Considerations from the Service Management Research Group (SMRG) on Quality of Service (QoS) in the IP Network
RFC 3387
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(October 2002; No errata)
Was draft-irtf-smrg-ipsmf (ops)
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Authors | Michael Eder , Hemant Chaskar , Sid Nag | ||
Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
Stream | Legacy | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | Legacy state | (None) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 3387 (Informational) | |
Action Holders |
(None)
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Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | Bert Wijnen | ||
IESG note | Responsible: RFC Editor | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group M. Eder Request for Comments: 3387 H. Chaskar Category: Informational Nokia S. Nag September 2002 Considerations from the Service Management Research Group (SMRG) on Quality of Service (QoS) in the IP Network Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved. Abstract The guiding principles in the design of IP network management were simplicity and no centralized control. The best effort service paradigm was a result of the original management principles and the other way around. New methods to distinguish the service given to one set of packets or flows relative to another are well underway. However, as IP networks evolve the management approach of the past may not apply to the Quality of Service (QoS)-capable network envisioned by some for the future. This document examines some of the areas of impact that QoS is likely to have on management and look at some questions that remain to be addressed. 1. Introduction Simplicity above all else was one of the guiding principles in the design of IP networks. However, as IP networks evolve, the concept of service in IP is also evolving, and the strategies of the past may not apply to the full-service QoS-capable network envisioned by some for the future. Within the IP community, their exists a good deal of impetus for the argument that if the promise of IP is to be fulfilled, networks will need to offer an increasing variety of services. The definition of these new services in IP has resulted in a need for reassessment of the current control mechanism utilized by IP networks. Efforts to provide mechanisms to distinguish the service given to one set of packets or flows relative to another are well underway, yet many of the support functions necessary to exploit these mechanisms are limited in scope and a complete framework is Eder, et. al. Informational [Page 1] RFC 3387 IP Service Management in the QoS Network September 2002 non-existent. This is complicated by the fact that many of these new services will also demand some form of billing framework in addition to a control one, something radically new for IP. This document intends to evaluate the network and service management issues that will need to be addressed, if the IP networks of the future are going to offer more than just the traditional best effort service in any kind of significant way. 2. Background The task of defining a management framework for QoS will be difficult due to the fact that it represents a radical departure from the best effort service model that was at the core of IP in the past, and had a clear design strategy to have simplicity take precedence over everything else [1]. This philosophy was nowhere more apparent than in the network and service management area for IP [2]. Proposed changes to support a variety of QoS features will impact the existing control structure in a very dramatic way. Compounding the problem is the lack of understanding of what makes up a "service" in IP [3]. Unlike some other network technologies, in IP it does not suffice to limit the scope of service management simply to end-to-end connectivity, but the transport service offered to packets and the way the transport is used must also be covered. QoS management is a subset of the more general service management. In looking to solve the QoS management problem it can be useful to understand some of the issues and limitations of the service management problem. QoS can not be treated as a standalone entity and will have its management requirements driven by the general higher level service requirements. If the available transport services in IP expand, the result will be the further expansion of what is considered a service. The now de-facto inclusion of WEB services in the scope of IP service, which is remarkable given that the WEB did not even exist when IP was first invented, illustrates this situation well. This phenomenon can be expected to increase with the current trend towards moving network decision points towards the boundary of the network and, as a result, closer to the applications and customers. Additionally, the argument continues over the need for QoS in IP networks at all. New technologies based on fiber and wavelength-division multiplexing have many people convinced that bandwidth will be so inexpensive it is notShow full document text