QoS Routing using Active Networks in IXP 2400 Network Processor

†Summary As technology is moving towards high computing environments with billions of users, devices, and services, the Quality of Service (QoS) becomes a necessity and an essential element for end-to-end real time applications. Since the Internet is becoming a converged network that can support emerging voice, video, and data applications in a unified manner. One of the key issues in such a converged network is how to identify feasible paths that can satisfy the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of different real-time applications. This problem is commonly known as QoS routing (QoSR). In general, the main objective for a QoSR algorithm is to find feasible paths that can satisfy the given QoS requirements. While searching for a feasible path, it is necessary to be highly responsive to routing requests. The concept of active network has been recently adopted in order to provide a framework in which executable code within data packets executes upon intermediate network nodes and to facilitate delay services in the network. This paper describes the combination of the active network concepts with QoS routing provided by the Intel IXP2400. The information embodied in the transmitted packets is used by the microengines of the IXP to fulfill the QoS demands issued by various real time applications. Thorough examination is made for the performance and reliability of the Active QoS routing scheme for different traffic measures and for the corresponding QoS offered in terms of the end-to-end delay, jitter and packet loss.