COPS-SLS: a service level negotiation protocol for the Internet

The deployment of QoS over the Internet may achieve protocols for the negotiation of service levels, as well as mechanisms for the end-to-end realization of service level agreements. Such general-purpose protocols include Common Open Policy Service (COPS) for policy specification within a domain. This article proposes an extension of the COPS protocol for intra- and interdomain service level negotiation. The proposed protocol is known as COPS-SLS. This allows the configuration of domain policies regarding service levels, and the automatic negotiation of service levels within the domain policies.