A QoS engineering architecture for the next-generation-Internet

The goal of this paper is to define a QoS engineering framework for the evolving next-generation-Internet (NGI) platform. Note that specific algorithms for QoS provisioning in the Internet are at an early stage of development; hence much further analysis is needed before concrete solutions can be adopted. Our approach is therefore based on an effective adaptation of some basic notions from the telephony world, where quality of service provisioning has attained a state of maturity following a century of evolution. In particular, we identify some generic classes of traffic generated by various applications, and the functional modules required for providing QoS support. In regard to the latter, we identify the general methodologies that may be used for implementing the QoS functional modules, and further discuss some new approaches that need further research. Finally, we outline the manner in which a few candidate military applications may be supported over the proposed QoS framework.