Allocation (Quantity and Price per unit bandwidth) received during the last bid cycle Total amount spent during this session
“Allocation Graph” Panel Allocation history over time Allocation price (per unit bandwidth) over time. Updated at the end of each bidding round. Graph starts when subscreen is activated. Quantity received per unit time Click on arrows to expand or contract price axis
“Bid Canvas” Panel A dynamic display of the second price auction in progress Blue dots are other bidders. Their position represents the quantity of bandwidth and the price per unit bandwidth they offered Red circle is the bid you intend to submit. Solid Magenta dot is the allocation you received last round Magenta line represents your budget. Agent, if automated, will never bid above this line, regardless of bid (valuation) strategy line Solid red dot is your last bid. Red number next to dot is your bidder ID number Magenta circle is the allocation you would get based on your last bid. Red line represents bidding (valuation) strategy. Your bids, if automated, will follow this line. Blue shaded area represents bandwidth allocated, from right to left. If different bidders pay different unit prices, it will look like steps. Price directly below the red dot is the current market price. Far right dot is seller. Shows price floor and bandwidth being sold Note: Manual bids may be placed by placing your cursor at the position which represents your bid and clicking your mouse.
“Bid Table” Panel A dynamic display of the second price auction in progress “Rate” is allocated Quantity times bid Price (per unit bandwidth) ID’s of bidders Columns can be resized by dragging column separators Bidders shaded in blue would receive an allocation of bandwidth if no further bids were received You are bidder with red text Bidders with no shading would receive no allocation if all bids remained the same. Bidders shaded in yellow are those used to calculate the auction price of bandwidth received by the bidder shown in red (you) This is the total cost bidder in red (you) would pay for the bandwidth allocated (which will be equal to or less than what you bid, above) Bottom un-shaded bidder is the seller. The seller’s “bid” is the price floor
“Garage” Panel Pull-down menu allows you to select a “garage” from which your agent will continue bidding when you upload your agent and terminate this session. (Best to choose a garage which is co-located or has the best connection to the resource agent)
“Connection” Panel Display of connectivity configuration and performance Configurable timeout for receiving a response to a bid Response time for last bid. Increase the timeout if your measured response time begins to approach it
“Help Topics” HTML page of instructions and advice
“About Merkato” Stops Merkato Advanced GUI. Requires “Start” from pull-down menu to restart bidding Exits Advanced GUI, but first confirms whether you would like to upload agent Returns to Merkato Advanced GUI
Reading the bid canvas Valuation curves are defined in the Valuation panel, but the most accurate indication of bidding behavior is obtained by observing the resulting bid canvas. The red curve is the valuation – which constrains the bids which will be offered The magenta curve is the budget limit. If the valuation is above the budget, the agent uses its knowledge of the market price to determine whether a bid above the budget will result in an allocation within budget. The red dot is the current bid, the magenta circle is the current allocation in response to the bid. The top of the blue shaded area is the current market price. Any bidder (blue dots, red dot) who bids below this level will receive no allocation, so they bid higher if they can..
Defining “Aggressiveness” The “Aggressiveness” of valuation curves are rated with respect to the budget curve. If a valuation curve is more horizontal than the budget curve, it is considered less aggressive. This is because it is quicker to request less bandwidth as a result of rising market prices than the budget curve. If a curve is more vertical than the budget curve, it is considered more aggressive. This is because it is slower to request less bandwidth in response to rising market prices.
Budget Valuation For this valuation, the bid (valuation) line and the budget line are the same. The agent will always bid on the budget line, at first requesting all the bandwidth and later requesting the maximum amount of bandwidth possible without exceeding the total dollar figure entered as “Budget”. If all bidders use “Budget” valuation, all will receive allocations proportional to their bid. If seller is dynamic, all buyers will be allocated bandwidth very close to their bid price.
Budget Valuation – Bandwidth Limit If the maximum bandwidth desired is less than the maximum offered, the bid (valuation) curve will deviate from the budget curve and go to zero at that value of bandwidth. The agent will start bidding along the budget line at the maximum desired bandwidth point. It will maintain that bid until the market price exceeds its bid price and then it will follow the budget curve, reducing the amount of bandwidth requested and increasing its offered price-per-unit-bandwidth until it receives an allocation.
