Dimensioning the last mile towards service differentiation

Emerging multiple service broadband networks will support applications with diverse performance objectives and traffic characteristics. The evolution from the current "best effort" service, to QoS-enabled IP services should be performed in a smooth and scalable way. MUSE architecture exploits the combination of class-based forwarding and per-flow admittance in order to yield a promising, effective and scalable solution. In order to support also migration scenarios, the proposed architecture is generic enough to cover different access technologies with multiple link rates. Although multiple mechanisms on different planes should be incorporated, the goal is the same; to provide service provisioning with quantitative and qualitative measures for customers\´ satisfaction. Our attention is focused on data plane and especially on the behavior of the residential gateway (RGW). This paper gives a simulative performance analysis of the proposed traffic differentiation and buffer settings effects when applied on the QoS block of the RGW. Performance results are derived from real network traffic simulations on a model based on the proposed architecture and functionality of the gateway for relatively slow access lines. The results will show the special features of the applied MUSE architecture and will highlight its capability to provide predefined qualitative metrics on the RGW node so that the operators could build a well-engineered network, achieving QoS provisioning in the access network