QoS Protocols & Architectures

by
Harizakis Costas
Presentation Flow

QoS defined
QoS protocols :
RSVP, DiffServ, MPLS, SBM
QoS architectures
QoS and multicast environments
Protocol comparison
conclusions !
IP-based Networks - Internet Today

Internet today
Provides best effort data delivery
Complexity stays in the end-hosts
Network core remains simple
As demands exceeds capacity, service degrades
gracefully (increased jitter etc.)

Delivery delays cause problems to real-time

applications
QoS Defined

The goal :
Provide some level of predictability and control
beyond the current IP best-effort service

Fundamental principle
Leave complexity at the edges and keep network
core simple
QoS Metrics

Performance attributes
Service availability
Delay
Delay variation (jitter)
Throughput
Packet loss rate
Vary according to Service Level Agreement
(SLA)
Service Level Agreements (SLA)
QUALITY OF SERVICE PARAMETERS
Service Level Application Priority Mapping

1 Non-critical data Best-effort delivery

Similar to Internet today Unmanaged performance
No minimum information rate
guaranteed

2 Mission-critical data Low loss rate

VPN outsourcing, e- Controlled delay and delay
commerce variation
Similar to ATM VBR

3 Real time applications Low loss rate

Video streaming, voice, Low delay and delay variation
videoconferencing
QoS Protocol Classification

QoS can be achieved by :

Resource reservation (integrated services)
Prioritization (differentiated services)

QoS can be applied :

Per flow (individual, uni-directional streams)
Per aggregate (two or more flows having something
in common)
QoS Protocols

ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP)

Differentiated Services (DiffServ)
Multi Protocol Labeling Switching (MPLS)
Subnet Bandwidth Management (SBM)
RSVP
- Resource Reservation

Attributes
The most complex of all QoS technologies
Closest thing to circuit emulation on IP networks
The biggest departure from best-effort IP service
Provides the highest level of QoS in terms of :
Service guarantees
Granularity of resource allocation
Detail of feedback to QoS-enabled applications
RSVP
- Integrated Services

Enables integrated services (IntServ)

IntServ types
Guaranteed : as close as possible to a dedicated
virtual circuit
Controlled Load : equivalent to best-effort service
under unloaded conditions
RSVP
- Implementation

Host A Host B
RSVP
- Implementation

Sender
PATH message containing
traffic specification (bitrate, peak rate etc.)
Receiver
RECV message containing
the reservation specification (guaranteed or controlled)
the filter specification (type of packets that the reservation
is made for)
RSVP
- Queuing

IntServuses a token-bucket model to

characterize I/O queuing
Token bucket attributes
Token rate
Token bucket depth
Peak rate
Minimum policed size
Maximum packet size
RSVP
- Conclusions
Reservations are soft
Periodic refresh is necessary
It is a network (control) protocol
Works in parallel to TCP and UDP
APIs are required to specify flow requirements
Reservations are receiver-based
Has to maintain a state for each flow
Multicast reservations
Merged at replication points, difficult to understood algorithms
have to be used though
DiffServ
- Prioritization

Description
Applied on flow aggregates
Services requirements are classified
Classification is performed at network ingress points
A predefined per-hop behavior (PHB) is applied to
every service class
Traffic is smoothed according to PHB applied
DiffServ
- Traffic Classes

Two traffic classes are available :

Expeditied Forwarding (EF) - 1 codepoint
Minimizes delay and jitter
Provides the highest QoS
Traffic that exceeds the traffic profile is discarded

Assured Forwarding (AF) - 12 codepoints

4 classes, 3 drop-precedences within each class
Traffic that exceeds the traffic profile is not delivered with
such high probability
DiffServ
- Implementation

Classifier Conditioner

Maps DSCPs to Applies the

PHBs defined PHB
Marker Meter
(scheduling)

