The doctoral thesis is focused on a research in the area of the quality-of-service support technologies in data networks. The current modern communication networks cannot operate correctly without an effective tool allowing differentiated treatment for various network traffic classes. Looking at the current trends in this area it turns out that the technology of Differentiated services is currently the most widely used mechanism for QoS assurance in data networks. The major part of this doctoral thesis concerns the design of a novel QoS system which offers a solution for one of the main problems of DiffServ technology. This disadvantage lies in the missing cooperation between the end station and edge node of the DiffServ domain. To overcome this limitation the system proposed introduces an improvement which enables the user application to actively participate in the resource reservation process by direct configuration of the DSCP value in the IP header of its own packets. This functionality is based on the identification of DiffServ configuration parameters available in the edge router. To retrieve the information required from network component the well-known SNMP protocol has been chosen, which has direct access to the components’s configuration stored in the MIB database. On the basis of this theoretical proposal several simulation scenarios have been created and analysed. The results show that the system designed presents an efficient solution for the mentioned problem of DiffServ. They also give good assumptions for the successful implementation of this system into a real environment.

Depuis quelques années le trafic de l'internet mobile ne cesse d'augmenter. Cette croissance soutenue est liée à plusieurs facteurs, parmi lesquels l'évolution des terminaux, la grande diversité des services et des applications disponibles et le déploiement des nouvelles technologies d'accès radio mobile (3G/4G). À cet égard, le standard 3GPP pour les réseaux LTE propose une architecture offrant une gestion fine de la QoS (par flux). Ce modèle, hérité des réseaux mobiles traditionnels orientés connexion, soulève des problèmes en termes de scalabilité, efficacité et performances. Les travaux entrepris dans cette thèse ont pour objectif principal de proposer des solutions plus simples et moins coûteuses pour la gestion de la QoS dans les réseaux mobiles. À cette fin, à l'issue d'une étude et de l'évaluation de l'impact de la signalisation associée au modèle de QoS standard, deux modèles alternatifs ont été proposés. Nous proposons tout d'abord un modèle basée sur les mécanismes IP inspiré de l'approche DiffServ (par agrégat) largement étudié dans les réseaux IP fixes. Ce modèle fournit une gestion de la QoS simple, efficiente et rentable, tout en garantissant des performances équivalentes au modèle standard. Cependant, elle nécessite une remise à niveau de tous les eNB, et donc une longue phase de transition. En conséquence, nous proposons SloMo qui vise à améliorer l'expérience des clients mobiles, mais avec un objectif de déploiement plus rapide. SloMo est une solution de gestion implicite de la QoS depuis un point unique situé sur le chemin des communications. SloMo exploite la dynamique instaurée par le mécanisme de contrôle de flux de TCP. Il vise à recréer un goulot d'étranglement dynamique dans un équipement contrôlé par l'opérateur lorsque les points de congestion réels ne sont pas accessibles. Une fois ce goulot d'étranglement déporté, il est alors aisé d'effectuer une gestion de la qualité IP classique dans l'équipement supportant Slo-Mo. / The mobile data landscape is changing rapidly and mobile operators are today facing the daunting challenge of providing cheap and valuable services to ever more demanding customers. As a consequence, cost reduction is actively sought by operators as well as Quality of Service (QoS) preservation. Current 3GPP standards for LTE/EPC networks offer a fine tuning QoS (per-flow level), which inherits many characteristics of legacy telco networks. In spite of its good performance, such a QoS model reveals costly and cumbersome and finally, it remains very rarely deployed, thereby giving way to basic best-effort hegemony. This thesis aims at improving QoS in mobile networks through cost-effective solutions; To this end, after an evaluation of the impact and cost of signaling associated with the standard QoS model, alternative schemes are proposed, such as the IP-centric QoS model (per aggregate) inspired from the DiffServ approach widely used in fixed IP networks. This model provides a simple, efficient and cost-effective IP level QoS management with a performance level similar to standardized solutions. However, as it requires enhancements in the eNB, this scheme cannot be expected in mobile networks before a rather long time.Thus, we introduce Slo-Mo, which is a lightweight implicit mechanism for managing QoS from a distant point when the congestion point (e.g. eNB) is not able to do it. Slo-Mo creates a self-adaptive bottleneck which adjusts dynamically to the available resources taking advantage of TCP native flow control. Straightforward QoS management at IP level is then performed in the Slo-Mo node, leading to enhanced customer experience at a marginal cost and short term.

