Cable operators have been deploying business services for some time now. The nature of these services demand higher bandwidth, better management and complex service level guarantees. In order to meet the demands of the customer, the heterogeneous networks (DOCSIS, Ethernet, PON, Wireless) deployed by the cable operators have to be integrated to work seamlessly to support these services.
The technologies in use for delivering business services are predominately packet based and hence require different Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms to ensure proper delivery of services. However, the QoS mechanisms defined for these technologies have evolved independently and interoperation in a multi-technology network environment can be difficult. Often the network architects and engineers managing these networks face tremendous challenges in translating the QoS definitions and rules from one network to another, thus making it difficult to provide a seamless QoS experience for the users.
In this paper, we propose an extensible QoS architecture that will support the heterogeneous network infrastructure.
Specifically, we will address bandwidth reservation policies, priority queuing and the relationship between the Layer 2 and Layer 3 (IP) QoS mechanisms in a multi-technology network.