Qos Distribution Monitoring for Performance Management in Multimedia Networks Qos Distribution Monitoring for Performance Management in Multimedia Networks

In multimedia networks, performance management is required to ensure that the agreed quality of service (QoS) is sustained. To detect possible QoS degradation and locate the cause of the degradation, end-to-end QoS monitoring is not sufficient. Instead, QoS distribution, the distribution of QoS experienced by a real-time flow in different network segments, should be monitored. However, few of current monitoring systems can provide QoS distribution monitoring. This paper presents two schemes, relevant monitor (RM) based and improved relevant monitor (IRM) based, for QoS distribution monitoring. With these schemes, when monitoring a real-time flow, a network manager can locate relevant monitors that are metering the flow. By retrieving and consolidating traffic information from these monitors embedded in different network segments, not only the end-toend QoS but also QoS distribution of the flow are derived. In addition, with the IRM-based scheme, QoS distribution monitoring can be performed in multiple network management domains. In this paper, CORBA-based implementation for the IRM-based scheme is also introduced to show its feasibility.