The exponential growth of Internet applications has created new challenges for the control and administration of large-scale networks, which consist of heterogeneous elements under dynamically changing traffic conditions. These emerging applications need guaranteed service levels, beyond those supported by best-effort networks, to deliver the intended services to the end user. Several models have been proposed for a Quality of Service (QoS) framework that can provide the means to transport these services. It is desirable to find efficient routing strategies that can meet the strict routing requirements of these applications. QoS routing is considered as one of the major components of the QoS framework in communication networks. In QoS routing, paths are selected based upon the knowledge of resource availability at network nodes and the QoS requirements of traffic. Several QoS routing schemes have been proposed that differ in the way they gather information about the network state and the way they select paths based on this information. The biggest downside of current QoS routing schemes is the frequent maintenance and distribution of global state information across the network, which imposes huge communication and processing overheads. Consequently, scalability is a major issue in designing efficient QoS routing algorithms, due to the high costs of the associated overheads. Moreover, inaccuracy and staleness of global state information is another problem that is caused by relatively long update intervals, which can significantly deteriorate routing performance. Localized QoS routing, where source nodes take routing decisions based solely on statistics collected locally, was proposed relatively recently as a viable alternative to global QoS routing. It has shown promising results in achieving good routing performance, while at the same time eliminating many scalability related problems. In localized QoS routing each source-destination pair needs to determine a set of candidate paths from which a path will be selected to route incoming flows. The goal of this thesis is to enhance the scalability of QoS routing by investigating and developing new models and algorithms based on the localized QoS routing approach. For this thesis, we have extensively studied the localized QoS routing approach and demonstrated that it can achieve a higher routing performance with lower overheads than global QoS routing schemes. Existing localized routing algorithms, Proportional Sticky Routing (PSR) and Credit-Based Routing (CBR), use the blocking probability of candidate paths as the criterion for selecting routing paths based on either flow proportions or a crediting mechanism, respectively. Routing based on the blocking probability of candidate paths may not always reflect the most accurate state of the network. This has motivated the search for alternative localized routing algorithms and to this end we have made the following contributions. First, three localized bandwidth-constrained QoS routing algorithms have been proposed, two are based on a source routing strategy and the third is based on a distributed routing strategy. All algorithms utilize the quality of links rather than the quality of paths in order to make routing decisions. Second, a dynamic precautionary mechanism was used with the proposed algorithms to prevent candidate paths from reaching critical quality levels. Third, a localized delay-constrained QoS routing algorithm was proposed to provide routing with an end-to-end delay guarantee. We compared the performance of the proposed localized QoS routing algorithms with other localized and global QoS routing algorithms under different network topologies and different traffic conditions. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms outperform the other algorithms in terms of routing performance, resource balancing and have superior computational complexity and scalability features.

L'objet de cette thèse est de doter les réseaux satellites d'accès géostationnaires d'une architecture de QoS compatible avec l'infrastructure NGN (Next Generation Network) qui entend réaliser la convergence des réseaux et services de communication existants et à venir. Dans une première étape, nous établissons un modèle de QoS NGN s'inspirant principalement de l'évolution des architectures de QoS dans les réseaux IP. Dans une deuxième étape, nous démontrons que les réseaux satellites ne disposent pas, en l'état actuel, d'une architecture de QoS suffisamment mature pour assurer un accès large bande aux futurs services IP multimédias. Afin d'y remédier, nous spécifions une architecture de QoS NGN unifiée assurant une étroite collaboration entre les mécanismes de QoS déployés à différents niveaux de communication (Application, Session, Réseau et MAC). Elle assure à la fois une différenciation de la QoS adaptée aux besoins des différentes classes d'applications au niveau IP tout en optimisant l'utilisation des ressources satellites via des mécanismes de bande passante à la demande au niveau MAC. Deux solutions applicatives assurant la corrélation dynamique entre les applications et les services réseaux différenciés sont également spécifiées et implémentées. Enfin un émulateur satellite de niveau réseau a été implémenté et nous a permis d'évaluer les garanties de QoS offertes par notre architecture et de valider leur conformité avec les besoins d'applications multimédias réelles.

The MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) framework is used in many networks to provide efficient load balancing which distributes the traffic for efficient Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning in the network. If the MPLS framework is combined with Differentiated Services (DiffServ) architecture, together they can provide aggregate-based service differentiation and QoS. The combined use of DiffServ and MPLS in a network is called DiffServ-aware Traffic Engineering (DS-TE). Such DiffServ-based MPLS networks demand development of efficient methods for QoS provisioning. In this thesis, an automated manager for management of these DiffServ-based MPLS networks is proposed. This manager, called Traffic Engineering Automated Manager (TEAM), is a centralized authority for adaptively managing a DiffServ/MPLS domain and it is responsible for dynamic bandwidth and route management. TEAM is designed to provide a novel and unique architecture capable of managing large scale MPLS/DiffServ domains without any human interference. TEAM constantly monitors the network state and reconfigures the network for efficient handling of network events. Under the umbrella of TEAM, new schemes for Label Switched Path (LSP) setup/teardown, traffic routing, and network measurement are proposed and evaluated through simulations. Also, extensions to include Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) networks and inter-domain management are proposed.

Examensarbetet är en studie i felsökning och optimering av IP-telefonisystem i ett befintligt nät. Här beskrivs hur ett IP-telefoninät bör byggas och konfigureras för optimal prestanda utifrån Ciscos rekommendationer. Det aktuella nätet är IT-Partners nät som drivs av Nortel när det gäller IP-telefonidelen. I dagsläget har de vissa återkommande problem när det gäller IP-telefonin t.ex. att samtalet bryts då och då. Det är nämnt vad problemet kan vara och vilka lösningar som skulle passa nätet. I allmänt brister kunskaperna i IP-telefoni vilket medför att problem kan uppstå med att få ett IP-telefonisystem att fungera som det ska. Vidare berättas varför ett IP-telefonisystem inte optimeras redan från första stadiet.

MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) VPNs (Virtual private network) are new alternatives to private WANs (Wide area network). They are gaining popularity in industry day by day. Enterprise customers are moving to service providers that offer MPLS VPNs. The main reason for this shifting is the capability of MPLS VPN to provide built in security features and any-to-any connectivity. QoS (Quality of service) is the most important element for enterprise networks. Enterprise network have video, audio and data traffic over a single network infrastructure.In this thesis we will investigate QoS parameters (e.g. delay, jitter and packet loss) over MPLS VPNs environment. It will help the service providers and enterprise network customers to maintain QoS for voice, video and data traffic over MPLS VPNs environment.To achieve consistent end-to-end QoS, the service provider and the enterprise customer must work closely together and share the same policies to implement because service provider participates in customer routing in MPLS VPN environment. We will use the DiffServ (Differentiated services) QoS model over MPLS VPN network. We will use a six class model for service provider network and enterprise customer network to achieve end-to- end service quality.In the last part we will make tests of end-to-end traffic delay, jitter and packet loss. We will compare the results of delay, jitter and packet loss with and without the DiffServ QoS model in an MPLS VPNs environment. It will be clear in the results that without using DiffServ QoS model delay, jitter and packet loss are increasing as the traffic increases on the network. With a DiffServ enabled network, the increase of traffic over network will not affect delay, jitter and packet loss and provide constant level of service quality.

This master thesis deals with the possibilities of simulation and optimalization of ethernet networks in Matlab interface. Ethernet technology, quality of service and architecture of differentiated services are described in this thesis. Based on these facts, there was created a toolbox. This toolbox allows to create a dynamic network, which can be configured via using GUI. In the end of the thesis, there are shown results of the simulation of networks, which is running in created program.

