NOTE: Chapters 1 and 4 is available

1
ELEMENTS OF MODERN NETWORKING
Unit Structure:

1.1 Objectives
1.2 The Networking Ecosystem
1.3 Example Network Architectures
1.3.1 A Global Network Architecture
1.3.2 A Typical Network Hierarchy
1.4 Ethernet
1.4.1 Applications of Ethernet
1.4.2 Standards
1.4.3 Ethernet Data Rates
1.5 Wi-Fi
1.5.1 Applications of Wi-Fi
1.5.2 Standards
1.5.3 Wi-Fi Data Rates
1.6 4G/5G Cellular
1.6.1 First Generation
1.6.2 Second Generation
1.6.3 Third Generation
1.6.4 Fourth Generation
1.6.5 Fifth Generation
1.7 Cloud Computing
1.7.1 Cloud Computing Concepts
1.7.2 The Benefits of Cloud Computing
1.7.3 Cloud Networking
1.7.4 Cloud Storage
1.8 Internet of Things
1.8.1 Things on the Internet of Things
1.8.2 Evolution
1.8.3 Layers of the Internet of Things
1.9 Network Convergence
1.10 Unified Communications
1.11 Summary
1.12 Review Question
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 1
 2

1.13 References
1.1 OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain the key elements and their relationships of a modern
networking ecosystem, including end users, network
providers, application providers and application service
providers.
• Discuss the motivation for the typical network hierarchy of
access networks, distribution networks, and core networks.
• Present an overview of Ethernet, including a discussion of its
application areas and common data rates.
• Present an overview of Wi-Fi, including a discussion of its
application areas and common data rates.
• Understand the differences between the five generations of
cellular networks.
• Present an overview of cloud computing concepts.
• Describe the Internet of Things.
• Explain the concepts of network convergence and unified
communications.

1.2 THE NETWORKING ECOSYSTEM

As enterprises persist to adjust to the everchanging working nature,

understanding the long-term effects of the any road-blocker and
what actions we all need to take is critical. As technologists
modernize their IT infrastructure, they face a host of obstacles,
including legacy infrastructure, poor system integration and teams
whose programming skills are not up to snuff. Whether IT
professionals need to deliver new applications or create a more
efficient IT environment, outmoded IT gets in the way. By contrast,
a modern infrastructure adapts, helping IT pros keep pace with
business needs.

To create a modern and responsive infrastructure, IT teams have

virtualized datacenter infrastructure, from servers to storage to
networking. Combined with analytics, virtualization helps the
network stand up to new demands. As hardware becomes
virtualized and programmable through software, IT teams need the
skills to enable integration – and the hardware needs to be able to
integrate. How IT professionals choose their tools and design their
IT environments to be automated, virtualized, programmable,
secure, and scalable will surely be the difference between success
and failure.
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 2
 3

Figure 1.0 The Modern Networking Ecosystem

Figure 1.0 depicts the modern networking ecosystem in very

general terms. The entire ecosystem exists to provide services to
end users. The term end user, or simply user, is used here as a
very general term, to encompass users working within an enterprise
or in a public setting or at home. The user platform can be fixed (for
example, PC or workstation), portable (for example, laptop), or
mobile (for example, tablet or smartphone).

Users connect to network-based services and content through a

wide variety of network access facilities. These include digital
subscriber line (DSL) and cable modems, Wi-Fi, and Worldwide
Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) wireless modems,
and cellular modems. Such network access facilities enable the use
to connect directly to the Internet or to a variety of network
providers, including Wi-Fi networks, cellular networks, and both
private and shared network facilities, such as a premises enterprise
network. Ultimately, of course, users want to use network facilities
to access applications and content.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 3

 4

Figure 1.0 indicates three broad categories of interest to users.

Application providers provide applications, or apps, that run on the
user’s platform, which is typically a mobile platform. More recently,
the concept of an app store has become available for fixed and
portable platforms as well.

A distinct category of provider is the application service provider.

Whereas the application provider downloads software to the user’s
platform, the application service provider acts as a server or host of
application software that is executed on the provider’s platforms.
Traditional examples of such software include web servers, e-mail
servers, and database servers. The most prominent example now
is the cloud computing provider.

The final (topmost) element shown in Figure 1.0 is the content

provider. A content provider serves the data to be consumed on the
user device (for example, e-mail, music, video). This data may be
commercially provided intellectual property. In some instances, an
enterprise may be an application or content provider. Examples of
content providers are music record labels and movie studios.

Figure 1.0 is intended to provide a very general depiction of the

networking ecosystem. It is worth pointing out here two major
elements of modern networking not explicitly depicted in this figure:

• Data center networking: Both large enterprise data centers

and cloud provider data centers consist of very large numbers
of interconnected servers. Typically, as much as 80 percent of
the data traffic is within the data center network, and only 20
percent relies on external networks to reach users.

Results of the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant (series of market

research reports) for Data Center and Cloud Networking is
presented below for reference along with an understanding of
the criteria for each category:
o Leaders – Cisco, Arista Networks, Juniper Networks
(Typically, innovative giants who excel at both vision and
execution)
o Challengers – Huawei (Strong execution but low vision)
o Visionaries – VMWare, Dell EMC, Cumulus Networks,
HPE (Aruba) (Good vision but low execution)
o Niche Players – NVIDIA-Mellanox Technologies, Extreme,
H3C (Hyper-focused on a small segment, resulting in low
vision and low execution)

• IoT or fog networking: An Internet of Things deployed by an

enterprise may consist of hundreds, thousands, even millions of

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 4

 5

devices. The vast bulk of the data traffic to and from these
devices is machine to machine, rather than user to machine.

Each of these networking environments creates its own

requirements, which are discussed as the book progresses.

1.3 EXAMPLE NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

This section introduces two example network architectures,

and with them some of the networking terminology in common use.

1.3.1 A Global Network Architecture

Figure 1.1 A Global Networking Architecture

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 5
 6

We begin with an architecture that could represent an enterprise

network of national or global extent, or a portion of the Internet with
some of its associated networks. Figure 1.1 illustrates some of the
typical communications and network elements in use in such a
context.

At the center of the figure is an IP backbone, or core, network,

which could represent a portion of the Internet or an enterprise IP
network. Typically, the backbone consists of high-performance
routers, called core routers, interconnected with high-volume optical
links. The optical links often make use of what is known as
wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), such that each link has
multiple logical channels occupying different portions of the optical
bandwidth.

At the periphery of an IP backbone are routers that provide

connectivity to external networks and users. These routers are
sometimes referred to as edge routers or aggregation routers.
Aggregation routers are also used within an enterprise network to
connect several routers and switches, to external resources, such
as an IP backbone or a high-speed WAN. As an indication of the
capacity requirements for core and aggregation routers, the IEEE
Ethernet Bandwidth Assessments Group [XI11] reports on an
analysis that projects these requirements for Internet backbone
providers and large enterprise networks in China. The analysis
concludes that aggregation router requirements will be in the range
of 200 Gbps to 400 Gbps per optical link by 2020, and 400 Gbps to
1 Tbps per optical link for core routers by 2020.

The upper part of Figure 1.1 depicts a portion of what might be a

large enterprise network. The figure shows two sections of the
network connected via a private high-speed WAN, with switches
interconnected with optical links. MPLS using IP is a common
switching protocol used for such WANs; wide-area Ethernet is
another option. Enterprise assets are connected to, and protected
from, an IP backbone or the Internet via routers with firewall
capability, a not uncommon arrangement for implementing the
firewall. The lower left of the figure depicts what might be a layout
for a small- or medium-size business, which relies on an Ethernet
LAN. Connection to the Internet through a router could be through a
cable or DSL connection or a dedicated high-speed link.

The lower portion of Figure 1.1 also shows an individual residential

user connected to an Internet service provider (ISP) through some
sort of subscriber connection. Common examples of such a
connection are a DSL, which provides a high-speed link over
telephone lines and requires a special DSL modem, and a cable TV
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 6
 7

facility, which requires a cable modem, or some type of wireless

connection. In each case, there are separate issues concerning
signal encoding, error control, and the internal structure of the
subscriber network. Finally, mobile devices, such as smartphones
and tablets, can connect to the Internet through the public cellular
network, which has a high-speed connection, typically optical, to
the Internet.

1.3.2 A Typical Network Hierarchy

This section focuses in on a network architecture that, with some

variation, is common in many enterprises. As Figure 1.2 illustrates,
enterprises often design their network facilities in a three-tier
hierarchy: access, distribution, and core.

Figure 1.2 A Typical Network Hierarchy

Closest to the end user is the access network. Typically, an access

network is a local-area network (LAN) or campus-wide network that
consisting of LAN switches (typically Ethernet switches) and, in
larger LANs, IP routers that provide connectivity among the
switches. Layer 3 switches (not shown) are also commonly used
within an LAN. The access network supports end user equipment,
such as desktop and laptop computers and mobile devices. The

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 7

 8

access network also supports local servers that primarily or

exclusively serve the users on the local access network.

One or more access routers connect the local assets to the next
higher level of the hierarchy, the distribution network. This
connection may be via the Internet or some other public or private
communications facility. Thus, as described in the preceding
subsection, these access routers function as edge routers that
forward traffic into and out of the access network. For a large local
facility, there might be additional access routers that provide
internal routing but do not function as edge routers (not shown in
Figure 1.1).

The distribution network connects access networks with each other

and with the core network. An edge router in the distribution
network connects to an edge router in an access network to provide
connectivity. The two routers are configured to recognize each
other and will generally exchange routing and connectivity
information and, typically, some traffic-related information. This
cooperation between routers is referred to as peering. The
distribution network also serves to aggregate traffic destined for the
core router, which protects the core from high-density peering. That
is, the use of a distribution network limits the number of routers that
establish peer relationships with edge routers in the core, saving
memory, processing, and transmission capacity. A distribution
network may also directly connect servers that are of use to
multiple access networks, such as database servers and network
management servers.

Again, as with access networks, some of the distribution routers

may be purely internal and do not provide an edge router function.
The core network, also referred to as a backbone network,
connects geographically dispersed distribution networks as well as
providing access to other networks that are not part of the
enterprise network. Typically, the core network will use very high-
performance routers, high-capacity transmission lines, and multiple
interconnected routers for increased redundancy and capacity. The
core network may also connect to high-performance, high-capacity
servers, such as large database servers and private cloud facilities.

Some of the core routers may be purely internal, providing

redundancy and additional capacity without serving as edge
routers.

A hierarchical network architecture is an example of a good

modular design. With this design, the capacity, features, and
functionality of network equipment (routers, switches, network

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 8

 9

management servers) can be optimized for their position in the

hierarchy and the requirements at a given hierarchical level.

1.4. ETHERNET

The concept of Ethernet was formulated and introduced by XEROX

PARC, now simply known as PARC (Palo Alto Research
Centre).This agency proposed to develop a form of system that
would permit/allow computers and devices to be connected with
one and other using coaxial cables. Engineers Bob Metcalfe and
D.R Boggs developed Ethernet beginning in 1972. In 1976, a
connection two computers were made, and data transfer fruitfully
took place with the speed of 3MB/second. In 1980, industry
standards based on their work were established under IEEE 802.3
set of specifications. In 1990’s, fast Ethernet technology came into
existence fulfilling the objective of:

a) increasing the performance of previous traditional Ethernet

b) avoiding the need of completely re-cable existing Ethernet
networks.

Technologies like Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and 4G/5G cellular networks

have evolved to support very high data rates supporting many
multimedia applications required by enterprises, consumers and, at
the same time, place great demands on network switching
equipment and network management facilities.

1.4.1 Applications of Ethernet

Ethernet is the predominant wired networking technology, used in
homes, offices, data centers, enterprises, and WANs. As Ethernet
has evolved to support data rates up to 100 Gbps and distances
from a few meters to tens of kilometers, it has become essential for
supporting personal computers, workstations, servers, and massive
data storage devices in organizations large and small.

Ethernet in the Home

Ethernet has long been used in the home to create a local network
of computers with access to the Internet via a broadband
modem/router. With the increasing availability of high-speed, low-
cost Wi-Fi on computers, tablets, smartphones, modem/routers,
and other devices, home reliance on Ethernet has declined.
Nevertheless, almost all home networking setups include some use
of Ethernet.

Two recent extensions of Ethernet technology have enhanced and

broadened the use of Ethernet in the home: powerline carrier (PLC)
and Power over Ethernet (PoE). Powerline modems take

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 9

 10

advantage of existing power lines and use the power wire as a

communication channel to transmit Ethernet packets on top of the
power signal. This makes it easy to include Ethernet-capable
devices throughout the home into the Ethernet network.

PoE acts in a complementary fashion, distributing power over the

Ethernet data cable. PoE uses the existing Ethernet cables to
distribute power to devices on the network, thus simplifying the
wiring for devices such as computers and televisions. With all these
Ethernet options, Ethernet will retain a strong presence in home
networking, complementing the advantages of Wi-Fi.

Ethernet in the Office

Ethernet has also long been the dominant network technology for
wired local-area networks (LANs) in the office environment. Early
on there were some competitors, such as IBM’s Token Ring LAN
and the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), but the simplicity,
performance, and wide availability of Ethernet hardware eventually
made Ethernet the winner. Today, as with home networks, the
wired Ethernet technology exists side by side with the wireless Wi-
Fi technology. Much of the traffic in a typical office environment
now travels on Wi-Fi, particularly to support mobile devices.
Ethernet retains its popularity because it can support many devices
at high speeds, is not subject to interference, and provides a
security advantage because it is resistant to eavesdropping.
Therefore, a combination of Ethernet and Wi-Fi is the most
common architecture.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 10

 11

Figure 1.3 A Basic Enterprise LAN architecture

Figure 1.3 provides a simplified example of an enterprise LAN

architecture. The LAN connects to the Internet/WANs via a firewall.
A hierarchical arrangement of routers and switches provides the
interconnection of servers, fixed user devices, and wireless
devices. Typically, wireless devices are only attached at the edge
or bottom of the hierarchical architecture; the rest of the campus
infrastructure is all Ethernet. There may also be an IP telephony
server that provides call control functions (voice switching) for the
telephony operations in an enterprise network, with connectivity to
the public switched telephone network (PTSN).

Ethernet in the Enterprise

A tremendous advantage of Ethernet is that it is possible to scale
the network, both in terms of distance and data rate, with the same
Ethernet protocol and associated quality of service (QoS) and
security standards. An enterprise can easily extend an Ethernet
network among several buildings on the same campus or even
some distance apart, with links ranging from 10 Mbps to 100 Gbps,
using a mixture of cable types and Ethernet hardware. Because all
the hardware and communications software conform to the same
standard, it is easy to mix different speeds and different vendor
equipment. The same protocol is used for intensive high-speed

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 11

 12

interconnections of data servers in a single room, workstations and

servers distributed throughout the building, and links to Ethernet
networks in other buildings up to 100 km away.

Ethernet in the Data Center

As in other areas, Ethernet has come to dominate in the data
center, where very high data rates are needed to handle massive
volumes of data among networked servers and storage units.
Historically, data centers have employed various technologies to
support high-volume, short-distance needs, including InfiniBand
and Fiber Channel. But now that Ethernet can scale up to 100
Gbps, with 400 Gbps on the horizon, the case for a unified protocol
approach throughout the enterprise is compelling. Two features of
the new Ethernet approach are noteworthy. For co-located servers
and storage units, high-speed Ethernet fiber links and switches
provided the needed networking infrastructure. Another important
version of Ethernet is known as backplane Ethernet. Backplane
Ethernet runs over copper jumper cables that can provide up to 100
Gbps over very short distances. This technology is ideal for blade
servers, in which multiple server modules are housed in a single
chassis.

Ethernet for Wide-Area Networking

Until recently, Ethernet was not a significant factor in wide-area
networking. But gradually, more telecommunications and network
providers have switched to Ethernet from alternative schemes to
support wide-area access (also referred to as first mile
or last mile). Ethernet is supplanting a variety of other wide-area
options, such as dedicated T1 lines, synchronous digital hierarchy
(SDH) lines, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). When used
in this fashion, the term carrier Ethernet is applied. The term metro
Ethernet, or metropolitan-area network (MAN) Ethernet, is also
used. Ethernet has the advantage that it seamlessly fits into the
enterprise network for which it provides wide-area access. But a
more important advantage is that carrier Ethernet provides much
more flexibility in terms of the data rate capacity that is used,
compared to traditional wide-area alternatives. Carrier Ethernet is
one of the fastest-growing Ethernet technologies, destined to
become the dominant means by which enterprises access wide-
area networking and Internet facilities.

1.4.2 Standards
Within the IEEE 802 LAN standards committee, the 802.3 group is
responsible for issuing standards for LANs that are referred to
commercially as Ethernet. Complementary to the efforts of the
802.3 committee, the industry consortium known as The Ethernet
Alliance supports and originates activities that span from incubation

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 12

 13

of new Ethernet technologies to interoperability testing to

demonstrations to education.

1.4.3 Ethernet Data Rates

Currently, Ethernet systems are available at speeds up to 100
Gbps. Here is a brief chronology:
• 1983: 10 Mbps (megabit per second, million bits per second)
• 1995: 100 Mbps
• 1998: 1 Gbps (gigabits per second, billion bits per second)
• 2003: 10 Gbps
• 2010: 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps
• 2017: 700 Gbps

Figure 1.4 Ethernet and Wi-Fi Timelines

1-Gbps Ethernet
For several years, the initial standard of Ethernet, at 10 Mbps, was
adequate for most office environments. By the early 1990s, it was
clear that higher data rates were needed to support the growing
traffic load on the typical LAN. Key drivers included the following:
• Centralized server farms: In many multimedia applications,
there is a need for client system to be able to draw huge
amounts of data from multiple, centralized servers, called
server farms. As the performance of the servers has
increased, the network becomes the bottleneck.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 13

 14

• Power workgroups: These groups typically consist of a small

number of cooperating users who need to exchange
massive data files across the network. Example applications
are software development and computer-aided design.

• High-speed local backbone: As processing demand grows,

enterprises develop an architecture of multiple LANs
interconnected with a high-speed backbone network.

To meet such needs, the IEEE 802.3 committee developed a set of

specifications for Ethernet at 100 Mbps, followed a few years later
by a 1-Gbps family of standards. In each case, the new
specifications defined transmission media and transmission
encoding schemes built on the basic Ethernet framework, making
the transition easier than if a completely new specification were
issued.

10-Gbps Ethernet
Even as the ink was drying on the 1-Gbps specification, the
continuing increase in local traffic made this specification
inadequate for needs in the short-term future. Accordingly, the
IEEE 802.3 committee soon issued a standard for 10-Gbps
Ethernet. The principle driving requirement for 10-Gbps Ethernet
was the increase in intranet (local interconnected networks) and
Internet traffic.

Several factors contribute to the explosive growth in both Internet

and intranet traffic:
• An increase in the number of network connections
• An increase in the connection speed of each end-station (for
example, 10-Mbps users moving to 100 Mbps, analog 56k
users moving to DSL and cable modems).
• An increase in the deployment of bandwidth-intensive
applications such as high-quality video.
• An increase in web hosting and application hosting traffic.

Initially, network managers used 10-Gbps Ethernet to provide high-

speed, local backbone interconnection between large-capacity
switches. As the demand for bandwidth increased, 10-Gbps
Ethernet began to be deployed throughout the entire network, to
include server farm, backbone, and campus-wide connectivity. This
technology enables ISPs and network service providers (NSPs) to
create very high-speed links at a very low cost between co-located
carrier-class switches and routers.

The technology also allows the construction of MANs and WANs

that connect geographically dispersed LANs between campuses or
points of presence (PoPs).
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 14
 15

100-Gbps Ethernet
The IEEE 802.3 committee soon realized the need for a greater
data rate capacity than 10-Gbps Ethernet offers, to support Internet
exchanges, high-performance computing, and video-on-demand
delivery. The authorization request justified the need for two
different data rates in the new standard (40 Gbps and 100 Gbps) by
recognizing that aggregate network requirements and end-station
requirements are increasing at different rates.

The following are market drivers for 100-Gbps Ethernet:

• Data center/Internet media providers: To support the
growth of Internet multimedia content and web applications,
content providers have been expanding data centers,
pushing 10-Gbps Ethernet to its limits. Likely to be high-
volume early adopters of 100-Gbps Ethernet.

• Metro video/service providers: Video on demand has

been driving a new generation of 10-Gbps Ethernet
metropolitan/core network buildouts. Likely to be high-
volume adopters in the medium term.

• Enterprise LANs: Continuing growth in convergence of

voice/video/data and in unified communications is driving up
network switch demands. However, most enterprises still
rely on 1-Gbps or a mix of 1-Gbps and 10-Gbps Ethernet,
and adoption of 100-Gbps Ethernet is likely to be slow.

• Internet exchanges/ISP core routing: With the massive

amount of traffic flowing through these nodes, these
installations are likely to be early adopters of 100-Gbps
Ethernet.

Figure 1.5 shows an example of the application of 100-Gbps

Ethernet. The trend at large data centers, with substantial banks of
blade servers, is the deployment of 10-Gbps ports on individual
servers to handle the massive multimedia traffic provided by these
servers.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 15

 16

Figure 1.5 Configuration of massive blade server cloud site

Typically, a single blade server rack will contain multiple servers

and one or two 10-Gbps Ethernet switches to interconnect all the
servers and provide connectivity to the rest of the facility. The
switches are often mounted in the rack and referred to as top-of-
rack (ToR) switches. The term ToR has become synonymous with
server access switch, even if it is not located “top of rack.” For very
large data centers, such as cloud providers, the interconnection of
multiple blade server racks with additional 10-Gbps switches is
increasingly inadequate.

To handle the increased traffic load, switches operating at greater

than 10 Gbps are needed to support the interconnection of server
racks and to provide adequate capacity for connecting offsite
through network interface controllers (NICs).

25/50-Gbps Ethernet
One of the options for implementing 100-Gbps is as four 25-Gbps
physical lanes. Therefore, it would be relatively easy to develop
standards for 25-Gbps and 50-Gbps Ethernet, using one or two
lanes, respectively. Having these two lower-speed alternatives,
based on the 100-Gbps technology, would give users more
flexibility in meeting existing and near-term demands with a solution
that would scale easily to higher data rates. Such considerations
have led to the form of the 25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium by
several leading cloud networking providers, including Google and
Microsoft. The objective of the Consortium is to support an industry-
standard, interoperable Ethernet specification that boosts the

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 16

 17

performance and slashes the interconnect cost per Gbps between

the NIC and ToR switch. The specification adopted by the
Consortium prescribes a single-lane 25-Gbps Ethernet and dual-
lane 50-Gbps Ethernet link protocol, enabling up to 2.5 times higher
performance per physical lane on twinax copper wire between the
rack endpoint and switch compared to 10-Gbps and 40-Gbps
Ethernet links. The IEEE 802.3 committee is at work developing the
needed standards for 25 Gbps and may include 50 Gbps.

