Guaranteed Internet bandwidth

As Internet services, such as the World Wide Web, become basic information tools for businesses and individuals, its users are becoming less patient with long delays and unpredictable performance. In addition, sites offering multimedia streams are rapidly emerging, adding significant strain on an already heavily loaded Internet, whose current transport protocols were designed to offer “best effort” service without performance guarantees. This article describes guaranteed Internet bandwidth (GIB), a new technology that provides predictable performance by enabling end-user applications to establish end-to-end, on-demand, ISDN or ATM circuits and redirect selected Internet Protocol (IP) traffic through them. The GIB is easy to deploy in the short term, does not require changes in existing Internet routers, and includes simple and effective handling of payment agreement and billing