Quality of Service Mechanisms and Challenges for IP Networks

In the past decade, Quality of Service (QoS) parameters have posed great challenges for Network Operators. This is partly because of the growth in network varied traffic demands. The Internet is a besteffort technology, and therefore, not optimized for the transport of delay sensitive services. Real time voice, video, and some applications, such as multimedia applications, video streaming, etc. have placed increasing demands on networks, straining their ability to provide customers with good quality services. An attempt to address this problem has resulted in numerous mechanisms for providing quality of service networks. The ultimate goal of these mechanisms is to provide improved network service to the applications at the edges of the network. This paper reviews advances in QoS mechanisms and recommends how they can be integrated and implemented in order to take advantage of optimized network resources. (