It is too early to say how these various options (25, 40, 50, 100
Gbps) will play out in the marketplace. In the intermediate term, the
100-Gbps switch is likely to predominate at large sites, but the
availability of these slower and cheaper alternatives gives
enterprises several paths for scaling up to meet increasing
demand.

400-Gbps Ethernet
The growth in demand never lets up. IEEE 802.3 is currently
exploring technology options for producing a 400-Gbps Ethernet
standard (proposed as 802.3db), although no timetable is yet in
place. Looking beyond that milestone, there is widespread
acknowledgment that a 1-Tbps (terabits per second, trillion bits per
second) standard will eventually be produced.

2.5/5-Gbps Ethernet
As a testament to the versatility and ubiquity of Ethernet, and while
ever higher data rates are being standardized, consensus is
developing to standardize two lower rates: 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps.
These relatively low speeds are also known as Multirate Gigabit
BASE-T (MGBASE-T). Currently, the MGBASE-T Alliance is
overseeing the development of these standards outside of IEEE. It
is likely that the IEEE 802.3 committee will ultimately issue
standards based on these industry efforts.

These new data rates are mainly intended to support IEEE

802.11ac wireless traffic into a wired network. IEEE 802.11ac is a
3.2-Gbps Wi-Fi standard that is gaining acceptance where more
than 1 Gbps of throughput is needed, such as to support mobile
users in the office environment. This new wireless standard
overruns 1-Gbps Ethernet link support but may not require the next
step up, which is 10 Gbps. If 2.5 and 5 Gbps can be made to work
over the same cable that supports 1 Gbps, this would provide a
much-needed uplink speed improvement for access points
supporting 802.11ac radios with their high bandwidth capabilities.

1.5 Wi-Fi

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 17

 18

Just as Ethernet has become the dominant technology for wired

LANs, so Wi-Fi, standardized by the IEEE 802.11 committee, has
become the dominant technology for wireless LANs. This overview
section discusses applications of Wi-Fi and then looks at standards
and performance.

1.5.1 Applications of Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is the predominant wireless Internet access technology, used
in homes, offices, and public spaces. Wi-Fi in the home now
connects computers, tablets, smartphones, and a host of electronic
devices, such as video cameras, TVs, and thermostats. Wi-Fi in the
enterprise has become an essential means of enhancing worker
productivity and network effectiveness. And public Wi-Fi hotspots
have expanded dramatically to provide free Internet access in must
public places.

Wi-Fi in the Home

The first important use of Wi-Fi in the home was to replace Ethernet
cabling for connecting desktop and laptop computers with each
other and with the Internet. A typical layout is a desktop computer
with an attached router/modem that provides an interface to the
Internet. Other desktop and laptop computers connect either via
Ethernet or Wi-Fi to the central router, so that all the home
computers can communicate with each other and with the Internet.
Wi-Fi greatly simplified the hookup. Not only is there no need for a
physical cable hookup, but the laptops can be moved easily from
room to room or even outside the house.

Today, the importance of Wi-Fi in the home has expanded

tremendously. Wi-Fi remains the default scheme for interconnecting
a home computer network. Because both Wi-Fi and cellular
capability are now standard on both smartphones and tablets, the
home Wi-Fi provides a cost-effective way to the Internet. The
smartphone or tablet will automatically use a Wi-Fi connection to
the Internet if available, and only switch to the more expensive
cellular connection if the Wi-Fi connection is not available. And Wi-
Fi is essential to implementing the latest evolution of the Internet:
Internet of Things.

Public Wi-Fi
Access to the Internet via Wi-Fi has expanded dramatically in
recent years, as more and more facilities provide a Wi-Fi hotspot,
which enables any Wi-Fi device to attach. Wi-Fi hotspots are
provided in coffee shops, restaurants, train stations, airports,
libraries, hotels, hospitals, department stores, RV parks, and many
other places. So many hotspots are available that it is rare to be too
far from one. There are now numerous tablet and smartphone apps
that increase their convenience.
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 18
 19

Even very remote places will be able to support hotspots with the
development of the satellite Wi-Fi hotspot. The first company to
develop such a product is the satellite communications company
Iridium. The satellite modem will initially provide a relatively low-
speed connection, but the data rates will inevitably increase.

Enterprise Wi-Fi
The economic benefit of Wi-Fi is most clearly seen in the
enterprise. Wi-Fi connections to the enterprise network have been
offered by many organizations of all sizes, including public and
private sector. But in recent years, the use of Wi-Fi has expanded
dramatically, to the point that now approximately half of all
enterprise network traffic is via Wi-Fi rather than the traditional
Ethernet. Two trends have driven the transition to a Wi-Fi-centered
enterprise. First, the demand has increased, with more and more
employees preferring to use laptops, tablets, and smartphones to
connect to the enterprise network, rather than a desktop computer.
Second, the arrival of Gigabit Ethernet, especially the IEEE 802.ac
standard, allows the enterprise network to support high-speed
connections to many mobile devices simultaneously.

Whereas Wi-Fi once merely provided an accessory network

designed to cover meetings and public areas, enterprise Wi-Fi
deployment now generally provides ubiquitous coverage, to include
main offices and remote facilities, and both indoor locations and
outdoor spaces surrounding them. Enterprises accepted the need
for, and then began to encourage, the practice known as bring your
own device (BYOD). The almost universal availability of Wi-Fi
capability on laptops, tablets, and smartphones, in addition to the
wide availability of home and public Wi-Fi networks, has greatly
benefited the organization. Employees can use the same devices
and the same applications to continue their work or check their e-
mail from wherever they are—home, at their local coffee shop, or
while traveling. From the enterprise perspective, this means higher
productivity and efficiency and lower costs.

1.5.2 Standards
Essential to the success of Wi-Fi is interoperability. Wi-Fi-enabled
devices must be able to communicate with Wi-Fi access points,
such as the home router, the enterprise access point, and public
hotspots, regardless of the manufacturer of the device or access
point. Such interoperability is guaranteed by two organizations.
First, the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN committee develops the
protocol and signaling standards for Wi-Fi. Then, the Wi-Fi Alliance
creates test suites to certify interoperability for commercial products
that conform to various IEEE 802.11 standards. The term Wi-Fi
(wireless fidelity) is used for products certified by the Alliance.
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 19
 20

1.5.3 Wi-Fi Data Rates

Just as businesses and home users have generated a need to
extend the Ethernet standard to speeds in the gigabits per second
(Gbps) range, the same requirement exists for Wi-Fi. As the
technology of antennas, wireless transmission techniques, and
wireless protocol design has evolved, the IEEE 802.11 committee
has been able to introduce standards for new versions of Wi-Fi at
ever-higher speeds. Once the standard is issued, industry quickly
develops the products. Here is a brief chronology, starting with the
original standard, which was simply called IEEE 802.11, and
showing the maximum data rate for each version (Figure 1.4):

• 802.11 (1997): 2 Mbps (megabits per second, million bits per

second)
• 802.11a (1999): 54 Mbps
• 802.11b (1999): 11 Mbps
• 802.11n (1999): 600 Mbps
• 802.11g (2003): 54 Mbps
• 802.11ad (2012): 6.76 Gbps (billion bits per second)
• 802.11ac (2014): 3.2 Gbps

IEEE 802.11ac operates in the 5-GHz band, as does the older and
slower standards 802.11a and 802.11n. It is designed to provide a
smooth evolution from 802.11n. This new standard makes use of
advanced technologies in antenna design and signal processing to
achieve much greater data rates, at lower battery consumption, all
within the same frequency band as the older versions of Wi-Fi.

IEEE 802.11ad is a version of 802.11 operating in the 60- GHz

frequency band. This band offers the potential for much wider
channel bandwidth than the 5-GHz band, enabling high data rates
with relatively simple signal encoding and antenna characteristics.
Few devices operate in the 60-GHz band, which means
communication experiences less interference than in the other
bands used for Wi-Fi.

Because of the inherent transmission limitations of the 60-GHz

band, 802.11ad is likely to be useful only within a single room.
Because it can support high data rates and, for example, could
easily transmit uncompressed high-definition video, it is suitable for
applications such as replacing wires in a home entertainment
system, or streaming high-definition movies from your cell phone to
your television.

Gigabit Wi-Fi holds attractions for both office and residential

environments and commercial products are beginning to roll out. In
the office environment, the demand for ever greater data rates has
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 20
 21

led to Ethernet offerings at 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps, and most recently

100 Gbps. These stupendous capacities are needed to support
blade servers, heavy reliance on video and multimedia, and
multiple broadband connections offsite. At the same time, the use
of wireless LANs has grown dramatically in the office setting to
meet needs for mobility and flexibility. With the gigabit-range data
rates available on the fixed portion of the office LAN, gigabit Wi-Fi
is needed to enable mobile users to effectively use the office
resources. IEEE 802.11ac is likely to be the preferred gigabit Wi-Fi
option for this environment.

In the consumer and residential market, IEEE 802.11ad is likely to

be popular as a low-power, short-distance wireless LAN capability
with little likelihood of interfering with other devices. IEEE 802.11ad
is also an attractive option in professional media production
environments in which massive amounts of data need to be moved
short distances.

1.6 4G/5G CELLULAR

Cellular technology is the foundation of mobile wireless

communications and supports users in locations that are not easily
served by wired networks. Cellular technology is the underlying
technology for mobile telephones, personal communications
systems, wireless Internet, and wireless web applications, and
much more. This section looks at how cellular technology has
evolved through four generations and is poised for a fifth
generation.

1.6.1 First Generation

The original cellular networks, now dubbed 1G, provided analog
traffic channels and were designed to be an extension of the public
switched telephone networks. Users with brick-sized cell phones
placed and received calls in the same fashion as landline
subscribers. The most widely deployed 1G system was the
Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), developed by AT&T.
Voice transmission was purely analog and control signals were sent
over a 10-kbps analog channel.

1.6.2 Second Generation

First-generation cellular networks quickly became highly popular,
threatening to swamp available capacity. Second-generation (2G)
systems were developed to provide higher-quality signals, higher
data rates for support of digital services, and greater capacity. Key
differences between 1G and 2G networks include the following:
Digital traffic channels: The most notable difference between the
two generations is that 1G systems are almost purely analog,

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 21

 22

whereas 2G systems are digital. 1G systems are designed to

support voice channels; digital traffic is supported only using a
modem that converts the digital data into analog form. 2G systems
provide digital traffic channels. These systems readily support
digital data; voice traffic is first encoded in digital form before
transmitting.
• Encryption: Because all the user traffic, and the control
traffic, is digitized in 2G systems, it is a relatively simple
matter to encrypt all the traffic to prevent eavesdropping. All
2G systems provide this capability, whereas 1G systems
send user traffic in the clear, providing no security.

• Error detection and correction: The digital traffic stream of

2G systems also lends itself to the use of error detection and
correction techniques. The result can be very clear voice
reception.

• Channel access: In 1G systems, each cell supports several

channels. At any given time, a channel is allocated to only
one user. 2G systems also provide multiple channels per
cell, but each channel is dynamically shared by several
users.

1.6.3 Third Generation

The objective of the third generation (3G) of wireless
communication is to provide high-speed wireless communications
to support multimedia, data, and video in addition to voice. 3G
systems share the following design features:
• Bandwidth: An important design goal for all 3G systems is
to limit channel usage to 5 MHz There are several reasons
for this goal. On the one hand, a bandwidth of 5 MHz or
more improves the receiver’s ability to resolve multipath
when compared to narrower bandwidths. On the other hand,
the available spectrum is limited by competing needs, and 5
MHz is a reasonable upper limit on what can be allocated for
3G. Finally, 5 MHz is adequate for supporting data rates of
144 and 384 kbps, the main targets for 3G services.

• Data rate: Target data rates are 144 and 384 kbps. Some
3G systems also provide support up to 2 Mbps for office use.

• Multirate: The term multirate refers to the provision of

multiple fixed-data-rate logical channels to a given user, in
which different data rates are provided on different logical
channels. Further, the traffic on each logical channel can be
switched independently through the wireless and fixed
networks to different destinations. The advantage of
multirate is that the system can flexibly support multiple
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 22
 23

simultaneous applications from a given user and can

efficiently use available capacity by only providing the
capacity required for each service.

1.6.4 Fourth Generation

The evolution of smartphones and cellular networks has ushered in
a new generation of capabilities and standards, which is collectively
called 4G. 4G systems provide ultra-broadband Internet access for
a variety of mobile devices including laptops, smartphones, and
tablets. 4G networks support Mobile web access and high-
bandwidth applications such as high-definition mobile TV, mobile
video conferencing, and gaming services.

These requirements have led to the development of a fourth

generation (4G) of mobile wireless technology that is designed to
maximize bandwidth and throughput while also maximizing spectral
efficiency. 4G systems have the following characteristics:
• Based on an all-IP packet switched network
• Support peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Mbps for
high-mobility mobile access and up to approximately 1 Gbps
for low-mobility access such as local wireless access
• Dynamically share and use the network resources to support
more simultaneous users per cell
• Support smooth handovers across heterogeneous networks
• Support high QoS for next-generation multimedia
applications

In contrast to earlier generations, 4G systems do not support

traditional circuit-switched telephone service, providing only IP
telephony services.

1.6.5 Fifth Generation

In telecommunications, 5G is the fifth-generation technology
standard for broadband cellular networks, which cellular phone
companies began deploying worldwide in 2019, and is the planned
successor to the 4G networks which provide connectivity to most
current cellphones. Like its predecessors, 5G networks are cellular
networks, in which the service area is divided into small
geographical areas called cells. All 5G wireless devices in a cell are
connected to the Internet and telephone network by radio waves
through a local antenna in the cell. The main advantage of the new
networks is that they will have greater bandwidth, giving higher
download speeds, eventually up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbit/s).
Due to the increased bandwidth, it is expected that the new
networks will not just serve cellphones like existing cellular
networks, but also be used as general internet service providers for
laptops and desktop computers, competing with existing ISPs such
as cable internet, and also will make possible new applications in
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 23
 24

internet of things (IoT) and machine to machine areas. Current 4G

cellphones will not be able to use the new networks, which will
require new 5G enabled wireless devices.

The increased speed is achieved partly by using higher-frequency

radio waves than current cellular networks. However, higher-
frequency radio waves have a shorter range than the frequencies
used by previous cell phone towers, requiring smaller cells. So, to
ensure wide service, 5G networks operate on up to three frequency
bands, low, medium, and high. A 5G network will be composed of
networks of up to 3 different types of cells, each requiring different
antennas, each type giving a different trade-off of download speed
vs. distance and service area. 5G cellphones and wireless devices
will connect to the network through the highest speed antenna
within range at their location:

• Low band 5G uses a similar frequency range to current 4G

cellphones, 600-700 MHz, giving download speeds a little
higher than 4G: 30-250 megabits per second (Mbit/s). Low-
band cell towers will have a range and coverage area like
current 4G towers. Mid-band 5G uses microwaves of 2.5-3.7
GHz, currently allowing speeds of 100-900 Mbit/s, with each
cell tower providing service up to several miles in radius.
This level of service is the most widely deployed and should
be available in most metropolitan areas in 2020. Some
countries are not implementing low band, making this the
minimum service level.

• High band 5G currently uses frequencies of 25-39 GHz, near

the bottom of the millimeter wave band, although higher
frequencies may be used in the future. It often achieves
download speeds of a gigabit per second (Gbit/s),
comparable to cable internet. However, millimeter waves
(mmWave or mmW) have a more limited range, requiring
many small cells. They have trouble passing through some
types of walls and windows. Due to their higher costs,
current plans are to deploy these cells only in dense urban
environments and areas where crowds of people congregate
such as sports stadiums and convention centers. The above
speeds are those achieved in actual tests in 2020, and
speeds are expected to increase during rollout.

1.7 CLOUD COMPUTING

This section provides a brief overview of cloud computing, which is

dealt with in greater detail later in the book. Although the general
concepts for cloud computing go back to the 1950s, cloud

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 24

 25

computing services first became available in the early 2000s,

particularly targeted at large enterprises. Since then, cloud
computing has spread to small- and medium-size businesses, and
most recently to consumers. Apple’s iCloud was launched in 2012
and had 20 million users within a week of launch. Evernote, the
cloud-based note-taking and archiving service, launched in 2008,
approached 100 million users in less than six years. In late 2014,
Google announced that Google Drive had almost a quarter of a
billion active users. Here, we look at the key elements of clouds,
including cloud computing, cloud networking, and cloud storage.

1.7.1 Cloud Computing Concepts

There is an increasingly prominent trend in many organizations to
move a substantial portion or even all IT operations to an Internet-
connected infrastructure known as enterprise cloud computing. At
the same time, individual users of PCs and mobile devices are
relying more and more on cloud computing services to back up
data, sync devices, and share, using personal cloud computing.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines

the essential characteristics of cloud computing as follows:
• Broad network access: Capabilities are available over the
network and accessed through standard mechanisms that
promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms
(for example, mobile phones, laptops, and personal digital
assistants [PDAs]) and other traditional or cloud-based
software services.

• Rapid elasticity: Cloud computing enables you to expand

and reduce resources according to your specific service
requirement. For example, you may need many server
resources for the duration of a specific task. You can then
release these resources upon completion of the task.

• Measured service: Cloud systems automatically control and

optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at
some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service
(for example, storage, processing, bandwidth, and active
user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored,
controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the
provider and consumer of the utilized service.

• On-demand self-service: A consumer can unilaterally

provision computing capabilities, such as server time and
network storage, as needed automatically without requiring
human interaction with each service provider. Because the
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 25
 26

service is on demand, the resources are not permanent

parts of your IT infrastructure.

• Resource pooling: The provider’s computing resources are

pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multitenant
model, with different physical and virtual resources
dynamically assigned and reassigned according to
consumer demand. There is a degree of location
independence in that the customer generally has no control
or knowledge over the exact location of the provided
resources, but may be able to specify location at a higher
level of abstraction (for example, country, state, or data
center). Examples of resources include storage, processing,
memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines. Even
private clouds tend to pool resources between different parts
of the same organization.

Figure 1.6 Cloud Computing Context

Figure 1.6 illustrates the typical cloud service context. An enterprise

maintains workstations within an enterprise LAN or set of LANs,
which are connected by a router through a network or the Internet
to the cloud service provider. The cloud service provider maintains
a massive collection of servers, which it manages with a variety of
network management, redundancy, and security tools. In the figure,
the cloud infrastructure is shown as a collection of blade servers,
which is a common
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 26
 27

architecture.

1.7.2 The Benefits of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing benefits include –

a. Flexibility - Users can scale services to fit their needs,
customize applications and access cloud services from
anywhere with an internet connection. Flexibility further
integrates:

i. Scalability - Cloud infrastructure scales on demand to

support fluctuating workloads.

ii. Storage options - Users can choose public, private or

hybrid storage offerings, depending on security needs and
other considerations.

iii. Control choices - Organizations can determine their level

of control with as-a-service options. These include
software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service
(PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).

iv. Tool selection - Users can select from a menu of prebuilt

tools and features to build a solution that fits their specific
needs.

v. Security features - Virtual private cloud, encryption and

API keys help keep data secure.

b. Efficiency - Enterprise users can get applications to market

quickly, without worrying about underlying infrastructure
costs or maintenance. This could be further explained as:

i. Accessibility - Cloud-based applications and data are

accessible from virtually any internet-connected device.

ii. Speed to market - Developing in the cloud enables users

to get their applications to market quickly.

iii. Data security - Hardware failures do not result in data loss

because of networked backups.

iv. Savings on equipment - Cloud computing uses remote

resources, saving organizations the cost of servers and
other equipment.

v. Pay structure - A “utility” pay structure means users only

pay for the resources they use.
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 27
 28

c. Strategic value - Cloud services give enterprises a

competitive advantage by providing the most innovative
technology available consisting:

i. Streamlined work - Cloud service providers (CSPs)

manage underlying infrastructure, enabling organizations
to focus on application development and other priorities.

ii. Regular updates - Service providers regularly update

offerings to give users the most up-to-date technology.

iii. Collaboration - Worldwide access means teams can

collaborate from widespread locations.

iv. Competitive edge - Organizations can move more nimbly

than competitors who must devote IT resources to
managing infrastructure.

Cloud computing provides economies of scale, professional

network management, and professional security management.
These features can be attractive to companies large and small,
government agencies, and individual PC and mobile users. The
individual or company needs to pay only for the storage capacity
and services they need.

The user, be it company or individual, does not have the hassle of

setting up a database system, acquiring the hardware they need,
doing maintenance, and backup up the data; all this is part of the
cloud service. In theory, another big advantage of using cloud
computing to store your data and share it with others is that the
cloud provider takes care of security.

Alas, the customer is not always protected. There have been

several security failures among cloud providers. Evernote made
headlines in early 2013 when it told all its users to reset their
passwords after an intrusion was discovered.

1.7.3 Cloud Networking

Cloud networking refers to the networks and network management
functionality that must be in place to enable cloud computing. Many
cloud computing solutions rely on the Internet, but that is only a
piece of the networking infrastructure. One example of cloud
networking is the provisioning high-performance/high-reliability
networking between the provider and subscriber. In this case, some
or all the traffic between an enterprise and the cloud bypasses the

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 28

 29

Internet and uses dedicated private network facilities owned or

leased by the cloud service provider.

More generally, cloud networking refers to the collection of network

capabilities required to access a cloud, including making use of
specialized services over the Internet, linking enterprise data
centers to a cloud, and using firewalls and other network security
devices at critical points to enforce access security policies.

1.7.4 Cloud Storage

We can think of cloud storage as a subset of cloud computing. In
essence, cloud storage consists of database storage and database
applications hosted remotely on cloud servers. Cloud storage
enables small businesses and individual users to take advantage of
data storage that scales with their needs and to take advantage of
a variety of database applications without having to buy, maintain,
and manage the storage assets.

