Measurement and performance of a cognitive packet network

As the size of the Internet grows by orders of magnitude both in terms of u sers, number of IP addresses, and number of routers. and as the links we us e (be they wired, optical or wireless) continuously evolve and provide vary ing reliability and quality of service, the IP based network architecture t hat we know so well will have to evolve and change. Both scalability and Qo S have become key issues. We are currently conducting a research project th at revisits the IP routing architecture issues and proposes new designs for routers. As part of this effort, this paper discusses a packet network arc hitecture called a cognitive packet network (CPN), in which intelligent cap abilities for routing and flow control are moved towards the packets. rathe r than being concentrated in the nodes. In this paper we outline the design of the CPN architecture. and discuss the quality-of-service based routing algorithm that we have designed and implemented. We then present our test-b ed and report on extensive measurement experiments that we have conducted. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.