In-home and remote QoS control for home networks

Next Generation Networks (NGNs) transport a variety of services across a converged IP-based network infrastructure. To assure the Quality of Experience (QoE) for the users, an end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) management is required. While solutions for QoS management and admission control in access and core networks exist, the inclusion of the home network remains still open. Thus, we present a novel remote control architecture and method to arrange for admission control within home networks and on their access lines. Our method makes use of existing SIP-based infrastructures like IMS or dedicated subsystems by defining a new SIP-based signaling protocol for home network control, which we name HRCP (Home Resource Control Protocol). As a benefit, the subsystems' capabilities for message routing, authentication, authorization and encryption can be re-used without the need to re-invent such methods again. In this paper we present an architecture based on ETSI TISPAN RACS along with message flows, results from a prototype implementation including the in-home QoS. Proof-of-concept is shown using a testbed with a small example service, namely an emergency service. Although our solution is presented within the scope of TISPAN RACS, it is applicable to any other type of remote session-based policy control system.