The exponential growth of Internet applications has created new challenges for the control and administration of large-scale networks, which consist of heterogeneous elements under dynamically changing traffic conditions. These emerging applications need guaranteed service levels, beyond those supported by best-effort networks, to deliver the intended services to the end user. Several models have been proposed for a Quality of Service (QoS) framework that can provide the means to transport these services. It is desirable to find efficient routing strategies that can meet the strict routing requirements of these applications. QoS routing is considered as one of the major components of the QoS framework in communication networks. In QoS routing, paths are selected based upon the knowledge of resource availability at network nodes and the QoS requirements of traffic. Several QoS routing schemes have been proposed that differ in the way they gather information about the network state and the way they select paths based on this information. The biggest downside of current QoS routing schemes is the frequent maintenance and distribution of global state information across the network, which imposes huge communication and processing overheads. Consequently, scalability is a major issue in designing efficient QoS routing algorithms, due to the high costs of the associated overheads. Moreover, inaccuracy and staleness of global state information is another problem that is caused by relatively long update intervals, which can significantly deteriorate routing performance. Localized QoS routing, where source nodes take routing decisions based solely on statistics collected locally, was proposed relatively recently as a viable alternative to global QoS routing. It has shown promising results in achieving good routing performance, while at the same time eliminating many scalability related problems. In localized QoS routing each source¿destination pair needs to determine a set of candidate paths from which a path will be selected to route incoming flows. The goal of this thesis is to enhance the scalability of QoS routing by investigating and developing new models and algorithms based on the localized QoS routing approach. For this thesis, we have extensively studied the localized QoS routing approach and demonstrated that it can achieve a higher routing performance with lower overheads than global QoS routing schemes. Existing localized routing algorithms, Proportional Sticky Routing (PSR) and Credit-Based Routing (CBR), use the blocking probability of candidate paths as the criterion for selecting routing paths based on either flow proportions or a crediting mechanism, respectively. Routing based on the blocking probability of candidate paths may not always reflect the most accurate state of the network. This has motivated the search for alternative localized routing algorithms and to this end we have made the following contributions. First, three localized bandwidth-constrained QoS routing algorithms have been proposed, two are based on a source routing strategy and the third is based on a distributed routing strategy. All algorithms utilize the quality of links rather than the quality of paths in order to make routing decisions. Second, a dynamic precautionary mechanism was used with the proposed algorithms to prevent candidate paths from reaching critical quality levels. Third, a localized delay-constrained QoS routing algorithm was proposed to provide routing with an end-to-end delay guarantee. We compared the performance of the proposed localized QoS routing algorithms with other localized and global QoS routing algorithms under different network topologies and different traffic conditions. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms outperform the other algorithms in terms of routing performance, resource balancing and have superior computational complexity and scalability features. / Umm AlQura University, Saudi Arabia

利用經濟理論以及分析網路資源數量與價錢的關係，提供網路供應者，可以依據目前網路壅塞的情形，讓網路使用者可以彈性選擇個人化網路服務等級，動態保證網路使用者的網路服務品質，透過經濟效益分析，構思出定價策略來保障使用者最大利益，供應者最大收益和社會最大福利。在差異性服務環境下，我們不僅支援多種網路服務等級而且允許網路使用者動態選擇適當網路資源，實驗結果顯示我們的定價方法提供網路服務等級及增加網路供應者的利潤。 / By adopting an appropriate economics theory and analyzing a close connection between quantity and price, we enable network service providers to react instantaneously to network congestions and to provide customers with high flexibility in service class selection. Economic efficiency is well established in pricing strategies to maximize customers’ net benefit, provider’s surplus and social welfare. To achieve this goal, we propose a hybrid pricing strategy which not only supports multiple QoS classes but also allows customers to make personal QoS class selections in Differentiated Service networks. Simulation results show that our pricing strategy can support customer QoS and increase ISP revenue.