1.8 INTERNET OF THINGS

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the latest development in the long

and continuing revolution of computing and communications. Its
size, ubiquity, and influence on everyday lives, business, and
government dwarf any technical advance that has gone before.
This section provides a brief overview of the IoT, which is dealt with
in greater detail later in the book.

1.8.1 Things on the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term that refers to the expanding
interconnection of smart devices, ranging from appliances to tiny
sensors. A dominant theme is the embedding of short-range mobile
transceivers into a wide array of gadgets and everyday items,
enabling new forms of communication between people and things,
and between things themselves.

The Internet now supports the interconnection of billions of

industrial and personal objects, usually through cloud systems. The
objects deliver sensor information, act on their environment, and in
some cases modify themselves, to create overall management of a
larger system, like a factory or city.

The IoT is primarily driven by deeply embedded devices. These

devices are low-bandwidth, low-repetition data-capture and low-
bandwidth data-usage appliances that communicate with each
other and provide data via user interfaces.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 29

 30

Embedded appliances, such as high-resolution video security

cameras, Video over IP (VoIP) phones, and a handful of others,
require high bandwidth streaming capabilities. Yet countless
products simply require packets of data to be intermittently
delivered.

1.8.2 Evolution
With reference to end systems supported, the Internet has gone
through roughly four generations of deployment culminating in IoT:
1. Information technology (IT): PCs, servers, routers,
firewalls, and so on, bought as IT devices by enterprise IT
people, primarily using wired connectivity.

2. Operational technology (OT): Machines/appliances with

embedded IT built by non-IT companies, such as medical
machinery, SCADA (supervisory control and data
acquisition), process control, and kiosks, bought as
appliances by enterprise OT people and primarily using
wired connectivity.

3. Personal technology: Smartphones, tablets, and eBook

readers bought as IT devices by consumers (employees)
exclusively using wireless connectivity and often multiple
forms of wireless connectivity.

4. Sensor/actuator technology: Single-purpose devices

bought by consumers, IT, and OT people exclusively using
wireless connectivity, generally of a single form, as part of
larger systems.

It is the fourth generation that is usually thought of as the IoT, and

which is marked using billions of embedded devices.

1.8.3 Layers of the Internet of Things

Both the business and technical literature often focus on two
elements of the Internet of Things - the “things” that are connected,
and the Internet that interconnects them. It is better to view the IoT
as a massive system, which consists of five layers:

1. Sensors and actuators: Sensors observe their environment

and report back quantitative measurements of such
variables as temperature, humidity, presence, or absence of
some observable, and so on. Actuators operate on their
environment, such as changing a thermostat setting or
operating a valve.

2. Connectivity: A device may connect via either a wireless or

wired link into a network to send collected data to the
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 30
 31

appropriate data center (sensor) or receive operational

commands from a controller site (actuator).

3. Capacity: The network supporting the devices must be able

to handle a potentially huge flow of data.

4. Storage: There needs to be a large storage facility to store

and maintain backups of all the collected data. This is
typically a cloud capability.

5. Data analytics: For large collections of devices, “big data” is

generated, requiring a data analytics capability to process
the data flow.

All these layers are essential to an effective use of the IoT concept.

1.9 NETWORK CONVERGENCE

Network convergence refers to the merger of previously distinct

telephony and information technologies and markets. You can think
of this convergence in terms of a three-layer model of enterprise
communications:

• Application convergence: These are seen by the end

users of a business. Convergence integrates
communications applications, such as voice calling
(telephone), voice mail, e-mail, and instant messaging, with
business applications, such as workgroup collaboration,
customer relationship management, and back-office
functions. With convergence, applications provide rich
features that incorporate voice, data, and video in a
seamless, organized, and value-added manner. One
example is multimedia messaging, which enables a user to
use a single interface to access messages from a variety of
sources (for example, office voice mail, e-mail, SMS text
messages, and mobile voice mail).

• Enterprise services: At this level, the manager deals with

the information network in terms of the services that must be
available to ensure that users can take full advantage of the
applications that they use. For example, network managers
need to make sure that appropriate privacy mechanisms and
authentication services are in place to support convergence-
based applications. They may also be able to track user
locations to support remote print services and network

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 31

 32

storage facilities for mobile workers. Enterprise network

management services may also include setting up
collaborative environments for various users, groups, and
applications and QoS provision.

• Infrastructure: The network and communications

infrastructure consist of the communication links, LANs,
WANs, and Internet connections available to the enterprise.
Increasingly, enterprise network infrastructure also includes
private/public cloud connections to data centers that host
high-volume data storage and web services. A key aspect of
convergence at this level is the ability to carry voice, image,
and video over networks that were originally designed to
carry data traffic. Infrastructure convergence has also
occurred for networks that were designed for voice traffic.
For example, video, image, text, and data are routinely
delivered to smartphone users over cell phone networks.

Figure 1.7 Business-driven convergence

Figure 1.7 illustrates the major attributes of the three-layer model of

enterprise communications. In simple terms, convergence involves
moving an organization’s voice, video, and image traffic to a single
network infrastructure. This often involves integrating distinct voice
and data networks into a single network infrastructure and
extending the infrastructure to support mobile users. The
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 32
 33

foundation of this convergence is packet-based transmission using

the Internet Protocol (IP).

Using IP packets to deliver all varieties of communications traffic,

sometimes referred to as everything over IP, enables the
underlying infrastructure to deliver a wide range of useful
applications to business users.

Convergence brings many benefits, including simplified network

management, increased efficiency, and greater flexibility at the
application level. For example, a converged network infrastructure
provides a predictable platform on which to build new add
applications that combine video, data, and voice. This makes it
easier for developers to create innovative mashups and other
value-added business applications and services.

The following list summarizes three key benefits of IP network

convergence:

1. Cost savings: A converged network can provide significant

double-digit percent reductions in network administration,
maintenance, and operating costs; converging legacy
networks onto a single IP network enables better use of
existing resources, and implementation of centralized
capacity planning, asset management, and policy
management.

2. Effectiveness: The converged environment has the

potential to provide users with great flexibility, irrespective of
where they are. IP convergence allows companies to create
a more mobile workforce. Mobile workers can use a virtual
private network (VPN) to remotely access business
applications and communication services on the corporate
network. A VPN helps maintain enterprise network security
by separating business traffic from other Internet traffic.

3. Transformation: Because they are modifiable and

interoperable, converged IP networks can easily adapt to
new functions and features as they become available
through technological advancements without having to install
new infrastructure. Convergence also enables the
enterprise-wide adoption of global standards and best
practices, thus providing better data, enhanced real-time
decision making, and improved execution of key business
processes and operations. The result is enhanced agility and
innovation, the key ingredients of business innovation.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 33

 34

These compelling business benefits are motivating companies to

invest in converged network infrastructures. Businesses, however,
are keenly aware of the downside of convergence: having a single
network means a single point of failure. Given their reliance on ICT
(information and communications technology), today’s converged
enterprise network infrastructures typically include redundant
components and back up systems to increase network resiliency
and lessen the severity of network outages.

1.10 UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

While enterprise network convergence focuses on the consolidation

of traditionally distinct voice, video, and data communications
networks into a common infrastructure, Unified Communications
(UC) focuses on the integration of real-time communication
services to optimize business processes. As with converged
enterprise networks, IP is the cornerstone on which UC systems
are built.

Key elements of Unified Communications include the following:

1. UC systems typically provide a unified user interface and
consistent user experience across multiple devices and
media.
2. UC merges real-time communications services with non-
real-time services and business process applications.

Figure 1.8 Elements of a Unified Communications

Architecture

Figure 1.8 shows the typical components of a UC architecture and

how they relate to one another.

The key elements of this architecture are as follows:

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 34
 35

• Real-time communications (RTC) dashboard: An RTC

dashboard is a key component of UC architecture. This is
the element that provides UC users with a unified user
interface across communication devices. Ideally, the user
has a consistent interface no matter what communication
device the user is currently using, whether it is a cell phone,
wireless tablet computer, desktop system, or office
telephone attached to the corporate private branch
exchange (PBX). As you can see in Figure 1.8, RTC
dashboards provide access to real-time communication
services such as instant messaging, audio and video
conferencing, and interactive whiteboards; RTC dashboards
also provide access to non-real-time services such as unified
messaging (e-mail, voice mail, fax, and SMS) in unified view.
An RTC dashboard includes presence information about co-
workers and partners so that users can know on the fly
which colleagues are available to communicate or join a
collaborative communication session. RTC dashboards have
become necessities in organizations that require high levels
of communication and collaboration to support business
processes.

• Web conferencing: Refers to live meetings or presentations

in which participants access the meeting or presentation via
a mobile device or the web, either over the Internet, or
corporate intranet. Web conferences often include data
sharing through web-connected interactive white boards
(IWBs).

• Audio conferencing: Also called conference calling, refers

to a live meeting in which participants are linked together for
audio transmission and reception. A participant may be on a
landline, mobile phone, or at a “softphone” - a computer
equipped with microphone and speaker.

• Unified messaging: Unified messaging systems provide a

common repository for messages from multiple sources. It
allows users to retrieve saved e-mail, voice mail, and fax
messages from a computer, telephone, or mobile device.
Computer users can select and play voice-mail recordings
that appear in their unified messaging inboxes. Telephone
users can both retrieve voice mail and hear text-to-voice
translations of e-mail messages. Messages of any type can
be saved, answered, filed, sorted, and forwarded. Unified
messaging systems relieve business users from having to
monitor multiple voice mailboxes by enabling voicemail
messages received by both office phones and cell phones to
be saved to the same mailbox. With UC, users can use any
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 35
 36

device at any time to retrieve e-mail or voicemail from unified

messaging mailboxes.

• Instant messaging (IM): Real-time text-based messaging

between two or more participants. IM is like online chat
because it is text-based and exchanged bidirectionally in real
time. IM is distinct from chat in that IM clients use contact (or
buddy) lists to facilitate connections between known users,
whereas online chat can include text-based exchanges
between anonymous users.

• Video teleconferencing (VTC): Videoconferencing allows

users in two or more locations to interact simultaneously via
two-way video and audio transmission. UC systems enable
users to participate in video conferences via desktop
computers, smartphones, and mobile devices.

• Presence: The capability to determine, in real time, where

someone is, how that person prefers to be reached, and
even what the person is currently doing. Presence
information shows the individual’s availability state before
co-workers attempt to contact them person. It was once
considered simply an underlying technology to instant
messaging (for example, “available to chat” or “busy”) but
has been broadened to include whether co-workers are
currently on office or mobile phones, logged in to a
computer, involved in a video call or in a meeting, or out of
the office for lunch or vacation. A co-worker’s geographic
location is becoming more common as an element in
presence information for several business reasons, including
the capability to quickly respond to customer emergencies.
Business has embraced presence information because it
facilitates more efficient and effective communication. It
helps eliminate inefficiencies associated with “phone tag” or
composing and sending e-mails to someone who could more
quickly answer a question over the phone or with a quick
meeting.

• IP enabling contact centers: Refers to the use of IP-based

unified communications to enhance customer contact center
functionality and performance. The unified communications
infrastructure makes use of presence technology to enable
customers and internal enterprise employees to be quickly
connected to the required expert or support person.

In addition, this technology supports mobility, so that call

center personnel need not be located at a particular office or
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 36
 37

remain in a particular place. Finally, the UC infrastructure

enables the call center employee to quickly access other
employees and information assets, including data, video,
image, and audio.

• IP/mobility: Refers to the delivery of information to and

collection of information from enterprise personnel who are
usually mobile, using an IP network infrastructure. In a
typical enterprise, upward of 30 percent of employees use
some form of weekly remote access technology in the
performance of their jobs.

• Converged IP/wireless infrastructure: A unified

networking and communications-based IP packet transfer to
support voice, data, and video transmission and can be
extended to include local- and wide-area wireless
communications. UC-enabled mobile devices can switch
between Wi-Fi and cellular systems in the middle of a
communication session.

For example, a UC user could receive a co-worker’s call via

a smartphone connected to Wi-Fi network at home, continue
the conversation while driving to work over a cellular network
connection, and could end the call at the office while
connected to the business’s Wi-Fi network. Both handoffs
(home Wi-Fi to cellular and cellular to office Wi-Fi) would
take place seamlessly and transparently without dropping
the call.

The importance of UC is not only that it integrates communication

channels but also that it offers a way to integrate communication
functions and business applications. Three major categories of
benefits are typically realized by organizations that use UC:

• Personal productivity gains: Presence information helps

employees find each other and choose the most effective
way to communicate in real time. Less time is wasted calling
multiple numbers to locate co-workers or checking multiple
worked-related voice mailboxes. Calls from VIP contacts can
be routed simultaneously to all a UC user’s phone devices
(office phone, softphone, smartphone, home phone) to
ensure faster responsiveness to customers, partners, and
co-workers. With mobile presence information capabilities,
employees who are geographically closest can be
dispatched to address a problem.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 37

 38

• Workgroup performance gains: UC systems support real-

time collaboration among team members, which facilitates
workgroup performance improvements. Examples include
the use of presence information to speed identification of an
available individual with the right skills a work team needs to
address a problem. Enhanced conferencing capabilities with
desktop VTC and interactive white boards and automated
business rules to route or escalate communications also
help to increase workgroup performance.

• Enterprise-level process improvements: IP convergence

enables UC to be integrated with enterprise-wide and
departmental-level applications, business processes, and
workflows. UC-enabled enhanced communications with
customers, suppliers, and business partners are redefining
best practices for customer relationship management
(CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and other
enterprise-wide applications and are transforming
relationships among members of business networks.
Communication-enabled business processes (CEBP) are
fueling competition in several industries, including financial
services, healthcare, and retail.

1.11 SUMMARY

• Users connect to network-based services and content

through a wide variety of network access facilities. These
include digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable modems, Wi-
Fi, and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
(WiMAX) wireless modems, and cellular modems.

• At the periphery of an IP backbone are routers that provide

connectivity to external networks and users.

• Some of the core routers may be purely internal, providing

redundancy and additional capacity without serving as edge
routers.

• Two recent extensions of Ethernet technology have

enhanced and broadened the use of Ethernet in the home:
powerline carrier (PLC) and Power over Ethernet (PoE).

• A tremendous advantage of Ethernet is that it is possible to

scale the network, both in terms of distance and data rate,

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 38

 39

with the same Ethernet protocol and associated quality of

service (QoS) and security standards.

• The technology also allows the construction of MANs and

WANs that connect geographically dispersed LANs between
campuses or points of presence (PoPs).

• In the consumer and residential market, IEEE 802.11ad is

likely to be popular as a low-power, short-distance wireless
LAN capability with little likelihood of interfering with other
devices.

• Cloud networking refers to the networks and network

management functionality that must be in place to enable
cloud computing.

• Convergence brings many benefits, including simplified

network management, increased efficiency, and greater
flexibility at the application level.

• UC systems typically provide a unified user interface and

consistent user experience across multiple devices and
media.

• The importance of UC is not only that it integrates

communication channels but also that it offers a way to
integrate communication functions and business
applications.

• Cloud computing benefits include flexibility, efficiency and

strategic value.

1.12 REVIEW QUESTION

1. Explain the key elements and their relationships of a modern

networking ecosystem, including end users, network
providers, application providers and application service
providers.

2. Discuss the motivation for the typical network hierarchy of

access networks, distribution networks, and core networks.

3. Present an overview of Ethernet, including a discussion of its

application areas and common data rates.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 39

 40

4. Present an overview of Wi-Fi, including a discussion of its

application areas and common data rates.

5. Understand the differences between the five generations of

cellular networks.

6. Present an overview of cloud computing concepts.

7. Describe the Internet of Things.

8. Explain the concepts of network convergence and unified

communications.

1.13 REFERENCES

1. Foundations of Modern Networking: SDN, NFV, QoE, IoT, and

Cloud, First printing: November 2015 by William Stallings,
Copyright © 2016 by Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-
13-417539-3

2. Research paper on “Use of Ethernet Technology in Computer

Network” by Zobair Ullah, published in Global Journal of
Computer Science and Technology Network, Web & Security
Volume 12 Issue 14 Version 1.0 Year 2012, available online at
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/231149472.pdf

3. IEEE 802.3 standards working group’s information available

online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.3

4. Note on 5G available online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G

5. Online information available regarding benefits of cloud

computing - https://www.ibm.com/in-en/cloud/learn/benefits-of-
cloud-computing

6. Online article “The future of networking: A guide to the

intelligent network” by Lauren Horwitz, available on Cisco
Digital Network Architecture (DNA) portal online at
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/enterprise-
networks/future-of-networking.html

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 40

 41

❖❖❖❖

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 41

 1

2
REQUIREMENTS AND TECHNOLOGY
Unit Structure:

2.1 Objectives
2.2 Types of Network and Internet Traffic
2.2.1 Real-Time Traffic Characteristics
2.3 Demand: Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Mobile Traffic
2.3.1 Big Data
2.3.2 Cloud Computing
2.3.3 Mobile Traffic
2.4 Requirements: QoS and QoE
2.4.1 Quality of Service
2.4.2 Quality of Experience
2.5 Routing
2.5.1 Characteristics
2.5.2 Packet Forwarding
2.6 Congestion Control
2.6.1 Effects of Congestion
2.6.2 Congestion Control Techniques
2.7 SDN and NFV
2.7.1 Software-Defined Networking
2.7.2 Network Functions Virtualization
2.8 Modern Networking Elements
2.9 Summary
2.10 Review Question
2.11 References

2.1 OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

• Present an overview of the major categories of packet traffic
on the Internet and internets, including elastic, inelastic, and
real-time traffic.
• Discuss the traffic demands placed on contemporary
networks by big data, cloud computing, and mobile traffic.
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 1
 2

• Explain the concept of quality of service.

• Explain the concept of quality of experience.
• Understand the essential elements of routing.
• Understand the effects of congestion and the types of
techniques used for congestion control.
• Compare and contrast software-defined networking and
network functions virtualization.

2.2 TYPES OF NETWORK AND INTERNET TRAFFIC

Most of the Internet traffic today is generated by traditional data

applications; such traffic is for the most part burst and is well served
by the best-effort service that the Internet provides. With the growth
and ubiquity of the Internet witnessed in recent years, new
applications are being contemplated, introducing new traffic types
and new requirements, which in turn require new services from the
network which cater to these characteristics and requirements.
Furthermore, as the Internet becomes a network on which many
businesses rely, it becomes crucial for the network response time
to be unaffected by increases in the load on the network.

The phrase traffic classification is used to describe methods of

classifying traffic based on features passively observed in the
traffic, and according to specific classification goals. One might only
have a coarse classification goal, i.e., whether its transaction-
oriented, bulk-transfer, or peer-to-peer file sharing. Or one might
have a finer-grained classification goal, i.e., the exact application
represented by the traffic. Traffic features could include the port
number, application payload, or temporal, packet size, and
addressing characteristics of the traffic. Methods to classify include
exact matching, e.g., of port number or payload, heuristic, or
machine learning (statistics).

Traffic on the Internet and enterprise networks can be divided into

two broad categories: elastic and inelastic. A consideration of their
differing requirements clarifies the need for an enhanced
networking architecture.

Elastic Traffic

Elastic traffic is that which can adjust, over wide ranges, to changes
in delay and throughput across an internet and still meet the needs
of its applications. This is the traditional type of traffic supported on
TCP/IP-based internets and is the type of traffic for which internets
were designed. Applications that generate such traffic typically use
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 2
 3

(UDP) as a transport protocol. In the case of UDP, the application

will use as much capacity as is available up to the rate that the
application generates data. In the case of TCP, the application will
use as much capacity as is available up to the maximum rate that
the end-to-end receiver can accept data. Also, with TCP, traffic on
individual connections adjusts to congestion by reducing the rate at
which data are presented to the network. Applications that can be
classified as elastic include the common applications that operate
over TCP or UDP, including file transfer (File Transfer Protocol /
Secure FTP [FTP/SFTP]), electronic mail (Simple Mail Transport
Protocol [SMTP]), remote login (Telnet, Secure Shell [SSH]),
network management (Simple Network Management Protocol
[SNMP]), and web access (Hypertext Transfer Protocol / HTTP
Secure [HTTP/HTTPS]). However, there are differences among the
requirements of these applications, including the following:

• E-mail is generally insensitive to changes in delay.

• When file transfer is done via user command rather than as

an automated background task, the user expects the delay
to be proportional to the file size and so is sensitive to
changes in throughput.

• With network management, delay is generally not a serious

concern. However, if failures in an internet are the cause of
congestion, then the need for SNMP messages to get
through with minimum delay increases with increased
congestion.

• Interactive applications, such as remote logon and web

access, are sensitive to delay.

It is important to realize that it is not per-packet delay that is the

quantity of interest. Observation of real delays across the Internet
suggest that wide variations in delay do not occur. Because of the
congestion control mechanisms in TCP, when congestion develops,
delays only increase modestly before the arrival rate from the
various TCP connections slow down. Instead, the quality of service
(QoS) perceived by the user relates to the total elapsed time to
transfer an element of the current application. For an interactive
Telnet-based application, the element may be a single keystroke or
single line. For web access, the element is a web page, which
could be as little as a few kilobytes or could be substantially larger
for an image-rich page.

For a scientific application, the element could be many megabytes

of data. For very small elements, the total elapsed time is
dominated by the delay time across the Internet. However, for
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 3
 4

larger elements, the total elapsed time is dictated by the sliding-

window performance of TCP and is therefore dominated by the
throughput achieved over the TCP connection. Thus, for large
transfers, the transfer time is proportional to the size of the file and
the degree to which the source slows because of congestion.

It should be clear that even if you confine your attention to elastic

traffic, some service prioritizing and controlling traffic could be of
benefit. Without such a service, routers are dealing evenhandedly
with arriving IP packets, with no concern for the type of application
and whether a particular packet is part of a large transfer element
or a small one. Under such circumstances, and if congestion
develops, it is unlikely that resources will be allocated in such a way
as to meet the needs of all applications fairly. When inelastic traffic
is added to the mix, the results are even more unsatisfactory.

Inelastic Traffic

Inelastic traffic does not easily adapt, if at all, to changes in delay

and throughput across an internet. Examples of inelastic traffic
include multimedia transmission, such as voice and video, and
high-volume interactive traffic, such as an interactive simulation
application (for example, airline pilot simulation). The requirements
for inelastic traffic may include the following:

• Throughput: A minimum throughput value may be required.

