Operators challenges toward bandwidth management in DiffServ-aware traffic engineering networks

This article addresses the bandwidth management problem in differentiated-service-aware traffic engineering (DS-TE) in MPLS networks. In this context diverse bandwidth constraint (BC) models have been proposed to enforce bandwidth constraints for each class of traffic on the basis of the resource optimization objectives. This article is not aimed at designing new models but to describe the framework required to exploit the advantages of the selected BC model. In particular, we analyze the impact of setting the bandwidth constraints and aggregating the service flows into traffic classes on service performance and resource utilization. We believe that this issue is often underestimated, and the literature is missing an overall discussion and relevant solution that drives the network operator in setting up bandwidth management procedures. The presented strategy takes into account the performance indicators, quality profile, and forecast traffic to improve the fulfillment of quality of service targets and optimize network resource utilization.