Architecture and Protocols for the Seamless and Integrated Next Generation IP Networks

The paper presents a novel end-to-end seamless framework to support end-to-end Quality of Service and Traffic Engineering. The network model is based on the MPLS/DiffServ paradigm and addresses the definition of a network architecture according to both users and network providers requirements. A first solution relies on the centralized MPLS/DiffServ based Multi-protocol Access Inter-Domain (MAID) architecture. This architecture allows a seamless QoS-IP service setup through proper Users-Network Interfaces and inter-domain communication through Network-to-Network Interfaces. A fully distributed solution is also presented to address critical scalability issues and to improve network resilience. The overall architecture has been validated by means of functional tests carried out on operational testbeds based on Linux PC