Unlike most elastic traffic, which can continue to deliver data
with perhaps degraded service, many inelastic applications
absolutely require a given minimum throughput.

• Delay: Also called latency. An example of a delay-sensitive

application is stock trading; someone who consistently
receives later service will consistently act later, and with
greater disadvantage.

• Delay jitter: The magnitude of delay variation, called delay

jitter, or simply jitter, is a critical factor in real-time
applications. Because of the variable delay imposed by an
internet, the interarrival times between packets are not
maintained at a fixed interval at the destination. To
compensate for this, the incoming packets are buffered,
delayed sufficiently to compensate for the jitter, and then
released at a constant rate to the software that is expecting
a steady real-time stream. The larger the allowable delay
variation, the longer the real delay in delivering the data and
the greater the size of the delay buffer required at receivers.
Real-time interactive applications, such as teleconferencing,
may require a reasonable upper bound on jitter.
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 4
 5

• Packet loss: Real-time applications vary in the amount of

packet loss, if any, that they can sustain.

Table 2.1 Service Class Characteristics

Table 2.1 above shows the loss, delay, and jitter characteristics of
various classes of traffic, as specified in RFC 4594 (Configuration
Guidelines for DiffServ Service Classes, August 2006).
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 5
 6

Table 2.2 below gives examples of QoS requirements for various

media-oriented applications [SZIG14]

Table 2.2 QoS Requirements by Application Class

These requirements are difficult to meet in an environment with

variable queuing delays and congestion losses. Accordingly,
inelastic traffic introduces two new requirements into the internet
architecture. First, some means is needed to give preferential
treatment to applications with more demanding requirements.
Applications need to be able to state their requirements, either
ahead of time in some sort of service request function, or on the fly,
by means of fields in the IP packet header. The former approach
provides more flexibility in stating requirements, and it enables the
network to anticipate demands and deny new requests if the
required resources are unavailable. This approach implies the use
of some sort of resource reservation protocol.

An additional requirement in supporting inelastic traffic in an

internet architecture is that elastic traffic must still be supported.
Inelastic applications typically do not back off and reduce demand
in the face of congestion, in contrast to TCP-based applications.
Therefore, in times of congestion, inelastic traffic will continue to
supply a high load, and elastic traffic will be crowded off the
internet. A reservation protocol can help control this situation by
denying service requests that would leave too few resources
available to handle current elastic traffic.

2.2.1 Reat-Time Traffic Characteristics

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 6

 7

As mentioned, a common example of inelastic traffic is real-time

traffic. With traditional elastic applications, such as file transfer,
electronic mail, and client/server applications including the web, the
performance metrics of interest are generally throughput and delay.
There is also a concern with reliability, and mechanisms are used
to make sure that no data are lost, corrupted, or misordered during
transit. By contrast, real-time applications are concerned with timing
issues as well as packet loss. In most cases, there is a requirement
that data be delivered at a constant rate equal to the sending rate.
In other cases, a deadline is associated with each block of data,
such that the data are not usable after the deadline has expired.

Figure 2.1 Real-Time Traffic

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 7

 8

Figure 2.1 illustrates a typical real-time environment. Here, a server

is generating audio to be transmitted at 64 kbps. The digitized
audio is transmitted in packets containing 160 octets of data, so
that one packet is issued every 20 ms. These packets are passed
through an internet and delivered to a multimedia PC, which plays
the audio in real time as it arrives. However, because of the
variable delay imposed by the internet, the interarrival times
between packets are not maintained at a fixed 20 ms at the
destination. To compensate for this, the incoming packets are
buffered, delayed slightly, and then released at a constant rate to
the software that generates the audio. The buffer may be internal to
the destination machine or in an external network device.

The compensation provided by the delay buffer is limited. For

example, if the minimum end-to-end delay seen by any packet is 1
ms and the maximum is 6 ms, the delay jitter is 5 ms. As long as
the time delay buffer delays incoming packets by at least 5 ms, the
output of the buffer will include all incoming packets. However, if
the buffer delayed packets by only 4 ms, any incoming packets that
had experienced a relative delay of more than 4 ms (an absolute
delay of more than 5 ms) would have to be discarded so as not to
be played back out of order.

The description of real-time traffic so far implies a series of equal-

size packets generated at a constant rate. This is not always the
profile of the traffic. Figure 2.2 illustrates some of the common
possibilities, as described in the list that follows.

Figure 2.2 Real-Time Packet Transmission

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 8

 9

• Continuous data source: Fixed-size packets are generated

at fixed intervals. This characterizes applications that are
constantly generating data, have few redundancies, and that
are too important to compress in a lossy way. Examples are
air traffic control radar and real-time simulations.

• On/off source: The source alternates between periods when

fixed-size packets are generated at fixed intervals and
periods of inactivity. A voice source, such as in telephony or
audio conferencing, fits this profile.

• Variable packet size: The source generates variable-length

packets at uniform intervals. An example is digitized video in
which different frames may experience different compression
ratios for the same output quality level.

2.3 DEMAND: BIG DATA, CLOUD COMPUTING, AND

MOBILE TRAFFIC

Having looked at the types of traffic presented to the Internet and

other IP-based networks, consider the application areas that are
generating the greatest stress on network resources and
management. Three areas stand out: big data, cloud computing,
and mobility. All of these areas suggest the need for using powerful
tools such as software-defined networking (SDN) and network
functions virtualization (NFV) for network operation and
management, and for using comprehensive QoS and quality of
experience (QoE) systems for effective delivery of services over IP-
based networks.

2.3.1 Big Data

In simple terms, big data refers to everything that enables an

organization to create, manipulate, and manage very large data
sets (measured in terabytes, petabytes, exabytes, and so on) and
the facilities in which these are stored. Distributed data centers,
data warehouses, and cloud-based storage are common aspects of
today’s enterprise networks. Many factors have contributed to the
merging of “big data” and business networks, including continuing
declines in storage costs, the maturation of data mining and
business intelligence (BI) tools, and government regulations and
court cases that have caused organizations to stockpile large
masses of structured and unstructured data, including documents,
e-mail messages, voice-mail messages, text messages, and social
media data. Other data sources being captured, transmitted, and
stored include web logs, Internet documents, Internet search
indexing, call detail records, scientific research data and results,

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 9

 10

military surveillance, medical records, video archives, and e-

commerce transactions.

Data sets continue to grow with more and more being gathered by
remote sensors, mobile devices, cameras, microphones, radio
frequency identification (RFID) readers, and similar technologies.
One study from a few years ago estimated that 2.5 exabytes (2.5 ×
10 bytes) of data are created each day, and 90 percent of the data

in the world was created in the past two years. Those numbers are
likely higher today.

Big Data Infrastructure Considerations

Traditional business data storage and management technologies

include relational database management systems (RDBMS),
network-attached storage (NAS), storage-area networks (SANs),
data warehouses (DWs), and business intelligence (BI) analytics.
Traditional data warehouse and BI analytics systems tend to be
highly centralized within an enterprise infrastructure. These often
include a central data repository with a RDBMS, high-performance
storage, and analytics software, such as online analytical
processing (OLAP) tools for mining and visualizing data.

Increasingly, big data applications are becoming a source of

competitive value for businesses, especially those that aspire to
build data products and services to profit from the huge volumes of
data that they capture and store. There is every indication that the
exploitation of data will become increasingly important to
enterprises in the years ahead as more and more businesses reap
the benefits of big data applications.

Big Data Networking Example

Key elements within the enterprise include the following:

• Data warehouse: The DW holds integrated data from
multiple data sources, used for reporting and data analysis.

• Data management servers: Large banks of servers serve

multiple functions with respect to big data. The servers run
data analysis applications, such as data integration tools and
analytics tools. Other applications integrate and structure
data from enterprise activity, such as financial data, point-of-
sale data, and e-commerce activity.

• Workstations / data processing systems: Other systems

involved in the use of big data applications and in the
generation of input to big data warehouses.
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 10
 11

• Network management server: One or more servers

responsible for network management, control, and
monitoring.

Not shown in Figure 2.3 are other important network devices,

including firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems
(IDS/IPS), LAN switches, and routers.

The enterprise network can involve multiple sites distributed

regionally, nationally, or globally. In addition, depending on the
nature of the big data system, an enterprise can receive data from
other enterprise servers, from dispersed sensors and other devices
in an Internet of Things, in addition to multimedia content from
content delivery networks.

The networking environment for big data is complex. The impact of

big data on an enterprise’s networking infrastructure is driven by
the so-called three V’s:
• Volume (growing amounts of data)
• Velocity (increasing speed in storing and reading data)
• Variability (growing number of data types and sources)

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 11

 12

Figure 2.3 Big Data Networking Ecosystem

2.3.2 Cloud Computing

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 12

 13

Figure 2.4 Cloud-based Network

A cloud-based network is an enterprise network that can be

extended to the cloud shown in Figure 2.4. The cloud-based
network allows an enterprise to distribute its network around the
world. The cloud significantly simplifies the development of an
enterprise network system. In the cloud, the underlying network is
constructed by a cloud provider. All an enterprise needs to do is to
connect its on-premises network to the network built in the cloud to
form a global enterprise-class network system.

There is no initial capital investment in this type of global network

system. Unlike the Internet, the cloud-based network provides
centralized control over network visibility. Through the cloud-based
network, the enterprise can provide a multitenant application, which
is a software application that serves multiple tenants. Each tenant
subscribes an instance of the application. Each tenant’s data are
isolated and remain invisible to other tenants. On the other hand,
the maintenance and update of the application can be greatly
simplified. The cloud-based network enables the enterprise to
deploy IT infrastructures to remote locations in minutes.

The cloud-based network targets organizations with many sites

around the world. There could be a couple of hundred to ten
thousand employees working in multiple sites such as branch
offices, schools in a school district, clinics, manufacturing facilities,
or retail stores. Through the management tools deployed in the
cloud, network administrators can manage the enterprise-
distributed networks anywhere and anytime. The management
tools can be used to manage cloud-hosted virtual machines and
mobile services. They are used to accomplish tasks such as
centralized management, remote monitoring, remote software and
app installation, remote wiping, and security auditing.

There are three different major implementations of cloud

computing. How organizations are using cloud computing is quite
different at a granular level, but the uses generally fall into one of
these three solutions.

Compute Clouds

Compute clouds allow access to highly scalable, inexpensive, on-

demand computing resources that run the code that they are given.
Three examples of compute clouds are

• Amazon’s EC2
• Google App Engine

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 13

 14

• Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

(BOINC)

Compute clouds are the most flexible in their offerings and can be
used for sundry purposes; it simply depends on the application the
user wants to access. You could close this book right now, sign up
for a cloud computing account, and get started right away. These
applications are good for any size organization, but large
organizations might be at a disadvantage because these
applications do not offer the standard management, monitoring,
and governance capabilities that these organizations are used to.
Enterprises are not shut out, however. Amazon offers enterprise-
class support and there are emerging sets of cloud offerings like
Terremark’s Enterprise Cloud, which are meant for enterprise use.

Cloud Storage

One of the first cloud offerings was cloud storage and it remains a
popular solution. Cloud storage is a big world. There are already
more than 100 vendors offering cloud storage. This is an ideal
solution if you want to maintain files off-site. Security and cost are
the top issues in this field and vary greatly, depending on the
vendor you choose. Currently, Amazon’s S3 is the top player.

Cloud Applications

Cloud applications differ from compute clouds in that they utilize

software applications that rely on cloud infrastructure. Cloud
applications are versions of Software as a Service (SaaS) and
include such things as web applications that are delivered to users
via a browser or application like Microsoft Online Services. These
applications offload hosting and IT management to the cloud.

Cloud applications often eliminate the need to install and run the
application on the customer’s own computer, thus alleviating the
burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support.
Some cloud applications include

• Peer-to-peer computing (like Skype)

• Web applications (like MySpace or YouTube)
• SaaS (like Google Apps)
• Software plus services (like Microsoft Online Services)

2.3.3 Mobile Traffic

Following the extraordinary peak in traffic growth seen in 2018 and

the first part of 2019, the growth rate has returned to a more normal
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 14
 15

level. The quarter-on-quarter growth for Q1 2020 was 14 percent. A

change in consumer behavior caused by COVID-19 lockdown
restrictions impacted mobile networks by geographically shifting
traffic loads; for example, daytime loads moved, to a degree, from
city centers to suburban residential areas due to home-working
guidance. This effect was most pronounced in areas with limited
penetration of fixed residential broadband connections. Generally,
the traffic volumes were only modestly affected in mobile networks
in markets where fixed network connections are common. Over the
long-term, traffic growth is driven by both the rising number of
smartphone subscriptions and an increasing average data volume
per subscription, fueled primarily by more viewing of video content.

Figure 2.5: Global mobile network data traffic and year-on-year

growth (exabytes per month)

Figure 2.5 shows total global monthly network data and voice traffic
from Q1 2014 to Q1 2020, along with the year-on-year percentage
change for mobile network data traffic. Mobile network data traffic
depicted in Figure 2.5 also includes traffic generated by fixed
wireless access (FWA) services and does not include DVB-H, Wi-
Fi, or Mobile WiMAX. VoIP is included.

Global total mobile data traffic reached around 33 EB per month by

the end of 2019 and is projected to grow by a factor close to 5 to
reach 164 EB per month in 2025. Figure 2.6 represents the mobile
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 15
 16

data that will be consumed by over 6 billion people using

smartphones, laptops, and a multitude of new devices at that time.
(This graph does not include traffic generated by fixed wireless
access (FWA) services)

Figure 2.6: Global mobile data traffic (exabytes per month)

Smartphones continue to be at the epicenter of this development as

they generate most of the mobile data traffic - about 95 percent,
today, a share that is projected to increase throughout the forecast
period. Populous markets that launch 5G early are likely to lead
traffic growth over the forecast period. By 2025, we expect that 45
percent of total mobile data traffic will be carried by 5G networks.

Large variations in traffic growth across regions

Traffic growth can be very volatile between years, and can also
vary significantly between countries, depending on local market
dynamics. In the US, the traffic growth rate declined slightly during
2018 but recovered to previously expected rates during 2019. In
China, 2018 was a year of record traffic growth. India’s traffic
growth continued its upward trajectory, and it remains the region

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 16

 17

with the highest usage per smartphone and per month. Globally,
the growth in mobile data traffic per smartphone can be attributed
to three main drivers: improved device capabilities, an increase in
data-intensive content and more affordable data plans.

Around 410 million additional smartphone users are expected in

India by 2025. In the India region, the average monthly mobile data
usage per smartphone continues to show robust growth, boosted
by the rapid adoption of 4G. Low prices for mobile broadband
services, affordable smartphones and people’s changing video
viewing habits have continued to drive monthly usage growth in the
region. According to GlobalData, India Telecom Operators Country
Intelligence Report (2019), only 4 percent of households have fixed
broadband, making smartphones the only way to access the
internet in many cases.

Total traffic is projected to triple, reaching 21 EB per month in 2025.

This comes from two factors: high growth in the number of
smartphone users, including growth in rural areas, and an increase
in average usage per smartphone. A total of around 410 million
additional smartphone users are expected in India by 2025. Even if
the traffic per existing smartphone user continues to grow
significantly over time, the increase in average traffic per
smartphone is expected to moderate as more consumers in India
acquire smartphones. The average traffic per smartphone is
expected to increase to around 25 GB per month in 2025.

2.4. REQUIREMENTS: QOS AND QOE

The notion of Quality of Service has served as a central research

topic in communication networks for more than a decade, however,
usually starting from a rather technical view on service quality.
Therefore, the notion of Quality of Experience has emerged,
redirecting the focus towards the end-user, and trying to quantify
user’s subjective experience gained from using a service.

2.4.1 Quality of Service

For at least a decade, Quality of Service (QoS) has been one of the
dominating research topics in communication networks. Whereas
the Internet originally has been conceived as a best-effort network,
the introduction of QoS architectures like Integrated Services or
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 17
 18

Differentiated Services was supposed to pave the way for high-

quality real-time services like Voice-over-IP or video streaming and
thus to increase the competitiveness of packet-based TCP/IP
networks.

Technology-centered approach

The technology-centered approach mainly emphasizes the concept

of QoS and has its strongest reference from the ITU (International
Telecommunications Union).

The ITU Recommendation E.800 [i.31] is the key reference and

states that QoS is the: "Totality of characteristics of a
telecommunications service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated
and implied needs of the user of the service.".

Although the ITU definition refers to user satisfaction, QoS is mainly

used by technicians to define technical parameters of
telecommunication applications such as network delay and packet
loss. In addition, a focus on user satisfaction is rather limited
because it is only one of many measures of user behavior with a
communication service. For example, other measures include the
time taken to perform a communication task (a measure of
efficiency) and the accuracy with which a task is completed (a
measure of effectiveness).

Commonly specified properties of QoS include:

• Throughput: A minimum or average throughput, in bytes

per second or bits per second, for a given logical connection
or traffic flow.
• Delay: The average or maximum delay. Also called latency.
• Packet jitter: Typically, the maximum allowable jitter.
• Error rate: Typically, maximum error rate, in terms of
fraction of bits delivered in error.
• Packet loss: Fraction of packets lost.
• Priority: A network may offer a given number of levels of
priority. The assigned level for various traffic flows influences
the way in which the different flows are handled by the
network.
• Availability: Expressed as a percentage of time available.
• Security: Different levels or types of security may be
defined.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 18

 19

2.4.2 Quality of Experience

There are different definitions of Quality of Experience across

current ITU, ETSI and other literature. A research document by
ETSI defined Quality of Experience (QoE) as: "A measure of user
performance based on both objective and subjective psychological
measures of using an ICT service or product."

NOTE 1: It considers technical parameters (e.g. QoS) and usage

context variables (e.g. communication task) and measures both the
process and outcomes of communication (e.g. user effectiveness,
efficiency, satisfaction, and enjoyment).

NOTE 2: The appropriate psychological measures will be

dependent on the communication context.

Objective psychological measures do not rely on the opinion of the

user (e.g. task completion time measured in seconds, task
accuracy measured in number of errors). Subjective psychological
measures are based on the opinion of the user (e.g. perceived
quality of medium, satisfaction with a service). For example, a
service provider may conclude that a service with a certain level of
QoS used for a particular communication situation offers users
excellent QoE, whist with a different level of QoS provides poor
QoE.

For practical application, these features need to be converted to

quantitative measures. The management of QoE has become a
crucial concept in the deployment of future successful applications,
services, and products.

The greatest challenges in providing QoE are developing effective

methods for converting QoE features to quantitative measures and
translating QoE measures to QoS measures. Whereas QoS can
now easily be measured, monitored, and controlled at both the
networking and application layers, and at both the end system and
network sides, QoE is something that is still quite intricate to
manage.

2.5 ROUTING

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 19

 20

Routing and congestion control are the basic tools needed to

support network traffic and to provide QoS and QoE. Both
mechanisms are fundamental to the operation of a network and its
capability to transmit and deliver packet traffic.

2.5.1 Characteristics

Routers forward packets from the original source to the destination.

A router is considered a Layer 3 device because its primary
forwarding decision is based on the information in the Layer 3 IP
packet, specifically the destination IP address. This is known as
routing and the decision is generally based on some performance
criterion with the simplest one being minimum-hop route through
the network.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 20

 21

(d) Hypothetical Network Architecture

Figure 2.7: Network Architecture Example

A generalization of the minimum-hop criterion is least-cost routing.

In this case, a cost is associated with each link, and, for any pair of
attached stations, the route through the network that accumulates
the least cost is sought. Figure 2.7 illustrates a network with
numbers circled are nodes and lines connecting them represent
links between these nodes. The shortest path from node 1 to node
6 is node 1 to node 3 to node 6 (1-3-6).

2.5.2 Packet Forwarding

The key function of any router is to accept incoming packets and

forward them. For this purpose, a router maintains forwarding
tables. A router’s forwarding table shows, for each destination, the
identity of the next node on the router. Each router may be
responsible for discovering the appropriate routes. Alternatively, a
network control center may be responsible for designing routes for
all routers and maintaining a central forwarding table, providing
each router with individual forwarding tables relevant only to that
router.

Additional information is often used to determine the forwarding

decision, such as the source address, packet flow identifier, or
security level of the packet:

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 21

 22

• Failure: When a node or link fails, it can no longer be used

as part of a route.
• Congestion: When a particular portion of the network is
heavily congested, it is desirable to route packets around
rather than through the area of congestion.
• Topology change: The insertion of new links or nodes
affects routing.

For adaptive routing to be possible, information about the state of

the network must be exchanged among the nodes or between the
nodes and a central controller.

2.6 CONGESTION CONTROL

Congestion occurs when the number of packets being transmitted

through the network approaches the packet handling capacity of
the network. Congestion control aims to keep number of packets
below level at which performance falls off dramatically. It basically
is reduced quality of service occurring when a network node or link
is carrying more data than it can handle.

2.6.1 Effects of Congestion

Typical effects of congestion include queueing delay, packet loss or
the blocking of new connections.

Queueing Delay:
In telecommunication and computer engineering, the queuing delay
or queueing delay is the time a job waits in a queue until it can be
executed. In a switched network, queuing delay is the time between
the completion of signaling by the call originator and the arrival of a
ringing signal at the call receiver. Queuing delay may be caused by
delays at the originating switch, intermediate switches, or the call
receiver servicing switch. In a data network, queuing delay is the
sum of the delays between the request for service and the
establishment of a circuit to the called data terminal equipment
(DTE). In a packet-switched network, queuing delay is the sum of
the delays encountered by a packet between the time of insertion
into the network and the time of delivery to the address.

This term is most often used about routers. When packets arrive at
a router, they must be processed and transmitted. A router can only
process one packet at a time. If packets arrive faster than the router
can process them (such as in a burst transmission) the router puts
them into the queue (also called the buffer) until it can get around to
transmitting them. Delay can also vary from packet to packet, so

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 22

 23

averages and statistics are usually generated when measuring and

evaluating queuing delay.

Figure 2.8: queuing delay based on throughput

Figure 2.8 displays the well-known effect of queuing delay based

on throughput. As a queue begins to fill up due to traffic arriving
faster than it can be processed, the amount of delay a particular
packet experiences traversing the queue increases. The speed at
which the contents of a queue can be processed is a function of the
transmission rate of the facility. This leads to the classic "delay
curve" depicted in the image to the right.

