A comparison of ATM and IP QoS network capabilities for handling LAN traffic with QoS differentiation

Abstract

Now, a network operator must choose between two packet switched technologies for providing QoS in WAN networks, which are ATM and IP QoS [3, 4, 9]. As ATM has reached the maturity with capabilities for offering a number of different network services (i.e. CBR, VBR, ABR, UBR, GFR), the IP QoS with network services like expedited forwarding, assured forwarding, etc. is still at developing phase but nevertheless is commonly regarded as capable to guarantee in near future similar QoS level as ATM. This paper tries to compare the efficiency of the mentioned technologies (in case of IP QoS network the AQUILA network concept [1, 2] is investigated) for handling traffic generated by LANs with QoS differentiation. This is extremely required since the applications running in LAN differ in QoS requirements and emitted traffic profiles (streaming, elastic). Therefore, a classification process of outgoing LAN traffic into predefined sub-streams should be performed at the entry point to WAN network (edge ATM switch or IP router). Furthermore, particular sub-streams are submitted to adequate WAN network service, available in ATM or IP QoS. The paper presents the experimental results, measured in the test bed, corresponding to QoS level and QoS differentiation provided by ATM and IP QoS core. For this purpose, a set of representative applications currently available to a LAN user was selected demanding from the core different QoS level. They correspond to streaming applications like VoIP with QoS objectives represented mainly by packet delay characteristics and elastic applications controlled by TCP protocol with minimum guaranteed throughput/goodput as target.