Simulation and Analysis of Quality of Service Parameters in Ip Networks with Video Traffic

The main objective of this research is to simulate and analyze the quality of service (QoS) in Internet Protocol (IP) networks with video traffic. We use network simulator ns-2 to simulate networks and their behaviors in the presence of video traffic. The video traffic is generated by genuine MPEG-1 video traces transmitted over the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). The selected MPEG-1 video traces exhibit medium to high degrees of self-similarity, and we are interested in how the video traffic affects the characteristics of QoS in the network. The main QoS parameters of interest are packet loss due to buffer overflow and packet delay due to queuing in the network router. Our analysis focuses on the simulation scenario where the router employs a FIFO buffer with a DropTail queue management policy. We analyze the simulation results using statistical approaches. We characterize the packet loss pattern using loss episodes, which define consecutively lost packets. We analyze the packet delay patterns using packet delay distribution and the autocorrelation function. In addition to the FIFO/DropTail simulation scenario, we also perform preliminary investigations on how various queuing mechanisms affect the characteristics of QoS parameters. We simulate buffers employing Random Early Drop (RED), Fair Queuing (FQ), Stochastic Fair Queuing (SFQ), and Deficit Round Robin (DRR). Our preliminary studies compare the QoS characteristics influenced by these queuing mechanisms as well as the IP service fairness of these queuing mechanisms.