Packet Loss:
Packet loss occurs when one or more packets of data travelling
across a computer network fail to reach their destination. Packet
loss is either caused by errors in data transmission, typically across
wireless networks, or network congestion. Packet loss is measured
as a percentage of packets lost with respect to packets sent. In
real-time applications like streaming media or online game, packet
loss can affect a user's quality of experience (QoE). High packet
loss rate indicates that users sustain undoubtedly a very poor
quality.

Packet loss is also closely associated with quality of service (QoS)

considerations. The amount of packet loss that is acceptable
depends on the type of data being sent. A typical service level
agreement (SLA) between Service Provider and Recipient
(Company) could also mention a clause on Network packet delivery
(reliability) as Average monthly packet loss shall be no greater than
0.1 percent (or successful delivery of 99.9 percent of packets). In
such cases, packet loss could be defined as the percentage of
packets that are dropped between backbone hubs on the Service
Provider’s Network.

Packet loss is detected by reliable protocols such as TCP. Reliable

protocols react to packet loss automatically, so when a person such
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 23
 24

as a network administrator needs to detect and diagnose packet

loss, they typically use status information from network equipment
or purpose-built tools. The Internet Control Message Protocol
provides an echo functionality, where a special packet is
transmitted that always produces a reply. Tools such as ping,
traceroute, and MTR use this protocol to provide a visual
representation of the path packets are taking, and to measure
packet loss at each hop. Many routers have status pages or logs,
where the owner can find the number or percentage of packets
dropped over a particular period.

Blocking of new connections:

Figure 2.9: TCP Head-of-line blocking

2.6.2 Congestion Control Techniques

Congestion control techniques can be broadly classified into two

categories: open loop congestion control and closed loop
congestion control.

A. Open loop congestion control:

Open loop congestion control policies are applied to prevent
congestion before it happens. The congestion control is handled
either by the source or the destination.

Policies adopted by open loop congestion control:

1. Retransmission Policy:
It is the policy in which retransmission of the packets are
taken care. If the sender feels that a sent packet is lost or
corrupted, the packet needs to be retransmitted. This
transmission may increase the congestion in the network. To

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 24

 25

prevent congestion, retransmission timers must be designed

to prevent congestion as also able to optimize efficiency.

2. Window Policy:
The type of window at the sender side may also affect the
congestion. Several packets in the Go-back-n window are
resent, although some packets may be received successfully
at the receiver side. This duplication may increase the
congestion in the network and making it worse. Therefore,
Selective repeat window should be adopted as it sends the
specific packet that may have been lost.

3. Discarding Policy:
A good discarding policy adopted by the routers is that the
routers may prevent congestion and at the same time
partially discards the corrupted or less sensitive package as
also able to maintain the quality of a message. In case of
audio file transmission, routers can discard less-sensitive
packets to prevent congestion as also maintain the quality of
the audio file.

4. Acknowledgment Policy:
Since acknowledgement are also the part of the load in
network, the acknowledgment policy imposed by the receiver
may also affect congestion. Several approaches can be
used to prevent congestion related to acknowledgment. The
receiver should send acknowledgement for N packets rather
than sending acknowledgement for a single packet. The
receiver should send an acknowledgment only if it must send
a packet or a timer expires.

5. Admission Policy:
In admission policy a mechanism should be used to prevent
congestion. Switches in a flow should first check the
resource requirement of a network flow before transmitting it
further. If there is a chance of a congestion or is a
congestion in the network, router should deny establishing a
virtual network connection to prevent further congestion.

All the above policies are adopted to prevent congestion before

it happens in the network.

B. Closed Loop Congestion Control

Following closed loop congestion control techniques are used to
treat or alleviate congestion after it happens.

1. Backpressure:

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 25

 26

Backpressure is a technique in which a congested node stop

receiving packet from upstream node. This may cause the
upstream node or nodes to become congested and rejects
receiving data from above nodes. Backpressure is a node-
to-node congestion control technique that propagate in the
opposite direction of data flow. The backpressure technique
can be applied only to virtual circuit where each node has
information of its above upstream node.

Figure 2.10 Backpressure

In figure 2.10, third node is congested and stops receiving

packets as a result second node may be get congested due
to slowing down of the output data flow. Similarly, first node
may get congested and informs the source to slow down.

2. Choke Packet Technique:

Choke packet technique is applicable to both virtual
networks as well as datagram subnets. A choke packet is a
packet sent by a node to the source to inform it of
congestion. Each router monitors its resources and the
utilization at each of its output lines. whenever the resource
utilization exceeds the threshold value, which is set by the
administrator, the router directly sends a choke packet to the
source giving it a feedback to reduce the traffic. The
intermediate nodes through which the packet has travelled
are not warned about congestion.

Figure 2.11 Choke Packet

3. Implicit Signaling:
In implicit signaling, there is no communication between the
congested nodes and the source. The source guesses that
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 26
 27

there is congestion in a network. For example, when sender

sends several packets and there is no acknowledgment for a
while, one assumption is that there is a congestion.

4. Explicit Signaling:
In explicit signaling, if a node experiences congestion it can
explicitly sends a packet to the source or destination to
inform about congestion. The difference between choke
packet and explicit signaling is that the signal is included in
the packets that carry data rather than creating different
packet as in case of choke packet technique.

Explicit signaling can occur in either forward or backward

direction.
• Forward Signaling:
A bit can be set in a packet moving in the direction of
the congestion. This bit can warn the destination that
there is congestion. The receiver in this case can use
policies, such as slowing down the acknowledgments,
to alleviate the congestion.

• Backward Signaling:
A bit can be set in a packet moving in the direction
opposite to the congestion. This bit can warn the
source that there is congestion and that it needs to
slow down to avoid the discarding of packets.

Explicit congestion signaling approaches could be divided

into three general categories:

A. Binary: A bit is set in a data packet as it is forwarded by

the congested node. When a source receives a binary
indication of congestion on a logical connection, it may
reduce its traffic flow.

B. Credit based: These schemes are based on providing an

explicit credit to a source over a logical connection. The
credit indicates how many octets or how many packets
the source may transmit. When the credit is exhausted,
the source must await additional credit before sending
additional data. Credit-based schemes are common for
end-to-end flow control, in which a destination system
uses credit to prevent the source from overflowing the
destination buffers, but credit-based schemes have also
been considered for congestion control. Credit-based
schemes are defined in Frame Relay and ATM networks.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 27

 28

C. Rate based: These schemes are based on providing an

explicit data rate limit to the source over a logical
connection. The source may transmit data at a rate up to
the set limit. To control congestion, any node along the
path of the connection can reduce the data rate limit in a
control message to the source.

2.7 SDN AND NFV

The Internet is the midst of a transformation, one that moves away

from bundled proprietary devices, and instead embraces
disaggregating network hardware (which becomes commodity)
from the software that controls it (which scales in the cloud). The
transformation is generally known as Software-Defined Networking
(SDN).

2.7.1 Software-Defined Networking

Software-defined networks provide an enhanced level of flexibility

and customizability to meet the needs of newer networking and IT
trends such as cloud, mobility, social networking, and video.

The SDN Architecture is:

• Directly programmable
Network control is directly programmable because it is
decoupled from forwarding functions.

• Agile
Abstracting control from forwarding lets administrators
dynamically adjust network-wide traffic flow to meet changing
needs.

• Centrally managed
Network intelligence is (logically) centralized in software based
SDN controllers that maintain a global view of the network, which
appears to applications and policy engines as a single, logical
switch.

• Programmatically configured
SDN lets network managers configure, manage, secure, and
optimize network resources very quickly via dynamic, automated
SDN programs, which they can write themselves because the
programs do not depend on proprietary software.

• Open standards-based and vendor-neutral

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 28

 29

When implemented through open standards, SDN simplifies

network design and operation because instructions are provided
by SDN controllers instead of multiple, vendor-specific devices
and protocols.

Figure 2.12 SDN Architecture

SDN Functionality
The two elements involved in forwarding packets through routers
are a control function, which decides the route the traffic takes and
the relative priority of traffic, and a data function, which forwards
data based on control-function policy.

Prior to SDN, these functions were performed in an integrated

fashion at each network device (router, bridge, packet switch, and
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 29
 30

so on). Control in such a traditional network is exercised by means

of a routing and control network protocol that is implemented in
each network node. This approach is relatively inflexible and
requires all the network nodes to implement the same protocols.
With SDN, a central controller performs all complex functionality,
including routing, naming, policy
declaration, and security checks.

Figure 2.13 Software-Defined Networking

This constitutes the SDN control plane and consists of one or more
SDN controllers. The SDN controller defines the data flows that
occur in the SDN data plane. Each flow through the network is
configured by the controller, which verifies that the communication
is permissible by the network policy. If the controller allows a flow
requested by an end system, it computes a route for the flow to
take, and adds an entry for that flow in each of the switches along
the path. With all complex function subsumed by the controller,
switches simply manage flow tables whose entries can only be
populated by the controller. The switches constitute the data plane.
Communication between the controller and the switches uses a
standardized protocol.

2.7.2 Network Functions Virtualization

Virtual machine technology over the Internet or an enterprise

network has been used for application-level server functions such
as database servers, cloud servers, web servers, e-mail servers,
and so on. This same technology, however, can equally be applied
to network devices, such as routers, LAN switches, firewalls, and
IDS/IPS servers.
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 30
 31

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) decouples network

functions, such as routing, firewalling, intrusion detection, and
Network Address Translation from proprietary hardware platforms
and implements these functions in software. It utilizes standard
virtualization technologies that run on high-performance hardware
to virtualize network functions. It is applicable to any data plane
processing or control plane function in both wired and wireless
network infrastructures. NFV has several features in common with
SDN.

They share the following objectives:

• Move functionality to software
• Use commodity hardware platforms instead of proprietary
platforms
• Use standardized or open application program interfaces (APIs)
• Support more efficient evolution, deployment, and repositioning
of network functions

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 31

 32

Figure 2.14 Network Functions Virtualization approach

NFV and SDN are independent but complementary schemes. SDN

decouples the data and control planes of network traffic control,
making the control and routing of network traffic more flexible and
efficient. NFV decouples network functions from specific hardware
platforms via virtualization to make the provision of these functions
more efficient and flexible. Virtualization can be applied to the data
plane functions of the routers and other network functions, including
SDN controller functions. So, either can be used alone, but the two
can be combined to reap greater benefits.

NFV reduces the need for dedicated hardware to deploy and

manage networks by offloading network functions into software that
can run on industry-standard hardware and can be managed from
anywhere within the operator’s network.

Separating network functions from hardware yields numerous

benefits for the network operator, which include:
• Reduced space needed for network hardware
• Reduce network power consumption
• Reduced network maintenance costs
• Easier network upgrades
• Longer life cycles for network hardware
• Reduced maintenance and hardware costs

2.8 MODERN NETWORKING ELEMENTS

Ultimately, the concern of a network service provider is about the

set of network devices (such as routers) and the control and
management of the functions they perform (such as packet
forwarding). If NFV is used, these network functions are
implemented in software and executed on VMs. If instead the
network functions are implemented on dedicated machines and
SDN is used, the control functions are implemented on central SDN
controllers, which interact with the network devices. However, SDN
and NFV are not mutually exclusive.

If both SDN and NFV are implemented for a network, the following
relationships hold:
• Network data plane functionality is implemented on VMs.
• The control plane functionality may be implemented on a
dedicated SDN platform or on an SDN VM.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 32

 33

In either case, the SDN controller interacts with the data plane
functions running on VMs.

QoS measures are commonly used to specify the service required

by various network customers or users and to dictate the traffic
management policies used on the network. The common case, until
recently, is that QoS was implemented on network that used neither
NFV nor SDN. In this case, routing and traffic control policies must
be configured directly on network devices using a variety of
automated and manual techniques. If NFV but not SDN is
implemented, the QoS settings are communicated to the VMs. With
SDN, regardless of whether NFV is used, it is the SDN controller
that is responsible for enforcing QoS parameters for the various
network users. If QoE considerations come into play, these are
used to adjust QoS parameters to satisfy the users’ QoE
requirements.

Figure 2.15 Modern Networking Schema

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 33

 34

2.9 SUMMARY

• Elastic traffic is that which can adjust, over wide ranges, to

changes in delay and throughput across an internet and still
meet the needs of its applications

• Inelastic traffic does not easily adapt, if at all, to changes in

delay and throughput across an internet

• big data refers to everything that enables an organization to

create, manipulate, and manage very large data sets
(measured in terabytes, petabytes, exabytes, and so on) and
the facilities in which these are stored.

• Traditional business data storage and management

technologies include relational database management
systems (RDBMS), network-attached storage (NAS),
storage-area networks (SANs), data warehouses (DWs), and
business intelligence (BI) analytics.

• A cloud-based network is an enterprise network that can be

extended to the cloud

• The technology-centered approach mainly emphasizes the

concept of QoS and has its strongest reference from the ITU
(International Telecommunications Union).
• Routing and congestion control are the basic tools needed to
support network traffic and to provide QoS and QoE.

• Packet loss occurs when one or more packets of data

travelling across a computer network fail to reach their
destination

• Congestion control techniques can be broadly classified into

two categories: open loop congestion control and closed
loop congestion control

• Software-defined networks provide an enhanced level of

flexibility and customizability to meet the needs of newer
networking and IT trends such as cloud, mobility, social
networking, and video.

• Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) decouples network

functions, such as routing, firewalling, intrusion detection,
and Network Address Translation from proprietary hardware
platforms and implements these functions in software.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 34

 35

2.10 REVIEW QUESTION

1. Present an overview of the major categories of packet traffic

on the Internet and internets, including elastic, inelastic, and
real-time traffic.

2. Discuss the traffic demands placed on contemporary

networks by big data, cloud computing, and mobile traffic.
3. Explain the concept of quality of service.

4. Explain the concept of quality of experience.

5. Understand the essential elements of routing.

6. Understand the effects of congestion and the types of

techniques used for congestion control.

7. Compare and contrast software-defined networking and

network functions virtualization.

8. What is congestion? Why does it occur?

9. What is choke packet? How is it used for congestion control?

2.11 REFERENCES

1. Foundations of Modern Networking: SDN, NFV, QoE, IoT, and

Cloud, First printing: November 2015 by William Stallings,
Copyright © 2016 by Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-
13-417539-3

2. Research paper “On Traffic Types and Service Classes in the

Internet” by Mansour J. Karam, Fouad A. Tobagi, available
online at
http://mmnetworks.stanford.edu/papers/karam_globecom00.pdf

3. Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) research

material on Internet Traffic Classification published and
available online at https://www.caida.org/research/traffic-
analysis/classification-overview/

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 35

 36

4. Cloud Computing Networking Theory, Practice, and

Development by Lee Chao, © 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group,
LLC. ISBN-13: 978-1-4822-5482-2

5. Cloud Computing: A Practical Approach by Anthony T. Velte

Toby J. Velte, Robert Elsenpeter, Copyright © 2010 by The
McGraw-Hill Companies. ISBN-13: 978-0-07-162695-8

6. Mobile network traffic Q1 2020 and Mobile data traffic outlook

sections adopted from Ericsson Mobility Report June 2020,
Publisher: Fredrik Jejdling, available online at
https://www.ericsson.com/49da93/assets/local/mobility-
report/documents/2020/june2020-ericsson-mobility-report.pdf

7. Research paper “From Quality of Service to Quality of

Experience” by Markus Fiedler, Kalevi Kilkki and Peter Reichl
published online at
https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2009/2235/pdf/09192.SWM.P
aper.2235.pdf

8. Technical Report on “Human Factors (HF); Quality of

Experience (QoE) requirements for real-time communication
services” by ETSI, © European Telecommunications Standards
Institute 2009, available online at
https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_tr/102600_102699/102643/01.
00.01_60/tr_102643v010001p.pdf

9. Technical Article on Queuing delay, published by hill

associates, archive available online at
https://web.archive.org/web/20150904041151/http://www.hill2d
ot0.com/wiki/index.php?title=Queuing_delay

10. Technical Article on Queuing delay, published by Wikipedia

available online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queuing_delay

11. Technical Article on Packet Loss, published by Wikipedia

available online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_loss

12. Chapter on Building Blocks of TCP, published by O’Reilly at

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/high-performance-
browser/9781449344757/ch02.html

13. Computer Network: Lecture Notes, prepared by Mr. Daya Ram

Budhathoki, available online at
https://dayaramb.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/computer-
network-notes-pu.pdf

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 36

 37

14. SDN Architecture https://opennetworking.org/sdn-definition/

15. Network Functions Virtualizations approach available online at:

https://www.blueplanet.com/resources/What-is-NFV-prx.html

❖❖❖❖

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 37

 Unit 4: Chapter 1
QUALITY OF SERVICE (QoS) AND USER QUALITY OF
EXPERIENCE (QoE)

Unit Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction:
1.2 Background
1.3 QoS Architectural Framework
1.3.1 Data Plane
1.3.2 Control Plane
1.3.3 Management Plane
1.4 Integrated Services Architecture (ISA)
1.4.1 ISAApproach
1.4.2 ISA Components
1.4.3 ISA Services
1.4.4 Queuing Discipline
1.5 Differentiated Services
1.5.1 Services
1.5.2 DiffServ Field
1.5.3 DiffServ Configuration
1.5.4 DiffServ Operation
1.5.5 Per-Hop Behavior
1.6 Service Level Agreements
1.1 IP Performance Metrics
1.8 Openflow QoS Support
1.8.1 Queue Structures
1.8.2 Meters
1.9 User Quality of Experience (QoE)
1.10 Service Failures Due to Inadequate QoE Considerations
1.11 QoE Related Standardization Projects
1.12 Definition of Quality of Experience
1.13 QoE Strategies in Practice
1.14 Factors Influencing QoE
1.15 Measurements of QoE
1.15.1 Subjective Assessment
1.15.2 Objective Assessment
1.15.3 End-User Device Analytics
1.16 Applications of QoE

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 1

1.0 OBJECTIVES:
• Describe the ITU-T QoS architectural framework.
• Summarize the key concepts of the Integrated Services Architecture.
• Compare and contrast elastic and inelastic traffic.
• Explain the concept of differentiated services.
• Understand the use of service level agreements.
• Describe IP performance metrics.
• Present an overview of OpenFlow QoS support
• Explain the motivations for QoE.
• Define QoE.
• Explain the factors that could influence QoE.
• Present an overview of how QoE can be measured, including a discussion of the
differences between
• Subjective and objective assessment.
• Discuss the various application areas of QoE.

1.1 INTRODUCTION:
Fundamental to the acceptance and success of any complex shared networking architecture is that
it meets users expectation for performance. Traditionally, the means of defining expected
performance, measuring it, providing it, and entering into well-defined agreements relating to it
has been the concept of quality of service (QoS).
The Internet and enterprise IP-based networks continue to see rapid growth in the volume and
variety of data traffic. Cloud computing, big data, the pervasive use of mobile devices on
enterprise networks, and the increasing use of video streaming all contribute to the increasing
difficulty in maintaining satisfactory network performance. Two key tools in measuring the
network performance that an enterprise desires to achieve are quality of service (QoS) and quality
of experience (QoE).
QoS and QoE enable the network manager to determine whether the network is meeting user needs
and to diagnose problem areas that require adjustment to network management and network traffic
control. There is a strong need to be able to support a variety of traffic, with a variety of QoS
requirements, on IP- based networks.

1.2 BACKGROUND
The Internet and other IP-based networks provided a best effort delivery service. This means that
the network attempts to allocate its resources with equal availability and priority to all traffic
flows, with no regard for application priorities, traffic patterns and load, and customer
requirements. To protect the network from congestion collapse and to guarantee that some flows
do not crowd out other flows, congestion control mechanisms were introduced, which tended to
throttle traffic that consumed excessive resources.

One of the most important congestion control techniques, introduced early on and still in wide
use, is the TCP congestion control mechanism. TCP congestion control has become increasingly
complex and sophisticated, but it is worth briefly summarizing the principles involved here. For
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 2
each TCP connection between two end systems across a network, in each direction, a concept
known as sliding window is used. TCP segments on a connection are numbered sequentially. The
sending and receiving TCP entities maintain a window, or buffer, that defines the range of
sequence numbered segments that may be transmitted. As segments arrive and are processed by
the receiver, the receiver returns an acknowledgment indicating which segments have been
received and implicitly indicated to the sender that the window of sequence numbers has advanced
to allow more segments to be sent. Various algorithms are used by the sender to deduce the amount
of congestion on a connection based on the round-trip delay for acknowledgments plus whether
an acknowledgment is even received for a particular segment. As congestion is detected, the
sending TCP entity reduces its transmission of segments to help ease congestion on the intervening
network.
Although TCP congestion control and other network congestion control techniques can reduce the
risk of excessive congestion, these techniques do not directly address QoS requirements. As the
intensity and variety of traffic increased, various QoS mechanisms were developed, including
Integrated Services Architecture (ISA) and differentiated services (DiffServ), accompanied by
service level agreements (SLAs) so that the service provided to various customers was tunable
and somewhat predictable. These mechanisms and services serve two purposes:
• Allocate network resources efficiently so as to maximize effective capacity
• Enable networks to offer different levels of QoS to customers on the basis of customer
requirements
In this more sophisticated environment, the term best effort refers not to the network service as a
whole but to a class of traffic treated in best effort fashion. All packets in the best effort traffic
class are transmitted with no guarantee regarding the speed with which the packets will be
transmitted to the recipient or that the data will even be delivered entirely.

