Use of COPS for Intserv operations over Diffserv: architectural issues, protocol design and test-bed implementation

This paper describes a solution for the Intserv operations over Diffserv network, based on the use of a bandwidth broker for the resource allocation. The architectural scenario is described, which is based on the current IETF work in this area. For the communication of the admission control request to the bandwidth broker, the use of COPS protocol is proposed and the detailed protocol specifications have been given. In particular, a new client type for the COPS protocol is proposed to support dynamic Diffserv admission control. The policy decision point (PDP) acts as a "bandwidth broker" for the policy enforcement point (PEP) which is requesting resources. The use of the defined mechanism is suited for (but it is not limited to) the integrated services operation over Diffserv networks. The proposed model has been implemented in a test-bed, where both the control plane and the data plane are realized according to the specification.