Interval pricing can provide an effective means of congestion
control as well as revenue generation. Using this method, prices are
fixed over intervals of time, providing adaptibility and predictability. An
important issue is the interval duration associated with price updates.
While previous research has discussed the effect of interval lengths on
congestion control, this paper investigates the economic impact of price
interval duration. Smaller intervals yield higher profits since prices are
more responsive to changing demands. However, experimental results indicate
only a modest profit gain (no more than 5%) is achieved when
smaller intervals are used as opposed to larger intervals (for example
100 times longer). Given users' preferences toward fewer price changes,
smaller price intervals may hold few economic benefits.