1.3 QoS ARCHITECTURAL FRAMEWORK

The Y.1291 framework consists of a set of generic network mechanisms for controlling the
network service response to a service request, which can be specific to a network element, or for
signaling between network elements, or for controlling and administering traffic across a network.
Figure 1.1 shows the relationship among these elements, which are organized into three planes:
data, control, and management.
1.3.1 Data Plane
The data plane includes those mechanisms that operate directly on flows of data.
• Traffic classification refers to the assignment of packets to a traffic class by the ingress
router at the ingress edge of the network. Typically, the classification entity looks at
multiple fields of a packet, such as source and destination address, application payload,
and QoS markings, and determines the aggregate to which the packet belongs. The flow
label in the IPv6 header can be used for traffic classification. Other routers en route
perform a classification function as well, but the classification does not change as the
packets traverse the network.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 3

 Figure 1.1 Architectural Framework for QoS Support
• Packet marking encompasses two distinct functions. First, packets may be marked by
ingress edge nodes of a network to indicate some form of QoS that the packet should
receive. An example is the Differentiated Services (DiffServ) field in the IPv4 and IPv6
packets and the Traffic Class field in MPLS labels. An ingress edge node can set the values
in these fields to indicate a desired QoS. Such markings may be used by intermediate nodes
to provide differential treatment to incoming packets. Second, packet marking can also be
used to mark packets as nonconformant, either by the ingress node or intermediate nodes,
which may be dropped later if congestion is experienced.
• Traffic shaping controls the rate and volume of traffic entering and transiting the network
on a per-flow basis. The entity responsible for traffic shaping buffers nonconformant
packets until it brings the respective aggregate in compliance with the traffic limitations
for this flow.
• Congestion avoidance deals with means for keeping the load of the network under its
capacity such that it can operate at an acceptable performance level. The specific
objectives are to avoid significant queuing delays and, especially, to avoid congestion
collapse. A typical congestion avoidance scheme acts by senders reducing the amount of
traffic entering the network upon an indication that network congestion is occurring (or
about to occur).
• Traffic policing determines whether the traffic being presented is, on a hop-by-hop basis,
compliant with prenegotiated policies or contracts. Nonconformant packets may be
dropped, delayed, or labeled as nonconformant.
• Queuing and scheduling algorithms, also referred to as queuing discipline algorithms,
determine which packet to send next and are used primarily to manage the allocation of
transmission capacity among flows.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 4

 • Queue management algorithms manage the length of packet queues by dropping packets
when necessary or appropriate. Active management of queues is concerned primarily with
congestion avoidance. One noteworthy example of queue management is random early
detection (RED). RED drops incoming packets probabilistically based on an estimated
average queue size. The probability for dropping increases as the estimated average queue
size grows. There are a number of variants of RED that are in more common use than the
original RED, with weighted RED (WRED) perhaps the most commonly implemented.

1.3.2 Control Plane

The control plane is concerned with creating and managing the pathways through which user data
flows. It includes admission control, QoS routing, and resource reservation.
• Admission control determines what user traffic may enter the network. This may be in
part determined by the QoS requirements of a data flow compared to the current resource
commitment within the network. But beyond balancing QoS requests with available
capacity to determine whether to accept a request, there are other considerations in
admission control.
• QoS routing determines a network path that is likely to accommodate the requested QoS
of a flow. This contrasts with the philosophy of the traditional routing protocols, which
generally are looking for a least-cost path through the network.
• Resource reservation is a mechanism that reserves network resources on demand for
delivering desired network performance to a requesting flow. An example of a protocol
that uses this capability is the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP).

1.3.3 Management Plane

The management plane contains mechanisms that affect both control plane and data plane
mechanisms. The control plane deals with the operation, administration, and management aspects
of the network. It includes SLAs, traffic restoration, traffic metering and recording, and policy.
A service level agreement (SLA) typically represents the agreement between a customer and a
provider of a service that specifies the level of availability, serviceability, performance, operation,
or other attributes of the service.
• Traffic metering and recording concerns monitoring the dynamic properties of a traffic
stream using performance metrics such as data rate and packet loss rate. It involves
observing traffic characteristics at a given network point and collecting and storing the
traffic information for analysis and further action. Depending on the conformance level, a
meter can invoke necessary treatment (for example, dropping or shaping) for the packet
stream.
• Traffic restoration refers to the network response to failures. This encompasses a number
of protocol layers and techniques.
• Policy is a category that refers to a set of rules for administering, managing, and controlling
access to network resources. They can be specific to the needs of the service provider or
reflect the agreement between the customer and service provider, which may include
reliability and availability requirements over a period of time and other QoS requirements.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 5

1.4 INTEGRATED SERVICES ARCHITECTURE (ISA)
1.4.1 ISA Approach
The purpose of ISA is to enable the provision of QoS support over IP-based internets. The central
design issue for ISA is how to share the available capacity in times of congestion. For an IP-based
Internet that provides only a best effort service, the tools for controlling congestion and providing
service are limited. In essence, routers have two mechanisms to work with:
• Routing algorithm: Some routing protocols in use in internets allow routes to be selected
to minimize delay. Routers exchange information to get a picture of the delays throughout
the Internet. Minimum-delay routing helps to balance loads, thus decreasing local
congestion, and helps to reduce delays seen by individual TCP connections.
• Packet discard: When a router’s buffer overflows, it discards packets. Typically, the
most recent packet is discarded. The effect of lost packets on a TCP connection is that
the sending TCP entity backs off and reduces its load, thus helping to alleviate Internet
congestion.
In ISA, each IP packet can be associated with a flow. A flow is a distinguishable stream of related
IP packets that results from a single user activity and requires the same QoS. ISA makes use of
the following functions to manage congestion and provide QoS transport:
• Admission control: For QoS transport (other than default best effort transport), ISA
requires that a reservation be made for a new flow. If the routers collectively determine
that there are insufficient resources to guarantee the requested QoS, the flow is not
admitted. The protocol RSVP is used to make reservations.
• Routing algorithm: The routing decision may be based on a variety of QoS parameters,
not just minimum delay.
• Queuing discipline: A vital element of the ISA is an effective queuing policy that takes
into account the differing requirements of different flows.
• Discard policy: A discard policy determines which packets to drop when a buffer is
full and new packets arrive.

1.4.2 ISA Components

Figure 1.2 is a general depiction of the implementation architecture for ISA within a router. Below
the thick horizontal line are the forwarding functions of the router; these are executed for each
packet and therefore must be highly optimized. The remaining functions, above the line, are
background functions that create data structures used by the forwarding functions.

The principal background functions are as follows:

• Reservation protocol: This protocol reserves resources for a new flow at a given level of
QoS. It is used among routers and between routers and end systems. The reservation
protocol is responsible for maintaining flow-specific state information at the end systems
and at the routers along the path of the flow. RSVP is used for this purpose.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 6

 Figure 1.2 Integrated Services Architecture Implemented in Router
• Admission control: When a new flow is requested, the reservation protocol invokes the
admission control function. This function determines if sufficient resources are available
for this flow at the requested QoS. This determination is based on the current level of
commitment to other reservations or on the current load on the network.
• Management agent: A network management agent can modify the traffic control database
and to direct the admission control module to set admission control policies.
• Routing protocol: The routing protocol is responsible for maintaining a routing database
that gives the next hop to be taken for each destination address and each flow.
These background functions support the main task of the router, which is the forwarding of
packets. The two principal functional areas that accomplish forwarding are the following:
1. Classifier and route selection: For the purposes of forwarding and traffic control,
incoming packets must be mapped into classes. A class may correspond to a single flow
or to a set of flows with the same QoS requirements. For example, the packets of all
video flows or the packets of all flows attributable to a particular organization may be
treated identically for purposes of resource allocation and queuing discipline. The
selection of class is based on fields in the IP header. Based on the packet’s class and its
destination IP address, this function determines the next-hop address for this packet.
2. Packet scheduler: This function manages one or more queues for each output port. It
determines the order in which queued packets are transmitted and the selection of packets
for discard, if necessary. Decisions are made based on a packet’s class, the contents of
the traffic control database, and current and past activity on this outgoing port. Part of
the packet scheduler’s task is that of policing, which is the function of determining
whether the packet traffic in a given flow exceeds the requested capacity and, if so,
deciding how to treat the excess packets.

1.4.3 ISA Services

ISA service for a flow of packets is defined on two levels. First, a number of general categories
of service are provided, each of which provides a certain general type of service guarantees.
Second, within each category, the service for a particular flow is specified by the values of certain

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 7

parameters; together, these values are referred to as a traffic specification (TSpec). Three
categories of service are defined:
1. Guaranteed
2. Controlled load
3. Best effort
An application can request a reservation for a flow for a guaranteed or controlled load QoS, with
a TSpec that defines the exact amount of service required. If the reservation is accepted, the TSpec
is part of the contract between the data flow and the service.
Guaranteed Service
The key elements of the guaranteed service are as follows:
• The service provides assured capacity, or data rate.
• There is a specified upper bound on the queuing delay through the network. This must
be added to the propagation delay, or latency, to arrive at the bound on total delay
through the network.
• There are no queuing losses. That is, no packets are lost because of buffer overflow;
packets may be lost because of failures in the network or changes in routing paths.
With this service, an application provides a characterization of its expected traffic profile, and the
service determines the end-to-end delay that it can guarantee. The guaranteed service is the most
demanding service provided by ISA. Because the delay bound is firm, the delay has to be set at a
large value to cover rare cases of long queuing delays.
Controlled Load
The key elements of the controlled load service are as follows:
• The service tightly approximates the behavior visible to applications receiving best effort
service under unloaded conditions.
• There is no specified upper bound on the queuing delay through the network. However,
the service ensures that a very high percentage of the packets do not experience delays that
greatly exceed the minimum transit delay.
• A very high percentage of transmitted packets will be successfully delivered.
Best Effort
The risk in an internet that provides QoS for real-time applications is that best effort traffic is
crowded out. This is because best effort types of applications are assigned a low priority and their
traffic is throttled in the face of congestion and delays. The controlled load service guarantees that
the network will set aside sufficient resources so that an application that receives this service will
see a network that responds as if these real-time applications were not present and competing for
resources.

1.4.4 Queuing Discipline

An important component of an ISA implementation is the queuing discipline used at the routers.
The simplest approach that can be used by a router is a first-in, first-out (FIFO) queuing discipline
at each output port. As long as the queue is not empty, the router transmits packets from the queue,
taking the oldest remaining packet next.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 8

There are several drawbacks to the FIFO queuing discipline:
• No special treatment is given to packets from flows that are of higher priority or are more
delay sensitive. If a number of packets from different flows are ready to be forwarded,
they are handled strictly in FIFO order.
• If a number of smaller packets are queued behind a long packet, FIFO queuing results in
a larger average delay per packet than if the shorter packets were transmitted before the
longer packet. In general, flows of larger packets get better service.
• A selfish TCP connection, which ignores the TCP congestion control rules, can crowd out
conforming connections. If congestion occurs and one TCP connection fails to back off,
other connections along the same path segment must back off more than they would
otherwise have to do.
To overcome the drawbacks of FIFO queuing, a number of more complex routing algorithms have
been implemented in routers. These algorithms involve the use of multiple queues at each output
port and some method of prioritizing the traffic to provide better service.:
• Priority queuing (PQ)
• Custom queuing (CQ)
• Flow-based weighted fair queuing (WFQ)
• Class-based weighted fair queuing (CBWFQ)
For priority queuing, each packet is assigned a priority level, and there is one queue for each
priority level. In the Cisco implementation, four levels are used: high, medium, normal, and low.
Packets not otherwise classified are assigned to the normal priority. PQ can flexibly prioritize
according to network protocol, incoming interface, packet size, source/destination address, or
other parameters. The queuing discipline gives absolute preference based on priority.
Custom queuing is designed to allow various applications or organizations to share the network
among applications with specific minimum throughput or latency requirements. For CQ, there are
multiple queues, with each having a configured byte count. The queues are serviced in round-
robin fashion. As each queue is visited, a number of packets are dispatched up to the configured
byte count. By providing different byte counts for different queues, traffic on each queue is
guaranteed a minimum fraction of the overall capacity. Application or protocol traffic can then be
assigned to the desired queue.
The remaining queuing algorithms on the preceding list are based on a mechanism known as fair
queuing. With simple fair queuing, each incoming packet is placed in the queue for its flow. The
queues are serviced in round-robin fashion, taking one packet from each nonempty queue in turn.
The term weighted fair queuing (WFQ) is used in the literature to refer to a class of scheduling
algorithms that use multiple queues to support capacity allocation and delay bounds. WFQ may
also take into account the amount of service requested by each traffic flow and adjust the queuing
discipline accordingly.
Flow-based WFQ, which Cisco simply refers to as WFQ, creates flows based on a number of
characteristics in a packet, including source and destination addresses, socket numbers, and
session identifiers. The flows are assigned different weights to based on IP precedent bits to
provide greater service for certain queues.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 9

Class-based WFQ (CBWFQ) allows a network administrator to create minimum guaranteed
bandwidth classes. Instead of providing a queue for each individual flow, a class is defined that
consists of one or more flows. Each class can be guaranteed a minimum amount of bandwidth.

1.5 DIFFERENTIATED SERVICES

The differentiated services (DiffServ) architecture is designed to provide a simple, easy-to-
implement, low-overhead tool to support a range of network services that are differentiated on the
basis of performance. Several key characteristics of DiffServ contribute to its efficiency and ease
of deployment:

• IP packets are labeled for differing QoS treatment using the existing IPv4 or IPv6 DSField.
Thus, no change is required to IP.
• A service level specification (SLS) is established between the service provider (Internet
domain) and the customer prior to the use of DiffServ. This avoids the need to incorporate
DiffServ mechanisms in applications. Therefore, existing applications need not be modified
to use DiffServ. The SLS is a set of parameters and their values that together define the
service offered to a traffic stream by a DiffServ domain.
• A traffic conditioning specification (TCS) is a part of the SLS that specifies traffic classifier
rules and any corresponding traffic profiles and metering, marking, discarding/shaping
rules which are to apply to the traffic stream.
• DiffServ provides a built-in aggregation mechanism. All traffic with the same DiffServ
octet is treated the same by the network service. For example, multiple voice connections
are not handled individually but in the aggregate. This provides for good scaling to larger
networks and traffic loads.
• DiffServ is implemented in individual routers by queuing and forwarding packets based on
the DiffServ octet. Routers deal with each packet individually and do not have to save state
information on packet flows.

1.5.1 Services
The DiffServ type of service is provided within a DiffServ domain, which is defined as a
contiguous portion of the Internet over which a consistent set of DiffServ policies are
administered. Typically, a DiffServ domain would be under the control of one administrative
entity. The services provided across a DiffServ domain are defined in an SLA, which is a service
contract between a customer and the service provider that specifies the forwarding service that the
customer should receive for various classes of packets. A customer may be a user organization or
another DiffServ domain. Once the SLA is established, the customer submits packets with the
DiffServ octet marked to indicate the packet class. The service provider must ensure that the
customer gets at least the agreed QoS for each packet class. To provide that QoS, the service
provider must configure the appropriate forwarding policies at each router and must measure the
performance being provided for each class on an ongoing basis.
A DiffServ framework document lists the following detailed performance parameters that might
be included in an SLA:
• Detailed service performance parameters such as expected throughput, drop probability,
and latency.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 10

 • Constraints on the ingress and egress points at which the service is provided, indicating
the scope of the service.
• Traffic profiles that must be adhered to for the requested service to be provided, such as
token bucket parameters.
• Disposition of traffic submitted in excess of the specified profile.
• The framework document also gives some examples of services that might be provided:
• Traffic offered at service level A will be delivered with low latency.
• Traffic offered at service level B will be delivered with low loss.
• 90 percent of in-profile traffic delivered at service level C will experience no more than
50 ms latency.
• 95 percent of in-profile traffic delivered at service level D will be delivered.
• Traffic offered at service level E will be allotted twice the bandwidth of traffic delivered
at service level F. Traffic with drop precedence X has a higher probability of delivery than
traffic with drop precedence Y.

1.5.2 DiffServ Field

Packets are labeled for service handling by means of the 6-bit DSField in the IPv4 header or the
IPv6 header. The value of the DSField, referred to as the DiffServ codepoint (DSCP), is the label
used to classify packets for differentiated services.

Figure 1.3

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 11

With a 6-bit codepoint, there are in principle 64 different classes of traffic that could be defined.
These 64 codepoints are allocated across three pools of codepoints, as follows:
• Codepoints of the form xxxxx0, where x is either 0 or 1, are reserved for assignment as
standards.
• Codepoints of the form xxxx11 are reserved for experimental or local use.
• Codepoints of the form xxxx01 are also reserved for experimental or local use.

1.5.3 DiffServ Configuration

Figure 1.4 illustrates the type of configuration envisioned in the DiffServ documents. A DiffServ
domain consists of a set of contiguous routers; that is, it is possible to get from any router in the
domain to any other router in the domain by a path that does not include routers outside the
domain. Within a domain, the interpretation of DS codepoints is uniform, so that a uniform,
consistent service is provided.

Figure 1.4 DS Domains

Routers in a DiffServ domain are either boundary nodes or interior nodes. Typically, the interior
nodes implement simple mechanisms for handling packets based on their DS codepoint values.
The DiffServ specifications refer to the forwarding treatment provided at a router as per-hop
behavior (PHB). This PHB must be available at all routers, and typically PHB is the only part of
DiffServ implemented in interior routers.
The traffic conditioning function consists of five elements:
1. Classifier: Separates submitted packets into different classes. This is the foundation of
providing differentiated services. A classifier may separate traffic only on the basis of the
DS codepoint (behavior aggregate classifier) or based on multiple fields within the packet
header or even the packet payload (multifield classifier).
2. Meter: Measures submitted traffic for conformance to a profile. The meter determines
whether a given packet stream class is within or exceeds the service level guaranteed for
that class.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 12

 3. Marker: Re-marks packets with a different codepoint as needed. This may be done for
packets that exceed the profile; for example, if a given throughput is guaranteed for a
particular service class, any packets in that class that exceed the throughput in some
defined time interval may be re-marked for best effort handling. Also, re-marking may be
required at the boundary between two DiffServ domains.
4. Shaper: Delays packets as necessary so that the packet stream in a given class does not
exceed the traffic rate specified in the profile for that class.
5. Dropper: Drops packets when the rate of packets of a given class exceeds that specified
in the profile for that class.

1.5.4 DiffServ Operation

Figure 1.5 illustrates the relationship between the elements of traffic conditioning. After a flow is
classified, its resource consumption must be measured. The metering function measures the
volume of packets over a particular time interval to determine a flow’s compliance with the traffic
agreement. If the host is bursty, a simple data rate or packet rate may not be sufficient to capture
the desired traffic characteristics. A token bucket scheme is an example of a way to define a
traffic profile to take into account both packet rate and burstiness.

If a traffic flow exceeds some profile, several approaches can be taken. Individual packets in
excess of the profile may be re-marked for lower-quality handling and allowed to pass into the
DiffServ domain. A traffic shaper may absorb a burst of packets in a buffer and pace the packets
over a longer period. A dropper may drop packets if the buffer used for pacing becomes saturated.

Figure 1.5 DS Functions

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 13

1.5.5 Per-Hop Behavior
DiffServ is a general architecture that can be used to implement a variety of services. As part of
the DS standardization effort, specific types of PHB need to be defined, which can be associated
with specific differentiated services. The four behavior classes are as follows:
1. Default forwarding (DF) for elastic traffic
2. Assured forwarding (AF) for general QoS requirements
3. Expedited forwarding (EF) for real-time (inelastic) traffic
4. Class selector for historical codepoint definitions and PHB requirements
Figure 1.6 shows the DSCP encodings corresponding to the four classes.

Figure 1.6 DiffServ Forwarding Behavior Classes and Corresponding DSField Encoding
Default Forwarding PHB
The default class, referred to as default forwarding (DF), is the best effort forwarding behavior in
existing routers. Such packets are forwarded in the order that they are received as soon as link
capacity becomes available. If other higher-priority packets in other DiffServ classes are available
for transmission, the latter are given preference over best effort default packets. Application traffic
in the Internet that uses default forwarding is expected to be elastic in nature.
Expedited Forwarding PHB
RFC 3246 defines the expedited forwarding (EF) PHB as a building block for low-loss, low-delay,
and low- jitter end-to-end services through DiffServ domains. Therefore, unless the internet is
grossly oversized to eliminate all queuing effects, care must be taken in handling traffic for EF
PHB to ensure that queuing effects do not result in loss, delay, or jitter above a given threshold.
The EF PHB is designed to configure nodes so that the traffic aggregate has a well-defined
minimum departure rate. The general concept outlined in RFC 3246 is this: The border nodes
control the traffic aggregate to limit its characteristics (rate, burstiness) to some predefined level.
Interior nodes must treat the incoming traffic in such a way that queuing effects do not appear. In
general terms, the requirement on interior nodes is that the aggregate’s maximum arrival rate must
be less than the aggregate’s minimum departure rate.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 14

Assured Forwarding PHB
The assured forwarding (AF) PHB is designed to provide a service superior to best effort but one
that does not require the reservation of resources within an Internet and does not require the use
of detailed discrimination among flows from different users. The AF PHB is more complex than
explicit allocation, but it is useful to first highlight the key elements of the explicit allocation
scheme:
• Users are offered the choice of a number of classes of service for their traffic. Each class
describes a different traffic profile in terms of an aggregate data rate and burstiness.
• Traffic from a user within a given class is monitored at a boundary node. Each packet in a
traffic flow is marked out or in based on whether it does or does not exceed the traffic
profile.
• Inside the network, there is no separation of traffic from different users or even traffic from
different classes. Instead, all traffic is treated as a single pool of packets, with the only
distinction being whether each packet has been marked in or out.
• When congestion occurs, the interior nodes implement a dropping scheme in which out
packets are dropped before in packets.
• Different users will see different levels of service because they will have different
quantities of in packets in the service queues.

1.6 SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS

A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a network provider and a customer that
defines specific aspects of the service that is to be provided. The definition is formal and typically
defines quantitative thresholds that must be met. An SLA typically includes the following
information:
• A description of the nature of service to be provided: A basic service would be IP-based
network connectivity of enterprise locations plus access to the Internet. The service may
include additional functions such as web hosting, maintenance of domain name servers, and
operation and maintenance tasks.
• The expected performance level of the service: The SLA defines a number of metrics,
such as delay, reliability, and availability, with numerical thresholds.
• The process for monitoring and reporting the service level: This describes how
performance levels are measured and reported.

Figure 1.1 shows a typical configuration that lends itself to an SLA. In this case, a network service
provider maintains an IP-based network. A customer has a number of private networks (for
example, LANs) at various sites. Customer networks are connected to the provider via access
routers at the access points.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 15

 Figure 1.1 Typical Framework for Service Level Agreement

1.1 IP PERFORMANCE METRICS

The IP Performance Metrics Working Group (IPPM) is chartered by IETF to develop standard
metrics that relate to the quality, performance, and reliability of Internet data delivery. Two trends
dictate the need for such a standardized measurement scheme:
• The Internet has grown and continues to grow at a dramatic rate. Its topology is
increasingly complex. As its capacity has grown, the load on the Internet has grown at
an even faster rate. Similarly, private internets, such as corporate intranets and extranets,
have exhibited similar growth in complexity, capacity, and load. The sheer scale of
these networks makes it difficult to determine quality, performance, and reliability
characteristics.
• The Internet serves a large and growing number of commercial and personal users
across an expanding spectrum of applications. Similarly, private networks are growing
in terms of user base and range of applications. Some of these applications are sensitive
to particular QoS parameters, leading users to require accurate and understandable
performance metrics.
A standardized and effective set of metrics enables users and service providers to have an accurate
common understanding of the performance of the Internet and private internets. Measurement data
is useful for a variety of purposes, including the following:
• Supporting capacity planning and troubleshooting of large complex internets.
• Encouraging competition by providing uniform comparison metrics across service
providers.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 16

 • Supporting Internet research in such areas as protocol design, congestion control, and
QoS.
• Verification of SLAs.

