Quality of Service by flow-aware networking

The paper addresses the issue of providing Quality of Service (QoS) guarant ees in the Internet. After a brief discussion of Internet traffic character istics, we consider the possibility of performing multiplexing with predict able performance for stream and elastic traffic using open-loop and closed- loop control, respectively. QoS depends essentially on providing sufficient capacity to handle expected demand. We argue that flow awareness is additi onally necessary to ensure that traffic is directed over routes with availa ble capacity and to avoid congestion collapse in case of overload. Proposed flow-aware controls allow simple volume-based charging and the development of an economic model similar to that of the telephone network.