PDB-based SLS decomposition in heterogeneous IP network

Abstract

In order to provide QoS-assured service for end users, service providers (SP) must obtain sufficient network resource from network providers (NP). However, current network infrastructures belong to different NPs and are divided into a number of domains. SP may need to rely on more than one NP to get the connectivity. Thus the SLA between SP and NPs may span several domains with heterogeneous QoS technologies. Without knowing the network details, such as topology, infrastructure and QoS technology, SP is difficult to sign a proper SLA with a tradeoff between end-to-end QoS and his budget. A SLS (service level specification) decomposition service is proposed here to solve the problem. The service implementation uses distributed PDB information to conceal the network heterogeneity from SP, which acts as an indication of network performance for a certain QoS level packets. The service enables SP to get an optimized SLA and achieve inter-domain QoS without knowing the network details. A SLS Decomposition Service prototype is implemented and its feasibility is validated.