Maintains Accumulates
DSCP statistics
mappings and
associations
with local
policies
DiffServ
- Implementation
DiffServ codepoints (DSCPs) redefine the Type-of-Service
(ToS) IPv4 field
Precedence bits are preserved
Type-of-Service bits are NOT

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

DSCP CU Precedence Type of Service MBZ

Class Selector Unused RFC 1122 RFC 1349

Must
Be
Zero
Differenciated Services
Codepoint (DSCP) IP Type of Service (TOS)
DiffServ
- Conclusions
Traffic classes are equivalent to IP precedence service
descriptors
DiffServ unaware routers pass-through DiffServ traffic
Easy to be implemented / integrated even into the
network core.
Proper classification can lead to efficient resource
allocation and though improved QoS
MPLS
- Label Switching
Used to establish fixed bandwidth routes (similar to
ATM virtual circuits)
Resides only on routers and is protocol independent
Traffic is marked at ingress and unmarked at egress
boundaries
Markings are used to determine next router hop (not
priority)

The aim is to simplify the routing process

MPLS
- Implementation
The 1st hop router, using the header information (destination
address etc.) attaches a label and forwards the packet
Every MPLS-enabled router uses the label as an index to a table
defining the next hop and label

20 3 1 8

Label Value Exp . S TTL

20-bits : Label value used for lookup 3-bits : Reserved 8-bits : Time-To-Live
1-bit : Bottom of Label Stack
MPLS
- Conclusions

Labels can be stacked

This allows MPLS routes within routes
Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)
Distributes labels across MPLS-enabled routers
Ensures they agree on the meaning of labels
Usually transparent to network managers
Implication :
Define a policy management that distributes labels
SBM
- Subnet Bandwidth Management

A top-to-bottom QoS approach

Applies to the Data Link Layer (OSI layer 2)
Makes LAN topologies (e.g. Ethernet) QoS-
enabled
Fundamental requirement
All traffic must pass through at least one SBM-
enabled switch
SBM
- Implementation

SBM Modules
Bandwidth Allocator (BA)
Hosted on switches
Performs admission control

Requestor Module (RM)

Resides in every end-station
Maps Layer 2 priority levels and the higher-layer QoS
protocol parameters
SBM
- Conclusions

Much like the RSVP protocol

Makes the traditional Ethernet, QoS aware
Introduces an additional indirection in the
routing mechanism
8-level priority value
QoS Architectures

Host A Host B

Application Application
QoS-enabled
Presentation Presentation
Application
Session Session QoS API

Transport Transport RSVP

Top-to-Bottom QoS

Network Network DiffServ

Data Link Data Link SBM

Physical Physical

SBM

RSVP DiffServ and MPLS RSVP

End-to-End QoS
Protocol Comparison

QoS Net App Description

most x Provisioned resources end-to-end (leased lines)
x x RSVP Guaranteed (provides feedback to application)
x x RSVP Controlled Load (provides feedback to application)
x MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching)
DiffServ applied at network ingress appropriate to RSVP service
x x
level for that flow
x x DiffServ or SBM applied on per-flow basis by source application
x DiffServ applied at network core ingress
x Fair queuing applied by network elements (e.g. WFQ, RED)
least Best effort service
Multicast Environments
RSVP
Heterogeneous receivership makes reservation merging a
difficult task
DiffServ
Its relative simplicity makes it a better fit for multicast support
MPLS
Work is underway, no standards have emerged yet
SBM
Explicit support for multicast
Conclusions
Complexity at the edges simple network core
Limit RSVPs use on the backbone
Instead use the DiffServ
DiffServ is a perfect complement for RSVP

ToDo :
Performance attributes for each class still missing
Interworking solution for mapping IP CoS to ATM QoS
References
http://www.nortelnetworks.com/solutions/collateral/qos_wp.pdf

http://www.qosforum.com/white-papers/qosprot_v3.pdf

http://www.qosforum.com/white-papers/Need_for_QoS-v4.pdf