These metrics are defined in three stages:

1. Singleton metric: The most elementary, or atomic, quantity that can be measured for a
given performance metric. For example, for a delay metric, a singleton metric is the delay
experienced by a single packet.
2. Sample metric: A collection of singleton measurements taken during a given time period.
For example, for a delay metric, a sample metric is the set of delay values for all the
measurements taken during a one-hour period.
3. Statistical metric: A value derived from a given sample metric by computing some statistic
of the values defined by the singleton metric on the sample. For example, the mean of all
the one-way delay values on a sample might be defined as a statistical metric.
The measurement technique can be either active or passive.
• Active techniques require injecting packets into the network for the sole purpose of
measurement. There are several drawbacks to this approach. The load on the network is
increased. This, in turn, can affect the desired result.
• Passive techniques observe and extract metrics from existing traffic. This approach can
expose the contents of Internet traffic to unintended recipients, creating security and
privacy concerns. So far, the metrics defined by the IPPM working group are all active.
For the sample metrics, the simplest technique is to take measurements at fixed time intervals,
known as periodic sampling. There are several problems with this approach. First, if the traffic on
the network exhibits periodic behavior, with a period that is an integer multiple of the sampling
period (or vice versa), correlation effects may result in inaccurate values.

Figure 1.8 Model for Defining Packet Delay Variation

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 17

Figure 1.8 illustrates the packet delay variation metric. This metric is used to measure jitter, or
variability, in the delay of packets traversing the network. The singleton metric is defined by
selecting two packet measurements and measuring the difference in the two delays. The statistical
measures make use of the absolute values of the delays.

1.8 OPENFLOW QOS SUPPORT

OpenFlow offers two tools for implementing QoS in data plane switches.
1.8.1 Queue Structures
An OpenFlow switch provides limited QoS support through a simple queuing mechanism. One or
more queues can be associated with a port. Queues support the ability to provide minimum data
rate guarantees and maximum data rate limits. Queue configuration takes place outside the
OpenFlow protocol, either through a command-line tool or through an external dedicated
configuration protocol.
A data structure defines each queue. The data structure includes a unique identifier, port this queue
is attached to, minimum data rate guaranteed, and maximum data rate. Counters associated with
each queue capture the number of transmitted bytes and packets, number of packets dropped
because of overrun, and the elapsed time the queue has been installed in the switch.
The OpenFlow Set-Queue action is used to map a flow entry to an already configured port. Thus,
when an arriving packet matches a flow table entry, the packet is directed to a given queue on a
given port.
1.8.2 Meters
A meter is a switch element that can measure and control the rate of packets or bytes. Associated
with each meter is a set of one or more bands. If the packet or byte rate exceeds a predefined
threshold, the meter triggers the band. The band may drop the packet, in which case it is called a
rate limiter. Other QoS and policing mechanisms can be designed using meter bands. Each meter
is defined by an entry in the meter table for a switch. Each meter has a unique identifier. Meters
are not attached to a queue or a port; rather, a meter can be invoked by an instruction from a flow
table entry. Multiple flow entries can point to the same meter.
Figure 1.9 shows the structure of a meter table entry and how it is related to a flow table entry.

Figure 1.9 OpenFlow QoS-Related Formats

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 18
A flow table entry may include a meter instruction with ameter_id as an argument. Any packet
that matches that flow entry is directed to the corresponding meter. Within the meter table, each
entry consists of three main fields:
• Meter identifier: A 32-bit unsigned integer uniquely identifying the meter.
• Meter bands: An unordered list of one or more meter bands, where each meter band
specifies the rate of the band and the way to process the packet.
• Counters: Updated when packets are processed by a meter. These are aggregate counters.
That is, the counters count the total traffic of all flows, and do not break the traffic down
by flow.
Each band has the following structure:
• Band type: drop or dscp remark.
• Rate: Used by the meter to select the meter band, defines the lowest rate at which the band
can apply.
• Counters: Updated when packets are processed by a meter band.
• Type specific arguments: Some band types may have optional arguments. Currently, the
only optional argument is for the ds cp remark band type, specifying the amount of drop
in precedence.
The meter triggers a meter band if the packet rate or byte rate passing through the meter exceed a
predefined threshold. A band of type drop drops packets when the band’s rate is exceeded. This
can be used to define a rate limiter band.

1.9 QoE: User Quality of Experience

WHY QOE?
Before the advent of the public Internet, video content delivery was a monopoly of content
publishers who delivered their products and services over closed video delivery systems built and
managed by cable and satellite TV operators. The operators owned and operated the entire
distribution chain as well as the video reception devices (set-top boxes) in the home. These closed
networks and devices were under the full control of these operators and were designed, deployed,
provisioned, and optimized specifically to deliver high-quality video to consumers.

Figure 1.10 shows an abstraction of the typical satellite TV end-to-end delivery chain. In practice,
however, such content delivery and distribution chains are made up of very complex integrations
of applications and systems.

As the illustration shows, the traffic scheduling system provides audio and video (A/V) content
via the play-out system to be encoded and aggregated into a single MPEG transport stream (TS).
Together with the program specific information (PSI), the transport stream is transmitted to the
subscriber’s set-top box (STB) via a satellite.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 19

 Figure 1.10 An Abstraction of a Content Distribution Network Using a Typical Satellite TV
Distribution Network
Online Video Content Delivery
Video delivery over the Internet takes a different approach. Because numerous subnetworks and
devices that constitute the Internet are situated in varied geographical locations, video streams
reach the user by traversing through uncharted territories, as illustrated in Figure 1.11. With this
arrangement, the guaranteeing of a good network performance is often a very challenging task.
Internet service providers (ISPs) do not own the entire content distribution network, and the risk
of quality degradations is high. The access network may consist of coax, copper, fiber, or wireless
(fixed and mobile) technology. Issues such as packet delay, jitter, and loss may plague such
networks.

Figure 1.11 An Abstraction of a Content Distribution Network Using the Public Internet
Distribution Network
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 20
The growth and expansion of the Internet over the past couple of decades has led to an equally
huge growth in the availability of network-enabled video streaming services. Giant technological
strides have also been made in the development of network access devices.
With the current popularity of these services, providers need to ensure that user experiences are
comparable to what the users would consider to be their reference standards. Users’ standards are
often influenced by the typically high video quality experience with the older technology, that is,
those offered by the cable and satellite TV operators. User expectations can also be influenced by
capabilities that currently can only be adequately offered by broadcast TV. These capabilities
include the following:
Trick mode functionalities, which are features of video streaming systems that mimic visual
feedback given during fast-forward and rewind operations.

Contextual experiences across multiple screens, which includes the ability to pause viewing
on one screen and switch to another, thus letting users take the video experience with them on the
go.

The proliferation of different types of access devices further highlights the importance of QoE
frameworks. As an illustration, the QoE for a user watching a news clip on a PDA will most likely
differ from another user watching that same news clip on a 3G mobile phone. This is because the
two terminals come with different display screens, bandwidth capabilities, frame rates, codecs,
and processing power. Therefore, delivering multimedia content or services to these two terminal
types, without carefully thinking about the users’ quality expectations or requirements for these
terminal types, might lead to service overprovisioning and network resource wastage.
Informally, QoE refers to the user perception of a particular service. QoE needs to be one of the
central metrics employed during the design and management of networks, content delivery
systems, and other engineering processes.

1.10 SERVICE FAILURES DUE TO INADEQUATE QOE

CONSIDERATIONS
The stereoscopic 3D TV service is often cited as a prime example of a service that was a
spectacular commercial failure because it had very poor QoE ratings.
In 2010, broadcasters such as Disney, Foxtel, BBC, and Sky began actively making 3D content
delivery available as a service to their customers as a premium service experience. Indeed, each
of these broadcasters rolled out their own dedicated 3D television channels. Within five years, all
of them except Sky had to terminate their operations.
A number of factors contributed to the failure of these services.
• The first was the general unavailability of “wow video content” (that is, content that users
are most likely to find exciting or take much interest in).
• The second was the need to wear special 3D glasses even when using these services in a
home environment.
• Third, because broadcasters were initially in a rush to deploy the 3D TV technology,
content was produced by inexperienced creators using inadequate systems and tools. This

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 21

 resulted in a great deal of poorly produced 3D content, which may have alienated the early
subscribers.

1.11 QOE-RELATED STANDARDIZATION PROJECTS

Because the field of QoE has been growing rapidly, a number of projects have been initiated to
address issues relating to best practices and standards. These projects have been aimed at
preventing commercial. Table 1.1 summarizes the prominent ones amongst these project
initiatives.

Table 1.1 QoE Initiatives and Projects

1.12 DEFINITION OF QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE

Definition of Quality
Quality is the resulting verdict produced by a user after he/she has carried a “comparison and
judgment” process on an observable occurrence or event.
This process comprises the following key sequential steps:
• Perception of the event
• Reflection on the perception
• Description of the perception
• Evaluation and description of the result or outcome
Thus, quality is evaluated in terms of the degree to which the user’s needs have been fulfilled
within the context of the event. The result of this evaluation is usually referred to as the quality
score (or rating) if it is presented with reference to a scale.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 22

Definition of Experience
Experience is an individual’s description of a stream of perceptions, and his/her interpretation of
one or multiple events. An experience might result from an encounter with a system, service, or
an artifact.
Quality Formation Process
As shown in Figure 1.12, there are two distinct subprocess paths to the formation of a quality
score: the perception path and the reference path.

FIGURE 1.12 A Schematic Illustration of the Quality Formation Process from an Individual
Point of View.
The reference path reflects the temporal and contextual nature of the quality formation process.
This path is influenced by memories of former experienced qualities, as indicated by the arrow
from experienced quality to the reference path.
The perception path is characterized by the physical input signal, which is to be assessed, reaching
the sensory organs of the observer. This physical event is processed through low-level perceptual
processes into a perceived feature within the constraints of the reference path. This perceived
feature undergoes a reflection process, which interprets these sensory features through cognitive
processing.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 23

Definition of Quality of Experience
Combining the concepts and definitions from the preceding sections, the definition of QoE that
reflects broad industry and academic consensus is as follows:
Quality of experience (QoE) is the degree of delight or annoyance of the user of an application or
service. It results from the fulfillment of his or her expectations with respect to the
utility/enjoyment of the application or service in the light of the user’s personality and current
state.

1.13 QOE STRATEGIES IN PRACTICE

Key findings from QoE-related projects show that for many services, multiple QoS parameters
contribute toward the overall user’s perception of quality. This has resulted in the emergence of
the concept of the QoE/QoS layered approach.

The QoE/QoS Layered Model

The QoE/QoS layered approach does not ignore the QoS aspect of the network, but instead, user
and service level perspectives are complementary, as shown in Figure 1.13.

FIGURE 1.13 QoE/QoS Layered Model with the Domains of Interest for the Frameworks

The levels in the layered approach are as follows:

• User: The user interacts with the service. It is their degree of delight or annoyance from
using the service that is to be measured. Being linked to human perception, QoE is hard
to describe in a quantitative way, and it varies from person to person. The complexities
of QoE at the user level stem from the differences between individual user
characteristics, of which some might be time-varying, whereas others are of a relatively
stable nature. The current practice in any QoE measurement is to identify and control
for the relatively stable characteristics of a user in a way that is satisfactory to at least a
large proportion of the potential user group.
• Service: The service level provides a virtual level where the user’s experience of the
overall performance of the service can be measured. It is the interface where the user
interacts with the service (for example, the visual display to the user). It is also where
tolerance thresholds are measured. As an illustration, the QoE measures from the user

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 24

 perspective for streaming applications could be startup time, audio/visual quality,
channel change delay, and buffering interruptions.
• Application-level QoS (AQoS): AQoS deals with the control of application-specific
parameters such as content resolution, bit rate, frame rate, color depth, codec type,
layering strategy, and sampling rate. The network capacity often dictates the bandwidth
that will be allocated to a service for transmission. Because of this fixed underlying
resource, some parameters at the application level are usually adjusted and controlled
to achieve a desired quality level.
• Network-level QoS (NQoS): This level is concerned with the low-level network
parameters such as service coverage, bandwidth, delay, throughput, and packet loss.
There are a number of ways in which network-level QoS parameters impact QoE. One
such way is via network delay, which impacts QoE especially for interactive services.
For instance, the interactive nature of web browsing that requires multiple retrieval
events within a certain window of time might be affected by delay variations of the
network. Voice over IP (VoIP) services might have stringent response-time demands,
whereas e-mail services might tolerate much longer delays.
Although the trade-offs between quality and network capacity may begin with application-level
QoS because of network capacity considerations, an understanding of the user requirements at the
service level (that is, in terms QoE measures) would enable a better choice of application-level
QoS parameters to be mapped onto the network-level QoS parameters.

1.14 FACTORS INFLUENCING QOE

QoE must be studied and addressed by taking into account both technical and nontechnical factors.
Many factors contribute to producing a good QoE. Here, the key factors are as follows:
• User demographics: The context of demographics herein refers to the relatively stable
characteristics of a user that might have an indirect influence on perception, and
intimately affects other technical factors to determine QoE. The grouping of users was
based on demographic characteristics such as their attitudes toward adoption of new
technologies, socio-demographic information, socioeconomic status, and prior
knowledge. Cultural background is another user demographic factor that might also
have an influence on perception because of cultural attitude to quality.
• Type of device: Different device types possess different characteristics that may impact
on QoE. An application designed to run on more than one device type, for example on
a connected TV device such as Roku and on an iOS device such as an iPhone, may not
deliver the same QoE on every device.
• Content: Content types can range from interactive content specifically curated
according to personal interests, to content that is produced for linear TV transmission.
Studies have suggested that people tend to watch video on-demand (VoD) content with
a higher level of engagement than its competing alternative, linear TV. This may be
because users will make an active decision to watch specific VoD content, and as a
result, give their full attention to it.
• Connection type: The type of connection used to access the service influences users’
expectations and their QoEs. Users have been found to have lower expectations when
using 3G connections in contrast to a wire line connection even when the two
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 25
 connection types were identical in terms of their technical conditions. Users have also
been found to lower their expectations considerably, and are more tolerant to visual
impairments, on small devices.
• Media (audio-visual) quality: This is a significant factor affecting QoE, as it is the part
of a service that is most noticeable by the user. The overall audio and video quality
appears to be content dependent. For less- complex scenes (for example, head and
shoulder content), audio quality is slightly more important than video quality. In
contrast, for high-motion content, video quality tends to be significantly more important
than audio quality.
• Network: Content delivery via the Internet is highly susceptible to the effects of delays,
jitter, packet loss, and available bandwidth. Delay variation results in the user
experiencing frame freeze and the lack of lip synchronization between what is heard
(audio) and what is seen (video). Although video content can be delivered using a
number of Internet protocols, not all of them are reliable. However, content delivery is
guaranteed using TCP/IP. Nevertheless, bad network conditions degrade QoE because
of increased rebuffering and increased interruptions in playback. Rebuffering
interruptions in IP video playback is seen to be the worst degradation on user QoE and
should be avoided at the cost of startup delay.
• Usability: Another QoE factor is the amount of effort that is required to use the service.
The service design must render good quality without a great deal of technical input from
the user.
• Cost: The long-established practice of judging quality by price implies that expectations
are price dependent. If the tariff for a certain service quality is high, users may be highly
sensitive to any quality degradations.

1.15 MEASUREMENTS OF QOE

QoE measurement techniques evolved through the adaptation and application of psychophysics
methods during the early stages of television systems. We will see three QoE measurement
methods:
1. Subjective Assessment
2. Objective Assessment
3. End-User Device Analytics

1.15.1 Subjective Assessment

For subjective assessment of QoE, experiments are carefully designed to a high level of control
(such as in a controlled laboratory, field tests, or crowdsourcing environments) so that the validity
and reliability of the results can be trusted. It might be useful to consult expert advice during the
initial design of the subjective experiment, because the topics of experimental design,
experimental execution, and statistical analysis are complex. In general terms, a methodology to
obtain subjective QoE data might consist of the following phases:
• Characterize the service: The task at this stage is to choose the QoE measures that affect
user experience the most. As an example, for a multimedia conferencing service, the
quality of the voice takes precedence over the quality of video. Also, the video quality
required for such applications does not demand a very high frame rate, provided that audio-

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 26

 to-video synchronization is maintained. Therefore, the resolution of individual frames can
be considerably lower than the case of other video streaming services, especially when the
size of the screen is small (such as a mobile phone). So, in multimedia conferencing, the
QoE measures might be prioritized as voice quality, audio-video synchronization, and
image quality.
• Design and define test matrix: Once the service has been characterized, the QoS factors
that affect the QoE measures can be identified. For instance, the video quality in streaming
services might be directly affected by network parameters such as bandwidth, packet loss,
and encoding parameters such as frame rate, resolution, and codec. The capability of the
rendering device will also play a significant role in terms of screen size and processing
power. However, testing such a large combination of parameters may not be feasible.
• Specify test equipment and materials: Subjective tests should be designed to specify test
equipment that will allow the test matrix to be enforced in a controlled fashion. For
instance, to assess the correlation between NQoS parameters and the perceived QoE in a
streaming application, at least a client device and a streaming server separated by an
emulated network are needed.
• Identify sample population: A representative sample population is identified, possibly
covering different classes of users categorized by the user demographics that are of interest
to the experimenter. Depending on the target environment for the subjective test, at least
24 test subjects has been suggested as the ideal number for a controlled environment (for
example, a laboratory) and at least 35 test subjects for a public environment. Fewer
subjects may be used for pilot studies to indicate trending. The use of crowdsourcing in
the context of subjective assessment is still nascent, but it has the potential to further
increase the size of the sample population and could reduce the completion time of the
subjective test.
• Subjective methods: Several subjective assessment methodologies exist within the
industry recommendations. However, in most of them, the typical recommendation is for
each test subject to be presented with the test conditions under scrutiny along with a set of
rating scales that allows the correlation of the users’ responses with the actual QoS test
conditions being tested. There are several rating scales, depending on the design of the
experiment.
• Analysis of results: When the test subjects have rated all QoS test conditions, a post-
screening process might be applied to the data to remove any erroneous data from a test
subject that appears to have voted randomly. Depending on the design of the experiment,
a variety of statistical approaches could be used to analyze results. The simplest and the
most common quantification method is the mean opinion score (MOS), which is the
average of the opinions collected for a particular QoS test condition. The results from
subjective assessment experiments are used to quantify QoE, and to model the impacts of
QoS factors. However, they are time-consuming, expensive to carry out, and are not
feasible for real-time in-service monitoring.

1.15.2 Objective Assessment

For objective assessment of QoE, computational algorithms provide estimates of audio, video,
and audiovisual quality as perceived by the user. Each objective model targets a specific service
type. The goal of any objective model is to find the optimum fit that strongly correlates with data
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 27
obtained from subjective experiments. A methodology to obtain objective QoE data might consist
of the following phases:
• Database of subjective data: A starting point might be the collection of a group of
subjective datasets as this could serve as benchmark for training and verifying the
performance of the objective model. A typical example of one of these datasets might
be the subjective QoE data generated from well-established subjective testing
procedures.
• Preparation of objective data: The data preparation for the objective model might
typically include a combination of the same QoS test conditions as found in the
subjective datasets, as well as other complex QoS conditions. A variety of preprocessing
procedures might be applied to the video data prior to training, and refinement of the
algorithm.
• Objective methods: There are various algorithms in existence that can provide
estimates of audio, video, and audiovisual quality as perceived by the user. Some
algorithms are specific to a perceived quality artifact, while others can provide estimates
for a wider scope of quality artifacts. Examples of the perceived artifacts might include
blurring, blockiness, unnatural motion, pausing, skipping, rebuffering, and imperfect
error concealment after transmission errors.
• Verification of results: After the objective algorithm has processed all QoS test
conditions, the predicted values might benefit from a post-screening process to remove
any outliers; this is the same concept applied to the subjective datasets. The predicted
values from the objective algorithm might be in a different scale as compared to the
subjective QoE datasets.
• Validation of objective model: The objective data analysis might be evaluated with
respect to its prediction accuracy, consistency, and linearity by using a different
subjective dataset. It is worth noting that the performance of the model might depend
on the training datasets and the verification procedures. The Video Quality Experts
Group (VQEG) validates the performance of objective perceptual models.

1.15.3 End-User Device Analytics

End-user device analytics is yet another alternative method of QoE measurement. Real-time data
such as the connection time, bytes sent, and average playback rate are collected by the video player
application for each video viewing session and fed back to a server module where the data is pre-
aggregated and then turned into actionable QoE measures. Some of the metrics reported for per-
user and aggregate viewing sessions include startup delay, rebuffering delays, average bit rates,
and the frequency of bit rate switches.
Operators may be inclined to associate viewer engagement levels with their QoE because good
QoEs usually make viewers less likely to abandon a viewing session. The definition of viewer
engagement may have different meanings for different operators and context. First of all, operators
might like to know which viewer engagement metrics affect QoE the most to guide the design of
the delivery infrastructures. Second, they might also like to quickly identify and resolve service
outages, and other quality issues. A minute of encoder glitch could replicate throughout the ISPs,
and the various delivery infrastructures, and affect all their customers. Operators might like to
know the scale of this impact, and how it affects users’ engagement.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 28

Finally, they would like to understand their customers’ demographics (connection methods, type
of device, bit rates of the consumed asset) within a demographic region so that resources can be
strategically dimensioned.

1.16 APPLICATIONS OF QOE

The practical applications of QoE can be grouped into two areas based on the main usage.
1. Service QoE monitoring: Service monitoring allows the support teams (for example,
service provider and network operator) to continually monitor the quality experienced
by the end users of the service. A service alert message might be sent to the support
teams when QoE falls below a certain threshold value, as this will allow the support
teams to quickly identify and resolve service outages and other QoE issues.
2. QoE-centric network management: The ability to control and optimize the user
experience when QoE degradation issues arise is the holy grail of QoE network
management. Given the multidimensional aspect of the overall QoE (such as the
network-level conditions of the subnetworks, application-level QoS, device capability,
and user demographics), a typical challenge lies in providing actionable QoE
information feedback to the network or service provider.

