The elusive QoS: what is missing?

Summary form only given. Today, the increasing popularity of mobile phones and VoIP is generating a large impact on the revenue of traditional telecom service providers (SPs). To maintain their subscriber base and average revenue per user (ARPU), SPs are eager to offer premium services such as IP TV, online gaming, etc. These services create a large demand for QoS in IP networks. However, after so many years of research, development and claimed deployment, QoS is still something of the future in IP networks including the Internet. Among other issues, the quality of most IP networks is still fairly unpredictable. Will QoS ever become reality? What makes QoS so elusive? In this speech, the speaker discusses the economic, regulatory and technical challenges of delivering end-to-end QoS in IP networks and especially the Internet. Some of the important topics include: the unclear business model for QoS: should sender or receiver pay for QoS? The uncertainty of government regulation: should SPs even be allowed to charge for QoS? The speaker then presents a pragmatic approach towards achieving QoS in the Internet. This covers a business model for QoS, the role of government regulation, the inter-working between SPs on QoS, the respective roles of the end-applications and the networks in delivering QoS, the single largest technology factor affecting QoS. In the end, the speaker discusses what the EURO-NGI community can contribute to QoS and suggests some practical research topics.