An integrated network resource and QoS management framework

We present an integrated network resource and QoS management framework based on the idea of decoupling the network control plane from the data plane. Our framework is capable of providing per-flow QoS guarantees using a scalable core-stateless packet forwarding mechanism at the network core. A virtual time reference system provides the abstraction of the data plane. A bandwidth broker performs all control and resource management functions while router functionality is kept minimal to make the performance of its main function, packet forwarding, efficient We present the bandwidth broker architecture, its modules and their implementations as well as the implementation of the packet forwarding mechanism at the routers. We describe also the design of the interface between the bandwidth broker and the routers as well as the interface between the bandwidth broker and the users (applications).