Two approaches in which QoE-centric network management can be exploited are as follows:
• In the first approach, a set of QoS measurement values together with the appropriate
assumptions, are used in computing the expected QoE for a user.
• In the second approach, which is somewhat the opposite of the first, a target QoE for a
user together with the appropriate assumptions is used to produce estimates of the
required QoS values.
The first approach can be taken by a service provider, who can provide a range of QoS offerings
with an outline of the QoE that the customer might reasonably expect.
The second approach can be taken by a customer who defines the required QoE, and then
determines what level of service will meet that need.
Figure 1.14 illustrates a scenario where the user can make a selection from a range of services,
including the required level of service (SLA). By contrast to the purely QoS-based management,
the SLA here is not expressed in terms of raw network parameters. Instead, the user indicates a
QoE target; it is the service provider that maps this QoE target together with the type of service
selected, onto QoS demands.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 29

 Figure 1.14 QoE-Centric Network Management
The service provider selects the appropriate quality prediction model and management strategy
(for example, minimize network resource consumption) and forwards a QoS request to the
operator. It is possible that the network cannot sustain the required level of QoS, making it
impossible to deliver the requested QoE. This situation leads to a signal back to the user,
prompting a reduced set of services/QoE values.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 30

 Unit 4: Chapter 2
Network Design Implications of QoS and QoE

Unit Structure
8.0 Objectives
8.1 Introduction to QoE/QoS mapping model
8.2 Classification of QoE/QoS Mapping Models
8.2.1 Black-Box Media-Based QoS/QoE Mapping Models
8.2.2 Glass-Box Parameter-Based QoS/QoE Mapping Models
8.2.3 Gray-Box QoS/QoE Mapping Models
8.3 IP-Oriented Parameter-Based QoS/QoE Mapping Models
8.3.1 Network Layer QoS/QoE Mapping Models for Video Services
8.3.2 Application Layer QoS/QoE Mapping Models for Video Services
8.4 Actionable QoE Over IP-Based Networks
8.4.1 The System-Oriented Actionable QoE Solution
8.4.2 The Service-Oriented Actionable QoE Solution
8.5 QoE Versus QoS Service Monitoring
8.5.1 Monitoring and Its Classification
8.5.2 QoS Monitoring Solutions
8.5.3 QoE Monitoring Solutions
8.6 QoE-Based Network and Service Management
8.6.2 QoE-Based Host-Centric Vertical Handover
8.6.3 QoE-Based Network-Centric Vertical Handover

8.0 OBJECTIVES:
• Translate metrics from QoS to QoE domain.
• Select the appropriate QoE/QoS mapping model for a given operational situation.
• Deploy QoE-centric monitoring solutions over a given infrastructure.
• Deploy QoE-aware applications over QoE-centric infrastructure.

8.1 INTRODUCTION:
QoE/QoS mapping model is a function that transforms metrics from QoS to QoE domains.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 31

8.2 CLASSIFICATION OF QOE/QOS MAPPING MODELS
QoE/QoS mapping models can be classified according to their inputs into three categories:
1. Black-box media-based models
2. Glass-box parameter-based models
3. Gray-box parameter-based models

8.2.1 Black-Box Media-Based QoS/QoE Mapping Models

Black-box media-based quality models rely on the analysis of media gathered at system entrance
and exit. Hence, they account implicitly for the characteristics of examined media processing
system. They are classified into two categories:
a-Double-sided or full-reference quality models: They use as inputs the clean stimulus and
the corresponding degraded stimulus. They compare the clean and degraded stimulus in a
perceptual domain that accounts for psychophysics capability of human sensory system. The
perceptual domain is a transformation of traditional physical temporal and frequency domains
performed according to characteristics of users perceptions. Basically, the larger the
perceptual distance, the greater the degradation level. This model needs to align clean and
degraded stimulus because the comparison is made on per-block basis. The stimulus alignment
should be realized autonomously, that is, without adding extra control information describing
stimulus structure.

Figure 8.1 Black-Box Media-Based QoS/QoE Mapping Models

b-One-sided or no-reference quality models: They rely solely on the degraded stimulus to
estimate the final QoE values. They parse the degraded stimulus to extract the observed
distortions, which are dependent on the media type, for example, audio, image and video. As

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 32

 an example, artifacts extracted from audio stimulus include whistle, circuit noises, echoes,
level saturation, clapping, interruptions, and pauses. The gathered distortions are adequately
combined and transformed to compute the QoE values.
The main advantage of black-box quality models resides in their ability to measure QoE values
using information gathered at the periphery of a given media processing system. Hence, they may
be used in a generic fashion over different infrastructures and technologies. Moreover, it enables
enhancing unconditionally quality models, that is, independently of technical and ethical
constraint related to the measurement processes. Furthermore, black-box quality models may
easily operate on either per-user or per-content basis.
The main shortcoming of black-box quality models resides in the requirements to access the final
representation of stimulus, which is often inaccessible in practice for privacy reasons. Moreover,
full-reference quality models use clean stimulus as inputs that is often unavailable or hardly
accessible at the system output.
The full-reference black-box quality models are widely used for onsite benchmarking, diagnosis,
and tuning of network equipment’s, where clean stimulus is available. The black-box quality
models are used offline for the evaluation of application-layer components, such as codec, packet
loss concealment (PLC), and buffering schemes.

8.2.2 Glass-Box Parameter-Based QoS/QoE Mapping Models

The glass-box parameter-based quality models quantify the QoE of a given service through the
full characterization of the underlying transport network and edge devices. The set of considered
characterization parameters and their combination rules are derived based on extensive subjective
experiments and thorough statistical analysis. The glass-box parameter-based models may operate
off line or on line according to the availability of characterization parameters at a given
measurement instant. The characterization parameters include noise, packet loss, coding scheme,
one-way delay, and delay jitter. The glass-box parameter-based models are generally less accurate
and coarser than black-box media-based ones.
A well-known offline glass-box parameter-based model, named E-Model, has been defined by the
ITU-T in Rec. G.101. The offline glass-box parameter-based quality models are suitable for
planning purposes. They enable a general overview pf QoE values of a voice transmission system
at an early phase. However, for service monitoring and management, online models are needed.
In such a case, the variable model parameters should be acquired at run time. This is especially
suitable for IP-based services where control data, such as sequence number and time stamp, are
included in each packet header. In such an environment, it is possible to extract static
characterization parameters from signaling messages and variable ones from the received packets
captured at the destination port. This means that parameters are acquired without acceding to the
media content, which is preferable for privacy reasons.

8.2.3 Gray-Box QoS/QoE Mapping Models

The gray-box quality models combine advantages of black- and glass-box mapping models. They
sample basic characterization parameters at system output in addition to some control data
describing the structure of clean stimulus. The control data may be sent in separate control packets
or piggybacked inside transmitted media packets. Hence, perceptually important information
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 33
about a given content can be considered by the quality models. Therefore, they can measure QoE
value on per-content basis. Given its simplicity to deploy and its reasonable accuracy, this class
of QoS/QoE mapping models is quickly proliferating.

Figure 8.2 Gray-Box QoS/QoE Mapping Models

Tips for QoS/QoE Mapping Model Selection
The following checklist of five items can aid in the selection of a QoS/QoE mapping model:
• Which types of operations am I considering?
• Which parameters do I have? Can I access the signals, the contents, the packet payload
or the header?
• Do I expect specifications and usage conditions to use a given mapping model?
• How much precision do I need?
• Do I have all inputs available for selected mapping models?

8.3 IP-ORIENTED PARAMETER-BASED QOS/QOE MAPPING MODELS

The area of measuring QoE of IP networks and applications is still in its infancy. However, the
popularity of multimedia and user-friendly IP-based services puts QoE at the center of interest of
today’s ecosystem. In contrast to legacy content-oriented telecom systems (for example, public
switched telephone network, radio, and TV), IP networks carry clean media content from a server
to a destination using a flow of media packets composed of a header and a payload. Therefore,
parameters gathered at network layer, in addition to application layer, are easily accessible at run
time on user devices. This enables measuring QoE at run time using online glass- or gray-box
parameter-based quality models. The QoE over IP-based networks are time- varying in contrast
to telecom networks, which are roughly time-invariant. This characteristic leads to considering
instantaneous and overall QoE.

8.3.1 Network Layer QoE/QoS Mapping Models for Video Services

The network layer QoS/QoE mapping models rely solely on NQoS metrics gathered from the
TCP/IP stack except for the application layer (that is, transport, network, link, and physical layers).
Ketyko et al. proposed the following parameter-based quality model for estimating video
streaming quality in 3G environment:

(Eq. 8.1)
where AL and VL refer respectively to audio and video packet loss rates, AJ and VJ represent
respectively audio and video packet jitter (VJ), and RSSI is the received signal strength indicator.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 34

Kim and Choi presented a two-stage QoE/QoS mapping model for IPTV over 3G networks. The
first stage consists of combining a set of basic QoS parameters into one metric as follows:

(Eq. 8.2)
where L, U, J, D, and B refer, respectively, to packet loss, burst level, packet jitter, packet delay,
and bandwidth. The constants K, WI, Wu, WJ, Wd and Wb are predefined weighting coefficients,
which depend on the type of the access network (that is, wired or wireless).
The second stage consists of computing QoE value as following:

(Eq. 8.3)
where, X is a vector of parameters {L, U, J, D, B} and Qr is a scalar limiting the range of the
IPTV QoE obtained as a function of the display size/resolution of the screen. The constant A
expresses the subscribed service class and R is a constant reflecting the structure of the video
frames.

8.3.2 Application Layer QoE/QoS Mapping Models for Video Services

Besides NQoS parameters, application layer QoE/QoS mapping models use metrics gathered at
application layers (AQoS). Moreover, they can account for the user behavior while interacting
with a given video content Ma et al., the following parameter-based quality model is presented for
video streaming application:

(Eq. 8.4)
where Lx refers to the start-up latency, that is, the waiting time before playing a video sequence,
NQS is the number of quality switches that count the number of times the video bit rate is changed
during a session, NRE is the number of rebuffering events, and TMR is the mean rebuffering time.
Khan et al., estimate QoE of a generic streamed content video over wireless networks using
MPEG4 codec:

(Eq. 8.5)

(Eq. 8.6)

where a, b, c, d, e, f, g represents constants; CT is the content type of the video; and SBR and
BLER refer respectively to the sent bit rate and the bit loss error rate.
A QoE /QoS mapping model for IPTV was developed by Kuipers et al, which accounts for the
startup latency and zapping time. The quality model in given by the following

(Eq. 8.1)
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 35
where QoE is a one-dimension QoE component considering zapping behaviour, ZT is the zapping
time expressed in seconds, and a and b are numeric constants that might be positive or negative.

8.4 ACTIONABLE QOE OVER IP-BASED NETWORKS

Actionable QoE refers to all techniques and mechanisms enabling to concretely measure and
utilize QoE metrics. An actionable QoE solution strongly depends on the underlying system and
services characteristics. Moreover, actionable QoE solution works over multiplane architectures
that integrate data, control, and management planes. Basically, two solutions may be used to
achieve actionable QoE:
1. System-oriented actionable QoE solution
2. Service-oriented actionable QoE solution
8.4.1 The System-Oriented Actionable QoE Solution
The system-oriented actionable QoE solutions account for QoE measures within the delivery
infrastructure. In such a condition, services are engineered while assuming that underlying system
is perfect; that is, no degradations are inserted. Figure 8.3illustrates a nominal environment where
system-oriented actionable QoE solution may be provided. As can be seen, actionable QoE
solution requires
• A QoS measurement module that gathers basic key performance indicators (KPIs) from
the underlying system,
• A QoE/QoS mapping model, and
• A resource management module of controlled devices.
Each service provider specifies a target QoE level that should be offered for its customers. The
QoE/QoS mapping model should be selected in a way that guarantees
(a) the availability of quality model input parameters and
(b) conformity with service specifications and conditions.
A signaling procedure may be executed to do that. The management procedure may be executed
either before starting a service or during its delivery. This should be realized using an autonomous
decision system, including a policy that maps observed QoE measures to a course of actions
executed by managed devices.
This operational mode applies well for software-defined networking (SDN) where the network
paths are managed by an SDN controller. In such a case, the measured QoE values are reported to
the SDN controller, which uses them to define the behavior of SDN switches.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 36

 Figure 8.3 A Nominal Environment for Providing QoE-Centric Services

8.4.2 The Service-Oriented Actionable QoE Solution

The service-oriented actionable QoE solutions account for QoE values measured at endpoints and
service level. In such a situation, services are engineered to deal with the underlying system flaws
to reach a specified QoE level. The services may change their behavior as a function of the current
context and condition. The measurement module of KPI is installed on endpoints. The QoE/QoS
mapping models may be deployed either on endpoints or specialized devices. The measured QoE
values are sent to endpoints to configure different application modules at sender, proxy, and
receiver entities.

Figure 8.4 Service-Aware QoE Development Scheme

The service-oriented actionable QoE solution involves multiple advantages.
• Per-service, per-user, and per-content QoE monitoring and management solutions are
performed to provide a given QoE level.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 37

 • It provides more adaptation possibility because it precisely discerns capability and the role
of each service component.
• It reduces the communication overhead and balances computing loads.
• It enables component-level granularity treatment of QoE in addition to stream- and packet-
level granularities.

8.5 QoE VERSUS QoS SERVICE MONITORING

8.5.1 MONITORING and its Classification
Monitoring is a strategic function that should be supported by today’s IT system. It returns
indicators and provides clues regarding the system performance and its workload. Moreover, it
enables detecting system dysfunction and defects as well as underperforming devices and
applications so that the best course of actions may be undertaken. The monitoring solutions of
current IT systems may be classified into the following four categories:

• Network monitoring: Provides measures about performance of paths and links used to
deliver media units. They are collected at packet processing devices (router and switch)
and may operate on per-flow or per- packet bases. The path characterization metrics, such
as throughput, packet loss, reorder and duplication, delay, and jitter, are calculated using
atomic metrics extracted from packet header, such as sequence number and time stamps.
• Infrastructure monitoring: Provides measures about devices performance and
resources state, such as memory, CPU, IO, load, and so on.
• Platform monitoring: Provides performance indicators about the computing center
where back-end servers are running. They may work over a virtualized infrastructure
where business application logics are deployed using virtual machines.
• Service monitoring: Provides measures about services performance. The metrics are
dependent on each application, and may be realized from technical or perceptual
perspectives.

Typically, the monitoring solution in a distributed system involves a variety of probes that
measure the performance of a given element participating in the service delivery chain. It includes
a reliable and scalable manager that remotely configures probe behavior, especially in terms of
the frequency and content of measurement reports.
The monitoring solution should provide communication facility between the manager and the
managed devices. The interaction between the manager and managed entities is conventionally
realized using the connectionless User Datagram Protocol (UDP) through a couple of reserved
ports.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 38

 Figure 8.5 A Baseline and Generic Monitoring Solution

Figure 8.5 presents a typical configuration of an on-demand monitoring solution. The manager
receives monitoring requests from customers expressed using specific syntax. Upon the receipt of
a new monitoring request, the manager inquires with a Universal Description, Discovery, and
Integration (UDDI) directory to get more information about the monitored service, such as
location and properties. The monitoring solution, including a set of probes, is deployed over a
given infrastructure. They register themselves automatically once a monitored component is
activated in a preconfigured registrar. The registrar keeps traces and features of all active probes.
They should be configured off line by the administrator to report metrics according to a given
behavior during a service. The metrics generated by the probes may be aggregated and processed
before sending them to the manager that performs data analytic procedure.

8.5.2 QoS Monitoring Solutions

The emerging QoS monitoring solutions are basically developed for data centers and clouds where
virtualization technology is supported. Figure 8.6 shows a network- and infrastructure-level
monitoring solution built for cloud-based IPTV service. The audiovisual content servers are
placed on a cloud. The traffic sent from the content servers to IPTV devices is permanently
monitored through a set of Vprobes deployed across the network. A Vprobe is an open-ended
investigatory tool that is used in the cloud environment to inspect, record, and compute the state
of the hypervisor as well as each virtual machine running service business logics. The flows of
video packets are parsed at different measurement points. The information collected by Vprobes
is used next to reconstruct service-level detailed records (SDRs). Each record contains the most
relevant information of the complete session between an origin (server) and a destination (user).
The critical parameters of the messages associated with an IPTV session are stored inside the
SDRs.

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 39

 Figure 8.6 vProbes Approach in Cloud-Based IPTV Network
8.5.3 QoE Monitoring Solutions
The QoE monitoring solution strongly depends on QoE/QoS mapping models. The diagrams in
Figure 8.1 show four configurations that can be used to monitor at run time the QoE values of IP-
based video streaming services. The configurations differ in term of the measurement and
mapping model locations. Each configuration is denoted using XY expression, where X refers to
the measurement location and Y refers to the quality model location. They may take one of these
values: N for network, C for client, and B for both.
A. Static operation mode (NN): Both the measurements of KPIs and QoE are performed
inside the network. The QoE/QoS mapping model is installed on a device listening to the
service delivery path. The quality model uses collected KPIs, prior knowledge about video
coding schemes, and endpoint characteristics. The characteristics of endpoints can be
acquired either by polling them or by inspecting exchanged SDP (Session Description
Protocol) messages. The QoE measurement points may include an endpoint emulator
enabling a realistic reconstruction of received streams.
B. Nonembedded dynamic operation (BN): The measurement of KPIs is performed at both
the network and the client, whereas QoE values are measured inside the network. The quality
model uses gathered KPIs, prior knowledge about coding schemes, and information about the
client obtained using a customized signaling protocols.
C. Nonembedded distributed operation (CN): The measurement of KPIs is performed at
the client side, and these are sent periodically to the QoE/QoS mapping model located inside
the network.
D. Operation embedded (CC): The measurement of KPIs and QoE is performed at the client

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 40

 side. The QoS/QoE mapping model is embedded inside the client. The measured QoE metrics
may be reported to a centralized monitoring entity.

Figure 8.1 The Operational Working Modes of Quality Models in Networks

The architecture of QoE-agent is based on a layered definition of APIs that enable convenient
grouping of different factors that influence QoE. The six layers are defined as follows:

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 41

 Resource: Composed of dimensions representing the characteristics and performance of
the technical system(s) and network resources used to deliver the service. Examples of
such factors include network QoS in terms of delay, jitter, loss, error rate, and throughput.
Furthermore, system resources such as server processing capabilities and end user device
capabilities are included.
Application: Composed of dimensions representing application/service configuration
factors. Examples of such factors include media encoding, resolution, sample rate, frame
rate, buffer sizes, SNR, etc.
Interface: Represents the physical equipment and interface through which the user is
interacting with the application (type of device, screen size, mouse, etc.).
Context: Related to the physical context (e. g. geographical aspects, ambient light and
noise, time of the day), the usage context (e.g. mobility/no-mobility or stress/no-stress),
and the economic context (e.g. the cost that a user is paying for a service).
Human: Represents all factors related to the perceptual characteristics of users (e.g.
sensitivity to audiovisual stimulus, perception of durations, etc.).
User: Users’ factors that are not represented in the Human layer. These factors encompass
all aspects of humans as users of services or applications (e.g., history and social
characteristics, motivation, expectation, and level of expertise).

8.6 QOE-BASED NETWORK AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT

The quantified QoE values may be considered in networks and services management. This enables
getting an optimal trade-off that maximizes QoE and minimizes consumption of resources. The
major challenge resides in the translation of QoE metrics into a course of actions that definitely
enhance encountered QoE and reduce resources consumptions.
8.6.1 QoE-Based Management of VoIP Calls
The management of Voice over IP (VoIP) based on QoE has been extensively investigated in the
literature. The goal is to maintain a constant QoE level during a whole packet voice session
transmitted over time-varying quality IP networks. Typically, QoE measurement probes following
one glass-box parameter-based model are installed on VoIP endpoints. They collect at run time
atomic KPIs, which are transformed and given as inputs to a QoE/QoS mapping model. After a
new measure of QoE values is received, a QoS controller adjusts the reconfigurable network
parameters within a delivery path, such as queuing allocation and congestion thresholds.

8.6.2 QoE-Based Host-Centric Vertical Handover

Mobile consumers over next-generation networks could be served at one moment by several
overlapping heterogeneous wireless networks. The network selection/switching procedure can be
performed either at the start or during the service. An internetwork hard handover occurs when
users switch from one network to another because of specific reasons related to both consumers
and providers. A handover could be managed in network- or host-centric way. In a host-centric
approach, however, end nodes can perform a handover when quality of service becomes unsteady
and unsatisfactory.
Figure 8.8 illustrates a likely envisaged scenario where the client could be served either by
WiMAX or Wi-Fi systems. Appropriate equipment should be deployed and configured, such as
outdoor and indoor units, server, router, and Wi-Fi and WiMAX access points to enable network
Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 42
handover. Throughout a vocal call, the client may switch from WiMAX system to Wi-Fi system,
and vice versa.

Figure 8.8 Network Selection Wi-Fi and WiMAX Based on Client and Link Quality

8.6.3 QoE-Based Network-Centric Vertical Handover

The goal is to perform a handover between overlapping WLAN and GSM networks. This
allows, on one hand, relatively exploiting the high capacity of a WLAN, and on the other
hand, reducing the GSM network load and cost. Figure 8.9 shows a scenario where a mobile
subscriber initiates a voice call to a landline PSTN subscriber using a WLAN as a last-wireless
hop. Next, when the QoE of the voice call goes below a given critical threshold because of
mobility or congestion, a handover is performed. In such a case, the mobile subscriber is
linked to the landline subscriber using the GSM infrastructure. The hands-free terminal
is equipped with two wireless card interfaces to allow connection to WLAN and GSM
networks. The mobile terminal sends adequate “quality reports” to a PBX that analyzes
received feedbacks. Once an unsatisfied score is detected, the PBX instructs the mobile
terminal to perform a handover. To do that seamlessly, a voice channel is opened using
GSM infrastructure between the mobile terminal and PBX, which is responsible to relay
received voice information toward the fixed subscriber.

Figure 8.9 Handover Scenario Between WLAN and GSM Networks

Modern Networking: Unedited Version pg. 43