Installations can use degradation billing to enforce standards created to balance system resource use. Degradation billing allows a job to run even though it has violated a specified resource-use standard. However, because of the violation, the installation will charge the user an additional “punitive” cost for the job.
For example, one installation standard might state that a single job step should not allocate more than six tape units out of the system's available ten. For each of the first six tape units allocated, the installation charges a base cost; for each unit allocated over the allowed six, however, it might charge a progressively higher rate.
Another installation standard might state that programs using the
ADDRSPC=REAL facility should not allocate more than 100K bytes, and
that any program allocating more than 300K bytes is not only violating
the standard but is totally degrading the system. This installation
might charge its users for ADDRSPC=REAL storage by establishing a
price per K-storage hour used as follows (shown in Figure 1):
- For an allocation of 100K bytes or less, the charge is a minimum base rate per K-storage hour.
- For an allocation greater than 100K bytes but less than the critical level of 300K bytes, the charge is a higher base rate per K-storage hour plus a small “punitive” rate based on hour of tie-up.
- For an allocation of 300K bytes or more, the charge is a very large “punitive” rate based on hour of tie-up.
Figure 1. Sample
degradation billing for ADDRSPC=REAL storage